[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I also had like three jobs at the same time, but it was, you know, traditionally you'd send out your resume in the mail with a note and a thank you note later.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Jim is in Wisconsin since I recently was informed of a new way to make some side cash, donating my plasma.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Bo in Florida says my 15 year old son was driving to school with my wife on a four lane highway and another car going the opposite way ran a flashing arrow and turned directly into their path.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Our Volvo had pretty major front damage and the other driver had damage on the passenger side and minor injuries.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Our car repairs were $30,000 and this was taken care of, but the other, but our insurance company said we had to go over after the other one to pay our $2,000 car rental as we didn't have rental replacement on our policy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The insurance company said they paid out the maximum on their customer's policy, so we were on our own for the $2,000 car rental. Should we try to appeal this with either of these major insurance companies or chalk this up as an expensive lesson to have the car rental coverage on our policy, which I have since added?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes, and I do have a quick follow up question. So when is it appropriate to subrogate because they, their insurance company was able to get it down to 10% from 20% or if someone, you're being mistreated, you just go straight to the insurance commissioner in that state?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'd like to install an energy backup system. Do you recommend a generator or solar batteries? If it makes a difference, the generator I'm considering is a Generac with 22 to 26 kilowatts. The only two solar battery backups that are compatible with my roof are the Tesla Powerwall and the, I'm not sure how to say it, Sonon Eco. I would appreciate your recommendations.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Wait, you buy these tickets? I haven't bought one of these tickets in years. Oh really? I used to get in a pool at work for like a dollar, but yea.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We like to have four. Two cats and two dogs it seems.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I mean, I think also certainly it depends on where you're living, right? And how much, putting a number on it is tough. And then the idea that, like, there's that, like, you want to keep attaining more and more and more of the keeping up with the Joneses stuff. And if you're doing that,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You never find that happiness because you're always looking for the next thing, you know, and I've been guilty of that in my life too. And I found now like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just more simplicity and experiences are what matter to me too, more than anything. So where you spend your money.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Alright, we'll go to questions. Michael in California says in an article about owners title insurance, Clark mentioned that owners title insurance only covers past events and offers no protection against future claims. We hear more and more about crooks changing the names on titles to become a new owner.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How can we protect ourselves against future claims against our property by these kinds of events?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] After reading an article about banks shutting down credit cards and debit cards unexpectedly and your podcast on the same topic, I've been considering diversifying my credit cards with a non-chase card. My wife and I both have 800 plus point credit scores and primarily bank through Schwab.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I don't want to use my Schwab debit card. I was thinking about the Capital One Venture. Do you think this would be a good move?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Greg in Kentucky says, Clark, you mentioned that the government and treasury money market funds are safe, but what about a prime fund? And they mentioned one that includes corporations and financial institutions. The rate is higher, so I assume more risk is involved.


[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.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Also something I find horrible is happening to bank customers. Their accounts are being closed down with no warning and no reason given. I'm going to tell you about it. What you need to know, you can't prevent it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Tomorrow, if you have not filed your return.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And unfortunately I'm having to file an extension this year, but that still means I have to pay.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A guesstimate of what additional I may owe the IRS. But what happens if the problem tomorrow is you're prepared to file your return and you owe money and you can't pay it. Okay. So we got to talk this through because what most people do is if they hit tax day and they don't have the money, they just don't file.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, so this is a terrible decision for this reason.


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[Assistant] The IRS has one penalty for failure to file. Huge. They have another penalty for failure to pay. Tiny. Relatively.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is generally significantly lower than if you pulled a credit card out of your wallet.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And borrowed money from the credit card company to pay what you owe the IRS. So what you should do tomorrow is go ahead and file your return. If you got no money, file the return and you'll have a balance due. If you have some money, but not what you owe, file the return, pay what you can, and you can propose to the IRS your own payment plan.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's a slam dunk that you're fine with that payment plan. Truth is, the IRS is so understaffed that it may take them a year to even respond to your payment plan.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's why any payment plan that's a year long, you're fine. And again, the interest you're charged is relatively low because the IRS wants you to pay


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the formula used to charge you interest is actually pretty favorable. So know the one thing not to do is not file. Very important. Now, whether you filed or not, I want you to know that people are getting ripped off all across America


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] By people pretending to be from the IRS.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And let me tell you, the IRS is not picking up the phone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And calling you and say, Hey, I'm so and so from the IRS and you owe us this money right now. And if you don't pay us right now, we're going to eat you up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] or sending you an email like that or text or anything like that and the IRS wants you to know they're not exactly jumping on the phone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or texting you or emailing, they're not doing those things.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With any threats against you or anything like that, those are scammers impersonating the IRS and over and over again people are getting ripped off for big money, fearful of the IRS and the threats that the crooks are making, the con artists are making.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And Christo, you have an IRS question you want to start with, don't you?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, so, you know, you're, you're feeding right into something, uh, two aspects here. First, the refund thing. Getting a big refund is


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A detriment, not a benefit from the IRS. It means you made an interest-free loan to the government. And as you discovered in your case...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're being held hostage to get your own refund, your own money that you overpaid through withholding over the prior year back. So, the whole ID.me began because of the enormous problem


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where people were filing returns as if they were someone else. Putting in all kinds of false information.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then the refund was going to the wrong person.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, that crime has declined significantly because of ID.me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that's why they use this verification process. So it's because of a prior wave.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Involving you that made them worry their, their analytical tools worried that maybe you weren't you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so that's why you have this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Extreme invasion of privacy that you're facing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With the scans and the information you had to supply.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That is a wonderful question. So the easy answer is available to you from where you have your business checking account is electronic bill pay.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you pay electronically a business paying other businesses, the payments almost always will be electronic instead of a paper check. There will be rare circumstances where who you're paying won't be set up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, you'd have to be with a really terrible financial institution that would charge you for electronic bill pay.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You have clear electronic proof that a payment was made. The payments are made almost always perfectly and you eliminate the problem with check fraud.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Wow, that's a complicated way to get to using the tax credit. So there's another complicated way people have been doing it and that is there's a loophole in the EV tax credit where if you lease a vehicle,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I, and you know, leasing's not something I normally recommend, but if you lease a vehicle,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then the credit ends up being made available to the manufacturer and you get the full benefit of it. Either thing, either trying to create, uhm, taxable income that would make you eligible for the credit because you have to have


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Tax you owe in order to be able to claim the credit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To do that and create that tax liability in the 401k, uhm, that is an option.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It may also trigger more tax on if your mom is receiving social security.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Taking a distribution she really doesn't need from the 401k may in fact cause a tax problem for her. And so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're trying to get a benefit if the goal is really to get EV tax credit.


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[Assistant] That thing I normally tell people not to do a lease may actually be the better option in this case.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's not a standard that really matters in terms of the person who's handling your finances and investing. You know, there are so many people who have voices out there in media, podcasting, and the rest.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Was several years ago that, uh, roughly 25%.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] of Americans knew who I was and so that means the other 75% who don't know that doesn't mean


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[Assistant] That they're not qualified to do whatever they do for a living.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, the key with somebody who's handling your investments, is this that individual, uh, operating as a fiduciary if they signed a legally binding fiduciary agreement with you, meaning that they're doing what's best for you, or do they listen to you,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What do you want to have happen with your money at the time you pass away? Who do you want to receive it? Uhm, is your will up to date? These are the things that should be in your will.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you're dealing with somebody who's just transactional, just talking about where you should be in this investment, you should be in that one, the other one.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's not somebody who's truly a financial planner, a financial advisor doing the role that I expect of them. The fact they don't know who I am, I will.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] From, uh, listeners and viewers, what we should call it. Uh, but anyway, just cause somebody doesn't know I am.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Doesn't any way disqualify them for what they do. In fact,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This individual may listen to me after now that you've introduced me and they may hate me. That's fine. I'll tell you what you're going to hate.


