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[Assistant] With various ultra efficient forms of insulation that will pay back in typically a season and then save you money after that for years and years to come. I mean this is cheap money for big reward. And you know my obsession


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[Assistant] With the digital thermostats, the smart thermostats, how much they can reduce.


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[Assistant] Your heating consumption, then next spring when we moved to warmer weather, how it can reduce your cooling expense as well. And having old heating and air conditioning units when their time is done,


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[Assistant] That's when you can have big impact and something not about heating and cooling, but about your bill. What temperature do you have your water heater set at? Way too often we have the water heater too high and so we're heating water that no one's using at the time.


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[Assistant] All these steps are all low dollar steps.


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[Assistant] But these low dollar steps can have big impact for your wallet.


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[Assistant] And remember, so many of these things, you can do yourself. Krista.


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[Assistant] Okay, so first of all, I'm a believer in solar before it actually worked out financially. I just believed in it so much. I did it, uh, gosh, more than 25 years ago, I guess, first time.


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[Assistant] I've done over the years where we've moved and stuff, I've done it four different times. Rooftop, solar. Three times, one time with a big yard I did a solar farm where it was on a hillside that was much cheaper to install.


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[Assistant] than having it on the roof and much easier to maintain. Solar pays off


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[Assistant] In so much of the country there are tax credits available that even accelerate that payoff. Are solar panels ugly? Yeah, probably.


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[Assistant] And that's why the new GAF system copying what Tesla came up with where solar shingles may be something to look at. The payback takes longer, but it looks like a regular roof.


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[Assistant] Don't believe any of the claims from any of the solar companies about how it will have already paid for itself by the time the last installer leaves your house.


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[Assistant] It takes years for solar to pay back, but it's a pretty decent return in most places. You gotta shop around. Make sure you're shopping for the same size system.


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[Assistant] Enormous differences in price from one company to another.


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[Assistant] When should you lease a solar system? Never.


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[Assistant] Never, you're creating a liability and a hassle. You buy solar.


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[Assistant] Even if you have to finance it, you buy it, you own it, it's part of the house.


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[Assistant] It's not one of my favorites because the costs, uh, can be pretty high on the Schwab plan. You know, you have the investment choices in the plan and they go up to, uh, I think as high as eight tenths of one percent.


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[Assistant] And Georgia has a good 529 plan. If you look at my 529 plan guide and you'll see what, uh, how to click right on it to do the plan in Georgia.


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[Assistant] A really nice setup for an individual cruise passenger. Norwegian, NCL.


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[Assistant] Is the company that has done the most over the years.


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[Assistant] One person. So instead of having to pay the huge.


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[Assistant] Single supplement that most cruise lines charge with NCL, you're in a cabin specifically designed for a single traveler and they don't rip you off. The cabins are really small, really small.


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[Assistant] But they are designed to hold the cost down.


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[Assistant] For you as a single individual going on a cruise and Kevin they also have it designed where they do events to bring together the other


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[Assistant] Single travelers on the cruise, especially early in the cruise so that you meet other people on the trip.


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[Assistant] And I wish that more cruise lines would design space on their ships to have single cabin, you know, one person cabins that are these very small cabins, but then make cruising more available, more approachable and more affordable for one individual sailing by himself or herself.


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[Assistant] Thank you. I'd love for you to work with a cruise only agent. Uh, there are agencies that all they do are cruises where you sit down with a very experienced agent either virtually or even in person.


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[Assistant] And this is not about buying the lowest cost on a cruise. This is about getting the right match of a ship, tenorary experience for who you are, your stage of life, your personality, what you enjoy doing. And a very experienced cruise agent is key to making that a good trip.


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[Assistant] Uh, extra person in the cabin and sleep on the sofa.


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[Assistant] You know, I do have a son the same age. I'm familiar with that.


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[Assistant] But anyway, uhm, I think the expertise of a cruise specialist, not with the cruise line, I mean an independent travel agency specializes in cruises, is really valuable.


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[Assistant] Cruise outfits, because typically they're only about, oh, we got this deal, this deal, this deal. It's all about price. That's for experienced cruise passengers. You need a cruise specialist who can guide you. And thank you for reminding me to mention that because I failed to do so.


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[Assistant] And I want to thank you so much for being with us today. Remember what we're about, you learning ways to save more and spend less and don't want anyone ever rip you off. And I hope you have an absolutely wonderful weekend.


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[Assistant] I'm so glad that I can welcome you here to the Clark Howard show and our mission is to serve you with knowledge that empowers you so you make better financial decisions in your life. And it's my favorite podcast day today.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because it's Clark Stinks Day. And it's also Friday. So it's time to hear where and how I have messed up and fess up to my shortcomings. And also I talked yesterday about something negative with the healthcare industry.


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[Assistant] And where things hopefully are heading on the prescription cost front and one insurer is doing something I find very exciting and grace is here.


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[Assistant] To bring you Clark Stinks cause, uh, Krista is out this week. She will be back with us next week. So Grace, thank you so much for filling in this week.


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[Assistant] I hope you have enjoyed it. And you know, one thing people don't know about you is you're fluent in five, six, seven languages.


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[Assistant] But it's impressive because I have enough trouble with English. Oh no. I am so impressed.


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[Assistant] It's great. We are so spoiled as Americans because you go all over the world and so many people.


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[Assistant] Speak some amount of English, particularly if they're under age 40 because of...


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[Assistant] Yeaah. So what does this have to do with Clark Stinks? I know. Let's stink it up.


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[Assistant] Joy, thank you for that. So I'm out in the sun, uh, probably more than a dermatologist would like, and I have a significant vitamin D deficiency that shows up


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[Assistant] When I have my physical, my doctor, and the testing. So I have to take a vitamin D supplement. Some of us, for whatever reason, uhm, do spend a lot of time outdoors and still have a vitamin D deficiency. But yes, you're right. For most people, it means you need to


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Get away from the computer, get away from your phone, get away from the TV, and get outside and enjoy the world.


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[Assistant] Pig butchering is the phrase used in, in, uh, law enforcement and also by the scammers. So if there's a better descriptor that


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[Assistant] Is not, uh, offensive like pig butchering. I will see if there's one I can use.


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[Assistant] Is that if you're reshopping while you're in the midst of your travel, you know, your flight's actually going, it's not.


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[Assistant] Yeah, you reshop the car and they're offering often a $15 a day or so cheaper rate if you prepay at that point non-refundable.


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[Assistant] Go for it and prepay for that car rental.


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[Assistant] Just want you to know that the car rental industry continues to have a shortage of vehicles.


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[Assistant] And people are still having problems where they arrive at their destination, prepaid or not, and they say, hey, we got no cars. I want to tell you something dirty that's going on in the car rental industry. Let's say you booked


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A compact car, just for argument's sake. And they say, well, we got no compact cars, so, uh, we got this bigger one, you're gonna have to pay us an extra $25 a day for it because we didn't have what you reserved. No!


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[Assistant] No! Do not allow them to cheat you like that. That happened to me recently, and I said, no, no, I want the rate I booked.


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[Assistant] Uh, a woman at the counter rolled her eyes and then gave me the larger car at the price I had already booked. Don't let them take advantage of you and rip off your wallet. You worked hard for that money.


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[Assistant] I'm sorry. I thought AWS was Amazon World Services, Amazon Web Services. I stand corrected. For those of you who don't know what Pete's talking about.


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[Assistant] What saved Amazon and has allowed Amazon to grow is they are the largest provider of cloud storage to industry and that's been a massive profit engine for them, not the shopping you do on Amazon.


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[Assistant] Derek, thank you and all the other physicians who wrote in about this. I appreciate you and that's why we have Clark Stings, because that sounded so


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[Assistant] Outrageous to me, and many of you pointed out that I don't know what I was talking about, about the rabies shots.


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[Assistant] So the trip insurance thing is such a difficult one.


