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[Assistant] What kind of stock market returns might we expect over the years looking forward?


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[Assistant] And because the stock market has been above normal values.


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[Assistant] It means that returns go through a process known as reversion to mean where the returns moving forward will be not as exciting as they've been over the last 15 years or 13 years. So if you look at what projections various financial houses are making


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[Assistant] On what likely returns are going to be over the next decade.


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[Assistant] You'll see that delaying taking the pension would be the safer, better choice.


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[Assistant] Because we're not going to see an average of 10% returns, not even close, over the next decade as we go through what's known as reversion to mean.


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[Assistant] Actually, no, Dustin, I've talked about T-Mobile Money from when it first launched and yes, it is a wonderful market incentive.


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[Assistant] For people to have their cell service with T-Mobile.


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[Assistant] Is that you do earn just by breathing, you earn the 4% on your money.


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[Assistant] And so I'm glad that you mentioned it because I haven't talked about.


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[Assistant] T-Mobile money in a long time, but yes.


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[Assistant] It's a really, really good idea. And while you're at it, since you're a T-Mobile customer, make sure you're signed up for T-Mobile Tuesdays so that you get the benefits of every Tuesday of some things are really nice that they offer on Tuesdays that are deals from other companies. Sometimes they're not so great.


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[Assistant] I see over the course of a year as a T-Mobile customer a number of things that I jump on


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[Assistant] That are available on T-Mobile Tuesdays. It's just a simple app you download. They verify your T-Mobile customer and every Tuesday you see what deals are available.


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[Assistant] There's never been a scandal I've heard of where a store, any chain, did not donate the money on a roundup to who they said they were going to. It's part of a store's imaging.


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[Assistant] And they're in all the literature for whatever charity and it'll say we received a donation of blah blah blah millions of dollars from this supermarket or this retail store or whatever.


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[Assistant] Not really disclosing that it was the customers of that retailer or supermarket that actually gave the money. But it is a uhm, it's part of the imaging for a retailer.


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[Assistant] And feel confident that that money is going where they say is going to go. But if you are not comfortable with that, say no.


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[Assistant] And just on your own give to the charities that you believe in.


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[Assistant] That you believe spend your money well and then you know for certain it's going to that organization.


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[Assistant] And I want to thank you for listening to this episode. I also want to thank our hardworking employees and volunteers at our Team Clark Consumer Action Center for the last 29 plus years.


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[Assistant] They answer your questions one-on-one for free. Monday through Friday.


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[Assistant] Eastern time zone 10 in the morning till 4 in the afternoon and you can talk with a member of team Clark.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is from Linda in South Carolina, with e-bikes becoming a big trend, what are the best deals, best rated, etc., or any made in the USA?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is from Jody in North Carolina. I've noticed over the last few weeks that gas at Costco and Sam's is around $3.89 a gallon in Durham, North Carolina, as opposed to $3.59 in Raleigh, which adjoins Durham.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This has been the case for several weeks now. Can you advise such a price difference when cities adjoin each other?


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[Assistant] The customer knows service, of the customer knows service department. They are very rude and put us into customer hold purgatory.


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[Assistant] I see hundreds of complaints about this company on the BBB.


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[Assistant] website from people with similar issues. How do they have an A plus rating? Do you have any advice on how to deal with this company?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I would also say with the social media, you can, you can contact the company and also find the CEO's name, which I just found it's very easy to find, and, uhm, use his, uh, social media accounts to send him messages too.


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[Assistant] This is from Julian, Oregon. Which conservative retirement strategy do you prefer? 50-50 in stocks and bonds or the bucket approach?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm a physician about to finish up my subspecialty training. I've already maxed out the $6,000 of my 2022 Roth IRA as well as my wife's. I'm expecting a significant pay raise once graduating fellowship and starting my new job in August. This will put my wife and I over the Roth income limit.


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[Assistant] But I have stayed away because of your advice with prices. My question is, with gas prices at record highs, have SUVs gone down in price or will they go down so it would be a good time to buy one or should I just wait it out?


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[Assistant] Finally, I know you're gonna love this one. This is from Josh in Alaska.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Quick story, I had kidney stones and the doctor wanted an x-ray and ultrasound. I showed up to get the images and the imaging center only had


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I felt this was ridiculous and I sent the hospital a bill for wasting my time and having time to take time off of work twice. I did this just to prove a point, not expecting to get anything out of the deal. However, I was wrong. The hospital sent me a check for $200. What? Yes. What?


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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.


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[Assistant] No, something that comes up eventually, sooner or later for all of us.


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[Assistant] Is when there's something wrong on our credit report that messes us up and the problem when you find an error trying to get it corrected, really ugly. We're going to talk about that and what you can do and later.


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[Assistant] We're going to talk about a new service from Walmart that is designed to really turn up the heat on competition with Amazon and Amazon


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[Assistant] It's got a bullseye on it right now. They control 40% of online sales, everybody aiming for them. Alright, credit reports. I remember years and years ago, I became hyper aware


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We're not going to be able to get you a loan because of that tax lien you have. And I'm like, what?


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[Assistant] The credit bureaus used these third party services to go through public records and they had accidentally placed a tax lien on my record


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[Assistant] It was for somebody with a reverse name. It was Howard Clark. It was a Howard Clark and they had put it on my report as Clark Howard. And it was a mess to clean up and I thought I was going to lose the house I was buying because of


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[Assistant] How much I had to push push push the system that is not responsive at all to fix that error. Well, new report is that more than half of all complaints


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[Assistant] More than half of complaints filed to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on everything involving your wallet, every possible thing.


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[Assistant] Involve complaints about Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian. And the credit bureaus, the core of the problem is the credit bureaus look at us as just data. We're data points. We are not their customer. I don't know if you know how behind the curtain the credit reporting system actually works.


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[Assistant] But the idea is, I'm, if I'm, uh, Chase Bank or Citibank or whoever.


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[Assistant] I report to the credit bureau and I access reports.


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[Assistant] And the credit bureau is kind of like a bookie. They're taking money both ends of that.


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[Assistant] The credit bureaus always have looked at things as kind of like, we're just a pawn. We're not even a pawn.


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[Assistant] We're not even a thing to them. We're just a problem.


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[Assistant] When we have an issue with our report, and the credit bureaus have always been good playing horseshoes. Close is good enough for them. And what you don't know, well, it might hurt you, but you're not gonna know.


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[Assistant] And I'll tell you what I learned and what you've heard me talk about for all these years. Cause I learned this when I was young, buying that home in the 19, early 1980s was I learned, it's a long time ago, how important it is that you check up on your credit regularly. Cause the sooner you notice an error or let's say you notice something, oops,


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[Assistant] I didn't pay that bill, whatever. The sooner you notice, the sooner you're able to address it and fix it and document everything.


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[Assistant] Because the credit bureaus don't want to help you fix a problem. Period. And you've got to make it


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[Assistant] In their interest that they fix the problem because you're not going away. So you've heard me talk about Credit Karma, where if you sign up for a Credit Karma account, you can monitor what's going on with two of the three major bureaus for free. You can see what's going on. You can monitor your credit.


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[Assistant] You can get a approximation of your credit score from each bureau.


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[Assistant] Routinely except for I think experience not part of their system, but you can see your how your take a temperature of your credit all the time and when something pops up that they


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[Assistant] Send you a notice, hey, there was a big drop in your credit score and you go look and there's something listed there that is deadly to your credit.


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[Assistant] And with the credit bureaus, the way it works, let's say, uh, there's an item on there that you know is not right.


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[Assistant] What you do is you dispute it with whoever put it on there, whether it's the credit card company, a collection agency, whatever, you dispute with them, and at the same time,


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[Assistant] You dispute with the credit bureau that's listed it falsely on your report. That triggers an investigative period that typically is interpreted as 30 days. And you want to put the heat first on whoever put the false information out there, the credit card company or whoever and whatever documentation you have, you want to supply and whatever pressure you need to apply.