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[Assistant] It's some of the really stinky practices from banks that are reemerging pretty strongly as the banks get worried about the economy. I got to tell you how it could affect you big time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The banking industry is going through another one of its troubled phases.


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[Assistant] And we've seen that with the run on some of the regional banks and now businesses finding they're having a tougher time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Borrowing money from banks they've had a long-term relationship with. I mean, it is a difficult time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To be a business or consumer customer of banks, because


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With banks, it's like, whatever the policy is at that second, that's what matters in your history with them, is not really relevant so often with banks. Bigger the bank, the more true what I'm saying is. The smaller the bank, the less true what I'm saying is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's been a wave of problems. I had one, uh, just I think two weeks ago on the podcast, we had somebody with this problem where banks out of nowhere


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or shutting down people's accounts and not even telling them. And there have been a number of


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When you find out, as people are discovering in embarrassing ways, is you'll be at a store and you'll present your card and your card will be declined.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then you'll pull out another card that happens to be from that same financial institution. Guess what? It's declined too. And,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Again, the banks are not telling people why they're shutting them down.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But the worst part is they're shutting down their checking accounts too. And so there you are, not able to write checks or make payments if you need to to people, and you don't have your credit anymore.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is a terrible problem. At the very least, banks should have to give you some period of warning before they shut you down.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The banks have been able to convince the regulators not to require any notice.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because they don't want people to then, if they're worried about them, to run up a bunch of charges or write a bunch of checks that end up being no good. So they do this in secrecy and you find out in the most embarrassing way.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so this brings us back to my Noah's Ark rule. Okay, you have two credit cards.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where are those two cards supposed to be from? Two different financial institutions. It's so common today.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That because a small number of banks have become so huge in the credit card business that people will have multiples of cards from the same issuer. Could be Chase, could be Citi, could be American Express. Those are the three bigs. Could be Capital One that's kind of right behind those three.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so if you have multiples from them and they decide you're no good anymore and they don't shut down just one card or two or three, they shut them all down that you have with that financial institution and then you got no credit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Two banking relationships. By banking it could be an online bank, credit union, traditional bank, uh, you could have a credit card from Fidelity Investments or Schwab. So,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There are a number of things you can do to diversify, but here's another one that I've been a real


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[Assistant] Advocate for and that is that you have a junior financial relationship in addition to your regular. So let's say your bank says you're out of here. Well, you also have that account over at a credit union or you may have an account with an online bank.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or you may have an account with Schwab or Fidelity that's a account that you can add check rating to or have check rating with it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You want to have that second relationship because you may be really happy and may want to be married.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To the financial institution you're with till death do us part, but they don't feel that way.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you could have been with them. I think about how many times somebody will write something into me about how they've been a loyal customer of this bank for 25 years and just like that, they turn the relationship to dust.


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[Assistant] Know that the loyalty with banks goes only one way.


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[Assistant] They don't care about you as a person or a business, period.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you're with a larger financial institution, that's the way it is. And that's why you have to know that going in and have that second relationship that preferably is with a credit union.


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[Assistant] And one thing interesting right now, there was a story I saw recently about how credit union lending is an all-time high.


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[Assistant] As people are realizing something has been true forever, and that's that loans offered by credit unions almost always are vastly superior to loans offered by a bank. Because who owns the credit union? You do. Who owns the bank? Stockholders. The stockholders have to get their profit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that's why a credit union that is there by and for its members


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[Assistant] Is going to offer better terms day in and day out, not 100% of the time, but almost always.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So this is something we talked about first four years ago, five years ago.


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[Assistant] These are behavioral economists kind of things that, that people who have things that they know they should do, like be a saver. And now there are particularly, uh, credit unions in certain states that are allowed under state law to have, um, like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sweepstakes, that if you open a savings account and contribute to it regularly, that you're entered into a sweepstakes and you may win money. And then there's weight loss things. There's a weight loss thing that's a sweepstakes kind of opportunity. But you have to pay to play.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right, right. By the way, I just had my physical at my primary care doctor and he told me he wants me to lose 16 pounds.


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[Assistant] I feel like I'd be a stick if I lost 16 more pounds. He wants me at 155 pounds.


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[Assistant] Well, I have some experience with this. Me too. And I have bought replacement keys on eBay and then, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What brand of car did you say? Uhm, this one's a Toyota. Alright, so with Toyota, uh, there are a lot of independent shops for Toyota and you wanna see what you're gonna be charged to program the fob once you buy one, uh, from someone on eBay.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so you want to see what a Toyota dealer would charge you to program the fob and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What you might pay in an independent Toyota shop and that's how it works for any brand. Uh, interesting enough.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I assume there are others like Tesla where you can program your own if you buy a key online. You can program it yourself for free.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, that's a great idea to compare what they are on eBay versus an independent retailer. Do they also program it or they just sell this piece? No, they program it. That's great.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is I was talking about this in other countries over the last several years and how much more efficient it makes the moving of money and gosh we're on a bank theme today. The banks are in terror of this because it's a much more efficient and safer way to move money


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then the very obsolete system that the banks stubbornly hold onto.


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[Assistant] And they're very nervous about this being a Federal Reserve activity. Federal Reserve, a quasi-governmental institution, they would say they're not government. Anyway, this is a very proven method in other countries of just a very efficient


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Safe and much lower cost way to move money from one business to another, a consumer to a business, a business to a consumer. And it's something that is way overdue and kind of puzzling that we're so far behind the rest of the world. Uh, I know there could be potential hiccups with the implementation of fed now.


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[Assistant] But it is a vastly superior system.


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[Assistant] We'll see if we have any made in America mess ups with it, but I assume it's so well proven in other places that it will work absolutely A-O-K.


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[Assistant] And I want to thank you so much for being with us today. Remember we're here for you around the clock at Clark.com with information you can trust. And for more than 30 years, we've offered free


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One-on-one advice, guidance and information from our Team Clark Consumer Action Center. It's available for you 30 hours each week, 6 hours each weekday.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you can see all the details at Clark.com slash CAC.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] or call from 10 in the morning till 4 in the afternoon eastern time zone


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm so glad that I get to welcome you here to the Clark Howard Show. Our mission is to serve you and empower you so you can make better financial decisions in your life.


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[Assistant] If you're a regular listener, you know that it's time for me to hear your grievances about things I've said on the podcast or information I might have missed in our weekly Clark Stinks segment.


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[Assistant] But instead today, we're going to devote today only to things about St. Patty's Day. Just kidding, just kidding. Happy St. Patty's Day to you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I'm okay. So our electronics are green. Uh, anyway, also in this episode,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you or someone you know has an iPhone, there's something you gotta hear.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] About something you need to do to protect yourself from thieves. There's a crime afoot that is a, an ugly throwback to the past in some ways. And I'm going to tell you what you need to do to protect yourself.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So with that having been said, it's time for us to hear where my advice was faulty, off base, or incomplete in today's Clark Stinks.


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[Assistant] So David, yes, checks have become a very dangerous thing. The weirdest thing, and this is news of the weird category of bad things happening to good people, is if somebody, uh, steals your checks, writes checks as if they're you, prints checks with your account number,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Passes them and those checks end up not being good.


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[Assistant] You get arrested in many jurisdictions and you have to prove your innocence. It's just nuts. Checks are dangerous. That's why in country after country,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They are eliminating traditional paper checks. We're not there yet. And if you are going to write checks,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But they still have your routing number. They still have your account number.


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[Assistant] And they can print new checks as if they're you, and that's where the real danger starts.


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[Assistant] Matt, thank you very much, Professor. And, uh, so let me say something to you about my C+.


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[Assistant] We're going to see tax rates ultimately go higher. Certainly not stay the same or lower. And that's a guess. And I could be wrong. And that's your point. But any match that an employer offers


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On, uh, let's say a Roth 401k goes into the traditional size. People are doing a certain amount of hedging and there is a direct advantage


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[Assistant] As you point out, to having money in both traditional and Roth accounts, because there's a lot of planning that goes into what you pull from in your retirement years. So you are right again. Alright, so here's my big bias for Roth though. It's the behavioral economics thing.


