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[Assistant] And a lot of people's patterns have really changed, particularly people who work in jobs where you can work remotely.


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[Assistant] After eight o'clock at night in major metro areas because people would have these commutes. They'd get home and then they'd have to go back to somewhere to eat. And by the time they did all that, it would be after eight o'clock.


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[Assistant] So Christa, I don't know if you use any of the


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[Assistant] You'll see it a lot of restaurants that all the tables are gone in the, like after five 30.


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[Assistant] Of how things work before COVID and what's funny is it's bleeding into the weekend also.


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[Assistant] That people are eating a lot earlier. So I wonder, you know, before COVID I talked about the variable menu pricing that restaurants were using and.


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[Assistant] That the early bird thing had become more sophisticated and a lot of restaurants were doing these things to try to spread out their diners and get people to come eat in the six o'clock hour or even in the five o'clock hour. Now they're going to have to reverse it and do the specials and the eight o'clock hours.


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[Assistant] But the other thing is because the labor shortage in so many industries, a lot of businesses have said, wait a minute, retail restaurant, whatever. Look how few customers we have after


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[Assistant] This time of the night, whatever this time of the night is. And they're like, why are we paying to keep the store open when the customers aren't paying enough in purchases to keep the restaurant open or the store or whatever. And so you're finding things that are closing earlier and I've got


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Three kids and I've got a daughter and a son who both are night owls. I have one who goes to bed earlier as two kids, but the two night owl kids are always complaining.


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[Assistant] Pre-COVID, what was your favorite time to sit down and either eat a family dinner at home or eat out?


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[Assistant] Well, Lane and I like to eat really early.


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[Assistant] And we'll go for a dinner at five 30 or six o'clock and our son who's still at home.


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[Assistant] His lunch with us at six, then he'll eat again at like 10. And, uh, it's, the society's become harder for people like him.


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[Assistant] So that was funny because we talked on a podcast a few days ago about how your family and, and, uh, just one of my kids was with Lane and me in Europe. And so we, we'd been driving and we, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We stopped by a restaurant. First they want to know if we had a reservation. We said no. And nobody was eating. And it was like,


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[Assistant] Well, we don't open till eight o'clock, but we don't really have any reservations till nine thirty. And I was like,


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[Assistant] So in, uh, Poland in particular, it was like, uh, there's nobody has yet heard


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[Assistant] That anybody ever got sick from smoking because there's still huge percent of people smoking.


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[Assistant] So Lynn, the smartest answer is for you to have a self-install burglar alarm. They're very, very inexpensive. And you can have one that you don't sign up for, uh, traditional monitoring that you're paying a monthly fee.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you can have it just ring your phone or your cell phone if there's a problem. What am I talking about you having to spend? 80 to 150 dollars.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That goes to a monitoring station. You could add that on, but it doesn't sound like what you need. It would just call you in the event that something triggers the alarm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, so first of all, you're the greatest because you're someone who's willing to run into a burning building while the rest of us are trying to run out of a burning building.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You save $380,000. I assume a lot of that was your contributions, not employer. You've got the pension. You're in really great shape financially. You're going to work another job for a decade on the debt. That's not something you go to a financial planner about. You go to, uh, a counselor that you can, because first you shouldn't be embarrassed about debt.


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[Assistant] So many people have debt. You are not alone. And you have the mindset now that you want to kill off this debt.


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[Assistant] So what you do is you go to a credit counselor and I want you to go to NFCC.org, National Foundation for Credit Counseling, NFCC.org and you'll be able to do online counseling or remote video counseling, whatever. You don't have to necessarily meet in person.


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[Assistant] If all you need is help coming up with


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[Assistant] And a plan that you execute to pay down the debt over time, you don't pay anything for that. If anything, you pay a tiny amount, depending on the NFCC affiliate, you might pay 50 bucks or a hundred or whatever for help in getting your arms around the debt. You don't need for that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A robo advisor or a human advisor, that's about investing.


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[Assistant] Primarily at the stage you're in in your life. So.


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[Assistant] I want you to feel comfortable and confident and not embarrassed.


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[Assistant] That you can tackle this debt especially because you're going to work another job.


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[Assistant] And you'll have the public employee pension coming in.


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[Assistant] Your living expenses that you will have will be defrayed so much by that pension that the money that's coming in from the new job, you're going to be able to devote enormous funds towards the 65 grand


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[Assistant] Put your mind to it, you will pay it off much quicker than you possibly imagine right this second.


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[Assistant] That's a great question. So the 380, I don't know, uh, who administers that, what expenses there are to it. And so talking with


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[Assistant] A fee only financial planner, in this case an independent first, where they can analyze and look at what you've got, where you pay them like you'd pay a lawyer or something.


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[Assistant] I'd like you to go see somebody at garretplanningnetwork.com.


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[Assistant] Find out what they charge you for a checkup. They'll be able to analyze this plan that you have the employee, public employee investment accounts. See if the fees on it are reasonable. If not, you may be able to move it tax free.


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[Assistant] And there's something that would be much more reasonable for your wallet.


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[Assistant] You may remember earlier this year, there was a big fuss about the, uh, new congressional law, the law passed by Congress, that the IRS is not enforcing right now that requires that Cash App, Venmo and, uh, Big Bad Zelle and PayPal report


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you are receiving inflows of greater than 600 a year, I think it was, and that was suspended.


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[Assistant] And so, uh, Congress needs to go back to the planning


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[Assistant] This site is, uh, and I'm not even going to name it, I don't want to give any publicity.


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[Assistant] There's a lot of back and forth about how reputable the site is and it does not seem like


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[Assistant] It is ready for prime time. It may be fine over time but I would not get involved in selling on this site.


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[Assistant] And there are a number of accusations about it. It may or may not be proven, but I would stay away from it and tell you that if you have stuff, merchandise you want to sell, sell on a known recognized platform sellers. Remember Amazon.


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[Assistant] Almost everything sold on Amazon.com is third party sellers. Walmart.com, much of it is third party sellers. Ebay.


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[Assistant] All third party sellers, people selling stuff new or used. The platforms already exist that are well known and recognized. And I wouldn't go with an upstart that's all crypto based.


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[Assistant] Coming up ahead, I promised I was going to talk about student loan forgiveness after the Supreme Court ruled.


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[Assistant] And I talked about it a little bit after that and then something new happened, new update coming straight ahead.


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[Assistant] I'm sure you heard, you didn't need to hear it from me, although I did talk about it, that the Supreme Court ruled as I expected.


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[Assistant] Invalidated the uh, Biden administration's blanket student loan forgiveness. But in the aftermath, there's something new going on.


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[Assistant] That a lot of student loan borrowers were not aware of. You, if you're a long time listener to me, you know that there'd been a lot of corruption.


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[Assistant] By a third party independent companies that were contracted with the federal government to service student loans and either out of incompetence or dishonesty, they were doing things that prevented student loan borrowers from qualifying under any of the various student loan forgiveness programs.


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[Assistant] That were congressionally authorized. In other words, real ones. And these programs, the most known and the most important is public service loan forgiveness. Police officers, firefighters,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, people work for non-profits, other jobs where people


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[Assistant] Choose to serve their community and country.


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[Assistant] At a lower pay rate than they could likely make in private industry.


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[Assistant] Congress in its wisdom forever ago passed the public service loan forgiveness program.


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[Assistant] Then there are other programs as well, not that well known and not used frequently that allow for forgiveness of student loans.


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[Assistant] For any job category, typically at 20 years of payments or 25 years of payments. So the idea is 10, 20, 25 years, you make your payments as agreed and then the remainder of your loans are forgiven.


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[Assistant] All three situations, but the one that really affects the most people, the public service loan forgiveness, people were cheated out of forgiveness. And I've covered that extensively over the years. So now the US Department of Education is


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[Assistant] Re-evaluating people who were cheated out of loan forgiveness, who work


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[Assistant] And these jobs where they should have qualified for loan forgiveness.


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[Assistant] And payments that they have made if they've had the payment record required of them.