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[Assistant] Certified, this case certified mail is recommended. I mean you don't have to start there because it's expensive, but you want to have a paper trail of what you've done to resolve the problem. Now when a negative item is on your report, you are eligible to get a free copy of your report


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[Assistant] From Equifax TransUnion Experience anytime you're denied credit, you're also available once a year to get a copy of your credit report for free at annualcreditreport.com during


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Coronavirus, they've allowed you more frequent access to your report for free.


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[Assistant] They make available an up to date credit score for you.


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[Assistant] You see a big drop in your score, you know there's an issue.


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[Assistant] You know who America owes for that? Who? Discover Card. Discover had a marketing genius at one point who was like, you know what, we're paying to check people's credit scores every month.


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[Assistant] And everybody in the credit industry was furious at Discover.


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[Assistant] Because this is supposed to be a big fat secret, this score. I look at it right there. And Discover was like, forget that.


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[Assistant] We're going to give people their scores as a benefit of having a Discover card. It was ingenious because there was a pain point for the public and Discover solved it. And now everybody else who acted like Discover was Benedict Arnold, like how could you turn on all the other financial companies and stab us in the back and help a consumer? And now they all fall over themselves giving you access to your credit score for free.


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[Assistant] So discover, tip my hat to you for doing that, but I want you to know knowledge in this case is power and the meat do not inherit the earth. You have to be very aggressive.


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[Assistant] Instead of some outside contractor who knows where in the world.


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[Assistant] Because it's a one time use only number.


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[Assistant] And somebody maybe with a predictive analysis tool.


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[Assistant] Was trying different numbers to buy things illicitly.


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[Assistant] Those virtual numbers are still a great thing. Don't delete them.


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[Assistant] Know that what they do is they protect your regular number and the system worked as it should because Capital One's database knew there was an anomaly in that charge attempt and that it was not actually you and prevented it from taking place. So in your situation, the system worked exactly as it's designed.


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[Assistant] So this is, I don't know the dynamics of your relationship with your ex-wife, but there's a lot of risk for each of you.


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[Assistant] And both of you being named on cards and most credit card companies no longer


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[Assistant] Allow the issuing of co-ownership on cards.


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[Assistant] Because of the messy kind of situation like we're talking about here, the long aging of your cards


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[Assistant] You still benefit from, even if you clean sheet this, what I'd like for you to do, each of you,


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[Assistant] Is to get cards in your own name. You can't go to most credit card companies and say,


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[Assistant] Hey, you know, I'm not married to that person anymore. I just want you to remove them.


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[Assistant] Because they initially issued the credit knowing they had two people to go after, not one if a bill was not paid.


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[Assistant] And have the record go on because you still have the risk that if either of you decided, Hey, I want to use that card again. The other is on the hook for that card.


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[Assistant] Wow, you're quoting back one of my phrases to me, but for this luxury vehicle.


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[Assistant] If you want to buy a used vehicle warranty, the only place to buy it is from the manufacturer of that brand. No one else. The third party warranties


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[Assistant] As a general rule and almost 100% of the time aren't worth the paper they're written on. So don't even bother with that. But if you can buy one from the brand of premium used vehicle you got, then do that. Otherwise the money you would have spent the typically two to $4,000 you would spend on a used vehicle warranty from a luxury brand manufacturer.


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[Assistant] That money should go into a savings account dedicated just to the gotcha repairs you may have eventually on that vehicle. And I hope the vehicle turns out to be very reliable and fun to drive and own for your wife. And coming up straight ahead, Walmart keeps doing one initiative after another


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[Assistant] To say, hey, there's somebody beside Amazon here. There's us.


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[Assistant] And I want to tell you about something that they are getting ready to launch.


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[Assistant] In more and more communities that I talked about as a test, I guess I forget when last year.


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[Assistant] They're offering you the ability to have what they call in-home delivery. You pay 150 bucks a year and it's unlimited free home deliveries and the tip is included.


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[Assistant] The deliveries are done by Walmart employees, not third party contractors, and the idea is you give them access


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[Assistant] Groceries put the frozen stuff in the freezer, the refrigerated stuff there, and the non-refrigerator freezer stuff is just sitting there. Or you can be even more bold


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[Assistant] Coming into the home, I would be fine if you have a garage, having them deliver into the garage, having a refrigerator in the garage and put the stuff away. But it has proven to be a pretty popular service in the test markets. And the idea at 150 a month is that you are likely to spend less


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[Assistant] Then you would going to the store because you don't buy all the impulse items.


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[Assistant] 150 a year. Did I say a month? Oh, I'm sorry. 150 a year. Did I say 150 a month?


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[Assistant] Yeah, you could pay it, you could buy it for a month for 20 bucks, see if it actually works, see if you use it.


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[Assistant] And then you want to be on the annual because it's so much cheaper, relatively speaking, at $150 a year. And you probably think I've lost my mind saying you should pay $150 a year potentially for delivery, but you think about


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[Assistant] Generally Walmart is 20% cheaper on groceries than the typical supermarket in a marketplace.


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[Assistant] If you're doing delivery using any of the third parties for grocery delivery,


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[Assistant] Getting people who, there's a segment of the population that


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[Assistant] We'll never set foot in a Walmart. They're just not gonna do it. But the people who won't go in a Walmart


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[Assistant] Real convenient alternative at 100 bucks a year to Amazon Prime, which is, is that 119?


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[Assistant] 119 for Amazon Prime I think, uhm, because Amazon, every attempt they've made


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[Assistant] To do the grocery side of it, they've fallen flat on their face. They've just been a complete fail.


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[Assistant] And Walmart has really done


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[Assistant] A better job of late with what had always been their Achilles heel, which was if you wanted to find really bad produce, just go to a Walmart.


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[Assistant] The fruits and vegetables no one would ever want to eat and that's where you would go. And Walmart has addressed that because I'm sure focus groups, people just let them have it about how crummy their fruits and vegetables were, their fresh produce, and they really seem to have fixed that. So this is


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[Assistant] With a hundred a year, and you do tip for grocery delivery on that.


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[Assistant] You can pay 150 and do it. I was in Walmart just recently and was fascinated how much more sophisticated they become about the shopping in the store for customers.


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[Assistant] They've got very sophisticated electronic devices now to make sure they've gotten everything on people's list. They have these wonderful rolling carts with baskets where the shopping is done in theory and in order where the


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[Assistant] Non-refrigerated, non-frozen items are all picked first by the in-store shopper.


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[Assistant] And then they get the refrigerated and frozen items and they're shopping potentially for multiple customers at once, but everything is barcoded to try to improve the accuracy of the picking. And then that picking is then done for the curbside pickup that they offer for groceries in the store.


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[Assistant] Or for the delivery service and so they have uhm, as Walmart usually does it's like trying to turn around


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[Assistant] In order to try, now they're in a phase, they're trying to make profits. The costs on things on Amazon have been going up, up and up and away. And so Amazon has become a convenience channel to shop.


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[Assistant] Rather than a price oriented channel. That's why if you look at Amazon.


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[Assistant] Every day they put such a big emphasis on their daily deals trying to have some street cred that they're affordable to shop from at the same time


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[Assistant] That they become a very expensive retailer to do business with.


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[Assistant] So if you spend a hundred dollars in the grocery store, what percent are things you did not go in there intending to buy? Of the hundred.


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[Assistant] Just because you eliminate the impulse buys. And uhm, you were cringing when I was talking about Walmart having like the world's worst


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[Assistant] Yeah, so go to U-Ship, and this is not just Arkansas to Virginia, this is anywhere around the country. The letter U-Ship.com is kind of like a reverse auction site where you can


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[Assistant] Put something you want to move, a car is a big category on your ship, or moving stuff of yours, or whatever, uh, moving a motorcycle, a boat, whatever.


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[Assistant] You put a bid for your move on Youship. You give your window of, uh, when you need it picked up, when you need it delivered.