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[Assistant] Because what's different here than like buying one of those crummy plans the appliance and electronics stores sell you and now even on tennis shoes they're trying to sell you service plans and uh, who knows what else.


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[Assistant] Trip insurance is expensive. It's usually 6% more or less of the cost of the trip. And


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[Assistant] I usually don't buy trip insurance even when I'm


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[Assistant] Buying a trip that will be non-refundable because I do quote unquote self-insure and I do walk away from the money if I have to.


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[Assistant] There are certain situations where the amount is spent far enough away from a trip.


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[Assistant] And it's enough money that I do go ahead and buy the trip insurance, but I'm not even sure I should even then. So this is one that I'm definitely on the fence about.


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[Assistant] Keep shopping this. Okay, so let me say I just did this earlier this week about


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[Assistant] Uh, Google's predictive analysis when the best time was to buy tickets for Thanksgiving, the best time for Christmas, New Years, came up recently, the best time to buy tickets to Europe. So these are just predictive tools. It's not set in stone that you wait to a specific day. Uhm, if you miss that,


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[Assistant] The Thanksgiving tickets around the first of October. Christmas tickets, uh, more like mid-October.


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[Assistant] Tickets to Europe, about 10 weeks in advance. But these are just averages. So if you see a fare that you're happy with, you go ahead and book it. Because remember, airlines no longer, except in rare cases, charge you a fee


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[Assistant] If later a cheaper fare comes along, you get that money back as a credit, typically towards future travel. In this case, you got $1600 now tied up, all my fault, because that date


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[Assistant] That you heard me talk about, you took literally as an exact date where it's just an approximation.


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[Assistant] Keep shopping those tickets to the Dominican all the way up to close to when you go. Hopefully the fare will come back down. You could set a fare alert at Google Flights and it'll alert you when a better deal pops up to the Dominican at Christmas. If the fare goes down at some point,


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[Assistant] Then you have that credit towards future travel. So I'm really sorry that


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[Assistant] That the date you heard me talk about


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[Assistant] You took as an exact date to book something where it's just kind of a zone of where statistically the fares tend to be the lowest.


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[Assistant] Everybody's gotta use, see I do best when I'm here, when I'm here. I do best with one and two syllable words. And we got, how many? One, two, three, four. Moloalderous. Moloalderous. Alright, let's say stinky. A bad smell. Stinky smell, yeaah.


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[Assistant] Howlin', okay, so what you're talking about is that


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[Assistant] As a tree grows up, the canopy of that tree can extend across the property line and you are allowed to trim as needed on your side of the property line. And if I've never said that, I apologize.


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[Assistant] But that, uh, doesn't go to the core of this issue, as I recall, which was a tree that was clearly diseased or dead. If that whole tree falls over, if it's a big old growth tree, it could, uh, cause danger to life and limb.


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[Assistant] Uh, certainly the structure of a house. And so, yes, you're completely right.


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[Assistant] And the portion that is on your property, it is your right to do the trimming necessary.


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[Assistant] Ryan, thank you. And Ryan, thank you for your service in whatever you're doing. Police officer, firefighter, teacher, uh, non-profit, whatever it is that qualifies you for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program. And that is an exception.


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[Assistant] To the normal rule about using a traditional versus a Roth. You always want you to do Roth IRA, but if reducing your adjusted gross income is very important in a formula and it is with student loans and payment for them and ultimate forgiveness, you're right.


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[Assistant] Do the traditional IRA instead of the raw.


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[Assistant] Bill, I thought I wrote this about myself because


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[Assistant] Maybe a little bit my fault, but this became a thing with some articles from foodies about how the Aldi cinnamon rolls were like the best cinnamon rolls anywhere. And they are. I don't know what they put in them. They're incredible.


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[Assistant] But I wouldn't really know recently what they taste like.


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[Assistant] Because they're never available when I go into Aldi. So you are right. And Bill, I apologize. The only thing I can tell you is it's helping you're in my waistline because we're not having any of the enormous calories that come with the world's greatest cinnamon roll.


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[Assistant] And what is it that Aldi does to those things?


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[Assistant] That they taste so ridiculously good. My wife says that they're way too sweet.


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[Assistant] There actually is some good news and some things you need to know on the prescription drug front.


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[Assistant] I've talked to you about the problems with pharmacy benefits managers. These are these organizations that employers contract with


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[Assistant] These programs, these pharmacy benefits managers are not necessarily bad.


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[Assistant] But they're definitely not necessarily good either.


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[Assistant] Because pharmacy benefits managers live by kickbacks. And so these kickbacks


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[Assistant] Should not being legal in my opinion.


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[Assistant] Uh, the very term kickback, historically,


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[Assistant] It means something that is sinister, uh, often illegal and it, for whatever reason,


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[Assistant] The laws of the United States never anticipated this happening with the prescription drug business. But what happens is your employer contracts with a pharmacy benefits manager who then, uh, fills prescriptions for you and typically mail order.


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[Assistant] And about 80% of prescriptions are generic. And what these pharmacy benefits managers do is they charge you typically above market price to fill those generics


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[Assistant] And the trade off is that then when you get a brand name from them,


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[Assistant] You're getting a much lower price than you would get out in the marketplace on it. So it's kind of a deal with the devil that I can go fill.


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[Assistant] I tend to fill all my generic prescription meds at Costco that are generic and then I get the brand names through the pharmacy benefits manager. The savings to me


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[Assistant] Are really pretty good because what the pharmacy benefits manager charges me is much higher than what I can fill it myself. And they're living off of my money taking extra from me and getting the kickbacks from the pharmaceutical companies. So blue cross of California ensures roughly 5 million people


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[Assistant] Got a lot of publicity, especially on the west coast, not as much nationally because they are dumping


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[Assistant] Because Caremark does all these kickbacks that increase the costs.


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[Assistant] To the insureds through Blue Shield of California.


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[Assistant] So what they're doing is you may remember if you're a long time listener, our podcast, we had Mark Cuban on talking about costs plus drugs, which is his discounter for prescriptions and they're building a big factory to manufacture. But even before and other than medicines, they're manufacturing, they buy them at the lowest costs they can find in the marketplace and then just charge you


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[Assistant] A service fee for delivery and a small markup. So


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[Assistant] Blue Shield is contracting with Mark Cuban and with Amazon to provide the prescription drugs


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[Assistant] At a significantly lower cost than they are through


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[Assistant] The CVS Caremark operation.


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[Assistant] And what I love about this is it brought more publicity again.


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[Assistant] To how the pharmacy benefits managers are ripping you and me off as consumers, as patients.


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[Assistant] You know, the employers don't understand this. They're busy running whatever business they're running. And they think they're doing good by you.


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[Assistant] By having a prescription benefit for you and they don't know what's going on under the hood.


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[Assistant] How these pharmacy benefits managers are ripping off the boss, they're ripping the employees off, they're ripping everybody off.


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[Assistant] By charging more money and then taking all these kickbacks. So know that it is your advantage.


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[Assistant] That our generics, what does it cost for you to fill it where you want to fill it? My case, Costco.


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[Assistant] What does it cost there versus what you're paying is what you're required to pay through the pharmacy benefits manager. And hopefully at some point,


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[Assistant] Somebody in Congress will care enough about you and me that they will outlaw these ridiculous kickbacks that drive the costs up to you and me for the meds we get.


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[Assistant] They don't resize. They don't resize it anymore. Yeah. Alright, so.


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[Assistant] It's a rare, rare problem that a jeweler that you would go to have a ring resized is going to switch out a diamond. I mean it happens, but it's very rare. If you want real peace of mind,


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[Assistant] What you can do is you can go to a graduate gemologist who can map the stone on your ring and when they map that stone, you will have a unique individual mapping that is for that individual stone that will show, uh, the,


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[Assistant] Imperfections in that stone that are not visible with the naked eye.


