[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It comes with all kinds of add-ons including pretty generous allotment for hotspot.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So you can run your laptop or whatever off of your cell phone and also


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you have friends, family, whatever in, uh, Canada and Mexico.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They're doing an initial promotion. AT&T and Walmart are doing this thing together.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where you get a special deal on an AT&T phone in the Walmart store and you also get this plan for the $45 a month.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So they're selling older iPhones, if you're into iPhones, like an iPhone 11 is $299, an SE is $149, and if you're into Android,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They have androids for 19, 29, and 69 dollars.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then you have the $45 a month plan. Again,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is no matter what you're paying, there's almost something, certainly something out there that's a cheaper deal that gives you the features you're looking for.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, one thing way overlooked at T-Mobile are the plans they have for people that are 55 and over, that are military, that are first responders, that are plans that are basically, depending on what other features you want, unlimited data with talk and text at T-Mobile, $27.50 a person. Uh, you have to have two people minimum.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But then you get these really cheap rates at T-Mobile. A lot of people at T-Mobile may have started


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Before they had hit the double nickel, 55 years old, but you may be able, well you can, just by asking Switch, if you've, in both of you don't have turned 55, just one of you, you can now both get the much cheaper deal. And by the way, for parents, you have two kids, and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You are both 55 and over, you pair up one of your kids with one of you and the other kid with the other, and everybody's paying $27.50 a month, unlimited everything. I want you to know, there are so many ways to play the cell phone game, but the one thing you don't want to do


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's just stick with whatever you've been doing with whoever you're with, cause I guarantee you, you're paying too much. Krista?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm really sorry that you're feeling that kind of financial stress. The reality is that ring is not going to bring


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, it's almost better to keep it if one of your kids might want it to give, uh, I don't know if you have, uh, your teenagers or boys or girls.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But if their boys, you know, give to an intended someday, is their engagement ring or if you have a daughter, if she might like to have it as her engagement ring someday from her intended, uhm, but selling it, you just don't make a meaningful amount of money. Generally, if you're selling one and you want to try to get some meaningful money,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It has to be a pretty significantly sized diamond.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you're selling the diamond itself more than you are the jewelry itself. I know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As a divorcee, there may be, uh, a feeling that it would just be bad, uh, mojo. Mojo? Yeah. Uhm, having it be the ring that one of your kids would wear or give to someone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As far as value from it, it's going to be really, really hard to get a meaningful amount of money for it. I mean, you can go to a pawn shop, but if you go to a jeweler, jewelers do not pay very much


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To you to buy a ring from you that they would then turn around and sell for a great deal of money.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, it's funny because the industry's trying other things right now because of the churn they're facing. Churn is when people may watch a


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, streaming service for a month because they keep hearing everybody talk about blah blah blah show and they'll binge watch the first three seasons of it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're paying for something you're not watching. So the industry is doing exactly the opposite of what you're hoping they do, Mike. And I'm starting to see offers where, or requirements that you sign up 90 days at a time instead of 30 days at a time because of the churn. I think that eventually you'll see pay per view or high profile events.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like we always had with cable and satellite that be like a UFC event.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or something like that, or some kind of, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Soccer series that's not easily watchable in the United States, uh, but I think we're a bit away, I could be wrong on this, from having pay-per-view for specific shows or series or events.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In Virginia, where you're from is one of the states that has a tuition waiver for people starting at your age in Virginia, 60, you know, some states are 65, but it's very common that a lot of states at their state supported community colleges and four year campuses


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You can attend college for free. It's not even auditing in most states.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You are eligible for degree based programs. So you could do an associates program, which is a two year degree. You'd have a graduation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You would get your sheepskin and walk across the stage and as proud as you are of your kids, I'm sure they're proud of you with that sheepskin you would get or without because you have obviously done a great job raising them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You didn't get to go to college yourself, but you saw it as very important. They heard that, they absorbed that, and now they will this spring, one with the doctorate, one with the bachelors, and you were the one who gave them that inspiration. And be proud and check out the Virginia program.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, uh, who knows, there may be something when you look through the course catalog, you're like, wow, I always was interested in that. I never got a chance to study that. This could be your opportunity. Well, regardless of whether you go to a university in the state of Virginia.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm glad that you attend Clark Howard University here with me as part of our podcast and it is our joy and goal each day to be able to be of service to you and provide you with information that gives you the power to take more control of your life and your future.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We are home of the Chippewas. Alright, so we gotta give the background on the Chippewas. Sorry. So I got my master's degree from Central Michigan University, which is the home of the Chippewas. And, uh, and so we,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, but it goes so well with my alma mater, the cheap oas. Have a great day.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My pleasure to welcome you to the Clark Howard Show where our mission is to serve you and empower you so you make better financial decisions in your life. It's Friday. I know it's a happy day for me because I love the Clark Sink segment where I get to learn


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where I've missed the mark, where I haven't explained something well, or where maybe I'm just plain wrong. And so I appreciate you taking the time to post at Clark.com slash Clark Stinks. And later in this episode,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A lot of companies year by year have been adding Roth 401ks and people are confused as could be about how to handle their retirement plan at work when that's added as an option.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What it is that is the part that's hard for you to, uh, really understand when a company changes its 401k plan.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I'm going to answer that and of course answer your consumer questions. But without further ado, it's time for


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Clark Stinks. I should have never encouraged you to speak. You must think I'm pretty stupid.


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[Assistant] Bill, thank you, and that's why millions upon millions of people


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Have used the four savings of over withholding to create


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A pile of money that they get when their tax return is filed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My advice on this became pretty strident because of all the tax ID fraud, where then people couldn't get the money they'd over withheld.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For 10 to 14 months. So they, it backfired on them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But actually Bill, what I love is I love for people to do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, instead of extra withholding, to have a savings account.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That money is diverted into each pay period.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The reason I like this more is not, I mean, interest rates are puny right now, so you're right, that doesn't really...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of having money and savings that they can even add more to over the course of a year.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Rather than with the IRS. Now your other point you raised about EITC, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, that is completely accurate. The child credit made a difference for a lot of people this tax year in particular, and those points are well taken.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes, I had not really thought about the aspect of an armed robber holding a gun to your head to get your, uh, items that would normally be in a safe deposit box. And that was a failure to imagine on my part and a very valid point.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, first of all, the last thing I would ever want to be


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is insensitive to someone who is in a violent situation in a household.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I apologize for sounding flippant in any way. And uhm, I'm just really sorry.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] From Andrew and others was about giving.


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[Assistant] Dan, Dan, the delivery man, thank you. So uhm, where I may have gotten lost in the weeds talking about that before is the company you're buying from is the customer of


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] UPS, FedEx, the postal service, private delivery service, uh, you know, there are these regional delivery services, whoever.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You are not their customer. You're the customer of the company you bought from. And the carrier, UPS, FedEx, whoever, they want to deal with the company you bought from. And we've had situations where


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The company you bought from has said, oh well, you gotta go deal with it. That's not right. The dealing with it is by them because they are the customer. You have to provide whatever documentation you can. Something comes broken or something like that. In my son's case, the items were sent without any tracking and they were sent through the postal service and vanished in the night. The, the, uh, the seller


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Promise that they would send Grant replacement items.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And those have failed to appear, so we don't know


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If they said the original item was delivered, but it never was, we just don't know. He's out money and that's where we are.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Jay, Jay, Jay. Okay, I'm going to respectfully disagree with you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because the beauty of the people in uh, Florida who have installed solar


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is it eliminates the last kilowatt hours that the power companies have to pay huge amounts for to generate on peak demand times.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The people with solar and the businesses with solar actually lower the cost to Duke Energy and FPL.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, providing on those hot summer days, those what are called peaking days,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They are actually subsidizing the power of other people by having solar on their roofs and reducing the amount of peaking power that the two big monopolies in Florida have to purchase.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes, there is a cost to maintaining the grid. And that's why the system that Texas has adopted is vastly superior to what Florida uses and most other states.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Texas has eliminated monopoly power companies and now everybody's interests are aligned. If you look at monopoly power companies, their interests are diametrically opposed


