[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where there's basically no value add from service other than the person, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, you took your order and you go wait and they hand it to you. And so this is a hard one.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With all the tipping seems like just about everything you do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They're going to flip around some kind of device, tablet, whatever, and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There will be an automatic tipping thing that pops up even in a place that historically


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Has not been a place that you tip at. So.


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[Assistant] But I wonder if the, if the housekeeper is actually getting the money at a hotel. I always worry about that with management.


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[Assistant] No, I don't use valet. Anyway, uhm, that people don't carry cash anymore and so valet is now


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[Assistant] Tend to take Venmo or Cash App. I hope none of them take evil, rotten, terrible Zelle. But anyway, uh, this, this tipping conundrum is going to continue as long as there's this push and pull between what people are being paid to do their job and that not being enough money for people to earn.


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[Assistant] What I think is called now a livable wage, as that was referred to.


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[Assistant] This is an ongoing issue and you just have to decide what feels right to you when that tablet flips around and that tip is there.


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[Assistant] What I've noticed is that the predetermined amounts seem to have gotten higher.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 2025, 30 is the default. Then there'll be an other and you can do the other if you wish. So.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'd love to hear your suggestions on tipping, especially


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How you feel about it if you are in a service business.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And there's this push and pull going on about tipping. I'd love if you post your comments or feelings about it. Coming up next, Clarkonomics. Clarkonomics is back as the economy is going to shift into a lower gear. We're going to have a rougher ride coming forward, not just here in the United States, but worldwide. And so I'm going to do the best I can.


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[Assistant] To take you along on the journey so that it is as smooth as a bumpy path can be for you and your family. We have had so many shocks to our psyche in this century. Uh, gosh, where do you start? Uh, we started this century with a horrific, brutal terrorist attacks.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The visitor are sure on nine 11 of a one and then.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We had two wars that, uh, went on a long time without any clear, tangible results.


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[Assistant] We had the banking scandals that led to the great recession here and around the world.


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[Assistant] We had five years of extreme hardship in the housing market and the job market that we came out of, uh, starting in 2012. We had a stock market that collapsed because of the banking scandals and people ran for the hills and then we went through


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] An era where things got better and better and for year after year after year, stock market had a massive rise over a long period of time from 2009 when it hit its bottom all the way till last year. And we had a, we had a downdraft.


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[Assistant] When COVID came about and then COVID obviously and all the disruptions with it.


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[Assistant] People, kids not being in school, all kinds of things that happen. The loss of over a million.


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[Assistant] Of our fellow Americans who lost their lives to COVID. I mean, it's been a rough, rough time and through it, we've had these times where federal reserve and coordination with central banks around the world.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Done things to try to prop up the economy by taking interest rates to abnormally low levels.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To try to reflate the economy, pump money into the economy and our Congress and, uh, several presidents and governments around the world did deficit spending to try to inflate economies. And then we've reached this point following COVID where they had the pedal to the metal too hard. And now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That was already going to be here because of so many disruptions from COVID, the money, the, the federal government was spending the moves of the federal reserve with the low interest rates. And then we have Putin invade Ukraine that just magnified all these problems. So that's the, setting the table.


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[Assistant] of how we got to where we are now and now


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[Assistant] There's a painful process of withdrawal, of withdrawal from the easy money, withdrawal from the deficit spending, all these things we've been doing. And then of course, the supply chain disruptions and the war, all this stuff, we've got to do things to get inflation under control. And as I'm speaking to you right now,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The average apartment rent in the country went down, not up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Over the last year, apartment rents have gone up average around the country, maybe very different where you live. They've gone up 7%. So today I'm not really on this first edition of Clark economics of this era. I'm not going to delve deep into any one area.


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[Assistant] Is it soaks up demand in the economy? Is rates go higher?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Decisions people would make to do things to invest, they pull back from them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Things people would do they'd spend money on, they're not as likely to.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's why I think about the housing market. This is the rawest, easiest to follow.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If we had rates a year ago that were 2.7% and now they may be 6 or 7%, the monthly cost of a mortgage payment


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They are gonna be in a position where if they've gotta move it now,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They're going to have to cut the price because they've got to compensate for that higher cost that people are facing in a mortgage payment. So they can afford to buy that house stretch, but by all these things are going on for a specific reason. And that is to move the economy to a lower gear. The chance the economy is going to be in a full definition of recession.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Gosh, depending on whose economic model you believe, it's 70 to 98%. It's like the, I mean, the odds are overwhelming.


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[Assistant] That we are going to be in a recession, how deep it's going to be, how severe this is not going to be barring some unexpected expansion of war in Europe or something like that. This is not going to be a terrible recession. It's going to mean that people who had their pick of jobs as they may have had lately, that's not going to be true. We're going to see the number of layoffs rise.


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[Assistant] There will still be other jobs for people to get. You go back to the great recession.


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[Assistant] There were far more people looking for work than there was any possibility of jobs out there.


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[Assistant] And because of all the money the federal reserve was pumping in, the Congress was pumping into the economy. We had an abnormally low rate of unemployment in the U S it was unsustainable in terms of the long-term trend of the economy. So we're going to see serious adjustments. The things that I will cover on various podcasts, I'll cover


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[Assistant] What's going to happen with the stock market because I'm getting everywhere I go, I'm getting questions about that. And just a brief teaser, the one thing not to do today with your 401k or IRA or investments is bail. We're in a phase that is called capitulation where people


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[Assistant] See the bad news day after day after day with the value of their


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[Assistant] And they feel like I can't handle it because then you hear the reports, hey, you know, it could go down another 20%, go down another 50%, go down another 10%. And you're like, why am I punishing myself?


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[Assistant] And the thing is, is it's money you don't need anytime soon.


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[Assistant] Because it's money you're putting aside for retirement or long term. You ride the roller coaster down.


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[Assistant] Because you don't know when the ride back up starts. But the other thing is if you're contributing through a 401k at work or a Roth IRA or something like that and you're putting money in every pay period, every month, something like that.


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[Assistant] As the market declines, your buying shares each month at a discount. It's like going to the clearance rack.


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[Assistant] And you see last season's clothes that nobody wants and they've been marked down five times because the market eventually recovers and you want to be there to benefit from it. I alluded to earlier, the people who bailed in 2007, eight, nine, 10 from their investments and sat on the sidelines till it got safe, got punished big time.


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[Assistant] I reiterate, I will go through this journey with you. We're going to go through and I want to tell you.


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[Assistant] We are not facing the darkest of economic times, not even close, but we have to take the punch bowl away because inflation ultimately destabilizes a society and makes most people a lot poorer.


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[Assistant] And it distorts decisions that businesses make. So this is gonna be a bumpy thing we're gonna go through. For most of us, it won't be a brutal thing. Krista?


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[Assistant] Well, gosh, chase, this is a really tough one for me because I am a forever skeptic of the private crowdsourcing kind of environment.


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[Assistant] Because the costs and you, the way you put it fits perfectly.


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[Assistant] The fees are much higher than most traditional investing. The liquidity is vastly inferior to most investing.


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[Assistant] Okay, so you do a real estate investment trust, which is a form of investing in land.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or structures of different types, could be apartments, hotels, office buildings, whatever it is. If you want to sell it, if you buy a, a fund,


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[Assistant] Uh, you know, a mutual fund index fund of REITs, you can buy and sell at will the cost of owning it, virtually nothing. It is a hundred percent liquid and you know exactly when it owns. And so that would be one extreme. If you think about people who have contacted us about investing in a single family home crowdsourcing, again, you have,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Higher fees, not the greatest disclosure, and they're not liquid.


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[Assistant] I look at the various crowdfunding kind of organizations.


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[Assistant] As a generally, as a category that is generally inferior to traditional


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[Assistant] Publicly traded investing opportunities where you know what it's going to cost you.


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[Assistant] You know you can sell and you can buy and sell at any time. And so.


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[Assistant] You won't hear from me, wow, I found this great, great crowdfunding thing you should get into. That is not coming out of my mouth.


