Dan Cunningham

Executive Vision and The Mandate for Change

I founded One Day In July with a singular vision: to fundamentally reshape wealth management by combining the efficiency of proprietary technology with the discipline of index-based investing. For too long, the traditional financial industry has relied on opacity and complexity to extract exorbitant fees from investors.

By building scalable systems and discarding unnecessary bloat, One Day In July operates on a disruptive mandate to lower advisory costs and democratize access to institutional-grade stewardship. As fiduciaries, our commitment is always to act in the best interests of the clients we serve.

Roots, Capital Efficiency, and Early Lessons

My understanding of capital efficiency began long before I analyzed markets. I grew up in Bennington, Vermont, a wonderful small town in the southwestern corner of the state. I came from a frugal household where my mother sewed all of our drapes and taught me the importance of not wasting money. My father, a physician, frequently reminded me that a fool and his money are soon separated.

Those early lessons in frugality helped shape my investment philosophy: keeping costs low isn't just about saving pennies. It's the single most effective way to compound long-term wealth.

Learn why low fees matter to your portfolio.

The Princeton Foundation

My analytical framework was forged at Princeton University. Looking for a diversion from the engineering labs, I enrolled in an economics course with the electrifying name "Corporate Finance." It was there I was first exposed to the profound logic of index investing. Burton Malkiel, one of the founding fathers of indexing, was a professor in the department and likely convinced his colleagues to assign his seminal book, A Random Walk Down Wall Street. I read the entire book in a single sitting during spring break.

During those college years, I likely studied in the same library where John Bogle, a half-century before me, drafted his senior thesis inventing the index fund. Bogle proceeded to give up enormous personal wealth to found low-fee Vanguard, and his adherence to his principles remains a point of light in the financial world.

I watched many highly intelligent peers head straight into high-finance careers. I realized in my early twenties that these were not people you wanted to try to outsmart. When it comes to finance, humility is a far more powerful and profitable trait than arrogance.

Embracing that humility led us directly to core indexing strategies. Specifically, we aim to leverage modern, low-cost investment vehicles rather than traditional, expensive fund structures.

Compare Mutual Funds vs. ETFs to see how structure impacts returns.

The Catalyst for Disruption

I knew for a long time what was going on under the hood in the broader financial industry. The solution seemed obvious, but almost no one was taking the correct route. The pivotal moment that transformed my frustration into a decisive entrepreneurial mission occurred on July 22, 2015.

Within a single month, I read two facts that were life-changing. First, the top 25 hedge fund managers made more money than all of America’s kindergarten teachers combined.¹ Second, due to market timing mistakes and industry fees, the average investor was losing nearly half of their potential long-term growth.²

I had had enough. On that one day in July, I decided this paradigm was going to change, and I established a firm to build a better way forward. That moment of realization marked the turning point that defined our core philosophy and inspired the firm's brand identity.

Read the full story behind why we named the firm One Day In July.

Architecting a Streamlined Solution

To build a model that genuinely serves the investor, I knew we had to master a simple approach and discard 99% of what the financial industry had created. I drew upon the economic development ideology known as "appropriate technology," which asserts that the cheapest, most efficient tool that still gets the job done is the best one. I saw this principle at work when my wife founded her Vermont medical practice on the premise that patients simply want their doctor-patient relationship restored, cutting through a healthcare industry overloaded with complexity. I apply this exact discipline to One Day In July.

Ultimately, my technological and financial mission is about preserving your autonomy. As Steve Jobs made clear, the most precious resource we all have is time.³

By delivering clear, low-cost, fiduciary portfolio oversight, my goal is to ensure you can focus your finite time on your professional pursuits, your family, and your life.

Through a focus on efficiency and removing unnecessary complexity, One Day In July aims to ensure your capital is positioned effectively across a diversified portfolio.

Explore our asset growth, total assets under management, and scale.