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[Assistant] And what you're going to see is not necessarily


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[Assistant] That we domestically produce goods that we've been buying from overseas. But what you're going to see is you're going to see a very haphazard effort to do trade with friendly countries.


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[Assistant] And what we identify as friendly countries at a particular time.


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[Assistant] And you're going to see these trade alliances where we decide these are our friends. These are not our friends and it will make


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[Assistant] The production of goods around the world, the movement of goods less efficient, but it's almost certainly a necessary thing.


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[Assistant] Because of the geopolitical risks we face now.


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[Assistant] From the Chinese and others that wish us harm.


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[Assistant] So there are all kinds of terms economists are using for this. Offshoring. Friendshoring.


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[Assistant] Uh, offshoring was an old one that companies would use as a way to tell their workers, hey, you know, we've loved having you at our factory and wherever, but we're offshoring your job. Bye!


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[Assistant] It's really going to become a new series of alliances and there will be.


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[Assistant] More supply chain creation in the United States specifically.


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[Assistant] And in other countries, we're going to do both and it will mean that things will not drop in price


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[Assistant] As quickly as they would have in the past, we're going to see changes in how supply chains actually do function because it is very risky.


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[Assistant] For us to depend on countries for key components. Think about what we've been through. My goodness.


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[Assistant] With $1 chips that have kept $40,000 vehicles sitting in fence lots, not being able to be delivered to a customer because they're missing a $1 chip that's made who knows where in the world. So you're going to see more and more effort to build things here in the United States and


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[Assistant] In friendly countries where there will be those that we've got such a good alliance with.


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[Assistant] Politically and economically that they will be, quote unquote, our friends, our allies.


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[Assistant] And that's who we will produce with. It is not as economically efficient as just allowing the full libertarian thing that I'm so into with economics, but has proven


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[Assistant] Again, I have proven to be naive and it is going to be a different era. And so trade will change and we will adapt. This is the thing.


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[Assistant] And you've heard me say this, if you've been listening over the last several years, I talk about how good we as human beings are at adapting to circumstances and it's not like change is automatically


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[Assistant] One thing or another change always happens and we will figure out how to adapt. We will also use a lot more.


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[Assistant] Robotics. That's absolutely part of the future of us being able to produce goods here


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[Assistant] At a cost effective to overseas because remember what is the element that you eliminate when you produce? Let's just take North America. You produce in Mexico, Canada or the U S.


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[Assistant] You eliminate an enormous part of the shipping costs, the time lost to shipping and the costs lost to shipping.


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[Assistant] Particularly with goods made far away in Asia.


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[Assistant] When you cut that whole part of the supply chain out,


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[Assistant] You create more efficiencies being able to build in North America and you eliminate the risks involved


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[Assistant] With somebody tactically or strategically deciding, you know what?


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[Assistant] We're not supplying that to the United States because we're going to be able to put a world of hurt on them.


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[Assistant] And so it's going to be different moving forward and it means we may not have


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[Assistant] I know that I just trended really close, right skirted right on the edge of.


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[Assistant] Deep offense too, and you may have a very different perspective, and I'd love for you to hear that, uh, you posting.


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[Assistant] So I haven't found any and we've looked, we found a lot that are one and a half percent cash backs. And you know, that is really an oversight on my part because when I travel outside the U S I never


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[Assistant] Take the city double cash because of the big foreign currency junk fee.


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[Assistant] A foreign currency junk fee. What it is, is it makes every dollar equivalent you spend worth only 97 cents. And it's just a made up fee.


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[Assistant] So you got 3% cash back. So you're paying no foreign currency transaction fee.


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[Assistant] And you're getting 3% cash back on restaurants. You get 3% on hotels too, right? Yeah. So.


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[Assistant] That's an alternative, but again, you're only getting 1% elsewhere. So you could have


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[Assistant] A one and a half percent card with no foreign transaction fees.


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[Assistant] And the costs go for the things where you get the 3% cash back.


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[Assistant] Okay, another one for Clark.com. Isn't that great? So, just so you know with Social Security, Social Security is a really complicated program.


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[Assistant] And when it comes your time to apply for Social Security, it's really good.


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[Assistant] To use one of the tools out there, there are many of them available.


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[Assistant] Uhm, where I like MaximizeMySocialSecurity.com but there are competitors as well. That one's 40 bucks to use.


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[Assistant] And it runs through your personal scenario, exact personal scenario and tells you what you're entitled to and what you're best claiming.


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[Assistant] Uh, strategy is so that you do in fact maximize the benefit you get from social security and


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[Assistant] That article was written by Craig, one of our great writers. Craig is a great journalist.


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[Assistant] Who's been with us a long, long, long time. How long's Greg been with us now?


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[Assistant] They are in fact in most metro areas you'll find right now with today's record high gas prices.


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[Assistant] That there will be a difference of typically as much as a dollar a gallon.


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[Assistant] The Dallas Fort Worth area lately to be able to give any indicator on that. I would like you to get on gas price watch and gas buddy.


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[Assistant] In Dallas Fort Worth and see if maybe you just happen to drive on a very unlucky corridor where people are keeping the prices maybe artificially high right now.


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[Assistant] And the good thing about gas, it goes in cycles, and this has been a really bad, ugly cycle, made much worse by the war in Ukraine, and eventually,


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[Assistant] I'm taking next week off. That's right. I'm taking a vacation week. So we'll have no new podcasts next week. I hope that you have just the most wonderful week next week while I'm off having a great time.


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


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[Assistant] It's finally time for me to hear how I could do a better job serving you. And it's our Clark Stinks segment where you get to hear.


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[Assistant] Where I messed up, I got to fess up and I got to do a better job. I love this, you know, cause I'm so into kaisan, the concept of continuous improvement. And so I can't wait till we do it. And then later we're going to talk about.


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[Assistant] What a great, great, great summer. This is going to be for teenagers finding work the best maybe ever.


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[Assistant] Dale, thank you. And you know, when I, uh, by the way, that's Krista reading the Clark Stinks questions, cause I didn't say that, did I?


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[Assistant] So, Dale, thank you. I didn't want to get into a back and forth with accounts. We had several people post that


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[Assistant] I was wrong that you didn't need to file a tax return and uhm, I believe that it's a great idea to do so to, to make sure that you've documented the income that then reflects on


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[Assistant] Having a Roth IRA, especially when it's a minor child and that's just my bias. So.


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[Assistant] There's obviously arguments to be made both ways on this. I'm not a CPA. I'm not a tax accountant.


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[Assistant] So that's why I kind of went quiet. The last Clark stinks when we had so many posts saying that there was no reason to file a kid's tax return.


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[Assistant] Bobby, thank you, and uh, Guilty is charged on the ugly inflation that we're having. I didn't see this. Uh, you know, I expected...


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[Assistant] Inflation from the, uhm, supply chain disruptions from the number of factories that have shut down because of


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[Assistant] COVID spreading in the factories that we were going to have a temporary problem and I missed how severe the impact was going to be from all the money that the Congress and the Federal Reserve pumped into the economy in 20 and 21. And it's going to take a lot of effort to get that under control.


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[Assistant] On the housing thing. I've tried to draw a contrast.


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[Assistant] Between the marketplace conditions going in.


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[Assistant] That today's housing market conditions are very, very different.


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[Assistant] Then what they, what we faced in 07 where we had.


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[Assistant] Uh, surplus of housing units in the millions, then now we have a shortage of housing units.


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[Assistant] In the millions today. So yeah, maybe I should not speak with so much certainty and conviction. Maybe I should say instead, it looks like the trends would be that housing prices will soften. They may decline some in some markets, but it would be very unlikely.


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[Assistant] For us to have a collapse in home prices. That would be the, uh, actually that's how I say it on television. There's a different kind of role I play.


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[Assistant] Is a TV reporter than I do in the podcast. And so I was just basically parroting what I said about this on TV two weeks ago.


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[Assistant] This is weird because yesterday my wife thought her credit


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[Assistant] To apply for a new card to replace one that she had that was a good rewards card that the rewards had been degraded.