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[Assistant] I don't know what your total income is, which really determines the answer to that. But remember you have to pay as an independent, you have to pay double social security taxes. So basically think of 15% for that. And you're going to have to pay California income tax, which surprisingly, if you're not a high income earner, California income tax is


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[Assistant] Crazily lower than a lot of other places. If you make big money, it's I think the highest in the country. So, uh, let's say you did 5% for that, just for argument's sake, and then you've got your federal. So probably 30%. Gosh, I can't believe I got all the way to 30. 30 would make the most sense as an amount to put aside in savings where I would put it.


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[Assistant] And we have a list at Clark.com where you can see the latest deals on savings accounts.


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[Assistant] So Tony, that is a partial kernel of truth that if you, uh, block the data, erase the data on LexisNexis, it could make it harder in some cases for


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[Assistant] Various forms of industry to verify your identity for certain purposes and then they'll have to verify your identity another way. But the way LexisNexis makes it sound is that this is a terrible negative for you. It's a great positive to attack


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[Assistant] The information about you that's in one of these dossiers and remove it. I think people should have the same right with


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[Assistant] For you to do it with the bureaus, because then you stop.


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[Assistant] Them selling off your dossier to all comers where all kinds of mischief can happen. So I would not take seriously LexisNexis saying.


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[Assistant] Oh no, you'll never be able to be identified. You'll never be able to get insurance. If you wipe out your data from Lexus Nexus, one less big data storage company having data on you to me is a net positive, even if occasionally there's a hiccup. I got a question for you.


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[Assistant] With everything going on with inflation and all that, who couldn't use some extra cash? And you know how much our life deals.


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[Assistant] That's why I talked about all the shopping deals earlier in this podcast. Well, shop with me because I got some cash I'm giving away at Clark deals. Clark deals. If you're not familiar, that's our site where we post the best deals of the men end of the day for you. And so we're giving away $2,500 in cash, not all over one person.


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[Assistant] You can register for your chance to enter if you go to ClarkDeals.com slash enter. Have a great day.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's my pleasure to welcome you to the Clark Howard Show. Our mission is to serve you and empower you so you make better financial decisions in your life.


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[Assistant] I hope you feel good enough about this podcast to review it if possible where you listen. And Krista, you love to read reviews.


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[Assistant] We teased this yesterday. You asked for it. So for the first time ever,


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[Assistant] To Clark Stanks. That's right. A double dose opportunity for me to learn from my mistakes.


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[Assistant] I do stink. I'll never make that mistake again.


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[Assistant] So, um, this I covered on another podcast, ironically enough about how, and we do this with our company where we buy the U S treasuries, we use Schwab and we buy them through, uh, through Schwab. It's really easy. It's a lot easier and user friendly through Schwab and Vanguard to do it. You have, uh, no Schwab and Fidelity.


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[Assistant] What you're able to do is you're able to either buy direct issues for the period of time, commission free, or you can go into a treasury money funds that they both offer. Those are both available to individuals, small businesses, you name it.


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[Assistant] This is not the mic's fault. This is completely my fault. If you ever watch our YouTube broadcast, you'll see I use my hands like crazy and what you hear is I'll be waving my hands and I'll hit the mic like I just did there. So this is as I


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[Assistant] Audio Technica Sportscaster kind of headsets.


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[Assistant] And I know you want me off a sportscaster headset, Krista. I really want me off of it.


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[Assistant] But the thing is, I mean the way I am, I'll hit a stationary mic, which I always did over the years. What we need to do is we need to just...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Tie my hands behind my back, but then for some reason I can't think when my hands are tied behind my back.


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[Assistant] No, stop. It's all me. It's my fault. Jim, I, I try to be mindful of that, but I still do it. And so just remember when I drive you crazy with the stray


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[Assistant] Mic sound, it's because I think with my hands and talk with my hands.


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[Assistant] Clarence, thank you, and this is a hot area in estate planning.


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[Assistant] If you are worried that a child will lose motivation, if you have been really successful financially,


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[Assistant] And you don't want them to behave like a trust fund baby that that's why this is a tool in the toolbox now.


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[Assistant] And when you sit down with an experienced lawyer and wills, estates, and trusts, they can lay out a wide waterfront of options where you can vary the amount of money a child would receive for various, um, circumstances. There are even ones now, I don't know if you've heard of this Krista, where a parent will set up in the will.


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[Assistant] That a kid has to have done, accomplished these things in their life in order to receive their inheritance.


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[Assistant] is important to mention for people who have more assets is that you do have the ability now up front


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[Assistant] To set it up in the way that feels best and right for you.


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[Assistant] Your circumstance, your philosophies, your family.


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[Assistant] And, uh, today, thankfully, most eye bonds are electronic. So this is no longer the same issue it was before.


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[Assistant] And being sure that the money actually gets to the redemption is, that's very good advice you've given.


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[Assistant] Mark, thank you. Okay, so the British study that's being quoted all over the place and if you Google it or whatever search engine you use, you can read in full detail.


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[Assistant] It was talking about how they could not find health benefits beyond 9,800 steps a day and


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[Assistant] Uh, there are a number of things they went into about that, but they found that there were enormous health benefits at that number. That the study went on to talk about how walking at a vigorous pace increased the benefit


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[Assistant] And could decrease the number of steps you had to walk per day. I am not a scientist. Uhm, I'm pitiful at medical knowledge. But I just, the reason I talked about it is that one of the most important things in there


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[Assistant] Was even walking a few thousand steps a day for someone who's completely sedentary, has enormous health benefits.


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[Assistant] Zell stinks. Zell's rotten. Don't use Zell. Okay. I say that over and over again. And that's kind of the nicest way I've said it, right? Uh, the bank cynically


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[Assistant] Have done a terrible thing here. It's owned by uhm, eight of the largest banks in the country.


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[Assistant] They just did a U.S. Senate hearing, all were like, oh well, I mean, uh, people having problems with this? What are you talking about? We don't know about this. They know they've got a big problem with Zell. It's in the news every single day.


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[Assistant] has made it really easy for criminals to get into your account and steal money and the banks wash their hands of it.


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[Assistant] Zelle is rotten terrible with no meaningful consumer protections at this moment. Although federal regulators are looking at putting in place guardrails for Zelle. What upsets me so much about Zelle


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[Assistant] Is that the fraud did not need to happen.


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[Assistant] The banks have just looked at this out of fear.


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[Assistant] And implemented this because they are so afraid of the fentex and non-banks. And younger people in particular were very heavily using, uh, cash app and, uh, Venmo.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the banks were like, we gotta do something about this. We gotta do something about this. So they put together this company that they own jointly.


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[Assistant] And said do this, this is our defense against the non-banks and the fintechs. But they never thought about any aspect of how to protect people from the fraudsters and the criminals hacking into accounts and all the rest. And so Zelle is a broken


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[Assistant] System because it was not designed properly up front and left consumers exposed.


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[Assistant] You may not even know that Zelle is active on your account. Please deactivate it. Never use it. If you want to pay friends or family,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Use Venmo or CashApp that don't tie directly into your checking account. Zelle, until it has required consumer protections around it,


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[Assistant] Is radioactive and should be used by no one.


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[Assistant] And there is no excuse, no excuse, no excuse for the banks establishing a product that they offered


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[Assistant] With no ability for a consumer to be protected, ever, not ever. So, I don't know any other way to say it.


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[Assistant] Zelle is rotten, terrible, never use it.


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[Assistant] So what's happened is that the banking industry and also a lot of credit unions have lined up behind Zelle for the exact reason I said they're terrified


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[Assistant] of the non-bank actors that are growing and growing and growing in mine share and market share, especially with people under 35.


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[Assistant] Cause they don't even make money from Zelle. This is what's so funny. They're hurting their customers so badly and it doesn't make them any money. It is just a stupid, stupid business.


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[Assistant] Anyone who knows about what's been going on in Nevada is aware about the, uh, zero scaping that the local water authorities pay you to take up your yard and go to zero scape.


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[Assistant] And this is a movement across the Mountain West and will certainly happen in California as well because of the extreme, uh, I guess we're into multi-generational drought.


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[Assistant] That these, these droughts can occur through human history.


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[Assistant] They can, they can go on for a very, very long period of time, maybe a blink and the life of earth, but a significant period of time in humanity. And we have a population now in the water starved, particularly mountain States that is so much larger than it used to be. And so.


