Talking Real Money - Investing Talk

By Don McDonald

Education Business Investing

What's Talking Real Money - Investing Talk about?

34-year financial talk radio veteran, Don McDonald and former host of Serious Money on PBS, Tom Cock, join forces to talk about real money issues. In each episode, they solve real money problems, dole out real investing (not speculating) advice, and really explain the financial issues that effect all of us. Plus, it's actually fun! Talking Real Money is a podcast designed to provide the real help we all need to enjoy a really great future. Call in with your questions anytime at 855-935-TALK (8255).

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LAST EPISODE

Unexpected Taxable Events

12.06.2023

The end of the year often brings mutual fund investors an unpleasant surprise that can raise taxes; the realized capital gains distribution. How can you avoid this tax surprise? Are traditional mutual funds headed for extinction? Dimensional Funds rolls out ...

Talking Real Money - Investing Talk episodes:

12.06.2023 Unexpected Taxable Events The end of the year often brings mutual fund investors an unpleasant surprise that can raise taxes; the realized capital gains distribution. How can you avoid this tax surprise? Are traditional mutual funds headed for extinction? Dimensional Funds rolls out ...
12.05.2023 Lifelong Income Strategies What's the best way to create a retirement income stream from your investment portfolio. Today, Tom and Don share four popular income strategies. Then, we hear from you (actually, a few of you): Does it make sense to sell Apple ...
12.04.2023 Pensions Staging Comeback? Once thought to be nearly extinct (except for government workers), some major employers are bringing back the old fashioned pension plan. Does the apparent certainty of a pension make it a better retirement option than defined contribution plans, like 401k ...
12.01.2023 A Lot of Questions In todays's Q&A session: Which funds should be used in a 403b? Thanks for the podcast. How much of fixed income should be in inflation hedges? How could a mom squeeze a bit more income out of her portfolio? Did ...
11.30.2023 And the Winners Are... A recent list of "the best mutual funds" is best ignored. The funds prised in this piece are not great funds, just a few that got lucky by being in the right investments at the right time. Plus, most of ...
11.29.2023 Seen the Light? Most know him as the "Wolf of Wall Street." After ripping on investors for millions of dollars, Jordan Belfort claims to have "seen the light" and now believes that low-cost, index-style investing is the path investors should take. Then, listeners ...
11.29.2023 Dave Promises Big Bucks Forget the 4% rule, Dave Ramsey wants you to believe that you can take an 8% annual income from an American Funds (or other broker-sold) portfolio. We explain why that is incredibly unlikely. Then on to the questions: What's the ...
11.27.2023 Financial Illiteracy A new study of Americans financial knowledge shows that a sizable portion of us are woefully uniformed about financial matters. Tom and Don share the results and ideas for improving our fiscal education. Plus, listeners ask: What do we think ...
11.22.2023 Work Plans Losing This is the last show of Thanksgiving week, as Tom and Don are taking time off. In the episode, we discuss the many problems with 401k and 403b plans that keep employees from doing as well as they might in ...
11.21.2023 So Few Houses Today, we talk about the biggest reason housing prices have stayed so high in a period of rising rates. We also consider the right time to sell a home and downside and the impact a changing real estate sales market ...
11.20.2023 Want to Pay Less? If you want to reduce the amount you pay the IRS in 2024, there are several things you can do before the year is up to reduce your tax burden. If you wait until it's time to file next April, ...
11.17.2023 Pre-Turkey Q&A In this episode, Don addresses the following: Why should a portfolio be rebalanced regularly? Is a state teacher's pension pre-tax money or can it be rolled over tax-free? What is the difference between the pre-tax, Roth, and after-tax 403b options? ...
11.16.2023 Are Advisors Obsolete? As AI grows exponetially more knowledgable, are investors ready to move from human to many investing advice? Are there skills that people have that artificial intelligence can't mimic? Plus, listeners ask: What is the best order to draw from various ...
11.15.2023 Most Don't Know When Tom finally sits down with the finance guy to buy his car, he is pitched a bunch of extra warranties and given some terrible investing advice. So, today, we discuss all of the mistaken beliefs people have about investing. ...