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[Assistant] And you can do that before you go have the ring resized. And then if you have any reason to suspect


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[Assistant] That the diamond has been switched out by the jeweler during resizing.


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[Assistant] You can go back to the graduate gemologist who originally mapped it, and they'll be able to tell you, yep, stone was switched out, or no, it's the original stone. Don't worry.


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[Assistant] Well Suzanne, we'd all love to do that, but almost no dealers.


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[Assistant] We'll let you buy a car on a credit card.


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[Assistant] And the reason is they have to pay those merchant fees that eat up a meaningful amount of the profit that they would be making on the car. So they might have to pay 2-3% for taking that card and there's almost no dealer that will make that deal with you.


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[Assistant] Well, first of all, if you're going to buy generic band-aids, don't buy them at CVS or Walgreens unless you just like throwing money away.


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[Assistant] Buy your generic Band-Aids at Walmart, the Equate brand. Equate brand.


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[Assistant] Band-aids I've used, I've had no problem with them at all, and they're much cheaper than the store brand band-aids.


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[Assistant] I'm totally puzzled by this Mach 3 handle thing, because that would mean Gillette


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[Assistant] Is causing a problem for its existing customers who have a supply of Mach 3 blades that no longer fit the replacement handle. Uh, if you had a supply of them, you buy the new handle and they don't fit, then wouldn't it mean that


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[Assistant] Even if somebody had mock three older blades and put them in the new handle,


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[Assistant] They wouldn't fit either. I have not heard of this problem. I wonder, have you looked on eBay to see if anybody's selling old Mach 3 handles? I mean it's possible maybe. And then you wouldn't be wasting


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[Assistant] The blades you've bought at CVS or Walgreens. So just a thought, but.


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[Assistant] I'm really, uh, I'm really glad that you've been using the generic blades rather than the brand name because the Gillette blades are so


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[Assistant] Incredibly insanely expensive. Yuck. And I hope you're drying the blade.


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[Assistant] After each use, so that your, uh, third party Mach 3 compatible blades


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[Assistant] Are lasting much, much longer than they would if you didn't dry them after each use.


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[Assistant] And I want to thank you so much for being with us today. Remember, we're here to serve you around the clock.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At Clark.com and ClarkDeals.com and next week when we open back up,


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[Assistant] We, uh, Monday through Friday, we provide free one-on-one advice at the team Clark consumer action center open. The reason I'm saying next week, it's Friday podcast, but Monday through Friday, we provide you that free one-on-one advice and you can see how to get it.


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[Assistant] At Clark.com slash CAC and I hope your weekend is absolutely wonderful.


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[Assistant] Whenever I read anything about how much money I will need in retirement, it is all about the balance of the 401 slash 457. How do I value my pension? I do not have a million dollars in my


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 401 457, but I feel like having the pension.


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[Assistant] Means I do not need the balance that many of the retirement calculators say that I do. Is there a formula for converting the pension payments?


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[Assistant] James in Florida says I'm married and I'm currently the only one making income so I max out my Roth IRA at Vanguard every year. I'm self-employed so I also open to Roth 401k at Vanguard.


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[Assistant] Here are my questions. Can I contribute to my wife's Roth IRA even though she's not currently making an income?


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[Assistant] Would I just put the money in her current Roth IRA that she used to contribute to or do I need to open another Roth for her? Also, can I both contribute to my Roth IRA and my 401k Roth in the same year? We file our taxes jointly and do not make over $100,000.


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[Assistant] Elizabeth in Connecticut says we're planning a trip to Spain in October and reserved a rental car via Priceline with Hertz and directly with Sixt. Both only offer collision damage waiver to cover the cost of the rented car, as does my Capital One credit card.


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[Assistant] Amica confirms I have no liability coverage for the rental under my home auto policy. Priceline Hertz and Sixt say they don't offer separate liability coverage. How can I get liability coverage for the rental? I'm also renting in France for two days.


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[Assistant] Yeah, it's not fun sometimes. You know, I feel lucky if I'm on time these days and if I don't have any changes in my schedule.


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[Assistant] Speaking of airlines, David in Illinois wrote in and said considering the recent lawsuit American Airlines brought, what are your thoughts on skip lagging and should consumers continue to book this way as a way of saving money on flights?


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[Assistant] Okay, back to Angel in Oklahoma's question. She says, my husband and I recently bought electric bicycles from Amazon. Since these were a bit pricey and have batteries, I started a search online to see if you've ever said anything about the two-year protection plans by Asurion. Is that how you say it?


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[Assistant] And they're often offered at point of purchase. In doing so, I ran across and got sidetracked on a whole other protection plan.


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[Assistant] And they name the protection plan. They have an unlimited plan that covers eligible online purchases for a $10 monthly subscription. They say you can cancel at any time.


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[Assistant] It sounded great and too good to be true. I did read under their list of ineligible items that ride on such as bikes are one of the purchases not covered. So that answered my question about the electric bikes. As one of your long time fans, I'm always telling my friends and family, well, Clark Howard says,


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[Assistant] So I thought I'd take my own advice and ask you what you think of this company, as well as the protection plans sometimes offered by Amazon on specific purchases.


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[Assistant] Would you buy one of the ones at Costco? Is that considered? I mean.


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[Assistant] Okay, this is from Jan in Georgia. Hey Clark, didn't you mention Amazon or another platform doing telemed doctor appointments? I looked on your website search engine but couldn't find anything. I'm wondering, this is a viable option to ER and urgent care visits. And how do you verify the company as being legit?


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[Assistant] It was an actual doctor's appointment, not a sick visit, but just for a medication thing, refill.


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[Assistant] And it was amazing. I got to choose from all these different doctors that were licensed in my state. I did the online visit. It was seamless. I really enjoyed it and it cost me nothing.


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[Assistant] Also tomorrow I have you scheduled to talk about dental medical tourism.


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[Assistant] I would also say, uhm, one of the other common scams that just seems like it's happening a lot. Actually, we got a call last week from one of these scam artists where they call and act like they're police and they supposedly have, like, your address and a pack, in our case it was like a package with drugs was sent with our name on it.


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[Assistant] And the next thing would have been go buy gift cards or send a wire and read the gift card numbers off to them over the phone and then all that money's gone. I just heard about a woman who lost $8,000 buying gift cards that way and it was at a big box retailer. I'm sure she pulled, I don't know what kind of cards they were off of the rack.


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[Assistant] And spent eight thousand dollars and the cashier didn't even notice the thing. So nobody will ever ask you to buy gift cards or wire money that's calling you for a police


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[Assistant] Alright, some questions here. This one's from Bill in New York. I'm planning on purchasing a new vehicle within the next two years and I have a question. As electric vehicles increase market share will gas prices go up as the result of supply and demand?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I asked this because I typically own a car for 10 to 12 years. A quick side note over the past two years, I have lost 70 pounds as a result of diet and exercise. My exercise routine is a daily two to three mile walk and that includes listening to your podcast. Thank you for being a part of that journey.


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[Assistant] Nancy in Ohio says, I recently got an email from UPS offering to ship luggage. Do you know anything about shipping luggage? It advertised that it might be cheaper than the airline fees. Have you ever done this with all your traveling? I have a trip coming up with Frontier in December.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is from Marie in Florida. I want to make a couple of improvements to my house and I also have $25,000 in debt and credit card debt. Should I take out a home equity loan and pay off my cards and improve my house?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Alright, this question is from Wes in California. My landlord will only accept paper checks for rent due to the fees associated with online payments. Is there any service I could use to pay her where neither she nor I would be charged a fee? I'm trying to minimize the dangers of sending paper checks in the mail.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Ruth in Wisconsin says I received a notice from TIAA that they had a security breach on May 29th. My name, social security number, gender, date of birth and address were compromised. My first RMD is due soon.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sally in Oklahoma says you referenced using miles to upgrade a standard or business ticket to first class. We have 75,000 miles through a Capital One card. I spoke to an American Airlines rep who told me I could not upgrade to first class with Capital One points.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's my pleasure to welcome you here to the Clark Howard show where it's all about you. That's right. I want you to feel empowered. I want to serve you so that you have more control over your wallet and can make better decisions in your life. One action I hope you'll take.