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[Assistant] And so I, uh, it was, uh, a hopscott. She'll leave that old one open, but she's going to do her charging on this new card and not the old one. So there are legitimate reasons.


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[Assistant] That someone might rotate to a different credit card that would require thawing.


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[Assistant] But you are also right that Americans are kind of a wash in credit limit.


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[Assistant] It's probably me being lazy, intellectually lazy and personally lazy about the international driver's license because I've rented a car and driven in, gosh, more than, well more than 30 countries.


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[Assistant] And I've never been asked for an international driver's license, even when it said that you were supposed to have one. So that's me, uhm, based on experience, uh, being


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[Assistant] What could turn out to be careless if I got somewhere and they say no car for you because you don't have an international driver's license. So it's cheap to have one. I guess you could look at it as a miniature travel insurance policy.


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[Assistant] So, the reason it's so confusing is because it is. And the Biden administration is still trying to noodle what they're going to do about


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[Assistant] Student loans, the balances, as I shared recently, I am opposed to blanket forgiveness of student loans, but people that are doing public service work, police officers, firefighters, teachers, other public service jobs, we made a promise to you,


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[Assistant] Uh, we collectively, the American people through our representatives in Congress passed overwhelmingly on a bipartisan basis in 2007, I think was the year that if you, um, paid your loans as agreed on this income based scale, that after 10 years of on time payments, the loans would be forgiven. And we reneged on that promise essentially.


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[Assistant] Has a number of procedures where you can get credit for months that you were not credited for. So you have to slog your way through


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[Assistant] A very confusing process. The reason you were more confused than when I opened my mouth about it last time is because it is so situational and individualized. So you need to get on the education department website, ed.gov, get to the, uh, the public service loan forgiveness briefings


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[Assistant] The loan forgiveness thing because it has been so ad hoc and so messed up.


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[Assistant] Pete, thank you for the update so you, your first $6,000 can earn 4% interest. The good news.


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[Assistant] The good news of all the bad with inflation and higher loan rates, interest rates on loans is that


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[Assistant] Will ultimately rise, but first with online lenders and fintechs and credit unions.


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[Assistant] The traditional big banks, the ones that have those branches, that uhm, never have anybody at them anymore.


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[Assistant] Those are going to be the last to push up their interest rates. So we are going to see


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[Assistant] A gradual improvement in what you can earn on your savings.


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[Assistant] Okay, so as we talked about on a recent podcast, of all professions that you would never want me to have ever decided to be, I would be doctor. I would be the worst doctor ever.


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[Assistant] I appreciate you writing in about the reason I made that suggestion is because a lot of, uh, parents, particularly if a first child,


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[Assistant] Are so risk averse that if the hospital gave this formula, they're afraid to ever switch. So that's why I made the suggestion of bringing your own. I appreciate what you're saying that the hospital would not like that.


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[Assistant] Carlos, I'm so glad that you have been able to avoid a lot of the foreign currency exchange fees by using Zelle. I'd be more comfortable if you switched to using, uhm, Cash App or Venmo.


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[Assistant] It's the way to send the money because of the unusual architecture of Zelle that creates vulnerability for you with somebody getting into your bank account and grabbing serious money from you.


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[Assistant] The other thing I like is that if you really need to use something like Zelle, set it up with an account at another institution other than Navy Federal or USAA where you have just a small account that only has the money in it.


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[Assistant] That you intend to send to your relatives overseas.


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[Assistant] So that you don't put the money you really need at risk.


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[Assistant] Which is such an ever-present danger with Zell.


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[Assistant] Melissa, uhm, man, I never would have considered that. I just wouldn't want it to count as a claim, what they call an at fault claim.


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[Assistant] On your, uh, clue report for auto insurance, because that could ultimately make it difficult for you to get a deal switching to another insurer or to, um,


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[Assistant] Uh, roadside assistance or towing from your auto insurance policy is that some insurers treat it as a claim.


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[Assistant] And that goes into the industry database. As long as


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[Assistant] Your insurers, the two you talked about, they don't do that. Then that's a great suggestion.


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[Assistant] I have not heard before, and I want to mention, I don't know if we mentioned on the podcast, but I've now had two people mention to me, uh, two again.


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[Assistant] That I never talk about how a lot of Sam's clubs.


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[Assistant] Roadshow service that shows up. I don't know if you can see at sams.com when there's one near you at a Sam's club, but that's another way to save money on those key fobs. And I want to thank you for, uh, your feedback to me, your suggestions on improving.


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[Assistant] Your unhappiness with me, all of it is so important and it's all part.


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[Assistant] Of us doing the best job serving you each and every day as I learn from you. And speaking of something that's great, great news.


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[Assistant] There's never been anything like this summer for teens looking for a job. We're going to talk about that.


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[Assistant] I think about the years during the great recession where forget, uhm,


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[Assistant] There just wasn't any. I mean, it was unbelievable how bad.


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[Assistant] The job market was. Fast forward to today.


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[Assistant] We have statistically pretty much recovered all the jobs back to February of 20 after we had this massive, massive wave of unemployment in the spring of 20.


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[Assistant] We've come back like walking up stairs. So it went down like going off a cliff, but has come back like a staircase and now we're back pretty much to where we were.


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[Assistant] Labor force participation though is something that economists are all about.


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[Assistant] Still isn't back to where it was, meaning, uh, people in key working years, the percent working is still a smaller percent


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[Assistant] At a point where the number of people working is back.


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[Assistant] To where it was before, statistical dead heat of where it was before.


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[Assistant] The economy is quite a bit larger than it was then.


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[Assistant] And so there are a zillion jobs. That is, I mean, look at that in any economic textbook they talk about.


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[Assistant] Jobs in the zillions. There are a zillion unfilled jobs in teenagers


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[Assistant] Don't tell your parents, I can't find a job. There's no jobs available.


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[Assistant] I mean, there are places that are so desperate for workers that


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[Assistant] There are reports that somebody goes in for an interview and they say, okay, can you start right now? Like when? Like right this minute. Come on back. We'll start training you right now. So for the teen in your life, being able to earn money this summer,


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[Assistant] Is the easiest it's ever been. And the pay rates


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[Assistant] Doesn't it feel like it was a million years ago that there were all these arguments about minimum wage?


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[Assistant] Gosh, I'm trying to remember is it seven and a quarter an hour is the federal minimum wage. I think that's right. Um, anyway, today you go into places and you see, um,


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[Assistant] Is not talking about what food special they have or anything like that or what margarita they have tonight from five to seven. Everything's about we're hiring this pay rate for this, this, and this. And, um, I was, uh, Krista, one of your,


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[Assistant] Places that you frequent all the time.


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[Assistant] Well, I didn't get to go to Taco Bell that day either. Why?


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[Assistant] Door wouldn't open, and then I was like, well, maybe they're drive-through only. And this guy...


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[Assistant] Rolled down his window and said, they're just not open. Nobody came.


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[Assistant] I mean, it's, and they had this huge sign looking for workers. And what do you think they were offering as minimum starting wage?


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[Assistant] Which is why probably right now they had nobody who was coming to work at 12 because


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[Assistant] There are a lot of fast foods around the country starting people now. I mean, I don't know how the fast food operators are able to make a go with this because they're having to offer 16 or $18 an hour. No experience. I mean, that's.


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[Assistant] That's a huge change in the marketplace. So teens.


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[Assistant] Get out there. The jobs are out there, but uhm, also gotta talk about some simple decorum. Cause I keep hearing this complaint from people who own their own businesses that they'll hire people and then they ghost them.


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[Assistant] They don't show up for the first day of work, no call, nothing. That is not okay. That's not the way for you to behave.


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[Assistant] I don't care if an adult does it, a kid does it, whatever. If you accept a job and then you get a better offer somewhere else, please have the courtesy


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[Assistant] To call the business that you accepted a job from, that you're not now going to show up for, and tell them thank you so much for your offer, I'm actually going to go work somewhere else.


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[Assistant] Well I'm really talking to them about the conversation they have with their kids and stuff.


