Huh? or Duh!

Talking Real Money - Investing Talk

Don McDonald

Education, Investing, Business, How To

4.5 • 811 Ratings

🗓️ 9 December 2025

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this special seasonal episode, you and Tom resurrect Ha or Duh, tearing through Investopedia readers’ “rules to live by” and dismantling the silliest ones with mock gravitas. Between the dad-joke arms race, a spirited defense of compounding, strong opinions on due diligence, and a surprising detour into crypto-mad zip codes, the show blends real financial guidance with holiday-season chaos. The episode also hits deeper listener questions on rebalancing, Roth vs. pre-tax strategy in high brackets, and the danger of thinking blue chips alone equal diversification. 0:04 Seasonal return of Ha or Duh and setup of Investopedia’s “investing rules” 1:32 Rule 1: Never sell because of emotions — duh 2:44 Rule 2: “Only invest in what you know” — emphatic huh 3:35 Rule 3: Good investment in a bad market — phrasing unclear, lean duh 4:26 Rule 4: Never underestimate compounding — mega-duh 5:35 Rule 5: Cash and patience as “positions” — hard huh 6:25 Segment break into calls 7:49 Back to Ha or Duh lightning round 8:33 Buy low, sell high — duh (with caveats) 9:58 “Losses are tuition you won’t get at uni” — pass 10:21 Hold for the long term — duh 11:09 Marathon, not sprint — duh 11:39 Is education the best investment? Nuanced disagreement 12:45 “Always do your own due diligence” — modified duh (about advisors, not stocks) 15:22 FOMO avoidance — duh 16:27 Final rule: Start now — biggest duh of all 17:41 Wrap-up and transition back to regular Q&A 18:06 Listener question: Finding the “sociopath son” episode 19:28 Setup for Friday’s Q&A episode 20:18 Don’s town turns into “free Disney World” during holidays 21:51 Disney hotel pricing shock and personal stories 23:42 Don’s new original Christmas story: Santaverse 24:01 Story podcasts spike; Short Storyverses mention 25:28 Listener from Bothell: 90% blue chips, 10% cash — how to rebalance? 26:39 Why blue chips aren’t diversified and the S&P concentration problem 28:52 Listener in high bracket asks when Roth beats pre-tax 30:26 SECURE Act 2.0 catch-up rules; Roth vs. pre-tax philosophy 32:10 Monte Carlo vs. unknowable future tax rates 33:26 Why all-Roth 401(k)s would simplify life 34:28 Advice: Likely stay pre-tax in 24% bracket 35:50 Shocking stats: Seattle among highest crypto-owning zip codes 37:24 Air Force bases dominate crypto ownership — why it’s dangerous 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.
0:10.0	Hello and welcome to a special edition, a special seasonal edition of the Talking Real Money Radio show and podcast.
0:18.4	Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's time once again. We haven't done it in ages
0:22.5	to play. Ha or duh. Huh or da. There. Got that out of your system, did you?
0:34.0	Huh or duh is when we look at some things that are, you know, people say you should do.
0:39.5	And yeah, we're not sure about it or we're against it.
0:43.3	That's a huh.
0:44.8	Or, of course, it's obvious that's a duh.
0:48.5	So we're going to play huh or duh today with the readers of Investopedia.
0:56.3	And we can play with you too. If you've got some calls, we'll take those up as well you can call us with them at 855 935 talk and we'll play
1:00.6	huh or duh with you or you can play it with us and you can win great prizes too none whatsoever
1:06.1	oh oh what are you going to give away a t-shirt? Sure, I'll give away a shirt, absolutely.
1:11.1	And by the way, I'll give away a few shirts.
1:13.1	It's a red shirt, so it's festive.
1:15.7	It goes with a red card, so it's very festive, you know, very time of year.
1:19.5	Anyway, Investopedia asked its listeners, it's listeners.
1:23.3	We're a podcast.
1:24.6	They're an online thing.
1:26.7	They ask their readers to tell them what investing rules they live by and what's the best investing advice they ever received and they got answers from all over the country. So we've got some of those right here in front of us. And so Tom and I today are going to play, huh or duh? Tom, are you ready? Are you ready to play?
1:45.4	I did my jumping jacks, did 100 push-ups, sit-ups, I'm ready to go.
1:49.6	Number one.
	...

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