[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The Airbnb angle is definitely news of the weird, so weird that there's now even an obscure insurance policy you can buy for loss of income.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] While you're trying to get a squatter out of your Airbnb. I mean, this has so many layers and Krista, you and I have talked about this a lot.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the big problem here, the wide open opportunity is the laws in state after state are not


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To move into somebody's house and help you, help yourself to it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Compiled states is happening and I mentioned Georgia and Texas are the two most common. California, California, New York, Florida, trying to remember where else. And, uh, vacation oriented properties.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or, seasonal properties are very much at risk because, uh, people


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Kind of a sense of, oh, those people don't live here for months each year. And then they just go in and help themselves to your place. Again, cameras useful and helpful. Something we're doing at Clark.com is we're putting up a briefing about this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And in the states that are affected, if you live in them, you need to contact your elected representative, your, uh, state legislator, your state senator, your assembly person, whatever it's called in your state, and tell them you want, uh, any squatter statute passed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 1800s that squatting was really in in the United States. And suddenly it's in again.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the laws are behind on this and it's something that, that is not


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A major piece of legislation, it's not a controversial piece of legislation, it just needs to become it. One of the things we've learned and the ones that we've been involved in


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With our team Clark Consumer Action Center is the laws because they're silent basically operate where they are to the benefit of the squatter, not the homeowner. And again,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We've got a lot of things we have to worry about in life. This is not one people should be worrying about.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because there's no lobbyists behind fixing it. Truth is, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Legislative members, really their ears are attuned to what lobbyists are asking for. So this is a case where constituents have to rise up and make noise and then it becomes a priority and this will be fixed. It's just the people who suffer in the meantime, that's what's not okay.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, if you have gotten to a point in your life that you've saved enough money in, uh, various tax advantage or tax free accounts like 401ks, the HSA, which is the greatest, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, really reduce the impact that a reduction in a social security check actually represents in terms of income in retirement years because you're completely right


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When I talk about buying term life insurance as a source of replacement of income during someone's key working years,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It ignores the question that you raised, which is when, uh, one of the members of a couple passes away,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A lot of expenses remain the same. Taxes could potentially go up when you're one instead of two and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You got this smaller check coming in from social security. So you counteract it either if you don't have all the, the great history you do with saving money in different accounts that is, that becomes the lion's share of what you live on. And, oh, you mentioned the pension, a pension.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Can be, depending on the election you take with a pension, it can continue 100% in most cases for the life of both members of a couple. So one passes away, pension stays the same. Most commonly people select 50%.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It goes 100% when both are living, 50% when the, uh, named recipient of the pension passes away. And then others, it goes to zero. Uh, my thing, I did a hundred percent. So my wife is covered the same as we are now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When I pass away, she'll still get the same pension benefit. So it's all how you cover it. With insurance, the only way you can cover it usually is to buy what's known as permanent insurance or whole life that stays in place to age 100. A much, much, much more expensive product


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] than buying a, uh, level term insurance policy that are, those are really designed to last.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In through the end of your working years where the whole life goes all the way to age 100. So that would be an alternative. But in your case, you've already done the real hard work with additional money put aside in various accounts.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And if you look at receiving, let's say half a social security check instead of a full one.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Your surviving spouse should still be okay.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For your donation to a charity. But Vanguard chooses to send a paper check. I had this, I have a uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Vanguard, uh, charitable, what's known as a donor advised fund. And I gave money to a charity that the check, uh, was lost or stolen in the mail. And it was a lot of paperwork to get that check replaced and it went fine the second time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But checks are really risky. In this case, the risk though is born by Vanguard. And if they want to act like it's 1965.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They can act like it's 1965 because again, you're not bearing the risk of them doing it in antiquated way. Coming up ahead,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I want to talk about the modern way we pay for things is credit cards, electronic payments, all that. A lot of people are


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Following the siren song of a particular type of credit card that maybe for you it would be best to ignore. Alright, this one was mind blowing to me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because reward cards tend to carry the highest interest rates of any credit cards. So if you have a card that's even giving you back.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 2% and some kind of rewards cash back, uh, points, miles, hotel stays, whatever the ratio is for whatever the prize is at the end of the day.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That is fool's gold because of what you're paying an interest every month on the card. Now why did I say this is consumer behavior? Okay, when people are surveyed about credit cards,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Their assumption in their own life is they're going to charge on it and then they're going to pay the balance in full. That's what we think we're going to do. But unfortunately, a majority of us don't pay the bill in full.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And we're getting no grace period, we're paying big interest on the cards. And today,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Usual bank credit card, you're looking 20% more or less on an interest rate. And reward cards, more.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's not all unusual for a reward card to have an interest rate of 25%. On the other hand, as I shared with you about six weeks ago, there are credit cards out there


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They have, they're not like steals of deals, but there are a lot of credit cards out there with interest rates right around 10%.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're not getting anywhere. You're going backwards.


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[Assistant] Reward cards can be fantastic because the interest rate doesn't matter and the truth


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Those of us like me, and if it's you as well, if you're a net payer, you're paying your balances in full. We're being subsidized.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We're getting those rewards because the merchants are paying ripoff fees, taking the credit card in the first place. And then the consumer who's paying 20% interest, let me tell you, nobody ever got rich paying 20% interest if he's our MasterCard American Express or Discover. So this requires a mental reset.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you, with the best of intentions you expect, you're gonna pay balances in full, but that's not what's happening in your life.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Their business model is to serve their members.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On a credit union credit card is normally going to be half what it is from a bank because the bank is using it as a giant profit center. The credit union, remember, they're just trying to cover write offs and things like that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And run that credit card operation at what's ultimately breakeven. That's what a credit union is supposed to be about because the benefits are to flow to you as an account holder who is a member.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then there are some banks that offer good rates as well on credit cards.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or get to where you don't run balances and then the rewards are useful. And it's one of those areas where, uhm, it's a guilty pleasure because I'm benefiting