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[Assistant] We're going to only be able to work very part time and we've been having conversations about what kind of work you can do that you can fit around your flight instruction and we're still trying to figure that out.


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[Assistant] For people that are pilots will know what this is. He wants to go to 141 program.


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[Assistant] And today when you go into a 141, this is very inside baseball just for people in the industry.


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[Assistant] You have to have your PPL, your private pilot's license before


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[Assistant] These schools wanna take you. So he's gotta get that done.


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[Assistant] So Addison, the first thing you do is you get a fake ID that says you're 15, so you can go work in a regular job. No.


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[Assistant] I am kidding, Addison, I don't want you to do that, but I love that you have the work ethic you have and there's a lot of work you can do.


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[Assistant] In your neighborhood, just do up a simple flyer saying that you can do whatever it is, yard work,


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[Assistant] Uh, babysitting, uh, pick up people's...


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[Assistant] Uh, mail while they're out of town for them. Walk their dogs, feed their cats. Do what to a cat?


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[Assistant] I don't know how to do any of that cat stuff. Anyway, uhm, whatever it is, uhm, there are so many people who need that kind of help


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[Assistant] Around the house, in their yard, whatever bit, there's real opportunity for you at 11. And because you listen to this podcast, you already know I want you to save that money.


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[Assistant] And I want you to get it into a Roth IRA where it can grow tax free the next 50 plus years


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[Assistant] And you'll be able to spend it tax free and it'll be huge money way down the road.


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[Assistant] There are benefits to you doing the LLC. The purpose of doing an LLC on a rental property is that


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[Assistant] Only the rental property is at risk, none of your other assets are at risk if something bad happens at that property. So people do this one of two ways.


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[Assistant] They either buy a very large liability insurance policy known as an umbrella policy.


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[Assistant] To protect against unexpected events that you're held liable for could be any phase of your life.


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[Assistant] Or they go through the LLC process. Now you need to own the home.


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[Assistant] Or the ability to establish the LLC typically. So there can't be, uhm, encumbered by a mortgage. But an LLC is a very common thing.


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[Assistant] And there are a lot of, um, real estate lawyers who do these just by rote, just bam bam bam. They can spit these out for people with rental properties.


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[Assistant] So Jason, uhm, you obviously have the best of intentions here.


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[Assistant] To protect your dad, uhm, there are tax benefits.


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[Assistant] To if he ultimately would like you to own the home, there are tax benefits to passing to you at time of his passing.


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[Assistant] But in this case, you've got bigger concerns about what could go wrong and your dad would like for you to take this responsibility from him.


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[Assistant] So you want to, uh, ditto the prior thing. You want to go see a real estate attorney who will be able to suggest for you, uh, the proper ways to do this that would be, uh, fair to your dad, fair to you.


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[Assistant] And cause the least amount of tax issues.


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[Assistant] For you, the tax issues are really for you not for him. But what you said about your dad


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[Assistant] Another thing you could do is see an elder law attorney.


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[Assistant] And talk through all the issues you face with your dad aging.


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[Assistant] Proper financial decisions are good financial decisions.


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[Assistant] It is a subspecialty of the law, elder law, and elder law attorneys deal with real estate transfer issues constantly.


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[Assistant] And so that would be a wider way to look at it. So you could look at this from the very narrow perspective of seeing a real estate attorney.


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[Assistant] And just deal with that as a transactional thing with the property or you could go much wider at higher cost and meet with an elder law attorney


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[Assistant] And in New Mexico, you'd find several of these in Albuquerque.


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[Assistant] You'd find very few elder law attorneys as you go elsewhere.


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[Assistant] In the state of New Mexico because it is a pretty specialized area.


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[Assistant] As always, I want to thank you so much for listening to this episode of the podcast. And I hope if you find it really helpful and informative, that you'll share it with a friend and the relatives that you love.


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[Assistant] Jim in Virginia says, I got my replacement American Express Platinum credit card today. Normally I would cut up the old card, but it is too tough. I even tried a hacksaw to no use. It must really be made of platinum. Any suggestions to destroy it?


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[Assistant] Personal card, so, but yeaah, and I use them, I usually use my Google Pay anyway, my GPay, so I just put them in there and I don't have to carry them around.


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[Assistant] Alright, we'll go to some questions now. This is from another question, sorry. This is from Mark in Florida. Clark, normally I only write in for Clark Stinks. In the interest of being fair, your advice did help us tremendously when planning a European trip this fall. After hearing your idea, I looked at different getaway cities for our depart


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[Assistant] I reviewed the itinerary and was able to select a better connection for the same price. I had no idea there would be this much of a difference between departure cities but now I'm obsessed and I check every day.


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[Assistant] Could you tell quickly the story of your getaway car at your wedding reception?


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[Assistant] Nice. Oh, before we go to questions, did you talk about people asking for money? Oh, yeah.


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[Assistant] I believe we have a video on YouTube of how to make an origami heart out of a bill, like a cash bill.


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[Assistant] So you could do that if you wanted to give them a hundred dollar bill, if you were super generous and you can hold it into a heart if you watch our video.


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[Assistant] You know that. Okay, Joanne and Virginia, I would like you to know that yes, both my daughters, ages 26 and 28,


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[Assistant] Would read a book on financial advice for young adults if you wrote one, Clark. I even have your title, Adulting the Clark Howard Way.


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[Assistant] My younger daughter is getting married in less than two weeks. She asked me about life insurance. I said wait until she's married.


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[Assistant] Read Clark's info online and then get quotes from at least three companies with an A++ rating. Am I giving her the right advice, Clark? Right now they use USAA for their rental insurance and car insurance. My future son-in-law was in the military for five years before college.


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[Assistant] Well, she says her daughters are 26 and 28, so probably somewhere in there. At least for the daughters, so.


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[Assistant] And Diane in Utah says, I may have a wedding coming up for one of my kids and I'm starting to save for it. You always talk about travel packages from Costco and sometimes Sam's Club.


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[Assistant] I noted that they offer wedding flowers, but I don't recall ever hearing you talking about getting wedding flowers from one of these warehouse clubs. Do you know if going through them is a good affordable and reputable business to buy bridal flowers from?


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[Assistant] Yeah, it gets you several, um, bouquets, centerpieces, um, yeah, they have a lot of options. They have.


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[Assistant] And from Michelle in Missouri, I know Clark loves convenience stores. Can he please discuss convenience stores in Japan? They sound magical. Why can't we have great convenience stores in this country like they do there?


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[Assistant] A warning about this, this was last really big 15 years ago, I guess. People are doing it again. And later I have to brag on one of my favorite girlfriends. No, I'm not cheating on my wife. It's Costco wholesale. We call these companies that I,


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[Assistant] Really, really love how they do business. My girlfriend's on the staff and you know, fill you in on why they do so well.


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[Assistant] We send you advice about your wallet and deals each and every day if you want it.


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[Assistant] Totally for free. Go to Clark.com slash newsletters to learn what we've got. So


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[Assistant] Long long ago and far far away during the housing bubble, it was a thing where people were buying houses


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[Assistant] In what seemed like hot markets, sight unseen, not knowing the city, the community, the neighborhood, nothing. They were just buying them.


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[Assistant] I still remember a call from a gentleman just before the bubble burst who was buying


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[Assistant] A condo in Florida, buying in a condo building in Florida that was under construction.


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[Assistant] And he was running by his scenario to me that he was planning to buy 10 of the units in this as yet unfinished condo.


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[Assistant] Go there, learn the market, but buying 10 places is when you could buy, as an investor, really speculator, you could buy places, no money down.


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[Assistant] The banks were just handing the money out, looking the other way.


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[Assistant] And he was of a mind, as so many other people I heard from, that


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[Assistant] Values were going up so much every year.


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[Assistant] That he was going to take the bank's money and make this huge amount of money. Well, we know what happened with all that.


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[Assistant] In Fort Myers, as many other places in the country, we had this massive wave of foreclosures. People just walked away. Arizona got hit with huge numbers.


