Alternative Employment

Talking Real Money - Investing Talk

Don McDonald

Investing, Education, Business, How To

4.5 • 810 Ratings

🗓️ 9 February 2026

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Don and Tom step away from pure investing talk to explore how AI, layoffs, and stagnant wages are reshaping career paths—especially for young people and midlife career changers. Drawing on a Wall Street Journal article, they make the case that skilled trades and blue-collar careers are increasingly attractive alternatives to vulnerable white-collar jobs. They discuss service advisor roles, union trades, and apprenticeship paths, then pivot to listener questions on Robinhood bonuses, switching to financial advising later in life, and the risks of moving from AVGE to AVGV. Throughout, they emphasize self-knowledge, discipline, and long-term thinking—whether choosing a career or building a portfolio. 0:04 Why this episode is about earning money, not just investing 0:31 Encouraging parents to rethink college-only career paths 1:15 AI, layoffs, and the shrinking white-collar job market 2:32 Crash Champions and the rise of service advisor careers 3:31 Don’s dealership days and why he left the car business 5:12 Learning to drive stick shift the hard way 6:46 Apprenticeships, $60K starting pay, and growth potential 7:34 Work-life balance in blue-collar vs. white-collar jobs 8:36 Why contractors struggle with communication and planning 9:05 Demand for skilled trades and handyman services 9:47 Labor shortages: factory, construction, and auto techs 10:36 Demographics and the retirement of skilled workers 11:35 Pensions, unions, and taking responsibility for retirement 12:45 Finding yourself in your 20s and career experimentation 13:04 New Tales Told plug and early radio career story 14:23 Listener: Robinhood bonuses and disciplined investing 15:41 Why Robinhood encourages risky behavior 17:23 Listener: Becoming a financial advisor at 55 18:31 Barriers to entry and starting an independent RIA 19:14 Why people skills matter more than math skills 20:45 How AI will reshape the advisory profession 22:07 Shift from brokerage to fiduciary advising 23:18 Listener: Switching from AVGE to AVGV 24:47 Risk tolerance and fund volatility 26:31 Splitting funds and managing behavioral risk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Could AI help you do more of what you love?
0:03.1	Workday is the next-gen ERP powered by AI that actually knows your business.
0:08.4	We help you handle the have-to-dos so you can focus on the can't-wait-to-dos.
0:13.2	It's a new workday.
0:20.0	Reality Radio for a really great future.
0:23.0	We're talking real money.
0:25.3	Now, when you think talking real money, if you've been listening to us for a while, you think, oh, they're going to talk about investing.
0:32.6	Why?
0:33.9	Well, because most of the time we talk about investing, given that that's the area of greatest
0:39.2	confusion among baby boomers and some of the younger kids, the Gen Xers and whatever.
0:48.4	I can't remember all the gens.
0:49.8	But anyway, welcome to talking real money on a different topic, the earning of money.
0:56.4	Hi, I'm Don McDonald.
0:57.7	That's Tom Cock.
0:59.0	We're glad you're there.
1:00.3	And today, we want to implore parents, maybe grandparents, to possibly reconsider the direction you encourage your children or grandchildren to take
1:16.5	career-wise in today's world.
1:21.1	Yep.
1:21.7	Not 100%, but for those kids, and you know your kids, they're not, they're not academically motivated.
1:32.7	There's a lot of them, right?
1:35.4	I mean, come on.
1:36.8	Do they really want to spend four more years in school?
	...

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