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[Assistant] Yes, Benjamin, I am completely guilty of narrow vision. I've only been looking at this in terms of water shortage issues and if not considered


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[Assistant] Any of the environmental aspects you brought to the table.


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[Assistant] And I think we all in different ways in life have a certain amount of tunnel vision or narrow vision. And this is an area where obviously my focus has been solely on the water starved Western States and the water shortage they face. So I appreciate so much.


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[Assistant] What we've heard from you so far. Remember, this is a double bonus Clark Stinks edition. Straight ahead, more of your Clark Stinks.


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[Assistant] By popular demand, we are in overtime on Clark Stinks, the first time ever in...


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[Assistant] The decades we've done Clark Stinks, however long it's been, that we are doing double Clark Stinks because we're backed up like this with Clark Stinks posts. So Krista, go right ahead.


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[Assistant] So, uh, this, the Iseson method was developed by a guy named Mark Iseson.


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[Assistant] Uh, roughly 30 years ago where he figured out that with credit cards paying more frequently.


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[Assistant] And never lowering what you pay per month even as the balance goes down and the credit card company keeps lowering the required minimum payment, that you keep up paying that equivalent per month. That the math says you'll get out of debt on a credit card


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[Assistant] In one fourth the time it would take otherwise, and the math is completely true.


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[Assistant] The, the part you're referring to in your post is that credit card interest is figured daily. So paying your credit card company constantly


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[Assistant] We'll significantly lower the amount of interest you pay over the life of that credit card balance you have versus just sending them one payment a month. So, uh, don't know whatever happened to Mark Isensen, but I remember when I had him on the show forever ago and he laid it out, it was like,


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[Assistant] Gerald, thank you. This is something that tends to be geared towards uh, more wealthy people.


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[Assistant] Who have traditional IRAs, and I do have a legacy traditional IRA.


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[Assistant] And when I'm age eligible, this is exactly what I'll do, is I'll be doing QCDs.


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[Assistant] I don't talk about it because it tends to skew very, uh, wealthy or very high income, but it is a strategy when you have money that your, there's charities you love to support.


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[Assistant] You don't need the money for current living expenses or you don't see anticipate the need in the future. You can, instead of, uh, doing the.


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[Assistant] RMD that you're required to do now at age 72, I think. You can do the QCD and give up to


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[Assistant] One, uh, don't quote me on this. I think it's $100,000 each year to the charity or charities of your choice.


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[Assistant] And I want to go back to what you said about the firms all require the bachelors. It is traditional that a lot of industries, uhm, buy,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Have required a bachelor's degree as a necessary credential, not related to the skills necessary, particularly for that job. Airline pilots were always required to be college graduates. Those requirements I think are gone. They're not gone at all airlines. They're gone for most airlines now. More and more jobs that used to just by rote require rather than a set of skills require a college degree are


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Removing the college degree requirement. Law is a very traditional field and even though a bachelor's is not required in any state I know of, firms may still require it by tradition.


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[Assistant] So Tesla is using the knowledge they have about every second you're behind the wheel to be able to sell insurance and have full risk-based pricing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they're adding the insurance in more and more states.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you're with Amica, have you ever looked to see if you could insure your Tesla and your husband's Tesla? That's what we use.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We haven't checked Tesla now. You've not seen on the Tesla insurance. Okay.


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[Assistant] So Bill, uhm, this does come up about the SE and the 15.3.


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[Assistant] Fairly often when it concerns kids earning money on the side or any business where people earn, like, uh, I was with somebody at a meal and they were paying and they left the tip in cash and they explained to me they always leave the tip in cash so that the server will never have to report the income. And, uh, I thought that was, was funny that, that, uh, cause they're supposed to report the income however it comes. So if,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you don't want the kids to have to pay the SE tax, then you don't do the Roth.


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[Assistant] But the thing is the long-term benefit of the Roth and building that habit in a child is so valuable.


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[Assistant] That being in compliance with the tax laws and paying the 15.3, I think is worth doing.


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[Assistant] Peter, thank you. And I do appreciate cause I, I say that with complete certainty and say that there's no exception. And you're pointing out that you worked with the company for years that actually did in good faith, pay their claims. All we hear, and especially at our off air center, the team Clark consumer action center, we never hear praise.


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[Assistant] For any home warranty coverage, we only hear problems and complaints.


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[Assistant] And there's been a lot of problems in the industry. So my thing has always been that the safer bet.


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[Assistant] Is to take the five, six, seven hundred dollars you have to pay each year, put it in a savings account.


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[Assistant] And have that money when something does go wrong.


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[Assistant] Lin, oh thank you, thank you for posting this. Okay, so a couple of things.


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[Assistant] Uh, and you look at the new tax brackets we're going to cover on a future podcast, what the 23 tax brackets are and how that relates to decisions you make with money is that, uh,


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[Assistant] Most people are in a substantially lower tax bracket.


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[Assistant] Then the nominal tax bracket you gave in the low 30s, maximum is 37, but most people's effective tax rate is lower than 22.


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[Assistant] But there's a diabolically sinister reason I push people towards Ross instead of traditional. You're going to think worse of me now, but if I put in after tax dollars and a Roth,


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[Assistant] Where I put the same amount before tax dollars in a traditional, I effectively have boosted the amount of my pay I'm putting towards retirement by a significant amount of money.


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[Assistant] Because I'm using after-tax dollars, I'm effectively taking much more of my check and putting it aside for retirement. My whole thing is sneaky, underhanded and dishonest because I'm trying to get people inadvertently


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[Assistant] Is most Americans are way under saving for later in life.


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[Assistant] By getting people to do the Roth, even if the tax rates are the same in and out, I'm getting them to save much more money and they will have much more money in retirement. But there's something else as well. The Roth gives you much more flexibility where you avoid some of the tax, uh, hits you can suffer in retirement, how social security is treated, what you have to pay for Medicare part B and all the rest.


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[Assistant] Having that after-tax pile eliminates those kind of problems later. And I want to tell you, I love doing Clark Stinks. And I hope that you enjoyed our experiment


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[Assistant] Doing double Clark stings. I don't think this is what we will normally do, but we got this backlog. We got to work through because I've been stinking it up a lot.


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[Assistant] I'm telling you, I do use a good deodorant.


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[Assistant] And I appreciate it. And I'd love it if you also take time to review our podcast and so wherever you


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[Assistant] Obtain our podcast, take it, take the time if you will, and let us know what you love, what you don't love about the podcast. And if there is something you're thinking, well,


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[Assistant] I mean those Clark snakes, those just really didn't get to what I'm unhappy about.


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[Assistant] Go to Clark.com slash Clark Stinks and post. Have a great day.


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[Assistant] Your policy might cover you. This is really valuable if you have PTO with no sick days.


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[Assistant] With short-term disability, you won't burn up your limited vacation days and still get paid. It's a gamble on the policy cost if it's covered.


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[Assistant] versus a week or two of vacation. Blue skies, Steve.


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[Assistant] Very smelly. Costco, you always rave about how good they are and how great the glasses are. For many of us who cannot wear single vision glasses and haven't for years,


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[Assistant] Why do you constantly show prices for single vision glasses? Do us a favor and show the prices without insurance for a pair of glasses like my example, Stigmatism and Bifocals.


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[Assistant] And just watch the price climb. I tried your beloved Costco. They tried four times to make my glasses and gave up due to lab failures. Costco needs to just stick to selling products and not eyeglasses. Eric.


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[Assistant] And we, so yes, the prices do go up, but we choose to just, when we're showing prices on deals or whatever, we do put the single vision price. So, but you have to pay more than that.


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[Assistant] Can be an excellent cost savings and budget planning tool.


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[Assistant] Getting 5-15% off by subscribing and then an additional 5% back with the prime card makes things even cheaper.


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[Assistant] Plus, I drastically cut down on trips to the store for singular items. Significant time and gas savings, Jay.


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[Assistant] But just don't set it and forget it. Keep re-shopping as you said, right? You described how your oldest child got a job in a bar slash restaurant at 15 years old even though the minimum age was 17.


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[Assistant] I cannot believe you think this is okay. The rule was there for a reason, presumably they served alcohol at this bar.