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[Assistant] But the one that still I remember so well


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[Assistant] Is there became this buzz about what now is the second hottest market in the United States, Idaho.


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[Assistant] But it wasn't at that time and people were buying real estate in Idaho in 2005, six and seven, having never been to Idaho, never seen the places.


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[Assistant] On these crazy speculative bets, they're doing as a place to live in, buying a home sight unseen.


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[Assistant] Not knowing the neighborhood, not knowing anything about the area, buying them. Please don't do this.


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[Assistant] With affordability and I'm turning what I have always said with advice upside down, inside out. I've always said that when you are looking for a home, particularly if you're moving to a new city,


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[Assistant] Because what's happening, particularly across the south and the west, where you have this massive sprawl of metro areas.


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[Assistant] And so in these sprawl zones in the south and the west, you're going to find the similar amenities. You're going to find homes that look very similar.


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[Assistant] You're going to find all those things, but what you're going to find that's going to be different is the price of that home. And so.


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[Assistant] I want you to look at the metro area you're looking to move to in a whole different way. You may find available just by searching online.


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[Assistant] What the average home price is in different counties that make up a metro area. And there are worse things you could do than start at the three cheapest counties


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[Assistant] In a metro area and start looking at them.


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[Assistant] Is places to buy a home and you may find reasons that would eliminate all three of those cheaper counties, but I just want you to know that


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[Assistant] In a market where affordability is really really stretched, being


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[Assistant] Uh, very strategic about your initial search based on average price points in an area.


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[Assistant] We'll get you to something like turning back the clock to getting a more affordable home. Just an idea for you. And I think about, uh, your, uh, brother-in-law


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[Assistant] Who lives in what is now the most expensive county in the metro area he lives in.


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[Assistant] Lives in a beautiful neighborhood with that same house in another county.


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[Assistant] Could be a third of the price of what that very nice home is they have in the county they live in.


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[Assistant] And that's an approach I want people to think about.


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[Assistant] Is instead of what I've always said is you pick the neighborhood first.


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[Assistant] And are they using this as a one-time opportunity to move to a cheaper area or cheaper part of the country?


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[Assistant] So first of all, even when the housing market cools down, it doesn't mean we're going to see precipitous declines in the price of homes. I mean, they would have to be


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[Assistant] Catastrophic events in the world that would make that happen. We have no conditions


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[Assistant] Similar to 15 years ago when there were way too many housing units in the country. Today there are too few. So any softness in pricing will not be a collapse in pricing.


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[Assistant] The way I look at this right now, Natalie, is that if you're looking at buying a home at 34,


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[Assistant] That you would be happy being in for a decade or longer and you can afford the home you want to buy.


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[Assistant] And then you'll be almost certainly able to refinance as long as the value of the home has held up.


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[Assistant] Have an opportunity that if your buying cycle is long enough that


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[Assistant] You're not settled where you would not be settled in a place you'd be comfortable living at. Think about yourself.


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[Assistant] At 44 years old, will you still be comfortable living in that same house, same neighborhood?


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[Assistant] Then I think in today's circumstances, today's conditions, it would be better to rent.


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[Assistant] Wow. Okay. So what an interesting dilemma. You own this home.


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[Assistant] You're probably locked in at a very low interest rate right now if you didn't also say that


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[Assistant] You're planning to move back in four years after your wonderful service to our great nation. When you retire in four years.


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[Assistant] I would say sell the property, you've got enormous embedded gain and I'd start fresh at some point in the future, but because


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[Assistant] You know, you're looking at 48 months. I mean, let's measure this in months till you're going to be back. And obviously from what you said,


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[Assistant] So Danielle, what an interesting thing you bring up in the example you gave of the car. So car dealers have what are called packs where they add on all these fees when you buy a car, including.


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[Assistant] Delivery fee of some kind, not the destination charge, but they'll have.


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[Assistant] Some kind of fee they charge you that often is 699 dollars or 399 or 999.


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[Assistant] That is just a made up fee, they charge you a documentary fee or something like that, a paperwork fee. It's just a phony baloney added on charge.


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[Assistant] Hotels do it with the crazy resort fees that they charge.


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[Assistant] And look what happened. Look how alienated you are from this sandwich shop.


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[Assistant] That you used a coupon, got a deal, got footlongs for six bucks each.


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[Assistant] On this deal and tip $6 and then tipped a wonderful amount of money. And then on top of it.


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[Assistant] What annoyed you was a dollar and eight cents and a made up fee. You know, when you're a business owner, I want you to think about that.


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[Assistant] When you hit somebody with a UFO charge.


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[Assistant] What you could have done to maybe get loyalty out of someone, it boomerangs on you and takes loyalty away.


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[Assistant] And look how mad Danielle is. And Danielle, it is, uh,


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[Assistant] A terrible practice to do this by businesses.


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[Assistant] And their customers, who can pull that off? We hear examples.


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[Assistant] On this podcast and daily life we experience things where


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[Assistant] A lot of people unhappy over the years about how they've treated their employees and Walmart does


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[Assistant] As perhaps the greatest anti-poverty program we've ever had in the United States because it has brought much more affordable goods to people and if you don't make a lot of money, your dollar goes so much further at Walmart


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[Assistant] Then it did before Walmart became this force in American retailing.


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[Assistant] Who just one day in going to like you and get rid of you can't happen there. They value their workers. They get part timers health benefits.


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[Assistant] And then for customers, the maximum markup in the store is 15%. Most items was 14%. And so wall streets always hated Costco because of those two things.


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[Assistant] That they do everything they can to treat their employees well, pay them well, and then


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[Assistant] They hold their markups down to the lowest in retail. Lowest in America.


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[Assistant] So they're like, hey, think how much more money you could make if you paid people a lot less money. If you went from full timers to part timers, gosh, it almost destroyed Home Depot when they had this lame CEO.


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[Assistant] Who got rid of all their experienced people that worked on the floor.


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[Assistant] And they went to part timers who they paid very little money to and knew nothing about the.


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[Assistant] Costco ignored the Wall Street message all those years. And now guess who loves Costco? Wall Street.


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[Assistant] Has the, uhm, highest, what's known as PE, any values investor, regularly knows what I'm talking about, of any retailer in the country. They, they make mincemeat of Amazon.


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[Assistant] And the company now is worth more than a quarter trillion dollars.


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[Assistant] The stock is worth it because of how they treat people, how they treat everyone involved. And so I want you to know that they are a special company because


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[Assistant] Of the way they treat people to the point that I saw an item.


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[Assistant] They're loyalists. They value it. You know, it's really cute. Costco sells clothing to its members that they sell like Costco wholesale. T-shirts, sweatshirts, hats.


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[Assistant] Uh, Kirkland Signature, their private label, they sell this stuff. And they sell zillions of dollars of it because the members are so excited.


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[Assistant] To be members of the place, they wanna wear the collars.


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[Assistant] I want you to know that if you are somebody who doesn't believe that capitalists can do it right.


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[Assistant] They can't and what happens when they do it right is the stockholders make more money and everybody wins.


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[Assistant] Haven't seen them recently. They, I think they sell them when we move into the fall, because people tend to dress up more, uhm, I


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[Assistant] I don't wear the Kirkland dress pants because they're too expensive for me. They're really, really


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[Assistant] Nice high quality pants, but they're more than I'll spend for clothing.


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[Assistant] Well I love the way you're thinking and it's like what I've talked about with paying off a credit card balance.


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[Assistant] A credit card balance, uh, what I've recommended in the past is pay it weekly or at least every other week because you're going to save all that interest over time and there's


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[Assistant] Uh, method called the Isensen method, which I first talked about 20 years ago, where if you follow


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[Assistant] On that loan balance with the student loans if you could set it up where you made


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[Assistant] And by the way, I've heard from a number of people who are federal employees, either military personnel or civilians with the federal government who are, uhm,


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[Assistant] Either curious or know that this is a terrible move. I love that it was referred to as garbage bit.


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[Assistant] You do not want to take what is the best retirement plan offered in America and mess it up.