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[Assistant] And the wider window you offer on pickup and the wider window you put for delivery, the more bidders you'll have and you'll be able to see the reputation reviews on a car moving service and you'll see the various price bids


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[Assistant] And I moved a car from the East Coast to the West Coast for my college daughter a year and a half ago. And it was a incredible process using U-Ship because I was getting some really great prices


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[Assistant] And then reading reviews of them and one by one they got eliminated. And I still ended up with what I thought was a really great price to move a vehicle 2300 miles. And they were, uh, they picked it up exactly when they'd say they picked it up and they delivered it a day early on the West coast. And, uh, my daughter met the guy out in front of her apartment.


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[Assistant] And he had the big car trailer and he unloaded the car right there for her, right in front of her building.


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[Assistant] And so, uh, there may be other, uh, bidding services like YouShip, but that's the one that's really stood out to me and stood the test of time.


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[Assistant] Kim, the key in buying a diamond ring online.


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[Assistant] Is you have to buy from a place that you have a right to return for a full refund, not a credit.


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[Assistant] Because if they misrepresented the goods in the first place.


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[Assistant] Or the quality doesn't seem like they promote it on the website.


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[Assistant] If you don't have a right to your money back and all you have is a store credit, you're in the same bind returning it and exchanging it as you were in anyway.


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[Assistant] The online sellers, you'll have two weeks to a month to return for a full refund. I think you're absolutely fine. And I want to pitch again looking at a lab created diamond. They are chemically identical to a dug out of the earth diamond.


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[Assistant] But what you get for your money is so much greater. I don't know what size diamond you're interested in, but uhm, as an example,


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[Assistant] The one that's owned by De Beers, is that called Lightbox? Lightbox Jewelry. They tend to sell a high quality one carat lab created diamond for typically 800 bucks plus the cost of the jewelry you'll have the diamond put in. And they do a lot of promotions for new customers where you get a deal upfront. Does that show how much the diamond is?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So there's a button where you can discover, look at the lab created diamonds, see what they're charging for them, but they're just one example.


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[Assistant] Uh, where you can get much more for your dollar.


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[Assistant] That's very cheap for a 2 karat diamond if the diamond in fact is of good quality and, uh, color and clarity.


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[Assistant] The lab created diamond market is booming around the world.


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[Assistant] Because not only do you get much more for your money, but also if you're worried about the exploitation of the workers working in unsafe mines and all that.


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[Assistant] You eliminate that because they're just made in a factory. But again, they are chemically identical.


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[Assistant] I'm not familiar with vanilla visa, but, uh, there is a terrible problem, terrible problem with gift cards that criminals have figured out defeats to be able to get the key access numbers off them and they'll have a hot sheet


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[Assistant] Of all the ones that they compromised, like this particular one, the vanilla is available at


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[Assistant] Every major retailer you could think of and then a lot of minor ones as well and you're buying third party a visa product marketed by one vanilla, whoever they are, and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Criminals figure out, not just for this but for any kind of gift card, how to defeat the security systems.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You pay real money for it, or somebody who gave you one as a gift paid real money for it.


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[Assistant] And the criminals keep waiting until one's activated and then immediately use them and the money is gone and it is a terrible, terrible problem that has been growing exponentially. It is yet another reason why you should never buy gift cards. As far as the Visa MasterCard problem, you've got larger dollar amounts typically that people are buying when it is a branded Visa gift card.


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[Assistant] This is consumerfinance.gov, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.


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[Assistant] And they get a lot of complaints about a particular issuer.


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[Assistant] It leads to an investigation and maybe possibly someday


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[Assistant] Some of the money that has evaporated returning to your life. And I want to thank you


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[Assistant] For being with us today, I hope you've learned something from this. Please, if you've heard a tip that you think would be valuable to a friend or family member, please share it with them so they can be empowered in their wallet as well. And have a wonderful day.


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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.


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[Assistant] So I want to tell you about a really great deal.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, that's happening and it's not through payday lenders.


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[Assistant] There's a new trick of the trade you need to know about I'm going to share with you straight ahead. Also, I want to talk about something that the personal finance writers call financial infidelity. What it is and how it can be a poison inside your relationship. I really want you to think through what I'm going to share with you later about that. So there are.


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[Assistant] In an interest rate typically of 400 to 800%. And number of states have outlawed these and.


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[Assistant] They still persist as something that people out of desperation to keep the lights on or


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[Assistant] To do a repair of their car or whatever, they take out, out of desperation, they take out these payday loans. And it's brutal because


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[Assistant] So often my experience is people dig their hole deeper and deeper.


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[Assistant] Because with a payday loan, you're given a very short cycle loan and people do what's called a rollover.


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[Assistant] I've sadly profiled of my TV work over and over again, how it led to financial Armageddon for people. Well now,


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[Assistant] There's a big problem in the US with installment loans that banks are doing with


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[Assistant] Uh, storefront lenders known as fintechs. They're electronic storefronts.


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[Assistant] And these loans tend to be around 200% or more. So think about those numbers.


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[Assistant] So you'll take out a loan for six months or a year and you're to pay a regular payment every month for those six months or a year.


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[Assistant] And if you go to the credit union and you want to borrow money and you're doing a personal loan and your credit's not so hot,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The credit union uses a scale based on your credit score and that rate will flex typically from very low, a couple of percent, maybe 5% up to 30% or 36%.


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[Assistant] For people whose credit scores are really on the iffy side of the scale. And then if your credit score


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[Assistant] Is lower than that, they might not even allow you to borrow it at, uh, 36% because


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[Assistant] They're worried for you and they're worried for them that it's not going to get paid back or you're going to go delinquent.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So that's left this opening for banks that are doing the same kind of parallel kind of lending as we've had from the payday lenders.


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[Assistant] Not at 400, 800%, but typically 200% or so. And instead of it being.


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[Assistant] It's even legal to do this and there's a dispute among federal regulators if it's legal to sell these loans on the internet and charge people a couple hundred percent. Now, as I've always said with the payday lenders, you know, if they posted


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Outside and the payday lenders, although there's some online, they're mostly still storefront. If they had to post.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A big sign out front, you know, a neon sign or LED sign that said today's interest rate, 552%.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And somebody went in there and they said, yes, I'm dying to borrow money at 552%. Um, maybe you let people do that. Maybe.


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[Assistant] And now is the case with these electronic storefront loans is the interest rates are being hidden. And I think that if people knew that they were taking out a multi hundred percent loan, people aren't going to do it because you think about it in normal banking and finance, a rate that goes


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Over 30% is considered to be a hugely high interest rate.


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[Assistant] We're talking about a whole different thing here with these ultra high interest rate loans. And why am I talking about it? Because if you're looking around on the web


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[Assistant] And you could use a little money to pay this, that, or the other, and you see an instant approval loan offer, I want you to know that you could be about to get in the clutches of one of these 200 plus percent loans.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And when do I want you to pay 200 plus percent per loan? Never, never, never, not ever.


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[Assistant] So please remember that when people are hiding the interest rate, that's when you have to worry. And by the way, do you know who's getting hit by these the most? Any idea Krista?


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[Assistant] There are not the same protections if you were a small business owner and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You need money for inventory or whatever it is. There are a lot of these instant offer loans available to small business owners and unless you ask in writing, you're usually not going to have disclosed to you what the interest rate is on that loan and know that you are the biggest target for this because


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The size of the loan you're typically going to try to get for your business.


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[Assistant] With these ultra high interest loans, but wait, there's more. Get this. When you borrow money.


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[Assistant] On one of these small business loans at the very high interest rates?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They don't just call on the business to be liable for the loan.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They pierce what's known as the corporate veil.


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[Assistant] And you also sign personal responsibility. So it's the worst of all possible worlds. You're taking out an ultra high interest rate with terms and conditions that they don't necessarily disclose to you. And if you can't pay it, they come after you personally, not just your business. Please be aware. Krista?