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[Assistant] Sign up for our free newsletters. I love that word free.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And all you do is go to Clark.com slash newsletter or newsletters and you'll be able to see how to sign up.


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[Assistant] That in today's show, I want to talk about something, you know, football season is upon us and sports gambling on football.


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[Assistant] Is bigger than it's ever been before, but I wanted to tell you when


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[Assistant] Too much of a good thing becomes a bad thing if you're into it. We're going to talk about that. And later, scamsters


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[Assistant] Are obviously a big problem hitting people of all ages, incomes, backgrounds, whatever. I want to tell you a new scam.


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[Assistant] Where they're ripping off people who are grieving, just having lost a loved one. How bad can it get? You're going to hear in just a little while. So let's talk about gambling. I have so many friends.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't gamble. If I ever do a friendly bet with someone, it's for a quarter.


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[Assistant] It's right. 25 cents. I just am not a gambler. It's not my thing. And if you're a long time listener, you know that Krista ruined my afternoon one day in Las Vegas. When I was there working, when she asked me to go gamble,


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[Assistant] For her on a machine called the Tabasco?


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[Assistant] Makes no difference. It still bothers me at this moment, just as much as it bothered me 18 years ago.


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[Assistant] So Krista tells me to play 20 bucks on this Tabasco machine.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which I lost all the money in.


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[Assistant] Like, I don't know, three, four minutes. And that $20.


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[Assistant] Bothered me the rest of the day. I mean, I am just not mentally equipped.


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[Assistant] To be a gambler. But so many people are.


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[Assistant] The problem is there's too much of a good thing going on because if you're just throwing a little bit of money away that doesn't really affect your life,


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[Assistant] That's one thing and you somehow enjoy doing that stuff.


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[Assistant] Well, you know, I would go to Vegas year after year after year for what was first called the consumer electronic show and then became CES. And I.


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[Assistant] Cover it for a variety of media outlets and, uh, COVID interrupted that chain. I've never gone back.


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[Assistant] But we'd stay at these big casino hotels and I'd watch people at the tables and I'd see people lose these enormous sums.


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[Assistant] At different gambling tables, none of which I understood how they worked. And it was just, I couldn't get it. I didn't, I just didn't understand the appeal.


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[Assistant] We're going to talk about that in a second where the sports wagering is going on. So there was a story in Barron's


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] About how the nature of sports gambling has changed into parlay betting. Do you know what parlay betting is? I don't. It's where people, there's all these very arcane bets you can do and you know what's happening in the third quarter and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How many completions a quarterback will have and all this stuff.


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[Assistant] So people, instead of placing a bet on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This team winning or that team winning, they're now doing all these exotic bets and there's more and more of those rolling out. Why? Because it's massively profitable.


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[Assistant] For the sports gambling companies. Huge profits. In fact the, the profits are four times higher.


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[Assistant] Because of people migrating to parlay bedding instead of just simple straight bedding and people are doing it because what happens is it's like with the lottery.


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[Assistant] Where people went crazy buying the lottery tickets, uhm.


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[Assistant] And so people are like, well, you're saying there's a chance, right? So.


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[Assistant] People are doing this parlay betting where when you place one on top of another, on top of another, if you hit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you get them all right and you get the payoff, all you're seeing is dollar signs in your mind and your eyes.


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[Assistant] And so the losses are accelerating.


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[Assistant] And it's, it is an unhealthy kinda thing.


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[Assistant] Unless again, you have money, you could just go when it's cold, you could throw it in the fireplace and watch it burn. There's very few people that can do that. So,


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[Assistant] If I'm talking to you as football season is just about underway, week zero, if you know what that means in college football.


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[Assistant] And you are thinking and you're on one of the online betting sites and you're thinking, Hey, I want to do this and that and that and that and then pile them on. Look at the payoff. Understand you're being manipulated.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In a way that can cost you so much money and this stacking betting for lack of a better term is leading to more potential for addiction to gambling. And on that score, it was a story in the financial times about how many people are getting addicted to online gambling and that it, it is like


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[Assistant] Any other addiction except people are doing things where they're borrowing against credit cards to do additional gambling and things like that. So if I'm talking to you


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[Assistant] Or there's a family member or friend you're worried about. Just say, Hey, I'd love for you to listen to this podcast and hear this because there is help out there.


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[Assistant] And all the gambling sites that advertise during the football games say, if you feel like you're having a gambling problem, call this number. Well, there's a reason they do it because they're required to, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The help may be necessary to break the addiction like any other addiction.


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[Assistant] Well the Financial Times story was talking about interviewing people who are willing to be interviewed.


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[Assistant] Who went to Gamblers Anonymous and how they got into it and how the cycle became such a negative reinforcing cycle. So you may wonder,


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[Assistant] What does this have to do with our podcast? Why would I be talking? Well, of course there's a football ankle for me, but why would I be talking about this? Because if you can improve your financial outlook,


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[Assistant] Problem, addiction, whatever, wherever you are on the scale, that's why I'm talking about it.


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[Assistant] Alright, I'm going to make a wild guess because we had this question months ago. Uh, this is planet fatness again.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, a good guess. I'm sorry, I've always called it, I've been a member for a long time. I always call it Planet Fatness. So their deal, typical club, it's $10 a month for that base membership that the health insurance pays for.


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[Assistant] It's 25 for the fancy membership that lets you go to any planet fitness anywhere. Uh, so many visits a year to another club.


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[Assistant] I do that one because I have itchy feet and I never know where I am in the country. And then the best part.


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[Assistant] Is I get 10 minutes on the automated massage bed. It is so great. I finished my workout.


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[Assistant] And I go in and do my 10 minutes and it's like, it's my reward.


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[Assistant] That's the whole pitch with going from the 10 that your health insurance will pay for to the 25 plus junk fees. So,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Part of their thing is they don't let you pay your monthly dues by credit card. You can only pay them by a draft of your checking account.


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[Assistant] So I have a junk checking account that I use for things.


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[Assistant] That are small dollar number things that I am not worried about them getting to the big money in my account.


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[Assistant] And I have that link to Planet Fitness. So that's what it's about and that's why they want the checking account. Now I wish Planet Fitness would do what the marketplace and the law allows now. Allow people to pay by


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So generally you would have to have big money, Andrea, for this to make sense. And what would big money be? We're talking usually in the range of above $10 million if you're married 20 million or so.


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[Assistant] And so this is not a cheap proposition to set up and to manage.


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[Assistant] The other reason you would do a charitable remainder trust for heirs.


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[Assistant] There are two different kinds of charitable remainder trusts, I should say. I don't want to get too in the weeds here. But the most common use is where you give the money to a charity.


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[Assistant] And you receive income from that. You get the current deduction or the donation.


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[Assistant] Uh, but you only get a partial donation because you get income for the rest of your life. And then when you pass away, the charity gets the rest of the money. That's the most common. Then the second thing is to pass money to heirs.


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[Assistant] For one of two reasons, and the one I just mentioned, if you've got huge money,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To get money out of your estate to eliminate the state taxation.


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[Assistant] Unfortunately, the taxation for your heirs is not the most favorable in the world, but they still got money.


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[Assistant] But if you don't have huge money, the other reason you would do one typically is you have kids who you love, who you'd like to have income someday, but you're not so comfortable with their money decisions. So it is a testamentary trust is one that at the time of death creates these trusts for your kids or, uh, and,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Ultimately, or whoever it is, grandkids gets the money with whatever rules are contained in it. So if you are very wealthy or you have


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[Assistant] Some family issues that would make this possibly okay.