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In a way that I'm getting the rewards off of other people's expenses.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The merchants and the other customers who run balances, that's the way the game works.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Two thirds of people with balances are using these reward cards. Uh-uh. Don't do it anymore. Don't make the bank rich.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Lee, you did the right things by contacting people right away. And I find that with Priceline, it's owned by a company called Booking.com.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That Priceline, it's all about pushing the right buttons. If you just called customer no service at Priceline, you're not going to get anywhere. If you called the hotel, even if you called it direct and you just talked to whoever,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, was on duty at that time. You're not gonna get any movement on it because the, uh, written policies are clear, but at the same time they do bend them in a situation that's obviously clearly clerical. I want you to do a couple of things.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I want you to write in a Better Business Bureau complaint.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] About what happened with Priceline and say that you realize your error immediately.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The hotel involved, you want to go online, figure out who the general manager is of that location and see if you can get an accommodation from the general manager of that hotel. One or the other.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Will often work because it's all about getting to the individual with the authority to make an accommodation to you and with Priceline


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Double and triple check your work. I remember once I messed this up in Northern California and there were no potential accommodations at that point. I had to eat that. It was a, it was a very expensive lesson learned. And so


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just be 100% focused on what you're doing right at that moment, but when the mistake happens, remember, they still got money from you at Priceline, and it was immediate.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And let's see if you don't get some results through a better business bureau post and you say, Hey, I made the initial mistake. Here's what happened. And I immediately noticed, got no help.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Could I please have an accommodation? That's how you do the better business bureau complaint. And then with the hotel.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Direct to that general manager and you will be able to figure out who that is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you hunt around online or even call the front desk and say, uh, I want to know if you could tell me who the general manager is. I'd like to give them a compliment about an employee or something like that. Then they'll say, Oh yeah, blah, blah, blah. You'll have the information.


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[Assistant] Why do they have the requirement specifically direct deposit, uh, payroll and all that? Because they figure we're creatures of habit. Once we set it up, we don't unset it up. As long as you're willing to jump through the hoops, pick up your $300 from them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then change back to the direct deposit wherever it was after you got the money and all that. Great. Go for it and get the money. Uh, we had somebody who posted, I think it was on Clark Stinks about me talking about,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, the creature habit problem and people intend to do something but don't. And that person posted all the different promotions like this that they'd taken advantage of and they had made thousands of dollars signing up for these various things. So if you are really, really good at follow up, go for it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, growing families face is the minivan market is almost like its own orbit. It's a specialized market.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm dominated by the Honda Odyssey and the Toyota Sienna and the cost of these is just crazy. Uh, there is a third player, the Kia Carnival, Carnival, Carnival,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they are cheaper, brand new than the Odysseys and the Siennas. The Siennas are the most in demand right now and cost the most. You may find a better deal on a used Carnival.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then you will find a better deal on a used carnival than you would on a used Odyssey.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or Sienna, but this is such a market that's so odd because people will buy one of these and these are people hollers and they may keep it for a long, long, long, long time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So the normal supply of used vehicles doesn't exist for many vans. Because people buy one and they keep it. So they end up being


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Very expensive upfront purchase, new or used.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But people do keep them long enough that if you look at the effective cost per year, they end up being a...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, usually a more affordable purchase than other vehicles just because people do own them for such a long period. It's not all unusual to own one more than a decade.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It looks trash because it's been through two generations of kids at this point, but it's still running just fine. And that's the problem in the minivan market.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Graham cracker. Cookies into the fabric and everywhere, right?


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[Assistant] I mean, it's, it's for specific market forces that you find them so expensive, but


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[Assistant] Look at those three, maybe you'll find that bargain somewhere. Now you said something that I can't let just fly by and that's about how you're gonna buy a home.


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[Assistant] Coming up soon, if you take out a loan on that van, it's going to hurt you when you're trying to qualify for the loan for your home. And that's just a fact. You want to avoid any borrowing of any kind.


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[Assistant] So anyway, I, I hope that I gave you something you could use to go out and shop the market because it is a hard market. And I want to thank you so much for joining us today. Remember what we're about. You learning ways to save more, spend less and avoid getting ripped off.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Can you show some official charges? Can you state that? Can you show me what Congress have allowed you power to do what you do? Can you show me what is none of this whole proceeding is unconstitutional? Can you show me that?


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[Assistant] Uh, why would anybody other than the defendant write something like that in the notebook that has the defendant's DNA on the outside of it? Uh, in the notebook that's found in the defendant's backpack along with other books that belong to the defendant. Uh, throughout this writing,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, they certainly would provide some interference. Whether they would definitively prevent all flies from getting there 100%, I can't say. It would, it would likely interfere with the process though.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm so glad you're with us here on the Clark Howard Show. You know, our mission is to serve you with advice and information that empowers you so you make better financial decisions in your life.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We're here to serve you around the clock at Clark.com and ClarkDeals.com. I am so impressed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Every week when I get our editorial list of the stories we are publishing or working on, we work so hard


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To give you the best information we can that you can act on in your own life for your own wallet at Clark.com and we work so hard to give you good deals at ClarkDeals.com. Hope you'll check out our content.


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[Assistant] Because I believe it serves you. And by the way,


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[Assistant] When you're there, you can also post where you feel I blew it on our Clark Stinks


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[Assistant] Response form at Clark.com slash Clark stinks. And every Friday, including this one, Krista selects posts to read to me on the podcast where you feel I failed you. And after I hear how I messed up.


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[Assistant] So for those of you who watch our YouTube show, you see Krista is wearing her St. Patty's Day colors.


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[Assistant] David, thank you. So when a neighbor does a favor for a neighbor, you just happen to buy them some steaks or if they're vegetarian, buy them something else or whatever. You just do something, somebody does something nice for somebody else. It doesn't have to be a quid pro quo.


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[Assistant] Particularly if it's something that would throw something into a commercial activity. My son.


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[Assistant] Who's a pilot is not allowed to carry paying passengers at this point. He's only got his private pilot's license so far. And he talks to me about how serious it is that if he ever took a dollar from someone, how much trouble he'd get into. And so your point is well taken.