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[Assistant] If you want to go do something else other than what you get from the TSP.


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[Assistant] Use other money and maybe in your Roth IRA you want to invest in these other things.


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[Assistant] Do it there. You still won't have all these horrible fees that are being put on this as an option in the TSP.


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[Assistant] It's got good enough choices and it is so unbelievably well run and affordable. Don't mess up a good thing.


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[Assistant] Enough said about that, although I'm sure we will hear more from people. As always,


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[Assistant] New option with the TSP where we serve each other, we help each other. And I want to thank you so much for being part of team Clark for today's podcast.


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[Assistant] It's my pleasure to welcome you to the Clark Howard show where our mission is to serve you and empower you. So you make better financial decisions in your life. Well, it's that time of year.


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[Assistant] Always in the spring, big news in the car world and I want to fill you in on something that is like an inflection point in the vehicle market and also have


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[Assistant] New deals in the cell phone world I want to bring your way. So I want you to know this is one of the areas where a monthly can consume, uh,


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[Assistant] Ridiculous amount of monthly spending that you can really attack when I talk about that. And I want to mention something also.


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[Assistant] An area where people have realized that they're spending too much money is on video streaming and there's a lot of stuff going on in that area. I mean Netflix, one of the biggest losers in the stock market recently because subscriber numbers are actually going down.


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[Assistant] And so people are consuming less video because they are doing other things. They're, they're not hanging around the house as much.


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[Assistant] And so this is gonna be a year there's gonna be a lot of opportunity.


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[Assistant] For you to reduce those expenses. We're gonna help you do that.


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[Assistant] There's gonna be a wave of publicity.


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[Assistant] With PR companies working overtime.


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[Assistant] To try to see that as many of the 330 million of us, or whatever number of Americans there are, know that Monday


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[Assistant] The F-150 Lightning is going to start being delivered to customers and Ford is taking a page out of the playbook of Tesla where they do a big publicity stunt around the initial delivery of a new vehicle.


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[Assistant] And Ford's doing that with the F-150 Lightning. The F-150...


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[Assistant] Is the most important vehicle sold in the United States. It is a powerhouse brand on its own.


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[Assistant] Really in many ways more powerful than the Ford brand, the parent itself.


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[Assistant] The F-150 is something that has great brand loyalty to it. People have bought it, uh, for generations and families. F-150 buyers are so brand loyal.


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[Assistant] To the F-150 that when they tire out a one, they don't next go to.


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[Assistant] With a huge push on the F-150 Lightning. And it is really an inflection point. Because to this point, when you think of electric and you look at the market share,


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[Assistant] Overwhelmingly it's been Tesla and then they also ran. But this is time that the big boys are coming into the game.


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[Assistant] And the F-150 Lightning from people who have.


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[Assistant] Reviewed it so far, the reviews have been extraordinary. But the news for your wallet, pickup truck driver, SUV driver, whatever, the greatest benefit to your wallet is going to come from bigger vehicles, SUVs and pickups going electric. As an example, the F-150 Lightning,


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[Assistant] And you're talking about a work truck, an F-150.


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[Assistant] Averaging the equivalent of 68 miles per gallon. Plus, the electric vehicles need like no maintenance.


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[Assistant] So Ford has bet billions on this and time will tell.


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[Assistant] Did they build reliability into it? Did they build sufficient range into the F-150 Lightning? But I can tell you, this is where we're headed.


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[Assistant] The United States is a laggard in the adoption of electric vehicles and


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[Assistant] Right now, I think 5% of vehicles sold in the United States are fully electric.


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[Assistant] And that's one fourth of what it is in the rest of the developed world. And so we are moving this way. And I know that, that we're used to what we're used to, but as you,


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[Assistant] As the F-150 lightnings start to be delivered in quantities where


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[Assistant] You'll start to see them and it'll be a novelty at first and it'll be routine. Once you know this is where we're going.


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[Assistant] And it's really your wallet's friend, but not in 22. The real action with electric vehicles is really a 23 phenomenon because of the difficulties of building inventory in the vehicle market. As I shared with you recently,


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[Assistant] Used vehicle prices have started to soften after their massive run up. New vehicle supplies


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[Assistant] Are just marginally better than they were before. It's the used vehicle market that's showing some improvement.


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[Assistant] But we are returning to a normalized vehicle market.


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[Assistant] More or less in a matter of months, not years from here, barring


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[Assistant] As I always have to say with a bold prediction like that, some unexpected event in the world.


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[Assistant] But you may not decide that your next vehicle is electric. That may be too much of a leap for you, but I can tell you with virtual certainty, your second vehicle from here.


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[Assistant] Will certainly without doubt be electric just because the price points of the sale prices of the vehicles and the cost of ownership going forward is so much better.


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[Assistant] That that's where we're headed. Now that said by somebody who got my first electric vehicle 10 years ago and it was a pretty abysmal first version of the Nissan Leaf and to say that it was a pitiful car would not quite encompass it. It was expensive, had poor range.


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[Assistant] The only thing it had was good acceleration. Defective battery packs, galore.


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[Assistant] And today the electric vehicles you buy have very good range.


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[Assistant] Generally 250 miles of range to, at the far end, 500 miles of range.


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[Assistant] And 300 miles plus of range, very common now.


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[Assistant] And that works for pretty much almost every situation. I have uh, driven my electric vehicle, not the Leaf, but


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[Assistant] The Tesla that I have, I've driven it all over the place.


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[Assistant] Um, and the interstate system has so many fast chargers along the road that I found it to be no inconvenience at all driving electric. And that will be your experience you'll find moving forward. And this is moving from the pioneer stage through the settler stage. We're moving into the mainstream stage. And I think Krista, who is now with me, I think about a conversation we had the other day.


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[Assistant] Where we were talking about gas prices and strategizing to give the best help to people with gas prices and


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[Assistant] We were having a problem because so many people on our staff


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[Assistant] Have already converted to electric. We were having trouble finding out what gas prices were without looking them up.


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[Assistant] Because we didn't have the experience in the meeting of who knew what gas prices they just paid.


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[Assistant] Total on a charge and your kids school is 1.1 miles away from your home. It's perfect. So it whole week of travel to and from school on that charge. Uh, but generally 30 miles range, who's going to do that except maybe someone riding an electric bike, right?


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[Assistant] Going 60 miles an hour to 75 miles an hour, I think your fuel economy drops 40% somewhere in that range. So it's completely true.


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[Assistant] Well, Elizabeth, first of all, you keep a vehicle a very, very long time.


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[Assistant] And given a choice in your case, looking at buying a vehicle and you said 6 to 12 months,


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[Assistant] If you were to wait till next year as I was just talking about, about availability of vehicles getting better, the sweet spot for you would actually be a hybrid


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[Assistant] Not necessarily an electric, unless there was a deal on an electric where you still qualified for the $7,500 federal tax credit.


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[Assistant] Plus whatever state tax credit might be available in your state.


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[Assistant] If there was an electric vehicle that was roughly equivalent in price.


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[Assistant] Then at the mileage you drive, an electric vehicle would work very well for you, but you're probably going to find next year that a hybrid that will get great fuel economy


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[Assistant] Uh, will serve you very well for at least a decade moving forward. You know, we're not suddenly, this isn't a light switch thing. We're not going from.


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[Assistant] All gasoline powered, all electric vehicles like that. This is going to be, uh,


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[Assistant] A full generational process. So there are way stations along the way.


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[Assistant] And a hybrid or even something that's a little step further, what's known as a plug-in hybrid, where if you drive 30 or less miles a day, you're running as an electric vehicle.


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[Assistant] And then beyond that, it just automatically switches to being like a traditional hybrid


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[Assistant] Gas electric, that could be a reasonable choice next year as well. But again, the price point of the purchase of the vehicle is going to be important. I'll give you an example. One of the most popular hybrids before we went into all the crazy shortages was the RAV4 hybrid that you could get in the upper twenties, uh, before all the supply chain disruptions.


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[Assistant] And that was so much cheaper than the typical electric.


