Cold Days Qs and As

Talking Real Money - Investing Talk

Don McDonald

Education, Business, Investing, How To

4.5 • 811 Ratings

🗓️ 30 January 2026

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this Friday Q&A episode, Don answers listener questions on handling backdoor Roth conversions with investment gains, whether Avantis or Vanguard makes more sense for bond investing, and why 529 plans have become even more attractive with new Roth rollover rules. He also tackles a puzzling report of inflated ETF pricing on Vanguard’s platform, urging further investigation, and reassures a listener concerned about AVGE’s diversification compared to VT. Along the way, Don emphasizes the importance of low fees in fixed income, the long-term logic behind factor investing, and the reality that taking additional risk is what creates the potential for higher returns. 0:04 Friday Q&A intro and plea for more listener questions 1:44 Backdoor Roth with gains—how to handle taxable growth 6:01 Avantis vs. Vanguard for bond funds and why fees matter more in fixed income 8:00 Using 529 plans for kids and new Roth rollover rules 11:19 Odd ETF pricing on Vanguard and why it makes no sense 13:38 AVGE vs. VT diversification concerns and factor investing explained 18:24 Risk, factor tilts, and long-term expectations Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	AI is incredible. They can teach you how to fry an egg and even write a poem, pirate style.
0:07.0	But it knows nothing about your work. Slackbot is different. It doesn't just know the facts.
0:14.0	It knows your schedule. It can turn a brainstorm into a brief and it doesn't need to be taught.
0:20.0	Because Slackbot isn't just another AI.
0:23.3	It's AI that knows your work as well as you do. Visit Slack.com forward slash meet Slackbot to learn more.
0:34.9	Reality Radio for a really great future.
0:38.0	We're talking real money.
0:40.3	Well, all I can say is that it's a darn good thing that last week it was a Tom and Roxy Q&A with written questions
0:48.5	because the called in questions are getting a little sparse.
0:59.8	I'm doing five today, but as of when I recorded this,
1:07.6	that only leaves me with four. So I'm going to need at least another one, preferably more, to keep up the same pace so I don't short change you on a Friday.
1:12.7	Because I've got to have your questions to do the Friday Q&A.
1:16.1	Otherwise, it's just a bunch of A.
1:19.0	No Q. What fun is that?
1:21.0	Hi, everybody. I'm Don McDonald.
1:22.5	Welcome to the Friday Q&A edition of the Talking Real Money podcast.
1:26.8	So glad you could listen in today or whenever
1:31.1	you're listening. Well, when you're listening, it is today. It's for you. It's today. And as I said,
1:37.7	we've got five questions that came in through the Talking RealMoney.com website on the Contact
1:43.6	Us form that were spoken through your electronic
1:47.0	devices microphone, your phones, your computers, whatever it might be. You spoke it. Like I'm doing
1:53.1	right now. I am speaking into a mic into my computer. That's what it is. That's how we do this.
	...

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