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[Assistant] I don't believe the authorities would have approved of a minor working at a place that served alcohol. What kind of lesson does that teach your child, Fred?


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[Assistant] I wanted to add some information regarding scammers. Never ever not ever mess with scammers. This may seem funny, but what most people do not realize is that they will send and share and sell your phone number to all the other scammer groups they know. Just hang up. Don't say anything back.


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[Assistant] Another tip, don't Google a company's customer service info. A lot of times the results can be bogus sites.


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[Assistant] Instead, just Google the company name and always make sure you're selecting the first non-sponsored link. And then, uhm, they say, this is, oh, it's Adam, so he says,


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[Assistant] I've worked in IT for 15 years. We do quarterly training and we always drill the following. Stop, look, and think. Look, stop, don't click anything on the email.


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[Assistant] Clark missed the mark a bit in a recent episode when he mentioned he hadn't heard anything about being reimbursed for student loan payments. According to the government website, studentaid.gov, borrowers are eligible to receive refunds on voluntary payments made after March 13, 2020 by contacting their servicer.


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[Assistant] In my case, I was put on hold for 20 minutes but after that the process could not have been any easier. A small price to pay for thousands of dollars back.


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[Assistant] Frankie who represents, again, several people who wrote in.


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[Assistant] Clark was recently talking about a renter who'd been with a landlord for 16 years and was having trouble getting their damaged deposit back. I think Clark missed a chance to add that renters should retain the check or bank credits card statement when they pay the damaged deposit, possibly with their copy of the rental contract


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[Assistant] Because banks and credit card companies don't have statements available online forever.


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[Assistant] And general advice for retaining statements isn't for years and years.


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[Assistant] You may need to prove to a landlord or mediator how much the damage deposit really was, especially if the property has been sold, Ben.


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[Assistant] Your airline ticket podcast talked about canceling a flight and not getting your purchase seat refunded. American does refund your seat purchase if you write to customer service and ask. The amount will be put in your American


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[Assistant] Airlines wallet for use on a future flight. I've done it. Jocelyn.


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[Assistant] And they have the miserable online reviews to bolster that, yet you've rated them literally the top auto insurance company. Utterly bizarre, frankly, Raoul.


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[Assistant] It's more, it's half, isn't it? On there, I believe it means that you're 55% more at risk than a normal person.


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[Assistant] Well, it's yoga. It's actually, it's yoga and then she does some sculpt, but...


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[Assistant] It's, it's, I love it. It's actually less intense than my normal stuff, but I also love to walk in nature around a lake near my house and I do think it's like,


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[Assistant] Maybe all of that, like the mental calmness and


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[Assistant] Pete in Missouri says, I live in a state that has personal property tax on vehicles, boats, RVs, etc. This year it looks like my tax will go up 55% because of the craziness in the used car market. I haven't made any changes to my personal property and I'm used to my tax bill dropping every year due to depreciation.


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[Assistant] How can I do, can I do anything about this or do I just have to accept it and pay the tax? I started listening to you right after I started my first job out of college. I want to thank you for all the retirement planning advice. As you always say, you empowered me to take control of my financial life.


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[Assistant] I owe you a lot for starting to invest early. And a lot of people write those things and I don't read them, so I do show them to you, but I just thought it was nice.


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[Assistant] And Carl in California says, I'm a teacher and hope to spread the word about a big problem with teacher gifts from schools and students. Gift cards. We offered a staff gift card buffet with cards donated by families. Teachers got to mix and match and it was a lot of fun.


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[Assistant] Until they tried to use cards other than Starbucks and Target.


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[Assistant] We've had teachers share that their cards declined or were flat out rejected by various establishments.


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[Assistant] They name a few because many of these are franchises. Our staff have been told that they don't have to take the cards.


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[Assistant] It was a big backfire. So if you want to do a gift card for hardworking folks, skip that fancy rack at the grocery store and just stick to major coffee chains, big box stores or the Visa cards. I get so mad when I think of the wasted money that we will never get to share with the staff.


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[Assistant] Alright, Clark has a mild stink because he keeps referring to insurance, investment and other companies that overcharge their customers, but he almost never says the names of these companies. Please tell us the names so we know who they are and we can avoid them and that's from Peter.


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[Assistant] You're actually going to do a whole segment on that the next episode we record, so.


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[Assistant] You are. You are. People are getting their advice from TikTok. It's not good.


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[Assistant] Above the state average, if you're above the state average, but if your gross household income


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[Assistant] Is 150% or more of your state's average household income you can't collect it.


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[Assistant] If you live in Mississippi and you, your wife and your kids over 14 make more than $70,000 combined, you can't get the rebate. In that case, it is cheaper to buy before 2023.


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[Assistant] Plus mandated charges will add more cost to the heat pump plus increased demand.


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[Assistant] We'll give up drive up prices. I love listening to your program and hope you never retire. And that's from Mark from Walla Walla.


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[Assistant] Promoting Aldi has led to our local store being overrun with people that would not normally shop there. They are clueless about the flow of things, including the quarter and cart procedure. We now go there, the last half hour they're open to avoid the crowd, only to find many items out of stock. John.


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[Assistant] Your advice about expensive accommodations and resorts in Hawaii was incomplete. VRBOs are a good idea, but you don't have to check resort prices closer to your arrival. If you want to use a resort's amenities without expensive rooms,


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[Assistant] You could just get day passes on ResortPass.com.


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[Assistant] You can spend your day at a resort for cheap and then head back to your VRBO at night. This tactic works for us all over the US, Adam.


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[Assistant] I'm writing to you from my igloo in Alaska. I just rode my dog sled team home from a long day of polar bear hunting. You said that kids in Alaska who don't live in Fairbanks or Anchorage have to learn how to drive airplanes before they learn to drive a car.


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[Assistant] While that does happen occasionally, I've only heard of that a few times and I've lived in Alaska my entire life. Alaska is not full of child pilots driving float planes around. Daniel.


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[Assistant] You stink more than the rotting corpse of the listener who put all their financial passwords in a password's will had such a thing existed. When you log into a financial institution using someone else's credentials, that's impersonation. Second, anyone smart enough to listen to your show


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[Assistant] And ask how their spouse should contact the institution in the event of their death. But really you don't stink as financial institutions should be


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[Assistant] Make finding this information easy for the next of kin, Steve.


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[Assistant] We have a, we share, we have a family LastPass account. And I put my parents on it too.


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[Assistant] So I pay that, I think it's $40 a year to have all that.


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[Assistant] Than a flat tire on a hot summer day for forgetting to mention that many credit cards offer free roadside assistance as part of their benefits. This is not an excuse or apology for the greedy car companies who don't want to offer a spare tire as a standard part of buying a car, John.


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[Assistant] Our credit card team, uh, will look into that and we'll put that on the website.


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[Assistant] I admire you for telling your son to do the right thing when he had an accident. However, it may not be as clear as you think as to who was at fault. Some years ago I had my signal on and was slowing down to make a right turn into a shopping center when I was hit from behind.


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[Assistant] We didn't get the police involved. I called my insurance company. I described what happened. She said that in Texas that accident is considered your fault. I would say to be honest about what happened, but it may not be as obvious who's actually at fault, Steve.


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[Assistant] I now know why Clark stinks. I was at our local Costco in Bellingham, Washington and had a hot dog and a Pepsi. Yikes. This over-processed meat creates more gas than a box of Mediterranean dates. Don't ask me how I know. Never again, Peter.


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[Assistant] Clark and Krista, you both stink on this one. Krista was about to tell us about saving money with her Netflix and T-Mobile plans and never finished. You interrupted her. Can't find that information anywhere on the website. I really love you both but P.U. Michelle. Okay, go ahead.


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[Assistant] I think what, what I was saying Michelle was that I'm a T-Mobile customer and with T-Mobile you can get Netflix for free. You can also get Paramount Plus. Yea, on certain plans and Paramount Plus and there are other discounts and I just never realized it because I am on the plan, uhm, that could get that and so that's how I went in.


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[Assistant] And in through T-Mobile and got my subscriptions changed to be free.


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[Assistant] Yeah, we'll have to take a look at that. We absolutely can and we'll see if there's maybe some way we can, we can lay it out for everyone. Um, so we'll definitely work on that.