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[Assistant] Thank you, Thomas. I do feel like that ship has sailed in my life. And I feel like especially where we are as a country, we would benefit a lot from having


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Younger eyes, younger voices running for office rather than, uh, what's the term? Is it gerontocracy?


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[Assistant] I think that's, we've got, uh, we've got a very, very obviously old,


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[Assistant] Age home in the U.S. Senate and we have our candidates for president that are


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Very old. And I feel like the country needs a refresh and I would just be more of the same, another old guy in office. So I feel like my time has passed for a political life, but I appreciate your sentiments.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] John, thank you for that recommendation and the, uh, Apple watch or, or a Samsung watch or a Pixel watch. Any of those are a great potential solution.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For a kid to stay in touch with family and family to stay in touch with the kid.


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[Assistant] Keith, thank you very much. Uhm, one annex I'd add to what Keith posted is that a lot of people forget over a lifetime that they've designated a beneficiary and then in their will


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or in a trust or whatever they'll, they'll design those assets to go to somebody else forgetting that they designated a beneficiary and the beneficiary designation is almost 100% of the time superior


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To whatever you put in a will, so don't lose track of beneficiary designations that you do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The Eiffel Tower thing. My kids still bring that up all the time. That was 2012. When does the Statue of Limitations run out?


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[Assistant] The guy who cuts my hair, Rolando, that it was true I was under-tipping him because I had such a good deal on my haircuts because I'd bought this discount card.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That they were offering. That I was under-tipping because I was basing the tip on what I was actually paying for the haircut instead of what was a reasonable tip and that's what


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, another person pointed out to me, and so I've continued to give Orlando, uh, larger tips because I was wrong in that case. It was not really a social pressure thing, David. I realized that what I was doing was under-tipping.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I've noticed uhm, when I spend a fair amount of time in New York City,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I, and so you're in these lines. And I, I did a, I was watching the other day in person after person put no tip. I think that's so much a thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In New York where every place you go they're flipping the iPad that I've noticed that a lot of people are rebelling against it and not tipping.


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[Assistant] You know, I wonder, we've had so much react to that, uh, podcast where I, I had that chart that showed day's supply for all different brands. I wonder if we should post that in, can we put that in? We can link to it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because the list is so stark. You see these brands that have more than or near a year's supply if they didn't make another car for a year.


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[Assistant] I very much appreciate what you've written, obviously.


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[Assistant] Uh, Costco is not your thing, but if you love going to Target, join their new


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But, but now there's a membership with it and you get all kinds of freebies with it, free delivery, free delivery within an hour, all this stuff. They're, they're mimicking Amazon Prime and Walmart Plus.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or the warehouse clubs where you have to pay the membership fee. So if Target is your thing, and-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Shopping, Target's markups obviously are higher than the markups at the warehouse clubs. So you can bring some of that cost down by joining Target's new, it's called inner circle membership, whatever it's called.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Whatever that is. So check it out. As for Costco, I am strategic when I go there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I do not go there on Saturday or Sunday unless somebody's got a gun pointed at them.


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[Assistant] Oh my goodness, thank you for posting this.


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[Assistant] Because when I talked about this before, I failed, I realized later I failed to make the most important point.


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[Assistant] And that is the homeowners insurance market is so unstable right now that you do not want to ever make a claim against homeowners insurance unless it is a catastrophic loss only.


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[Assistant] You don't want to give them a reason to cancel you. You don't want to give them a reason to heavily surcharge your premiums for years to come.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because of making a claim. Homeowner's insurance now needs to be looked at as catastrophic coverage only. No minor claims. And for that reason, you want the deductible as high as you can stand, or as high as if you have a loan against your home, as high as your mortgage lender will permit. Because if you're never gonna make a claim,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Except if the sky has fallen on your life.


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[Assistant] You will actually benefit from having that higher deductible. It also takes away the temptation of you making a smaller claim.


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[Assistant] The last but best option for someone who is deeply in debt.


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[Assistant] The reason you don't hear me talk about it a lot unless somebody specifically asks me about it is


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[Assistant] I've got a world out there where there are ads all day long, messages all day long.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] About filing for bankruptcy and it's painted as if it's so simple and so easy. And yes, there are situations where someone's hit a point that the best option is a bankruptcy filing. But I don't want to feed into that, uh, advertising frenzy about, oh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, you broke a nail? Oh, you should file for bankruptcy. Oh, you took a left turn instead of a right? You should file for bankruptcy. I don't want to be part


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] of that mentality. If I'm posed a question


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was somebody's circumstance where it does make sense to file for bankruptcy. I would say it. $40,000 in debt.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Say bankruptcy often, because if somebody does have a viable practical way,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To get out of debt, I'd rather them do that than go through a bankruptcy that will stay on their record for 10 years. And you gotta pay meaningful money to the courts and to the bankruptcy lawyer.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For doing the bankruptcy. So, I guess in this case,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I hear your sentiment, but I feel like...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm not comfortable using that as a routine alternative option for people. Uhm, coming up next though, we're going to talk the complete opposite.


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[Assistant] Is a way it's really never happened before. I'm going to share that with you. And on the Clark Stinks front, I want to tell you how much I appreciate all of you've taken the time to post. And I'm really sorry that we get so many Clark Stinks each week. There are so many we can't get to.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Each week and occasionally we do an all Clark stinks podcast.


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[Assistant] When they really get backed up again, Krista, maybe it's time for us to do that again. But coming up ahead, opposite land.


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[Assistant] People who become millionaires, how Americans are doing it now. Okay. It's true. We all have things we obsess about, and this is one I obsess with, that how not all of us, but many of us can become financially independent simply by living on less than what we make. And it's just fascinating if you look


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[Assistant] At Clark.com, it lets you do what ifs. If I start putting this much money in a Roth IRA or this much money in an investment account or this much money in a 401k and I keep doing this week after week or month after month, how much money am I going to have down the road? And what's so amazing is it doesn't have to be a lot of money. If you do it when you're young, you put money in living on less than what you make.


