Rule Breaker Investing Pet Peeves, Vol. 9

This edition of Rule Breaker Investing digs in on:

• The slippery phrase "buy now, pay later."
• The suspicious preface "if I'm being honest..."
• The curious cultural surrender embedded in "in my day..."
• A Halloween-sized marketing sham.
• A conversational tic that may deserve early retirement.
• A high-decibel train experience you may never un-hear.

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A full transcript is below.

This podcast was recorded on Feb. 18, 2026.

David Gardner: When a company tells you it exists to elevate humanity or reimagine the future of connection, have you ever paused and asked what exactly it does? Like, in a sentence with nouns? When someone says, if I'm being honest, what were they being before that moment? Or how About this. Have you ever bought a fun size candy bar? Did it feel fun or just less? Does it sound like I'm about to complain about overhead luggage compartments, conversational ticks, generational nostalgia, and corporate cosmic mission statements? All in one podcast? Well, yes. Yes, I am. Because once every year or so, I indulge myself. It's time for Pet Peeves the ninth installment of my most self indulgence series, part humor, part language audit, part cultural critique. Pet Peeves Volume 9. It's actually been a while. Pet Peeves welcome back. Only on this week's Rule Breaker Investing.

Welcome back to Rule Breaker Investing. That's the sound of rules being broken. Thank you, Denise Coursey, longtime Motley Fool employee and voice who has opened up this show, for 11 years now, along with that possibly ear shattering sound of rules being broken, which reminds me of an ear shattering rant I'm going to be delivering a little bit later this week. Anyway it's one of my favorites. Yes, probably my most self indulgent podcast of the year. It is my Pet Peeve podcast for 2026. The good news, I think, is I only do this about once a year. In fact, I was checking. It's been a while. Twenty seven months since the last Pet Peeves episode back in November 2023. Maybe I've been getting softer. Because after all, in that span, I introduced an entirely new series Pet Perks, and I've done two of those two pet perks, and not a single new Pet Peeves for more than two years. Anyway, here's how it works. Something mildly irritating happens in the world at large, and I notice it, and I make a quick note on my iPhone. If it happens again, well, that note grows a little bit and if it happens again, and again, well, eventually, it earns its place on my list. Here we are in February 2026 with seven fresh, fully non duplicative Pet Peeves. That's right. Every single one in this long running series, now nine volumes deep is unique.

There are no retreads, no recycles, which reminds me of one of my original Pet Peeves from Volume 1. I said it then, and I'll say it now. Here it is people who keep long lists of their own Pet Peeves. If you'd like to binge the whole self indulgence Saga, by the way, or any of my 21 great quotes episodes or our four calculating risk foolishly installments, any of our authors in August, etc., you can find them neatly lined up at rulebrekervesting.com. That's www.rulebrekervesting.com under the podcast tab. We have elegantly arranged all past episodic series so you don't have to scroll back five years on Apple Podcast to find what you're looking for. There you will find all eight other episodes of My Pet Peeves along with all other episodic series arranged for you. By the way, the real purpose of that website is so you can grab the free bonus chapter to my book Rule Breaker Investing, which is still there waiting for you if you haven't already found it. Before we get started, let me make sure I hype it up as much as CBS does the college basketball tournaments, because next month on this podcast is March Market Cap, madness.

The madness is Nigh Will defending world champion, Emily Flippin Defend. Join us for our Madcap effort to guess market caps. You're playing, too, as you know all month long. A reminder, especially to fellow wits, fellow fools who are inspired by this week's episode, you can email me reactions to my Pet Peeves. But even better, you can share with me your own pet peeve. Our email address is RBI at fool.com. Make me laugh this month, and I'll feature you next week on our month end Mailbag. But now it's time. I've bottled it up long enough. Seven new irritations Pet Peeves Volume 9. Pet Peeve Number 1. I'm going to go with overstated corporate purpose and branding statements. I first encountered something like this firsthand when the Motley Fool 20 or more years ago, decided to hire an ad agency. They showed us an example of something they'd previously launched a new campaign, and it was this black and white photograph, Hi Def of a boot. It was a muddy looking boot, and it was sitting there. It was just a boot. In this one page magazine ad, it said in big letters right above the boot, this is not a boot. Good job getting my attention as a magazine reader because I'm looking at it. Everybody else is, we're all saying that's obviously a boot. But what it goes on to say, and this was for Timberland back in the day, it went on to say in so many words, this is not a boot.