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[Assistant] The remainder of their student loans will be forgiven. Now again, most of the people affected by this are going to be people in public service type jobs and their 10 years of payments


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[Assistant] That may qualify under the 20 and 25 year payment programs. Those forgiveness programs, the money forgiven will be taxed. Huge difference because in the wisdom of Congress, there were key objectives. One,


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[Assistant] Was to make people pay on the loans they took out. Two.


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[Assistant] To reward people who make payments for a long, long time and to reward people in public service with loan forgiveness but to make the loan forgiveness superior for people who do jobs


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[Assistant] Like in public service, like a police officer or firefighter or things like that. And so.


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[Assistant] That is going to happen. I can't imagine there will be a successful court challenge of that is for blanket loan forgiveness. The only way that will happen is as it should have happened in the first place.


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[Assistant] If it's gonna happen at all, by congressional action.


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[Assistant] Okay, first of all, that's great, Jennifer. If that plays out that way over four years, the total amount he will have borrowed.


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[Assistant] Will be probably within the range of where I'm comfortable.


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[Assistant] Which is the typical amount that a typical college graduate will earn.


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[Assistant] Out of college, or you'll at least be close to that.


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[Assistant] I'm comfortable with the amount. I'm not comfortable with those loans being private.


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[Assistant] And I don't know if you've gotten advice yet from the financial aid office at the university that your son's going to attend, but there are many other federal student loans available.


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[Assistant] And the interest rates will be significantly lower, usually.


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[Assistant] Then what's available in the private student loan market and there are additional protections for the borrower doing the federal loans instead of the private loans.


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[Assistant] Private loans are a last last last option, which is why private loans represent somewhere around six or seven percent.


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[Assistant] Of student loan borrowing. In other words, 93, 94% is all federal loans of various types.


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[Assistant] Joe, that used to be possible. I don't know of any plans that exist right now that make a credit card kind of simulate what a debit card does.


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[Assistant] And your idea has worked well for you.


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[Assistant] There are a few debit cards that give reward points. I wouldn't even worry about that because


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[Assistant] What you're doing with the money you have and how careful you and your wife are with the spending and how


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[Assistant] You basically have a weekly budget for spending is working so well for you. Don't mess up what's working so well.


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[Assistant] I'm gathering from what you're doing that the amount being transferred each week is going into a spending account so the risk of using a debit card


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[Assistant] Are mostly eliminated. The big risk with debit cards if you're not familiar, is you don't have the protections you do on a credit card.


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[Assistant] And if somebody gets to the debit card, the money vanishes from your account. It could be money you need to pay your mortgage, car payment, rent.


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[Assistant] And yes, the man who calls it the piece of trash, fake V's or fake MasterCard says the circumstance you have is tailor made to continue using a debit card. When did I hit my head?


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[Assistant] It's just the hassle factor isn't worth it, Isaac, so.


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[Assistant] With any savings account or money market account, the interest rate can change daily. Uhm, you could be at, uh, PayPal savings may only change once a month.


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[Assistant] But there's no reason they couldn't change daily like so many others do.


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[Assistant] 4.3% right now, that's a pretty good rate on idle cash.


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[Assistant] If you wanted to step it up though potentially to a higher rate, you may find that you'll do much better


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[Assistant] Fidelity Investments if you have an account with them. Or Vanguard if you have an account with them. Not necessarily with Shrob for daily savings.


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[Assistant] But if you do have an investment account already, Isaac, with either Fidelity or Vanguard, you can put that daily cash into an account that should out earn what you're earning in PayPal's savings account.


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[Assistant] Or others that are of similar interest rates to PayPal.


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[Assistant] Our mantra, save more, spend less, avoid getting ripped off. That's what we're about.


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[Assistant] And I hope that you are finding value in our podcast, either the, uh, the audio version or the video version. If you're a subscriber, please share us with a friend you think could benefit. If you listened and you hate it, well, then share us with somebody you don't like and have a great, great day.


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[Assistant] Thanks for joining us here on the Clark Howard Show, where our mission is to serve you and empower you.


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[Assistant] So you make better financial decisions in your life. So I'm sure you read in the title of this episode. I'm about to have the pleasure.


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[Assistant] Far more serious and not something that's a laughing matter.


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[Assistant] Aretha Franklin's death has something in it that all of us can learn from. And now Christa, it is time.


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[Assistant] For me to hear where I have messed up.


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[Assistant] Do you know you're one of how many, I don't even know how many people.


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[Assistant] That I took my three kids all the way to Paris and made them walk the stairs to, is it stairs only go to, is it level whatever and wouldn't lay out the additional money for them to go up the elevator. My only rebuttal to that is my three kids. Remember that was 2012.


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[Assistant] And they remember it like it happened yesterday. And we talk about it. Remember the time you wouldn't let us ride the elevator up the Eiffel Tower? So.


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[Assistant] So I used to, uh, when the kids were each young, and it's like I have three only kids because of their age separation.


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[Assistant] But they would each be able to buy two things at Dollar Tree when Dollar Tree


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[Assistant] In different ages for each of them when they realize that wasn't actually the toy store.


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[Assistant] And all three of them grew up in a time where there was this place that was


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[Assistant] Uh, really, really, really expensive called Toys R Us. They never graced the


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[Assistant] The halls of Toys R Us on my watch.


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[Assistant] Wow. Wow. Wow. Doing a good deed for a friend and then reversing that good deed by giving their stuff away?


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[Assistant] And, uh, that's very interesting that Beijing and London


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[Assistant] Are both bigger office markets than New York. I was not aware of that. You know, before too long, Singapore will probably be the world's largest office market.


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[Assistant] You know how they'll have to send somebody around because people will abandon items while they're shopping? And you'll see something that's a frozen or refrigerated item and it's going right back in the freezer or refrigerated case. Uh, but the big thing here is on you and me.


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[Assistant] If you put something in your shopping cart, or if you live in a part of the country, they call them buggies, you put something in your buggy,


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[Assistant] And you decide you don't want it, don't just lay it down somewhere. Take it back to where you got it from because you're protecting that next person, particularly if the item is a refrigerated or frozen item.


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[Assistant] There's, there's a lot going on with Tmoo. The prices are crazy low. Have you looked at it?


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[Assistant] You also will be spammed. You know, I, I don't know if you remember this. Someone had asked about Tmoo and I said I'd sign up for it and try it and see what it was like. And did I just get another Tmoo? No, that wasn't Tmoo. But I got texts all day long from Tmoo and they spam.


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[Assistant] You call it spam when it's a text message? Sure. The spam text. They send me spam texts all hours of the day and night and I've found so far


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[Assistant] I did three orders, which is what I like to do when I test something out and all three orders came in as said, the merchandise was as represented and the prices were crazy low. Lots of questions. If you've got, um, you know, child labor,


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[Assistant] You have people in what's the province in China where?


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[Assistant] Not supposed to buy things from because it's people that are.


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[Assistant] So anyway, there, there are question marks about it and so far,


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[Assistant] I haven't had any issue. I haven't ordered again from them of those three orders. So I guess I'd have to order a few more times and see if I have things that don't come or come in not as represented and see what the experience is like. But I appreciate all the feedback on it because


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[Assistant] It is such a, an unusual site and it's the fastest growing app download I think in the United States right now.


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[Assistant] Tim, I appreciate that perspective. There was also a perspective recently


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[Assistant] About how people who love rewards on cards are the ones that are the most unhappy about the Visa MasterCard Cartel fees being forced down. And so, uh, obviously,


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[Assistant] The banks and Visa and MasterCard make massive profits from us having the highest fees in the world on using credit cards and there is some benefit


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[Assistant] That ends up coming to some of us like I totally play the cash back game. Uhm, so I am benefiting the merchants are suffering and people who pay cash are subsidizing us.


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[Assistant] People use credit cards and run interest charges on them.


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[Assistant] Are subsidizing those of us who have rewards. So it's not all one thing because those


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[Assistant] Extremely high fees do come back to some of us in benefits.


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[Assistant] Uh, you are not the first person who said that. And so if the line is short at the service desk and you see in your app that you have some Sam's cash there, you're 100% right. On the other hand,


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[Assistant] Hold on to the cash longer before you go stand in that line to get your cash. But what you're saying is 100% true.


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[Assistant] Because if you use it to pay for items at the store, you're losing.


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[Assistant] The rewards that you're getting that are so generous as a plus member.