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To you as a customer, whether you have solar or not.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They live in a world where the more inefficient they are,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The more markup they can charge, because everything is based on a percent above costs. And so they all pad their costs as a way to boost the profits that they can make. In the Texas system, you have three elements. You have the producers of power.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they don't care what the producer is, they're just producing power.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then you have the grid that brings the power to people and then the company you actually buy your power from as a consumer or a business.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Texas had a disaster from an extreme winter event.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, winter ago, not this past winter, but the winter before, and it exposed some weaknesses in Texas system for reliability. But in the overall scheme of things, power in Texas.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Has been getting cheaper and cheaper and cheaper while in these, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] These monopoly driven states, like Florida,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The monopoly power companies are able to manipulate the regulators, give big money to the legislators.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the system is stacked as a deck against the consumer and also businesses that buy that power.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And we need more free market in the United States, not less. And FPL and Duke Energy in Florida only want less free market and more monopolistic control.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As you can tell, I'm really, really.


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[Assistant] Strong on this, I may have blinders on, but I feel the real problem is monopoly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I, well Tom, I tipped in advance and I did give a generous tip because of the number of pizzas I got, 30 extra large pizzas for our Habitat volunteers, and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They actually loved the pizza. They did not think it was disgusting. And so, uh, maybe,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Me doing it because I was being cheap because it was the cheapest way I could feed two households of volunteers.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Was to buy the Domino's Pizza.


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[Assistant] But it was by far the most economical choice of things we looked at.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Kate, thank you for this. Now, again, I'm not a warrior, but in so many states, uhm, I don't even know how many.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If a child is still a dependent of the parent.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Even if the vehicle is owned by the child exclusively, the parent providing more than 50% of the financial support for the child can be, uh, sued by the individual who feels they were harmed by that person's child in the accident. Only if the child is emancipated.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Meaning the child supplies more than 50% of his or her financial support.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the point you bring up is a good one that I did not mention is that there would be circumstances in some states where there would be an advantage to a child


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Owning the vehicle outright, but I'm not even sure how many states that applies in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You were comfortable installing the solar, but then when you saw how much it added to the cost of the battery backup, that freaked you out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So uhm, I'm a huge fan of solar with battery backup.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because the, as the power companies, as we were talking earlier about Florida, as the power companies try to squeeze harder and harder, the battery capacity is going to get to a point where you'll be able to de-grid


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the power companies won't be able to have their hooks in you at all.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that is coming as the technology continually improves and the prices get cheaper.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And do you drink Starbucks coffee at home?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know what that is. I've never had coffee in my life, so I don't even know why I asked the question. So, uh, straight ahead.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Refer to myself as the man from Roth. I loved the Roth IRA from the get-go. But almost no employers forever offered a Roth 401k. Now overwhelmingly they do. And that's caused a conundrum.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For people who are saving for retirement at work. I'm an affiliate.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We've had a number of questions from people asking for clarification. When I talk about when your employer offers the option, adds the option of a Roth 401k, what do you do?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Phrased it basically, is unless you are a massive income earner.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You will benefit over time doing the Roth 401k option with your employer instead of the traditional. Because with the traditional, you're creating a tax time bomb.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That also could cause other taxes and retirement.


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[Assistant] Particularly later in retirement when you're forced to do


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What are called RMDs, required minimum distributions.


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[Assistant] That could cause you if you've been a great saver over your working lifetime.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Probably going to exhaust itself and we're going to see higher tax rates down the road. So this is a time particularly favorable


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To doing a Roth 401k instead of a regular. Now something that people have been confused about with a Roth IRA.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you have a traditional IRA, there's a pretty simple process where you can move money from


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The traditional end of the Roth, pay tax on it, you're done.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's much more complicated with an employer provided plan. So what I recommend is if you migrate future contributions into the Roth 401k, you leave the ones you've done prior that are traditional as they are. And even when you


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or no longer with that employer. Maybe you move the money to an IRA.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm still not all jazzed about you paying tax, moving the money into a Roth IRA. If the market takes a big swoon, that's a good time to move money from traditional to Roth IRA.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Your match is basically traditional money anyway.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So you're still contributing to both, but there's actual real tax advantages, planning advantages.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To having a pre-tax pile of money and a post-tax pile of money. Because each year in retirement


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Based on what trigger points might generate additional tax that you would owe because you pushed yourself into a higher tax bracket.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're able with a mix of money that was pre-tax and a mix of money that was post-tax, you're able to pick from the pile that's most efficient for you. But if you're just starting out


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In a workplace, and you're signing up for the 401k, usually you're going to be lower on the pay scale. Without doubt, you do the Roth option. All in Roth option. And again, whatever employer match there is, that's coming to you


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In traditional, so you still have some amount of money in each.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As far as converting money in a plan, don't even think about that. Just think about what you're contributing. Contribute as much as you can. And the big bonus to you is this. Let's say you're contributing my 10% that I like you to do into the traditional 401k.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then this year you go into the raw 401k and you're still contributing 10%.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The effect of that is you're saving a huge amount more every month.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because you're now saving with after-tax dollars that have already been taxed and will never be taxed again.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Instead of before tax dollars, because with a traditional 401k, every dollar you contribute, every dollar the employer contributes and every dollar you earn over the decades, all becomes subject to tax when you would draw the money way down the road. Krista?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So you mentioned GM and Toyota. The interesting example that I've been studying is Ford.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where Ford is dividing their operation into two.


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[Assistant] They're going to have a legacy gas engine vehicle operation and the electric vehicle operation. And the question is especially relevant for Toyota.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Toyota's culture has been so gas engine oriented and hybrid oriented that culturally they just couldn't get their arms around electric. And so Toyota now is playing catch up. GM even without separating the two operations is putting a good focus on both even without splitting the two. Now Tesla has had the market.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Pretty much to itself for a long, long time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's tough to question Elon Musk because he's a difficult guy, uh, doesn't have the best people skills, says things he shouldn't say.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But he is brilliant and he sees opportunities where others don't.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So to question what he is, the decisions he's making.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know that I should do that, but you asked so I'll tell you where my thinking has been. Number one mistake I think Tesla's made is putting the $25,000 Tesla on the back burner. I think the first mover advantage he has is not to be raising prices.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean they've had 14 price increases I think over the last year.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they can sell every vehicle they're making. So all they're thinking is, Hey, we'll just make wider margins, but they're creating breathing space and room for other players in the marketplace.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Tesla's further along with battery development than anybody else. And if I were them, I would be looking into how you make the market even larger and be doing the things to get the $25,000 version. It's a compact car.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To get it in the marketplace in 23. As things stand now, doesn't look like they're gonna do that till 25. And I think that gives too much advantage.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To the late comers in the electric vehicle sweepstakes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Nissan Leaf battery problems are long known and I don't know if you have checked to see if there is, if you qualify for


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The warranty coverage on the batteries because 4 out of 12 bars is significant on a leaf.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the warranty on the batteries is, I thought, eight years at Nissan. Uhm, I would definitely get to work on that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The math of you at your own cost replacing the batteries is untenable for the Leaf.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because the Leaf as a vehicle has so little resale value.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because of all the new products that have come in the marketplace. So I'm not comfortable with you replacing the batteries because they are so, so expensive to replace versus the value of the vehicle. I think your real effort needs to be with Nissan because the Nissan batteries, everybody knows it. The Nissan batteries in the Leaf have not been reliable.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On the batteries is only three years?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I would be shocked if the, I've not heard of any electric vehicle seller who has had such a short warranty on the battery.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, so I don't know if your year, Megan, has the 8 year, 100,000 mile warranty. So I was right on the 8 years. You were right.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, it's okay. So I think your real, uh, push needs to be with Nissan because they sold you a vehicle that everybody knows has defective batteries.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Suppose, let me tell you the deal. You were sold a bill of goods with the bi-weekly thing. What they're doing is


