Easier Usually Better

Talking Real Money - Investing Talk

Don McDonald

Education, Investing, Business, How To

4.5 • 811 Ratings

🗓️ 13 January 2026

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Tom Cock and Don McDonald kick off 2026 with a sharp, skeptical look at portfolio simplicity—what it really means, what it doesn’t, and why promises like “no sacrifice in returns” should always raise an eyebrow. Using a Morningstar article as a springboard, they dig into active vs. index funds, one-fund and target-date strategies, and the behavioral traps that complexity creates. Listener calls drive deeper discussions around Avantis funds (AVGE vs. AVGV), value tilts, international exposure,...

Transcript

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0:00.0	Reality Radio for a really great future.
0:08.0	We're talking real money.
0:10.2	Wait, wait a second.
0:11.4	Tom is back from vacation?
0:13.6	Only temporarily.
0:14.5	I thought you were still on vacation.
0:16.4	I'm hoping.
0:17.3	Yeah.
0:18.0	Hope Springs Eternal.
0:20.0	Hey, it looks, it's like it's been a long time since we've been together, although we were technically together last week on Saturday doing the show with you, except we weren't really here. Our voices were here, but were we? No, we weren't here. You were gone. You were in Hawaii. And I heard the beginning, and it sounded like we were really here. Yeah, that's all I listened to. Of course. It was magic. It was probably for the best because guess what? I caught the stupid holiday virus.
0:45.4	Yeah, you sounded bad there for a few days. It is so typical. I, you know, no wonder I'm Scrooge-like. If you get out among people, they give you things. When you're hermit-like, you don't really suffer. Not presents, not presents either. Bad things. You should celebrate Christmas in the way you want. We'll celebrate it the way we want. Yeah. That sounds like a version of Dickinsonian Dickinsonian thing yeah hi everybody welcome to
1:12.6	talking real money the radio show that becomes a podcast I am don McDonald in improving
1:17.6	health that is Tomcock recently sunburned in Hawaii and we're glad you're there to join
1:26.0	us here in 2026 as we try to help you make money, make more sense on talking real money.
1:32.5	Our phone number is 855-935-935-825-2-5.
1:39.9	Now, we are big believers, and it's not because we're simple, but we believe in simplicity.
1:48.6	Simple people. You read some of the comments sometimes. Maybe. You get that. So, okay. Simple people like
1:54.2	simple solutions. And we don't think that investing and managing money and doing all the things you need to do for your future need to be
2:02.1	all that complex. So to start the new year off on another right foot, we're going to right,
2:10.3	right, then go left. We want to share some ideas from the good folks at Morningstar on how you
2:17.1	can decomplicate your portfolio.
2:19.8	Yeah, parts of this I really like and parts I struggle a little bit.
	...

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