[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Making a different decision right now on social security. I need to address it. Why am I doing this? Why am I bringing all the upset that is going to be manifested at Clark dot com slash Clark Stinks? But I need to.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Social security is something that if you have to make a decision for yourself or you have parents that are approaching age 62,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Social Security can be taken as young as 62 or as late as age 70.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And what's considered to be full retirement age is 66 something. Anyway.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I've for years talked about why for most people,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The right answer, and there can be exceptions, but overwhelmingly for most people, the right age to take Social Security is when you turn 70.


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[Assistant] And every time I say that, I get a big pushback.


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[Assistant] But right now because of the waves of publicity.


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[Assistant] About social security, the trust fund running out of money.


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[Assistant] It has led people to feel like, I better get it while I can. Better get what I can.


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[Assistant] Because social security is gonna be broken ten years and nobody's gonna get any money. Okay. So yes, the political parties are completely dysfunctional in this country. The inability for them to have a reasonable conversation across the aisle drives me batting. I don't get it. It's like this whole tribal thing drives me nuts.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so problems we need to address in the country are being ignored into a pile of rhetoric.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Are not major problems to fix, particularly if we fix them now or in the next year or two. Medicare is a different issue. Medicare has actually much more serious financial issues. Different conversation, different day. Social security, even if the dire predictions, the Congress continues to be ridiculous, does nothing about it, and just drives us off a cliff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In 2033, what happens is Social Security checks don't stop.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The amount of money that you would receive would be based on pay as you go at that point. The trust fund would be out of money to deal with shortfalls month after month with an aging population and fewer workers to support each retiree with an aging population. So the problem's there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But does it in any way change my answer about age 70? It does not. Because again, social security is not going to stop paying.


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[Assistant] Even if Congress does the irresponsible thing, buries its head in the sand and does nothing,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And by the way, it's your individual member of Congress who's at fault.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not 435 members of the House, not 100 members of the Senate. It is your individual representative or Senator who's at fault. Each of them individually and then collectively


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For failure to address a problem that's easily addressed. It's just the way you address it is, we gotta eat more broccoli, not have more ice cream and candy. Politicians don't like talking about eating broccoli. They only like to talk about ice cream and candy. So, let's say the worst does happen. Yes, benefits would be reduced at that point.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There'd be, uh, quite an uproar. And then after the fact, the problem would be dealt with, but even if benefits suddenly are reduced, people's social security checks would be reduced, which would be real hardship, but they're not going away at all. And the reduction would not be, uhm, to zero.


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[Assistant] Best estimates would be something like 80 cents on the dollar.


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[Assistant] So then we go back to this thing, people saying, hey!


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I want to get a hundred cents on the dollar for as long as I can. Let's say you've got a relative who's turning 62 next month.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They're like, hey, I was going to wait till 66 or 70, but I want to start getting a check now, even though it's much smaller.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I believe that it will be dealt with by a future Congress.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] People much wiser than me could come up with a plan in a couple hours. It's just getting people to choose the broccoli. So, it's not a hard one to fix.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But even if it's not fixed, I'm telling you still, I would wait. The reason why is the greatest risk for all of us is something that's actually good, longevity.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The odds I shared with you recently, the chances that we will live to 90 or 95 or 100 are much higher than we realize if we've made it into our 60s.


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[Assistant] And the check you get from the base and then from that base cost of living adjustments over the years is so much higher if you wait.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Regardless of the change in circumstance with is Congress going to do something or not, my answer has not changed. For most of us, the default is to wait as long as possible, potentially till age 70.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that has not changed. And you do the modeling.


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[Assistant] And you'll see that for your own situation, the answer may be different. There's software I've talked about for this.


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[Assistant] Uh, but there are now multiple products, Krista, you've got


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, what's available from AARP for free. You got Maximize My Social Security. Now there's several competitors to Maximize My Social Security. Maximize My Social Security I think is 40 bucks now. It'll run absolute analysis for your exact


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Situation. So the answer you get is exact to the penny.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What your best answer would be would be in this situation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Waiting as late as possible is the right answer. And yes, I know if I croak on the day I turn 70,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Through those eight years to take Social Security, the people will say,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Man, he was an idiot. He told us all through the years, like, I'm gonna care if I'm dead. I'm not gonna care.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm not going to be worrying about the money I could have had. I'm dead. What I'll be worrying about is I'm dead. Or dying, right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So Jim, your insurer did a loss mitigation program where they probably flew a drone over your house. It's a very common practice now because insurers are getting eaten up by roofing claims.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so proactively they're doing these drone visual surveys of the condition of a roof. It uses artificial intelligence to gauge the, uh, the condition of your roof.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because what they don't want to have is then have a hailstorm come through.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then they're having to replace a whole roof that they now have given you notice has deficiencies to it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So the deficiencies, if all they said generally was you may need some repairs on your roof.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's a good idea for you to have a roofing contractor


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That you feel you can trust, which requires you talk to a number of them, look at references, come out and evaluate your roof.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And tell you if there are any repairs that need doing. You may need a very minor repair on your roof. Which would be a good idea to do anyway.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that you could afford to do instead of a total roof replacement.


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[Assistant] As for shopping with other insurers, absolutely. There's advantage to shopping with other homeowners insurers.


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[Assistant] And for identical coverages, see what they quote you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To ensure you're home, you may end up finding out that this letter


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Was a favor to you because you may find that another homeowners insurer will offer you the same coverages for substantially less than you're paying right now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You still may have to fix the roof at some point sooner than you'd like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So uhm, first of all the idea of putting these protection covers on gutters has become a big business in the country because of the potential damage you can cause to your house or your roof by having leaves clogged in there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The various competitors which you will find many, many


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you'll know when you've got multiple quotes or multiple fighters, what is an actual valid price for having this installed?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So in this Afrique show, this happens in countries around the world outside the United States. Whether you're staying at a hotel, you're doing a rental through any of the home rental services, you have to provide in these countries a copy of your passport. I think about uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How routine it is that I'll get to a hotel in a foreign country.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they take your passport, they don't even ask you, they ask for your passport and then without saying a word they take it and they take it over to a scanner or a copy machine.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And make a copy of the key page of your passport.


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[Assistant] And there are countries that do this because they're worried about terrorism.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Have you ever done a VRBO or Airbnb in Italy?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And were you required to provide your passport in advance like we're hearing right now from Renee?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, so this is not unusual outside the United States. In fact, it's completely common that you have to provide your passport. At hotels, you never have to provide it in advance. With the home rentals, obviously you may well have to.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I want to thank you so much for being with us today and if you haven't already.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I hope you'll subscribe to our free daily money newsletter at Clark.com slash newsletters. It's chock-a-block full of information that will help you stretch every dollar.


[User] Please transcribe this text

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


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[Assistant] Housing options are changing dramatically in the country, which all I can say is it's about time the cost pressures


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[Assistant] That people face buying a home is leading to a massive rethink of how we do housing in the United States and urban areas where


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[Assistant] Uhm, people are gravitating to more and more urban areas leading to...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, higher land costs and the rest. I'm gonna talk about the creativity going on now that's going to lead to meaningful change over time and housing costs. And also,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I've got some new tips for you for when you're shopping.


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[Assistant] So somebody has been getting a lot of buzz on the West coast is Costco is going to develop a store in Southern California that is going to be on the street level.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For me to live. Alright, so I remember, uh, being in Northern California.


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[Assistant] We were staying in a hotel and I go and I look out the window of my hotel room and what was across the parking lot, but a Costco.


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[Assistant] And as tired as I was, you know, cause book tours were tiring, I then walked across the parking lot to the cost.


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[Assistant] Having my daughter and cousins living in LA, that's enough because it's so crazy expensive.


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[Assistant] She's out of college, she's working, she's living in a 500 square foot apartment.


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[Assistant] Way shape or form fashion. She has to carry, uh, protective gear to protect herself if she walks out in daytime. And how much is a 500 square foot studio?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeaah. I mean it's, it's expe- and imagine if she was in a good neighborhood.