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[Assistant] So you got a Roth that's capped at, uh, let's say you're putting $6,000 a year in it. Let's just say for argument's sake, $6,000. And you're doing that.


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[Assistant] Because you're using pre-tax dollars, after-tax dollars that will never be taxed. So effectively you have boosted significantly the amount of money you're saving for the future. Which is why I'm the man from Roth.


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[Assistant] Particularly with IRAs because I'm able to get people to save more money than I can if they max out a traditional IRA.


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[Assistant] Jim, uh, first of all, congratulations on, to you for scholarships out in college. There is no sport I could have done that I would have gotten one penny of scholarship money, and that is fantastic. And both of you


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not a possibility. So the compromise would be, as you said,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As a father of a teenager and a father of a young adult, I have an older adult, but the child...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I've seen what you're talking about with the mental health strain, the depression going on with so many kids. Uhm, we've definitely got a problem. A lot of people try to pin it on social media, maybe so, especially for, for girls, social media may be undermining


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Their esteem and causing mental anguish and mental health issues. We definitely have a problem there. And I wouldn't want to pile on something


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the pressures of being a teen that would increase that. Uhm, I do see real value in work and I'm sorry if I was too strident about it and didn't see a wider picture.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Pat, thank you. Uh, this is the same exact theme we had when I got hit by a car as a pedestrian. And uhm, I chose not to hire


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For me as a non-lawyer to say that the individual was making the right decision not hiring a lawyer.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Was probably out of bounds, and I think at least consulting with a lawyer would be an acceptable choice. I, in that situation from the question we had, I felt since the individual had what seemed to be no injuries at all,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was going to be hard to find a lawyer who would actually want to take that case.


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[Assistant] Greg, thank you. Okay, so prepaying extra on that mortgage is not as efficient and becomes a straight jacket versus taking the prepayment money and putting it into savings or investment to use in retirement. You know, paying off a mortgage when


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Money's that close and you're paying off a mortgage with the first digit being a one.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're eliminating the flexibility of what is the best financial move later and you can't eat your house. So, uh, the, the mortgage rate is so extremely low that even just putting money in savings right now, you can earn as much as 5%, let's say.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Versus a 1.875% mortgage rate. So we have a need here that


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[Assistant] That listener had and that you're posting about Greg and that is to have more financial comfort in retirement and the most efficient path to do it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is money that would be diverted to go towards prepayment of principal on that mortgage is most efficiently used at this time


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Building into savings or investment where the returns are higher and your money would work harder for you and give you more financial cushion at time of retirement.


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[Assistant] Stephen, that was a beautifully said thing and that is the type of mail that will come a whole lot right after any kind of debt is placed against the property you have a mortgage.


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[Assistant] Kirk, this is a beautiful point and I do talk quite frequently about the insurers that are usually considered the elite insurers when the chips are down, when there's a claim.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That you're having to deal with now historically.


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[Assistant] The two that have, uh, shown the highest in customer surveys have been Amica Mutual


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And USAA. Although I will say, uh, surprisingly it has not shown up in any survey results, but we have been hearing complaints.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] From people with USAA having problems with claims. And I don't know if that's just, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the quality of the company in the event that you do have a problem. Um, Krista has been with Amica Mutual for 15 years. At least. And they have been with you through thick and thin.


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[Assistant] They are the best out there, and they don't advertise, I don't think at all. They're mutual, they're owned by their policyholders, and their whole thing is they are there for their policyholders.


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[Assistant] Cole, thank you. What an interesting suggestion. Uh, what that was about was people getting ripped off by really, uh, shady sleazy.


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[Assistant] The ticket sales for them are so fouled up that you've got all these sleazoys out there. And how do people know who's a sleazoid or not? And then people are having their money stolen. I mean, this is just a big, big mess. Not to mention the time.


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[Assistant] That I had, uh, Chargers show up on my credit card.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For a concert for a zillion dollars for someone I had never heard of. And I had such a fight on my hands to get that credited. Eventually I did. But the ticket area, what a mess!


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[Assistant] How about somebody is able through your phone to steal your hard earned money?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] By stealing your iPhone. Now, people don't steal phones like they used to. It used to be that, uh, that violent phone theft, you know, street crimes, stealing your phone, that was a big deal. And then to their credit,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Apple and various Android manufacturers and the cell phone providers themselves have all worked together to try to prevent these violent crimes and so


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The crimes just to have your phone and then fence it. Just to steal your phone, sell it off in the marketplace. That is a thing of the past. So it's very distressing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So here's the vulnerability that exists with both, but has really only been targeted, uh, by thieves, is you'll be in a crowded public space.


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[Assistant] Could be any place, could be a shopping center, could be out in a park, could be on a city street, uh, you could be, uh, anywhere where there's a mass of people around you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And what criminals are doing is they're looking for marks, they're looking for people who are accessing their iPhone by punching in a code, a pen code.


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[Assistant] They capture you doing it. I don't know if people are using binoculars. I don't know what they're doing.


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[Assistant] But they're getting your pen code when you're typing in on your iPhone. Now your iPhone allows you


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you could be the one person with an android that a criminal decides to target.


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[Assistant] And they will instantly type in the pen that they observed you doing. They then immediately change your Apple ID and lock you out of your phone and all the stuff you have so you cannot wipe your phone clear. And then they will try that pen


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On, now I'm going to make you nervous, on other functions in your phone.


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[Assistant] They access the account on your phone and then they get a text that says, Hey, is this you punching this one time code? And then they steal the money out of your accounts. Remember you cannot access your device.


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[Assistant] So obviously anybody in security would tell you, don't repeat.


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[Assistant] And access for anything you do that involves money or your email or anything like that. Okay, obviously, but forget all that. The only thing you got to know.


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[Assistant] Even if you don't fix all those things, the only thing you gotta know is in any public place you do what we were told when there was all that rampant ATM theft is you cover


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[Assistant] So uhm, my obsession with carbon monoxide, Rob, I don't know. I just, that's one that's always bothered me. Uhm, first thing I do in any home I buy,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is I put carbon monoxide detectors all over the place. Uhm, I just don't want to die that way. And the hotel thing has actually been a first world problem.


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[Assistant] Of late in the United States because of hotel staffing issues.


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[Assistant] There have been more problems with, uh, customers dying or getting really ill because of carbon monoxide leaks at hotels where they're not, they don't have proper staffing, they're not doing proper maintenance. A lot of times it's from the pool equipment.


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[Assistant] That people are getting sick or dying from carbon monoxide poisoning and at the same time, you're completely right. This is a rare event.


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[Assistant] And I am worried about something that is a rare event and they're just certain things that strike us psychologically or emotionally. And I know it's rare, but I worry about it. And so I have my little micro carbon monoxide detector for travel.


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[Assistant] So, you've done so many smart things financially over the years with automotive transportation being the second largest expense we have in our lives. You said yourself, you love this vehicle. You obviously have been very careful with money. Uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I know you're leaning towards dumping the car that you love for a car that you're gonna be like, well, it gets me there.


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[Assistant] This is the one time you've treated yourself. So, I'm gonna shock you.


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[Assistant] And I'm going to encourage you to keep driving the vehicle. And if a year from now,


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[Assistant] That you would go for a vehicle you like less. This is the one time you've done this for yourself. When you reach the point that it's not fun anymore, that's when you dump it. Not yet.


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[Assistant] Yeah, so this is something that has distressed me. The credit bureaus were spending too much money.


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[Assistant] For your credit freeze with TransUnion that was different from the one with Experian, different from the one from Equifax, the idea being


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[Assistant] That criminals may have a way of getting your social and address and all that other stuff, but they're not gonna have your unique pen codes. Well, the credit bureaus were having to pay so many people to deal with issuing people replacement pens.