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[Assistant] I love the creativity people have in describing how much I stink. Do you have a particular favorite, people said?


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[Assistant] Mike, thank you very much. And uhm, hope you get some...


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[Assistant] Uh, cheese curds and some good custard today, my honor. Anyway, everything for me, everywhere it goes about the food, right? Yep.


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[Assistant] You bring up a really valid point that what you're avoiding by not buying all the pseudo insurance from the car rental counter and then using a credit card in its place, what you're really getting is it's covering damage to the vehicle.


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[Assistant] Uh, liability if you injure someone, all that. That's still going back on your own automobile insurance.


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[Assistant] Primary and secondary is for damage to the vehicle. And so that's why we have auto insurance is that if we were in our own vehicle and somebody was injured and went after us on the liability side, it's the same thing. You don't have to buy it from the car rental company. So your point is completely valid. It doesn't change my answer though, because your auto insurance is there for those purposes.


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[Assistant] And it comes up that it's time for an oil change.


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[Assistant] Doing just what you said is such a great idea. You call the rental agency and say, what do you want me to do? They gave you a perfect, nearly painless answer and you protected the money they have tied up in the car. I love that.


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[Assistant] Your name is perfect because if you're volunteering with Habitat for Humanity, that organization means so much to me and to my heart. So for me,


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[Assistant] Tim, okay, which order, I'll answer Tim first, since he was the one you mentioned most recently.


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[Assistant] So, Tim, I do watch college football too. I just don't get that same emotional connection as I do to the NFL. So, red zone.


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[Assistant] I've never been someone who just likes watching the highlights.


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[Assistant] Being with a game, even a bad NFL game, through the game.


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[Assistant] And so that's why I have multiple TVs going at once where I can watch and get the flow of a game through the game. Uhm, so Red Zone wouldn't work for me. And the other thing,


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[Assistant] Is I know this is weird. You get up five a.m. You're watching the pregame stuff on ESPN and all that till the last game ends.


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[Assistant] I never watch any of the sports talk shows on ESPN or anywhere else. I don't listen to sports talk on radio. None of that is my thing. I just enjoy the games themselves. So I guess that makes me an oddball for being such a big fan. Now, Angel, gotta say something to you. I don't drink. So if I went to a sports bar to watch


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[Assistant] The games from out of market on the big screen TVs, they would get like the cost of one Coke Zero from me.


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[Assistant] I mean like, I would, I wouldn't cost myself anything doing that. And so,


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[Assistant] To not drinking, you know? That you don't spend that money.


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[Assistant] And, uh, as we've shared several times recently, uh, Krista was in Europe with her family in one part of Europe.


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[Assistant] I was in another part of Europe with part of my family and what happened over and over again, beer is cheaper than


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[Assistant] So, I was drinking local beer.


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[Assistant] Because it was the cheapest beverage. It was funny because you look on the menu and, uh, soft drink.


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[Assistant] Might be $8 equivalent in US dollars.


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[Assistant] And the beer would be like two dollars or two and a half dollars. So which do you think I had?


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[Assistant] Beer, no doubt. And other than a situation like that, I don't drink at all.


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[Assistant] There's something wrong with me. Anyway, there's probably a lot wrong with me. Coming up ahead, I want to talk about something we need to do right for our families, for the people we love that all too many of us put this on ignore. The Aretha Franklin saga that's gone on is something you think, Oh, that's just a celebrity.


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[Assistant] Even if you loved her music, her entertainment skill and all that.


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[Assistant] But there's something so valuable for you and me. The story of her supposedly dying without a will. Then recently, no joke.


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[Assistant] A will was supposedly found in her sofa cushions.


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[Assistant] I'm not kidding. Now the courts are trying to decide.


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[Assistant] If that's the proper will and all that, you may have heard some of that.


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[Assistant] Overwhelmingly people who should have a will don't have one. Like the most common answer I'll hear from people, particularly people who are, uh, have not been married a long time, maybe have a kid or two. You're like, I don't have anything. Why would I do a will?


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[Assistant] You got a kid or two, or three, or whatever. That's why you do a will.


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[Assistant] Your nightmare sister or brother or nightmare


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[Assistant] Brother-in-law or sister-in-law or some other family member who you're like.


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[Assistant] Well glad that family reunion's over. We don't have to see that person for fill in the blank time.


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[Assistant] And that's the person the state decides is going to raise your kids?


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[Assistant] You do that will for your kids. If you don't have a lot of assets, you can do one of those, um, software wills.


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[Assistant] Will Maker is the most popular of all those, if you will.


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[Assistant] If you have a pretty simple financial situation, you just want to protect


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Your spouse or so often people are living with someone they're not married to. Do you want to protect that person?


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[Assistant] You want to have a will that says what you want to have happen. One thing I got to tell you though, beneficiary designations


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[Assistant] On bank accounts, insurance policies, brokerage accounts, all that.


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[Assistant] They are those beneficiary designations you do. They are superior to what's in a will. Most common situation with that, somebody gets divorced and they forget they didn't make their new significant other or their kids or their new spouse, the beneficiary,


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[Assistant] And you pass away and the stuff goes to who? The ex spouse that you would put as the beneficiary designation. This is stuff to pay attention to. On the other hand, you have extensive assets or you have a complicated family situation, blended family, anything like that. You own a business.


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[Assistant] To do a will and not just any old lawyer, a lawyer who what he or she does is their specialty of law, wills, estates, and trusts.


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[Assistant] And depending on how complicated your situation is, you may need something very simple that's pretty inexpensive, or you may need something that is pretty complicated and must be nurtured, managed over time. At the very least, every significant birthday, just use a significant birthday so you remember


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cause otherwise people don't remember that they did that will long ago and lots of things have happened. New babies born.


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[Assistant] Or something like that. Something that's a milestone in your life. You get married, you get divorced. Something like that. You want to check that will and see if it needs updating. At the least every five years. So,


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[Assistant] When you turn 35, when you turn 40, when you turn 45 and on like that.


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[Assistant] That's when that birthday is when you get that will out and see, do you need to make changes? You want to do this because the loved ones you have will be grieving enough over the loss of you. You don't want to leave a mess behind.


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[Assistant] So as I shared not that long ago, there was a stat that one third of adult children under age 35 are living back with their parents. They, they call them rebound kids or something. Your son's 28.


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[Assistant] I know a lot of people would say, tough love has got to move out.


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[Assistant] Something's going on here. There's more going on. Not making the payment. Where's the money going?


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[Assistant] I'm sure your imagination has gone to different places.


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[Assistant] Why he's got no housing costs, eating your food.


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[Assistant] And can't make the truck payment and other bills. Something is going on and it's something, um, that involves the help of a professional. I mean, you could, as parents say, you got to get out there and get on your own and let him sink or swim. And I know that was the traditional answer. I can tell the love you have and the frustration.


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[Assistant] Both of you and you just want your house back and your life back. I'm going to say the craziest thing.


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[Assistant] One, if you are a member of a religious congregation or church, you should go for pastoral counseling. That's what they're there for and see if there are some suggestions. Um, if you're not religious or if that's not a viable option, this may surprise you, but going to a marriage and family therapist is what I'd recommend at first.


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[Assistant] Maybe for you and your husband. And then later, hopefully your 28 year old son will come with the missed payments and things.


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[Assistant] My mind goes different places. Something's wrong, either psychologically or something else. And so, uh, it's not working for you. So obviously not even working for your 28 year old son. And that's why I would not delay on this and get that counseling wherever you would get it and figure out a path that works best for your son and


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[Assistant] For you and your husband and I wish you the best and please let me know later how this is going.


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[Assistant] I'm so glad you're out of prison. I hope that your life is on a very positive path now. And I know this pulls you down. There you were with a solid, great credit score in your, in the seven hundreds. So now five 50, that's hard.


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[Assistant] Your ability to dispute charges ends in 60 days, not 90.


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[Assistant] Uhm, but this is a very unusual situation and


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[Assistant] What your liability might be, because you've got this


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[Assistant] Company that sued you for 3500 and they might get a judgment against you. Is to see what legal rights you have because the one thing I don't want you to have to do is file bankruptcy.