11.14.2023 World of Opportunities With U.S. stock prices running hot versus the rest of the world, could your portfolio benefit from more international stocks? Tom and Don share some numbers and historical data. We ask, is Robin Hood's 1% IRA contribution worth it? Don ...
11.13.2023 Hedge Fund Fail We share yet another example of the premise that luck is behind the success of most professional money managers. A new book portrays Ray Dalio, the founder of the giant hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, as just another average investment guesser ...
11.10.2023 Four Q Day This Friday, Don answers questions about: How many beneficiaries of a 529 plan can transfer $35,000 into a Roth IRA? Does a micro-cap fund have a place in a portfolio? Should a retirement lump sum be investing in rolling maturity ...
11.09.2023 A Mere Million? The average American family’s net worth has risen to 1 million dollars, yet few of us have the money for a $500 million yacht. However, there are 16 million mini-millionaires in the United States. How do you join the millionaire ...
11.08.2023 Working in Retirement Retiring later seems like a viable option for those who failed to save enough to afford retirement. What is the reality of working past 65? What are the new 2024 retirement plan contribution limits? We take listeners' questions: Should liquid ...
11.07.2023 Fiduciary Future? After failing several times, the Department of Labor will try again to make all retirement plan advisors act as true fiduciaries. The insurance industry will be suing to keep you paying them high fees and commissions. If you want excitement, ...
11.06.2023 Rent and Invest? Buying a home may not be as smart as renting. Rising interest rates have pushed the cost of home ownership far above the price of renting a similar home. Yet, home prices have not fallen enough to offset the differences. ...
11.03.2023 T.G.I.F.B.I.A.Q. It's Friday, and Don takes your questions: What's with the weird ticker symbols for retirement plan funds? Does it make sense only to fund a mega-backdoor Roth IRA? Is it smart to loan a child money for a home? Should ...
11.02.2023 Small Investors Win? Have small investors finally gotten smarter than the market? Using misleading data from Robin Hood, The Wall Street Journal tries to make traders appear prescient. Then, we answer these questions: Which Vanguard bond fund do we prefer for an IRA? ...
11.01.2023 High Costs of "Free" Every year we are inundated with ads for Medicare Advantage plans. So, are there any real advantages and what are the downsides? One caller criticizes Medicare Advantage programs Others ask: About contributing to a company 401k plan at age 60 ...
10.31.2023 Spike Setbacks Don goes it alone for a couple of episodes. It appear that mist of the financial setbacks over the past fifty years have followed periods of rapidly rising rates. What can you do to protect against risng (and falling) interest ...
10.30.2023 Fysics: Diversification In this episode, we open Don's "good" book, Financial Fysics to the section on the power of a well-diversified investment portfolio. We take some questions, too: What should be done with two maturing annuities? How should a $5 million portfolio ...
10.28.2023 403 and Annuity Q-Day On today's Q&A show: Why is an attractive-sounding annuity a bad idea? Are there times when a 403b shouldn't be rolled into an IRA? How can someone complain about insurance products in a 403b? When can a contribution be made ...
10.26.2023 Hard to Retire Here Far too many Americans fall through the cracks in the U.S. retirement system. In an age of few pensions, many don't invest for retirement and can't survive on just Social Security. How do we get more workers to save more ...
10.25.2023 Whither Interest Rates? We discuss the current state of the bond market and the possibilities for the future. Is there any way investors can outguess the bond market (or any other securities market)? Plus, we talk about Tom's new iPhone 15. Listeners would ...
10.24.2023 60/40 Dead Again? Six month's later, the Wall Street Journal contradicts itself in the debate about the efficacy of a 60% stock/40% bond portfolio. Understand how a short period can influence our long-term perception. Plus, what are your alternatives to traditional stock/bond investing? ...
10.23.2023 Is Betting Better? Could betting markets predict the future? The evidence shows that the "wisdom of crowds" has been pretty accurate. In finance, they call it "the efficient market." Essentially, this means that, in aggregate, a large crowd (like the global stock market) ...
10.20.2023 Many Questions and Answers This week: Why do we like the Utah 529 Plan? Should BND be sold to create a ladder even if it's down? Why don't we mention M1 Finance? What do we think of the Fidelity Zero funds? Can a corporate ...
