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Talking Real Money - Investing Talk

Good Enough

Talking Real Money - Investing Talk

Don McDonald

Education, Business, Investing, How To

4.5 • 811 Ratings

🗓️ 20 November 2025

⏱️ 32 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

You and Tom spend this episode unpacking a surprisingly liberating idea for investors: that average is good enough. Kicking off with your own story about a two-star podcast rating, you two stumble into a bigger truth—most people are chasing a level of portfolio perfection that doesn’t matter. Christine Benz’s Morningstar piece becomes the backbone of the discussion, contrasting “maximizers” (engineers, tinkerers, over-optimizers) with “satisfizers” (simple, diversified, sane). From there you hit Tesla’s trillion-dollar pay package drama, Bito’s goofy “dividends,” SGOV vs. CD ladders, fears about private equity sneaking into retirement plans, and a few classic Don-and-Tom tangents. The message: stop overthinking, build a sensible portfolio, and go live your life. 0:04 Don’s two-star review existential crisis and the epiphany about doing things for joy 1:16 Why being “average” in investing (and life) is perfectly fine 1:45 Elon Musk compensation debate and ETF shareholders not getting a vote 3:12 Don’s “brilliant raving lunatic” take on Elon and Tesla’s dominance 4:38 The kings of tangentiality finally introduce the show 5:55 Christine Benz and the “Good Enough Portfolio” philosophy 6:36 Maximizers vs. satisfizers explained (plus Bogle bobbleheads) 8:53 Why over-optimization rarely improves results 9:56 Happiness and second-guessing: satisfizers win 11:22 Time costs, tax worries, and the illusion of finding a perfect portfolio 12:33 Two-fund vs. ten-fund portfolios and why simplicity works 13:55 Working harder doesn’t usually make you richer—your job does 14:25 Listener letter: long-time fan from Silverdale reminisces about 1988 15:26 Tom recalls being put on the air after several glasses of wine 16:03 Acorns user asks about BITO’s wild “dividends” 18:10 Why BITO’s payouts are actually return of capital and cannibalization 19:58 BITO’s volatility roller-coaster (standard deviation 53) 20:12 SGOV vs. CD ladders for short-term retirement cash 22:07 Why emergency funds shouldn’t sit in a Roth IRA 22:58 Listener concerned about private equity creeping into 401(k)s 23:52 PE risks, political pressure, and greater-fool concerns 25:27 Don thanks listener “AlwaysLearning1953” for the positive review 26:49 Murder of Crows, sound effects, and the power of scary crows 27:36 New Tales Told update—more stories on the way 28:38 Saturday live show reminder and flyover banter 28:58 Don’s Kansas/Leavenworth childhood story detour Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:34.9

Reality Radio for a really great future.

0:38.0

We're talking real money.

0:40.5

You know, I came to a very, very powerful realization recently.

0:46.6

As you may be aware, I have been lately trying my hand at writing short stories and then

0:53.7

narrating them on a new podcast I created. And I got a,

0:58.3

it really bummed me because I'd gotten like only four reviews, like five star ratings on it on Apple

1:05.6

podcast. And somebody gave me a two star. What? And it lowered my overall rating to like 4.4.

1:14.4

I didn't know Debbie knew how to do that.

1:16.2

And it bummed me out because I'm thinking to myself,

1:18.5

maybe you could leave a little critique, like tell me why?

1:23.4

But no, they didn't.

1:24.4

Anyway.

1:25.2

But then I realized I'm writing these stories and sharing them

1:30.1

for my pleasure. Hopefully I entertain someone else with them, but I'm really doing it for me,

1:37.5

and I honestly don't believe I am going to be the next Ernest Hemingway.

1:47.1

And your fishing is just not that good, I don't think. And you don't spend that much time in

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