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[Assistant] You know, we use the word crisis in America so way too much. So let's call it, instead of calling it a crisis, let's call it a fact. Housing.


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[Assistant] Has become so unaffordable because we have this massive amount of land in the United States.


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[Assistant] But the U.S. population overwhelmingly has gone into metro areas of various shapes and sizes across the country and land just becomes so much more expensive. You know, that's where the job growth is, that's where the jobs are.


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[Assistant] And so housing costs, because the underlying cost of land and construction and all the rest has become so extreme.


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[Assistant] All kinds of mixed use kind of things. Zoning in so many areas of the United States. Opposed diametrically.


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[Assistant] To what is required to create affordable housing. Uh, you know, I'm a huge fan of ADUs.


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[Assistant] That is about 800 square feet most often or it'll be a little apartment over garage and it can be.


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[Assistant] Uh, affordable housing unit for a family member or it could provide rental income to someone. And I mean, this is a big, big, big fight, but it's a great way with land that's already there to create another housing unit for someone.


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[Assistant] You may freak out about it. Remember, Clark.com slash Clark Stinks.


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[Assistant] If you're blown away that I love the idea of ADUs. And then, what's going on now with 3D printing? 3D printing is far enough along.


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[Assistant] That there are now the first two story, pretty exotic looking 3D printed homes being built.


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[Assistant] And, uh, one story when they've got down pat, and if you're not familiar with this, they prepare a building site.


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[Assistant] Come in with this giant piece of industrial equipment that builds the home ultra energy efficient.


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[Assistant] From the ground up, typically in 72 hours. Then you gotta do finish work obviously on the home. But it spits it out.


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[Assistant] And what's cool is every home can have a different design.


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[Assistant] Cause the 3D printer doesn't care. It just builds whatever is drawn and builds that thing. I mean, and all the stuff we can do now in, uh,


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[Assistant] Components, where this has taken over the hotel industry.


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[Assistant] Where a lot of hotels now, the whole room is built on an assembly line indoors. You can work regardless, rain shine, cold, hot in between. And then the individual components of 300 square foot rooms are trucked to the site and they're dropped into place by a crane. You reduce building time by about half and lower costs by a third.


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[Assistant] We are going to have to be creative this way. And by the way,


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[Assistant] Something that's going to be a continuing conversation is we're an aging population. And when we build homes now, they should be built with that in mind so that people can age in place and have outlets raised higher, regardless of who's living in that home. Um, to be mindful when you build a bathroom,


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[Assistant] That the opening's wider, uh, my son and I are going around doing college visits.


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[Assistant] And we were just in Indiana and we were in a hotel that was built. I asked


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[Assistant] The general manager of the hotel when she was who actually checked me out of the hotel, and I asked her, uhm,


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[Assistant] And they had built the hotel room and it was not, uh, uh, where they call that accessible rooms. It wasn't ADA.


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[Assistant] Design room, but from the ground up, they built a wider opening to the bathroom. There was room obviously to turn around in there even in a wheelchair, but it did not look like anything other than a normal bathroom, just with a wider opening.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the outlets were all higher and they put chargers on


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[Assistant] And cost does that. We have, you know, so much in, in free enterprise, we respond to cost signals, price signals, and there are so many things we can do that are going to make housing more affordable.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For people coming up today, trying to buy their first home, trying to form a household couple, uh, moves in together, gets married and they want to have a home.


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[Assistant] We've got to make it where people can get on that ladder right now. The ladder seems to start on the third floor. We need to get that ladder back down to street level so that people have that opportunity to buy a first home and it's going to require.


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[Assistant] Creativity. It's gonna require rethinking how we do things.


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[Assistant] So that someone coming out of college or going to work out of high school or trade school or whatever.


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[Assistant] Is not sentenced to have to be a renner forever.


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[Assistant] If the job opportunities for them are in one of these metro areas all over America. Krista?


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[Assistant] Clean, decent 403Bs and I congratulate Fidelity.


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[Assistant] For coming into a business that insurance companies have really made terrible and offering a really good product.


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[Assistant] So Michelle, you gave me an either or and I'll address your either or in a second. Hospitals want you so badly.


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[Assistant] I wonder if there's a hospital that will pay for the grad program in return when you complete your masters that you agree to work for them for


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[Assistant] Uh, two year period or something like that and if that would be worth it to you. But I digress with that. Now let's go to the question. So I would deplete your emergency funds of the 20 and bring it down to 10.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, and then over time, what you would have been paying every month towards the loans you would take out, you're paying back yourself because the interest rates on the loans are going to be higher than what you're going to earn on the money in your savings account and your rainy day account. And you've been so great saving money. You save such an enormous amount of your paycheck. I'm comfortable with you.


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[Assistant] Depleting two thirds of your rainy day fund because you live your life as you do and you have saved so much money overall.


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[Assistant] You have rabbits you can pull out of a hat if you need to in an emergency.


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[Assistant] So normally, unless we've third party verified, we don't name a company. In this case, their reputation is so trashed already. I think we can name them. By the way, we are not talking about Ticketmaster right here. We're talking about TicketSales.com.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Better Business Bureau gives them an F. There are so many complaints about them.


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[Assistant] That they only publish, they only have computer capacity, memory capacity, to publish one out of every four complaints. Cause there are so many.


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[Assistant] And I mean, they're just horrible person after person talks about this. Here's somebody who, uh, was told this to be 379. They were charged 547 and on like that. So this is their pattern. Um, the ticket selling business,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Has always been a business that has had, uh, players that have been shady, people that have been crooked. Um, uh, we can't say exactly what it is with these people. I can tell you that people have hated doing business with them. Uh, the debit card left you


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[Assistant] No options, no alternatives. You have no protection when you use a debit card and a seller takes advantage of you. Whether you would have had protection from a credit card, who knows? Uh, that would depend on the issuer. With ticket sales, please check the reputation of a ticket seller before you buy from them. The industry


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Doesn't really have any players that people, uh,


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[Assistant] Are excited by, but it has many that people are furious at.


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[Assistant] And this is, this is absolutely terrible that somebody will take your money and not even tell you


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[Assistant] Till after they've taken your money, non-refundable, what they're going to bill you sounds like medicine. And that's just awful. I wish there was something I could, uh, suggest to you, do for you. The only thing you've done is you have helped other people in this case, Curtis.


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[Assistant] And let me name the ticket outlet again. TicketSales.com


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[Assistant] And that's about the worst BBB report I've ever seen on a business.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well fantastic you're getting to take all these wonderful trips. Uhm, and you're doing things to save money by traveling to a distant airport. Great for you too.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Alright, so when you use these, uhm, discount airport, uh, airport car, uh, parking sites,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Call the hotel to verify that they are currently working with whoever this booking source is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The hotel may offer to sell you parking direct, potentially even at a better price than the referral site is offering.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But that's how I do it, is I always check.


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[Assistant] When it says, okay, this is a deal at this Holiday Inn Express, or this is a deal at this Hilton at the airport, or whatever. Uhm, other question to ask is do you offer a airport shuttle? And how often does it run? Because one of the complaints you'll see about these


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Booking sites is they book you at a place that's apparently somewhere near an airport, but then you're on your own after you park.


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[Assistant] To get to the airport, so make sure there is a free shuttle. Find out how often it runs.


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[Assistant] And that's the cross checking you need to do to make sure you're going to be okay. And speaking of saving money.


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[Assistant] We're going to talk straight ahead how to really shop to know you're really getting a good deal when you're trying to buy something. So Americans are fighting back against higher prices and businesses are experiencing it firsthand. And it's not the retailer's fault or the grocery store's fault.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That prices have gone up at such an accelerated rate and I don't know if you noticed, but a lot of places you buy stuff from prices are actually going down right now. But I want to make sure you know,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That there's a big price gap going on when you're shopping at a retailer or a grocery store and especially between brand names.