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[Assistant] And the payoff down the road is gigantic.


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[Assistant] You gotta leave that alone. You can't be tempted to pull that money out. Hopefully no circumstances.


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[Assistant] Make that the only compelling obvious option. There's a new report from Fidelity Investments.


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[Assistant] For people who've been consistent putting money aside. In other words, they've been putting money in 15 years in a row.


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[Assistant] They now have on average more than half a million dollars in their 401k. The number that have


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Overall that have a million or more dollars in a 401k up 41% over the last year.


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[Assistant] Those that have become millionaires just in 401ks have an average balance over a million and a half.


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[Assistant] That are getting into rarefied air with a 401k.


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[Assistant] What percent of their pay are they contributing?


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[Assistant] What's normally considered to be the unluckiest number in the western world? 13%!


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[Assistant] The people who've made it to millionaire status, they're saving 13% of their pay. Everything in life.


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[Assistant] Habits that work for us, habits that work against us. How do people overcome financial oops in life? They've lived on less than what they make and they build reserves.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How do they survive? They survive by storing up food.


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[Assistant] In that sense is a similar analogy. The habit of automatic saving out of every check is what creates the habits that make a difference. You know, something I shared probably two years ago were stats about the difference


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the amount of money people had put aside for their future.


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[Assistant] Who work for an employer that offers a retirement plan versus people who are on their own and have to self-motivate. And it's crazy


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[Assistant] The half of people who have access to an employer-provided plan, how much more money they have been able to put aside for the future than people who have to do it themselves, who are self-employed or work for one of the half of companies that don't have retirement plans or have, you know,


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[Assistant] Smaller businesses that have not set up retirement plans. So if you are self-employed.


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[Assistant] When you work for a business that doesn't offer any kind of retirement plan, then you have to create.


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[Assistant] Your own equivalent of what happens at an employer with a 401k.


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[Assistant] And the magic pill is setting up a Roth IRA, because I am the man from Roth, and putting money into it every month, automatically.


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[Assistant] Not intending to set it up automatically where money goes into that Roth. Because the wealth you can create is just shocking over time.


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[Assistant] And again, it doesn't have to be a lot of money every paycheck or every month. It's the build up of years.


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[Assistant] That leads to financial independence where you have the choices that can change what your life is like later in your life. It's such a hard thing as human beings to defer gratification and that's why people who work at a place


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[Assistant] Where they have the plans often with automatic enrollment like we do for our employees at my company. You know, when you're automatically enrolled, the habit is there. But when you don't have that nudge,


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[Assistant] From an employer you've got to be the one who creates that nudge.


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[Assistant] And if you don't know how to do a Roth IRA, we have a simple guide at Clark.com that walks you through how you can set it up and be good to go.


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[Assistant] And putting money in it in 15 minutes or less. That's like the old Geico, was it Geico commercials?


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[Assistant] So Chris, I don't know how long you're planning to take to pay off the kitchen remodel.


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[Assistant] But, uh, most kitchen remodels, unless you go crazy, you could pay it off in five years.


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[Assistant] And credit unions have the superior product for that called a five-year home equity loan.


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[Assistant] And so if you're not a member of a credit union yet, you want to see which ones are around you, go to their websites before you join and see what they're charging on a five year home equity loan.


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[Assistant] They're usually pretty favorable rates. It's a fixed rate and you pay it off like you would like a car payment, a 60 month car loan. You pay off the kitchen remodel the same way.


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[Assistant] And that would be my favorite way, never at a bank, always at a credit union. This is a never rule. I don't know of a single case ever


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[Assistant] Where a bank offered a good deal equivalent to what a credit union would offer on a five year home equity loan.


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[Assistant] As for finding a contractor, it is a fact that people do


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[Assistant] Get charged more when they live in a more affluent zip code.


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[Assistant] Chat people up. Find out how they felt about who they used. Did they meet their time schedule?


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[Assistant] Did they stay on price in terms of what they quoted versus what they did and pay close attention when you do


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[Assistant] The kitchen remodel contract with whoever it is you use, you want to make sure you're very specific on the scope of work


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[Assistant] And the materials you should go out and figure out.


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[Assistant] What cabinets you want, you know, what great cabinets you want, what countertops you want, what appliance levels you want, what flooring you want, that upfront, knowing


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[Assistant] That helps the contractor and helps you because they can much more zero in on prices. People spend from 10 grand to believe it or not in fancy houses more than a million dollars on kitchens and every price point in between.


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[Assistant] And so it's all based on what you're trying to do.


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[Assistant] In that kitchen and what level and grade of stuff you want to have happen.


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[Assistant] Okay, I heard, okay, so now I gotta tell. Talking to, uh, some, uh, very wealthy friends who were hiring a contractor who the minimum, the minimum


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[Assistant] For the contractor to hire this contractor for a reno of their home that was more expensive than just a kitchen was one million dollars. That was the minimum. Who has that kind of money?


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[Assistant] One of these rec services that, that I have felt comfortable recommending. You know, my default,


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[Assistant] That I felt so comfortable with Gordon over the years is not to target specific segments of the market, but instead to use a, um,


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[Assistant] Age-based thing, a target retirement fund. I uh, I am so a believer.


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[Assistant] And the target retirement fund for proper asset allocation is somebody gets closer and closer to retirement.


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[Assistant] And the costs of, of doing them so low and all your money in a 401k, if you do it, you go all in with target retirement fund. But if you really want a specific allocation advice,


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[Assistant] You can hire somebody to do a check up for you, uh, once a year, uh, once a quarter, whatever, by hiring a fee only financial planner to help you.


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[Assistant] Fiduciary, fiduciary to help you with doing the asset allocation.


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[Assistant] It's a hard area to find someone you can trust, but remember, in your case, you'd be hiring somebody whose only job


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[Assistant] Is to give you advice because the 401k is within the four walls of the 401k and the investments they'd help you allocate to are the ones in the plan. But I have never found maybe in the short term somebody fund picking can be helpful long term.