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[Assistant] So gold is not a scam. Gold is what's known as a hedge. In times of uncertainty, people tend to go to gold as a place of a safe refuge. When people doubt the value of what, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Libertarian is called fiat currency government issued money and they're worried about, uh, inflation getting out of control. You know, we've just had.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, you know the saber rattling from the Russians and the Chinese and we have the North Koreans.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sending up all these missiles and the Russians and the Chinese working on these hypersonics that nobody in the world has a good defense for. And then we've got the, uh, political disc, uh, discontent in the United States. And then we have the economic issues all related to the pandemic that disrupted supply chains and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So we have the perfect set


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of all three things that tend to push people towards gold, silver and precious metals.


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[Assistant] They don't actually produce anything, although gold can be made into jewelry.


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[Assistant] Up to 10% of your assets, no more.


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[Assistant] And gold and precious metals, I think is, is fine to do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And again, it's a hedge. It's not a long-term play.


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[Assistant] In terms of what will create long term wealth for you, but it does give you potentially a safe harbor in stormy waters. And so you see gold move up and down, up and down, up and down.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Based on world conditions and people's confidence.


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[Assistant] In the world and fears in the world. And that's why it makes a potential safe harbor when other things may decline.


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[Assistant] Because of world conditions or US conditions.


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[Assistant] Yeah, so, uh, this is so weird to say, but the manufacturers are designing and preparing to produce so many


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[Assistant] Crossover utility vehicles, fully electric, and uhm,


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[Assistant] Little bit larger. There's still crossovers, but people look at them as SUVs is fully electric, but you're not going to see a lot of different models and a lot of inventory till 23.


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[Assistant] Because it takes a while for manufacturers to design, test, tool up, and start making them. So right now, you don't have a lot of players in this market. Uh, one that people that is a crossover style, but it looks really small to me for a crossover, is the Hyundai IONIQ 5, I think it's called. And that one,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is one that's getting a lot of really really positive reviews.


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[Assistant] Euv is going to be like how it's going to perform, but the ionic five is one that already


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[Assistant] It's weird to say as somebody who loves my electric vehicle has been driving one a long time, 23 is going to be a much better year for you to be buying that than 22.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is a wonderful question and this is coming up more and more with the theft of packages, packages being misdirected, uh, things coming in damaged.


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[Assistant] Uh, you know, the porch pirates, the whole thing. This is...


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[Assistant] A nightmare for the companies you're buying from.


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[Assistant] Because think how many dollars in sales they have to have to make up.


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[Assistant] Is the one that has the relationship with what's known as the carrier. I mean we use these terms shipper and carrier interchangeably.


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[Assistant] But UPS, FedEx, whoever, they're the carrier


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[Assistant] That the company you're buying from chose. They're the customer of those people and when a package gets damaged or


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, stolen, missing, whatever. What's supposed to happen is the company you're buying from


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Files a claim with UPS, FedEx, the postal service, whoever. In the meantime, they're out all that money. So what companies are trying to do to keep their online profitable is get you to pay for an insurance product


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That deals with the losses and it's ironic that you're paying the premium to protect the seller who's selling you something. So I mean.


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[Assistant] It's not a lot of additional money on the cost of a package, but that's the backstory. And it's also possible.


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[Assistant] That you could buy from a organization that says, in their terms of service, anything that happens is your problem. And that is possible.


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[Assistant] And then that's a risk of you doing business with that online seller. Have you ever bought anything like insurance


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[Assistant] In Grant's case and the seller, in my case, different sellers, both were like,


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[Assistant] Yeah. So you just don't know how it's going to play. And again,


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[Assistant] They're not the bad guy. The sellers aren't the bad guys. They're facing a burden and then us as customers as well because in the delivery cycle,


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[Assistant] Things are going missing, going broken, and getting stolen. Coming up ahead, I want to talk to you about relationship advice. Not my normal thing.


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[Assistant] But there's something we need to talk about where my whole thing with your wallet and your thing with your heart, we gotta talk how they meet or they have a really bad crash.


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[Assistant] It's very, very common. In fact, it depends on which survey you look at.


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[Assistant] Somewhere between, uh, one in three and maybe 40% of people in a relationship, uh, where more than just dating someone where they're living with somebody, they're their, um, partner or they're married to someone.


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[Assistant] That it's very common that people hide debt.


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[Assistant] From their partner's significant other spouse or people hide money from their significant other spouse, whatever.


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[Assistant] I'm trying to make sure I'm really inclusive with all those categories of people, how they couple.


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[Assistant] It may feel like you're maintaining some level of independence or you don't want him or her to know about what you're doing with what you've got and all that. I believe it's toxic. This is something a lot of people may have different opinions on, but I think it's really, really dangerous when you hide debt from the person you love, when you hide money


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] From the person you love. If, if you are in a relationship with someone who's abusive, that's a different story. Uh, then that's when the real issue is you need to deal with why it is.


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[Assistant] You're attracted to somebody who's abusive and that's way outside of my area.


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[Assistant] Right, I mean that would be a case where you already, you're not trying to preserve the relationship, you're trying to preserve your safety.


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[Assistant] And well-being and so you're hiding money, but other than that circumstance.


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[Assistant] I believe you poison a relationship. I think about over the years how many people I've talked to who come to me with hurt or anger or rage.


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[Assistant] Or a combination of those things in different amounts. When they find out that the person they love was hiding all these debts from them. Uh, gosh, I remember we did, uh, when we did the series of shows for the Discovery Network.


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[Assistant] That was a long time ago.


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[Assistant] We were dealing with these issues with couples where they were, uh, they were just at each other's throats because one or the other of the couple was hiding all this debt they had.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then eventually it comes forward. Somehow, some way, some day, it comes out.


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[Assistant] And you feel like you're living with a stranger, not the person you thought you knew. It's just too dangerous where you're trying to establish a real loving, trusting relationship


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[Assistant] To hide about money and you know people have more trouble talking with the person they love about money.


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[Assistant] Then they do about what goes on in the bedroom. It's just straight out fat. And so


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[Assistant] Here's what I believe. People get married generally and couple up generally.


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[Assistant] At a much later age in life than people used to. You know, people used to get married in their teens are right about 20, 21 years old.


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[Assistant] And they really hadn't established themselves in life.


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[Assistant] A much more linear time with how you do things, but today people tend to get married later than they used to. They've already been out doing their own thing. They already have their own job, all that. So what I find works best, particularly with people who are not married and have a partner living together.


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[Assistant] And maybe in a marriage as well, it depends on the dynamic of your marriage.


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[Assistant] Your credit cards or whatever, but what you do instead is you have, um, you each have your own accounts of whatever, and then you have like a house account to deal with joint obligations, whether it's paying a share of the rent or the mortgage.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or whatever the joint, the utilities paying for the internet.


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[Assistant] Uh, whatever streaming services you're getting, whatever, you get the idea. Is that you have this house account four things together and some


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[Assistant] Couples dynamics. You would just do everything together. But a lot of times, it's good to have, uh, an account for each person. And credit cards, you should always have


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Credit cards in your own name. Credit card companies today don't do.


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[Assistant] Very rarely would they ever do a joint owner credit card because it's been a nightmare for the banks when somebody doesn't pay as a joint owner. So now what they do is they tend to do cards that have an owner of the account


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you can have authorized users. That's the most common way it's done now. And if you're fully integrated financially you should still have


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[Assistant] Uh, authorize user and give them a card. You do it.


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[Assistant] If you're worried about what they might spend money on versus what you'd want to spend money on, then you don't make them.


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[Assistant] An authorized user because it's not worth it when you open that bill that month and you see, why did you spend that on that? You know, and so it's really great to know the spending patterns of


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[Assistant] Attitudes about money, about saving, about spending and all that, that it's not addressed.


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[Assistant] Till something goes wrong and then it's an ugly situation where somebody's lost their temper.