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[Assistant] From different brand name manufacturers, and of course you have my favorite, the generic or store brand. But here's what's going on behind the scenes. Retailers and grocers are feeling the pressure


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] From customers hitting a wall of price resistance. That's when buyers basically go on strike and say, I'm not buying that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Procter and Gamble, I think I mentioned recently Procter and Gamble, which is a huge brand name company that owns a lot of the premium brand names, has been trying to keep pushing prices up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And expand their profitability hiding behind the inflationary concerns we've had in the economy. And customers finally have said, no!


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[Assistant] And Prager and Gamble just reported softness in sales, that's how they like to say it at manufacturers, in a number of categories, as people said, I'm not going to do it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, how determined a retailer or supermarket is to meet customers where they want to be met.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There can be larger differences than normal.


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[Assistant] From one retailer to another, if you are married to a brand name,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And there will be even larger price differences.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Between different brand names. I mean, obviously always the store brand is going to be cheaper. And I've noticed


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] More promotions at retailers, even at the warehouse clubs, more items on manufacturer promotion. And the, I love, I'm sure that the manufacturers would be really angry about this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Costco and Sam's Club, that's where you walk the aisle, see what's going on. And


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I noticed that one of the managers, one of the Costco's that I walked the floor on had put


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The Kirkland signature item right next to over and over again next to a manufacturer's item that was on manufacturer's discount.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And was showing that even when the manufacturer was taking a temporary cut in price to try to boost volume in the Costco.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In every case, the Kirkland brand next to it was still significantly cheaper.


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[Assistant] And so that manager was showing the two types of shoppers that shop in Costco, showing the people who want a deal on the brand name.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then people who just want the deal and buy the KS.


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[Assistant] That in both cases they were winning, but they win more if they buy the KS. And so if you are a Sam's Club shopper,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You probably noticed that one of the trends at Sam's through COVID is that Sam's


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, particularly with the inflationary cycle of the last year is putting huge effort behind Member's Mark, their private label, and they're prominently promoting


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Members mark, which they never have been a big promoter of their private labels at Sam's, but they're doing the same thing and so,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right now, enormous advantage, whether you shop at warehouse clubs, you shop at traditional retailers, you shop at supermarkets to comparison shop among brand names and also looking at the store brand


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which will help you stretch your dollar more today than in a normal economic cycle. Krista?


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[Assistant] And uh, so in Laurie's case, there's gotta be somebody who's busted her username and password.


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[Assistant] And so I hope that through this process, Amazon customer no service.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Did instruct you to change username and password on your Amazon account and be aware that if you're using that same password combination on other shopping sites, you stand a risk that somebody may be snooping in your email.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And maybe attempting to do so at other sites and, and a family like yours that the Amazon truck has a private parking space.


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[Assistant] Uh, reconciling your Amazon charges is really important.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And Amazon is having a really hard time right now. Uh, the leadership change from the founder to the current CEO, uh, there are rumors that he's going to be bumped aside. Uh, they're having a really hard time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Doesn't offer the customer service they have in the past and just be


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Really aware of that if you're an Amazon customer that they are in an awkward, uhm, teen year kind of time right now.


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[Assistant] So Trisha, this is, this is a very difficult slog with somebody who has assumed your identity


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For the purposes of obtaining work, they probably, uh, don't have a legal


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right to work in the United States, even if they have a right to live in the United States, they may not have a legal right to work or they may not even be legally residing in the country. And so it's very common that people will trade on stolen social security numbers in order to obtain work. And yes, the person may well have a checking account using your identity or they may be getting paid


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Payroll cards or something like that or even getting a paper check. So check systems is the only outlet I'm aware of.


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[Assistant] Where you may be able to find out if there is.


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[Assistant] When there is an identity theft situation like this on an open account. So you may have to be pretty persistent with check systems.


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[Assistant] She should definitely contact the company that sent the 1099 to her, uhm, because that 1099


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[Assistant] Is gonna be a hassle for her with her tax return. There's a whole procedure you have to do where you report. Was it 1099 or W2?


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[Assistant] Uhm, complicated procedure. You cannot ignore the 1099. It must be reported. Otherwise the IRS will send you a bill for the tax they have calculated is due.


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[Assistant] On that 1099, which would involve 15.3% SE tax and regular income tax. So you report it and then back it out. Uh, so that in the IRS match program, it shows it was in fact reported. So this is, this is messy.


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[Assistant] Or a CPA. Enrolled agents tend to be less expensive than a CPA who does tax.


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[Assistant] You are so much more handy than I am. Could you imagine, Krista, if I tried to use a YouTube video to fix a water heater?


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[Assistant] I don't have confidence in myself that I could do that. I mean, there are things that I'm so impressed, Scott, it saved you.


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[Assistant] Nearly a thousand dollars and five years later still working after a forty dollar repair watching a YouTube video. I mean, that is fantastic. So if you have more self-confidence than I do,


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[Assistant] About doing a repair in your home. Go for it. All I can see is doing an emergency call to a plumber because I flooded the house.


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[Assistant] Yeah, so that does it for us today and I want to thank everyone who's left reviews of our podcast recently. I want you to know that the whole purpose


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[Assistant] So that people can be empowered to take more control of their wallets and their lives. Have a great day.


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[Assistant] I find that if you go to say their website, there are two separate entities.


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[Assistant] That they are working for and those entities that will say in the legal terms on the website that they have no affiliation whatsoever.


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[Assistant] Okay we'll go to questions now. This is from Cheryl in Ohio. After hearing you say Fidelity offers over 4% interest on cash reserves, I called to transfer my traditional IRA to them. When Fidelity explained that it's a money market account and is not guaranteed to not lose money, I was a bit confused. Is this a safe investment for my cash reserves?


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[Assistant] Karen in Ohio says, I heard in a recent podcast that a listener was having trouble with their elderly mom who lived by herself and answered all of the phone calls, including scam calls. Clark's advice was to get her to not answer the phone unless she knew who it was calling that was calling.


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[Assistant] I had a similar problem with my mom, but I just couldn't get her to not answer her phone.


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[Assistant] Where the scammers said my son was in a terrible car wreck.


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[Assistant] And then another scammer said her social security number was compromised. We had to do something. We got a call blocker for her phone and then she lists the one that she got.


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[Assistant] That only lets pre-programmed phone numbers ring through. It's been a lifesaver since her friends and family can call, but she no longer gets scam calls. I thought our experience may help other listeners with older parents who just have to answer the phone.


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[Assistant] And maybe give in that case, if you're doing that, you would probably want her doctor's offices and other people to have like your number to call for reminders, pharmacy.


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[Assistant] I missed it because I was looking up the arena, which was FTX.


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[Assistant] To agree to binding arbitration if they have a post sale dispute with a dealership.


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[Assistant] Of course we know that the deck is stacked in favor of the dealership in these binding arbitration events. My question is, is it possible to buy a new car without agreeing to the binding arbitration? I suspect the salesperson and other people the dealership may try to tell me that it's required.


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[Assistant] But if I insist that I will not agree to binding arbitration under any circumstances will they finally blink and agree


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[Assistant] And to sell me the car without, without me agreeing to the brightening arbitration, if it's relevant, I do have the money available to pay cash for the vehicle.


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[Assistant] I know. I recently had an unexpected medical bill of around $20,000 that I- Ooh, I'm sorry.


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[Assistant] So it seemed like a good way to access cash to recover the credit card expenses. My house is worth approximately $900,000 and is mortgage free.


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[Assistant] Also the unused credit on my HELOC could bolster my credit score. Was this a bad move in your opinion?


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[Assistant] John in South Carolina says, can you give us the name or website that you, of the place where you bought manmade diamonds for your wife?


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[Assistant] What size diamonds were they? Can you get them in white, gold or gold? Thanks for your help.


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[Assistant] Yeah, 2 carat each year. That's so cheap. Yeah, so they're, this is on lightboxfuelery.com.


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[Assistant] There's a two carat, one for 1600, round, brilliant diamond.


