Millions of Millionaires

Talking Real Money - Investing Talk

Don McDonald

Education, Investing, Business, How To

4.5 • 811 Ratings

🗓️ 6 August 2025

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This Talking Real Money episode dives into America’s millionaire boom—1,000 a day—and what it really takes to join the club. Don and Tom discuss inflation’s impact on wealth, the real sources of millionaire status (spoiler: it’s not crypto), and the critical role of forced savings via homes and 401(k)s. Listeners call in with questions on triple-leveraged ETFs (don’t), deferring capital gains on farmland, and gambling on tech stocks in retirement (also don’t). Plus, how to evaluate a financial advisor and why returns-based promises are a huge red flag. 0:04 The millionaire explosion: 1,000 new U.S. millionaires every day 1:15 Inflation vs. millionaire status: $1M ain’t what it used to be 2:06 Where wealth is coming from—homes and 401(k)s 3:10 Forced savings: why it’s more powerful than market timing 4:02 The third key to wealth: avoiding big financial mistakes 5:39 Financial Flinch Reflex: Don’s mock pharma ad for financial panic 6:55 Listener asks: how exactly do you invest to become a millionaire? 7:37 ETF basics for beginners + starting with a target-date fund 8:47 Caller: What’s a triple-leveraged ETF and is it a cheat code? 10:36 Why you shouldn’t pick ETFs based on past returns 11:05 Building a portfolio starts with a plan, not a product 12:03 TQQQ dangers: up 3x, down 3x…or 80% down in 2022 14:22 How to get help: no-pressure meetings, no sales pitch 16:15 Leveraged ETFs = gambling, not investing 16:52 Caller selling $1.8M Illinois farm: can you defer capital gains? 17:39 Yes—via 1031 exchange or potentially a QOF (but beware fees) 19:24 Dying: not a recommended tax strategy (but technically effective) 21:01 Caller in La Conner, WA: risky to keep all gains in 10 tech stocks? 23:21 $200K gain in 3 months? Congrats—now get out before you regret it 25:18 Why gambling with stocks in retirement is unnecessary risk 26:56 Caller Joe: interviewed 10+ advisory firms—how to choose? 28:03 Don’t trust advisors who promise future returns 30:25 The only advisors to consider: 100% fiduciary, no commissions 32:43 Caller Beverly: state bond fund seems risky—what should I do? 33:45 Use your IRA for safer bond funds like Vanguard BND 36:34 Why there’s no “rule of thumb” for stock/bond allocation 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. We're talking real money.
0:10.2	Hi, welcome back to talking real money. I'm Don, that's Tom, and we want to congratulate you.
0:16.2	We want to congratulate all of the newly minted millionaires from 2024.
0:22.7	We're so proud of you.
0:24.8	Although, given how many of you there have been, I guess a million dollars doesn't mean what it used to mean.
0:33.5	And we're going to get to what we're talking about here in just a minute.
0:35.8	But first, I want to give you a phone number to call us and talk about how you can become a millionaire.
0:42.4	Who wants to be a millionaire?
0:44.9	We have a show like that, I think.
0:46.6	I think, yeah.
0:47.4	Yeah, and.
0:48.7	I don't watch it, but it's out there.
0:50.5	Well, it's an evening thing now with Jimmy Kimmel and Matt Damon just won. Just became a million. I saw him. He looks kind of weird with the beard. That's because he's in Troy. Oh. Or not Troy in Odyssey. Tron. Odyssey. The Odyssey. The new Homeric extravaganza.
1:11.2	Ah, okay.
1:12.0	I do know that story, sure.
1:13.3	Yeah.
1:13.7	You know, Ulysses and Troy.
1:15.9	I remember him.
1:16.8	Sure.
1:17.3	Yeah.
1:17.6	Okay.
1:18.3	Hi, welcome to talking real money.
	...

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