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[Assistant] Okay, this one's from Sharon in Illinois. My husband was loaning his brother some money. He lives out of state and banks with a big monster mega bank. We banked with a local credit union. He wanted him to have access to the money right away, so he withdrew cash from our credit union and went into a bank branch with his brother's account number and told the teller he wanted to make a deposit. When they realized it wasn't his account,


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[Assistant] He was told they don't accept cash deposits if the person making the deposit isn't on the account. Since when does a bank not accept cash? He wrote a check and they accepted the deposit, but obviously the money wasn't available right away. Why in the world would they not accept this deposit?


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[Assistant] And this is from Pat in Connecticut. What is Clark's opinion of the one tree planted dot org charity? My family is considering having a tree or trees planted in memory of a relative who just passed away. This one says they plant one tree or seedling for each dollar donated.


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[Assistant] Ron in Georgia says, are you aware that Sam's Club is now starting to implement a scan to go price and a price that is higher if you use self checkout or you check out with a cashier?


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[Assistant] It's not on all items yet. I noticed it yesterday while at Sam's. It was on a box of 30 count variety of chips. It was a $4 difference in price. I asked the supervisor and he told me this was being implemented. What are your feelings on this?


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[Assistant] It's my pleasure to welcome you to the Clark Howard Show, where our mission is to serve you and empower you so you make better financial decisions in your life.


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[Assistant] In a recent episode, I talked about different building methods that help us ride out literal storms in our homes.


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[Assistant] I mean, think about what people have been through, but how about riding out financial storms?


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[Assistant] I've got several steps I want you to take to be prepared. Could be fire, storm, flood.


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[Assistant] Or any other sudden misfortune. We're going to talk about that also.


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[Assistant] We've had a lot of questions recently and comments from parents who are trying to figure out.


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[Assistant] Ways to properly teach their kids about money.


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[Assistant] And I want to share how important that is and some ways you can get it done. Okay, so.


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[Assistant] Relatives, friends, parents, whatever, what our wishes are, what we've got, anything like that.


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[Assistant] Usually the middle Tuesday and never, we never get around to it because it's a conversation that is unpleasant because it means something bad has happened. So I want you to think about preparing for the what ifs. Let's talk about the storms. You know, storm comes. How are you prepared for that? Where's your key paperwork?


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[Assistant] Do you have copies of things anywhere stored like in the cloud or stored?


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[Assistant] Uh, at a friend's house or whatever. I mean, where do you get the information in the event something goes wrong and stuff you have is destroyed in an event, fire or whatever.


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[Assistant] You know, I have it set up where I have an electronic record of account numbers and things like that. And then of course I have paper files as well. If the paper files


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[Assistant] Are destroyed, I still have access to the information.


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[Assistant] I have online access set up for my auto insurer, my homeowner's insurer. I know where I can go to get that information. And there's other stuff though. I mean, that's just a simple thing. What about your key papers? Like, do you have a will? Have you done a will? If you've got minor kids, you got to have a will because if you don't have a will done,


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[Assistant] The government, the state, your state decides who raises your kids.


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[Assistant] No, no, no, that's not okay. You want to decide who raises your kids. A lot of people will say, well, I don't have anything. Why would I do a will?


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[Assistant] Those kids are our most precious thing we got, right?


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[Assistant] Make sure you're protecting them. Make sure you have at least a simple will where you have said what you want to have happen and who takes care of your kids. Very simple. And then where are you going to put that stuff? Who's going to know it's there? Are you going to have a firebox? We got one. We have a big fire safe. It is supposedly waterproof. We'll see.


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[Assistant] And fireproof and the stuff's there, but you gotta let people know you got that stuff and having a digital copy of things just so you've got them, the records, so important. Um, who knows what financial accounts you have.


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[Assistant] I'm not talking about the scammers trying to get your money. Who has that information? Who should have it? Have you thought that through? And here's another one. If you get dislocated because is that a word dislocated because something happens and you have to evacuate where you live, where you live is destroyed or whatever. How are you going to know what bills you have and who they're paid to?


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[Assistant] Very simple. I have that stored on my phone, all the bills I have to pay and when they're due. So that, you know, generally in the month, so that if I am


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[Assistant] Uh, in a situation where I'm not in my normal abode.


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[Assistant] And my life's kind of messed up because there's something that happens in the world. I still have the information at my fingertips.


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[Assistant] I know these are all like things. Yeah, I know I should do that. I'll get around to it. So tackle the ones.


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[Assistant] That you can tackle now, the ones that you're comfortable with getting done. Cause the more you do is more a favor to yourself and those you love as you take care of these things. Krista?


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[Assistant] If it's an NCUA affiliated institution, National Credit Union Administration, they are the same as FDIC.


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[Assistant] Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. So you have the same $250,000 of protection. Your money is safe, even in the financial meltdown.


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[Assistant] In uh, 2000, the banking scandals when all those banks failed, starting in 07.


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[Assistant] It was FDIC or NCUA insured was absolutely safe and their money was fine.


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[Assistant] Oh, okay. So let me explain that Charles. So if you are running a balance on credit cards and you're trying to pay a hundred a month or


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[Assistant] $200 a month or $50 a month or whatever it is. Instead send them half that amount.


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[Assistant] Twice a month, or if you can, send half that amount every two weeks.


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[Assistant] And you get out of debt a whole lot quicker because the interest on credit cards and it's very high interest rates on credit cards is calculated daily. So getting a money days earlier.


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[Assistant] Does so much for you, reducing the balance. And in fact, this is nuts. If you start off paying the minimum required on a card that you have balance on, you're not charging on it anymore and you pay


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[Assistant] Half that minimum every 14 days. And even as the minimum starts to go down, as the balance goes down, you keep paying that original


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[Assistant] Half of that minimum every 14 days, you'll get out of debt, believe it or not.


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[Assistant] In one-fourth the time that you would otherwise. It's all simple compound interest and math.


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[Assistant] Well, congratulations all the way around. And as far as what your wife should do, Joseph,


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[Assistant] Doing the Roth IRA with Vanguard would be preferable to doing traditional. Uh, the long term tax benefit of having the tax free growth on that money


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[Assistant] And have money that can be spent tax free is especially valuable because you're gonna have, uh, this full retirement pension from the government agency.


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[Assistant] So her having money that is not subject to tax when it's used way down the road.


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[Assistant] Is very much to her advantage. She's got maybe 20 years of work in front of her potentially till mid sixties. She'll be able to accumulate quite a bit of money in that Roth IRA. Uh, simplest would be to go in a target retirement fund year, uh, 2040 maybe and have that money grow, uh, over time, maybe not every year as we're seeing right now.


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[Assistant] But it will be a really positive way for her to build substantial financial security over the next 20 years.


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[Assistant] Uh, I think that's fine. The one thing you want to find out from Chase is if you later dump them as a brokerage house, what exit fee are you charged when you exit? A lot of brokerage houses charge a high brokerage break fee. Basically, when you take your money from them and move to another,


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[Assistant] So that 625 may be an illusion because of what they charge you when you later decide, ah, I'm going back fully to fidelity or whatever. So for that reason,


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[Assistant] You wanna be cautious before you do that. It's different with a deal you might see from Chase or Citi. They've been very aggressive with these new account opening offers on the bank side.


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[Assistant] Well, they'll offer you 250 or $500 or whatever. You just have to stay there customer for whatever number of months.


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[Assistant] And you get that bonus money and then you can give him the heave ho.


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[Assistant] There's no cost for that. On the brokerage side, on the other hand, you may get hit with a meaningful fee.


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[Assistant] Coming up, I wanna talk about kids and money. I wanna know...


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[Assistant] When's the last time you had a conversation with your kids about money and what your kids don't know can really hurt them? Or let's look at it in reverse.


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[Assistant] The more you have, not a conversation, but conversations can really help your kids. I'm going to tell you why I read a story in Barron's about.


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[Assistant] Parents talking to their kids about money or not talking to their kids about money and roughly, uh, 60% of parents never talk to their kids about money and


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[Assistant] Keep money is like a state secret. They don't talk about it with their kids and.