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[Assistant] You don't go with the word of the financial advisor. You go see a lawyer who does wills, estates, and trusts. Because if you have the kind of assets you're worried about this about,


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[Assistant] You need to make sure that your entire financial planning is done properly


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[Assistant] With the expertise of a lawyer who didn't do


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[Assistant] His brother-in-law, her brother-in-law is Will once. You want somebody, what they do for a living is Will's estates and trusts.


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[Assistant] No, you're fine. The only problem with it is you're paying way too much money per vitamin D unit with this brand. I don't think so. If you're a Costco member and you buy the Kirkland signature of vitamin D3, you will pay


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[Assistant] As best I could figure one fifth of the cost per, um, dose what you're paying for this one through Amazon.


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[Assistant] Why would you pay so many times the cost per serving? So you must use this one that you- No I don't. I don't. I was just looking-


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[Assistant] So yeaah, with any herbal remedy or vitamin, you want it to have one of the lab, independent lab certifications since the FDA doesn't attest to the, to the safety or quality or the ingredients inside any herbal remedy or vitamin. But the, uh, Kirkland signature


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[Assistant] Yeah, don't blow all that money. Think about, you could go to Costco, you could have lunch at the food court.


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[Assistant] And buy the vitamin D and still have money left over versus buying the vitamin D from Amazon, Walmart, or Target.


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[Assistant] Yeah. So I'm really into the USP, uh, herbal remedies and dietary supplements because of the unfortunate, uh, studies that have found that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So often with herbal remedies and dietary supplements that what's on the label is not at all what's actually in it.


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[Assistant] And I recently shared with you from a study about all the problems with melatonin.


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[Assistant] So many, there were even melatonins that didn't have melatonin in them. I mean, how do you even explain that?


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[Assistant] And all kinds of ingredients that should not be in those.


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[Assistant] So this is a problem. This is a wild west problem.


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[Assistant] With this part of the marketplace and that's why you need.


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[Assistant] A company that is willing to pay the cost to have independent verification of what's in the item you're taking.


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[Assistant] No, I wouldn't say don't buy it again. Uhm, it's just...


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[Assistant] You're relying on them to tell you the truth. And I'd rather have that third party verification coming up ahead. You know, we could do five days a week, a scam podcast.


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[Assistant] I mean there are scams all the time, every wrinkle, everything going on, but the low lives who do scams have reached a new low in my book.


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[Assistant] And that's taking advantage of people grieving and I'm going to explain to you what I'm talking about straight ahead.


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[Assistant] Just when you thought scamsters couldn't get any worse, I'm going to stun you. What's on the.


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[Assistant] Scammers Hall of Shame Top Ten from the Federal Trade Commission is where someone dies and the grieving family members


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[Assistant] Get a phone call from someone pretending to be from the funeral home saying that they need


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[Assistant] Money from you to proceed with handling the funeral.


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[Assistant] NBC news did a nice story in depth about this and it is just absolutely shocking how low they'll go. So Lisa motto was profiled in the NBC news story. It's one of the people who was profiled. She lost her husband. She'd been married to for 22 years to lung cancer and


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[Assistant] Was, uh, obviously torn up and she gets a call out of nowhere.


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[Assistant] From someone claiming to be from the funeral home.


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[Assistant] Who says that she owes five grand, but before they'll proceed with any of the funeral arrangements.


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[Assistant] She's gotta give him $2,500 by Zelle or Apple Pay.


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[Assistant] And she completely fish hook in mouth, tries to send the money and ends up not being able to and


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[Assistant] So it was, it was flagged as suspicious. Thank goodness. And so then they said,


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[Assistant] Oh well, you know, since you weren't able to send it those two ways, let's do PayPal.


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[Assistant] Her son was there with her as she's just grieving so deeply from the loss.


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[Assistant] of her husband of all these years and her son says, hang up the phone, hang up the phone, hang up the phone. And she did. And then later it turned out it was completely bogus.


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[Assistant] Now, as she said, they just catch you at such a weak moment, obviously.


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[Assistant] And she went on to say there's a special place in hell for people like that.


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[Assistant] Is now in the annals of the top 10 in the hall of shame from the FTC and they want you to know


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[Assistant] How it works. So they scour online opits.


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[Assistant] You know, obits now that used to be a big part of the newspaper business with a printed paper.


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[Assistant] And it would appear potentially a few days after. Now they're online instantly.


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[Assistant] Often posted by the funeral home itself. So the criminals


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[Assistant] Are scanning all these posts and then they just start contacting one after another after another after another after another. And they're very well trained to be very empathetic. That whole Mr. Slumber kind of routine. And they're so good at being bad. So know this.


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[Assistant] The phone will say, on caller ID, it will have the name of the funeral home.


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[Assistant] The caller ID is spoofed. And so you're automatically in your moment of sadness and grief and the fog you live in at that time. You're like, Oh, the funeral home is calling answer. And it's this scam. I want you to be really, really aware this is going on.


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[Assistant] One of the stories NBC News talked about


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[Assistant] Was a family was at the funeral home for visitation.


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[Assistant] When the call came in pretending to be from the funeral home. I mean, these people have real gall.


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[Assistant] And so know that the way scams work is so much sense of urgency. You must do this now. And before you have a chance to really think about it, you end up having money stolen one way trip, no way to recover. So no, this is going on and


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[Assistant] I know in that moment of grief when you're in that fog, have this somewhere in your deep memory.


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[Assistant] This is a hoax. It's been around a long time.


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[Assistant] And it's obviously been a successful hoax.


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[Assistant] Because this has come up over the years and it is completely fake. So this was not a shark tank thing.


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[Assistant] And it's funny the, the branding Shark Tank has that so many criminals now try to attach themselves to


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[Assistant] The credibility that shark tank has in the marketplace and just cause somebody is like as seen on TV, just because something's seen on TV.


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[Assistant] And no way means that it's automatically good. And just because somebody says something,


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[Assistant] Was on Shark Tank, even if it was, doesn't mean it's something you should spend your money on, but the real thing here is it wasn't ever on Shark Tank.


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[Assistant] So I was, uh, years ago I was going to do a profile.


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[Assistant] On one of the shark tank people and mark Cuban.


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[Assistant] And I don't watch TV other than football. And so I didn't really know what it was.


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[Assistant] And so before I was going to interview him, I needed to watch the show and it was a very compelling, interesting show.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But being not a TV watcher after I prepped for that session.


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[Assistant] For the interview with Cuban, I've never watched it again.


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[Assistant] So first things first, Kirkland Signature does not eat Kirkland Signature dog food.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Kirkland Signature is on some kind of designer dog food that our vet has said Kirkland should eat. And so it's, uh, Kirkland almost died in birth.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] His siblings are 35, 40 pounds. So Kirkland came into the world with some medical issues. So chaos is on, uh,


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[Assistant] Combination of dry food and wet food and is the most reluctant eater you have ever seen.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, Winston Churchill will eat anything in sight.


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[Assistant] And eat it till it would kill her, which she's tried to do over and over again. I could have sent.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Kirk, I could have sent both dogs to college with what Winston Churchill's vet and animal hospital bills have been, but I digress because you asked about how to defray those expenses and pet insurance is


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[Assistant] Something that, and I'm going to say something that we get Clark Stinks about.


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[Assistant] Pet insurance is like Swiss cheese with a bunch of holes in it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so pet insurance brochures look fantastic in real life.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not so much. What I always recommend is that you go ask your vet himself or herself. You ask your veterinarian which policy they find


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Does the best job for their customers at their vet practice because the pet insurance industry


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[Assistant] Is one that over promises and under delivers.


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[Assistant] And the vets know which ones rip people off.


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[Assistant] And which ones actually seem to do a good job because they have to help as intermediaries with the claims.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you want to be really smart in any live sport.