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And whichever company sold it to you, I don't doubt your bank did it directly. I think it's third party company they got a kickback from. They collect the money over the year.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They end up with the extra money over the year. They earn whatever they can earn in overnight interest on it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which is more than what you and I can earn on something. And then at the end of the year, they make one additional payment for you. And that's how this ends up shortening the length of your loan. You can have more impact on your loan discontinuing this plan and making your payments as follows.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When you're making 13 payments instead of 12 effectively over the course of a year, what that means is that if you pay roughly


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Seven or eight percent more each month on your payment coupon in additional principal payment.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You have more impact on the mortgage by having that money come in every month


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One twelfth of an additional payment every month, eight percent, every month.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Rather than having them make that one extra payment at the end of the year, that will shave more time off your loan and you're in control.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well Anna, first of all, let me go back to your first thing, duty station.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It means you serve our nation in the military.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And thank you so much for your service to our great nation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As to what happened, you did it exactly right!


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Exactly right. In fact, my brother just had a situation where his flight was canceled. My middle brother.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And he called reservations and they gave him the same blow off you got. And then he called the hotel directly, which in his case was a Holiday Inn brand property. And that hotel said, okay, we get it. Your flight's canceled.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We're gonna, uh, cancel your room even though you're outside cancellation. It's not gonna work every time, but when you talk to hotel reservations at the general 800 number,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They're always going to follow company policy no matter what and they will not give you a refund. Contacting the individual property itself.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] May or may not get you the refund you got or my brother got, but it's the best shot you have and I hope that the vehicle is running right now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I want to thank you for listening to this episode. Also want to thank our volunteers and staffers.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Who work at our Team Clark Consumer Action Center, answering your questions one on one, free advice. All you do is you call in Monday through Friday, Eastern time zones, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the number is 636-49-Clarke or you can learn more about the free advice we offer one on one at Clark.com slash CAC.


[User] Please transcribe this text

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


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Teenagers are growing up very differently even from their older siblings now with how money operates and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Teens are a hot market for the fentex, one of which


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They've gotta get in teenagers hands before somebody else does. So square has come up with


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] An idea for teens that I'm going to talk about in just a second.


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[Assistant] Later, I want to talk about a key skill you need as a worker to be successful. And I'm going to tell you what it is and how to master it. So, teens and money. Parent of three children.


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[Assistant] One's now 32, one's 22, and one is 16.


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[Assistant] I would give myself as somebody who does what I do for a living.


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[Assistant] What felt like at the time, each was a teen, a D minus on how I did with the money thing. And then what I didn't realize was they were absorbing a lot of stuff from me and not my lectures. It's your actions that really count. And when they ask you a question, that's when they're really absorbing it. So my oldest is phenomenally careful with money.


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[Assistant] And was just asking me a question the other day about her Roth IRA and the way it's invested and her 401k and I thought that was really great and she started


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[Assistant] Her first Roth right out of college when she was working as a vet assistant at a veterinary medicine practice during the Great Recession. And my middle child, who's 22 as I mentioned, she's going to graduate from college in May. And I've been really fascinated as her questions about money


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[Assistant] What was called a youth spending account with USAA where she had


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[Assistant] Uh, non-traditional money with training wheels. And it was hard for her to adopt to it.


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[Assistant] Now she's really got money down really solid.


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[Assistant] And she uses a combination of cash, Venmo, credit, and she seems to have it together and


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[Assistant] Her amount of money in her savings account keeps going up because she works while she's in college and she's been doing well. My 16 year old wouldn't know cash if it hit him in the face. It's crazy. I, uh, I cannot get him interested in cash as a means of purchasing things at all. And everything's electronic through his phone.


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[Assistant] And it's just how he does things and his generation or subgeneration, that's what they're going to do. And that's who Cash App is after. Is there issuing a form of debit card to kids starting at 13 years old?


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[Assistant] Which is a new frontier in a lot of cases, except for the small number of institutions that had youth spending programs that weren't a ripoff. And so cash wants to beat Venmo to the game and anybody else who'd like to get people is the habit they have formed early. So as a parent, know that you're a teen pretty quickly.


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[Assistant] We'll know that their friend, whoever, has this and they'll want to have it too.


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[Assistant] So this requires you as a parent to set up the account, you have to give permission, and you essentially get to control it.


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[Assistant] It's cash app or can you do it with Venmo too? Venmo have to be 18 or over. This is a cash app thing, although, uh, who knows.


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[Assistant] Tomorrow Venmo may decide to jump in here too. And I think there's so much value with a single digit and a teenager to have to deal with actual cash because you see the finite supply. The hard part for me,


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[Assistant] With any form of either electronic, like my son, doing everything with Apple Pay, or with someone using plastic, or using an app like the Cash App, is you don't see the finiteness of the money.


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[Assistant] And I've not come up, I've been struggling for a long time to come up with a way to get the concept through of the finiteness that the physical presence of money creates. So it's going to be up to you as a parent


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[Assistant] To be experimental, if you do say to your kid, okay, you have the cash app and you monitoring it to do the best teaching you can, like when your kid calls and says,


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[Assistant] Hey, they wouldn't let me buy something, cause they declined my, my app. What's up, dad?


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[Assistant] So those are the teaching moments when your kid says, what's up? What do I do?


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[Assistant] Speaking of which, I gotta say something about my 22 year old. She drives an electric car and didn't get around to charging it the other day and went to work. And she didn't have enough charge left to get back to her apartment. Oh boy. So she calls me and basically, dad, fix it.


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[Assistant] And she was in a part of Los Angeles called Koreatown working.


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[Assistant] And the only charger she could make it to was one that's for hotel guests at a hotel four miles away. She had to pay a valet to take the car and charge it. And it was a very expensive


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[Assistant] Lesson learned. And those are the moments for a parent with a kid, because this is the funny thing. We were talking the night before and she'd been on a long drive going to get something. I said, Stephie, do you have enough range left on your car? Do you need to go charge? She says, Oh, I'm fine. But she wasn't. And that's it with our kids. You know, they learn when they're ready and


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[Assistant] Nobody got hurt, it was just extra money, but she learned and you know what?


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[Assistant] This past fall semester is that it used to be that kids were punished for what financial aid they would qualify for.


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[Assistant] If there was 529 money from a grandparent, and it was kinda idiotic, and the rules have changed,


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[Assistant] And now that no longer affects eligibility for financial aid any different than a parent's money in a 529. In short, the way it works is that money in a kid's name hurts them horrifically for financial aid in college. Money in a parent's name does not.


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[Assistant] What happened before was any money a grandparent did was treated as if it was a kid's money and ate him up on financial aid and thank goodness that's over. Now, the thing you brought up


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[Assistant] About qualifying for the state tax deduction, your parents will have to check the rule in their state to see whether a grandparent giving money to a 529


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[Assistant] Also qualifies for the state tax deduction or only if the parent of the child is doing it. Just confirm that first.


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[Assistant] Is the legal document that says what you want to have happen.


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[Assistant] With your stuff and if you have minor children, what happens with your minor children at the time of your passing? It's where you designate your list of wishes. A trust is


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[Assistant] A document that generally involved at somebody's death is a document that lives on that controls access to funds or assets.


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[Assistant] Of an individual, I'm trying to think the right way to say this. So, let's say you passed a piece of real estate in a trust.


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[Assistant] Then it goes to that individual and usually there will be a trustee who is considered to be a legally responsible fiduciary, meaning that they have to do what's in your best interest as the beneficiary of the trust. Um, the most often reason in a will that a trust is used is if there are minor children,


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[Assistant] And you need somebody who, if there's gonna be assets, if you prematurely die while your kids are still young, or if you have someone who is self-destructive, who might inherit from you.