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[Assistant] But this is a role that belongs in your own household. And even if you're not thrilled with how you've handled money, it's really important to talk to your kids about money and


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[Assistant] Be as honest with them as you're willing to about the things you wish you had learned and done differently.


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[Assistant] And be age appropriate, you know, depending on the age of your kids. So in a baron story, I saw that if a kid was given a hundred dollars and asked what they wanted to do with it, what would they do with it? Well,


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[Assistant] Half of the kids said they'd save the money. You'd think.


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[Assistant] We as parents, we have that mentality. We think, Oh, you give a kid a hundred dollars. It's gone by sunset. No, half of the kids say, Hey, I'd save that money. Almost a third say they'd invest it only, uh, not even a fourth said they just spend it. Every kid's different, but where would they invest?


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[Assistant] This is where a parental role is so important. Overwhelmingly when kids were asked where they would invest money, they said they'd invest in crypto crypto crypto. Oh my goodness. First of all, crypto is not an investment, not an investment. Crypto is speculation.


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[Assistant] And I've talked enough about crypto, I'm not going to rehash all that. But to me, that's really a problem that the buzz is what it is that kids not having any input other than whatever they're hearing out there think that crypto is the magic elixir to getting wealthy. Oh my goodness. So parents, please,


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[Assistant] Have ongoing conversations with your kids about money, not to worship money. It's never about treating money as a God. Money is a means to an end and kids get the idea of being Fi financially independent retirement. That's a concept that is,


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[Assistant] I mean, for a teen to hear about retirement or preteen, that's like, I mean, you might as well be talking about what things are going on on Mars. It's not relevant, but talking to a kid about money being a means to the things you want and being independent, being in charge. Kids get the concept of being in charge.


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[Assistant] Because one thing kids aren't in their lives is in charge. Everybody's telling them what to do, right? So that's a great basis to talk to kids about the basics of money. I think about the things, the programs that


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[Assistant] The banks, I always pick on banks, but it's just their mentality. When they do any kind of education of kids, it's always about, well,


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[Assistant] This is how credit cards work. It's all about borrowing and spending and never about investing.


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[Assistant] And if it's about anything, it's about, you should put your money in our savings account that pays one, one hundredth of 1%. This would really be great for you. No, you need to teach your kids the basics of why investing one step at a time is so important and how this is how you build that financial independence.


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[Assistant] And when a kid has his or her first job as a teen, that's when you start talking about things they can do with money that builds that financial independence. So you talk about those things with your kids. Again, never a single conversation. It must be an ongoing thing, but emphasis


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[Assistant] Never on money being the end all be all money is a tool to accomplish other things. Krista.


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[Assistant] Yeah, both bumper and bloom are good tools for kids too.


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[Assistant] Connect to investing, uh, one of them I think blooms the fidelity one.


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[Assistant] Uh, bumper works on a freemium business model. The services offered at base are free. If you want additional tools from them, you pay. Um, the fidelity is really a well thought out the bloom. So well thought out way for kids.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they've done a great job at it with their main website and with Bloom.


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[Assistant] So uhm, we have really basic stuff on Clark.com about


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, various phases of investing. I do really like the tools from Investopedia.com. You go to Investopedia. They've got, uhm, like an education section that's divided into different topic areas.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, you just see the education thing at the top, you click


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[Assistant] And it's got guides to stocks, how stocks work, everything about them.


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[Assistant] Uh, that you would need to know to really understand what your dad's talking about.


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[Assistant] And you'll see different topics on money where they give you a nice educational briefing.


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[Assistant] That's an interesting scenario. So Jill, I'm concerned if your son's never had credit.


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[Assistant] He may be what's called a thin or no, that there's no credit file on him. Uh, first thing I'd like you to do is have your son go to Credit Karma.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And set up an account and see if he can see, uh, a credit file on himself. If he's a thin or no, he's gonna have to establish credit and there are multiple ways to do it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The easiest probably would be to go to a credit union, uh, and see what


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] account they have that he can set up and maybe some kind of


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Start a credit card that requires the openest CD or savings account at the credit union, uhm, just to establish credit.


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[Assistant] The problem with doing the vehicle loan when he's got the cash to buy the vehicle is that yes, dealers will finance anybody, but under what terms and what interest rates, they could be really ugly. It's also possible that jail or credit union would say in a case where he's got all the cash to buy a vehicle, that if he takes out a very small loan,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For the purchase of the vehicle that they may write him since they'd have so much, uh, protection equity in that vehicle.


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[Assistant] If he borrowed like 25% of the cost of the car from a credit union, they might make him an app market interest rate loan because they'd have such enormous equity in it. But the best thing would be for him to join a credit union, go sit down with a loan officer at the credit union and talk this through and he'll be able to get started with establishing credit.


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[Assistant] And what a great story that he's such a great saver that he's got enough money to pay cash for a car. What a deal. And I want to thank you so much for listening today. I want you to know.


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[Assistant] That we do this to serve you and I love your feedback. If you feel like there's something.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We should be doing on this podcast or on our website.


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[Assistant] That you feel we're not doing adequately right now. I'd love to know that. Uh, if there's stuff you'd like more of from us, please take the time to give us that feedback so we can be a better service to you. Have a great one.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We'll have paper statements. I've checked out the expense ratios for the target funds that I would be transferring out of Vanguard and they are much higher.


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[Assistant] About .4% of the fee is supposed to my current account at Vanguard at .08%. Doing the simple math, it seems like I'm better off staying with Vanguard and paying the $20 junk fee. What are your thoughts?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, this is from Carolyn in Georgia. My daughter recently purchased a Volvo electric vehicle. During the research we discovered that none of the electric vehicles have spare tires. Knowing that your family owns two Teslas, how do you handle the flat tire issue? It's a constant worry when she's on the road.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] From Gloria in California, Clark, please address the data breach of LastPass password manager a few days ago. Are you concerned and what do we do now going forward?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I do, I do. And I've been regularly, lately changing my passwords as I log into sites to a new system to make sure they're not the same. So I changed my master password with LastPass and I'm not too worried from what I read, so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay this is from Tanner in California. I have a tip for people who love football and are in college.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes, you can get the NFL Sunday ticket for only $120 a season as compared to close to $300 if you weren't a student. It's a huge help especially if you like an out of market team such as myself.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Streaming services like Netflix, HBO Max, and YouTube TV do not work because I am in a foreign country. I've tried using VPN service and was unable to get that to bypass the controls of any of those streaming services.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so if you're doing it, you know, you can find articles on VPN for these specific services and people will tell you what the latest ones are that will work, but it is going against what you're supposed to do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, this is from Katherine in California. I'm trying to get out of an indexed universal life insurance policy. Would I be able to change that to a level term policy through the company that services it? If not, what is the most efficient way to recoup cash values stored in the policy?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Welcome to the Clark Howard show where our mission is to serve you and empower you so you make better financial decisions in your life. And I hope you've made the decision to sign up for our free newsletters at Clark.com slash newsletter.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We work hard to deliver content and information that you can put to work in your life to become more physically fit.


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[Assistant] That doesn't stink, but I do a lot of times I'll hear about it in our weekly Clark stink segment that is straight ahead and later.


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[Assistant] If you haven't traveled in awhile, I've got some info you need before you get on that plane.


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[Assistant] Things have changed. And without further ado, here's Krista with how I'm stinking it up right now.


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[Assistant] Awesome. Mary, I hope we don't have a Clark sinks from you next week about how difficult it was to navigate buying the series I savings bonds on the yoga.


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[Assistant] Uhm, people are going back in person in big numbers. People have missed being with people.


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[Assistant] And there's a camaraderie and like an encouragement you get going to a group yoga class that I don't feel like you get from one of the apps.


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[Assistant] So expensive. Right, right, right. But you know, when I use down dog, I did use during COVID, I was using down dog. Um, I found that my, I got to where my form was not really right on a lot of the things I was doing. And I had to get one of those mirrors from, um,


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[Assistant] No, no, this was like a $10 mirror from Walmart, the kind you put on the back of a closet door. And so I had that and I could see, oh, that don't look like the app at all doing that position. So I benefit.


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[Assistant] From being scolded by a yoga instructor that no, no, you know, do this, do that, whatever.