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[Assistant] What you're looking for from a financial planner is much wider. What are your goals? Are you on target for them?


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[Assistant] What other things should you be doing besides the workplace plan?


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[Assistant] So this is not an area that I'm really.


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[Assistant] Strong about is something I would do.


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[Assistant] The, uh, if you hire them for financial advice in the personal advisory service,


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[Assistant] They, that would not be one of the things they would be involved in because I don't know if there's a legal reason they cannot be involved in guiding you on what you would do inside your 401k.


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[Assistant] I don't know if Fidelity has a different process for that. I love the, uhm, the advice programs that the big low-cost companies are setting up. Or Vanguard now is way set up. I think they're approaching a trillion dollars under management in their personal advisory service.


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[Assistant] Uhm, it's cause it's low cost and it seems to have worked for people.


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[Assistant] And be prepared to counter whatever the airline offers. This is an area that's been


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[Assistant] A problem for people over the years is getting timely and fair reimbursement for


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[Assistant] Uh, the claim would be for like $35 cause that's all my clothes would be worth in total. But.


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[Assistant] For, uh, a normal earthling, you could have a meaningful claim and


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[Assistant] Uh, the documentation you've already provided is fantastic with receipts.


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[Assistant] And if the airline does not pay in a timely basis and they stonewall you, be prepared to file a claim.


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[Assistant] Against the airline with the US Department of Transportation, the airline will be forced to answer


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[Assistant] And the answer usually will be, we have now issued a check.


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[Assistant] To Mario in this amount of money. Hope he's happy.


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[Assistant] If they offer you an amount of money that is not what you feel is fair, push back.


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[Assistant] Politely, but push back and explain why you feel your claim should be for more money. Anyone who's flown for a long time knows that you used to have to go through security


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[Assistant] After you claimed your bag at the baggage carousel,


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[Assistant] And airlines pretty much have discontinued that around the country because it was an expense on the airlines where they would check.


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[Assistant] To make sure that the bag you were taking was actually yours, that you had the claim check for it. They've decided, I guess that it's cheaper to pay for luggage stolen off the carousel than it is to have the security there to make sure that a thief is not running off with your bag.


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[Assistant] But hopefully, all's well will end well with the claim that you have filed.


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[Assistant] And my answer always, if I can't carry it with me, it doesn't go on the trip.


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[Assistant] And thank you so much for joining us. I hope you have a wonderful, wonderful weekend and I want to add an annex. You know, we're about saving more, spending less, avoiding getting ripped off. Domestic airfares are declining.


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[Assistant] This summer air travel if you shop around is going to be meaningfully lower cost than it was last summer.


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[Assistant] There are going to be a lot of bargains out there for you. Take your time. Shop thoroughly. Grab a deal. Have a great weekend.


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[Assistant] It's great to have you here on the Clark Howard Show. You know, our mission is to serve you with advice and information that empowers you so you make better financial decisions in your life.


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[Assistant] Now we recently had a series of questions about shopping for auto insurance because people are in shell shock.


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[Assistant] How much auto insurance has gone up and I've addressed it many different ways recently, but I did some digging.


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[Assistant] That is hopefully going to be useful to you. We've got some stats about the differences


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[Assistant] In what various insurers are raising rates, and I wanted you to be aware of that so you understand when you get a notice from your insurer of a big rate increase, you're not going to be a sitting duck if you follow my guidance here. And speaking of your vehicle,


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[Assistant] What's going on and how do you play with your wallet? The car wash wars. I'm going to tell you. So, a lot of state insurance departments


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[Assistant] They are what are known as captive regulators. They are dependent


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[Assistant] Or being on guard to help consumers, they become really the agents and allies of the insurance industry. There are a number of reasons why that happens, but it's just a fact. Uhm, and you can tell this because they'll keep things secret


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[Assistant] That the insurance regulators know to your disadvantage. So there's new data out.


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[Assistant] That's been published about insurers in the state of California, the largest auto insurance market in the country that is valuable for you to know about what's going on. So I told you last year that all state was in a world of hurt had been losing a lot of money.


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[Assistant] On their auto insurance book of business and that the all state executives had told Wall Street they were going to raise rates as high as they possibly could.


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[Assistant] And that's now come true here in 24. How much is Allstate raising insurance rates?


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[Assistant] And this is a proxy for the country and it will vary by state. But they're raising rates in California, again the largest insurance market, by up to 55% at renewal.


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[Assistant] You could have no change in your driving profile, no accident, no ticket, no at-faults.


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[Assistant] And still get a renewal notice 55% higher.


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[Assistant] In many states, the largest insurer, up 21% average. So what you need to know is that the loss ratios


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[Assistant] Different insurers are different. In fact, some insurers are making money right now on auto insurance, while others are losing money.


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[Assistant] You're going to owe a zillion more for your auto insurance. Do you just pay it? No, you don't.


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[Assistant] You shop the market, shop the market because each insurer classifies individual drivers or


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[Assistant] A household differently. So you may have one insurer.


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[Assistant] Who's like, Oh, well, we don't like blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So we're pushing the rates up this much. Another insurer might not mind blah, blah, blah at all and offer you a much lower rate.


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[Assistant] The only way you know is to shop and you need to shop the identical coverages. And this auto insurance thing,


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[Assistant] It's a problem around the country because when, when vehicle costs went way, way, way up and the value of used vehicles went way up, what it did was meant that when you were in an accident, if they totaled out your car, the amount they were having to pay was much higher


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[Assistant] And so that is one of the factors that lead insurers to be upside down in auto insurance.


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[Assistant] Go check it out when you get that ugly renewal notice.


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[Assistant] And go shop the market and get a better deal.


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[Assistant] Uh, experienced old hands in the auto industry who deal with a lot of complicated situations. The fact that you've been, they refer to as non-renewed in the industry, not cancelled. Such a funny, silly distinction.