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[Assistant] And this is way out there and we've, we've had lots of situations where the next, uh, girlfriend or boyfriend using cards and.


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[Assistant] Ex-spouses using cards and all that kind of stuff. Your circumstance we've never had.


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[Assistant] That's exactly right. You get on record with a police report that these were not your charges by an unknown entity.


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[Assistant] You can't, you can't accuse the roommate because you don't know it was the roommate. But you can say that someone ran up debts as if they're you. I know it's a weird thing to ask you after


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[Assistant] Your unhappy encounters with the police to recommend a police report.


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[Assistant] But that is one step. And then we get to a decision tree and you don't know what's gonna work. Normally what you would do is you'd hire a consumer lawyer.


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[Assistant] There are specialists who work on consumer law cases.


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[Assistant] That may be able at not too huge a fee.


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[Assistant] To work on your behalf with these credit card companies and try to, uh, get the burden relieved from you, from these cards. I don't know if there's any, uh, prison release program that you have been part of that may be able, an advocacy organization or whatever,


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[Assistant] Under the law to be valid charges because they may be because of the,


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[Assistant] From the process of continuing to rebuild your life and the worst possible scenario, the result would be a chapter seven bankruptcy filing, but that would be the worst possible scenario. And that by itself in a situation like you described is not the end of the world.


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[Assistant] Jacob, thank you for those wonderful words you said. And West Virginia is gorgeous. Have you ever been?


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[Assistant] West Virginia really is beautiful. And renting from Turo is a great alternative. My middle brother rents from Turo all the time and he loves it.


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[Assistant] We have had an occasional complaint about Turo, like we got complaints about Airbnb, but overall people's experiences with Turo that have come to us and that I've read about that overall Turo has been a great source and great alternative. And if you got in the Turo and it seemed like it wasn't well maintained or something like that,


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[Assistant] Because of all the hills and West Virginia mountains, you would not want a Touro that is not properly maintained and not in good condition. That would be a circumstance where you say, Whoa, when you go to pick it up, this is not going to work. But otherwise I think you could be very happy with it. I think it'll work great on your vacation. And I hope your son lives a Clark smart life.


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[Assistant] We're here for you at ClarkDeals.com and Clark.com around the clock to serve the needs of your wallet and stretch every dollar. So,


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[Assistant] Know that we've got that going on for you. We also have, I'm surprised.


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[Assistant] After 30 plus years, how many people don't know that we provide free one-on-one advice? The Team Clark Consumer Action Center.


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[Assistant] So we're available to answer your questions to serve you Monday through Friday.


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[Assistant] You can see full details about getting that free one on one advice at Clark.com slash CAC. Have a great weekend.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Supersonics basketball game in Seattle, way back when they used to have the NBA team. First time in Seattle.


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[Assistant] Asking if we'll take sponsored content as they like to call it or just assuming we do and asking how much we charge for links and all sorts of stuff in our content. And I just honestly like I don't even answer half of them anymore because we don't do that. It's in our editorial policy on the website if they really wanted to look that we don't do that. It's our policy.


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[Assistant] Okay, this question has come in several times, so I, even if you've talked about this, I want you to...


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[Assistant] Re-talk about it. Talk about it again. Wow, re-talk about it.


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[Assistant] Oh yea. New words. Urban dictionary, like, but that's not a word.


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[Assistant] I don't know, but I feel like that was just a major fail. Brain fail.


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[Assistant] But I'm looking to find a new job this summer and I anticipate moving, so I want my money to be fairly liquid. As a result, I've stayed away from CDs, but I don't see any downside to this Vanguard Cash Plus option.


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[Assistant] What are your thoughts on this new option from Vanguard and do you have any suggestions for me as I move toward this transition in employment and location?


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[Assistant] Mike in North Carolina says I recently did the unthinkable and stopped at a red light.


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[Assistant] Yeah, well I think the driver behind Mike also thought that because he says the driver behind me kept going into the back corner of my SUV. Dealing with this required me to contact the other drivers insurance company and send pictures of my vehicle. I got a quote of $1100 to fix it.


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[Assistant] The body shop estimate was $6,900.


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[Assistant] The body shop says that's a common play by the insurance company. I guess they can save a lot of money by having the driver take money and spend it elsewhere and never even get the car properly repaired. I'd never heard of this and I thought I would pass it on to you.


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[Assistant] Jared in Florida says my wife and I are currently maxing out our Roth 401Ks and it's all we can do financially.


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[Assistant] But we're curious if it might make more sense to put a portion towards our $500,000 mortgage that is at 6.35%. It just seems unlikely we will match that in the market and it would give us a feeling of safety to have a paid for home.


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[Assistant] Okay, this question's from Mark in California. He says, thank you for your podcast. My sister told me about it and I'm now an avid listener.


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[Assistant] I have about $15,000 in credit card debt and I keep seeing posts about a debt relief company. I gave you the website there and other like services out there.


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[Assistant] I'm wondering, is this a type of consolidation a good thing, or is it going to impact my credit like a bankruptcy would?


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[Assistant] I love it. And Mark, we do have a community on Clark.com where people help each other out and if you're on Facebook under the Clark Howard Facebook page there's a group called Ditch Your Debt as well. So try to get some support and let us know how you're doing.


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[Assistant] Uhm, Jana in Georgia says I'm looking to buy a grow up plan for my kids aged 5 to 7. I am concerned with what happens to the money if I opt out of the policy once I begin and find for whatever reason that I cannot continue to pay the premium. Which is the best company to go with?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Eric in Florida says, thanks for all that you and your team do. I love the podcast. I understand that you recommend linking Cash App or Venmo to a bank account with a limited balance to prevent loss of significant amounts of money due to fraud. Is it okay if that bank account is linked to the payment apps?


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[Assistant] And it's also linked to the main checking account at a different institution that I use to pay my bills.


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[Assistant] I'm so glad that you're here with us on the Clark Howard Show, where our mission is to serve you and empower you so you make better financial decisions in your life. In this episode, I'm going to talk about two ugly things.


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[Assistant] First, those signs you see saying, we buy any house. Are they on the up and up? What's it all about? And then second thing, something that's truly ugly to me,


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[Assistant] Do those signs mean? What do the billboards mean when they say we buy any house? Well, I've talked about what that's about.


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[Assistant] And who that's for and who benefits from.


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[Assistant] Those signs at a freeway exit, those billboards, those online ads. ProPublica.


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[Assistant] A thing on the people you see the sense say we buy ugly houses and their report was really, really ugly. And I've read their report and I want to say something. There are clear abuses going on.


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[Assistant] But these are franchise organizations and there are some that specifically


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[Assistant] Have been dishonest and taken advantage of people and there are others.


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[Assistant] That are just trying to make money as investors and not trying to take advantage. But I want to tell you the signs and what you need to be aware of and careful.


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[Assistant] Who are real estate investors that look for people that are desperate and take advantage of them. In the ProPublica piece, they were repeatedly profiling people who were elderly, maybe of declining mental capacity,


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[Assistant] Being paid pennies on the dollar what their homes were worth and then being evicted from their homes. It's an ugly, ugly story. And as so often happens with things when older people are taken advantage of,


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[Assistant] It's because those of us that are younger, that are their friends or relatives, aren't being nosy enough, not being involved enough, and so often it's because people and families have scattered across the country. And


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[Assistant] Not living where the aging relatives are. They lose touch, lose track.


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[Assistant] And don't really understand what's going on in their lives. And also a lot of people don't like their adult kids asking questions. And the reality is if you see signs that


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[Assistant] Your aging mom or dad or grandmom or granddad are showing signs that they're not okay, but they're pushing back against you. You gotta be nosy. You gotta be pushy. You've got to be involved because what's key is I read this report


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[Assistant] Was the people are having their homes stolen from them, essentially having their equity stolen from them.


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[Assistant] Overwhelmingly are older people that are isolated that need the influence of their younger loved ones to prevent the train wreck from happening. You know, a salesperson can really sweet talk


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[Assistant] And that's a friendly face for someone who's isolated and lonely and maybe scared. And


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[Assistant] When they're isolated, that individual wins their confidence, has them sign a contract.


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[Assistant] That only a lawyer could love. They have no idea what they've done.