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[Assistant] That they were like, forget it. And so they've really lowered, watered down a little bit the value of credit freeze. Not that I would tell you not to do credit freeze, but what you said about making sure you have a really great password


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[Assistant] On your Equifax TransUnion and Experian accounts, absolutely essential because if you use a lazy one that you've used elsewhere or whatever else, criminals may have breached enough of your information. They would figure that out.


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[Assistant] They unfreeze your credit and they're off to the races applying for credit as if they're you. So unfortunately, the old know that customer rule no longer exists in business and finance.


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[Assistant] And that's why identity theft remains such a big hassle and credit freeze, even though it's imperfect, is the best tool we have available. And I want to tell you how much I appreciate you.


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[Assistant] Taking the time to listen or if you watch us do the show to listen or watch or you do a combination of the two, appreciate it. Remember we're here for you around the clock.


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[Assistant] The sun never sets on Clark.com. Here to serve you, your financial questions, your money issues. We are here for you at Clark.com. Have a great one.


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[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. Today, you know the saying, the grass is always greener on the other side of the street? Well, some people


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[Assistant] Are making their grass a whole lot greener. I'm going to tell you how and why, why this is something going on in America. I want to tell you what I did in my own life.


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[Assistant] Also, have you been hearing friends say that they're not going to put their money in the stock market until it feels safe to do so?


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[Assistant] They pulled money out and they're on the sidelines. Well, that is a common occurrence when people get nervous, when they get anxious. I'm going to tell you why I am not a believer in market timing and investments and the way I handle uncertain or scary times. So,


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[Assistant] And players were slipping and sliding like they were playing ice hockey instead of football.


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[Assistant] And it was because the NFL wanted the field to look absolutely perfect on television. And they hurt the quality of the game by having made the field look so perfect.


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[Assistant] It wasn't for the players. The players, uh, after the game kept talking about how they kept trying different cleats to be able to get any traction on the field. But a lot of sports events


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[Assistant] Fields are painted. They're actually spray painted to make them look beautiful. And before that game started, it looked gorgeous.


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[Assistant] And very common in sports, it's led to a lot of people now painting their lawns. I'm not kidding. Painting their lawns. You ever seen it? I've seen it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And this is something I was not aware of that people are now doing in areas where water's gotten really expensive.


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[Assistant] So they're not doing it just being obsessive. They're doing it because they are restricted.


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[Assistant] Where they live because of water shortages, because of various droughts, or they're doing it, um, because their water bill is so expensive. And that brings me to what I did, what my wife and I did at our house, our water bills were expensive. So we no longer have any


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[Assistant] Green grass. We have, uh, drought resistant plants that we've planted and we have areas where we've got rocks and things like that.


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[Assistant] And the benefit is we now have a much more affordable water bill. And I've talked in the past about how in Nevada,


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[Assistant] People are paid by the local water authority.


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[Assistant] To remove a lawn and go back to desertscape. And they will pay you cash to do it.


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[Assistant] We face a shortage of reliable water supply.


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[Assistant] And this is really important for agriculture because almost all water used is for irrigation for agriculture.


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[Assistant] And as, particularly in the Mountain West,


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[Assistant] As areas have populated more and more and people come from elsewhere in the country where they expect to be able to have this just gorgeous lawn.


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[Assistant] The reality is those lawns and the water it takes to, to keep them beautiful.


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[Assistant] Actually subtracts from water that's available for the agriculture that we need to have affordable food and reliable supplies of food in the country.


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[Assistant] Now agriculture itself is going through a lot of changes with these, uhm, farms I've talked about that are warehouse farms.


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[Assistant] Where the amount of water you need is a tiny, tiny fraction of what you need in a traditional farmer's field.


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[Assistant] You don't have to worry about cold temperatures, hot temperatures, droughts, floods, whatever. You can now grow in these warehouses.


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[Assistant] And they are becoming a meaningful factor.


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[Assistant] And big segments of agriculture in the United States.


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[Assistant] But the water supply thing is real. I mean, for me, it was all about the bill.


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[Assistant] And I was stunned how much our water bill was every month.


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[Assistant] That no longer is an issue for us. And there are a number of reasons why people do this. What people have done very heavily where a home is, is people put in artificial grass.


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[Assistant] And every time I ever mentioned artificial grass, we got all kinds of Clark stinks about that. So I'm just going to leave it at that, that a lot of my neighbors have, instead of doing what we did, going to, uh, drought resistant plants and rocks have been putting in the artificial grass.


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[Assistant] To have something marked as a football field. When we used to live in a house, Krista, that we had that big yard.


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[Assistant] Uh, both my brothers wanted us to put in, uh, two golf holes there, you know, where we had that rolling meadow. And they wanted us to, you know, put a pin in and, and put in a tee and all that and do a hole each direction.


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[Assistant] So Mitchell, the reason that Lexus says premium fuel only, almost certainly


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[Assistant] Is so that it meets its rated horsepower. You are.


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[Assistant] You're about 99% A-okay putting regular fuel in that Lexus. And this is something that has come up over the years because vehicles have to like, uh, Lexus is Toyota's premium brand.


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[Assistant] That model has to be able to operate at various octane levels and markets all over the world.


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[Assistant] And the vehicle has a computer controlled system that will adjust to the level of the octane you put in it. So if you run that on regular


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[Assistant] You're not gonna, maybe a tiny fraction slower, zero to sixty, but the vehicle should be absolutely fine. And if you


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[Assistant] Read online, you will see confirmation of this. Now vehicles built before, which yours vehicle is not, built before 1996, that call for premium fuel, almost certainly need that premium fuel.


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[Assistant] And there are very, very, very tiny number of high performance vehicles built more recently that actually do need the premium fuel. But other than those two things, those two exceptions,


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[Assistant] Your Lexus should be absolutely fine running on regular. And by the way, if you put regular in it and you hear engine knocking, you know that I don't know what I'm talking about and you need to go buy the premium fuel. That's not going to happen.


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[Assistant] There would be a reasonable use of using home equity. Thing I would say about putting, uh,


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[Assistant] Uh, using home equity though for solar panels depends how quickly you can pay off the home equity loan or line. If


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[Assistant] It's gonna take you a substantial number of years to pay it off.


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[Assistant] You definitely don't want a home equity line of credit because that's a floating rate that can change every single month. A home equity loan on the other hand, particularly for five year money,


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[Assistant] Is a good spot to look in the marketplace to pay for those solar panels if you're comfortable paying off those panels in 60 months.


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[Assistant] You know it's funny, Bluebird just hangs out there, doesn't it? Bluebird was an attempt to set up a quasi-modern, ultra-low-cost, branchless bank by a joint venture of American Express and Walmart. And Bluebird just keeps


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[Assistant] Hangin' out there, it's never established the market share that I think American Express and Walmart hope for, but it has a lot of really good features to it. And your example, Mitch, of using a Bluebird account as a way of


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[Assistant] Paying things where you don't put your main money at risk.


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[Assistant] Is a perfectly valid idea and I like that suggestion. Now on the thing about overdraft.


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[Assistant] A lot of accounts no longer have


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[Assistant] Ridiculous overdraft fees. In fact, the amount of money that banks are generally collecting in overdraft fees way, way, way down because there's been so much shaming


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[Assistant] of the banks for taking something that costs them less, like 20, 40 cents, whatever, and charging people $36 for it, that a lot of financial institutions have


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[Assistant] Reduced or eliminated their reliance on overdraft fees.


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[Assistant] Very interesting perspective. So you have to owe tax.


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[Assistant] In order to receive a credit, there are credits that are known as refundable credits and those that are not. So it's really an issue of your tax liability if you're earning


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[Assistant] Decent amount of money at a wage you're going to owe tax when a credit like that does not flow to the


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[Assistant] Taxpayer is if you didn't owe any income tax in the year.