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[Assistant] What you said about Florida, the lawsuit thing is completely true. Um, it's crazy with all the lawsuits involving


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, homes and also with auto in Florida, it's part of the culture in Florida and it drives up


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[Assistant] For insurers, so many national insurers abandoned Florida because of the inability to properly calculate actuarial risk. So yes, there's been cost pressures in Florida because


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] of the lawsuits and nuisance claims and all that and the fraud. But the, the fact is if I'm a homeowners insurer, how in the world


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Do I calculate risk from a storm, the eye of which the, you know, the


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[Assistant] The area of it was bigger than the whole peninsula of the state of Florida. And that's something that cannot solely be put at the feet of the lawsuits and the fraud.


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[Assistant] Uh, first of all, no family member under the law is responsible for


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[Assistant] The stay of a loved one in a nursing home, a licensed nursing home.


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[Assistant] Assisted living, which so many people stay in and may refer to as nursing homes. It's a different issue, but, uh, for nursing homes, there is no responsibility of any family member for an unpaid bill. On the issue of Medicaid,


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[Assistant] There are a lot of nursing homes that will not accept, uh, Medicaid patients. And so it is true that most nursing home stays end up being paid by Medicaid


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[Assistant] Once a resident ends up being impoverished by the federal definition, and then that stay is paid for by Medicaid at facilities that do accept Medicaid patients. So we've got people who end up in a facility who are private pay, and then there are people who end up in a facility where they are Medicaid patients. There are places that say once you're in, they won't boot you out.


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[Assistant] Uh, reach the eligibility for Medicaid. There are others that want you out and you may remember those pictures that made big news.


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[Assistant] of someone in a wheelchair who was put out at the street by a nursing home when they could no longer pay for their stay. And so it's a rough and tumble business.


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[Assistant] I was pretty combative when I was talking about this and I knew it would trigger a reaction. I'm trying to get people to think because


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[Assistant] If dealers believe that they are a positive in the free market, why are they so afraid of competing against, uh, a brand that wants to sell direct like


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[Assistant] Lucid or Tesla or, uh, Rivian or someone like that that wants to sell direct.


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[Assistant] To say that those direct sellers cannot exist. If in fact dealers are


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[Assistant] The public's friend, if they are the consumer's friend, then they should not try to restrain


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[Assistant] Alternative methods of sale and delivery of vehicles.


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[Assistant] Cheryl, you're so right. I was wrong and I should have thought about other possibilities other than that being a shoplifter.


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[Assistant] And I'm guilty as charged and I apologize for that.


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[Assistant] Just teasing. That is a very valid point. There are certain apps that only really function well if you give them those permissions.


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[Assistant] I'm having that right now with Life360 that's upset that I'm not giving them always on permission to track me at all times. And so I'm very careful when I give an app the ability to track my location.


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[Assistant] Apps that only can do what you want them to do if you do provide access to always on location data.


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[Assistant] And so this, this push and pull with privacy and functionality is a real issue. Now I want to talk about, uh, DuckDuckGo has a new app that will track for you what apps are


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[Assistant] Taking your information and using it for what may be untoward purposes. And if you use their new app and it's a beta you have to be invited in, it will give you a report each day who's using your data and how they're using it in ways you might not like. And you can block them from using your data and selling it off if you wish just by having the DuckDuckGo app.


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[Assistant] And there's going to be more and more of these things like Apple with the thing where you have to give the permissions.


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[Assistant] Or an app to track you and use your information, which is upset Facebook so much with Apple is we have had these apps that have had carte blanche to use our information however they wish. And now there's the calendar. How do we get some control back in our lives?


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[Assistant] Rachel, thank you. All right. So Rachel, what I was talking about with cash is King is people who are in debt with credit cards.


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[Assistant] Overwhelmingly expect to be in debt one to three years with that credit card debt.


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[Assistant] That's who I'm talking to. If, if you're someone


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[Assistant] Who has your finances well under control. You're not paying 18% to Visa or MasterCard. That wasn't for you. It's for people who I want to get back control to get that debt out of their lives. That is like a cancer when you're paying for your wallet, when you're paying huge interest on credit cards. And it was not about the overall universe about how you handle money. I use credit cards every single day.


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[Assistant] But I'm a net payer. I pay the balance in full. Different situation. Uh, coming up next. Carry on bags. I've noticed when I'm flying.


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[Assistant] They're getting bigger and bigger to be the size of a small house. I'm seeing come on these planes.


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[Assistant] And the empire striking back, the airlines are cracking down because of what people are bringing on.


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[Assistant] We need to talk about that with your holiday travel coming up. What to expect at the airport. Okay, we need to have a talk here.


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[Assistant] I know anytime I've mentioned this, it's been really controversial that I never check a bag.


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[Assistant] I only bring a carry on and they only bring a carry on of the size and shape


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[Assistant] That is permitted under that airlines rules to take on the flight period. I take a, uh, small backpack that can go under the seat in front of me and my bag to go in the overhead bin and the airlines have been doing a great job, uh, reconfiguring their interiors where now a lot of them can take the bags that go in, uh,


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[Assistant] What do you call that? Sideways instead of across. What do you call that? Up and down. They go up and down instead of.


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[Assistant] They go vertical instead of horizontal. And so the amount of bags in an overhead bed.


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[Assistant] Have either doubled or gone up by 50% or more. So there's now.


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[Assistant] Getting to a point where on a lot of aircraft you go on, everybody's got room as long as they're living by the rules. But I've been noticing, uh, gosh, this woman came on a flight the other day with a duffle.


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[Assistant] That looked big enough to hold a small person in it.


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[Assistant] And she was having trouble getting down the aisle without hitting people with this duffel. And then she ends up stopping the row in front of me. And she's trying to get this thing in the overhead bin.


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[Assistant] And it was so big, it took up the entire bin she was trying to put things in.


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[Assistant] And this flight attendant is looking at this and I could just see, I mean, like.


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[Assistant] Frustration on that flight attendant's face because that was extreme.


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[Assistant] But people bringing on the kitchen sink, not at all extreme. And I keep hearing these announcements now at Gates where they'll say, now, remember you're limited.


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[Assistant] To one regulation size carry on and one personal item that can fit under the seat in front of you and you must consolidate because if you get up here to board and you've got more than one in one, you're not going on. Now I have noticed


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[Assistant] That airlines that have these primo flyers that get to go on first, that they're just kind of waved on even when they're carrying more than what they're told they're allowed to carry.


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[Assistant] Uh, normal earthlings like you and me, when we get up there,


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[Assistant] We're not going through if we're caring too much and as we get to, uh, particularly the Christmas holiday season, when people are bringing all these gifts and all that, you try to bring on all that stuff.


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[Assistant] You're going to be pretty disappointed because the odds are going to be turned away by trying to bring all that stuff on pretty high. So just know that, you know, when


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[Assistant] When the loads were really low on the planes in 20 and part of 21 when people really


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[Assistant] Uh, weren't flying, the airlines were having such a tough time.


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[Assistant] Now people are back and it's called revenge travel the flights.


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[Assistant] Uh, pretty much without exception are packed and I took, um, an early morning flight on a Sunday morning recently, a time that in the past you wouldn't have had a lot of people on the plane.


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[Assistant] That plane had 175 seats on it.


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[Assistant] Once you added in the lap children that were on that plane.


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[Assistant] And so we've all got to play nice together here because there's only so much room. Another thing, if you're a germaphobe,


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[Assistant] The era of the planes being ultra sanitized and all those procedures the airlines were doing, they're over.


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[Assistant] And I've noticed when I use the elegant restroom facilities on airplanes lately,


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[Assistant] That the restrooms are generally pretty disgustingly filthy. They're not being cleaned at all


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[Assistant] Like they were before and there's more people on the planes, but the area around you and all that, uh, not so sanitary. So if you're, if you're into the whole germ thing, you probably need to bring on, you know, one of those little packs of wipes and clean the area yourself. Um, I am not a germaphobe.


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[Assistant] And I've never met a germ that I was worried about, maybe I should be, but


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[Assistant] Uh, Christy, you fly lately as much as I do. You've been flying a whole lot.


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[Assistant] Are you seeing that as well that the planes are not as clean as they were before?