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[Assistant] I want to make it clear that


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[Assistant] The ProPublica story obviously has identified some really bad apples in real estate investing. I find that most real estate investors


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[Assistant] Are good, decent, hardworking people just trying?


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[Assistant] To build a portfolio of investments. There are always going to be those in any industry that prey on the weak.


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[Assistant] And unfortunately the law is not equipped to fix those wrongs and make them right.


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[Assistant] The only thing the courts really care about is that your signature right there.


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[Assistant] And even all these elder abuse statutes that have been passed in states around the country.


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[Assistant] They look better on paper than how they're being implemented in practice. So that's why it's so important for you to be involved on real estate.


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[Assistant] Investing, selling to someone who is an investor and hitting the easy button. You know, one of their primary markets are when adult children inherit a house from a loved one, a parent who's passed away.


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[Assistant] And again, with families spread out around the country, and in the last years of time in that house for your parent,


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[Assistant] The house deteriorated, uh, the paint's peeling, driveway's cracked, uh, the gutters have fallen off, the roof needs replacing. It can overwhelm.


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[Assistant] Adult children, particularly if they live somewhere else in the country, they're grieving about the loss of their parent and they'll decide that rather than going through the process of hiring contractors across the country, having the work done, they just want to be done with it.


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[Assistant] Now understand that's not a free ride for you. Yes, you will have avoided the work, but the investor who buys that home from the adult kids, that investor is going to make money on the fact that you don't want to do the work. That to me is not a scam.


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[Assistant] That is not a con, and that's not a thief.


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[Assistant] So you are paying a convenience charge. You're paying a big convenience charge because if you get a house cleaned up and dressed up,


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[Assistant] Get it back to having curb appeal, getting the lawn fixed and all that. You will get market value for the home.


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[Assistant] But there's a double loss in market value when you sell a home that, as you said, is not decluttered because the buyer of that home


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[Assistant] You're paying their estimate of the cost of getting the property right.


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[Assistant] And you're paying their markup, their margin for it. So it's worth it if you have the energy to get the home decluttered, as you said, because you'll make enough additional money for the property that the effort to do it is worth it if you can do that effort.


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[Assistant] I don't know if you remember during the heyday of the e-buyers, the i-buyers, I'm sorry.


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[Assistant] Can I get my letters right? The iBuyers where you


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[Assistant] Uh, that's pretty much faded into oblivion of light with the higher interest rates.


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[Assistant] But I ended up selling one of my investment properties to an, through an iBuyers service.


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[Assistant] And they came in and said, okay, these are the things you need to do to this property to get top dollar for it. And they said, you can do them.


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[Assistant] And they got work done that would have taken me about 10 weeks. They got it done in 2 weeks.


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[Assistant] The house went on the market and sold within an hour. That tells you what the market was like.


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[Assistant] Amy, from what you, the way you phrased the question, this is the house you live in. So you pocket that money tax free.


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[Assistant] If you have a gain of up to 250,000 as a single individual, 500,000 as a couple,


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[Assistant] You just pocket that money, you don't have to buy another property.


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[Assistant] Two years or longer. Yeaah. Two of the last...


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[Assistant] Five. Five, right. So this hundred and seventy thousand is tax free money to you.


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[Assistant] And you can rent as long as you want after that. You don't, you know, they used to be the rule that you had to buy a new place within a period of time.


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[Assistant] People were gaming that so much, Congress finally was like, let's make this simple.


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[Assistant] And came up with this new system that you just pocket the money and that is your money.


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[Assistant] Free and clear. Oh, it's almost like a house has become its own version of a Roth IRA if you live in the house. So that is your money to keep.


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[Assistant] And you go live where and how you want to.


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[Assistant] So rates will go down. They're never going back to the artificially manipulated 2% range, barring some extremely unexpected event in the world. And mortgage rates are, I should say that the rates the Federal Reserve is charging now


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[Assistant] Are, uh, slightly above the rate of inflation which is where they should be.


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[Assistant] So inflation is continuing to go down. Hopefully that trend land will continue.


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[Assistant] Inflation is roughly half what it was at its peak.


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[Assistant] And so mortgage rates should settle lower than they are now. Uh, probably somewhere if I were to guess, there's a dangerous guess. I'm putting this in the complete danger category.


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[Assistant] I think we could see rates back in the fives again, could be where they're going to settle.


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[Assistant] Uh, very unlikely back in the fours. Could be 15 year loans go back into the fours.


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[Assistant] What I, what's not clear is Jason, where you have narrowed your search. It's too wide a search from your question right now.


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[Assistant] You need to go take vacation time and go visit lakes in different areas of the country that you're targeting.


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[Assistant] You'll narrow down what parts of the country you'll come up with your favorite lakes that you might want to live on and then you get to know the housing markets on those lakes. So.


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[Assistant] It's not something that you should just take an entire map of the United States and say, Oh, well I hear there's great lakes in Tennessee. I think I'll go there. You need to know if an area is appealing to you and it's a play. Is it a place?


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[Assistant] That even though it would be part-time next five or six years, potentially investment slash part-time.


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[Assistant] And then in retirement, maybe half time or full time, you need to be comfortable with the area.


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[Assistant] And so I like for you to sample areas on lakes. Lakes have wide variety of homes available in short term rentals, month long rentals, seasonal rentals. So you, you sample places before you buy.


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[Assistant] Because even a place that you might enjoy for a weekend, you might not enjoy for a month or more. So,


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[Assistant] Narrow down area, narrow down lakes, try them out. Don't buy for a good while till you're really, really comfortable. It's where you want to be. Now, in terms of vacations, I gotta talk about it. We Americans,


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[Assistant] Are like the only people in the developed world who don't use our vacation.


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[Assistant] Drives me crazy and as the summer vacation season's about to kick off, I want to get in your head to use your vacation. We're going to talk about it. Okay. I can't handle this. Half of Americans who get paid vacation from work,


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[Assistant] Don't use all their vacation. They may use some of it, they don't use all of it. Bloomberg reports.


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[Assistant] The number one reason that people give for not using vacation days that they will get paid to take is they don't feel they need to. Seriously? Okay. I choose to work.


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[Assistant] And I'm working at an age that I was just at my high school reunion and I was like the only workin' fool left.


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[Assistant] Krista, I know that distresses you. I'm like the only one still working who I talk to.


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[Assistant] You have worked with me since 1997. What's something you have seen me do


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[Assistant] Every single year from 1997 till today.


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[Assistant] Let a vacation day go unused.


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[Assistant] I love working, but I love my vacations and I take them and that the number one answer


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[Assistant] Is that people don't feel they need a vacation? Yes, you need a vacation. You become a better worker.


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[Assistant] You become a better business owner when you take time to clear your head, to step back, gain perspective, recharge your batteries.


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[Assistant] The second most common reason people are worried that they're going to fall behind in the corporate race, that they're going to miss that promotion or advancement if they take vacation. Okay. Now let me tell you, you're being a lot more loyal to that employer than they are to you. Think how many people come into work,


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[Assistant] And they think everything's great. They got up in the morning like any other day and they suddenly are called into


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[Assistant] Okay, what an Orwellian word. Right size, which means you're out!


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[Assistant] And you never know no matter how hard you work, no matter how loyal you are, when that employer will decide your surplus.


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[Assistant] And if you think by not taking your vacation, it's going to prevent them from saying at some point that just callously you're out. Let me tell you the mentality of corporate America.


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[Assistant] You could still be out no matter how hard you've worked, no matter how loyal. So don't let that be. And so please, please take your time for yourself. Enjoy yourself. There's always more time for work.


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[Assistant] And as any long time listener has heard me say this long time phrase.


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[Assistant] I never knew a dying man who wished he spent more time at his work doesn't exist. So you hear me talk about


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[Assistant] Uh, this dichotomy, this thing they talk about in psychology that two things can be true at once. Yes, I love to work. And yes, I love my vacation time.


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[Assistant] So remember the two things are not mutually exclusive. They both work hand in hand. If all I ever did was work, I'd be more dull than I already am. And two, I wouldn't be a good worker. So take that time.