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[Assistant] No reason why you would have to manipulate withholding in a year that you're receiving an electric vehicle credit


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[Assistant] Because it's based on you having tax liability, not how much or how little you had withheld over the course of a year. And the good news is we have plenty of time


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[Assistant] A lot of people are pivoting what they're doing with money they have, pulling it out of investments because


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[Assistant] They fear what's going on right now in the world. And I'm going to tell you why that's not how my mind works.


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[Assistant] And why I don't recommend that you play the investment game that way. Straight ahead.


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[Assistant] If I had a dollar for every time somebody told me, well, I'm going to put my money back in the stock market when it's safe again. If I had a dollar for every time somebody told me that, gosh, I'd be rich. But actually all you need to do.


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[Assistant] To create financial comfort for yourself and dare I say be wealthy or rich is methodically over time.


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[Assistant] Just keep doing it. Set schedule over and over again, known as dollar cost averaging. But that's not how most of us are wired.


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[Assistant] People zig, then they zag, and they go like a herd.


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[Assistant] So right now, people with all the economic uncertainty


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[Assistant] We go into a recession, what's going to happen with corporate profits, all that. People are rotating out of stocks and they're saying, Hey, look, I can earn four or 5% of my savings right now with no risk. I'm going to do that. And then when it's safe to invest again, then I will invest. Okay.


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[Assistant] So every time this happens, what happens? You miss the recovery and the run up because yeaah.


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[Assistant] Close to retirement and in retirement, you gotta be careful how much of your money is exposed. But what if you, the younger you are,


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[Assistant] Putting money into CDs or savings accounts or whatever.


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[Assistant] You're missing the long-term play because if you look over


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[Assistant] The longer term, even taking into account


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[Assistant] Bad times to invest. Listen to this from Dow Jones, the people who own Barron's and the Wall Street Journal. Okay.


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[Assistant] So if somebody had money in the stock market, diversified in 1999, they put it in


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[Assistant] Or had money in just before the dot-bomb era. If you're not


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[Assistant] All these story stocks of people who, who said, Hey, you know, this is going to be great. We're going to, uh, deliver this or deliver that or whatever. Just look up web fan. If you want to know what I'm talking about.


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[Assistant] And you'll see a company that lost billions of investors money and then went, uh, did a belly flop bust. And there's one after another after another like that.


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[Assistant] And so somebody went in in 99 and said, Hey, this is what I got to do. I got to be in all these dot bombs. Then were the dot coms. They were going to go all the way to the stratosphere. Even somebody who did that.


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[Assistant] But stayed in through the bust and then stayed in through the banking scandals that led to the Great Recession. Rode things all the way down to the bottom in 2009. If they still stayed in,


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[Assistant] There's this tendency whenever things feel iffy or scary,


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[Assistant] That we bail, we, we move to the sidelines and right now it's really tempting.


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[Assistant] With money market funds maybe earning four and a half percent and some credit unions paying five percent on CDs and, uh, general savings accounts not at one of the giant monster megabanks maybe earning four point something percent. Like, okay.


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[Assistant] I'm earning on my money and I feel safe there and then someday when it feels safe to be investing again, then I'll do it. Okay.


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[Assistant] So that runs completely contrary to how I think.


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[Assistant] You gotta do what feels right to you, but let me tell you, long term, the way you make money, steady as you go, well diversified. Steady as you go, well diversified.


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[Assistant] And yes, you'll have short term downs.


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[Assistant] But you'll have long term ups. You look at pretty much any investment cycle through the modern era.


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[Assistant] Going back I guess to the 1800's and you'll see that time in the market is your friend, not trying to time the market.


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[Assistant] New ideas, new opportunities, new inventions that come to market.


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[Assistant] And that's why societies over time become wealthier. But who does wealth ultimately flow to? Owners. And what are you when you own little pieces of thousands of companies?


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[Assistant] Through index funds or ETFs or target retirement funds or whatever, you are an owner of a small amount of many many different things. And so over time, you create wealth


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[Assistant] As economies grow and you have your piece of the pie. But if you try to time when it's safe to be in or when it's best to get out.


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[Assistant] That is an impossible thing. That is a mathematical impossibility to pull off. Because when a market starts to recover, whenever that is, each cycle,


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[Assistant] The greatest gains happen in very few trading days, very early. So I am the turtle. I'm steady as you go. And that's an ultimate ticket to wealth. You live on less than what you make.


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[Assistant] You invest, you diversify, and you create wealth. That's why I'm obsessed with Roth IRAs. That's why I'm obsessed, obsessed with you contributing to a plan that is offered to you where you work to create that long-term


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[Assistant] Financial security and ultimately financial independence. Krista?


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[Assistant] We sign either electronic forms or paper forms. That the people wanting them signed have no idea what they're, what it is they're having to sign. We have no idea what we're signing. And we're signing that we understand and agree to the terms included.


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[Assistant] Uh, medicine is a real problem in this area because


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[Assistant] Medicine is so poorly run in the United States from the administrative side that, I mean, UDAS, they're not going to know.


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[Assistant] Those forms that I'm consenting at a doctor's office.


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[Assistant] I sign them knowing no one's ever even going to look at them, but if you want to do something clever, you know what I'm going to say, don't you? No. Sign the name of your favorite musician or favorite president or whatever.


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[Assistant] You're a big Abraham Lincoln fan? Just sign Abraham Lincoln on him. Nobody's ever going to look, nobody's ever going to see it, and nobody's ever going to care. I promise. And who's your favorite band?


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[Assistant] You're not getting the benefit for your 12 year old daughter if you did not supply her social security number on that authorized user application. The whole reason to do it is for her to have an already established solid


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Credit identity is she moves later in her teenage years and towards adulthood.


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[Assistant] So if Chase did not require the social security number, you still want to supply it for your daughter, or else you're not getting the benefit you're trying to accomplish.


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[Assistant] So Chris, this is a rare situation where somebody gets burned. When you buy something online, there's


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[Assistant] That it's so rare that you just got burned in this unusual case. I'm not aware of a way when you're shopping online where you would know.


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[Assistant] That a merchant is doing domestic clear.


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[Assistant] Of your purchase, uhm, and this is just something you'll probably never have.


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[Assistant] Never, never is a long time. It would be an extremely unusual thing if this same kind of thing burned you again in the future. Very, very rare. I mean, if you were worried about this happening again or repeatedly,


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[Assistant] When you're shopping online, you could use a credit card that you know has no foreign currency junk fee.


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[Assistant] And foreign currency junk fees drive me to distraction. There's basically zero cost.


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[Assistant] For a bank with its credit card operation, for


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[Assistant] And we'll be back a week from today. And I hope that you have a wonderful upcoming holiday period, whether you celebrate Easter, Passover, or just love spring.


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[Assistant] I'm so glad to welcome you here to the Clark Howard Show, where our mission is to serve you and empower you so you make better financial decisions in your life. It's February and that means it's time for the Super Bowl. No, Valentine's Day.


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[Assistant] Is there anything other than Super Bowl matters in life? Anyway, I know lots of people choose to ignore Valentine's Day because the jacked up prices on flowers, gifts, chocolates, et cetera.


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[Assistant] In fact, overall, many of us are actually choosing to spend less on dates. I'll give you the lowdown. And the results of a poll we took of our audience at Clark.com. And later? Well,


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[Assistant] Eggs are really expensive right now, so I hate that I have egg on my face a bit about what I said recently with advice about electric vehicles. We're going to talk about that. So,


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[Assistant] People in the dating scene are becoming generally more frugal about what they want to spend on dates.


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[Assistant] The economic cycle we've been in with inflation and the rest but polling shows pretty clearly


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[Assistant] That people are being more careful with spending.


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[Assistant] Forever ago, I started a tradition with my wife, Lane, that I get her roses two weeks before Valentine's day. So she's already gotten her roses.