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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 to make better financial decisions in your life. Today we begin with School for Me in our weekly Clark Sink segment. I learn from you every week, and that's why we do it.


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[Assistant] Also, the latest unemployment report has even the brainiac economists of the world totally befuddled. And I'm going to throw in my two cents because wow, what a confusing time it is in the US and world economy.


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[Assistant] But right now, it is time to see where I am confused.


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[Assistant] And you supplied it to us. Why is it so important for you to put in Numberlock with Verizon or the equivalent, uh, SIM protection with AT&T or T-Mobile or if you're with a, uh, off-brand, do whatever their procedure is.


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[Assistant] Because criminals have so much access to your personal information mostly from the massive


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[Assistant] Equifax data breach of several years ago, they have your social security number, all your key personal data.


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[Assistant] To attempt to take over your accounts and steal your money.


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[Assistant] The one thing they need is with two factor authentication, they need to be able to have a text with a special code sent to them. And that's why they want to steal your cell phone service.


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[Assistant] And that's why putting a lock in place is, uh, apparently Verizon calls it number lock and the others each have their own system. You want to do that to keep the two factor authentication from allowing a criminal to run off with your money.


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[Assistant] So the protection is available at T-Mobile. Their employees just aren't properly trained and online, the procedure seems to be crashing when you try to set it in place. So we're going to make sure we can give updated information here and on Clark.com about how to do it with T-Mobile.


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[Assistant] Yeah, so, uh, Jim and the other poster.


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[Assistant] I just was interviewed for a magazine article about this very topic. That there's a segment of people who become, uh,


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[Assistant] Many times there's a psychological bridge you cannot cross where you start opening up the wallet. And, uh, I have shared before,


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[Assistant] That when I was diagnosed with prostate cancer 14 years ago and realized I didn't know how long my clock had to run, which seems to be fine now.


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[Assistant] That I learned that all this money that I had massively saved over the years, it was time to start enjoying it. And I've done a much better job of doing that, but it took that shock to my system to overcome my extreme frugal ways. And I have successfully done that.


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[Assistant] Ken, thank you. This has been a debate over the years whether or not Apple, people using a MacBook or using any kind of Apple device are charged higher prices and


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[Assistant] There's no solid proof of it, but your example is really a very possible thing.


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[Assistant] And I use a Chromebook, maybe I should put my wife's MacBook next to me, try the search both ways and report back to you if in fact I'm seeing the same thing with higher prices on her Mac than I have on my Chromebook.


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[Assistant] Yeah, Mackenzie, it's funny cause I use third party booking sites primarily and I'll get to a hotel front desk and they'll say, oh well.


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[Assistant] You know, you have the status, but we can't do anything for you because you booked through that third party next time. Why don't you book direct with us? And so your strategy does work.


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[Assistant] Uh, cause all the major hotel chains know they're charging typically a lot more than you would through third party sites, but they all say they have a low price guarantee. So you're taking the extra step to get it and your perks.


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[Assistant] So Roger, uh, Krista and her husband Mike, uh, bought an OLED and it's like it's been a life-changing experience for the two of you hadn't it? It's a beautiful picture. It is absolutely beautiful. And, uh, it is true that you will see a more vibrant picture


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[Assistant] With OLED than you see with traditional LED and someday I will pry open that wallet just enough to be able to get one of those OLEDs.


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[Assistant] That is extreme. I get it. I mean, we've talked about the whole Starbucks effect and how that can bring a few thousand dollars back into your wallet at the end of a year. And, uh, I don't, I've never had coffee in my life. I have coffee, ice cream, but I've never had coffee. And so I know that my, uh, my wife


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[Assistant] Does something kind of in between. She has this European coffee thing that the discs are different.


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[Assistant] Is that what it is? It's something like that. And anyway, the disc costs like on sale, like 35 cents each.


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[Assistant] Versus the two cents of making just a traditional drip coffee, but the coffee she says is really, really awesome and much cheaper than going to Starbucks or any local coffee hangout.


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[Assistant] And it will tend to have to be, uh, the.


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[Assistant] For the people who were the least physically fit on the cruise, on the riverboat cruise, I like for you to look at one where you have a variety for different levels of exertion, different levels of activity.


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[Assistant] Edward, thank you. I mean, who am I to argue with that? I bought my first investment property as a foreclosure when I was 22 years old. Uhm, I'm really into people owning and managing


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[Assistant] Individual real estate, by the, by the way, that property I bought at 22, I owned for over 40 years till I sold during the big real estate run up and


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[Assistant] It was a phenomenal investment for me. And yes, it is true what a great opportunity it is to have


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[Assistant] Uh, to have individual real estate that you will manage and


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[Assistant] In the situation of that individual, as I recall the question with somebody who wanted to go into something with other people, uh, but yes, owning individual real estate as almost like a part-time job is a wonderful, wonderful idea.


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[Assistant] Dave, thank you and you're right, particularly for someone who is a more affluent retiree. You're number one or number two expense.


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[Assistant] Likely will be taxes in retirement and there are big differences in how retirees are taxed in different states and that is a case where you don't want taxes to be the everything.


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[Assistant] But that is a case where taxes can be an important consideration in retirement.


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[Assistant] William, thank you. Alright, so people accumulate the losses over the years and if they hit a big, uh, lottery jackpot thingy in the


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[Assistant] Yeah, so you win one of those, that's where your accumulated losses over the years can come back to benefit you. And let me tell you, in a year that you win big, you will be itemizing.


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[Assistant] David, thank you. It's funny. I was smiling as I was hearing Krista read your post because I just read a story from a syndicated real estate person.


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[Assistant] This indicated newspapers around the country. Those things still exist. Anyway, uh, who was talking about how if the management company for a board is ignoring your inquiries,


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[Assistant] You go to board members. I'm not saying for every little thing you go to board members, but if there's something you don't understand, you're not getting any clear explanation. Talking to one of the board members is to me,


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[Assistant] The right thing to do just as if someone, it's like a little local elected government. Something happens in your city or county. You might reach out to your county commissioner or city council member to find out what's going on or to lodge a complaint. I see it as the same way with an HOA.


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[Assistant] Marcus, thank you. It's funny if I have not mentioned that because I've been talking to my son about the service academies. So it is an active conversation in our household and I apologize if I've neglected to mention


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[Assistant] Exactly. Uhm, and so I just want to thank everyone who posted on Clark Stinks and apologize to you if we did not get to your post on Clark Stinks today, uh, because the number of Clark Stinks posts way outruns the amount of time that we can devote to it.


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[Assistant] Is part of a podcast coming up ahead.


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[Assistant] We're going to talk about the latest unemployment report that has just about every economist worldwide really confused. And I'm going to try to unpack it for you and tell you what it means for your wallet moving forward. So the economy,


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[Assistant] Is really throwing curveballs at economists here in the United States and overseas. I mean, it's not that long ago that economists were predicting a steep, deep worldwide recession.


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[Assistant] Today, they're not saying that. There will be scattered countries that have, uh, recession, but very few look like they're gonna have an ugly time economically. Obviously,


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[Assistant] Ukraine and Russia both in deep dives economically because of the land war going on in Ukraine with horrific


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[Assistant] Loss of life and terrible injury rates, uh, people wounded in combat.


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[Assistant] But the war that looked like it was going to, uh,


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[Assistant] Pretty much demolish the world's economies has not played out that way. And even as


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[Assistant] Uh, central banks around the world, including our own Federal Reserve,


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[Assistant] Have been either in concert or in, in, uh, mimicking each other. Have been pushing interest rates up and up and up.


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[Assistant] With the purpose being to squeeze inflation out of the world economy.


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[Assistant] The inflation has been, thank goodness, dropping around the world and at the same time, the unemployment rate


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[Assistant] Here in the United States and in several other countries just keep staying at record low levels. Now that's not going to last, but the absolute strength


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[Assistant] Of the job sector employers, a recent survey from small, of small businesses found that over 90% of small businesses cannot find an adequate supply of workers to fill job vacancies right now.