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[Assistant] Enjoy yourself. And if you say, well, I don't have any money to go do any kind of fancy vacation, do a staycation, go to a state park, do something for yourself. Just enjoy yourself.


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[Assistant] Is a vacation day, the unofficial kickoff to summer. But what's it really about that we lose sight of with any of these Monday holidays? It's to remember and express gratitude to the brave men and women who fought for our nation, for our freedom, and the ones who lost their lives doing so. And I am so grateful


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[Assistant] To these brave men and women, these patriotic men and women who


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[Assistant] Made the ultimate sacrifice so you and I could be free.


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[Assistant] So alright, so Karen, what makes time shares a defective purchase is there's no market when your life changes or your priorities change and you don't make those trips to Maui anymore.


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[Assistant] And you, the obligation goes on in perpetuity. You own that obligation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You don't really own real estate in a traditional sense. So.


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[Assistant] You're responsible forever for the maintenance fees, which they can change at any time, uh, any special assessments they hit you with. You have no rights with those. The uh, timeshare operator just says, this is what we're now charging you. That's why


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One of the reasons they're defective, the other, they're so hard to sell. So if you want to buy one,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That you should be able to find on your many trips to Maui, a timeshare community you really like, uh, and you can rent at them and look at Vacacia and you can rent people's unused timeshare weeks.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, and if you go to the TimeShare Users group online,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You can find the properties and find who's trying to dump their week.


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[Assistant] It may pay you several thousand dollars to take over their ongoing obligation.


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[Assistant] You never want to be the one who buys a timeshare from the original developer.


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[Assistant] At their dreamt up fake price that only covers all their massive advertising and commissions expenses.


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[Assistant] You want to own one that you're not the first owner.


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[Assistant] And they're paying you, or at least giving it to you for free, to take over that week.


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[Assistant] And then, think about it, if you have to pay somebody a few thousand to take over their timeshare, when your life changes and you don't want it anymore,


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[Assistant] You've already budgeted in because you got paid thousands to take it over. You already know that you might have to pay thousands to get the next person to take it over from you.


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[Assistant] Which is an odd and not user friendly web address, but it's a very, uh, user friendly website once you're there.


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[Assistant] And I completely understand why there's so much air service, particularly in the winter from Alaska to Hawaii.


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[Assistant] Derek, thank you. Uhm, we don't have Derek stinks, although that would happen if we had it in this case, because I remember when we were doing a wedding thing once, we got all kinds of stinks from photographers later, when we suggested exactly that, that you hire a photography student,


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[Assistant] To take your wedding photos, but it is a great idea and the good news for wedding photographers is we went through that big backlog of weddings for a good while and they were busy as could possibly be after the pandemic period when they had no money coming in.


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[Assistant] Okay, I love this. Alright, so it's one of the oddest things with pricing.


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[Assistant] We see it with streaming services. Uh, we're talking about, uh, newspaper and magazine subscriptions. Uh, most any kind of subscription service.


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[Assistant] Uh, disloyal people are rewarded more than loyal people.


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[Assistant] We've talked about this in auto insurance. That auto insurers, many of them use what are known as loyalty index scores.


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[Assistant] And people who fit a profile of being extra loyal pay higher rates for auto insurance than people who they think might not stay if the price went up too much.


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[Assistant] So that's the way marketing works in the United States. Instead of rewarding loyalty, loyalty is punished. So with any subscription,


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[Assistant] You play hard to get, not always, but often you'll get a lower price doing just what John did, gets the publication at a fraction of the cost for the whole next year, just by saying, I quit. So that does it for us today. So I'm quitting for today. But remember,


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[Assistant] We serve you 30 hours each week with free one-on-one advice, guidance, and information.


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[Assistant] At our 31 year old Team Clark Consumer Action Center.


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[Assistant] Available Monday through Friday, Eastern time zones. 10 in the morning till 4 in the afternoon.


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[Assistant] The number you call for that free one-on-one advice. 636-49-CART.


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[Assistant] Oh, and save more, spend less, and avoid getting ripped off.


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[Assistant] No, weird. Okay, I'm just gonna take it. Sure.


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[Assistant] Uh, 21. I started my retirement accounts.


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[Assistant] Of course you did. That's awesome. And my kids both had IRAs when they were 15, which I love.


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[Assistant] Is a comparison using like or as. My English teachers are probably just want to kill me right now.


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[Assistant] So you're saying it's like you are like a summer's day.


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[Assistant] And a metaphor is more like, it's, they are, like this is a storm, they're going through a storm, whatever. So I think what you were doing was a metaphor, but all you English teachers out there can correct me because I feel like an idiot. We're gonna start with Aaron.


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[Assistant] Aaron in New York says, Hi Clark, I've been seeing a lot more articles like this lately where more retirement plans are offering annuities. What options are out there if you want to create a pension type of investment for yourself? And he linked to an article.


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[Assistant] Chris in California says in the pandemic era I was fortunate to keep working, but my spouse was not. With one income I opened several credit cards that at first I had control on payments. I began to miss payments with rapid succession and I fell behind.


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[Assistant] Now most of these cards have been written off into collections.


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[Assistant] I want to honor all my payments. How should I do so?


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[Assistant] Should I write letters to the creditors and offer payment plans? How can I ensure that if I pay any amounts that these creditors will not resell my debt? Thank you, I'm overwhelmed.


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[Assistant] And from Rick in California, the information recently repeated causing I'm sure untold numbers of users to panic and change how they charge their phones at public charging stations trying to avoid being data juiced is not true.


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[Assistant] Before passing on these types of stories, you might want to check with the experts, and they link to an article. For information on how this bad device was spread, check before you jump and don't freak out over public charging stations that pose actually no or very low risks.


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[Assistant] Right, we heard from a few people that they buy one of these little USB devices that's supposed to block your data, uhm, and protect against juice jacking. So I just pulled up one, a two pack on Amazon for $11.99. I know you don't want to hear about Amazon, but...


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[Assistant] So I don't know, we haven't tested these but we did have several, uhm, audience members, Clark, team Clark members reach out to tell us about that as well.


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[Assistant] Uhm, we have a shared password manager account, uhm, and I have emailed to my father, uhm, different ways to get into our accounts too, just in case he ever needed to.


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[Assistant] Okay, we'll go to questions now. This is from Donnie in Oregon. I recently requested a credit increase on one of my cards and being the avid Clark listener that I am, my credit is of course frozen. I received a notice that a hard inquiry was attempted but denied because of the frozen credit.


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[Assistant] I then received a letter from Card Member Services that said the freeze would need to be lifted in order for the inquiry to go through. My question is, is it worth a hard inquiry on my credit in order to get a higher credit limit all in order to obtain a higher credit score?


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[Assistant] Judy in Wyoming says, is this Facebook settlement legitimate? And if it is, which payment method do you recommend? Personally, I think the prepaid card would be safest, but wondering about your perspective. It's the Facebook meta


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[Assistant] Privacy settlement. And I did fill this out for myself. I actually chose PayPal since they already have my email address anyway.


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[Assistant] I'm guessing it's definitely single digits, but we'll see.


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[Assistant] I've never had to do this before and I don't like the idea of the personal checker wire. Should I be concerned and what would you recommend? Thanks for all you do and by the way, check out my new Proton email address. I haven't received any spam yet. Cheers.


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[Assistant] Besides teaching them to avoid debt, I also like to teach them the basics of investing. Are there any brokerage firms that you would recommend for first time investors and any advice about investing that I can give them? I wish I had started at their age.


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[Assistant] Your oldest child who is amazing and kind and sweet. I was having a conversation with her the other day.


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[Assistant] And she was talking about an online purchase and she mentioned she used her debit card. And I was like, your debit card? Your dad hates debit cards.


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[Assistant] I love that. And you know what, I would even go a step further, have a separate bank account for what you're willing to spend per month and use the debit card from that. And then like another account for your mortgage.


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[Assistant] And some people will convert it into other gift cards or put it on their Amazon account because you can put down to the penny. So that's, that's something that's been suggested too.


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[Assistant] Andrew in Virginia says, is CarMax a good place to buy a car?


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[Assistant] That was taken when my doctor drew blood during my yearly physical exam over a year ago.