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[Assistant] And in fact, several of the 24 have already died. Anyway.


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[Assistant] And she got the roses. It was funny. I got her 24 of them at Costco.


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[Assistant] And I was starting to pick a bunch and a lady there said no, no, no, don't buy that bunch, buy this one.


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[Assistant] And you're looking at buying roses. Know that there are a number of outlets that sell them very affordably on Valentine's day. First, you got the supermarkets.


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[Assistant] Trader Joe's started this forever ago and now everybody is imitating Trader Joe's and the grocery business offering extremely affordable roses on Valentine's Day.


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[Assistant] And so you've just got to go out earlier in the day because you wait until later in the day, they're kind of picked over.


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[Assistant] And then nurseries, not the ones for kids, but the ones with plants and stuff like that. This is off season for them and a lot of the nurseries do a big business selling


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[Assistant] Cut roses for Valentine's Day and they're really beautiful, beautiful roses. As for florists, I mean that's an expensive way to do it.


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[Assistant] And so we're talking here about being cheap. So I'm not dissing you if you are a hardworking forest. I'm just trying to give people the lower cost ways to do so. Uh, mentioning Costco again.


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[Assistant] Their roses go from two dozen in a bunch for, depending on location, 1899 or 1999.


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[Assistant] To 1999 for one dozen typically, depending on where you are in the country.


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[Assistant] Once you hit the Valentine's Day cycle. So you see why doing what I do gets me more than twice the value for my dollar.


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[Assistant] And the right time to buy Valentine's chocolates is the day after Valentine's Day.


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[Assistant] Not kidding on that. Uhm, the other thing is take your sweetheart to dinner the day before Valentine's Day or the day after.


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[Assistant] Because eating on Valentine's Day, the restaurants are stressed and stretched. They're having to bring in many times inexperienced people to help with overflow crowd. They may have one of those special menus with higher prices. And so if you


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[Assistant] You're going to have a much more personal, warm experience in a restaurant. It's going to be a better experience. So those are some of my suggestions. And Krista, I know I've probably blown the romance card. Anything


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[Assistant] Yeah. So, uh, this, our poll was specifically related to first date and it's really funny how different people's answers are. Like Patrick in New Jersey said, you should spend 80 bucks on a first date. And then Chris and Georgia said 20 bucks.


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[Assistant] Uh, first dates are gonna be thrilled that that's all they get is the first cup of coffee. Mona in Florida says $50 or more. And...


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[Assistant] Then we've got, uh, Roni Sue in Tennessee who says, 20 bucks. And...


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[Assistant] I've been looking down the list, but we've got Joseph in Arizona, 25 bucks. Uh, we have Clarence in Georgia who says 100.


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[Assistant] You're our first hundred dollar person, I guess. Oh, and then we have Ken also from Alaska, a hundred bucks, but everything costs more in Alaska.


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[Assistant] 100 bucks in Alaska is 50 dollars anywhere else.


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[Assistant] Well I was talking with a guy who's been single for a while.


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[Assistant] And he said he's learned not about money.


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[Assistant] But because of, you don't know if it's going to be awkward or not, if it's going to be somebody who you're both like, is this done yet? Is this done yet? That coffee is the smartest thing to do because you'll know


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[Assistant] Fairly quickly, is this somebody who you're gonna have any chemistry with at all?


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[Assistant] So dating advice from the Clark Howard podcast, from two people who haven't been in the market dating for, for me 20, almost 28 years and for you.


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[Assistant] Yeaah. So, uh, we're, we're lame to be giving this advice.


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[Assistant] But the consensus, if you average everybody together, other than the person who said you should spend a dime on the first date, a dime really, is somewhere $40 to $50 seems to be about where the, if you take the bell curve, that seemed to be about where it was.


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[Assistant] You know, you're going to see these bonuses, depending on your, uh, potential profile as the bank analyzes you, of $500 to $1000 to open an account. You have to leave it open, uh, minimum six months, sometimes a year.


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[Assistant] And if you're doing this where you're bouncing big bank offer to big bank offer, then all you're doing is making money. And they're doing it based on once they get you in their system, that you're in their spider web and you're going to stay. It all depends on what you're trying to accomplish.


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[Assistant] See for me the thing with the big banks, they, uh, disrespect you with what they pay on savings.


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[Assistant] They, when you have a problem, you're dealing with an unfeeling, uncaring, massive bureaucracy.


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[Assistant] And then they feed you to death on various accounts you have. Other than that, I love them. So for me, it's more the very mentality and culture


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[Assistant] Add a big bang. But if you're somebody who can play that hopscotch game, pick up your 500 here, your thousand there, and then after the six months or a year you move on, go for it.


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[Assistant] That you, uh, have an electrician come in and install one in your home.


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[Assistant] Because it will eliminate the risk that you would face from a surge coming into your home.


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[Assistant] Very heavily, you can eliminate every possibility, but


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[Assistant] These do work very well and it would be over the years it would be cheaper.


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[Assistant] To own your own whole house surge protection protection unit, then it would be to pay your utility the $10 a month.


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[Assistant] That's exactly right, because you're providing an asset, not an ongoing liability with an ongoing bill.


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[Assistant] They are, uhm. Kids are using them to cheat in school.


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[Assistant] And so, as always happens in academics.


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[Assistant] Teachers, instructors, and professors will adjust. They will change how they instruct. Uh, cheating has been a problem in the education system forever and teachers are


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[Assistant] Able to be versatile and they will defeat the bot. They will defeat it.


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[Assistant] So that your kids can learn. And by the way, we do have a lot of students who listen to our podcast. Let me lay this out for you.


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[Assistant] There is no advantage in life and only disadvantage when you cheat on a paper, a test or a quiz. It is not going to help you. It may not hurt you in the short term, but it is not going to benefit you. And if you get caught, that will hurt you. And that wasn't from the chat bot.


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[Assistant] So speaking of something a chatbot would not have been able to do, it wouldn't have been able to


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[Assistant] Talk about electric vehicles in December one way and talk about them a different way in February. And I'm going to tell you why I'm changing my tune and I'm dancing to a different beat now than I was just two months ago. I'll share that with you straight ahead.


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[Assistant] So to a number of questions I've had recently, plus I talked about it as a topic on the podcast, I've said,


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[Assistant] 23 is, at least the first half of 23, is definitely not going to be the time.


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[Assistant] To buy an electric vehicle. They're overpriced, they're gonna get a lot cheaper, and uhm,


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[Assistant] As inventories rebuild and as more and more models come into the system,


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[Assistant] Maybe the back half of 23, but really more 24.


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[Assistant] So then, Elon Musk turns around and at least partially makes me a liar. Tesla's sales had softened.


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[Assistant] And worldwide Tesla cut prices by from a moderate amount to a very large amount of money and now


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[Assistant] To Tesla and electric vehicles in the United States responded almost immediately.


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[Assistant] And cut the price of the Mustang Mach-E.


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[Assistant] Down to a starting of 45,000, which also is lower than the average vehicle price in the United States. But even with these price cuts, we are early in the electric vehicle game.


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[Assistant] And unless you're at a natural buying cycle for a vehicle right now, I absolutely still hold.


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[Assistant] To what I said last year and reiterated again in a question in early January from a listener of the podcast.


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[Assistant] That it makes sense to let the clock run some.


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[Assistant] Because things are moving quicker in the direction I expect them to go. But we are so close and, and you can measure it in months if you consider, uh, sometime in 24 being months away, or you can say a year away.


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[Assistant] We are so close to the market being flooded with new models of electric vehicles. The manufacturing costs.


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[Assistant] Not far away from the actual cost of manufacture of an electric vehicle.


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[Assistant] Being cheaper than the manufacture of a gas engine vehicle. Because we know the life cycle of ownership.


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[Assistant] of electric versus gas that electric is much cheaper over a full life cycle of ownership.