10.19.2023 Annuities Are Sold... Because they are so popular with financial salespeople, we need to talk about the confusing world of annuities. What are they and what are those who sell them failing to disclose? Discover the realities of these very complex (and lightly ...
10.18.2023 Too Much Cash Young investors have a lot of money in cash because they fear the stocks market. Yet, the best time to invest is when you are young because you have time to ride the ups and down of the market. Then ...
10.17.2023 Crypto Sucks... How much might Bitcoin appreciate per year? Someone claims to know. Then, a Bitcoin farm can consume the energy of a small city and while the Chinese won't allow them in China, they have no problem consuming our power and ...
10.16.2023 Funding Higher Education A special episode devoted to paying for your children's higher education. Appella Wealth college-funding specialist, Jim Femia joins Tpm and Don to share his expertise on the various ways you can afford to help your kid's get through college. Learn ...
10.13.2023 Friday is Question Day Friday is when Don takes the questions you record at Talking Real Money: Why do Treasury security yields change throughout each day? How do you check out a fee-based advisor? What do we think of a company's new fund options? ...
10.12.2023 Friends and Money Don't Mix A Washington Post advice columnist suggested firing a financial advisor friend. How can you find the right person to manage your money? Then we hear from lots of listeners: Is it better to invest fixed income dollars in bonds or ...
10.11.2023 Costs of Being Mortgage Free There's a lot money tied up in our homes, so should you pay off your cheap mortgage? What are the costs to access all of that money should you need it? At Bank of America, it could cost up to ...
10.10.2023 Dumb and Dumber Money The movie "Dumb Money" depicts a small slice of the pandemic meme stock trading stupidity. Today, we discuss trying to time the market and it's similarity to other ways we lose money. Then, listeners ask: How much should be kept ...
10.09.2023 Fear for Financial Future A recent study found that the vast majority of Americans don't believe they will be in good enough financial shape to retire at age 65. What are some of our biggest concerns and how can we deal with our unpreparedness? ...
10.06.2023 One Week Later: More Qs In this Friday's Question and Answer episode: While stocks plunged for most of the Great Depression, how did bonds perform? Does it make sense to convert to a Roth if the taxes are paid from the IRA? Does taking early ...
10.05.2023 Our Jobs Are Secure Trillions of dollars are wasting away in low-yielding bank accounts. Why do investors keep making the same investing mistakes, over and over again, despite evidence that investing is incredibly simple if done right? How can you avoid making bad investing ...
10.04.2023 Ending Conflicted Advice The 401k and 403b investment offerings are a mess and the US Labor Department would like to make it better, but the financial product industry opposes mandating truly honest investing advice. Salespeople aggressively push expensive or unsuitable products, while the ...
10.03.2023 Shutdown Shut Down We came prepared to talk about the impact of a government shutdown on your investments. Just as we came on the air, Congress voted to defer the issue for another 45 days. Yet, what would be the financial impact of ...
10.02.2023 You Can't Win The evidence continues to show why most "expert" money managers fail to beat their benchmarks. Don and Tom share some powerful academic reasons why money managers (and you) are unlikely to beat the market over time. Plus, those once-hot NFTs ...
09.29.2023 A Unique QCA Day In today's question and comment episode: Don is appalled by another great example of a slick salesperson selling a horribly complex and misleading insurance investment for retirement. Should a Roth be funded for someone on the cusp of making too ...
09.28.2023 Trustworthy Advice A recent study shows that most people trust the right people for investing advice. What is your trusted source of money information? Then, we hear from listeners: What do we think of this retirement portfolio, heavily invested in real estate ...
09.27.2023 You're Making Less Morningstar recently reported a ongoing gap between investor returns and the returns of the stock market. You and your behavior make less than underlying indexes. We discuss Tom's attempt to buy a new Toyota and the lack of resonse to ...
09.26.2023 Bad Money Radio Finding good financial advice is really tough. You might believe that those providing money information in the media are required to tell the truth. They're not. You need to carefully vet anyone providing investing information. We take a close look ...

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