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[Assistant] I don't want you in a couple to obsess about money, but I want you to discuss it. I don't want you to live in a relationship where you feel like you've got to hide what you're doing from the other person. That's just so unhealthy. And at the same time, I don't want you to obligate the other person in a relationship to a debt that is not their thing.


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[Assistant] You know, that they would, they would feel like I can't believe I'm having to spend part of my paycheck to deal with you wanting to do blah, blah, blah. So marriage and relationships are an ongoing, um,


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[Assistant] What depends, as I mentioned very early, is it depends on the survey if it's like a third of people, forty-something percent of people. It all depends exactly how you ask the question.


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[Assistant] Whatever your partner about, then the number goes way up because there are things we might do, uh, that


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[Assistant] That are little things that were just, well, it wasn't really truly necessary to tell someone, but I'm talking about an ongoing pattern.


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[Assistant] Of hiding money and hiding debt is a cancer on that love and I don't want you to do that. Let's go to some questions.


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[Assistant] So let me explain the difference between a hard inquiry and a soft inquiry. A hard inquiry is what you're doing with a credit freeze. You're preventing somebody from applying for new credit as if they're you.


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[Assistant] The heart of what you're trying to do is cause once somebody's applied for credit as if they're you.


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[Assistant] And they go buy a bunch of stuff and then the bill comes to you. Let me tell you, it's ugly.


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[Assistant] It's really, really bad. So that's why credit freeze, which is free to do is so important.


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[Assistant] A soft inquiry, okay, so there are lots of circumstances with a soft inquiry. Let's go back to credit cards. I was talking about them earlier, and the couples think.


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[Assistant] Almost every credit card out there.


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[Assistant] Checks your credit every single month because they want to see if there's an uh-oh coming.


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[Assistant] If you're suddenly missing payments or you're suddenly


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[Assistant] They will maybe shut you off, cut your limit.


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[Assistant] And so they're checking you every single month. You're their customer, almost all of them. And so that is called a soft inquiry. They don't need your permission, but they're doing it when you apply for


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Insurance, auto insurance, homeowners insurance, various types of insurance, they're going to do inquiries. And that's a soft inquiry.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When an employer, a potential employer checks your credit.


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[Assistant] That's a soft inquiry. Those soft hits as they're called in the trade do not affect your credit, do not affect your score and you are powerless to prevent them.


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[Assistant] Rachel, I hate for people to have your social security number.


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[Assistant] Because of the various reporting rules that were tightened over the last year because of people.


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[Assistant] Who were not reporting income properly on their taxes.


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[Assistant] This is going to become a very routine thing with so many people you might use. You're going to potentially find it with things like, um, uh, Venmo and Cash App where they're going to


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Ask for or require your social security number to see what transactions are going on. In the case of Ticketmaster,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The way you get your money, the certainty is you give your social security number.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hack into Ticketmaster, get people's social security numbers. But the, but the truth is that's a risk versus


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[Assistant] A clear certainty, which is the way you get your money from selling these tickets is to give your social security number. So my thing with giving your social security number, somebody's got to have a really good valid reason to have it before you ever give it. And this is unfortunately something that has become a valid reason. I can't say a good valid reason, but it is a valid reason. I'd give the number.


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[Assistant] Yeaah, so Jalen, this is becoming worth it. What's not clear is which of the rental tracking services are most often going to be able to


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[Assistant] Help you with improving your credit standing. There's a lot of players trying to become mainstream in this area and I don't have anybody


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Who you mentioned won rental karma, but there are many of these.


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[Assistant] I don't have one in particular that I can say, okay, using this one, this is absolutely gonna work.


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[Assistant] And help you raise your credit score because we're still in the pioneering phase of, we're not even dissettler yet. We're still in pioneering phase of scoring models being


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[Assistant] More acceptable lenders that use things other than traditional credit.


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[Assistant] Show a good indicator of how reliable you are of paying your bills on time, but have never been part of traditional scoring models. So at this point, if you do one of these rental monitoring services that in theory are reporting your rent to the Bureau, it's unclear how that will reflect on


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Your credit and improving your credit. We'll get there.


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[Assistant] We're just not at the point yet where I'm going to say, yes, absolutely do this. So I want to tell you, I love the questions that we had today. They were wonderful questions. The hardest part for me is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That I can't get to even a tiny fraction of all the questions were asked, which are in the many thousands every week.


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[Assistant] And that's why we have the Team Clark Consumer Action Center.


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[Assistant] Where you can get free one on one advice, Monday through Friday, except holidays from 10 in the morning Eastern time zone to four in the afternoon Eastern time zone.


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[Assistant] Happy new year and happy 75th birthday to my brother Gary and welcome to the Clark Howard Show. Our mission is to serve and empower you so you make better financial decisions in your life. One decision I hope you will never make.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is to get behind the wheel of a car after drinking.


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[Assistant] State troopers dread all over the country. It's such a dangerous time. And there's some new technology that is coming to our vehicles.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's going to prevent it whether somebody has an ongoing problem with alcohol or on an amateur night, they get behind the wheel when they shouldn't. And that's really cool. I'm going to fill you in on that. It's also the new year. Time to talk about debt hangovers.


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[Assistant] A lot of people, open up the wallet, a little much.


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[Assistant] And charge up things that they don't have the money to pay for.


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[Assistant] We're going to talk about debt hangovers coming ahead.


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[Assistant] Couple of factors going on right now, Krista. And I should say, Krista, my boss, the COO of Clark.com and, uh, well, actually, yeah, you're the C, COO of


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A third of our road deaths in the United States are because somebody's DUI, DWI. And again, it's people who have a problem with alcohol ongoing, it's people who go out


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We'll have a system that will be able to sense.


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[Assistant] Whether you are under the influence and will not let you drive the vehicle if you are. You may be aware that in many states there's a more rudimentary technology


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Have been convicted of DUI, DWI in a number of states. But need to be able to go work. They'll be able to drive during the day only.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they do the breathalyzer when they get in the car and then they can drive. But this is a system that, uh, because of the changes in technology,


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[Assistant] The regs that will ultimately be published will give the discretion to the automakers. And of course there will be stories as these systems launch that this one didn't work right and that one didn't work right. But the net result is that one in three people killed on the roads won't be killed anymore because the DUI as the vehicle fleet moves from


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[Assistant] Vehicles that don't have these systems to those that do. It'll be a gradual decrease, but one that is late in coming and will be really, really valuable.


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[Assistant] I do wanna say something, I'm gonna be, uh, Uncle Clark for a second here.


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[Assistant] Almost two years ago, in the early part of the pandemic, to drive like idiots.


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[Assistant] I mean come on, let's call it what it is. The roads were empty.


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[Assistant] And people decided in urban suburban areas in particular with wide stretches of asphalt or concrete, hey, it's time for me to be like I'm at the ND 500. And people's driving has deteriorated. Even though far fewer miles are being driven, the number of road fatalities is up. And this is not okay. And each of us can only do what's


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The right thing on our own part. But it means that as a driver, I've become more defensive in my driving.


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[Assistant] Because I know I'm seeing people do crazy stuff all the time. And my car alarms when


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[Assistant] I've noticed that that alarm has been going off a lot more often as people.


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[Assistant] Cut me off in traffic. There's a lot more of that, a lot more, uh, I'm going to say it's stupidity behind the wheel. And what I hate is I've got a teenager.


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[Assistant] Who's learning that's how you're supposed to drive from how he's seeing people drive.


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[Assistant] I mean it certainly could be the case. You know, I think it got a booster shot from


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[Assistant] But I think you're right. I think that there's a lot of raw nerves from COVID. I mean, thank goodness


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[Assistant] And this time, in spite of modern medicine, we're still losing millions of people in the world.