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[Assistant] You want to have an antenna hooked up to your TV as well because if the game


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is available on local broadcast. You're going to get a much better picture and you'll see it 30 to 40 seconds sooner. Uhm, and that's free. Second, if you are using


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, YouTube TV on sports and you're having lagging and stuttering.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Usually that's not gonna be YouTube TV's fault. It's going to be...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The cable monster you're getting your internet from. There may be too many people on the loop, you know, the way that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cable companies do it is to save money. They do this party line kind of thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And if a lot of people are watching high bandwidth sports at the same time in your neighborhood, your quality of your picture will deteriorate. You could have the stuttering.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You could have all those problems. So it's almost certainly the problem of your internet service provider, not YouTube TV.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, you don't need to go, they'll try to upsell you to 1 gig service. You don't need 1 gig service.


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[Assistant] To, you know, where they try to make their problem your problem. You don't need that to get a good picture on sports. I mean, if you're watching sports 400, is it MBPS? Whatever it is. 400, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think it's called MBPS, whatever it is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That is plenty fast enough to have a good picture on HiDef.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're not seeing sports in 4K these days, generally. Not true 4K.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so I'm betting the problem is with the cable monster. Now one alternative


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is if at your address, if you're having this problem a lot, test having your internet service with the local monopoly phone company, particularly if they've run fiber down your street.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You won't have this party line junk that you have with the cable monster.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you may find that the problem is eliminated.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you said other people are saying the same thing with YouTube TV. And it's true that I don't know that actual humans live at Google because you can't reach humans there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I have not heard from other people that the problem is a YouTube TV problem.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So when, when I was on the cable monster, I was having this problem.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And we ended up getting a better deal going to fiber with the local phone company monopoly. Problem went away. So that's, that's why


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I have that bias that way and maybe I'm wrong, uh, but as best I know, the problem is not from YouTube TV.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I just can't wait for the whole NFL season. I'm so excited. Thank you so much for being with us today. Remember.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We serve you around the clock at our websites, Clark.com and ClarkDeals.com.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And we answer your questions one on one for free, 30 hours each week where you can get advice, information, guidance.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All you need to do to find out how to get that free one on one advice, which we've been offering since February of 1993. Go to Clark.com slash CAC. Have a great day.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] After filling out the bank's application online and giving them my social security number and my mother's maiden name, a pop-up window opened saying they were choosing not to open a HYSA for me. I don't understand. I have a Capital One high-yield savings account with six figures in it, an 840 FICO, and zero debt.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm confused. Thank you for the service you provide your listeners. I seldom make any decisions without perusing Clark.com first for information.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Erin in Colorado says, I recently received this, received this email from my credit card and I was shocked. Are they really doing this or are they just trying to get people to spend more? And FYI, I have many credit cards from various institutions plus my usage is under 5% and I always pay my balances in time and on full.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is uh, from the Cracker Company. We're writing you to let you know about an upcoming account review scheduled for September.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Over the last few months, several months, the highest balance on this account has been significantly lower than your credit limit. Because of this, your credit limit could be decreased following this review. And it goes on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Even with my Part D plan, it was costing over $800 per year.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One day I called Medicare about something and the man I was speaking with noticed this expensive medication.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He told me the company had a program to supply the drops and that if I met certain conditions they would supply them for free.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The conditions were not very strict, so I and my doctor filled out the application. I just received a three month supply free of charge. I hope you can use this information.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is happening to both phones such that a year ago both had full bars at home. Now both have zero bars at home.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The explanation Verizon gave me was that when they shut down the 3G network, all the 3G people moved to 4G, and it's overloaded the system.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] While this seems like a reasonable explanation, it seems suspicious, and to further my suspicions, I am now noticing very diminished service all over the city and country, county, not just my neighborhood anymore. It's getting worse over the last few weeks, which seems counterintuitive, as people buy new phones, less 4G should be out there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is their explanation correct or do you have a better one?


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[Assistant] Rob in Missouri, this is actually going back to what you talked about earlier, says I'm in the process of selling my current home with a 2.5% interest rate. Don't give it up. Don't do it. Don't do it. And we'll be purchasing another home using the proceeds.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When sold in addition to $100,000 in cash, making an approximate total towards new home of $250,000.


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[Assistant] The question is, should I consider my credit union for a loan over a local bank even if the bank's interest rate is less for a 10 or 15 year fixed rate loan?


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[Assistant] I've heard refinancing with a credit union is less expensive and I'd like to refinance when the rates drop over the next few years. Or should I find the lowest rate and worry about refi costs at a later date?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Mark in New York says Clark, in the event of a catastrophic damage to my home, should I engage an independent adjuster to negotiate with the insurance company or not? If so, where would be the best place to find a good one?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 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. In this episode, I'm going to address one of the most popular questions we've been getting in our Ask Clark inbox.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's a simple and inexpensive way for you to save big bucks on your cooling expense as we've been through heat wave after heat wave and here it is still only August and we got all those summertime bills for cooling to pay.


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[Assistant] There's something that's old that's new again that can save you money.


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[Assistant] So something that is old and much of the rest of the world, but is new here in the United States right now. It's something that is being talked about so much in the financial press that we keep getting questions for me to explain it.


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[Assistant] So first let me tell you what it is. It's called FedNow. And the idea is your money should be available to you instantly


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[Assistant] If you want to pay somebody or some organization or whatever,


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[Assistant] You get paid, your money should be available to you instantly. No hold.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Somebody pays you. You should have access to the funds instantly, not after five days or 10 days or whatever it is that your bank decides is when they're going to give you access to your funds availability.


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[Assistant] And you'll get a notice if you do a large deposit where it says you'll have this much money in a day and you'll have this much money in five days and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And they reserve the right to hold your money forever if they want to.


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[Assistant] Is adopting a system that's been common, not just in developed countries, but in many, uhm, developing countries or middle income countries or whatever you call them.


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[Assistant] It's instant availability of funds and instant ability to move funds. The banks hate this because banks have made billions and billions taking advantage of you and me on the float.


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[Assistant] Where money comes from someone to us, we deposit that money or vice versa.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And nobody has use of that money. The place you sent the money from takes it from you right away. The person who wants the money, who has the money can't use it and the banks are getting rich off of taking advantage of us.


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[Assistant] So the technologies existed for a long time for money to move instantly.


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[Assistant] For the receiving bank to know it's real.


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[Assistant] The sending bank sent real money, credit unions too. And then you as the customer,


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[Assistant] Receiving money, it's yours to use right away. No issue. The banks despise this.


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[Assistant] And FedNow is now available, but a lot of banks are slow walking adopting it.


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[Assistant] So this is going to become a differentiator where let's say people do a lot of business transactions.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you need instant availability of funds, is what it's called.


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[Assistant] This will be the way things are done. No matter how much the banks hate it and slow walk it, they lobbied against this for years using all their dirty money in Washington to try to stop the ability for you to have access to money that's real and there. So this is good news for you as a consumer, but you're going to have to work


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To find where you can use it. Eventually, I assume there will be an online database, not yet, where you'll be able to see the participating financial institutions in FedNow.


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[Assistant] And then this, this game the banks play was saying, yeah, we got your money, but we're not going to let you have it. That will end.


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[Assistant] But right now, you're the one who has to do the work to use it. Now it just launched.


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[Assistant] So this will, uhm, in fits and starts become available more and more places and is the way it should be because the reality is the technology's been around for a long, long, long time and we in the United States are a laggard with it. Now, one other thing, how do you pay for things now? Krista, when you go somewhere


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How do you pay? Do you do tap and pay? Do you pull out plastic? How are you paying?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Your G pay. Um, I've been reading that Apple pay.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is taking more and more, uh, mind share, market share that Apple pay is becoming.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, the primary way a lot of people with iPhones are now paying for things. And we're going to see more and more of that where people pay electronically and as we've had the questions and complaints about before,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] More and more businesses will no longer take cash.