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[Assistant] And that's as you see the headlines day after day after day, you know, Google laying people off and Meadow, Meadow, is that how you say it? Uh, the Facebook thing, laying people off and Amazon laying people off and company after company.


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[Assistant] We're looking so hard for workers before, now shedding them in big headline grabbing kind of layoffs.


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[Assistant] The overall picture of the economy here remains very strong.


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[Assistant] And the inflation that was eating people's wallets up keeps moderating. And let's hope those two trends continue. But the ultimate is you can't fight central banks.


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[Assistant] To get inflation not just temporarily under control, but get it back to more historical norms. And that's gonna take a good while longer than Wall Street realizes or that you and I may realize. Because once inflation takes hold,


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[Assistant] In the United States with already the pre-existing issue of a significantly aging population and not nearly enough young workers to fill jobs, it continues to


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[Assistant] And good news for people who fill those jobs, but it is something that leads to more inflation that makes it tougher for the Federal Reserve


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[Assistant] To shrink inflation back to what are normal numbers, which is roughly 2% a year. So


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[Assistant] Where does all this lead? What does all this mean that I'm talking about? It means that what you and I are going to experience is an economy that goes from overdrive into a lower gear.


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[Assistant] But the economy is not going to go into reverse.


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[Assistant] Uh, something terrible happening between us and the Chinese. Uh, who knows what Iran would do. In other words, it's gotta be an X factor that we can't identify right now that would change the trend line. And it means that a lot of regions of the country


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[Assistant] We'll continue to grow economically while others will see, uh, potentially going into reverse gear. But the overall picture for the United States is really solid moving forward and much better


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[Assistant] Because as I've shared with you before, the amount of credit card debt people are carrying is rising significantly. The interest rates charged on that credit card debt are very high. It means you have to keep your own economic house in order while we deal with a continuing wave of disruptive things


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[Assistant] That have happened to us. I mean, you think about COVID, COVID was like the one way, the wrong way driver running into us. I mean, it caused so many disruptions that still are playing out today.


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[Assistant] And so you and I have got to make sure our own finances are in order.


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[Assistant] So that you're prepared regardless of which way the wind blows moving forward.


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[Assistant] But I can tell you those winds are blowing much more favorably than it appeared not too long ago. Krista?


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[Assistant] So Drew, number one, uhm, this is a very common thing going on, uh, targeted towards high schoolers.


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[Assistant] All over America, it, I don't even know how many years ago we first started getting questions about all these, uh, groups that you would be honored to be included in. They're just buying mailing lists and they're soliciting, uh, the amount of money.


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[Assistant] That their charging is much, much lower than most of these we hear about from people, but


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[Assistant] It is not some kind of special thing that's going to help your daughter get into a pre-med program out of high school or anything like that. Uh, gosh, if I was looking to what I'd want your daughter to be doing in the summer,


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[Assistant] It'd be working at a medical office. That would be where the real value is going to be.


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[Assistant] If ultimately her goal is to be a doctor or other medical professional is to have day to day experience in a medical office. My wife did that in high school and what she learned


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[Assistant] Was even coming from a family of doctors. That was not what she was gonna do.


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[Assistant] Alright, Michelle, this is the problem with auto pay from a checking account.


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[Assistant] Uhm, the rules on ACH, automated clearing house, are very anti-consumer. The ACH is run by industry for the benefit of industry.


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[Assistant] And that's why, uhm, uh, this is a cell phone provider. You can tie in a credit card to pay the bill, and then the whole process is much easier when a service provider comes and abscons with your money.


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[Assistant] Uh, they took actual cash out of your life that you may have needed to pay other bills. And so the ACH is such a stack deck against consumers that I recommend that you be very sparing when you tie in ACH into a checking account and instead


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[Assistant] Unless credit cards are a danger for you.


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[Assistant] You set up where you auto pay with a credit card. Now there are providers that will not take credit cards.


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[Assistant] Or they'll charge a surcharge for credit cards and then you have to weigh


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[Assistant] The possibility that a merchant is going to, uh, abscond with your money that you're then going to have to fight to get back versus


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[Assistant] Paying them instead of automatically, you write a electronic check of your own every month to them so that they don't have the ability to come in and scarf money out of your account.


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[Assistant] Shanna, okay, this is fantastic. Shanna, Shayna. I say Shanna, you say Shayna.


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[Assistant] Shana Shay, whichever you are. Uhm, thank you. I love this because the greatest savings on used or on brand name goods or designer labels, that's where you can really, really clean up. And your suggestion is fantastic for other people. And besides,


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[Assistant] You've only risked a very tiny amount of money instead of what near full retail would have been otherwise. But I hope you enjoy the garment. I love your suggestion. I want to thank you so much for listening today.


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[Assistant] I hope the rest of your day is absolutely great.


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[Assistant] Happy New Year and welcome to the holiday of January 3rd where we all celebrate my oldest brother, Gary's birthday. Happy birthday, Gary.


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[Assistant] And I'm so glad to welcome you here to the Clark Howard Show. Our mission is to serve you and empower you so you make better financial decisions in 23. Get used to that 23. Today I'm starting out talking about something that is so universal. And that is gift cards. There's a mistake


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[Assistant] That half of us make with gift cards. We gotta talk about that.


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[Assistant] And also later, I'm going to talk about something called cash stuffing.


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[Assistant] It's like how I dress. I'm always out of style.


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[Assistant] But if I wait around long enough, my outer style becomes in style again.


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[Assistant] And that's the case with cash stuffing. I'll tell you all about it coming up later. That's the truth.


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[Assistant] I don't know what that means. Is that like a different gener- different era?


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[Assistant] And so, a lot of my clothes come from Costco and Sam's Club. This is a Sam's Club shirt I'm wearing. By the way, if you watch our video edition,


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[Assistant] Of the Clark Howard podcast. I hope you're enjoying our brand new set.


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[Assistant] We tested it and it was the last two podcasts we did last year. We tested our new set and now here it is with our beautiful


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[Assistant] Samsung monitor here that puts up whatever we want to put up here and then all our decorations. We spent a fortune on our new set. No we didn't.


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[Assistant] It's so funny, you know the big market TV stations when they do a new set for the anchors, do you know they spend millions on those sets? Wow.


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[Assistant] And did a incredible job. Just say the first names of the people who helped us out.


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[Assistant] Well, they did a great job and I appreciate it very much. So let's talk about you and your money. Okay, so gift cards. They became such a thing because people didn't know what to give other people.


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[Assistant] Or they ran out of time and they hate shopping. So he just bought all these gift cards and gave them out. And maybe it's a place you like to shop. Maybe it's not. Okay. So do you know that people who had old gift cards,


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[Assistant] The retailers that get you to buy them.


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[Assistant] They are making jokes about you and me behind our backs because major retailers make massive hundreds of millions of dollars on gift cards never redeemed or fully redeemed.


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[Assistant] Half of us have unredeemed gift cards that don't get better with time sitting around. Make it a point


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[Assistant] This January, to go find the gift cards from Christmases past, birthdays past, special occasions past, this past Christmas.


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[Assistant] The best lesson I got about that I shared with you years ago, you know, I love ice cream.


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[Assistant] So a friend gave me a gift card.


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[Assistant] For a particular ultra fancy ice cream place because they heard me complain. I couldn't go there a lot because the ice cream was so expensive. So they gave me a gift card for it and I never used it. And you know the punchline. They went out of business. So they spent that money to bring joy in my life and I wasted it.


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[Assistant] And I never got those calories in my body. I mean, it was a shame, but think of all the gift cards you got that you haven't used.


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[Assistant] Now the golden week to use those gift cards and retailers is next week, the 9th of January later. Why? Because by then,


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[Assistant] You could shoot a cannon off in most retail stores and hit not a single person because people are shopped out.


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[Assistant] January, it's like you can hear the, the fans and heating systems in a retailer because there's nobody in there to make any noise. So,


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[Assistant] Follow this advice, get them all together, and go use them next week when everything they got left is on deep discount clearance.


