Money Game?
A chaotic but revealing game-show-style opening leads into a sharp lesson on why market trivia doesn’t matter nearly as much as discipline. Tom and Don walk through eye-opening 2025 market stats, including the real impact of the Magnificent Seven, international stocks’ outperformance, and a surprising Bitcoin result, before pivoting to listener calls on risk aversion in retirement, tax drag in fixed income, ETF vs. mutual fund structure, pensions as “bond substitutes,” and the fear of poorly timed rollovers. The episode reinforces a consistent theme: markets anticipate, investors overthink, and long-term success comes from diversification, cost control, and building portfolios around real human behavior—not headlines.
0:04 Cold open and chaotic “What Do You Know?” game show setup
1:58 S&P 500 return vs. performance without the Magnificent Seven
5:16 Magnificent Seven’s staggering 10-year return
5:48 International stocks outperform U.S. stocks in 2025
7:35 Retired caller weighs SGOV vs. VTEB and tax efficiency
10:01 Risk aversion, inflation fears, and when bonds actually belong
13:11 CD ladders as a stability alternative to bond funds
14:27 Clean energy ETFs rise despite negative policy headlines
16:41 Colombia emerges as best-performing global stock market
18:02 Bitcoin’s surprising full-year decline in 2025
19:02 Why none of this market trivia actually matters
20:28 ETFs vs. mutual funds explained simply and clearly
24:44 Why fund companies resist ETF conversions
27:13 Pension income vs. bonds in portfolio construction
31:20 AI voice experiment and margin rate reality check
32:02 Fear of rolling over 401(k)s and “hodgepodge-itis”