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Talking Real Money - Investing Talk

Bad to Worse

Talking Real Money - Investing Talk

Don McDonald

Education, Business, Investing, How To

4.5 • 811 Ratings

🗓️ 13 August 2025

⏱️ 41 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Don and Tom rip apart a sponsored “news” piece from the Puget Sound Business Journal pushing a company called FISYN, which promises to buy investors out of their annuities and deliver a “safe” 12% tax-free return via raw Texas land. They expose the misleading fine print, the founder’s disciplinary history, and the high-risk, illiquid nature of such private equity deals. Calls and questions cover long-term care insurance riders on annuities, portfolio allocation in deferred comp plans, Roth vs. tax-deferred placement for bonds, managing taxable brokerage cash vs. emergency funds, and dividend-vs.-total-return withdrawal strategies. They also clarify that QCDs can only come from IRAs (not 401(k)s or TSPs) unless funds are rolled over first. Throughout, they hammer home skepticism toward anything that sounds too good to be true, distrust of advertorial financial pitches, and the importance of planning before buying complex products. 1:35 Breaking the “golden handcuffs” of annuities—how FISYN’s pitch hooks investors 3:20 The too-good-to-be-true promise: 12% returns, equity kicker, no volatility, tax-free 3:49 Founder’s BrokerCheck record and lawsuits 5:15 Comparison to Woodbridge Ponzi scheme 6:32 The frying pan-to-fire swap: annuity to raw Texas land 7:37 Bonus shares and “free” Texas trip incentives 8:06 Critique of sponsored content posing as journalism 9:24 Reality check on raw land returns and costs 10:04 Broader issue: pay-to-play financial media 11:18 Caller Robert (TX): Fixed annuity with LTC rider—pros, cons, and better planning sequence 16:29 Insurance industry skepticism and “Wizards of Odds” nickname reveal 17:54 Caller John (WA): Deferred comp allocation—global, small-cap, emerging markets mix 19:18 Roth vs. tax-deferred bond placement and rebalancing flexibility 20:55 Revisiting the “Wizards of Odds” label for insurance companies 21:47 FISYN as a private equity example and why PE risk is often underestimated 23:35 High costs, valuation uncertainty, and past PE meltdowns 25:03 Total-loss potential in private equity investments 26:33 Caller Scott (NY): Using taxable brokerage for overflow cash—emergency fund priority and vehicle choice 30:34 Federal money market funds as short-term parking 31:54 Listener Thomas: Dividend withdrawals vs. total return strategy sustainability 34:43 Caller Pat: QCD rules—only from IRAs, rollover options, and who makes the rules 37:30 Paul Merriman “10 Myths, Lies, and Mistakes” episode plug 38:46 Podcast chart ranking and listener thanks Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Reality Radio for a really great future.

0:08.0

We're talking real money.

0:10.5

You know, it may be summer, but we, the two of us, are here for you, the thousands of you,

0:18.1

to help you muddle through your monetary life.

0:21.8

Hello everybody.

0:22.4

I'm Don McDonald, not on vacation, along with Tom Cock, on vacation, but taking a vacation

0:29.2

break to work.

0:31.1

That's well put.

0:32.2

From almost Lake Chalanne.

0:34.4

Apparently, what did you do down by the lake to get moved back to the upper

0:40.1

reaches of the valley? We're about equidistant, I think, from Lake Chalant, actually. We both can see it,

0:46.2

but that's about it. I can see it through your window. Yeah, it's way down there. You know,

0:51.2

I'm not sure. You know, somebody else handles all this for me, as you know. I just. Of course, you have people. He has people. People who do things. Be at this address this day. People who help people are the luckiest people in the world. Exactly. Hi, everybody. This is a money show. And today, well, today we want to talk with you at 855-935 Talk.

1:12.0

We always want to do that.

1:13.5

855-935-8-255.

1:16.0

So call us any time in the next hour and 50 minutes or so.

1:20.3

We'll talk.

1:21.3

Money.

1:22.1

But we also want to share things that we run into along the way.

1:25.9

And Tom is a subscriber to the Puget Sound Business

1:29.6

Journal, which is part of a group of business journals around the country that I don't subscribe to.

1:35.8

I'm not going to tell you why. I used to publish one of these. You did. You said one in

...

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