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[Assistant] And you tell the independent agent that who your insurer has been, that they're non renewing you and you need to shop that the only solution they gave you is to kick your son out. Wow. And, um,


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[Assistant] That, uh, your son is a danger to himself and to others and that it would lead to a very, very expensive claim that would outrun your liability coverage and end up, uh, going against your umbrella policy, your overall liability shield.


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[Assistant] So you're going to have to shop because, I mean, kicking your son out, maybe if there's other reasons you want to kick your son out, that's fine. But that's a crazy thing for an insurer to ask of you or to tell you.


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[Assistant] Uh, with the hail claims has become a real flashpoint and the legislature has changed the rules on how this works for insurance because there was a lot of insurance fraud involved.


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[Assistant] With the roof replacements and there are roofing companies that go around and say, Hey, you want a free roof? Want a free roof? Want a free roof? And they were defrauding the insurance companies saying that your roof was bad because of blah, blah, blah.


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[Assistant] I already said blah blah blah about something else. That's okay. That must be my end phrase, this podcast. Anyway, uhm, so.


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[Assistant] If there's a kid in the neighborhood who loves flying a drone, get em flying that drone over your roof and you'll be able to see real time.


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[Assistant] If there is any possible hail damage on that roof, uh, you can pay the kids some, you know, 10, 20 bucks, have them fly the drone over and see what's actually going on up there. If there's no clear problem, you're not having any leaks in the house.


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[Assistant] Then there's probably nothing for you to do at that point. On the other hand, if you do see clear damage,


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[Assistant] Pay the kid for the micro SD card.


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[Assistant] And have that for your insurance company. They can send out an adjuster, but the insurance companies do not trust the roofers right now. So getting a, getting a roofer to come out and say, I'm wondering if I have hail damage on my roof. The answer is always yes.


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[Assistant] Even if there is none, unfortunately right now in Florida. And so that's what I would do. Start with the drone as true serum and move on from there.


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[Assistant] You don't want to make a claim against your insurance, especially in the state of Florida.


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[Assistant] Well, thank you for that, and I'm so glad you asked about this, Peter, because there are several


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[Assistant] What you do is you use whatever search engine you use, Google or whatever else, and put in auto subscription service, put in the nearest big city to where you live.


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[Assistant] And then if there's none available in the nearest big city, if you're going to have one for a couple of months, check a city within a few hours from you.


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[Assistant] And you pay a subscription fee and then depending on which level of vehicle you want to subscribe to, you pay a monthly fee for it and


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[Assistant] The thing is pretty much cancelable whenever you want, which fits more the idea of what you're interested in. You may also be able to go to


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[Assistant] A local only rental company and see if there is any kind of monthly rental you can do with them. In other words, off airport, uh, I would start with a local enterprise location, non-airport enterprise location and see if there is some kind of reasonable monthly rate they can offer you on rentals.


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[Assistant] Coming up ahead, one thing you'll never do with that subscription or rental car, you'll never wash it.


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[Assistant] But the rest of us car washing's really in, and I want to tell you how to play this new competitive game. Car washes are in, in, in. I mean, it is crazy how many car washes there are across the country. Bloomberg reports there are now 60,000


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[Assistant] Car wash locations in the United States and it's growing virtually exponentially.


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[Assistant] And what led to this was whoever the brainiac was who came up with the idea of a monthly subscription.


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[Assistant] Following the idea of fitness centers was brilliant.


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[Assistant] When we first ended up with what the marketplace would consider to be too many car wash locations, the price of a single car wash started going down, down, down, a lot of places down to five bucks, then down to three bucks for an automatic car wash. Now in most of the country,


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[Assistant] The industry is settled at $10. And why have they settled at $10? Because they use this as a sales tool to try to get you into a monthly subscription.


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[Assistant] And there are people just as with a fitness center, there are the people that are the gym rats that are there day after day after day, but most people


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[Assistant] Even seem to forget that they joined a gym. And so the car wash business is opening up


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[Assistant] Like crazy just to sell monthly subscriptions that most people never use.


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[Assistant] And those subscriptions, I was at a red light the other day and I saw a car wash at the intersection that was


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[Assistant] $5.99 a month, unlimited car washes for two months. But if you wanted a single wash, it was $10.


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[Assistant] And then after the 599 two month period ended, it goes to 20 bucks. And so the, the whole business model is dependent on people


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[Assistant] Who has one, one of these $20 ones. And I don't think over recent months she's used it a single time. Sorry to ratchet out, honey, but anyway.


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[Assistant] If the rate doesn't escalate, if they offer you, you know, right now we're running monthlies at $14.99 a month, let's say. But how long does that stay in effect?


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[Assistant] As so often happens, as the cable monsters have learned, offer somebody a deal for a period of time, then have the rate escalate, and people will just...


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[Assistant] is getting you to get one of those stickers that gets you that's read electronically that gets you the unlimited car washes and know that's the deal and if you know yourself


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[Assistant] That you'll get that car washed enough to make it work for you, then fine.


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[Assistant] But if you find that you're not using it, go through the process to discontinue. Um, I did find out that my son also signed up for one of these and he wasn't going either. And he went by


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[Assistant] The first two times he went by to cancel, he was told, oh well, the person who can do that isn't here.


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[Assistant] And I said, go back another time. And he was finally able to cancel the third time. So it is clear as could be.


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[Assistant] That this is the business model. Understand it. Protect your wallet.


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[Assistant] Yeah, yeah, so these kids' devices, some are, uh, sold by the cell carriers themselves under, you know, under what's called white label. You don't even know who made them. And others are branded themselves, selling themselves like Gap.


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[Assistant] And these are designed for people who want to be able to stay in touch with their younger child, but not have them yet with a, uh, with a full phone.


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[Assistant] This has been a difficult journey for a lot of parents. And I want to tell you that Apple finally cracked the code on this. And Apple has what's called a family setup plan.


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[Assistant] So you can, cause Apple wants to get from a very young age, people into the board collective of Apple products. Smart. So Apple has this thing where you set up a family account called the family setup.