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[Assistant] Or you have someone who has a maturity or spending problem. That's one of the reasons people will put things.


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[Assistant] In a trust at time of their death, the will will call for, I think it's called, I think the lawyers call it a testamentary trust, that it passes to that.


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[Assistant] And then there will be a trustee, maybe another trusted family member, could be a third party institution, could be what's called a trust institution that would manage it and then as the will calls for, give the money out to the individual. Many times if somebody has


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[Assistant] Uh, substance abuse problem, a gambling problem, whatever, this would be a reason that you'd put assets or funds or investments in a trust and have a trustee


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[Assistant] To make sure the individual didn't blow through all the money.


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[Assistant] Why trusts would be used. I just gave you like a quick windshield survey at, uh, 50 miles an hour. And if you're preparing a will,


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[Assistant] That's the time to talk with a lawyer who specializes in wills, estates, and trusts, and they will tell you if the situation you have calls properly for having certain things in a trust instead of being passed through a will.


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[Assistant] Okay, uhm, so first things first, you're 32, you already had this money in a 401k, and I'm very impressed with you for doing that. A lot of people in their 20s don't ever get around to doing that.


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[Assistant] And that's great. You have, uh, nearly $20,000 in there.


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[Assistant] So if the company you worked for was a really large employer,


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[Assistant] There's nothing wrong at all with just leaving it there. Company's required to let you leave it open.


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[Assistant] Is a great idea regardless. You can leave that money behind and open your own Roth IRA.


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[Assistant] Which you're allowed to put up to $6,000 a year into and have it grow tax free.


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[Assistant] Since you already have a fidelity 401k, to keep things simple.


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[Assistant] You could also open your Roth IRA with fidelity.


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[Assistant] Speaking of employers, as we were just talking about going.


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[Assistant] From working for a traditional company to working in the film industry.


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[Assistant] Do you know that most of us are just terrible at negotiating our pay? And it's one of the most important things you can do through your working lifetime.


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[Assistant] Because it could cost you a huge amount of money, years of additional work, so many things that you're harmed by if you just are meek. This is a case where the meek don't inherit the paycheck.


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[Assistant] There's one thing that so many of us are so bad at. That's advocating for ourselves. We may be fiercely good at advocating for a friend or a relative, one of our kids, but when it comes to advocating for ourselves, we're really lousy at it. And one area that most people are pathetic at


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[Assistant] Is negotiating salary or salary increases. A lot of people just say, Oh, well, they offered me this and they just accept whatever an employer tells them.


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[Assistant] Or the, the employer will say time of review.


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[Assistant] Well, this year we're giving guideline raises of 1.5% or less. And so we're going to give you the 1.5% even though inflation is five and a half percent right now. You say, okay. And then you'll complain to your friends or whatever, or your spouse or partner or whatever that no, no, no. You got to stand up for yourself and you have a new tool in the game. It's really helpful to know


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[Assistant] What approximately your job is worth. Colorado has a law that has employers furious. FURIOUS! Because Colorado, employers have to disclose what their employees make as public information.


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[Assistant] You can go see. Hey, I do that kind of work. They're making this. They're paying me that.


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[Assistant] The other thing in the cycle of the great resignation, which I think we're moving into the later innings, uh, people


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[Assistant] Women are much worse at asking for money than men. It's a cultural, societal thing that women don't speak up for themselves.


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[Assistant] Generally, this is a general trend. It's not true of every woman and every man. But women tend to not self-advocate when it comes to pay. So, you don't threaten an employer.


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[Assistant] You don't say, hey, you know, if you don't give me blah, blah, blah, I'm going out the door. But you test the market. Even if you like where you are, there's nothing wrong with you seeing what you're worth somewhere else.


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[Assistant] But you're also competing with yourself then, Krista, because if you don't know if there really is more money out.


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[Assistant] Well there was a radio station when I was a radio host. Long ago, radio station I was at.


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[Assistant] There was a young woman who was a receptionist.


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[Assistant] She kept wanting to go into sales at the radio station. They'd kind of pat her on the head and say, aren't you cute? And one day she decided


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[Assistant] She was gonna go look for a radio sales job somewhere else.


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[Assistant] And she leaves, goes to another competitive station and knew the business so well from everything she was doing.


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[Assistant] Uh, just took off running as a salesperson was doing very well. And then the funniest thing of all.


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[Assistant] I love it. Ten times what she was making his receptions, but she was a great saleswoman and that's how she was able to do that. So.


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[Assistant] And I think about the questions we get from people who are working as ICs, independent contractors.


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[Assistant] And they feel like whatever they're told, that's what they're gonna get. Oh, so they told me they'll pay me, blah, blah, blah. You know, independent contractors are, uh, there are times somebody wants to stay in IC.


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[Assistant] But a lot of times it's for the pleasure and benefit of the employer because they're not having to give you the benefits and pay the taxes that they have to when you're an employee. Know that those are real expenses to you and when you are looking at a job as


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[Assistant] Uh, independent contractor, freelancer, whatever the hourly rate an employee makes, you should expect that times 1.3 as a freelancer. So if somebody's making 15 an hour as an employee,


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[Assistant] Then for you as an independent contractor, what would that, what would that be? 1.3.


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[Assistant] That would be uhm, 1650, no wait, did I get that right?


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[Assistant] But you get the idea, which is the important thing, is you don't, and you don't


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[Assistant] Demand from an employer. This is very important. This is a respectful conversation.


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[Assistant] And if you are what I call politely assertive, and you give the employer the reasons why you feel you deserve more money, and they say, hey, that's what we pay for your job.


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[Assistant] But I don't want you to be a spectator in your own life. I want you to make sure that your skills are respected, that your promotability is respected.


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[Assistant] And that the pay level that you deserve for the work you do


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[Assistant] Is representative of what would generally be true in the marketplace.


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[Assistant] Okay, so let me deal with the first part first. You know, the formulas that say seven times, ten times, twelve times, I just use the back of the envelope ten times.


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[Assistant] And the reason I do when I'm recommending a level term policy is your point is 100% valid and an insurance salesperson would say,


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[Assistant] That anybody like me just throwing out a number like 7x, 10x, you mentioned 12x, that that's the height of arrogance and does not focus on the


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[Assistant] Needs of that individual, what debts that individual has and what assets they have. Those things are true.


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[Assistant] When I try to get you to buy insurance, I like you to buy level term insurance that you would own for a period of 10 to 30 years. If you buy 10 times your income now for a policy that you're going to have in place


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[Assistant] Uh, typically 20 or 30 years because most often level term is a 20 year or 30 year purchase. Inflation is going to erode the value of that benefit and it will mean that


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[Assistant] The payout from it will be less generous effectively.


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[Assistant] Some of the inflationary effects that will occur over the years that will erode the value of that face amount and if you were to die too soon and you leave an excessive amount of money


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[Assistant] But term insurance, level term insurance is so inexpensive and inflation is such a danger over time. I just like back of the envelope 10 times on the treatment of insurance with tax. So you have to have a very large estate for tax to be an issue. But if you're married, your spouse, if they are the beneficiary of the life insurance,


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[Assistant] It flows to them completely tax free as a marital asset. For your kids, or some other family member, it only becomes an issue for your estate if you have a massive estate.


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[Assistant] Uh, and today's standards, that would be, I think, north of 11 million dollars. So this, the issue of taxation applies very rarely. There are a small number of states that like to get their hands on money that someone inherits.


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[Assistant] A huge amount of money, and we're not talking about the full scale of money you have.


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[Assistant] So Wolfgang, or as it would be pronounced in your Wolfgang, I want to tell you.