This is a statement about freedom, your freedom to see the outdoors, etc. I remember sitting there in that corporate conference room admiring the ad agency very much. They've done great work since. But I was sitting there going, but that is a boot. But this got me started early on on the track of looking carefully at how companies communicate. Since this is pet peeve Number 1, we're talking about overstatements of companies purposes and brands, and let's just go with a handful of ones that some of which you may know. For example, do you remember who went out with this corporate purpose statement, elevating the world's consciousness? Anyone Bueller? Well, some of you got it right, I'm sure. It was WeWork. We work elevating the world's consciousness. You know, office subleasing. Now, WeWork was never a public company. I never really figured out if it was a rule Breaker or not, but this next one, in fact, a number of these companies are often either rule brreakers or very close to being so. Another example, Uber, which I do consider a rule Breaker. Here is Uber's purpose statement, and I quote "Ignite opportunity by setting the world in motion." End of Quote. I would say back, you summon a Camry, Ignite opportunity by setting the world in motion. Pelton has put this one out over the years to empower people to be the best version of themselves anywhere. To that, I say, it's a bike. I mean, it's a nice bike, but still, I think maybe just that insertion of the word anywhere at the end just takes it out of meaningful context for me for Pelton.

Again, a number of these companies, I admire. For example, I admire this company whose purpose statement goes like this to inspire and nurture the human spirit, one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time. I'm sure many of you have guessed. that's Starbucks' purpose statement. Latte foam art global spiritual renaissance. I remember Starbucks got in trouble years ago, not for any bad reason other than the company began overstating its purpose in the world. I always admired Howard Schultz, somebody that I've met over the years and greatly admire as an entrepreneur. He always talked about Starbucks as that third place. Your first place is your home, your family. Your second place is work. If you go to a place to work, that's your second place. Howard said, we all need a third place, and he's always said he tried to make Starbucks into that third place. I do think it functions as a third place, but to inspire and nurture the human spirit, it's aspirational language, but that global spiritual renaissance feeling, I don't think the company fully earns that for me. I would be remiss if I didn't mention the Motley Fools own purpose statement. You can tell me whether we're guilty of this or not to make the world smarter, happier, and richer. I try to do that with this podcast every week.

That's my goal. Never one without the other two, never two without the third smarter, happier, and richer. I guess to close out, pet peeve Number 1, if your purpose statement sounds like it could apply equally well to a coffee company or a crypto exchange or a mattress start-up, it's probably not a good enough purpose statement. Your product is real, but your statement is a little too cosmic, and it creates a gap in terms of the credibility we're going to give you based on what you actually do, and then what you're telling us you're doing. Before I move on to Number 2, this Pet Peeve reminds me of a previous rant, if you want to go back and talk about souless ads, I just watched a Super Bowl commercial in Volume 6 in this series Pet Peeve Number 3 there, talks about the company that put out this Super Bowl tag line and its ads. Future is an attitude. I give you two golden fool points, if you can remember which company put out that Super Bowl ad, but I speak to that and corporate branding some more in Volume 6 of this series.

Anyway, overstated corporate purpose and branding statements. Let's move on to Pet peeve Number 2. Now, I've spoken to this one before. In fact, Pet Peeves Volume two, but like so many cultural ticks, it hasn't gone away. What's happened is the language has evolved. Back then, my target was the phrase, Let me be honest with you. You know the moment, you're in a conversation, maybe a friend, a colleague, or maybe someone who's neither and they lean in and say, Let me be honest with you. Right there in the cinema of my life, everything from me slows down. Dramatic music swells, the camera zooms because they have just said they've come out and flagged it. Let me be honest with you echo. Honest, with you. Why the drama? Why has the music stopped? Well, because I can't help but wonder. Am I the only one here? Have you not been honest with me up until now? If you need to announce honesty, I start auditing our transcript a little bit. I'm suddenly less confident, not more. It's as if the speaker has inadvertently highlighted the possibility that honesty for them has been heretofore optional, selective, episodic. Well, as I mentioned, a minute ago, I've spoken to this one before an Episode 2. Why am I bringing it back here again in 2026? Well, because I've noticed there's a sleek new variant. Have you noticed this, too? May have, you've even, I hope not said this yourself. Here it is, if I'm being honest.