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[Assistant] All the disruption in life and workplace and isolation from each other. Yeah. I mean, that's probably a factor in the driving. And so just remember that. And if you yourself are not being as careful as you may have been in the past and you're dealing with some aggression behind the wheel, be aware of that and settle down and also be aware there are people that are driving terribly and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] More defensive. Leave more space between you and other vehicles. Uhm, do everything you can to do your part to try to make the roads more safe. So enough. Does that sound like Daddy Clark or Uncle Clark?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I just want you to get home alive and safe day after day.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A wing and a prayer. Logan, this is hard. I mean the, the vehicle shortages are going to lessen through 22, but right now it's impossible. I mean it is impossible. So the only thing I can think of is to buy a very old vehicle to nurse you through the months till the vehicle market


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] N22 is the automakers one by one seem to be getting better at dealing with the, uh, supply chain issues with chips. And so it will get better through this year.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But in the meantime, if you figure the price of any vehicles inflated, buying an older vehicle that's inflated that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, you know, is gonna be inflated less in raw dollars than a newer, more expensive vehicle. So if you can just buy something older and use it as a placeholder,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Until prices and supplies become more in sync, then later this year you'd be making a second purchase.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But that's the only good strategy. And the good news about this story is you didn't say anybody was hurt.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And do you know once I hit two deer at once? Do you ever hear of that? That is very bad luck, no. I was in western South Dakota, uh, near, uh, Custer State Park, which was an area with a lot of buffalo, beautiful areas. And I came around a bend at sunset. It was a, it was after sunset. Come around the corner and there are two deer in the road.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I knew, I knew the rule, you don't get out of the car. Right, no. And they dazed, got up, kind of, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But the vehicle was actually okay. They were small enough deer and I was going slow enough. So I was very, very lucky for me, not lucky for the deer, very lucky for me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, uh, okay Martin, so you're allowed to give any individual


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think that when somebody gives a very, very, very large tip, it would be considered to be in that gifting category, because in no way would it fit normal, uh, normal business event


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That someone would get a tip of a thousand dollars, let's say, on a twelve dollar meal.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that's just me, I'm not the IRS commissioner. But I would look at that as a non-taxable gift.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You did the right thing by eliminating collision coverage.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Generally, once a car passes like 10 years of life, the formula could be different depending on the vehicle, you generally want to self-insure for the vehicle and just have liability coverage like you do. When you use a credit card to rent a car, it is


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Generally most cards that provide rental car coverage


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's secondary coverage after whatever your auto insurance pays. In your case, the auto insurance would pay nothing, so it would be primary coverage. The other thing though is the liability issue. Let's say you're in an accident in a rental car and it's your fault. The liability coverage you have with the insurance you have for the two vehicles is what steps in for the liability side.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In the event that you're in an accident in a rental car that is your fault, but the credit card would become the equivalent of primary in this case. And next, I got to talk to you about credit because you know, if you use credit as a payment system, a, okay, but if you're using credit to borrow, that's where it can eat you up.


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[Assistant] Americans historically have been much better spenders than savers.


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[Assistant] The average American was saving roughly six cents of each dollar they made. And then when the country went into lockdown back in


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[Assistant] March, April, May, June, depending on where you were in the country, how long the lockdowns were. Suddenly people...


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[Assistant] To a third of what we make on average and this puts us


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[Assistant] And rarefied air that is pretty much the standard practice across Asia.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Across Asia, and there's differences country to country, Asia is not a monolith continent, but, uh, people that are Asian middle class or above tend to, in China or Japan or wherever, they tend to save a huge chunk of their pay and very commonly one out of every three fill in the blank currency that they've earned money in.


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[Assistant] We're back to pretty much normal where Americans are back to saving 5, 6, 7 cents on the dollar on average. So we went through this cycle where we were putting aside huge money because we didn't know


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If the world was coming to an end, in addition, where were we gonna spend the money?


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[Assistant] When all we could do is walk from the living room to the bedroom, back to the kitchen.


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[Assistant] We're in the kitchen for a while. Let's go back to the living room. I mean, we had nowhere we could go. That's why during the heart of the pandemic,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Didn't matter the weather, didn't matter if it was raining, sunny, hot, cold, in between I was out walking to deal with that feeling of being locked up. Uh, so Americans once


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] People, even though COVID has still been with us, Americans resume life and resume spending. And now we're borrowing money again. So you have this mix, you have people


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Who may have adopted new habits of saving a little more money. They have others that are back to borrowing.


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[Assistant] And the overall mix is back to like somewhere around six cents of each dollar saved. And the balances on loans are going up. You look at various types of loans, people are borrowing more money. Well, as we know, inflation has been an issue.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Interest rates have been low for a long, long, long time since 2007?


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[Assistant] During the Great Recession, the banking scandals in the Great Recession that followed from going into another worldwide depression.


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[Assistant] And so there were all kinds of things that central banks did around the world to keep interest rates down.


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[Assistant] Time in the economic cycle here and overseas where interest rates are gonna start moving up. Why does that matter to you? Well, if you have credit card debt, personal loans, and even number of types of ways of borrowing, the interest rates you pay are variable.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And if you are running debts on credit cards or other things that have variable interest rates, and those interest rates, if I'm right, are going to go through, it'll be choppy, but the trend is not going to be your friend in terms of rates. They're going to over time, not with near certainty, but I'd say likelihood, they're going up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're going to pay more in interest on that and nobody ever got rich paying Visa or MasterCard


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[Assistant] What we are capable with and how much as we learned almost two years ago, how much of spending is discretionary? How much are things we wanna buy, not that we have to buy? Money we wanna spend, not that we have to spend. And so living


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Running big balances with credit cards. We as Americans have done a great job corralling that. And the other thing


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[Assistant] It's not a variable rate loan, but the other area that's been panicking me, it is like panicking me. Shallow breathing.


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[Assistant] When you start looking at what kind of budget hole you're creating in your life, when you take out a huge vehicle loan and then stretch those payments out six or seven years, that's why I shallow breathe. I don't want that for you. So in 22, here's a new year's resolution for you. I want you to really think through what you're spending.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't want you to go to a dealership and say, oh, well, the payment will be blah blah blah blah. I can do that. Uh.


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[Assistant] Keep your eyes fully focused on what total amount of debt you're taking out and how long you have that debt and maybe you'll lose some of that new vehicle fever. Krista?


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[Assistant] You are, and a lot of issuers don't like to do co-owners anymore by the way.


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[Assistant] But when you do that, if an issuer will allow you to be an obligor, obligor? Is that a word? On a credit card. That you are liable for whatever is charged on that card. In addition, a parent is liable for whatever you might charge on that card. So that's not a strategy I recommend.


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[Assistant] For you to get things under control. It is very common. I find that adult children with an aging parent will end up on the checking account is a way of making sure that a parent maybe who is maybe slipping a little is not getting into a position where they are having their money, swipe from them, whatever. Another way of doing these two things is


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To make it a point of visiting your parents regularly.


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[Assistant] And going through all their bills or getting online access to each of the accounts and tracking what's going on with them


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[Assistant] So that you know if there's dangerous patterns going on with the spending or the borrowing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that's the most important thing. What you're really looking for here is access to the information to protect an aging parent more than anything else.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] People refer to as portable care act, its legal name or Obamacare. There are strict rules about you being able to buy individual policies that don't


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] People that were older paid much, much, much higher premiums than people that are younger. Both of those things, the pre-existings and the massively higher premiums for older people, those were both eliminated as part of the ACA. So you will be able to buy health coverage


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[Assistant] But I want to tell you it's not a walk in the park. It's, uh, unless you, your income level qualifies you for subsidies on the exchange as you go to healthcare.gov, then it will either take you to a state run exchange or you'll buy on the federal exchange. You'll be able to see through, um, answering questions about income, what you have to pay net for a policy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And there are policies of various levels of coverages.


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[Assistant] And deductibles that will be available to you there that are generally color coded bronze, silver, gold,


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[Assistant] There are virtually no platinum plans although those were supposed to be the fanciest. And you'll see what that cost will be per month. It varies very much by state and even in many cases regions within a state.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You could go on healthcare.gov just to get a sense of what it would cost you by going through the process without completing it. You'll be able to see the typical premium you would see per month for your situation to buy your own coverage. You also have the option if you are, uh, if you are religious, you may be able to join a religious co-op


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or health coverage is not the same as health insurance, but it's where people pool money.


