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Talking Real Money - Investing Talk

Very Different

Talking Real Money - Investing Talk

Don McDonald

Education, Investing, Business, How To

4.5811 Ratings

🗓️ 7 January 2026

⏱️ 41 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This episode opens with a reality check on streaming delays before diving into the growing divide between investing and gambling, highlighted by Charles Schwab’s refusal to promote crypto, options, and prediction markets while Robinhood leans fully into high-intensity trading. Don and Tom warn that flashy features and frequent trading usually lead to worse outcomes, not better ones. Listener questions cover whether employees can roll a 401(k) during a plan change (usually no), how to cope with bad retirement plans, and how to choose between a high-cost growth fund and a low-cost index option. The show also tackles whether mixing Avantis and Dimensional funds truly adds diversification, argues that over-engineering portfolios is counterproductive, and closes with a candid discussion about the decline of financial radio, the rise of podcasts, and why a strong financial plan matters more than recent market gains. 0:04 Recorded-not-live reality, streaming delays, and why nothing feels real anymore 1:56 Schwab draws a hard line between investing and gambling 2:56 Robinhood’s casino-style features and the problem with pandering 6:12 Why trading more usually means ending up with less 6:52 Listener question: Can you roll a 401(k) during a plan change while still employed? 9:23 Why “in-service” rollovers usually aren’t allowed before 59½ 11:53 What employees can do when stuck in a bad 401(k) plan 14:44 Fund choice question: Fidelity Growth vs. Vanguard 500 Index Trust 18:06 Why expenses, risk, and diversification matter more than past performance 19:21 Why podcasts are replacing traditional financial radio 22:06 How to listen to podcasts using Apple Podcasts and Spotify 27:22 Avantis vs. Dimensional: does doubling up add diversification? 31:52 Over-diversifying and the illusion of control 34:42 New-year reminder: returns don’t equal good planning 35:25 The importance of having an actual financial plan 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

Yes, believe it or not, we're still here.

0:43.8

Yep, another episode.

0:45.3

Another episode of the Talking Real Money podcast, another hour of the Talking Real Money

0:49.9

radio show on Northwest News Radio in the beautiful Puget Sound area. I'm Don McDonald.

0:56.8

Tom Cock, of course, is here even though he's on vacation. That is the dedication of this man.

1:03.0

He is on vacation and he flew back to go to the studio and do the show and then he's going back to

1:10.3

Hawaii.

...

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