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[Assistant] That you are incredible because you're using a 7, S7 which is from quite a few generations ago and you're looking at going at a 10 or a 20 when right now Samsung's on the S22 Ultra. I mean they, uh, see you're looking generations back. You will do very well doing what you're thinking of doing. You've got much more capabilities with the S10 or the S20.


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[Assistant] You'll be able to buy it really inexpensively on eBay as you said. I think that's a great plan.


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[Assistant] And the capabilities, particularly the S20.


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[Assistant] Versus the S7 will be night and day different. It'll feel great to you.


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[Assistant] So Julia, uh, 3.8 historically was phenomenal.


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[Assistant] Right now, not so much. You refied into a 1.99


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[Assistant] But, uh, up a little this week, down the next, but they're still great, not at their


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[Assistant] Absolute lows they were a few months ago, but still incredible and don't know if this is really from your mortgage company, who it's from.


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[Assistant] Want you to look up the number of your mortgage company, but not just shop with them. I'd like you Julia to go to a mortgage broker and preferably a credit union and get quotes on a refi. You can get as many quotes as you want. See what the marketplace is offering.


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[Assistant] Don't just look at the rate. The closing costs matter a lot and you want to compare the closing costs from lender to lender and the rate as well.


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[Assistant] And as Krista said, she went into a 15 year loan. I don't know how long, Julia, you've had your 30 year loan out, but you could look at doing a refi into a 20 year or if you can afford the payment into a 15 year. But yes, if your credit standing's good, you can potentially cut the rate you have right now in half.


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[Assistant] Which is quite a gift to your wallet.


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[Assistant] And I want to thank you so much for listening to this episode. You want more advice for your wallet? Check out Clark.com and for the best deals around the clock, check out ClarkDeals.com as we serve you 24-7-365. Nobody ever uses that expression anymore, do they?


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[Assistant] And you guess which one I love talking about more? Travel's coming later. But I gotta talk about taxes. So, few things here. If you've already filed and you're like, where's my refund?


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[Assistant] To check where's my refund. Why would I have someone who hasn't even filed taxes yet check to see where's my tax refund? Because it's tax ID theft. Now if you filed your return,


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[Assistant] I want you to go there to make sure the IRS has processed your return, uh, the IRS


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[Assistant] Gave a warning before taxis didn't even start. I think they did it in December.


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[Assistant] Saying, hey, we got no people here and we're going to foul up this tax season just so you know. So far, we're not hearing


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[Assistant] A lot of complaints about foul ups, but it's early, but I want you to make sure that you see what's going on with your return that you've already filed and know if your refund


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[Assistant] Shows it's already been paid and you don't have it, you know there's a problem and you gotta get to work on that.


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[Assistant] Uh, trying to reach somebody at the IRS, which apparently, surprisingly has been easier


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[Assistant] Not easy, but easier than the last couple of tax seasons. The IRS is


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[Assistant] Apparently trying to hire a huge number of people to try to fix the abysmal customer no service that exists at the IRS because the extreme shortage of staff they have there. But if you have not filed yet and


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[Assistant] You go to where's my tax refund and it shows it's already been paid to somebody. You then know that you have been a victim of ID tax theft and you've got a job in front of you.


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[Assistant] Uh, get to work on it. If nothing shows, you know, no record of return, everything, then you're cool. You're fine. And then...


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[Assistant] If you are somebody who believes procrastination always pays and you're going to get around to doing the return, I want you to know that


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[Assistant] If you have a simple situation and particularly if you have a more moderate income


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[Assistant] This isn't true for ultra high income earners, but for most taxpayers, you're eligible for IRS free file. You go to IRS.gov, just like where I sent you to check the status of your refund.


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[Assistant] If you're able to file, prepare and file your state income tax for free as well.


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[Assistant] Has actually been calmer this year. So far.


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[Assistant] Then 20 and 21 where we were in the midst of such heavy COVID.


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[Assistant] And hopefully it stays as a more relaxed tax year. We can always hope. Krista?


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[Assistant] There's no privacy law that protects in this case, Patricia, and...


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[Assistant] Yes, the landlord can do all those things even as far as towing the vehicle if they have it properly signed as you said you're from Georgia.


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[Assistant] That it's properly posted as code requires.


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[Assistant] In the state of Georgia, and this would be true in any state.


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[Assistant] Obviously has had some issue, some problem they're worried about.


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[Assistant] The various cars that are on their premises, they wanna get control of them.


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[Assistant] And that is standard and you said you're fine with the tenant rule of having your own sticker.


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[Assistant] And it prints out a pass and you put it in the vehicle and I think it would be reasonable Patricia to ask your landlord if they


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[Assistant] Can register them and put the sticker on. It's a, it.


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[Assistant] Would be legal almost certainly for them to have this procedure, but it certainly isn't tenant friendly if they offer you no way to do it.


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[Assistant] On a spur of the moment, let's say some relative came in and surprised you from out of town. And, uh, cause it's your birthday or whatever.


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[Assistant] And then you gotta figure out what in the world to do with their car so it doesn't get towed. That is not tenant or guest friendly.


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[Assistant] Okay, and Connie, you're getting into a game of alphabet soup because you have things the FCC does.


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[Assistant] The website is consumerfinance.gov.


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[Assistant] You can file a complaint with them against an individual financial institution, mortgage company, credit card company.


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[Assistant] Uhm, there are some other payday lenders, things like that.


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[Assistant] And the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau different from the FTC and the FCC.


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[Assistant] We'll actually investigate your individual complaint. Now, what do they do by investigation? So they send it on to the organization you've complained about.


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[Assistant] That is then given typically 30 days.


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[Assistant] To answer back to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and answer back to you. And so, uh, the banks, credit unions, uh, credit card companies, none of them want to be on that bad boy, bad girl list.


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[Assistant] With the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, because that's the second part of how it works, which is how the FTC and FCC work.


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[Assistant] Take your complaints and they put them in a database. They do nothing to address your individual complaint at the FTC.


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[Assistant] Which would be a complaint about a general business, not a financial one.


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[Assistant] And the FCC about a technology company like, uh, the cell phone carriers and the traditional monopoly phone companies, they just


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[Assistant] Record in their database that somebody filed a complaint against XYZ company.


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[Assistant] And then when enough complaints come in that are similar, then they might launch an investigation of the practices of that organization.


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[Assistant] What makes the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau unique is they actually take action


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[Assistant] On individual complaints that are filed. Now then you mentioned attorneys general. So the US attorney general does not take consumer complaints. That's not their role.


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[Assistant] State attorneys general though in many cases do act on


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[Assistant] They are data-basing those things, and that's how they establish patterns when a vehicle has to be subject to a recall. Uh, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, similar thing.


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[Assistant] They don't act on your individual complaint about an unsafe toy or something like that when they see a number filed.


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[Assistant] In the Department of Transportation where people file a complaint about an airline, they log those complaints.


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[Assistant] It's best I can give a quick summary and that's why it's so hard for consumers to figure out where to go to try to get something resolved.


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[Assistant] Okay, so we have two things, Sue Ann. First, whether you need a financial planner involved in your life.


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[Assistant] And second, whether this individual is the right person. This individual is not the right person.


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[Assistant] Insurance agents and you ask the right questions. You and your husband ask the right questions.


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[Assistant] Using an insurance agent to buy life insurance that protects your heirs.


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[Assistant] Or protects one of you in the situation of the death of the other. That's what life insurance is for.


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[Assistant] But life insurance make their money selling garbage.


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[Assistant] They don't have to sell garbage, that's where the real money is made.


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[Assistant] Selling trashy annuities of various types, that's a cuss word on our podcast. And selling ultra complicated insurance like variable universal life.


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[Assistant] If you as a couple need financial advice,


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[Assistant] You asked the right question already. Is the individual a fiduciary? You only want to hire someone who is in a fiduciary capacity.