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[Assistant] I guess not. And I think he probably meant, um, insurance company, the explanation of benefits. Oh, yeah, yeah.


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[Assistant] Uhm, it is not cheap. It's $900 and I would like to know what options I have in not paying this. Would this fall under the No Surprise Billing Act?


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[Assistant] Marianne in South Carolina says a national oil change place I went to one time keeps emailing me my car facts indicating that I haven't been keeping up with the maintenance.


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[Assistant] However, I do my maintenance with an independent mechanic. Is there any way I can correct this on the Carfax? I'm concerned that when I go to sell my car someday, whether privately or through a place like CarMax, that my Carfax report will be incorrect and negatively reflect on me.


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[Assistant] But I'm sure there are a lot of miles left in it and electric vehicles keep improving. The cyber truck looks exciting and is coming soon.


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[Assistant] When do I pull the trigger on an electric pull-up pickup?


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[Assistant] Jennifer North Carolina says, Hey Clark, my Yorkshire Terrier of 15 years passed away last December.


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[Assistant] Sorry Jennifer. I haven't, I've joined multiple online social groups that share pictures of their Yorkies and people who have Yorkies available for adoption. However, I've noticed a lot of postings about scams.


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[Assistant] One person I contacted said that I could not pick up the Yorkie and that she would have to have it delivered to me.


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[Assistant] That seemed very impersonal and a little sketchy. What do I need to do to make sure I don't get scammed?


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[Assistant] Once, on a recent show, you launched into your familiar rant about investing with bank owned investment firms. Never, never, never, not ever. But then doubled down when you excitedly exclaimed that there are no exceptions.


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[Assistant] Clark, you should know better. There are always exceptions. How do I know? Because I am one. I have my needs met with financial planning, investment advisory, insurance advisory, and tax planning provided at an all in net fee that is comparable to the fees charged by your favorite stepchildren, Fidelity, Schwab, and Vanguard.


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[Assistant] Honestly, Clark, the service that you offer to people is too valuable to be tainted with information that is patently untrue. And that's from Steve.


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[Assistant] Never heard of having to negotiate fees before.


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[Assistant] That's what this loyal Costco member is saying. It sounds like you have some pilgrimaging to do.


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[Assistant] Yeaah, for sure. In Clark Stinks you disgust how department store credit cards are terrible.


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[Assistant] To get the full 7.5% rewards in Kohl's Cash. Target is still the best card to get. Craig.


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[Assistant] Several of my friends have been sent drop dead letters from their retirement accounts because of the onerous reporting rules that the US government has. There needs to be a fix. Millions of Americans live abroad and pay their taxes but are treated like third class citizens. We need your help.


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[Assistant] Well, the reason is on the Ask Clark form, we sometimes will send the questions we can't get to our Consumer Action Center and they will call the person if they need more information.


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[Assistant] And so currently I don't think they're set up to call foreign numbers, but we're going to look into that and see if our phone system that we use can do that and we'll change the form if that's the case. But Clark Stinks we never call anyone.


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[Assistant] Right, so uhm, and we don't take any information that we wouldn't need and so that's why we don't, uhm, put it, we don't put that, that, uhm, the phone number field on the Clark Stinks form.


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[Assistant] When providing guidance regarding thermostat temperature, please include a caveat about medications and other life vital things people may have in their homes.


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[Assistant] While 78 degrees during the summer might be good, economically speaking, people need to be aware that not everything in their home can and should be stored at this temperature. They should check their life vital things such as life critical medications for recommended temperature ranges.


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[Assistant] So they choose to set, if they choose to set their thermostat to 78 degrees, they're doing so with the knowledge of the potential impact on these things in their home bath.


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[Assistant] Clark, I love your podcast and have been listening for about 20 years, but I think you stink worse than your beloved Atlanta Falcons on this one.


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[Assistant] Stop telling people to use their Roth IRA as a pay bank for emergency savings. Roth accounts are supposed to be for long term investing of your future, not a place designed to dip into when you need cash. Come on Clark, I thought you were all about the long


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[Assistant] By the way, I'll end by congratulating your Falcons on a wonderful first round draft pick. You are going to love Bijan Robinson, Rob.


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[Assistant] You're no Clark Kent and you just might be Clark Vent. Please stop whining about the decision made by Scott Kyes to change the name of his newsletter, Scott's Cheap Flights with


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[Assistant] To change the name of his newsletter. Scott's Cheap Flights was perfectly fine. It was brief and descriptive. Obviously, by using a more generic name, The New Going.


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[Assistant] He may be able to sell his company whenever he wishes. If you keep going on about the name, I will be going to scream my head off at the podcast, Cheryl.


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[Assistant] Clark, Clark, Clark, whatever happened to the tagline, spend less, save more, and avoid getting ripped off. Some of us long time listeners really miss it. Amy.


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[Assistant] I mean, it is still what, we have it on a lot of different things on our website and in other, we just don't use it at the beginning of the podcast, so. But that is what we want people to do.


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[Assistant] You know what I did though? I interrupted you when I just complained about it earlier when you interrupted me. So Christa stinks. Okay.


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[Assistant] I wouldn't say Clark Stinks because being a little too carefree in his analysis, there was a question about whether electrical vehicle charging would pose a threat to the electrical grid.


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[Assistant] Clark advised the listener not to worry as 80% of electrical vehicles are charged at night. That is true. However, that means that 20% of electric vehicles are not charged at night.


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[Assistant] So the remaining 20% could be charged during peak times. The definition of a peak time is when usage is at its highest and any extra charge could be enough to put the demand above system capacity. So although it might not be a problem, it very well could be a problem to add to any additional electrical demand onto the system at peak times.


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[Assistant] So I don't think it's safe to assume electric vehicles won't be in some circumstances posing problems to the grid. And that's from Kevin.


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[Assistant] Okay, Denise in Oklahoma says, what is the best way to get out of debt faster? I have $18,000 in debt. Is it better to use balance transfer for lower interest rates in the


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[Assistant] On the, for the payments or use the snowball method and just suck it up for the dumb mistakes that got me into debt.


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[Assistant] Definitely. Okay, Lewis in Florida says Clark, is it worth it to buy a new robot lawnmower for around a thousand dollars?


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[Assistant] I mean it depends on the size of your yard for sure because they, they don't have as much battery life and


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[Assistant] I mean, it looked complicated to set up, too. When I watched some YouTube videos people did about theirs, I was like, oof. And my lawn isn't that expensive to get mowed, so the payback period.


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[Assistant] And then if you're considering one or a couple specifically, I would look and see if there's a YouTube video of people using them, because I think that's...


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[Assistant] You have a far reaching audience and I was hoping you could discuss some good nutrition information and Krista let me prepare you some Brussels sprouts.


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[Assistant] I'm not judging you. Why not? Because.


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[Assistant] Uh, I don't know. I mean, I think just vegetables. Let's not get too... because I am no expert.


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


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[Assistant] One way we try to empower you is through our Team Clark Consumer Action Center.


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[Assistant] We answer your questions one on one for free. We're in our 31st year of doing it. We're not Baskin Robbins, but it's our 31st year of doing so.


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[Assistant] And we are here to serve you Monday through Friday, six hours each weekday, uh, based on Eastern time zone, 10 in the morning till four in the afternoon. We serve you one-on-one with advice, guidance, and information at 6 3 6 4 9 Clark.


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[Assistant] Today I'm going to talk about SUVs. SUVs are the dominant segment of the vehicle market and it is uhm, what's called an SUV often


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[Assistant] A lot of people drive them just cause they think they're cool.


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[Assistant] And then a lot of people with kids, parents, drive them as a child hauler.


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[Assistant] And I want to tell you something without terrifying you.


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[Assistant] A new report is out that a lot of SUVs that are very popular in the marketplace are actually unsafe


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[Assistant] For the occupants of the middle row, the children who might be in one.


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[Assistant] And I want you to have the information. Don't want to unsettle you, upset you, but you need to know. And coming up later, danger to your wallet, being overcharged at the register,


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[Assistant] Gosh, it's happening a lot now. I need to tell you what to know, what to look out for.