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[Assistant] To have, including the cost to purchase, operating maintenance, fuel repair, all that. Then having a gas engine vehicle.


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[Assistant] But the advantage is going to be apparent even from the upfront purchase.


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[Assistant] But not yet, even with these price cuts.


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[Assistant] From Tesla. Now there are Tesla buyers who bought


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[Assistant] Even up to the day before the Tesla price cuts that are steaming mad.


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[Assistant] And the value of used Teslas has collapsed after these price cuts. So that's something we don't talk about a lot, Krista, is the opportunity that exists with buying a used electric vehicle, many of which


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[Assistant] Have, uh, from other manufacturers of the Tesla, very small battery packs that can be a very affordable choice for urban, suburban commuting.


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[Assistant] Have come way down from their pandemic peaks, still falling, but the big drops have already occurred. If you do want to go electric,


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[Assistant] And you don't need an over the road vehicle that can go to anywhere.


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[Assistant] In the United States with being able to charge various charging networks and stuff like that. Or Tesla with its own network. Looking at a used electric vehicle.


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[Assistant] Today makes sense, but for new vehicle purchases, yes, the math just got better.


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[Assistant] From Ford and from Tesla, but it's going to get much better from here if you stick with my original advice and wait till


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[Assistant] Really late, much later this year or in twenty-four.


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[Assistant] And Krista, do you feel ripped off because you and your husband Mike bought a Tesla Model Y


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[Assistant] When they had really peaked the prices last year, right?


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[Assistant] Because Tesla during uhm, the peak demand they were having,


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[Assistant] Last year in particular kept ratcheting the price up, up, up, up and away. And all this did.


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[Assistant] Was remove, I guess the last two price increases.


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[Assistant] This is, I'd say we've moved to yellow caution light, not green light.


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[Assistant] So Alfred, do you want to see the, uh, service manager at the service location with Tesla? Tesla seems to be pretty tone deaf.


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[Assistant] Be persistent and clear. If you're having the same problem you were having before, then obviously there are more rodents in your car or the rodent was Tesla telling you that rodents caused the problem in the first place and


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[Assistant] Uh, Tesla has a certain arrogance to it. It's Elon Musk's personality. The leader of an organization filters through that organization and Tesla is pretty ham-handed in how it handles its customers who have service after the sale issues. And ultimately the long-term strength of Tesla will be based on how people are treated when the chips are down.


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[Assistant] Whether you should or should not have had to pay for a new wiring harness, can't speak to that. But the fact the same problem is happening again.


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[Assistant] That should be on Tesla, certainly not on you.


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[Assistant] So engineers are debating your question like mad and there's no automatic right answer because


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[Assistant] We are a very vast country and we're not the only one that has a massive landmass.


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[Assistant] The money the federal government is pumping to the states to install electric vehicle charging networks. It is hard to say if they're going to get it right. How reliable those networks will be and if they in fact will cover. I mean think about somebody who lives in rural Wyoming.


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[Assistant] Where the population is so low across a huge state, how much money is going to be devoted to building large, a large series of charging networks? So I think it's possible that there will be a very viable market


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[Assistant] For plug-in hybrids for many years to come.


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[Assistant] Uh, maybe for the next 15 years, because


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[Assistant] Most people, 80% of charging is done at home or at somebody's office. Uh, or maybe it's just 80% at home alone. And so with a plugin hybrid, that is a perfect interim solution that I think an eight year cycle, you'll be fine in 15 years. Maybe it will be irrelevant, but I think eight years you're a okay.


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[Assistant] Okay, so here's, here's what I have to say about that, Joshua. The great news here in 23.


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[Assistant] Is there's more and more very affordable choices for employers to offer.


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[Assistant] Small company 401ks. Plus, there's now a very


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[Assistant] Generous federal benefit that Congress passed.


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[Assistant] That funds the setup costs and many of the ongoing costs for a very small employer offering a 401k. So we have a perfect marriage here.


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[Assistant] of a small company being able to offer a big company type benefit.


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[Assistant] Having the expenses on it being much lower than they used to be and


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[Assistant] The employer not having to absorb much of those costs and in a small business, the owner of that business will benefit the most from that 401k. I'd say the real answer


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[Assistant] And look at how little it costs a small employer to set up a big time kind of 401k with them and you could win and they could win because it is an enormous disadvantage to the many tens of millions of Americans who work at employers


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[Assistant] Who to this point have chosen not to offer a 401k and could and did not know how to set it up. Did not like all the administrative hassle and now there are these plans available.


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[Assistant] That are ones that are pre-approved by the IRS. Let's say you're a small business owner. You don't have to go through the paperwork nightmare.


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[Assistant] Getting what's known as the prototype approved by the IRS. It is an off the shelf plan that meets IRS requirements and your employer could offer it. Otherwise you're faced with a real burden because you want to save for your retirement


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[Assistant] And you're being prohibited from doing so. Now if this 12 person employer company says, yeah, forget it. We're not going to do it. What I would do instead is I would open a traditional investment account.


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[Assistant] Go into index funds, like I've talked about the Fidelity Zero funds. You can go with Vanguard, whatever.


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[Assistant] Go into straight broad market index funds, broad market, domestic, international, you could throw in, uh, broad market, bond ETF.


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[Assistant] Build a portfolio, three things. The tax treatment will be very favorable, not as favorable as with a Roth IRA, uh, not as favorable as a 401k.


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[Assistant] And offering one because they may just think, oh, we can't offer one. We're too small. No one will work with us. Now there are people doing it and it is affordable for the employer and for you.


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[Assistant] I want to thank you so much for listening to today's episode. Remember,


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[Assistant] Review us if you're enjoying our podcast or right into Clark Stinks. If you think that's what you need to do, Clark.com slash Clark Stinks and let me know where you feel that I'm the one who's lost in space.


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


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[Assistant] Amazon's doing a very customer friendly thing that's smart for them and smart for you.


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[Assistant] I want to tell you about something that generates a lot, a lot, a lot of Clark Stank's posts, social security.


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[Assistant] A lot of people are in a panic to take social security early.


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[Assistant] Because they're afraid that benefits are going to vanish in a decade. And there were a lot of headlines about that. But before I get to that, one thing that doesn't stink, our Team Clark Consumer Action Center.


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[Assistant] For more than 30 years, we have offered free one-on-one advice, guidance, and information, five days a week, Monday through Friday.


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[Assistant] Six hours a day, 10 in the morning Eastern time zone till four in the afternoon Eastern time zone. See all the details about how you can connect for one-on-one free advice.


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[Assistant] We dedicated our most recent three habitat for humanity homes that team Clark volunteers


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[Assistant] The individuals who volunteer, we have paid people and volunteers, the volunteers who have been with us answering your one-on-one questions for 10 years or 20 years. So the 20 year, uh, recognition, that's the person's second time.


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[Assistant] Being honored. I don't know what we're, we're 30 years old now. We're going to have to have a 30 year recognition too.


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[Assistant] Along with other generous souls who have put in money. I mean Habitat happens because people are so generous with their time volunteering.


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[Assistant] And then a hardworking individual or family is able to buy a home at a much lower cost in monthly payments than it would be otherwise. And I've seen Habitat work.


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[Assistant] So well over these last 30 years that I've been a volunteer or a sponsor.


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[Assistant] Uh, volunteering and sponsoring all around the United States over the years. And, uh, the funniest though was when I was part of a build in, in Phoenix and it was summer and we started at 5 a.m. You know I'm not a morning person.


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[Assistant] But we had to start at 5am because there's going to be 116 degrees that day. My gosh. And so we were done at 11am. We had to.


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[Assistant] Leave the site because it was so, so, so hot. And then a dedication day this past week, uh, we had a violent


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[Assistant] Thunderstorm that came through with 50 mile per hour winds and


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[Assistant] Fortunately, the houses were virtually complete. We had to hide everybody inside till that storm went through. And then at dedication, we had perfect blue skies and 70 degrees.