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[Assistant] And I've got a briefing on Clark.com, how to find a fiduciary. There are various organizations.


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[Assistant] That you can hire a fiduciary, but even if you're hiring a fiduciary, it's like saying, hey, I got a bad heart, I gotta go to a cardiologist. Cardiologists vary in quality.


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[Assistant] But do share a financial advisor.


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[Assistant] Uh, a fee only financial advisor. You may need a checkup from one. That's something Garrett Planning Network's really good at.


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[Assistant] Uh, you can get various fiduciary services from Vanguard Fidelity and Schwab. We have a new briefing on Clark.com about using any of those three.


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[Assistant] For financial advice and what they charge, which is cheaper.


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[Assistant] But when you really need it is once you've accumulated meaningful assets, you're a little


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[Assistant] It's not about picking investments, it's about looking at your overall financial picture, your financial future, and doing proper planning


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[Assistant] When should you use your airline and hotel reward miles and points?


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[Assistant] This is an important riddle. I want you to know the answer.


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[Assistant] I love travel and it just ate me up the time that I was not traveling during the worst of the pandemic and lately I've been traveling on average about, gosh, almost weekly by airplane and


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[Assistant] There's something that happened, a phenomenon over the last couple of years.


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[Assistant] A lot of people who are travel nuts like I am had various


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[Assistant] You have this pile of miles and points and you remember what redemptions you used to be able to do.


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[Assistant] Two years plus ago, when you'd go to redeem your points and miles.


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[Assistant] Because of all these points in people's accounts, the airlines and hotels


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[Assistant] Are going through vast waves of devaluation.


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[Assistant] Where your points suddenly are worth a tiny amount compared to what they were before. And this is especially true


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[Assistant] For people who are mega volume chargers on cards, who historically have used points on airlines to go front of the plane international. So don't cry a river for them, but the Redemptions have


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[Assistant] Uh, been devalued on several of the airlines by 75%, meaning it now takes four points or miles equivalent for each point it took before. So let's say a front of the plane reward was


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[Assistant] 150,000 points. Now it might be 600,000 points for that same front of the plane seat. The, the increases have not been as great.


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[Assistant] For domestic flights, particularly in coach, but there's been a clear, um, loss in value of points and I don't see that the trend is ever gonna be your friend again.


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[Assistant] With how airlines treat your points. So if you're sitting


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[Assistant] With a large pile of points, I want to talk about variable reward levels. So, uh, example is Europe. I spent with a friend, uhm, a great deal of time helping he and a friend he was taking to Europe.


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[Assistant] Look at various redemption levels for business class to Europe.


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[Assistant] And going right to the kind of example I gave, he had booked and was furious about it, two business class seats.


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[Assistant] On one of the major full fare American airlines, which means it was American United or Delta, round trips to London.


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[Assistant] To, I'm trying to remember, I think it was Frankfurt, Germany, or it may have been Brussels. Anyway, we kept looking at every destination.


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[Assistant] And Europe was a different redemption level. You look at the calendars, but you're going to find that certain destinations.


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[Assistant] And now they're doing all variable dynamic demand kind of points redemptions. And, uh, London, Paris, Rome, the three most popular places to fly for Americans using points, they're just killing you on those.


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[Assistant] So you look at where the airline you have points on flies and look at the redemption levels, but there's something else too. There are three cartels.


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[Assistant] Flight number so-and-so. British Airways flight so-and-so.


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[Assistant] Air Lingus flight so and so, Iberia flight so and so, and you're like, how many planes are at this one gate? And then you'll look at, uh,


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[Assistant] Partnerships. So you have the ability to redeem those points


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[Assistant] And most Americans only think about if they've got an American Advantage car, the United Mileage, the Delta Sky Miles.


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[Assistant] American Express, they only think about redeeming them on the airline that they normally fly and whose frequent flyer credit card they have. But often the redemptions will be better to a destination going on one of the partner flights


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[Assistant] has been so actively devaluing their Bonvoy points.


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[Assistant] I mean, it's like Venezuela during the crazy inflation they had.


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[Assistant] Where nothing was worth anything anymore. That's essentially what's happened with Marriott points and people have been on all the.


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[Assistant] A third less for a hotel than earns some points that I'm going to try someday to try to redeem for a free stay, when for me the big savings is saving money every stay. Krista?


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[Assistant] Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. So, the...


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[Assistant] So somebody was patient enough to win her confidence.


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[Assistant] And took two years to steal this money.


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[Assistant] First let me tell you who Christopher is. Christopher is one of our writers on Clark.com and he is a very good expert on both crypto and on NFTs, non-fungible tokens.


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[Assistant] You knew that he would have a better answer than I would. What did Christopher say?


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[Assistant] The, the if, if, if is, was it properly, was the Bitcoin properly moved?


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[Assistant] Through a recognized exchange, if it's one of these, uh, thievery ones.


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[Assistant] Allison, I just want to tell you, I'm really, really sorry that this person won your heart.


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[Assistant] And you thought was on the up and up and may have turned out just to be a con artist. I'm very, very sorry about that.


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[Assistant] You're not the first person and you're not going to be the last because I've read so many articles about people.


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[Assistant] Who this is the newest con. In fact, I think I did a, uh, a pod on the podcast about it a while back.


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[Assistant] This is the hottest con right now with romance scams is stealing money from people through crypto that becomes very hard ever to recapture. And I hope that some of the suggestions Christopher has given will actually lead to a positive


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[Assistant] Half to you being able to reclaim at least some of this $55,000.


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[Assistant] I have three kids, one born when I was 33, one at 44, and one at 50 years old.


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[Assistant] And when my son graduates in two years, I will be there


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[Assistant] So, and also you're doing great with your money. Let's start with what you said last. You carry no consumer debt at all. Your equity in your home


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[Assistant] Is amazing. Their home's worth $420, you owe $100. You have


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[Assistant] A third of a million dollars of equity in your home.


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[Assistant] You've already saved over half a million dollars towards retirement. You have


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[Assistant] Uh, goes through terrible twos, but in terms of finance, you're good.


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[Assistant] And you don't have to worry about underwriting for medical for any pre-existing conditions or a plan on the healthcare exchange.


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[Assistant] North Carolina I don't think has their own healthcare exchange, so you go on healthcare.gov. Change of employment during a year makes you eligible.


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[Assistant] To enroll outside a normal enrollment period.


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[Assistant] And depending on your family income, you may qualify for a subsidy on the premiums. You may not, but you have to expect that you're looking at somewhere around for each of you


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[Assistant] Maybe somewhere around $8,000 a year on the exchange. So a job without health benefits, and I don't know a place that has health benefits, you may have to pay


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[Assistant] You're gonna have high deductibles, but once you've met them, you have truly comprehensive coverage that is not capped.


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[Assistant] And if you have a specific question you'd like one on one advice, we've got that for you for free.


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[Assistant] So. You haven't picked on any big banks in a while. I know. A lot of time left in the year.


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[Assistant] The credit card company promptly cancelled his number and issued a new one. The next day the MacBook arrived on his porch.


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[Assistant] Yeaah, I'm not sure, I didn't understand what the whole game was, but...


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[Assistant] Okay, this is from Scott in Wisconsin. My cell phone provider offers an auto pay discount, so I used my credit card. I was just notified that I have to switch from a credit card to either a debit card or bank account next month or I will lose my discount. I know how you feel about debit cards, but I'm really nervous to give out my banking account info. Should I just give up the discount?


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[Assistant] Alright, I'm gonna read this one since you mentioned, uh, Tesla's Jacqueline in Connecticut. First, thank you for your recommendation on looking into the Tesla Model Y instead of the Model X.


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[Assistant] The market could also go south in a blink. What would you do? Pay the car in full or borrow, borrow at that one and a half percent. I'm torn.


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[Assistant] Then my 2004 Prius I drive locally. Yes, we keep our cars for a long time.