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[Assistant] And you're playing with the house's money, but don't let the house play one on you.


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[Assistant] By having you not redeem them, what all the CFOs at companies that sell gift cards,


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[Assistant] They're laughing about us all the time to the Wall Street Analyst. Our breakage this quarter was, and what's breakage? It's the amount of money that people spent on gift cards that was not redeemed and goes to the bottom line profits of that company.


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[Assistant] It'd be better, much better if it's used by you. Krista?


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[Assistant] So Rusty, I'm imagining based on what you said that yours is in some way a service business.


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[Assistant] If there is a trade association for your industry, that you...


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[Assistant] Can be a member of or are a member of. They may have advice available.


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[Assistant] When business owners want to sell. Also, if you have friendly competitors for the, in the industry that you're in, and you know businesses change hands,


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[Assistant] You can talk to friendly competitors and find out what seems to be the going formula for purchasing a business. If yours is kind of a unique thing, you don't have a ready set of friendly competitors that you can talk to.


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[Assistant] You can go talk to a consultant who specializes as a broker.


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[Assistant] In buying and selling businesses and you can get guidance from him or her, but be careful what they might have you sign because they may sign something that commits you even if you don't use them to pay them a commission on the sale of your business. But again, there is no


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[Assistant] Typical standard formula for a service business, but specific industries have generally accepted formulas. Let's take something like a heating and air conditioning contractor.


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[Assistant] In regions, there will be kind of a price formula.


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[Assistant] Based on the book of business that that heating and air conditioning contractor has that establishes a general range of when someone's retiring or getting out of the business, what that would go for for your business. If it is one that is a common industry,


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[Assistant] There will be some kind of formula like that and that's what you rely upon. If it's a publicly traded company, typically there are formulas that companies pay based on what's known as the book value of the company. There's really no simple equivalent


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[Assistant] For a small local service business like yours of how it would work with a big publicly traded company, that's why you got some serious work to do.


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[Assistant] Okay, wonderful. And so this is what we now call gig work. Yes. We used to call it side work or, uh, second job, second job.


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[Assistant] So alright, having a separate checking account, not necessary. Having good records of expenses that she has for the business, essential.


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[Assistant] Uhm, one thing a lot of people will do in a case like your wife is they will get a credit card or use one they already have where the only time it's ever used is for this side job, this side profession.


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[Assistant] And so anytime she's buying supplies or anything she has to do, training, whatever, as a lactation consultant, she will be able to


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[Assistant] Treat those as direct expenses against income and it will be a dollar for dollar offset that reduces tax liability owed.


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[Assistant] So the important thing is to have good records. They don't even have to be necessarily, uh, on a computer program, but you can use a spreadsheet. You can even buy, uh, very affordable small business software that you don't buy the actual disc anymore, but you subscribe to online. But as long as it's really small,


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[Assistant] You're fine with a pad and a pen and keeping track of all the expenses. But one thing,


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[Assistant] Your wife's gonna be responsible for 15.3% self-employment tax, I think is still the percent.


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[Assistant] So she's got a budget for that, and the best way to do so is do extra withholding from payroll at her current job. And then she won't have to do quarterly tax filings to stay on the good side of the IRS.


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[Assistant] Other than that, I think she's good to go. If this becomes a big, big deal going forward that ends up supplanting her regular job, then we have a whole different conversation at that point.


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[Assistant] Okay, so Roy is definitely an official member of Team Clark. And your suggestion is right on, right on the spot. Spot on is what the British say. Because


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[Assistant] Embedded rate. Those sound like they're a series EE bonds. Getting rid of those. Having to deal with the tax burden, but getting rid of them.


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[Assistant] And putting money back into new issue, particularly iBonds.


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[Assistant] You'll have a much better deal going forward than what you already have. And what a brilliant suggestion to check the current rates that you're getting on savings bonds you've already bought.


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[Assistant] So I appreciate that very much. Check your gift cards, check your savings bonds. Yeah, we got homework for you. It's always a January thing, right? New Year's resolutions. Have you made a New Year's resolution yet? No, I try not to do those. Have you broken one yet that you haven't made?


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[Assistant] You know what mine is for 23? What? Definitely to have more Coke Zero and Pepsi Zero cause you feel like that's so good for me. Great. Sorry Krista.


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[Assistant] Coming up ahead, we're going to talk about what do you do if you feel like your finances aren't in your control? Something old is new and in again. We're going to talk about it.


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[Assistant] 25 years. I'm exaggerating, Christoph. For the last 25 years, I have been encouraging you


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[Assistant] To, if you feel like your finances are out of control, to go back to the stone age,


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[Assistant] And use actual cash money for things.


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[Assistant] You probably hear me say that different ways, probably 10, 12 times a year. If you listen regularly to our podcast.


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[Assistant] Go to Clark.com, you'll see different times we suggest living on cash.


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[Assistant] There's a TikTok video about it.


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[Assistant] That was at 700 million views, maybe it's at a billion now.


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[Assistant] That is targeting people obviously in their teens and twenties.


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[Assistant] About what is now labeled cash stuffing.


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[Assistant] And the idea of cash stuffing is you stuff envelopes with cash like this is analog days. Forget the internet. Forget computers. Forget smartphones. Forget


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[Assistant] Paying with Apple Pay or G Pay or using a credit card or debit card or card, card, card. You pay for things with cash. Why is this so in now? Because a lot of people who grew up in this era, the natural TikTok audience, money was never cash. Money from when they were very young,


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[Assistant] Was some kind of plastic. I remember when we had a post from a listener.


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[Assistant] Who identified this as such a problem about 15 years ago when they were in a store and the mom had said to her kid, don't remember if it was a boy or a girl, said, we can't afford that.


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[Assistant] And the kid came back, well mom, why don't you just use your visa card?


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[Assistant] So I remember I was speaking at an event that was a financial education center for teenagers. And so I'm at this thing and I'm speaking and


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[Assistant] Before I spoke, they took me around, they showed me different exhibits and one of them was sponsored by a bank. Was the bank talking about investing? No. Was the bank talking about


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[Assistant] Money? No. What they had was they had a display set up that was a really cute display to teach teenagers how to use credit cards. I mean, come on. So, I mean, we got tens of millions of people who grew up in this era


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[Assistant] Where cash has not been a part of their lives.


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[Assistant] And so it's like a discovery how much better you budget and handle money when you use cash only.


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[Assistant] When money has felt out of control in your life. So, I think it's fantastic and if, and if,


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[Assistant] Uh, a teenager or young adult is reaching teenagers and young adults with a message on TikTok that


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[Assistant] Teaches and reaches and preaches about getting your finances under control and use cash stuffing as a way to do it.


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[Assistant] Whatever it is, just know that whatever your age, if your spending is felt out of control, this stuff that you can carry


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[Assistant] It's uhm, it may be something that you think is only in a museum, but like, this thing right here I have is a Lincoln. Five dollar bill.


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[Assistant] See, I don't have a lot of cash, do I? And then I have two ones with George Washington on them and I have a 10 with


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[Assistant] Who's on a 10? Oh, Hamilton's on a 10. And I have a 20, a Jackson.


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[Assistant] As they're referred to. So, we can count this up, I have $37.


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[Assistant] On hand. And so when you do cash, if spending's been out of control,


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[Assistant] And you see the cash dwindle between pay periods? It absolutely changes things.


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[Assistant] There's a great question, depends completely on your auto insurer and the laws you're in New York. So the laws in New York on requirements for auto insurers. New York has unusual


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[Assistant] Rules, they have a non-auto owner insurance because so many New Yorkers don't actually own a vehicle and they have to have coverage when they do rent a car. So it's very possible that your auto insurance in New York, even if you don't carry collision comprehensive, will still cover you for temporary use of a rental car.


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[Assistant] Find that out from your insurer, number one. Number two, I want you to go ahead, if you rent cars more than a couple times a year,


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[Assistant] Get one of the credit cards that covers you when you rent a car. It's very valuable as a backstop. What your own auto insurer does not cover, you have the credit card stepping in.