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[Assistant] What the true marketplace prices are going to be.


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[Assistant] In fact, you ought to ask me the question a year from now and I can give you a targeted answer on that.


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[Assistant] So you said something really important, Rick. You said that they are both full-time college students.


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[Assistant] Most every college in the United States offers a student health insurance policy. Uh, people that are younger.


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[Assistant] Unless they have a pre-existing chronic illness tend to not have a lot of medical problems and so these policies tend to be


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[Assistant] Really inexpensive that are offered to college students. College students as a general rule are a very, very favorable demographic for insurers to underwrite. So buying it from the college that your daughters attend, and I don't know if they're the same college or not, but buying it from the college is the best course of action for anybody with a full-time college student.


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[Assistant] And coming up, want to tell you.


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[Assistant] There are some new cell phone plans that are getting friendlier and friendlier and friendlier for your wallet. If you are a creature of habit and stayed in the same plan you're with, I know you're paying too much. Alan, if you get out there and you shop the market, there's a new


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[Assistant] Low price leader for family plans and it's one that does not promote itself. And there's a specific business reason for it, but it's Google Fi, which is the cell phone operation of Google. So for a family plan, you pay 80 bucks total for four people, unlimited talk, text, and data.


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[Assistant] No frills kind of plan, that's all it does pretty much, has some hotspot to it, but that's, uh, that's, well I say that's it, that's pretty much it. But what you get with it is you get unlimited data in the US, Canada, and Mexico.


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[Assistant] For a lot of people travel outside the United States or at least outside of North America is not part of your normal routine and life. And so this is quite a deal.


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[Assistant] Google Fi is using technology, very similar.


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[Assistant] So what the cable companies that have become very price competitive on individual and family cell phone plans is they're backboning hotspots, wifi,


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[Assistant] And then traditional cellular knowing that 80% of the time the average American cell phone user


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[Assistant] Is at a spot where they trust the wifi where they are. So now more and more plans are available that know that 80% rule and know that they are actually incurring basically zero cost.


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[Assistant] As you were using your cell phone and any function on it.


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[Assistant] Where you have Wi-Fi or you're on somebody's hot spot or whatever, but really Wi-Fi has been the key, the Wi-Fi backbone at Trusted Wi-Fi. Those of you that are customers of Comcast for home internet,


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[Assistant] Xfinity, they like to use that brand naming now for it. Part of your monthly fee


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[Assistant] Is permission you've given Comcast to use your internet connection you're paying for to provide cellular service to its cellular customers. So is somebody is in a neighborhood. They may be drawing on your wifi.


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[Assistant] Particularly if you are someone who doesn't need unlimited data.


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[Assistant] I've been telling you recently about all the inexpensive plans available when you don't need unlimited data.


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[Assistant] Generally $10 a month or $15 a month are the two most popular price points for that.


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[Assistant] We have a guide at Clark.com that walks you through


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[Assistant] How to find for your particular circumstance the best service available to you. Cell phone carriers are terrified


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[Assistant] Uh, Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile are terrified.


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[Assistant] Of all the new cheaper plans that have come into the marketplace.


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[Assistant] And that's why they're dangling the free phones at you or the extra cheap phones. But remember you only get the free or cheap if you stay with them.


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[Assistant] Either two more years or three more years.


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[Assistant] And so they're doing this, they're doing this game of distracting you. Look over here, look over here, not over here.


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[Assistant] Trying to get you to look not at what your monthly bill is with them that may be twice what you need to pay today versus the free phone


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[Assistant] And the whole free phone thing, what a joke. By the way, Google Fi does work on most iPhones.


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[Assistant] And, but if you are an android person, they're offering huge subsidies.


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[Assistant] On some of the best of the Android phones in the marketplace.


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[Assistant] Where they're just absorbing the cost. You buy the phone at the discount from them upfront and you own that phone free and clear from that point forward.


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[Assistant] So a lot of choice, go compare plans on our plan guide and know that it may really be worth it to go through the initial pain to pay off whatever phone you've got.


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[Assistant] And go shop in the marketplace for the much, much better deals now available for individuals, couples and families.


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[Assistant] And Krista, it's time for some questions from you. And I see we're starting with one that we've been getting deluged with complaints about, and that's the service meltdowns from JetBlue.


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[Assistant] I've now had the opportunity to have off the record conversations with three different JetBlue pilots. I go up, I see them in uniform and I go up and talk to them in airports and they are embarrassed. They are furious and they can't believe that JetBlue in the midst of


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[Assistant] Not having its service act together at all.


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[Assistant] Is wasting management energy and attention on trying to buy spirit, which any industry analyst is like, what in the world is JetBlue thinking? And then their response to people


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[Assistant] Has been impossible. You can't reach people at JetBlue.


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[Assistant] If you do reach them, they say, Oh, we're really sorry. Here's $50 of future travel. I mean, come on, come on. I mean.


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[Assistant] This is, this is a situation that requires 100% management focus at JetBlue.


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[Assistant] While back, American had a problem. Delta had a problem. I could start, uh, Spirit has had a problem. I could start naming virtually every airline has had


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[Assistant] And as demand has come back, scheduling people put way too many flights into the schedules.


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[Assistant] And they didn't have enough staff to fly them and then you have any kind of weather problem, they're done.


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[Assistant] You file a complaint, Jeff, at dot.gov. JetBlue will need to respond to that and


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[Assistant] The credit card you use to travel when you have a flight interruption, something, a big disruption in travel.


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[Assistant] The credit card you use within a period of time you may be able to file a claim with them and you may be able to recoup


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[Assistant] Some of that sunk cost money from that cruise you didn't get to take.


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[Assistant] Depending on the credit card you used.


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[Assistant] In the last two months I've gotten is there've been all these service meltdowns at the airlines. I've gotten notices from three different credit cards telling me that, Hey, you know, if your flight gets all messed up, here's what you get from us. And I thought that was very clever marketing for the credit card companies to be doing. And that may be a source of compensation for you. In addition,


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[Assistant] To whatever ends up happening with JetBlue, and I'm really, really sorry, Jeff, for you and all the others we've heard from about JetBlue, which was at one time the most respected airline in the United States.


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[Assistant] And as my brother says, people are policy, management is everything. And JetBlue...


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[Assistant] Obviously as a rudderless airline right now with just a complete lack of sophisticated leadership that has led


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[Assistant] These kind of problems. And I've always loved Jet Blues. This is hard for me to say, Krista, but they gotta get it together.


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[Assistant] I don't want the wrong, I don't want the lesson to be that oh no, the airlines are so messed up, you need to go two days before and have the extra expensive hotel and all that. This is hopefully an outlier and the airlines need to grow up and cut back their schedules to the point


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[Assistant] With the number of train pilots, flight attendants, and ground personnel.


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[Assistant] That they actually have on hand instead of treating us like chopped liver.


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[Assistant] So Pedro, uhm, first of all, I'm very impressed with how you've gone through this process, where you're giving two people like


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[Assistant] Uh, and on the job audition if you will. But the thing is, whoever performs best in a short number of years isn't necessarily who will perform for you over the long haul. It's really more about who you connect with the most when you're dealing


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[Assistant] With a fiduciary financial advisor, that's somebody who legally is compelled to do only what's in your best interest. It's, it's more a thing of


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[Assistant] Who is asking you the right questions, not necessarily about asset allocation, but what your goals are, how they're going to help you achieve those goals. Thinking through the things like, do you have your assets properly protected and have you figured out who's going to get them


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[Assistant] At the time you were to pass away or one of you passes away and the other is still around.


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[Assistant] How are you going to handle that? It's more about the comprehensive stuff Pedro than it is just simple.


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[Assistant] They asset allocate this way, this other one asset allocates that way. So I think you've obviously saved enough money as a couple that if you want to leave it


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[Assistant] With two advisors competing against each other for even years to come till it becomes really clear.


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[Assistant] That you prefer the style, personality, and connection to one versus the other? I think that's fine.


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[Assistant] But don't go just with performance, because performance


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[Assistant] Over a shorter period of time is not a true indicator.