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[Assistant] The dealership for this service until August of 21.


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[Assistant] The dealership said they had to get permission to perform the service and the manufacturer declined.


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[Assistant] I contacted them multiple times and they've never followed up. I even then filed a case with the Better Business Bureau


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[Assistant] And they sent me a $500 voucher to use at the dealership that's valid for a year.


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[Assistant] The problem, this service costs $1,300. The Better Business Bureau finally said they had to close the case since the manufacturer refused to do anything else. I was just asking they perform a service I fully paid for in advance and could not due to the global pandemic.


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[Assistant] Couple of things. I feel like I'm a, I'm a lead by example type of guy. Uhm, I feel like different pathways that I've gone, uhm, people look at me, not just on the court, but off the court as well. Uhm, I know my parents have, have spoken to me about that as well, but


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[Assistant] Many Magic the Gathering players ask the question,


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[Assistant] How do I just keep it casual in commander? Well, I've invited here today my good friend and member of the commander advisory group.


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[Assistant] Shivam Bhatt to talk with us about how to keep it casual in commander. Shivam, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you so much for having me, Professor. It's wonderful to visit your campus. It's wonderful to have you here. I want to start before we get into keeping it casual in commander by defining that term.


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[Assistant] Casual, uh, we have casual commander and we do have competitive commander and just in terms of definition in your own words.


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[Assistant] What do you consider casual commander to be or to mean and what do you consider competitive commander to be or mean?


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[Assistant] I see. Okay, but don't commander players, casual commander players play to win? I mean, I don't play competitive EDH, but when I sit down to play commander, I play to win. I want to win.


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[Assistant] Uh, uh, with the Melissa Benson art, and it's very nostalgic, and there's a better, more optimal card that I could put in that slot, but the deck is still strong, and I still play to win when I play with Felden.


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[Assistant] And yet, despite all this, is it fair for me to say that Casual Commander is inherently at its base, if it's very foundation, broken, hopelessly, hopelessly, a broken, broken format? 100%. Why? Why is that fair to say?


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[Assistant] If it is not possible to make commander into a fair format and keep it commander,


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[Assistant] And the social contract is the only thing, and by social contract, uh, uh, you mean just the fact that we agree not to just exploit all these broken aspects of it in the most optimal way possible so that we can actually get a game in.


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[Assistant] Make decisions in any way on bands, but you do offer


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[Assistant] Advising counsel to the people who do, right? Absolutely. Okay. So, why do we need bans? Why don't you, social contract is, like again, why do you need to, I'll take a specific example, why do you need to ban my precious Leovold? He is inherently broken, inherently evil, one of the most despicable, very unfortunate commanders.


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[Assistant] But what if I just said, okay, fine, social contract. I'm just going to build him with a, a light elf.


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[Assistant] Uh, you know, tribal theme and not the, the Teferi puzzle box lock.


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[Assistant] Uh, no one's gonna play with me with it. Like, why do you need to actually have a ban on Teferi and these other cards?


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[Assistant] That sounds like a lot of the games of commander I play with people following the banlist.


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[Assistant] That feels to me like- Stacks, stacks. Pillow fort decks. You know, that's- There's so much.


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[Assistant] The second part is the key there, that everyone's okay with it. Because if you play Griefer with me without me being okay with it, it's the last time you'll play with me.


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[Assistant] You mentioned that's how you keep a commander. My next question is, how do we keep it casual? So without, and I'm going to put a restriction on you because we already did a full episode on, uh, uh, how to evaluate your commander deck's power level. And then when I spoke with


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[Assistant] Emma about common mistakes. Power level came up again. I feel we've covered power level. Uh, besides power level, besides evaluating your deck's power level, which has been talked about, how do we keep commander


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[Assistant] Casual for those who are not interested in competitive EDH.


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[Assistant] And we want to keep commander casual, how do we keep commander casual?


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[Assistant] Except now maybe I'm gonna be foolish enough to keep playing. But that's another discussion. That's another discussion.


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[Assistant] That's a very good point. It makes me wonder, and I'm curious your thoughts on this, uh, do you think that perhaps tutor effects should not be legal in commander at all because their only purpose is to


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[Assistant] In a sense it is. I mean like search, the idea would be a universal commander rule saying any effects that have you search your library to get a card.


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[Assistant] The only thing where people don't think about tutors I find in conversations is we tend not to


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[Assistant] People don't realize things like fetchlands or even evolving wilds is essential. Well people don't even realize evolving wilds is a fetchland. That's another story. But also yeaah, you cultivate as a tutor in a sense. Well not in a sense, it is. It is. I would say actually yes.


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[Assistant] No search effects. I would be very interested to see what that would be like. Any effects that would have you search your library for a card, you cannot do.


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[Assistant] Which is why your point of it's too broken to be banned into being into it to work. And you know what? Even if you did this in the whole rules committee lost their minds and declared this the next day, there would still be another problem and another problem and another problem because again,


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[Assistant] I feel like a parent being like, you better have a very good explanation for why you did that, young kid. You know, like, why did you put tangle wire in your deck? Why?


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[Assistant] And they might have a fun, somebody's gonna post in the comments, and I look forward to reading it. Somebody's gonna say, well, if you do Torment with this other card and this other card, you get this cool interaction and effect, and that's fine. I mean, and that's what Commander, originally Commander was just bored judges wanting to see what happened when you jammed a bunch of cards.


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[Assistant] That were never meant to interact with each other and the amazing


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[Assistant] This gameplay system of magic allows these cards to interact, like, it's, it's like,


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[Assistant] I wanna see what happens when I plug my blender into my VCR, into my, uh, uh, uh, uh, into my, uh, uh, car. And, and, and, and that, that, that imagine that those three completely different mechanisms would interact in this new unexpected way. And that's exactly where Commander originally just came from.


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[Assistant] And that in many ways is, is, is, is what we need to focus on for keeping it casual more so than.


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[Assistant] And I think it's important to let the listeners know.


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[Assistant] I like that emphasis on, on the casual commanders in the deck construction because a lot of times I've heard people.


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[Assistant] And then, once you have taken that tact, you sit down with that deck and you play it for all it's worth, but it's what you are playing with.


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[Assistant] I feel you can, once you sit down with the deck, you can be cutthroat. It's just what is in the deck that you're cutting throats with. The algorithm has already screwed me. Makeup tutorial, makeup tutorial, ten tips to get better blush. Anyway. Yeah, that is like, once you sit down, so you talked about taking lands.


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[Assistant] I'm not gonna cast it this turn, because this is, that's too mean. Like, it's in there. So, the gameplay is still Magic gameplay. I mean, in many ways, I could go down to Friday Night Magic and say, oh, I don't have a deck on me for Standard, I don't play Standard the moment I really wanted to play tonight. And someone says, I got a spare deck, it's not, it's not really that good though, but you can get some games. And so I go, okay, cool.


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[Assistant] I take the deck and I sit down and I play it to the best of my ability. Of course. And you know what? I've had a few times where I bust.


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[Assistant] Yeah, yeah, I think that's a really good mentality just in deck construction at the casual level. Uh, uh, or I would also say if you do have a kind of


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[Assistant] You're veering very close to the restricted line of power level talk here, and it's vital, but we've-


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[Assistant] And yes, the discussion, and I think that's something that's so overlooked.


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[Assistant] And I experienced that at CommandFest where a lot of people were very surprised with me, uh, before games when I was saying, all right, let's talk a little bit about what, what we're playing and what we don't want to see. And, and I remember one person in particular really gave me a look almost like I was looking for information on his deck. And I was like, so are you playing this? And he was like, yeah.


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[Assistant] And, and it was like, well, look, I want to know what's, I don't, there's certain decks I don't want to sit down against right now because I don't want to be in a five hour game. So I'm checking for that. It's like, I want to get five more commander games in this afternoon sort of thing. And I think that communication really is the key in that regard. Right. Exactly. I mean, look.