To which I would say, wait, were we just playing around before this? If I'm being honest in 2026 has become the preface to bluntness or criticism or self disclosure in some other cases. It's the modern verbal throat clearing before someone says something edgy and wants credit for courage. Here's the thing. Honesty doesn't require a drum roll. In fact, the more someone advertises it, the less I trust it, because truly honest people don't flag the moment. They just speak. Honestly, let me be frank with you, may, I tell you the truth. If you find yourself about to say, if I'm being honest, maybe just delete those first four words, because we're assuming you are honest. If we can't assume that, well, that's a different pet peeve altogether. Onto pet peeve Number 3. Now for something completely different, buy now pay later. We've actually had that for a while. Before it was an industry, it was something we called a credit card. Now, to be fair, borrowing obviously can make very good sense. A mortgage to buy a house is a good example. An education that increases someone's earning power or starting a business. Used wisely, of course, credit is a bridge to a larger future. But a $74 hoodie split into four easy payments, concert tickets parceled out across the next two pay cycles. When financing becomes frictionless, at the point of your or my impulse, I think we've shifted from investment sometimes toward indulgence. What strikes me is not that the option exists. It's actually the framing of the language itself. The buy now pay later companies use terms in their marketing, branding and advertising terms like flexibility. Or access. Those are lovely words. But what's really happening is consumption pulled forward. Tomorrow's income is being spent today.

In my rule Breaker investing book, I put personal finance on a single page because for those who read it, I said, this is an investment book. This is not a personal finance book, but I did want to spend one page, a single page early on about personal finance. On that single page, I bold this line, and I quote, I urge you to live below your means every day of your life. That habit enables financial resilience and long term wealth building. Without it, even the best investments won't save you from financial stress. By now, pay later may feel modern. Maybe even with its acronym BNPL, maybe it's clever. But discipline, to me, is always going to compound better than deferred consequences. In 20 plus years of picking stocks for Motley Fool members worldwide, I never once picked a casino company because I don't want to support companies whose business basically makes people poorer. I wouldn't level that direct claim at the BNPL industry, but I would also say, as an investor, I'm far more interested in businesses that help people build strength than in those that can quietly erode it. Pet Peeve Number 3, buy now pay later. On to Pet Peeve Number 4, and it's fun sized candy. The M&Ms, those skittles, fun size, Snickers. Credit for this one, by the way, goes to former fools Tim Hanson, especially and Chris Hill. As I recall, Tim was the first one memorably to point this crazy phrase out to the fool community funsize. Certainly Chris Hill over the years periodically revived it like some sugary ghost of Halloween past. Fun size. It's marketing genius. Sure. But let's be honest. Can we? Can we be honest? It's portion control rebranded. Am I right? Smaller serving. Sometimes greater price per ounce. But let's not bury the lead here, smaller serving. We call that fun size. Well, if shrinking something and slapping a happier label on it is fun, then I encourage all my listeners who are business owners, listening to me right now, all HR professionals, all finance people out there to try selling fun size paychecks next time you do payroll and see how that goes over. Fun.

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David Gardner: It's right about now I start wondering, Am I having too much fun this podcast? Well, if it sounds like I am, there are only three more coming. Let's go to Pet Peeve Number 5. You ever notice this one? You make an observation, maybe even a thoughtful one. The response you get back from the person you're talking to is just right? That's it. Just right? Imagine this. You say, I really think the market rewards patients over prediction. Most people lose money trying to outguess the next move. The response you get is, right? Right. That's the whole reply. Not yeah, because compounding needs time, or that's why jumping in and out hurts people. Not even tell me more, just right? It's like you built this scaffolding for a real thought, and they walked by and tapped it with a pencil. Now, I do know what's happening here. The person is signaling agreement. They're trying to show you and me alignment. I appreciate the instinct, but it's conversational shorthand. It's the verbal equivalent of basically the thumbs up emoji. Efficient, I would say yes, fully satisfying in conversation, I would say not quite, because when you say, right? You're outsourcing the whole sentence. You're not adding to the thought. You're not building on it. You're just, you're tagging it. Over time, that little tick starts to feel like maybe we're cutting corners on connection. Then of course, there's the evil twin. Here's the opposite. You say something obvious to someone, something that to that other person feels elementary, and instead of right, you get this. You think? Same economy of language, but different tone. When people say, right, that's quick approval, the other you think? Well, that's quick dismissal, but both are skipping the work of actual response. Here's my modest proposal to close down pet peeve Number 5. Let's use our words. If you agree, tell me why. I'd appreciate that. If you disagree, say it kindly. Tell me why. I think I'd appreciate that, too. If something's obvious to you, maybe just add a layer. We're all adults. We have vocabularies. Surely, you and I can spare a few extra syllables.