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[Assistant] And pay for some of people's healthcare costs at much lower premiums than buying on the healthcare exchange. But those policies many times will not cover a major illness.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you had a bad cancer, the coverages may be limited, but they will cover routine kind of care at a much lower monthly premium.


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[Assistant] That I'm so animated about the convenience store industry and the reason is the major oil companies are pathetic at being retailers. They run horrible operations and so what's happened in much of the country except, uh, most of the northeast and some of the west coast is everywhere else pretty much in the country regional or super regional


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Convenience store chains have popped up that sell gasoline, but that's not what they're really about. They're about selling, uh, fresh food made to order, normal convenience store kind of things, and the really brilliant players in this don't mark up prices


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[Assistant] Like you're walking into a CVS or a Walgreens. They actually provide approachable prices on things. Uh, some of the bigs are, uh, Sheets, Wawa. There are two companies named QuickTrip.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One spelled, uh, Q-U-I-K-T-R-I-P, the other K-W-I-K.


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[Assistant] TRIP, they don't have anything to do with each other, but they're both really good operators. Uh, there's one called Racetrack. There are various of these around the country that are coming to dominate both the sale of fuel in the United States and offering a safe environment for women.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, it's just ingenious that people started realizing that if a woman did not feel safe at night at your place, a business


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[Assistant] I mean, there can be crime at these places. It's not like they're crime free. But the idea is from the business plan on up.


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[Assistant] To make it a safe environment for people and the food thing has become really important for all these chains because they offer menus where you order at either at the gas pump, there will be a screen you can order or you can order on an app or you order at a terminal inside the store, limited menus, good pricing generally and fresh food.


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[Assistant] Well, you know, I'm a born merchant and I love business. I absolutely love


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[Assistant] Where they see an opening in the marketplace. Where they see a weakness in the marketplace. A failure to provide in the marketplace.


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[Assistant] And as long as government isn't messing it up by limiting who can be in a business or issuing licenses only these people can be in or that people. The free market speaks. I mean, think about the restaurant business. Can you think of a better form of true capitalism than the restaurant business in the United States? It's hard to succeed, uh, but people try cause they want to make a go of it and it is a constant churning is


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This opportunity people have to serve people. And I love what these chains have done in competition with the tone deaf oil companies who wouldn't know how to run a decent


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[Assistant] Fresh food operation or convenience store if their lives depended on it.


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[Assistant] And the free market came in and made it happen. So.


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[Assistant] You can tell if that business is well run if they do business with the public, if the bathrooms are clean or dirt.


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[Assistant] How you maintain your bathrooms is the ultimate sign of how much you care about your employees, your customers, and what kind of business you run. Cause everybody's gotta go, right?


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[Assistant] And when you're on any, uh, freeway driving to and from Florida, every place claims on their signs, the cleanest bathrooms, cause they know it too, that that is something that makes or breaks your reputation with a customer. But enough about this. I hope that you enjoyed today's podcast. You know, if we didn't get to,


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[Assistant] It's my pleasure to welcome you to the Clark Howard Show, where our mission


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[Assistant] Is to serve and empower you so you make better financial decisions in your life.


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[Assistant] Well, new research says that actually carrying debt is dangerous to your health. How about that? I'm going to give you the data. And I also want to share tips with you how you can ditch your debt


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So your wallet and your wellbeing are improved. And later,


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[Assistant] Who wants to move? Moving is no fun, but overpaying for that move or getting ripped off on it, that's worse. So there are lots of things you can do that will cut the cost. So there was a study done at the University of Missouri that found a direct relationship between people who have trouble handling their money, have trouble with debts,


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[Assistant] Looked at, uh, people through their age cycles and found that there were severe consequences for people who have trouble handling their money when they're younger, that by the time they hit age 50, they're in some serious health trouble. Serious health risk. I mean. Continuous stress. Right. And you know, that's something


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[Assistant] You've always talked about Krista, about how stress in your life is bad for your health. And I never really heard you on that, but over and over again,


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[Assistant] And financial stress is really ugly. You know, I've always talked about the


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[Assistant] Present effect on you. The anxiety you feel when you owe money and


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[Assistant] You don't want to look at your email or you don't want to go to your mailbox and this, the,


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[Assistant] Uh, feeling you have worried about the bills. But what I've never really thought about


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[Assistant] And never talked about is the long term health impact when


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[Assistant] Money is overwhelming you. Now there are different situations. There are people who flat out just don't have enough income coming in to deal with the basics.


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[Assistant] And that's a different conversation. I'm talking about where people of various income levels end up overextended. The stunner always for people who do behavioral economics research


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[Assistant] Is that there are a huge number of people who make more than a hundred thousand dollars a year who are way overextended financially. That the wants exceed even that kind of income. And so it requires a real thought process to avoid the stress. And what's really key and it's got to start there.


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[Assistant] Is the money you set aside first before you live your monthly life. It's one of those things that people may have intentions of getting around to putting money aside to build a cushion, but they just can't get to it. And the truth is for car dealers, what I'm about to say is not going to make you very happy because


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[Assistant] The one area that most people get into the most difficulty financially from is the obligations for what they pay for a vehicle. Our love of vehicles


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[Assistant] Used to call them cars or automobiles, but now since most of them are pickup trucks or SUVs or crossovers, I call them vehicles. Anyway.


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[Assistant] Our love for vehicles in America is so intense that people


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[Assistant] Tire out of a car before it's tire. Oh, I went back to the word car. Anyway, that we do that, that we just.


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[Assistant] Are drawn to getting rid of what we've got that's working fine to get something else and


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[Assistant] We become what they call, in the trade, a payment buyer. They were like, oh yeaah, I could pay X number of dollars per month.


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[Assistant] And think of it this way. If you kept driving what you had that's paid for, that amount goes to zero.


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[Assistant] You might have more maintenance costs and repair costs over time, but that's nothing compared to what a monthly payment is.


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[Assistant] And when you look at the economics about what a monthly payment is on a vehicle, it's bad ugly in your wallet. And costs more to insure a new vehicle, you got all the payments involved with it, uhm, and there's


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[Assistant] A lot of risk involved with that new vehicle because almost always you will be upside down in whatever financing you took out for that new vehicle.


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[Assistant] So if you're looking where you can really have impact in your life.


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[Assistant] It's really nice if you cut out your Starbucks habit because you add up what that costs over a year.


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[Assistant] You think about that could be a found $1500 in your life. Get rid of bottled water. That could be a found $1500 in your life. And that's great to come up with that money. But do you know what you're talking about when you cycle through cars too rapidly? Is you're talking about


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[Assistant] Somewhere between ten and twenty thousand dollars that could be back in your life.


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[Assistant] That is serious, serious money per year back in your life if you hold onto what you have. So I want you to be healthy and then speaking of that


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[Assistant] Do you know somebody who drives a vehicle on average 10 years or longer? If you buy a new one, keep it 10 years or longer.


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[Assistant] Or you buy a used vehicle and keep it four years or longer.


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[Assistant] That that individual will have five years they're not commuting to work versus what they would be doing if they kept cycling through the new vehicles. Five years that you choose later in your life that you want to work or you don't. I had a gentleman stop me the other day, uh, complaining about the cost of new pickup trucks and he was just


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[Assistant] Shock because he really wanted a new pickup truck and he'd been out looking at them. He was really excited about them. And I was making terrible value judgments.


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[Assistant] Because he gave me the opening when he said, I can't believe how much they cost. And I said, well, the truck you have looks great.


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[Assistant] And he kind of stopped because he had so gotten in his mind that he needed a new truck.


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[Assistant] And right at that moment, it was that thing that was like, oh, I want a new truck. I don't need a new truck. And that's the conversation I want you to have with yourself.