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[Assistant] I have not heard of this before. Has your husband orders 52 things a day from Amazon? Has he ever had that?


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[Assistant] And remember this, almost always ordering on eBay from a third party seller.


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[Assistant] Those sellers tend to sell on multiple platforms and they sell for lower costs on eBay than they do on Amazon and routinely offer free shipping on eBay where they may not through Amazon. So it always is good if an item is not a prime item.


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[Assistant] To see what it is on eBay and doesn't hurt also to check, uh, Walmart as well because there's such enormous price differences one to another where sometimes Amazon will be cheaper than eBay, not usually, but it may be cheaper, but usually it'll be more money.


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[Assistant] And if you have a situation like this, absolutely.


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[Assistant] You want to see what's available on eBay because Amazon's fees are so high on those third party merchants.


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[Assistant] And they're paying a much higher cost to be under Amazon's umbrella that you may find a cheaper price on eBay.


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[Assistant] So Tom, here's the secret with Costco. They have regional offices, and the regional offices


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[Assistant] Can choose to carry items in their region or not carry items in their region. So there will be differences in goods.


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[Assistant] In different Costco regions of the country. So you need to know the, it's possible in Washington state with Costco being based in uh, Issaquah that


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[Assistant] They may run the regional office out of corporate, but it's the regional people you want to talk to, not the store level and not Costco corporate. It's the regional people you want to kind of put a bug in their ear and see if they will in fact stock this KS item.


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[Assistant] You've been in the experimental one with me? Okay. So at the experimental one, usually you'll find items that may not be available in other Costco's in Washington state. So you may find that chaos item in the experimental store in Issaquah that you won't find elsewhere in Washington. But with Costco,


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[Assistant] You can even call the CEO, just call headquarters, ask for Craig Jelanick and just like you'd ask for anybody else. See if you don't get to him or someone in his office and state your beef because he is incredibly customer focused or as they say in Costco land member focused. Let me know what happens.


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[Assistant] If you're looking to save more money in 23, we've got a fun and keyword free challenge for you.


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[Assistant] See of course, I mean that's our closest to a whole new year resolution thing. You'll see it on Clark.com.


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[Assistant] See how you can increase the amount of money you have in a superior credit union or an inferior bank account this year.


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[Assistant] So, you can also just go straight to the link, Clark.com, slash.


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[Assistant] I hate doing these crazy web addresses. Slash save dash money slash save dash 2023. Who can remember all that?


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[Assistant] Twenty twenty-three dollars saved. If today you have zero, by the end of the year, you could have two thousand twenty-three dollars saved. And just think it's going to be a dollar less than our challenge is next January for twenty-four. Have a great one.


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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 to make better financial decisions in your life. I hope one of those decisions is to subscribe to this podcast, wherever you're listening.


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[Assistant] Share it with your friends, okay? Someone in your life you think could benefit or would enjoy it. Something I enjoy.


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[Assistant] I'm really into the Japanese concept of kaisan, continuous improvement.


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[Assistant] And so it's really important to remember we have two ears, one mouth. We learn from others the more we listen. And today I get to listen to you in today's Clark Stinks segment.


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[Assistant] That I'm so glad that so many of you have been kind enough to take the time to go to Clark.com slash Clark stinks to post. Also in this episode, I'm going to talk about where we are right now with electric vehicles.


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[Assistant] And there's a new electric vehicle credit. Does that mean green light for you to buy a new electric vehicle? You may be surprised by my answer to that question. But without further ado, yes?


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[Assistant] Krista is under the weather and she wanted to come in, Grace, but I wouldn't let her cause I didn't want to get infected whatever crud she has.


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[Assistant] And you can see, Chris, it looks completely healthy and everything's good. It didn't mean to hurt your feelings. No, it didn't hurt.


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[Assistant] Uh, Peter, first of all, I don't think we're allowed to say that word anymore. Are we allowed to say moron anymore? I just said it. Anyway, uhm, so inflation is not 20%. In fact, inflation,


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[Assistant] The representation of inflation that the I bonds are right now just under seven percent.


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[Assistant] That is a realistic expectation of inflation. Are we gonna be back?


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[Assistant] At 2% inflation by the end of 23, no. Uhm, it's gonna be a good while before inflation gets fully


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[Assistant] Remove from the economy back to the target of 2%. What we have right now is goods inflation is turning into deflation.


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[Assistant] But inflation in the economy is not close anywhere to 20%.


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[Assistant] Mona, thank you. So the issues with health insurance cards being carried is about theft of that card and people seeking medical services as if they're you is the big issue with it.


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[Assistant] An alternative is to have a picture in your, uh, in your Apple photos or Google photos or whatever of your medical card.


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[Assistant] And my insurer no longer provides medical cards. I mean, there is no physical card anymore. You sign into your account with them or you have their app and you show your card when you get to a medical office instead of having a physical card to give them.


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[Assistant] Mary, it is a poor choice of words when I say I can't afford something when I'm really saying is I don't want to spend the money on it. You are correct.


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[Assistant] Harmony, thank you and I do, uhm, you know, old dog learning new tricks. The, the, uhm, language of gender has been something that's been hard for me to adopt to and I'm working on it and I'm trying to get better at it.


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[Assistant] So transportation pollution is obviously a problem for, for the world. The good news is that


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[Assistant] Every phase of transportation is steadily getting cleaner as for moving goods over long distances.


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[Assistant] That only works if the overall economics of that do work and there are significant societal benefits when we allow goods to flow freely around the globe.


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[Assistant] The transportation issue and the pollution issue, that's obviously one that has been a problem. I promise you, we're getting better at that.


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[Assistant] So Paul, your point is extremely valid, and I think that is a good idea to talk about mainstream models that have really long life cycles.


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[Assistant] Brenda, thank you. That is a problem that had not occurred to me. As another poster said,


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[Assistant] Uh, cause you registered to the plate or tag of that rental vehicle.


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[Assistant] So I guess the ultimate thing with this is if you do follow my strategy of having the portable transponder, you have to remember to enter it, enter the vehicle you're renting and then remember to remove it at the end of the rental or you could get hit with bill shock and the toll thing


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[Assistant] Is so simple to fix. I mean this is one that is not hard to fix. And it's a problem with the state.


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[Assistant] I mean, cause think about, when I talked about buying that device, it only works in 18 states. So if you're in one of the other states that has tolls, you're still out of luck on tolls.


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[Assistant] Lenny, thank you. That is a very interesting and good suggestion is that with PayPal, uh, and I guess with Venmo, you can also.


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[Assistant] Attach a credit card that then in certain situations you would have the protections afforded to credit cards that don't exist for debit cards or for payment apps generally. And so this brings up a point. Federal law has not been updated


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[Assistant] Because these various forms of payment, debit cards and payment apps and Big Bad Zelle, these things did not exist.


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[Assistant] And so the laws did not anticipate them, and there's a big gaping hole in consumer protection that if our Congress actually cared about what happened to everyday people,


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[Assistant] They would do something to provide consumer protections.


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[Assistant] To consumers, instead of leaving people in this wilderness of wallet destruction that exists right now.


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[Assistant] And I'm still waiting day by day for the new Zelle protections to be announced and go into place. What's going on at the big bad banks that there are no Zelle protections yet that you promised last month?


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[Assistant] Gary, thank you. You know, I usually throw in a sentence or other eligible educational expenses and I should say that, uh, technical and trade schools may in fact be an eligible expense and thank you for pointing out the fact that I have neglected that.


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[Assistant] So not for a routine medical visit, but if you're getting, uh, what's it called? Cat 1? I don't know what that is, but whatever they call that.


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[Assistant] So I've never heard of that. I appreciate so much the alert. And yeaah, you may be right that when you're getting a controlled substance,


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[Assistant] There may be a requirement in other states, again, using a social security number as a national identifier number, which was never intended to be.