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[Assistant] And you're going to see, uh, the terminals that you pay at become steadily more sophisticated to be able to take payments as some do now from your watch. My watch will do that. I see.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because I've tried with my watch and it's been wonky, but I do pay repeatedly with my phone. But this thing of not accepting cash, you know, I'm talking about your money being available to you, uh, place is not accepting cash.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Even with all the fees they face, you're gonna see that more and more. It prevents, uh, being a target for thieves, trying to steal the money, uh, deals with the potential of internal theft.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At a business or restaurant and so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Electronic methods of payment like Apple Pay, GPay, paying with your watch, whatever, uhm, and paying with plastic.


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[Assistant] So Jenny, uhm, this is going to be weird. It's going to sound like I'm being flippant. The increases that you're facing at 17 and 10% are much lower than we've been hearing from other people.


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[Assistant] So there are multiple factors going on at the same time. Your auto, the auto was 10, right? Or was it homeowners it was 10?


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[Assistant] The auto was 10. So we're hearing reports, uh, where people's auto is going up 40% at renewal. 40%.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The auto insurers have been losing money like crazy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because the cost of repairing vehicles has gone up. If a car is totaled, the cost that the vehicle, uh, represents current value in the used marketplace is so much higher than it was. The auto insurers are really taking it on the chin.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so the increases happening have been so large and ironically enough, I've been encouraging people to go to independent agents that can shop multiple companies. You're actually in the right place. Uhm, homeowners.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The homeowners insurance has gone up because we've had an escalation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In the value of homes, they're going to go sideways or level out for a number of years moving forward because home prices have outstripped people's ability to afford them. So we're not going to see these rapid increases in home values moving forward.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, floods, hurricanes, uh, fires, all these things. So it's a tough time to be in the insurance business and the increases you're seeing.


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[Assistant] What's your deductible on your homeowners insurance? This is something I'm encouraging all homeowners to do.


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[Assistant] Is raise your deductible, your risk profile to the insurer drops, your premiums drop. Just make sure that the deductible rise you do does not exceed if you have a mortgage on your home, what your mortgage lender permits.


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[Assistant] Raising that deductible should save you potentially 30% on your homeowners insurance policy. And it takes away the temptation of any small claims. Never, never, not ever make what is considered to be a nuisance claim


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On homeowners or auto insurance. The insurers, you could have a tiny claim or a giant claim.


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[Assistant] You're treated the same as having made a claim and that is a difficult mark you don't want to have.


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[Assistant] I want to thank you for bringing attention to this because no one else has. We've never heard about this problem with the GMC 3500 truck. I may be saying something you've already done, but there's a network of, uh, of, uh, parts suppliers that have


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Wrecked vehicles that people buy the parts from.


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[Assistant] And I don't know if the part that you need...


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[Assistant] Would be available from, uh, junkyard, but a lot of these have electronic databases that you can search.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And find whether or not the part you need is sitting there somewhere in plain sight on a junkyard somewhere in America. It'd be worth your while to go get or have shipped to you so you can get your truck back on the road.


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[Assistant] I mean, when something like this happens where the automaker doesn't have sufficient spare part inventory,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You've gotta really think outside the box and please let us know. Feedback.


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[Assistant] If that is a way that you can get your truck back working again on your farm.


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[Assistant] 401k thing. Okay. So it's actually something I support through and through.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it does have that cuss word in it, annuity. Okay, so when have I said an annuity is not a cuss word? When is it potentially good? When you buy an annuity that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And retirement used to be talked about as the three-legged stool. It would be social security, whatever money you'd saved, and a pension.


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[Assistant] Will today almost none of us have access to a pension?


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[Assistant] And so now it's social security and whatever money you've saved. It's really hard once you retire.


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[Assistant] To be able to manage the money you've


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[Assistant] Been able to save and know that you're not going to run out of your money. So this was a smart thing Congress did.


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[Assistant] 401k plans can, at the administrator's option, make available to you when you hit retirement, allow a conversion, depending on the fund plan,


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[Assistant] Of some or all of your money you've built up in your 401k.


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[Assistant] The index annuities, the fixed index annuities, the blah blah blah annuities that have, uh, 175 page contracts. All these are


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[Assistant] Is it means you're never going to outlive your money. You take an amount of money and in the 401k they convert it into a monthly guaranteed check for as long as you live.


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[Assistant] Fee structure, but it's really simple with


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[Assistant] One of these, they're just saying we'll pay you this much the rest of your life.


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[Assistant] You can go to something like the page immediateannuities.com.


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[Assistant] Put in the amount of money you have in your 401k that you are considering converting into this annuity.


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[Assistant] See what you would get per month as lifetime income with it. Compare it to what would be available through your employer.


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[Assistant] And that way you'd have a marker. You'd know if what the employer plan is offering is a fair income stream for the rest of your life. So this is a potentially very good thing.


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[Assistant] Because there's a big chunk of people who just don't have


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[Assistant] The knowledge or skills to be able to figure out how to manage money in retirement and make sure you don't outlive it and you don't want to be in a position where you run out of money.


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[Assistant] You're too old to work again or you're not well enough to work again.


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[Assistant] And then all you're left with is Social Security because you depleted all the money.


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[Assistant] You had worked diligently to save over the years, so this is a way of knowing you don't outlive your money.


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[Assistant] There's something you can do that will help you lower the cost.


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[Assistant] And it's pretty painless and it's old school. I'm going to talk about it straight ahead.


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[Assistant] Sometimes what's old becomes new again. We are suffering in many different places with really bad heat waves. And what follows is when the next power bill comes, well, stick or shock because


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A function of the difference between the outside temperature and what you set that thermostat inside. And so it's been pretty brutal.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so the answer of just sweating in your home, not a great answer.


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[Assistant] Where our power bills are so exceedingly high in parts of the country that have been suffering these heat waves.


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[Assistant] So I saw an update on this in Bloomberg.


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[Assistant] That researchers have done very specific calculations how much you can save and this one is a stunner. There was research done at the University of Sydney that found that 82 degrees


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With a powerful fan in your room feels the same as 72 degrees. That's kinda crazy, right?


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[Assistant] And you may not be willing to go all the way to setting your thermostat at 82.


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[Assistant] And counting on a fan to do the rest of the work for you. But the thing is the fan uses basically almost no energy. Modern fans use almost none.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you don't work that compressor as hard at your home. You get the savings on your bill and you're much more comfortable.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So Krista, you know, I talked about this briefly the other day about, uh, how upset I was about our air conditioning bill. And so then, as I said, we had the family meeting and our son who likes to keep his room, like it's a meat freezer. I mean, it is cold, cold, cold. Like I need an overcoat on to go over and visit him in his room.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, but I mean, it's really cold over there. And I said, I said, Grant, you know, I went over all this data with him. I said,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You should be running a fan and then you don't have to turn it down so much. He said, I am running a fan. I'm still hot.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, so anyway, uhm, this is something you can do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That you can buy a box fan really cheaply, run that thing, try it, see if it works for you, allows you to not run the air conditioning as much, and still feel more chill in the heat wave. Just a thought.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You, when you do a credit thaw, when you temporarily unfreeze your credit, you can do it for one day.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The odds that a criminal is sitting there waiting to pounce in a 24 hour period


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[Assistant] After you've been through an identity breach is very, very, very low. So you can feel comfortable doing the, the credit thaw for a day.


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[Assistant] When you go to do, uh, they call it lift to freeze. When you go to lift to freeze, they'll ask, is it permanent? Is it temporary? How long do you want it? You just say one day or two days, whatever it is. And that's all it will do. Now you're going to have to thaw all three credit reports.


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[Assistant] For that one or two days, because we don't know which one.


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[Assistant] A credit issuer is going to pull from. So that's why you have to thaw all three.


