THE BIGGEST LESSON:
It's that time of year when the biggest public companies share their Q2 earnings — but this season feels higher-stakes than usual. If the tech giants don't far exceed expectations, the market is punishing them for it anyway.
It's easy to get caught up in the noise, and that noise has real power to hijack your emotions and push you into decisions that hurt your long-term goals. In moments like these, put the phone down, zoom out, and remember what you need to do — and what you don't.
Charlie Munger put it best:
"The big money is not in the buying and the selling, but in the waiting."
My goals are long-term, so daily volatility is mostly noise to me. I don't let it control me.
Green days are growth. Red days are a chance to buy great companies at a discount. I only ever invest what I can afford to lose.
This approach lets me stay calm while others are losing their minds. It's the only strategy simple enough to actually stick with for decades — and if you're anything like me, I'd suggest the same.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:
Wealth is Health
We've all heard "health is wealth" — but what if it works the other way too?
Dr. Gemma Sharp of the University of Exeter found that a family's socioeconomic position had a stronger, more consistent link to children's health than parental smoking, drinking, or caffeine intake before and after pregnancy.
The two are clearly connected — but it raises the question: should we be prioritising one over the other?
https://en.sedaily.com/culture/2026/07/26/family-wealth-affects-child-health-more-than-smoking-or
Will money be worthless in 2036?
Elon made headlines again this week, this time via an interview with The Economist, where he suggested money "won't matter" by 2036 — his reasoning being that AI and robotics will create such abundance that we simply won't need it anymore.
My tweet on this went viral and got a lot of people wondering: are we all building wealth for nothing?
My take: regardless of what the future holds, it won't have been for nothing. Assets will still matter. Money will still move wealth around. And the habits and discipline it takes to build wealth will hold their value for the rest of our lives, whatever the world looks like.
Bubble or opportunity?
This earnings season, Big Tech's strong numbers met a cold reception, with markets fixated on AI spending rather than actual profit.
- Alphabet crushed estimates — 24% revenue growth, 82% Cloud growth — yet shares dropped ~7% on negative free cash flow and heavier CapEx guidance.
- Tesla's profit miss plus heavy AI investment sent shares down 14–15%.
- Intel posted its best growth in 15 years and still only got a fleeting bounce.
Across the board, beats are triggering "sell the news" reactions, driven by stretched valuations and doubts over whether the AI infrastructure spend will actually pay off. It leaves investors asking the same question: is this an AI bubble starting to deflate, or a buying opportunity in otherwise resilient companies?
SOMETHING YOU CAN COPY:
This week I renewed my broadband and phone contracts — and walked away with better service for less money on both. I used a simple framework I built called DEALS. Steal it:
D — Document your end date, costs, and exit fees (check 30–60 days out)
E — Explore competitor and new-customer offers
A — Aim for your target price, and know your walk-away point
L — Leverage retention: "I'm ready to leave"
S — Secure it in writing (or switch) and set a reminder for next time
Try it and let me know how it goes.
QUOTE OF NOTE:
"Only the disciplined ones in life are free. If you are undisciplined, you are a slave to your moods and your passions." - Eliud Kipchoge (widely considered the greatest marathon runner of all time) on discipline.
I love this quote. Once discipline actually takes root in your life, you understand what it really means.
THE TAKEAWAY:
Every story this week points at the same thing: the gap between what's loud and what's true.
Loud: Elon's headline, the market's panic over an earnings beat, the urge to check your portfolio five times a day.
True: discipline compounds quietly. Wealth compounds quietly. Even health, it turns out, is shaped less by dramatic choices than by the steady, boring conditions underneath them.
This week's action: Open a note and list every subscription you're paying for — broadband, phone, streaming, gym, software, all of it. Next to each one, write the renewal date. Then set a diary reminder two weeks before the earliest one on that list.
When it pops up, run it straight through DEALS. That's discipline you can actually bank — not just a mindset for markets, but money back in your pocket every single month.