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[Assistant] So you never would have known if you just showed up for dedication what we've been through, but I want to express my gratitude.


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[Assistant] To our incredible volunteers and we're about to start our annual build in Tulsa, Oklahoma.


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[Assistant] And it's my privilege to be part of sponsoring two homes in Tulsa this year. And it'll be our tenth year in Tulsa, I think is the number of years. And so if you, uh, live in, uh, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, we'd love to have you come and join us at our Tulsa build


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[Assistant] Where we will be building into the early part of summer till we complete the homes in Tulsa.


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[Assistant] If you go to Clark.com slash habitat, you can learn.


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[Assistant] About our builds with Habitat for Humanity. But enough about that, right Krista?


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[Assistant] Let's talk about Amazon doing something that is, this is, this is the best of capitalism. This is enlightened self-interest. Amazon is testing and ultimately implementing a new system that when you go to buy something,


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[Assistant] And they've had so much of a problem with the fake reviews.


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[Assistant] So they've got a new way to give truth serum to items listed for sale. And it will show next to an item, it'll have a warning.


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[Assistant] Item heavily returned or wording like that.


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[Assistant] So you will be able to see frequently returned, I think is the wording they're actually using. So you'll see, hey, heads up, this is an item a lot of people have gotten and for whatever reason, they're returning it at very high rates, which is very expensive for Amazon. Breaks trust for Amazon with customers.


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[Assistant] And it's a hassle for you having to deal with returning an item.


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[Assistant] So this is like a fair warning for you when you see frequently returned by an item is being sold by a third party seller and third party sellers.


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[Assistant] You may not be paying a separate line item for shipping.


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[Assistant] But it is embedded in the cost of the goods you're buying. And the terms and conditions you have to meet.


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[Assistant] Well, free shipping for a number of reasons is brutalizing retailers' profits.


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[Assistant] And so you're going to see more and more moves. I mean, think about all the publicity, speaking of Amazon.


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[Assistant] All the negative publicity they got with the changes they made on free grocery delivery, where now to qualify for free grocery delivery


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[Assistant] Basically you have to jump through so many hoops that like nobody's qualifying for free delivery because they discovered they're losing so much money. And I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop for those of us that are


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[Assistant] Sam's Plus Members, Sam's Club Plus Members.


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[Assistant] That the free shipping pretty much without conditions we got right now that I don't see how Sam's Club isn't losing a fortune on that. And I'm so worried.


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[Assistant] That that's going to go away because it's a phenomenal benefit for Sam's Club members. But this free shipping is really, really hurting so many businesses and it was of necessity during COVID. And now you're going to see more and more when you go to check out


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[Assistant] Where I was at a retailer online seller the other week and


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[Assistant] The item I had, the item didn't qualify for free shipping. Guess why?


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[Assistant] Okay, I've never seen this before. Free shipping does not apply to clearance items.


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[Assistant] And so, I abandoned my cart, then I thought about it, cause the item,


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[Assistant] Was such a deal on clearance. I mean, it was a giant markdown.


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[Assistant] And so I went back and I paid the $5 because I know intellectually that the shipping's not free anyway when you go somewhere.


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[Assistant] And when it was such a deal, I went ahead and paid it, but you're going to see more and more restrictions.


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[Assistant] On supposedly free shipping. And the thing I think you're really gonna see.


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[Assistant] Is you're going to see, uh, better deals if you, even if you order online, you go pick it up and eliminate all that massive cost.


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[Assistant] For a retailer shipping an item for the bricks and clicks kind of things the physical retail stores you will see a clear price differential coming for picking an item up.


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[Assistant] That you purchased online versus having it shipped to you.


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[Assistant] Yeah, so that's the decision you and I are going to have to make. Uhm, Amazon has been losing money on, on, uh, you take out AWS where all their money is made, the, you know, the cloud storage company.


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[Assistant] Uhm, Amazon's trying to figure this out as well because


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[Assistant] They're having a tough time making it go and they laid off 27,000 people in just weeks. And so free shipping isn't really free for any of us.


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[Assistant] Yes, you should, Tim. I, the likeliest. Okay. So now I'm going into the area of paranoia. Sorry. Sorry. I have to do this, Tim.


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[Assistant] Odds are that somebody has key personal information and they need access to your phone service. And so they were going in impersonating you and for whatever reason got, uh, got declined.


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[Assistant] I know that's impossible, but get the idea. Sense of urgency. Go to Clark.com slash credit freeze. You'll see how to set up the credit freeze.


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[Assistant] Uhm, second thing with the cell phone carriers, they used to use an obscure


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[Assistant] Third party micro credit bureau for credit checks and criminals knew that and that people even who had their credit frozen with Equifax, TransUnion and Experian, uh, didn't even know about this obscure bureau.


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[Assistant] And people were able to get in and.


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[Assistant] Pretend to be you and steal your cell phone service or buy expensive devices pretending to be you even though your credit might have been frozen. But this is a case where if your credit's not frozen yet, get it frozen now. Second thing.


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[Assistant] The cell phone carriers all have a procedure where you make it more difficult for people to steal your service. It requires extra verification of you. Each cell phone carrier does this differently.


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[Assistant] And you want to set up those additional security precautions, in your case, with T-Mobile.


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[Assistant] To make sure that they go through extra steps to identify


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[Assistant] Uh, identity before giving any access to your account in the store or on the phone.


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[Assistant] Oh, that's true. That's true. So that's where the credit freeze.


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[Assistant] Okay, this is a phenomenal question, Kirk, and something that I addressed about six months ago and I'm so glad you're asking because it does need to be addressed again. People are complaining to us every single day now.


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[Assistant] About how much their homeowners insurance premiums are going up.


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[Assistant] And the reason they're going up is the claims losses have been much higher for insurers but the second thing is there are profitability issues.


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[Assistant] With the homeowners insurance industry and auto insurance, so they're pushing rates up.


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[Assistant] So people are like, how do I, how do I deal with this? And then I'm going to add onto it with what you've said. The reality is.


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[Assistant] Most people with homeowners insurance now are frightfully underinsured.


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[Assistant] So you don't have enough coverage right now unless your insurer has pushed you up with coverages. You don't have enough to repair a home after a loss or replace it in the event of a total loss because you were so underinsured. And so Kirk,


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[Assistant] You want to see what are homes selling for now in your area. Uh, you have a general idea of what construction costs in your area based on what new homes are selling for near you.


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[Assistant] You're almost certainly way underinsured, particularly with the run up.


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[Assistant] At the same time, raise the deductibles on your homeowners insurance as high as you can stand and if you have a mortgage on your home.


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[Assistant] As high as your mortgage company will allow you to raise those deductibles but you don't want to be left exposed


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[Assistant] By being underinsured if something tragic does happen at your home.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I love that, I love that. Child abuse, making a teenager listen to us. Uhm, so, thank you for the...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The thing about the ESEM, you know, we're one of the few countries in the world


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where people don't continually change who their cellphone service is with. So people in the United States aren't


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Familiar with the whole idea of the newer eSIM makes it so much easier that you can have more than one cell phone service operating simultaneously on your device.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so you can do essentially a test ride. And as you pointed out, Dave for free.


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[Assistant] With many of the services for a trial period of seven days or more to see if the service is reliable and the rest. And so this is an absolutely wonderful suggestion as a hassle free way


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Know whether you want to switch your service to that much cheaper alternative.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, but this is a great opportunity. You're right now with Visible. Visible has made people very happy. Visible is wholly owned by Verizon. It is Verizon's discount brand and provides service at a tiny fraction of the cost of being with the parent Verizon.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On Visible's website or any advertising, do they ever say, hey, by the way, this is Verizon. We own it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Want to tell you coming up ahead, speaking of money, a critical decision people have to make. A lot of people are in fear