Q&A: Debt and Condos

Talking Real Money - Investing Talk

Don McDonald

Business, Education, Investing, How To

4.2 • 680 Ratings

🗓️ 6 June 2025

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this Friday Q&A episode, Don answers a wide range of listener questions, covering everything from market timing behavior and condo pitfalls to portfolio simplification and strategic debt repayment. He offers heartfelt financial guidance with his usual mix of candor and compassion—including a personal confession about his own Social Security decision. Plus, he pleads (just a little) for positive Apple Podcast reviews to combat the crypto bros and insurance hawks. 0:04 Friday Q&A intro and how to submit voice questions 1:40 What do market-timing traders actually do with their cash during volatility? 4:25 Are condos and co-ops really “the devil”? Why Don’s skeptical 9:46 Listener shares Don sparked his investing journey in the ‘90s 11:15 Should a friend drop her advisor for a robo-platform—or go DIY with VT/BND? 17:32 Why Don prefers AVGE over VTI for broader, smarter diversification 18:15 Tiny differences in fees can mean big long-term results 18:58 Active-duty military caller: Should I pay off debt using savings and ditch whole life? 24:08 Listener nearing 70: Should I freeze my Social Security or just enjoy it now? 26:46 Don’s honest confession about his own SS filing decision 27:52 Why good reviews matter (and how to fight the crypto/insurance trolls) 29:43 Call live on Saturdays while Tom vacations… again Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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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	Look at that.
0:41.5	Just like clockwork.
0:43.5	Once a week, it's Friday.
0:48.5	And Friday means we talk between us.
0:52.4	You and me, you ask me questions, and then, well, I try to answer
0:57.5	those questions. And you send those questions in a really cool way. You go to talking real
1:02.6	money.com. That's our website. Then there's a little button. Well, it's the words. You just
1:07.6	click on the words. Let's say contact us. Then you go to a form, and that form has two ways to send in questions.
1:15.0	You can type them, which takes a lot longer.
1:18.6	And then those go to Tom and he'll be happy.
1:21.8	Or you can speak them, and those go to Don, and he'll be more happy,
1:29.9	and he can answer them on the Friday podcast that is devoted to those questions, those questions that are spoken in.
1:35.8	So, unless Tom and Roxy do it, then it's the typed ones.
1:41.3	I'm trying to explain the rules of the game.
	...

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