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[Assistant] So I figure I'm building up extra immunity by being exposed to germs all the time.


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[Assistant] This is a great question, Gerald, and let me tell you that Japan is fully reopening. They did this thing for a while where you had to be part.


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[Assistant] Uh, some kind of hermetically sealed tour group and they limited how many people and then they expanded the limit. Now they're going back to people just being able to come. And Japan is a phenomenally fantastic


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[Assistant] Tourist destination. Historically it was a business travel destination. Tourists didn't think of it. It was great, and uhm, the,


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[Assistant] Cost of a trip to Japan is a lot cheaper than it used to be once you get there.


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[Assistant] At one time, Tokyo was the most expensive city in the world to travel to. Not anymore. Now to your question, it's very easy to buy


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[Assistant] Uh, an international travel health insurance policy. And they cover a lot of the stuff that you may be worried about, you know, you fall, you break your arm, you get an illness while you're there, that kind of stuff. The most inexpensive policies


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[Assistant] You buy typically for a time period, a week long trip, two week trip, whatever premium goes up, the longer you travel, but not in concert. So, uh, the longer you stay, it doesn't, the premium doesn't go up in equal dollars. What the policies cover though, do vary, uh, an inexpensive policy will pay for


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, some basic medical care outside the United States. A more expensive one, a more involved one. We'll pay for medevac if you need it.


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[Assistant] It may even pay an extreme one may pay for you to be on a medical aircraft to go to a medical facility, maybe even.


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[Assistant] In the United States, whatever, those get really expensive.


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[Assistant] If you go to InsureMyTrip.com or other similar, uh, trip insurance kind of


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[Assistant] Sellers, you can specifically select a search for travel medical insurance policies. The simplest cheapest.


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[Assistant] Maybe five or ten bucks. Uh, they're not gonna do a whole lot for you.


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[Assistant] You're going to typically pay 50, 75, a hundred bucks somewhere in that range for a travel medical insurance policy that has some real meat to it. And have fun in Japan, Ohio Gazimus.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I haven't seen golf clubs recently at Aldi, but the golf balls I've bought at Walmart before and they come in like, like this unadorned


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[Assistant] Uh, package, mesh package, and it just says, uh, use golf balls on it or something. They're really, really inexpensive. They're beat up, but they sure are cheap.


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[Assistant] How about those kids? Oh, golf clubs are a cheap place to buy like a starter set of golf clubs is eBay.


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[Assistant] Just suck it up, pay this one more repair, and if you ended up with a real lemon of a washer, uh, if it croaks, next time it croaks, I think then,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You just gotta call it a loss and you replace the washer. I'm really sorry this has happened. Uhm, my experience with washers


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[Assistant] Is there so, uh, sometimes they just go on and on and on. Doesn't seem to matter what brand and other times they just.


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[Assistant] Uh, they just don't work right and they have problems with them. And right now I can say that we've been very lucky with our washer and dryer and I hope our luck remains. I'm sorry that yours has been such a dud, but now that you're four years out trying to get the manufacturer to pay for repairs is very likely.


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[Assistant] The only possibility you have, unlikely, the only possibility you have


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[Assistant] Is if you go online and you find this particular problem with the mechanism that holds the lid is a common complaint from people that would be a basis outside of warranty.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For you to press Maytag to do more for you if it is a common and known problem.


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[Assistant] In either the designer, manufacturer of the model you have. And I want to thank you.


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[Assistant] So much for tuning in today. If you found something helpful in today's podcast, hope you'll take the time to leave a review. If you disagree with anything, you feel like I let you down. Please. It helps me so much.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you take the time to go to Clark.com slash Clark Stinks and have a great day.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's amazing. I'm just so impressed. I can't imagine.


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[Assistant] Having the, uhm, just the maturity that it takes to do what he's been doing with this pilot training, it's...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We don't want him to know that or he wouldn't take painting rent seriously. My plan is to put half in iBonds and half in a total market index fund. My question is, what is the best way to set up an account for the index fund? Since he's 18, I can't open a custodial account.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is from Paul in Pennsylvania. I'm looking to ship my car across the country. Any advice on getting quanti-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Getting quantity while keeping cost down. I think you meant quality.


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[Assistant] And from Daniel in Arkansas, what is the best way to eliminate fraudulent items on your credit reports?


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[Assistant] No, I probably, I like to do spin and then I do yoga. I do like a yoga sculpt, which is like with light weights and then some strength. So probably like four a week.


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[Assistant] Different kinds of classes, so, and my gym is a boutique gym and it's-


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[Assistant] Uhm, these different classes and it's 99 a month for the, for unlimited is the membership, so.


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[Assistant] I think is really important if you can do it. And so since I can afford that and just eat out one less dinner a month with my husband, it's totally worth it.


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[Assistant] Yeah, my team won. Actually, they're doing another one now and I could bring you in and I could win a sweatshirt.


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[Assistant] I just think it's fun, I do, I think it's fun, and it does encourage me to work harder in those, but I do yoga and other classes that are zero competitive too. So, you do yoga.


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[Assistant] I should get to, to these questions. This one's a little bit of a math, um, question. So I've given you some bullet points, uh, to go along with this. It's from someone that used the, that said they are needing advice in New Jersey. I'm working towards paying down debt. I have a new card with 0% transfer for 21 months with a $5,000 limit. And here's what they owe. $2,100 on a 29% interest card.


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[Assistant] And then they, and then a couple cards which add up to 2,100 additional dollars. 3,100.


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[Assistant] 3,100 additional dollars on cards with 26% interest. 1,400 on a 25% APR.


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[Assistant] And then 3200 on a card that has 0% interest that expires in December.


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[Assistant] Should I consider a low interest loan to consolidate the debt? Should I transfer higher interest debt to the 0% card? I'm taking your advice to use only cash and my goal is to be debt free except for my mortgage and car within the next two years.


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[Assistant] And post to their social media, I finally received my registration and plates after six months.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There was a complete lack of communication and delivery issues and only could, I could only reach a customer no service rep.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I take your advice on everything, but you missed the mark here. The car is otherwise fine, but I would never go through the stress of this again.


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[Assistant] Okay, and ending on a fun note from Beth in Ohio, my tip, when going on vacation or out of your home for a period of time, call your cable company to put a hold


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And turn off your wifi. I do this throughout the year and it really saves a lot of money. There may be a small fee and minimum of days, but it's well worth the savings. Also remember to put other services on hold if possible.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, well I have a question about a car from Laura in North Carolina. I made my wife get rid of her car.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Things were falling apart left and right and it has left us broken down on the side of the road more times than I can remember.


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[Assistant] They're substantially cheaper. Is this a bad idea?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then the person who paid for the order is out of luck when arriving. In situations I've dealt with, the real tailor just shrugs their shoulders and says, we pulled the order so we did our job. It's not our fault. Someone grabbed your stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Besides ordering using a credit card that will allow the consumer to dispute charges, how do we protect ourselves from getting ripped off in this manner? I've even had one order picked up by someone else at a retailer who keeps orders behind the desk.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Either the retailer grabbed the wrong order or someone read the tag with my name on it and said they were me. Help.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Online ordering for pickup is so convenient. I don't want to give it up, but I also need to protect myself.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And this one's from Paul in Georgia. Our electric company is offering a cooperative solar program. We can buy solar energy blocks. I don't think this program is designed to save money on my electric bill and just allows us to support solar through our monthly subscription. Do you think this program has an advantage?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And this is from Luke in Colorado. As prices have been rising all year, I've been noticing a common problem at grocery stores that I haven't heard you talk about on the podcast yet.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For example, the butter shelf price is $3.99, but the register price is $4.49.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you complain to customer service, they will refund the amount. However, the total amount difference is usually not worth the effort.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I have taken up the practice of scanning the items with the store's iPhone app before since that will show the correct register price. This was rarely ever a problem in the past with these stores. I'm just wondering if you're hearing other complaints about this and if you think the stores are just being overwhelmed and or understaffed or if this might be a new tactic the stores are using now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We paid off our mortgage in 2020 when we moved to Nebraska and paid cash for our new home.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's my pleasure to welcome you to the Clark Howard show where our message is just our message.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, being 67 in a day, it's just not happening.