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[Assistant] And you can put an apple watch with cellular on your child's wrist, not being tied into an iPhone, because normally with an apple watch,


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[Assistant] You have to have an associated iPhone with it. But with this family setup thing, you don't have to do so. And all the big cell phone carriers and some of the prepaids participate


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In offering the cellular plan for an Apple Watch without the kid having an iPhone but assigned within this family setup and


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[Assistant] I hate to say it, if you go to a cell phone store, they're not going to know about it likely. So go to Apple's website and put in the search bar family setup and it will explain how it works and you'll explain it to the people at the cell phone store, how it works.


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[Assistant] So we had this complaint from someone that was different, uh, like two, three years ago, I don't know if you remember this, but they were falsely listed as having a business they never had.


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[Assistant] I wouldn't do that D, uhm, if there's a need for a will or trust.


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[Assistant] The questions I've got to ask you, uh, are there meaningful assets that your 77 year old mom has? If it's, if it's not a large amount of stuff and there's not-


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[Assistant] Uh, decent assets. I mean that varies culturally by family, but I'd say if there's enough money that it could cause hurt feelings among relatives, whatever that would be, that would be the point that I'd say there's meaningful money there.


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[Assistant] If, if it's not any kind of complicated family situation, there's not a blended family involved, you know, not, uh, halves and full kids and all that stuff. If there's nothing like that, just very simple, straightforward.


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[Assistant] I found over the years that WillMaker is the best self-done will program there is. As far as trust, there needs to be a very specific reason


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That a trust would be necessary. Usually if you get to a situation where you need trust, you really need a lawyer.


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[Assistant] In order to do it properly, who does as what he or she does all day long, wills, estates and trusts. And of course, if there's a meaningful amount of assets, you probably want to use a lawyer, but we'll make her.


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[Assistant] Is updated continually. It is the best program out there. And throughout the year they do specials on Willmaker that take it down from its normal.


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[Assistant] High retail price, which I think is like 79 bucks these days, something like that.


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[Assistant] Okay, so you're only allowed to a max of 35 grand to move from a 529 after the 15 years into a Roth IRA.


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[Assistant] And there's a lot of buzz in the financial community that the IRS final regs are going to.


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[Assistant] Purposely invalidate people using this as a backdoor method into a Roth.


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[Assistant] That it is designed for, the whole purpose why Congress passed the 529 to Roth conversion is, uh, there were a lot of parents that were reluctant or afraid to put money into a 529 account because they didn't know if their kid was going to go to college.


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[Assistant] If a kid ends up not going to college. So they said, well, maybe we could get people to participate. We gave them this carrot where the money, if a kid didn't go to college, could go into a Roth IRA. Then immediately when this became a thing you could do,


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[Assistant] People were like, wait a minute, I don't income qualify for a Roth or I'm maxing out my Roth and I want to put more tax free money aside.


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[Assistant] Why don't I do this 529 and name myself as beneficiary and then 15 years later migrate it tax free into a Roth. The states are already on to this and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Apparently there's going to be recapture of whatever state tax deductions there are if the money later is moved to a Roth from a 529. But in terms of you doing this as an adult, naming yourself as a beneficiary and then doing it,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's too early to have a sense whether that's something that's going to be green lighted.


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[Assistant] So I'd sit on your hands for now and let's see if that does become a thing or if that might backfire on you and then you've got the 10% federal penalty and tax and ordinary income tax rates on all the earnings. I mean you compare it to that tax time bomb.


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[Assistant] Just putting additional money in an investment account in index funds or index type ETFs.


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[Assistant] Would be a much lower tax risk than the possibility of 529 money blowing up on you down the road until it's clear whether this is going to be a really great tax dodge.


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[Assistant] And thank you so much for joining us on today's podcast. Know that every single day.


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[Assistant] or newsletter, you'll see what we got and again they are free.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And know what we're about with our newsletters, our websites, our social media.


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[Assistant] Our Team Clark Consumer Action Center, what I do on radio, TV, newspaper, everywhere we're doing it, it's all devoted to one purpose. You, learning ways to save more, spend less, and avoid getting ripped off.


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[Assistant] So Kevin in Utah wrote in and said, Clark, I've been reading articles that they're talking about seizing our 401k funds to save Social Security. Do you know anything about this? If there's any truth to this, what do you suggest we do to prepare?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, we'll go to another question here from Lisa in Georgia. I purchased some expensive concert tickets from Ticketmaster. They were $300 each. I'm now unable to use the tickets. Ticketmaster offers a pretty easy way to resell the tickets, possibly at a loss, but it's still better than nothing.