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[Assistant] And besides, the dealers can't be too mad at me right now because they don't have anything on their lots to sell anyway, meaning whatever you get is going to be really inflated in price. So look how I took the fact that if then, that if you spend yourself into oblivion, you mess up your hell.


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[Assistant] Where people go after those with great equity or who own their homes free and clear and steal the home from them.


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[Assistant] It is a tragic event but very rare. You live in Florida and


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[Assistant] Many counties in the state of Florida have a registry service or say they're setting one up where you'll be notified


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[Assistant] Any time there's any action on your title. So you should be able to stop any funny business from going on if your county has done this. And every, uh, county in the country


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Should go to an email notification system registry for real estate and that would shut down this title fraud right away.


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[Assistant] You should be really, really thrilled that you own your home free and clear. And as long as you have the documentation.


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[Assistant] And the home has been, the mortgage has been registered as satisfied in the state of Florida. You keep that record, you keep those records and you're good to go. And I was talking about not having to pay a car payment. How about not having to pay a mortgage? Congratulations.


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[Assistant] So Annette, I hopefully have no pennies at all. I'm so philosophically opposed to the penny as an inefficiency of government to spend more money making a penny than what it's worth and then people


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[Assistant] Just hoard pennies because they figure why take one, it's not useful anywhere. But yes, I have, I have made a mental change and you've heard me speak about it. That the dangers presented by these foreign adversaries that want to harm us.


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[Assistant] The Chinese, the North Koreans, the Russians, the Iranians, who knows who, fill in the blank, that are becoming more and more sophisticated at trying to hurt our industrial production in the United States and our financial system in the United States. And so having a reserve of cash is a good idea, especially for people who now have become completely electronically dependent


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[Assistant] On methods of payment. I was in a, uh, restaurant the other day that the Apple Pay and Google Pay was down. And I watched somebody not be able to get their lunch because they had no other way to pay than from their phone. I mean, you talk about going all electronic.


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[Assistant] And all that was, there was no nefarious thing going on. The system just wasn't working and they couldn't pay. So having an amount of cash is absolutely a good idea in my life. $400 reserve of cash. Um, I figure that's enough to cover till whatever, uh, the Russians or Chinese or whoever have done in us to be able to fix it.


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[Assistant] I hope I'm right about that because it would be real chaos if it takes too long, but being a hundred percent electronic dependent or plastic dependent or anything like that is risky in a world where this is a new form of warfare.


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[Assistant] Because you don't want just 20s. The, the thinking was completely correct that in the event that, uh, everything's messed up,


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[Assistant] You want to be able to give as close to exact change as you can in situations and having


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[Assistant] All twenties, never have fifties or hundreds by the way. Twenties or fifties, twenties, uh, alone is not good enough. You want to have tens, fives, ones also.


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[Assistant] Yeah, isn't it interesting, of all people, Google that owns, uh, cell phone Google Fi, the service.


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[Assistant] Is the one that provides the free VPN.


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[Assistant] And by the way, with free VPNs, be careful because many of them have turned out not to be exactly on the level. You're passed off going and reading in the tech trade


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[Assistant] Things like PCMag or CNET or whatever. Read their reviews of VPNs. It's a very valuable resource.


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[Assistant] Offering people the advantage of a VPN as part of their monthly service sounds like a great idea to me.


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[Assistant] Moving is a nightmare. The worst. The worst. But it can be a worse nightmare if you blow a lot of money or worse.


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[Assistant] Get completely ripped off. I got some tips for you so that you save no matter where you're going or how you're getting there.


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[Assistant] Get ripped off or pay way too much money that's really bad. I talk a lot in the summer about


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[Assistant] How when you hire a professional mover, what you should do hiring one to not get taken.


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[Assistant] And I'm going to address that in short form a little bit in just a couple of minutes, but I want to talk about what many people do is when they move themselves.


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[Assistant] And there are things you can do that can save you a substantial amount of money you may not think about. Rule number one. When you go to rent a truck from U-Haul or someone like that


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[Assistant] Don't buy all the boxes and bubble wrap from them unless you really, really want to throw money down a drain. There are lots of places, I mean, Walmarts now have typically a section where they sell moving boxes and the bubble wrap and the tape and all that and the warehouse clubs sell a variety of things for moving supplies and they're much cheaper than buying them from a mover


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That is a fantastic suggestion. That's even better than


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[Assistant] The prices I was talking about. It's free. I love that. Uhm, something else is if you have flexibility about the date of your move, I don't know if you know this, but the rental truck business now uses completely dynamic demand pricing. And so depending on what day of the week


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because it's all dynamic demand for that day that you're moving. But the more flexible you are about the day you're moving makes a massive difference. Obviously, if the first of the month or the last of the month falls on a weekend, that is by far the most expensive time possible to move. Weekends automatically, but you throw in


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Being the last day of the month of the first day of the month falls right on the weekend. Oh my goodness. Your wallet took a bad trip. It's really bad.


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[Assistant] Also, your own automobile insurance may or may not cover you for renting a rental truck. And it depends with many auto insurers on the length of the truck.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Many of them will allow you to rent a 15 foot truck, but will not allow anything larger than that. If that's the case with your own insurer, you need to buy coverage from the rental truck company. Because you don't want to be exposed uncovered. And I didn't know is not an answer later.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Another thing is if you're moving from one city to another, there are crazy differences with dynamic demand pricing, and there are certain areas of the country


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That more people are moving out of than moving into.


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[Assistant] And if you are going from a place where people are moving heavily too,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they essentially are paying you to be their driver to get it somewhere where they can charge somebody a fortune who's coming from a place people are moving from to other places they're moving to. So this is something a lot of people don't even know is a great way to save money.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There are situations where you may find it's cheaper.


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[Assistant] To round trip in a truck rather than one way. Where you, uh, if you are a hardy person and you can do the drive in a relatively small number of days. You take the truck with the stuff you're moving to where you're going.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You dump the stuff, take the truck back, you pay more for fuel, but you may find that saves you money. On the using a professional mover thing.


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[Assistant] The internet, if you do a Google search, is a direct path to you being scammed by organized crime. Not Google's fault, but it is a terrible, terrible problem with any search engine when you're looking for a mover.


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[Assistant] There are these really, really shady, usually mob fronts that are brokers or crooked movers. They will be very friendly, sound very knowledgeable. They will offer you a great price on your move. And then what happens is when they show up, they very carefully load up your possessions because your possessions are then going into a hostage drama.


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[Assistant] This is a horrible problem that's been going on now for 20 plus years. And law enforcement has never been effective at doing anything about it. So what they do is the, uh, the organized criminals


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[Assistant] They can either be a gang or they are traditional mobsters. They kidnap your possessions, hide them, and then will ransom them back to you. Unbelievable, right?


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[Assistant] So you have to be very, very careful and go only to respected industry sources to hire a professional mover. There is a website that I want you to know about that is the key to hiring a legitimate mover and it is the website moving.org and there you will only


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Be able to get quotes from legitimate movers. Doesn't mean they'll do a good job with your move. They could do a terrible job with your move. Doesn't mean they'll necessarily give you a good price. But they will be the real deal. And do not ever, ever pick a mover from a Google search. Unless you don't like any of the things you have


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[Assistant] So there, the moving industry has been able to successfully lobby Congress.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To essentially make moves totally at the risk of the customer instead of the moving company unless you either buy insurance from your homeowners insurance company


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or you buy it from the moving company itself. Take a deductible, maybe $250, 500, whatever on your possessions. But you want replacement value coverage that pays to buy you a new something


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Instead of being in a thing where they try to pay you three cents on the dollar, saying, oh that's old, we're only going to give you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Over and over again. Uhm, if you are, if you're moving an expensive antique,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Use a specialty mover just as you would for a painting. If you were moving an expensive painting, you'd use a specialty mover who does that kind of thing. So think about it. We've gone all the way from renting your own truck, packing up your own stuff,