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[Assistant] of how somebody's strategy will work over the years, over the decades.


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[Assistant] In the industry now there are what are called price break points with a lot of fiduciary financial advisory services where the more assets you have with one the lower you pay as a percent of asset fee and that is a really valid point.


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[Assistant] Yeah, inflation protected securities funds are ones that are designed to get you the return of inflation over time.


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[Assistant] What's happened when you look at a ETF fund, I mean, sorry, when you look at, uh,


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[Assistant] Inflation protected fund or you look at inflation protected ETF is in the short term.


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[Assistant] Uh, inflation protected funds, particularly ETFs, which are traded at a rapid rate, have had


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[Assistant] Uh, significant temporary drops in value, but that's not the purpose of having in my book an inflation protected securities


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[Assistant] Fund or ETF. It is a long term play and don't worry so much about the short term hit you're suffering from.


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[Assistant] And where those funds are priced and those ETFs are right now. If on the other hand, it's all about


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[Assistant] Trying to keep the price fixed on those.


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[Assistant] You should at least be putting the 10 grand a year per family member.


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[Assistant] into the Series I savings bonds where you know you'll hold your value


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[Assistant] And you'll simply get the rate of inflation in those. And I want to thank you so much.


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[Assistant] For taking time out of your day to join us for this episode.


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[Assistant] If you would like one on one advice, that is a free service we have offered for nearly 30 years now. The Team Clark Consumer Action Center will answer your questions.


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[Assistant] This is from Karen in Oklahoma. I went to my bank to get change for $100 bill. They asked me for my account number and I thought it was weird. Why do they want my account number to give me change? They said it was because they charge non-customers. I'm wondering if this is the government wanting documentation of my banking transactions. What do you think? Would a credit union do this too?


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[Assistant] This is from Edward in Pennsylvania. The bill for a recent dinner at a local restaurant contained a few charges that caught me by surprise. For one, the charges for each item were higher than the prices that appeared on the menu. And to add insult to injury, there was a utility fee of a dollar 20 for using a credit card for payment. Is this a usual and customary practice?


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[Assistant] This is from Rob in Oklahoma. My daughter and her husband age 25 are getting ready to make their first home purchase. I put my daughter on my credit card long ago and she's had student loans that she paid off. So her credit is pretty good. However, her husband has never had a credit card and has no credit score. So when it comes to applying for the mortgage loan, they're only using my daughter's credit.


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[Assistant] How is the best way or what's the best way to get her husband a credit score quickly? Their financial advisor suggested adding my son-in-law to our credit card. Of course, like my daughter, he would never use it without permission. What would be your advice in this situation?


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[Assistant] No, especially before we had Waze, you know, and things to, to tell us where the traffic was. Thank goodness for that. Now we're seeing when we had, you know.


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[Assistant] Nothing with us and we had to figure it out, it was a lot harder.


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[Assistant] We check our bank and credit card statements regularly. What else do we need to do?


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[Assistant] I feel like this option is more robust than just looking at cheap flights. I've looked at Costco Travel in the past for this, but I'm not blown away by some of the deals.


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


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[Assistant] That the marketplace in the United States has been crying out for, for a couple of generations.


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[Assistant] And is finally adopting to and where it could really be a benefit to you. Also, I want to talk about the cost issues with healthcare and two non-traditional players that could be a part of improving your health.


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[Assistant] Various apprenticeship programs that are available where you get paid while you learn first, uhm, learning the skills and they lead ultimately to, I guess at age 21.


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[Assistant] If you complete the cycle, the program, you become a licensed electrician. It's one of the fields that has an aging workforce.


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[Assistant] Just like, uh, plumbing and HVAC. Those three.


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[Assistant] All are suffering from an aging workforce having difficulty attracting younger workers and historically


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[Assistant] Have had more or less in other countries less here.


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[Assistant] The idea of paid apprenticeship programs. Well, the idea of apprenticeships is something I've been so into for, um, for a long, long, long time because we have this problem in the United States that is only magnified


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[Assistant] Where employers are looking for people of certain skills.


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[Assistant] And there are people who'd like a better job path, a potential career path, but they don't have the skills and the two never seem to meet. So apprenticeship programs are going to become routine and mainstream in the college and technical college setting.


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[Assistant] Where you will be able to enter into a combination of education and work. And for example, with Grant's friend, there was a program for learning how to be an electrician where you go to school, you work,


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[Assistant] And you earn $12 an hour while you're doing that. So instead of you paying money for the education, you're being paid because you're providing marketplace value as an assistant to an electrician as you learn. And then you're also learning in the classroom. I mean, this is so logical and it goes back to something I've talked about.


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[Assistant] For a good while and it's the German influence on the state of South Carolina. Germany has long had young men and women enter the workforce after finishing their equivalent of high school as teenagers through apprenticeship programs and they learn workplace skills. Well, for any of a number of reasons, I-85 through South Carolina is nicknamed the autobahn


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[Assistant] Because a critical mass of German manufacturers have clustered around each other.


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[Assistant] And so there's a big, big German influence that changed


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[Assistant] How after high school education was done in the state of South Carolina. And so now there are these education programs where they


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[Assistant] The state school system says, past the high school level, okay, what is it you need, Mr. or Ms. employer? How many people do you need? What kind of training do they need?


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[Assistant] And so South Carolina makes available something that does the match game and now around the United States.


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[Assistant] Steadily, more employment programs are being offered because employers are frightened


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[Assistant] About the shortage of qualified workers and now they're actually stepping up to participate in programs


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[Assistant] Uh, high schooler, you just finished high school, trying to figure it out, maybe your early twenties.


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[Assistant] There may well be a program that would appeal to you for many different types of training where you get paid for the training, you get paid while you're working,


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[Assistant] And you end up with a skill that provides a career path with over time, really good pay. I think about how this is happening in so many fields. United airlines has its own flight academy. Jet blue has the equivalent.


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[Assistant] And all the airlines facing severe shortages.


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[Assistant] With an aging workforce of pilots and mechanics.


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[Assistant] A subsidized education, a free one, or some kind of path that involves pay through that process.


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[Assistant] So that they have the skilled, trained workforce that they're gonna need over the next two decades to deal with how the workforce is aging out.


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[Assistant] They're spending big money not on planes that fly passengers.


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[Assistant] But on planes that train pilots and that tells you how the mentality is shifted.


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[Assistant] And the opportunities available to you and more and more fields have changed. Krista?


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[Assistant] How many, you know, it's funny, there'll be a certain topic.


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[Assistant] That when I'm just out and about, people will ask me about, and I hadn't told you, people kept asking me about these notices from Discover. So what is the dark web? The dark web is essentially, uh, is an oversimplification, but it's basically message boards, discussion boards, where people buy and sell information on other people for purposes of identity theft, or applying for credit, or buying things as if they are someone else.


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[Assistant] And so that's essentially what the dark web is. And at this point,


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[Assistant] You take the Equifax data breach which affected


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[Assistant] Two-thirds of American adults whose social security numbers are out in the marketplace and various other breaches that have happened, particularly those in medical environments and


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[Assistant] You'd probably find that most of us are somewhere on the dark web.


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[Assistant] So what you've already done, Ingrid, is the right thing to do, and that is you have frozen your credit. Uhm, as far as having a My Social Security account, if you were to temporarily thaw


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[Assistant] Your credit files. Set up a My Social Security.


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[Assistant] That would be a good idea because you want to monitor to make sure that


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[Assistant] Your work credits are being posted properly each year because that's the only way you can make sure you


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[Assistant] Get the social security benefit that you are supposed to receive later. And very, very few Americans have set up a my social security, particularly people under 40.


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[Assistant] When they get into their 60s, and it will, by the way.


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[Assistant] Just know you have a lot of company, almost all of us are probably on the dark web at this point with our social security numbers there. And that's why you do the credit freeze that you've already done.


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[Assistant] So Patrick, this is, this is a tough call. What I recommend.