On to Pet peeve Number 6, Amtrak overheads. Yes, not a door, not a thud. This is treble violence. We need something sharper, metallic. Words like lightning strike in a Tin cathedral. Let's tune it properly. I'm someone who has recently noticed that my ears don't quite work as well at 59 as they did at 29, and I have identified the culprit. It's not age. It's not rock concerts. It's not genetics. It's Amtrak. Specifically, the overhead luggage compartments on the Acela. Now, if you know, ypu know. But if you don't picture this. You're peacefully reading. Maybe you're reflecting on photos of your family three years ago today, maybe gazing out at the northeast corridor in quiet contemplation, eight rows ahead, someone gently places their bag into the overhead, and then with the casual indifference of someone closing a kitchen drawer, they snap it shut. Crack. Not a thud, not a click. A metallic lightning strike that I can't really simulate very effectively with my own voice on this podcast, but it's the high pitched report that feels less like a sound, more like a small electrical event detonating inside the train car. Let's go with something like two symbols that just collided inside a cathedral. That's bad. But here's the worst news. It never happens just once. Nope. The first crack is the overture, but then someone else realizes they forgot their headphones in their bag.

They open up the overhead, and then they close it. Crack and then someone across the aisle needs to adjust their bag, and, well, crack city. Now, I have to admit in my own experience, I don't necessarily notice anyone else on the train car reacting or objecting in the way that I am right now. I have to begin to wonder, am I becoming acoustically fragile? Is this my new superpower just months short of turning 60 heightened sensitivity to commuter decipels? Of course, I blame Amtrak, first and foremost, somewhere an engineer approved a latch that transforms ordinary closing into a percussive test of structural integrity. We can design whisper quiet electric cars these days. We can soft close kitchen cabinets and yet, the Acela overhead, perhaps Amtrak nationwide, I haven't been out that many trains across our country recently, but that overhead bin, it lands like a China TsetEplosion crash at Westminster Palace. I do blame Amtrak, but I also want to offer this gentle capital F foolish appeal to my fellow travelers, we're placing our backpacks and our bags and our briefcases overhead, and we're going to need to. How about this? A mindful hand, a softened clothes, a small act of auditory mercy. This has been a public service announcement. On to Pet Peeve Number 7. Before we do a quick reminder, you can email me your reactions to this and each of my Pet Peeves this week. Our email address is RBI at fool.com.

As I said earlier, make me laugh. I'd love to hear your pet peeve. If you do, I might feature you on our month Mailbag next week. All right, on to Pet Peeve Number 7 to close out Volume 9. Here we go. It's the phrase in my Day. Whenever I hear that phrase, I can't help smiling a little because if you're here on planet Earth, saying it, you're breathing, you're walking, you're opining, in this case, it is your day. Not was, not back when, not some sepia tone golden age when gas was cheaper and music was better. People supposedly worked harder. This is your day right now. The calendar didn't quietly revoke your membership in relevance. Now I understand the impulse. We all want to anchor ourselves to a time when maybe we felt strongest or sharpest, most certain of ourselves. But the truth and here's the gentle part of my little rant here is that every day we're alive is ours to shape. The future doesn't belong to kids these days. It belongs to anyone still curious, still learning, still willing to adapt. If you're investing, if you're building something, if you're loving someone, mentoring kids, if you're laughing this week at the podcast, congratulations. It's your day. Let's remember the past. Let's honor it. But let's not exile ourselves to it because the moment you or anyone else says, in my day, as if it's over, they risk stepping out of the very compounding game, they are, in fact, still playing. It's still your day. Live it forward. Fool on.

David Gardner has positions in Starbucks. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Peloton Interactive, Starbucks, and Uber Technologies. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.