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[Assistant] So you do that and then you asked, how do you know it's going to be a card you're likely going to qualify for?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you haven't done so already, once you lift


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're freezed temporarily. Go set up a Credit Karma account.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Credit Karma will do an analysis and they will put up a list for you of cards that your chances of approval are excellent, very good, good, fair, whatever. And so if you like any of those cards,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You'd be able to apply for them knowing that the odds of approval, if it says excellent or very good, are overwhelmingly, uh, positive for you. Get the new card and then your credit automatically refreezes


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 24 hours later. The beauty of having the credit karma which will stay in place even after the freeze goes back into effect.


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[Assistant] You'll be able to monitor your credit, check your score regularly, uh, do all those things even with your credit frozen.


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[Assistant] Once the account is established and Credit Karma is free.


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[Assistant] Andrew, there's nothing for you to worry about. I mean, when you have a credit score, really anything above 780, you're considered to be a golden credit risk.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, you don't need to do anything. You're fine.


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[Assistant] You can apply for that loan, but do you know where to apply for that loan? At a credit union.


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[Assistant] If you're not a member of a credit union yet in West Virginia, join one.


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[Assistant] And credit union vehicle loans carry a much, much, much lower interest rate than what you can get from a dealer and much lower than what you can get from a bank.


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[Assistant] Expect that, uh, compared to a dealer, car dealer, you'll get 3 percentage points lower


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On a vehicle loan and compared to a bank about one and a half percentage points lower at a credit union.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You then apply for a loan for pre-approval for a loan. They'll tell you, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What the payment would typically be for how much money and what your interest rate would be and that's your shopping tool.


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[Assistant] As you're going out looking for a vehicle, never, ever, ever tell the dealer you already have your financing. Don't ever tell them that.


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[Assistant] Because they look at you as not a profitable customer. You negotiate your deal.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then when you get to the profit center of a dealer,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Called the finance and insurance department where they try to sell you an overpriced vehicle loan. You say, oh, here's my loan from my credit union.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you pay for the vehicle with that, but that's late in the transaction that they should ever know you are properly pre-arranged, pre-approved credit.


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[Assistant] What a wonderful question. Um, Krista for people who watch our podcasts, show your right wrist, right to the camera. And that is a.


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[Assistant] This is a Garmin. My right wrist is a Garmin. I've been, uh,


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[Assistant] Indebted to Garmin for the last like 12, 14 years, something like that. So this is not actually a watch, although it does tell time. This is a Garmin fitness tracker and I can see my historical averages, uh, all through the years.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the garment is always nagging me, go work out more, go do more, stay active, get up off your rear end, all that. And so that's why I wear this. This is on my left wrist, is a Samsung smartwatch.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Certainly not as smart as an Apple watch, but smart in and of itself. And so it ties in really well with my Samsung phone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that's why I wear two watches. Why wouldn't I just wear the Garmin? Well, it's a pretty dumb smartwatch. So I need a smart smartwatch.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm wearing my aura ring, which is the ultimate health and wellness ring that has three computer chips in it and tracks my health minute by minute, 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Every morning I got a health score and it's weird.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If I have a virus or something, I'm not feeling well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or a nose, it'll give me a score. When I had COVID back in March,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You would have thought that I was going to die because I woke up the first morning of COVID and my score was like a 35.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And my score is usually about mid eighties and there's a scale to a hundred. It knows what's going on with you and it's pretty freaky how the information


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On the Aura is great. You know what Aura did for me more than anything else?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because, or it doesn't do anything that helps you sleep it, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Models your sleep pattern and tells you, Hey, you need to settle down now. Uh, you need to go to bed by X time and it actually works.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It would. But the bummer for Aura now is you have to pay a monthly data fee.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which cause I was an early adopter three and a half years ago, I don't have to pay the data fee and the aura.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I replaced my twelve dollar wedding band. I think it was twelve.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With the aura, which was so expensive, $299. So that was a lot of money, but


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The value of more sleep and a better night's sleep? Priceless.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That does it for today for us. I hope you got priceless advice from us. And remember that my goal for you,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is that you save more, spend less, and avoid getting ripped off and have a great rest of your day.


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[Assistant] Okay, Jim and Georgia says, Clark gave listeners advice for handling robocalls. He told us not to answer any calls unless we're from, they're from someone we know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That is great advice. I was somewhat surprised, however, that he did not mention a feature on the iPhone that will silence unknown callers. I have been using this feature the last few months and even though I still get 8 to 10 robocalls a day, they never ring through. It is wonderful. Thought I would pass this along for your listeners.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Michael in Delaware says on your recommendation, I downloaded the app for, as you say, Teemo.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The selection and prices are great. On the negative side, they have bombarded all my devices with ads and all my friends that I have recommended it to with ads.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So that's probably cookies in your browser, so you're gonna get ads because if you allow cookies and you've gone there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, just like when I'm, I say something out loud sometimes and I swear Instagram or Facebook is listening and then I get ads for those things.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So if you don't set your, all your privacy controls, right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Crazy, I swear, sometimes I think about something like an apple beer. I'm like, what are they doing?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Different benefits. I actually signed up for it and I'm canceling it the one year because we ordered a dishwasher from there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the benefits of having the delivery and installation, actually I did the calculation, it made sense for one year.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Plus we could get tech support and other things if we needed it and you can get.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not five days a week. Well, we were four days a week before anyway. We always did remote work on Fridays for people who lived, who worked in the office.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, we get together, we try to have meetings where people could come.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Alright, well we'll go to questions now. Carolyn in Georgia says, I've been contacted by my local funeral home.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Alan in Tennessee says, I elected to take early retirement in 2020 and I left my 401k funds with my former employer's plan with Vanguard.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Recently I received notice that my former employer would move the 401k administration


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To another company, should I leave my 401k funds with my former employer's 401k?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With the new company or roll the funds over to an IRA with Vanguard or Schwab.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, Zebulon in Texas says, I work remotely and I'm planning to buy an RV, which you talked about recently, and travel for a year or two. I'm into genealogy and have accumulated a number of irreplaceable family mementos which are stowed


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I have seen unprecedented increase in the cost of storage in recent years.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As there are no rent stabilization or rent control laws in Texas, landlords can raise the rent by as much as they wish without notice. I was just wondering if you had any suggestions on a more economical and predictable way of storing my possessions safely.


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[Assistant] It's my pleasure to welcome you here 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] As you know, this is NOT a political show.


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[Assistant] But I am going to talk about the budget deficit today because money is green.


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[Assistant] And my love for America is red, white, and blue. Later.


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[Assistant] Amazon just settled a lawsuit over spying.


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[Assistant] Through their Amazon branded and sold


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[Assistant] Drama about raising the debt limit recently and


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[Assistant] Both parties were patting themselves on the back for coming up with a two year deal on raising the debt limit. And that was good because the default


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[Assistant] Would have been brutal for the United States. A lot of people who are into the whole political thing don't.


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[Assistant] But it didn't happen. But what is going on that was not addressed


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[Assistant] And everybody in Washington seems to be ignoring is our continued deficit spending. The national debt is now at 31%.


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[Assistant] trillion dollars. It's so large that it's hard for us to even get any sense of it.


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[Assistant] And we either feel like it's something we should ignore or it's so large we're just overwhelmed and we move away from it. And that's a terrible idea. And what made me think to talk about this is a gentleman stopped me when I was out walking our dogs and he was showing me


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[Assistant] On his phone he has the app for the national debt clock.


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[Assistant] And it shows the deficit going up. He says, what are we going to do about this? And let's talk about


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[Assistant] The problem, the problem is, we're spending money like crazy.


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[Assistant] And odds are if we don't address it, the problem doesn't get better with time. So our deficit now 31 trillion and likely to be 50 trillion seven years from now. And that means


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[Assistant] That we weaken our country so many ways versus our adversaries. We crowd money out of the economy that should be in the productive sectors of the economy. And we're just not being adults about this. And so where is the problem? The problem is with me. I'm the problem. Why am I the problem?


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[Assistant] Who are receiving benefits from Social Security and Medicare that that's where the problem is. We used to be a much younger society.