Picking a Good One

Talking Real Money - Investing Talk

Don McDonald

Education, Investing, Business, How To

4.5 • 811 Ratings

🗓️ 6 January 2026

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

With Tom on vacation and an eerily convincing AI stand-in holding down the mic, Don kicks off 2026 by tackling one of the most persistent listener questions: how to actually find a true fiduciary—and how to eliminate salespeople fast. Using FINRA’s BrokerCheck as a simple filter, the show explains why the “B” matters, why dual-registered advisors are still a risk, and how complexity is often a red flag. From there, the conversation dives into the rise of RILAs (registered index-linked annuities), why their shiny back-tested returns don’t mean much, and how simpler balanced portfolios often do better with far less risk and confusion. Along the way, the hosts cover podcast reviews, investing in bourbon barrels (don’t), Roth IRAs for teenagers (do), and close with Tom’s five timeless investing rules for 2026: go global, simplify, define risk, rebalance, and understand your taxes. 0:04 New year, Tom on vacation, and the rise of AI Tom 0:22 AI voices, joke quality, and job security jokes 2:20 Welcome and the show’s core mission 2:46 How to actually find a real fiduciary 3:30 BrokerCheck explained and why the “B” is a deal-breaker 5:24 Firm searches and fast advisor elimination 6:38 Why dual registration still isn’t fiduciary 7:22 RILAs introduced and why “index-linked” is a warning sign 9:38 Hypothetical returns and misleading back-testing 11:19 Balanced index funds vs annuity complexity 13:00 Why RILAs solve no real investor problem 14:08 How to leave podcast reviews (and where) 15:22 Apple vs Spotify reviews and ratings reality 17:34 Ratings, trolls, and thin-skinned hosts 20:07 Tom’s five investing rules for 2026 20:41 Go global—actually global 21:56 Fewer accounts, less mess 22:49 Know your risk before the market teaches you 23:50 Rebalancing after strong stock years 24:38 Understanding taxes by account type 27:33 Bourbon barrel investing pitch—hard pass 29:13 Custody risk and private-investment danger 31:35 No sales guests, ever 33:54 Roth IRAs for working teens 34:35 RetireMeet 2026 announcement Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Why do growing businesses love working in Slack?
0:02.8	Let's ask Christia Ari Bikes.
0:04.6	Running things in Slack saves me so much time.
0:07.3	AI summaries save 97 minutes per week.
0:10.4	What say you?
0:11.4	Rocks from Gosney.
0:12.4	Slack helps us build community.
0:13.9	It helps us build connection.
0:15.2	Your partners, vendors and customers all in one place.
0:18.3	Take us on home, Ashley from Carraway.
0:20.2	If we did have Slack tomorrow, I would explode.
0:23.4	Well, let's not let that happen.
0:25.1	Visit Slack.com slash podcast to get 50% of Slack Business Plus.
0:34.9	Reality Radio for a really great future.
0:38.0	We're talking real money.
0:40.6	Well, another year, another opportunity to try and get this stuff right.
0:45.9	And another year and another opportunity for Tom to take a vacation.
0:49.6	Yes, Tom is literally on vacation at this very moment on the third of January when this show airs on
0:57.8	Northwest News Radio.
0:58.9	So pay attention to the guy that sounds like Tom.
1:02.3	Pay no attention.
1:03.9	Oh, I'm sorry.
	...

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