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[Assistant] Speaking of cards, uh, that may or may not be ones that you want to include in your deck, I want to ask you about the made for commander cards that you see in commander precons and do you feel that these cards


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[Assistant] Vampire Commander by Leaps and Bounds and it is incredibly powerful.


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[Assistant] Isn't that encouraging, more competitive play of like, well, better optimize your deck, better take out Anawin the Rune Sage, who I have a deck tech on, but no one's gonna run. People used to run Anawin.


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[Assistant] And now, it's like, why are you running AnnaWin when Edgar Markov is around? Why are you running anyone but Edgar Markov? What do you make of that? Or am I off base? Because I know people love those Edgar Markovs.


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[Assistant] The formula in Repetitive does, it's like we don't want to do that in Commander, but the pre-con cards kind of push us towards doing that more and more. With each new, this is better than the alternative card. Each pushed card kind of takes a slot, doesn't it?


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[Assistant] Running the same commander, I worry about the old commanders getting pushed out more and more.


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[Assistant] You have your very own podcast all about not just commander, but casual magic. Uh, if people want to find it, I'm going to put links in the description, but do you want to take a minute just to tell us a little bit about it?


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[Assistant] It's actually more broken than most ways of magic too.


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[Assistant] I think that's turning into a new phrase. I've said that a lot on here too. I heard it from you first and I definitely stole it from you. Stole it? Well you'll be hearing from my lawyers.


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[Assistant] And if you want to listen to this podcast or my podcasts, they appear with a delay.


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[Assistant] There's a day that they pick it, but then basically you can't use that card anymore, so you have to keep remaking the deck. What? Not a lot of people, it's very fringe. I saw, I think six people managed to get together at my local game store, uh, after commander night to play it, but they're calling it like just a standard game of Magic.


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[Assistant] When targeting our Archaomancer with Ghostly Flicker, we can return our Flicker back to our hand after it resolves. Flicker, however, requires us to hit two targets, and that's where this gets extra evil.


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[Assistant] By choosing Chittering Rats as our second Flicker target, we can repeatedly make our opponent put cards from their hand on top of their deck, both depriving them of cards to play with as well as future draw steps.


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[Assistant] The reason we call this deck Rat Lock is because of this combo. Once your opponent is left with no cards in their hand, we can simply cast Ghostly Flicker on an Archaomancer and a Chittering Rats during our opponent's draw steps after they've drawn their card for turn, thus ensuring that...


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[Assistant] Yeah, it's great. I mean, there's great energy going on over on East campus right now. Everyone's kind of doing orientation, but like Jared said, we've just been outside trying to talk to people and meet people, uhm, out in the quad, you know, just, just really like engaging in some conversations. It's been cool.


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[Assistant] I'm working on it, yeaah. I'm still in the conversation. I'm thinking about it. Have you like met the teams?


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[Assistant] I mean, we're just doing what we love at a place like Duke. It's really like all you can dream about as a basketball player. I think for me, it's just like, it's cool to be surrounded by a bunch of people who are so like-minded and driven.


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[Assistant] I think bottom line, like, we all seek the workout, uhm, as much as we love going together.


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[Assistant] Thing that brought our whole dorm together. There's a lot of athletes in our dorm and we went to the common room and we just start playing Uno and like you'd see like, you know, girls, basketball, girls, soccer, football come out and we just play Uno.


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[Assistant] Welcome to the Lifespan Podcast, where we discuss the science of aging and how to be healthier at any stage of life.


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[Assistant] I'm David Sinclair. I'm a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and co-director of the Paul F. Glenn Center for Biology of Aging Research.


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[Assistant] I'm joined by my lovely co-author and co-host, Matthew Laplante. Welcome, Matt.


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[Assistant] That'd be great. So the last episode, if anybody missed it, was about the foods that we can eat.


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[Assistant] Or not eat. Or not eat, right. To live a long time. And it was remiss of me not to bring up a pernicious element called iron. Pernicious. Yeaah. It's uh,


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[Assistant] Right. Well, we need iron. It's a major component of hemoglobin which carries oxygen, which we need.


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[Assistant] But the levels don't need to be as high as we once thought. In fact, people who live a long time and have these diets that are recommended


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[Assistant] I typically see they have lower levels of iron and lower levels of hemoglobin, and this is not necessarily a bad thing.


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[Assistant] Conversely, people who have very high levels, either genetically, hemochromatosis, or take a supplement and end up with high levels of iron,


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[Assistant] Might be predisposing themselves to accelerated aging.


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[Assistant] Leads to the production of free radicals that damage tissues in the body


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[Assistant] And even worse, it leads to the accumulation of these zombie cells, which we call senescent cells. And those drive the aging process in part, large part because they.


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[Assistant] Leach these inflammatory molecules that cause other cells in the vicinity.


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[Assistant] Or Eugene or Berkeley. Yeaah. So these are free radicals that...


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[Assistant] These have been around for millions of years, of course, and we've known about them for at least the last 70.


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[Assistant] These are, there are three main types of free radicals. There's the superoxide molecule, which is quite damaging and can lead to what are called advanced glycation end products, which are basically proteins that are damaged.


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[Assistant] It's one of the reasons you want to fast sometimes during the day to get rid of these damaged proteins.


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[Assistant] There's a superoxide anion, it's called, which creates most of the oxidative stress in the body.


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[Assistant] And then there's a third one, hydrogen peroxide, which you can buy a bottle of and dye your hair blonde or orange as my hair went during the pandemic. Those three things are really bad.


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[Assistant] Just dyed it. How did it look? Horrible. It really went orange. I've been dying it ever since just to cover it up, but it's almost gone. Thank goodness.


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[Assistant] But this is, this is where iron comes in. When you have a superoxide.


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[Assistant] And the recommendation typically of a doctor is donate blood if you can.


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[Assistant] Well, we're going to talk about that today. What type of exercise works best.


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[Assistant] Uh, the AMPK which senses energy, which is glucose mainly, and the sirtuins which I work on.


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[Assistant] That sense all of those things, including exercise and those three protective mechanisms.


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[Assistant] We can turn on by eating the right things, eating less often and exercising.


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[Assistant] We do because this podcast comes to everybody for free. We should definitely mention the sponsors that make that possible. Our first sponsor is Athletic Greens.


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[Assistant] Athletic Greens is a greens powder developed from a complex blend of 75 vitamins, minerals, and whole foods sourced ingredients.


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[Assistant] It's filled with adaptogens for recovery, probiotics and digestive enzymes for gut health.


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[Assistant] I rest assured that I'm getting all of the vitamins and minerals that I need for optimal health.


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[Assistant] NK2, which will keep the calcium out of your arteries and put it into your bones. Again,


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[Assistant] Go to athleticgreens.com slash Sinclair to claim this special offer. Today's podcast is also brought to us by levels.


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[Assistant] Levels is an app that syncs with a continuous glucose monitor, or a CGM, which they provide. And that interprets your glucose data for you.


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[Assistant] I've been so impressed with levels that I've recently joined them as an advisor.


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[Assistant] Monitoring your blood glucose levels allows you to run experiments to see how different foods impact you.


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[Assistant] I did this myself a number of years ago and I continue to do it.


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[Assistant] I've learned a lot about what kind of foods I should avoid and which ones are okay to eat.


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[Assistant] And join today by going to levels.link forward slash Sinclair. That's levels.link slash Sinclair.


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[Assistant] Today's podcast is also brought to us by inside tracker. Inside tracker is a personalized nutrition platform that analyzes data from your blood and your DNA.


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[Assistant] To help you better understand your body and reach your health goals.


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[Assistant] Over that time I've been able to optimize my health and even potentially get younger than my actual age.


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[Assistant] They make it really easy. You can have somebody come to your house like I have, or you can go to a local lab.