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[Assistant] So there are different organizations that test vehicles for different things and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, which is an industry body that


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[Assistant] Test vehicles in different scenarios to see how safe they are because the insurance industry is not nearly as concerned


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[Assistant] About what damage to a vehicle occurs in an accident. What they're really concerned about


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[Assistant] Is the people who get hurt or worse in a car accident or vehicle accident. And they're not doing that out of altruism. The real cost of insurance is not repairing a vehicle or paying off a totaled vehicle. It's the, the cost when someone's injured.


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[Assistant] And all you have to do is write down any freeway and see all the lawyer billboards to understand what I'm talking about. So the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety


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[Assistant] For people seated behind the front, the kids.


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[Assistant] Certain vehicles tested very, very well.


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[Assistant] Got the highest score of anybody in the test the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety did on SUVs recently. Also at the top of the heap, the Tesla Model Y, the Ford Explorer and the Subaru Ascent. Now let's talk about what did not do so well. Marginal.


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[Assistant] For passenger safety in that second row. Chevy Traverse, Toyota Highlander, and Volkswagen Atlas. Poor ratings. Poor. Meaning that there's significant danger


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[Assistant] A physical harm in an accident to people in that middle row, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.


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[Assistant] We've got the Chevy Traverse.


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[Assistant] No, I'm sorry, the Honda Pilot, because the Traverse was marginal. Poor Honda Pilot. Hyundai Palisade. Jeep Grand Cherokee. Jeep Wrangler 4x4 door.


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[Assistant] The Mazda CX-9 and the Nissan Murano.


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[Assistant] Because you want your children to be safe.


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[Assistant] According to the testing of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the vehicles I named are either marginal or poor in passenger safety in that, uh, backseat.


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[Assistant] Again, I'm going to tell you, the marginal one, Chevy Traverse, Toyota Highlander, Volkswagen Atlas, poor ratings.


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[Assistant] Honda Pilot, Hyundai Palisade, particularly of interest to me those two, which are very large SUVs.


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[Assistant] And did not have a safety level I would have expected for kids in that backseat.


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[Assistant] Jeep Grand Cherokee, Jeep Wrangler, 4 door, Mazda CX-9, Nissan Murano.


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[Assistant] And those are the ones tested in this round. So what kind of things


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[Assistant] Made these, uhm, poor or marginal.


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[Assistant] Four kids in that vaccine. They, they did a theoretical 12 year old dummy.


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[Assistant] Risk levels of chest injuries, abdominal injuries, head injury or neck injury.


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[Assistant] And the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, IIHS.org. You can see their data on safety of vehicles when you're shopping for a new vehicle or a used one.


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[Assistant] If the safety factors are very important to you. Krista?


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[Assistant] You are being taken for a ride, Amber. All the money in the dealership.


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[Assistant] And the sale of a new vehicle or a used one is in the F&I Department, Finance and Insurance Department.


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[Assistant] The sale of the vehicle itself is, uhm, except during the shortages we've had recently where dealers have been selling at manufacturers suggested even above.


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[Assistant] The sale of the vehicles normally is not profitable. It's all the add-ons they sell you later.


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[Assistant] Uhm, as I've explained before, do not tell a dealer you're going to pay cash as you're negotiating a deal because they make money on the financing. They make money on all those add-ons. You don't want any of them. They are what are known as PACs.


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[Assistant] Packs are things that a dealer sells at massive markups that have very little practical value to you at all. So you keep smiling and you say, no thank you. No thank you. No thank you. No thank you.


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[Assistant] And, uh, depending on the person sitting across the table from you, they may become hostile, they may become frustrated, or they may stay kind. Just depends on the personality of that individual who's working F&I at that dealership. As for using a credit card to buy that Jeep, most dealers will not permit you to do that. Uhm,


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[Assistant] Even if you would pay the merchant fees, they may not permit you to do that. That will vary by dealership. And if you do have to pay their merchant fees, it will likely exceed the, uh, cash back reward that you would have on that card.


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[Assistant] Uh, I, I've seen little parts of it where they take a Ferrari or something, they're running it all around or something.


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[Assistant] So, as you may be aware, I don't normally use valet, but not for the reason that may have happened in this case.


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[Assistant] It's because if a valet does wreck your car, just parking it, uh, you know, dents it, whatever, it is almost impossible.


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[Assistant] To get the valet company or in this case a hotel to pay for that damage. And this has been an area of problem for as long as I can remember. I don't even know how many times we've had questions from people over the years.


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[Assistant] A fuel bill on you is the least bad scenario I think we've heard about a valet. And I am a self-parker. Uhm, not, cause in a lot of hotels now, you don't get a cheaper price, self-parking versus valet. I still would self-park rather than valet.


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[Assistant] We were doing media appearances in New York. I was doing the morning shows. And, uh, parking at the hotel was outrageous. So,


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[Assistant] I talked to my nephew who at that point lived on the upper east side of Manhattan and he told me where I was allowed to park for free in Manhattan.


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[Assistant] And I parked east of 3rd Avenue and I parked in the 80s. And then I took the subway in to my hotel from there.


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[Assistant] Get to the, get off the subway, get to the car, and my car is heavily damaged and the vehicle behind me is destroyed.


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[Assistant] Bounced off of that and then, uh, heavily damaged the rental car and may have been totaled. And, uh, that was just a freak occurrence and not because I was trying to avoid costs. It just happened because I was trying to avoid costs.


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[Assistant] I've only had my car broken into over my lifetime six times.


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[Assistant] You have not set your, uh, income level. And that's the key determinant. Here you are mid-career.


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[Assistant] Coming close to age 50. Happy birthday to you next birthday. So...


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[Assistant] Jason, unless you are an ultra high income earner, which don't know if you're single or married,


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[Assistant] Say if you're single, you're earning above $300,000 a year. Married above $500,000 a year.


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[Assistant] You're better off doing the Roth version of your 401k.


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[Assistant] Instead of the traditional 401k.


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[Assistant] The reason is the company match they're doing is automatically going to be traditional pre-tax. But the money you're contributing being in after-tax with tax rates today being unusually low by historical standards.


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[Assistant] The lower your income, the more that tilts the answer to be, don't do this 50-50 split. Do very heavily or totally.


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[Assistant] And Roth 401k because you're eliminating the tax issues you would have much later in life and retirement.


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[Assistant] And I know there's always a lot of blowback from financial people when I say that in accountants.


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[Assistant] I just feel that a bird in the hand is really valuable right now in today's abnormally, by historical standards, low federal tax rates. Coming up next, something that's abnormally high.


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[Assistant] A lot of times your receipt after you bought something, I got something I need you to be looking out for with an eagle eye.


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[Assistant] One of the fastest growing retailers in the United States is Dollar General. Dollar General, uh, open stores in rural America and also urban and suburban America that are small format stores that sell a variety of items


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[Assistant] But much smaller selection and generally smaller size items than what you might buy at a Walmart. Well, according to an investigation by Barron's, Dollar General repeatedly


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[Assistant] Charges people more at the register than the price that is on the shelf.


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[Assistant] And in the states of North Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arizona, and Ohio,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The dollar general people have been sued by their states for pricing errors. That's what they call them is pricing errors. When the price is one thing on the shelf and then you're charged a higher price at the register and the company


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] of Dollar General, every single store audited. 100% of the stores.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We're having significant pricing errors where the price on the shelf was lower than what people were being charged at the register.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Dollar General is always their way, and their response to lawsuits and to barons is defiant. That's their culture. But the point is,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's definitely a pricing problem, but it's not just a dollar general problem. This is an issue in retail right now. The shortages of labor, the turmoil in retail,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I ring myself up. I always want to use self-checkout because then I can see as I scan an item, I'm looking at the price. Scan, look at the price. And I was recently


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well gosh, this was just a few days ago. I was in a Walmart and an item came up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] $6 cheaper came up at $10 instead of $15.99. $10 flat instead of $15.99. So there's the person there who's checking to see if you're shoplifting or not


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At the self-checkout. And I go over to the individual and I said I've got a pricing problem here. And I said this shirt rang up as ten. And it's supposed to be fifteen ninety-nine. And this always happens when I point that out to someone in a store. They look at me like I got three heads.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the response I got I loved was, well I guess it's your lucky day. But at least I had.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] has self-reported that something rang up too cheap in that case.