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[Assistant] Thank you for that, heads up, because no one has ever mentioned that. And I want to tell you, coming up


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[Assistant] There's a lot of buzz right now. Every, every general news publication I pick up, there are stories that are front section stories about the new tax credits on electric vehicles. And I want to talk to you about the strategy of whether


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[Assistant] People being able to buy electric vehicles right now with a tax credit, typically $7,500. There's a tax credit for buying used vehicles. There are income phase outs and all this stuff.


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[Assistant] And there's all kinds of confusion about which models are eligible today, which models are going to be eligible later this year, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.


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[Assistant] We've been asked, I don't know how many, hundreds of times, we don't, we certainly don't, uh, then bring the questions hundreds of times to the podcast, cause otherwise it would be the electric vehicle podcast, is now the time to buy an electric vehicle.


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[Assistant] Uh, the price points of electric vehicles actually have gone way up.


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[Assistant] Over the last 18 months is an example.


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[Assistant] If you go back just that not long ago, Tesla was selling.


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[Assistant] The lowest priced Tesla they were selling, $35,000.


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[Assistant] Today, it's hard to buy a Tesla for less than $60,000. And it's not that the car became that much better, it's just that the price points moved up. The demand for electric vehicles has far outstripped the current supply. But as I said last year, and I'm going to emphasize even more now,


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[Assistant] Even with the tax credits, if you buy an electric vehicle today, it is a lifestyle choice, not a dollars and cents choice. That is going to change


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[Assistant] You're going to see later in 23 that electric vehicles are going to become more affordable.


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[Assistant] Tax credit or not. And the number of new models being introduced and the ramp up of production of units is going to go nothing but higher year after year from here


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[Assistant] The cost of the batteries as I shared recently has come down so much that we are going to be at a point soon where buying an electric vehicle will be cost equivalent to a gas engine vehicle and then it's a slam dunk because once you own one it's so much cheaper to own one


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[Assistant] And operate it than it is to own and operate a gas engine vehicle. But as for now,


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[Assistant] I don't care about all these ads that are running about the $7,500 tax credit.


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[Assistant] Customer service issues and service after the sale issues.


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[Assistant] And Tesla's got to address those. And so Tesla that pretty much was synonymous with electric vehicles is now facing steadily more competition from traditional automakers and then non-traditional ones as well.


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[Assistant] And so Tesla is going to have to fix its corporate culture and its service and its after purchase experience that is not together right now. So electric vehicles,


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[Assistant] Are ready for prime time to own and have fun with, but if it's all about the dollars.


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[Assistant] They're not there today. They were more there 18 months ago than they are right now, but that will change quickly.


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[Assistant] Even potentially when you look much later this year. And that's said by one electric vehicle owner and standing next to me, another electric vehicle owner and they are past fun, aren't they?


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[Assistant] So it's not a, it's, you know, we've got the money thing, then you have the enjoyment thing.


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[Assistant] Gas engine vehicles cannot compete from the overall ownership experience to an electric vehicle and it will be what people buy, uh, in the future. It's just gonna be what's gonna be. But the funny thing is it's not like


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[Assistant] Going to a doctor's appointment to find out something's wrong with you and you're dreading it, it's going to be a really great experience.


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[Assistant] No, you're not crazy because you're creating an extremely comfortable retirement glide path for yourselves. And so, you know, there's


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[Assistant] It's a weird thing to even think about when mo- when half a people approaching retirement age haven't been able to save a nickel. Is there an amount that's too much? No. Because it means you love travel, uh, you're gonna be able to do a lot of that potentially in retirement.


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[Assistant] You may need extra money for medical care because of the multiple sclerosis issue and so


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[Assistant] An HSA would be a potentially great thing to fund every year moving forward for the medical expenses that will show up later in life. So, no.


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[Assistant] You're not crazy, and it doesn't sound like you're depriving yourself of


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[Assistant] experiences or joy with how much money you're saving right now. You know, if you were


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[Assistant] Really saying, Oh, well, we're not doing this and we're not able to do that. And someday we'll want to do this. You're not saying that you're still having life experiences and doing things that bring you so much joy, like the trip that you took. So.


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[Assistant] I say keep saving and you're crazy like a fox.


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[Assistant] Dis, uh, discretionary purchases are declining and the best example I can use, the RV industry that boomed, boomed, like nobody's business, uh, during the worst of COVID,


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[Assistant] Is now sitting there with a hangover that is ugly. The sale of RVs has collapsed in the United States, a totally discretionary purchase. And for people interested in RVs, used RVs are going to be a great price point purchase


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[Assistant] As we look through this year and dare I say we're going, a lot of RVs are financed. We're likely going to see ultimately a wave of foreclosures.


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[Assistant] Uh, repossessions, not foreclosures, repossessions of RVs. So I think that is a leading indicator. Boat market generally is a lower price point commitment.


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[Assistant] There are no effective price guides, though, to boats. I've looked in the past when I've been asked this. The best suggestion I have is one you reminded me of, Krista, and that is


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[Assistant] To call boat dealers way out of market and say, hey I just need some advice. I live across the country, I'm interested in buying this kind of boat.


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[Assistant] What's going on with prices right now on those? If you go completely out of market, you're honest upfront, you're just trying to get information you may find from an experienced boat dealer outside of your competitive trading zone.


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[Assistant] What is really going on with the price points?


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[Assistant] So, uh, in the industry, it's known as croak and choke insurance, or just croak, and mortgage life insurance is one of the worst rip-off products that the banks have dreamt up.


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[Assistant] So what they do is they try to get you to buy a life insurance policy that names the bank as the beneficiary that has your mortgage.


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[Assistant] Market price, priced premiums. So.


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[Assistant] Normally with life insurance, and it is like a form of term insurance you hear me talk about, normally with life insurance, you name, uh, your survivors that you want to be taken care of as the beneficiary.


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[Assistant] And at the time of your passing, you may or may not


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[Assistant] Uh, your survivor may or may not find that it's a good idea to pay off the mortgage. There may be other priorities.


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[Assistant] With the mortgage life insurance all it does is it helps the mortgage company directly and your survivors indirectly by paying off the mortgage but removes the flexibility and remember at ten times the premium.


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[Assistant] As long as you can medically underwrite for your own term life insurance policy. And I have an explanation of how you shop for and how you buy what's known as level term insurance on Clark.com.


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[Assistant] You buy your own policy to provide for the needs of your survivors. You don't buy insurance that's just for a narrow individual purpose like a mortgage life insurance policy. What would be the exception to that?


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[Assistant] If you cannot medically underwrite, don't your own policy.


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[Assistant] And you can buy a mortgage life insurance policy without being medically underwritten that all people who apply are just approved and the person who will inherit the house


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[Assistant] Will benefit from having no mortgage based on your overall financial situation. That's a lot of ifs, ifs, and ifs. And so, essentially, mortgage life insurance is not a scam, but it is a ripoff.


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[Assistant] And I want to thank you so much for listening to this episode and for deals you can trust, I got an address for you.


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[Assistant] ClarkDeals.com. I am so proud of our deal digging team that find deals that don't waste your time. That find deals that are there to benefit you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Are, uh, advertorials. They're posting things just because they were paid by an online seller or a traditional retailer to post the deals. That's not the game we play. We post deals that will not ever waste your time and they will protect your wallet.


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[Assistant] And we got advice for you around the clock as well.


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[Assistant] Advice that you can trust at Clark.com.


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


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[Assistant] One decision that can help your wallet, sign up for our free newsletters. Clark.com slash newsletters. Another thing. Okay. So it's going to feel new year's resolutiony.


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[Assistant] But if you feel like your money's out of control and you want a budget, well, create one.


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[Assistant] And I'm going to go back to basics today, and I'm going to talk about our review of budgeting apps. And also, the golden age of streaming content is over.


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[Assistant] So what's it going to mean to your wallet and the choice available to you and what are the smart decisions you can make? We're going to talk about that straight ahead. So,


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[Assistant] A lot of people resolve at the beginning of every year.