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[Assistant] Is you do your Roth. Remember you can do your Roth as a look back. If you're right near the income limits, you can wait, which the income limit now for an individual is


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[Assistant] Is it going to show? We're going to give you the exact number in a second. But if you wait till 23 and do your 22 either Roth or, uh, what's known as a non-deductible IRA, the, doing the backdoor Roth,


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[Assistant] That would be the way to have the least disruption in your life. Cause then you'd know your adjusted gross income.


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[Assistant] If you're gonna be okay. So it's $204,000 for married couples.


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[Assistant] 129 for a single individual. So,


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[Assistant] Yeah, so there are things you can, you know, your AGI may come below that, then you do the Roth early next year for this year.


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[Assistant] And that would be the safest way, and if you don't qualify, then you do.


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[Assistant] The back door Roth. Congress made a lot of noise for months that they were going to eliminate the back door Roth and that has not happened and it doesn't look like now it will happen this year.


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[Assistant] So mark the, uhm, to call you wrong is wrong.


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[Assistant] To say that I see this a little differently would be correct. So if I drive a gas engine car, 100% of the time, I'm burning fossil fuel. If I drive an electric vehicle, I'm using fossil fuels in most of the country.


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[Assistant] Less than half the time and the percent keeps going down, down, down.


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[Assistant] We're powering these vehicles that run on electricity with


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[Assistant] Cleaner sources than a gas engine vehicle, but there's more also.


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[Assistant] The technology of an ICE, an internal combustion engine, means that a huge percent of the fuel that is burned in the chamber


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[Assistant] Typical electric vehicle averages around 112 miles per gallon equivalent. And it's only going up from here. The one that Krista drives is I think 133 miles per gallon equivalent. And she drives an electric SUV, where with a gas engine SUV,


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[Assistant] You're likely getting somewhere in the twenties per gallon. So the efficiency of an electric motor, uh, electric power plant is so much greater than a gas engine vehicle that that's the other factor. And the source of electricity supply, not just in the United States, but in the world is going to steadily move from fossil fuels over time. We shouldn't rush it.


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[Assistant] Because if we do, we could end up with spot shortages and spikes in prices. Just the price points of how much cheaper


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[Assistant] Solar and wind are unsubsidized in most of the world versus


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[Assistant] Uh, fossil fuels is going to lead to a steady transition towards non-fossil fuel electricity here and around the world. And that's why I'm such a believer in it.


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[Assistant] Anyways, so let me spill some dirt on Kristen and her family.


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[Assistant] The first person who gets up in the morning gets the electric vehicle and leaves the gas engine behind. Because everybody in the household, because you have three drivers at home,


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[Assistant] Everybody wants to drive the electric. So whoever- Well, my son doesn't get it. Does not get my car. No. So it's just whichever, you or Mike, gets to the garage first. And y'all haven't had any fistfights yet.


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[Assistant] The gear shifting and all of that from gas engine vehicles.


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[Assistant] I love the sound of silence from an electric vehicle. So coming up, I want to talk about how


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[Assistant] I mean, it's just a fact, all the cost problems in healthcare, virtually 100%, are because of the hospitals.


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[Assistant] Not because of labs, not because of prescription drugs, certainly not because of doctors.


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[Assistant] There are two non-traditional players that are gigantic that are becoming a real threat


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[Assistant] To the hospital based pricing system on healthcare. And I want to tell you how what they're doing could affect you.


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[Assistant] There is a battle going on for the 20% of the US economy that is money going to healthcare.


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[Assistant] That is going on behind the scenes that so affects you and me.


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[Assistant] As we have so many of us now that have big out of pocket with the health coverage we have, that even if you have health insurance, you still face significant out of pocket. And more and more, the health plans are using a carrot and a stick. That if you go to a hospital based facility, what comes out of your wallet is much higher than what it would be if you went to an alternative.


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[Assistant] Also two of the nation's large employers, one the nation's largest private employer, are going all in on healthcare. The initial motivation for Amazon and Walmart


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[Assistant] Was because of how much healthcare is costing them for their own employees, but they both are going big time into providing healthcare to the general population.


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[Assistant] I talked before about Amazon's experimental Amazon Care, but it's doing so well for them that they're adding twenty


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[Assistant] Metro areas in the United States. So I saw in Forbes.


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[Assistant] Amazon care is already available in Seattle, Baltimore, Boston, Dallas, Austin, LA, Washington DC.


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[Assistant] And this year they're adding to a lot of the nation's largest metro areas. Walmart is, I've talked about and I did a TV thing on Walmart is opening what are called the care clinics. And I went to visit one and they, the one I went to see offered pretty much everything from pediatric to dental to general, uh, primary care.


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[Assistant] They offer mental health counseling, which was something I did not expect to see, but you know, one of the big gaps in medical coverage in the United States.


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[Assistant] People look at if you have a broken arm as something that just has to be fixed.


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[Assistant] But when it's something that is a mental or emotional issue in our society, for some reason, we look at it like, oh, there's something wrong with you. I mean, no, it's an illness like any other and it needs to be addressed and unaddressed leads to other problems that I digress because in addition to that,


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[Assistant] The care centers that Walmart's opening offer, the labs and x-rays, uh, optometry, hearing tests,


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[Assistant] Any of a number of things. Walmart.


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[Assistant] Is in some of their strongest territories, Texas, Arkansas, where they're based Georgia.


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[Assistant] One that I don't think of as big Walmart country, Illinois, but they're opening in a number of places with, again,


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[Assistant] What's so important, think how many people might go to a care center who don't have health insurance.


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[Assistant] How many people might go to a minute clinic operated by CVS or any other standalone clinic who don't have health insurance?


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[Assistant] What did these places do? What does Walmart do? What does Minute Clinic do? They publish a price list. You know up front what it's going to cost. You know, hospitals hate transparency. The hospital systems


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[Assistant] Don't want you to know what anything costs. They don't want you to think about comparison shopping.


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[Assistant] Is to treat something before it becomes something that you need a hospital in the first place. Primary care.


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[Assistant] Is the greatest weapon we have in the United States to improve Americans health.


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[Assistant] And to reduce our overall healthcare costs. But again, I'm talking about you, not the overall picture. So know that Amazon


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[Assistant] Adding these care centers that are full comprehensive wellness centers, if you will, to treat a variety of things that might ail you.


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[Assistant] And both of these companies didn't start this out of altruism, but the greatest capitalism is enlightened self interest. Both companies benefit from having these facilities for their own workers.


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[Assistant] Primary care doctor practices and specialists. Why?


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[Assistant] Because what the hospital wants is they want self referral. They want to create their own demand in their system.


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[Assistant] be able to boost their market share in the metro area exists. Hospitals don't want to dominate the country. Hospitals want to dominate by metro area.


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[Assistant] And they want to have pricing power and they want to take more and more of the nation's wealth.


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[Assistant] Monster from a 1950s scary movie where they're trying to eat up the whole world. And yes,


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[Assistant] Hospitals do amazing things and save people's lives.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But that's not really the business they're in. The business they're in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is grabbing as much of healthcare dollars as they can.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And raising the prices for the services they offer and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Generally, what hospitals offer, if there's an alternative, particularly before you're non-emergent, are going to be much cheaper, more personal, and maybe you'll be treated for something when it's a little thing rather than a big thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So Alan, this is where you take something that's a certainty and you turn it into an unknown.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So a 4% return, that's not an increase each year.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's not like with social security where every year you delay, you get 8% more, but


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Every year you can delay taking the pension and know you're guaranteeing yourself 4% more is really quite attractive. There are a number of people who would say, no, no, no, no, go ahead and take the pension right away. Know that it's actuarially based.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The amount they're going to pay you if you take it at 55 versus 60. Yeah, you're going to get 20% more at 60 every check than you would at 55, but that's based on you ending up actuarially with the same amount of money down the road. Here's my thing. Okay.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What I always worry about is that you live longer than the actuarial tables say. Human nature is we always worry that we'll live shorter than the actuarial tables say. So that's why people take social security too soon and that's why people tend to take pensions too soon. What you would look at is