Speak Your Qs

Talking Real Money - Investing Talk

Don McDonald

Education, Business, Investing, How To

4.5 • 811 Ratings

🗓️ 21 November 2025

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A lively Friday Q&A episode tackling listener questions about FSAs vs. 401(k) contributions, BND vs. BKAG bond funds, intermediate-term bonds vs. CD ladders, Avantis fund-of-funds fees and structure, and the financial implications of New York City’s newly elected socialist mayor. The show blends practical investing guidance with jokes about annuity-salesperson Halloween costumes and a detour into political fears vs. economic realities. 0:04 Opening, Friday Q&A setup, thanks to Tom’s grandkids 0:44 Listener FSA dilemma and choosing between FSA funding or 401k 3:01 Why FSAs are painful and why a 401k wins when choosing one or the other 5:57 Comparing BND and BKAG bond funds, holdings, universe, credit quality 9:01 Listener joke: “scariest Halloween costume is an annuity salesperson” 9:55 Moving CD-ladder money to VGIT or BIV; differences and trade-offs 12:22 Thoughts on iShares LifePath target-date ETF (ITDC) 12:33 Why Avantis fund-of-funds exist and whether you pay double fees 15:36 Underlying fund costs inside AVGE and how the total expense ratio works 16:21 Question about NYC’s new socialist mayor and financial impact fears 17:54 Walking through political fears vs. practical economic reality 21:55 Why one politician can’t radically reshape a city’s economic fate Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Reality Radio for a really great future.
0:07.9	We're talking real money.
0:09.9	Thank goodness.
0:11.2	The questions just keep coming in.
0:14.1	Thank you.
0:14.8	Thank you.
0:15.4	Thank you.
0:16.0	Not thank goodness.
0:16.8	Thank you.
0:17.5	For sending in those questions at talking realm money.com on the contact form and then speaking
0:21.7	them into your mic on your computer or your phone or whatever you've got a mic with. Everything's got a mic these
0:26.5	days. So it's really easy to do. You don't even need a phone, but you can do it on the phone.
0:32.6	Hey, this is the Friday Q&A edition of Talking Real Money. I'm Don McDonnell. Thanks so much for listening.
0:38.7	I really appreciate all of you being there, but particularly Tom's grandkids. They're my
0:45.3	favorite audience out there. Sorry. Sorry the rest of you. You know, hey, I think they're also
0:50.6	my youngest listeners, and they listen religiously. They're going to be rich, unlike some of you.
0:57.3	So take a lesson from the grandkids.
1:00.1	Anyway, welcome to another edition.
1:01.9	We've got a lot of questions.
1:03.8	Well, okay.
1:06.2	Questions and other stuff.
1:08.7	There's a lot of stuff, a lot of content in this one.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Don McDonald, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Don McDonald and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.