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[Assistant] They do require that you input your social security number and your debit or bank account number, not the credit card you purchased them with. Is this safe? I've had my identity stolen once before, so I try to be extra careful.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then, don't you think, pretty much, if you're doing any, like, we should all have what I call my throwaway checking account, like a free checking account that you use if you're using any apps to pay. Venmo. Cash app.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, this kind of circumstance when anyone needs to ACH, you know, your ACH and then you just transfer it into your other bank when you get the money or whatever.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My monthly payment is about $700. When they're forgiven, should I add that $700 to the $900 I currently put in my savings account every month? I'd say I have roughly 6-8 months of expenses in my emergency fund.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Put it in a taxable investment account. I already max out my 403B with half Roth and half pre-tax and max out a Roth IRA.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I, I, or pay even more principal on my mortgage. I currently pay 750 extra every month and my interest rate is 2.75%. I'm overwhelmed with the options in a good way. What is your advice for one of your biggest fans?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now I'm lowering my debt and increasing my income, so in the next couple of years I would like to travel with my daughters. I wondered if, and they name, oh the Bank of America, I'll just name it, Travel Rewards Card or the Wells Fargo Autograph Card would be best.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Love that card. I love it. And when you book through, if you book travel through their portal,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Using the points that you have, like I've done it for rental cars and other things, you get, I always check the prices against the regular sites to make sure it's, it's the right price, but you get 20% of the points back when you redeem them. So that's one of the great benefits of it because it ends up costing you a lot less in the end to, to book these, um, these trips.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Steven Wisconsin says, I found this on Facebook. I bring it to your attention as my wife and I are traveling more out of the country and wondering how to better protect ourselves from this happening. And I linked this for you, Clark. I don't know if you've read it or not, but it's a comment on me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Lisa in Wisconsin says a grocery tip for you based on your February 22nd podcast. There is enough, oh by the way.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This was the most popular thing people wrote in about over the last few weeks. Like so many people wrote in. There is an app which helps you search for specific grocery items and view ads in one spot. It's called FLIP. F-L-I-P-P. So two P's in there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I use it to see all my local grocery store ads in one spot. It does also have a search feature for say milk and will bring up any mentions and ads of that item. Thank you for all your daily dedication to helping others. You're so likable, helpable and feel like a family member. Uncle Clark.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I should probably mention it again in Clark Stinks since half of them came into Clark Stinks. We'll just quickly mention it this week. Remind me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's what Clark Stinks is all about. The Clark Collective. Giving us knowledge.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, you know, it wasn't my first choice for... That was yours. You liked Clarkies, like Swifties.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeaah, I wanted a Clark squad, or yeaah. Ah well. Clarkies it is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, I learn something every day.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] From my own Clark.com newsletter. It's so well researched. By the way, I got some crazy tax tips for you to share with you in the middle of tax season and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Particularly, I got some advice for you about...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How those are taxed and what you need to know so you don't get penalties from the IRS. And then later in this podcast I'm going to talk about what is it workers really want right now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That employers seem to be tone deaf to. We're going to talk that through. So, yeaah, our Team Clark Consumer Action Center pretty much has a new cuss word, iBonds. Because they're very confusing to people.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they're hard to explain, hard to understand.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I go through cycles going all the way back to the 1990s where I'd say, buy em now! Don't buy em anymore!


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sell the ones you bought. All this because they are, uh, amazingly complicated product.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That is designed to reward you where you don't lose purchasing power versus inflation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That they compensate you where with normal savings, you're over time going to fall behind inflation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But as I recently advised people who bought them back when they were almost 10% earning almost 10%.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That weirdly it makes sense to consider selling them now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] series eyes because the new series eyes offer a better deal because they give you the rate of inflation


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Plus an additional bonus amount of interest every year.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So you're making more than the inflation rate on simple savings. But, okay, imagine this. This is just beyond stupid.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The U.S. Treasury Department that runs the IRS, that runs the Series I savings bond program.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Doesn't send you a 10.99 when you cash out a Series I savings bond.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But then when you don't remember that you had interest on it and reported on your taxes, that same Department of the Treasury, through the IRS, taxes you and charges you penalties and interest


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As well as the tax for not having reported


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The income from the sold Series I savings bond.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cause you don't pay, have to pay the tax on what you've earned till you sell them. But then you got to report the tax, but then they don't send you anything saying this is how much you earned. So report this. So listen to how crazy this is. You have to go onto your account with treasury direct where you bought the series I savings bonds.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And if you sold series I savings bonds last year and you're like, oops, I didn't do that. Go do it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And report it, even if you have to just send the IRS some extra money.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To cover that tax because every day you do it sooner, less interest and penalties that you'll owe. And by the way, there's something I learned in a Wall Street Journal story recently that I thought was really great.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You can go if you have an account.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With the IRS, you can go on there and you can see all the


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's great because if you moved or whatever, the 1099s may not find you, but they found the IRS, and the IRS is going to find you for the tax.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So if you set up a personal account with the IRS, you can see them all each year as you're doing your taxes, print them out, make sure you report everything. It shouldn't be that hard, should it? But it is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeaah, you gotta tell us about what happened to you. Uhm, I was gonna get handcuffs and bring them today.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It means that in addition to filing for unemployment is you and running off with $27,000 in taxpayer money.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Alright, so Jasper, all the financial and personal information you have to give is, I'm going dovetailing right with what we were just talking about, creates a known risk in your life of identity theft. That part don't lose sleep over.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just, if you haven't done so, freeze your credit. That will prevent a lot of the abuses if this information fell into the wrong hands that could occur.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The bigger issue is the first one you named, and it happens again and again and again.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There will be someone who, who needs a sponsor for somebody and their relationship crumbles.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That person vanishes into the ether of the United States.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then you're the one they come after on the financial guarantees. And so you are having to


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Suffer enormous financial cost. So you gotta be really confident, Jasper, that your friend


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That your friend will be the one who ponies up whatever financial guarantee money. Cause that's the risk that what you're losing sleep over should not be identity theft. It should be the financial risk to you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And what possibility, and you gotta know your friend well enough.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What possibility the friend would say that was such a bad experience. I'm washing my hands of that. Gosh, sorry. You got stuck with all those financial obligations.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So you gotta, you gotta be really confident that your friend is gonna come through if things


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So Paul, congratulations on the last two things you said. 15% to retirement accounts. Six months of emergency funds. That's outstanding. So paying off the loan.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You got a two point spread there, you're arbitraging here. As long as savings rates


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Meaningfully higher, which they are in the example you gave. Keep paying the car loan as agreed. You're earning


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're a banker, you're earning 2% spread on your money and you want to keep that up. There's no advantage to paying off the vehicle loan other than psychological. If you just hate having a loan.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then you could sacrifice the earnings you're getting every month on that spread. But otherwise, keep both in place, the savings and the loan.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On, cause this came up, uh, few years ago and I, I checked, they still say it, that, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Dennis are free to offer you an upfront cash discount.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it is an accepted business practice in dentistry. I'm, I'm very surprised.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Somebody, some point along the way, intimidated this dental practice into thinking


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That they could not offer discounts to cash payers and that is an illegal restraint of trade. You know, if the dentist wants to offer a discount, I can't wait to hear somebody tell me that I'm wrong on this and maybe we'll hear that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But, I mean, even the, their trade association in the dentistry industry, the ADA, says that this is done. And so,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, I was going to say that next. Yes. Go get another price quote elsewhere because cash discounts are routine and I hope that the dental repair work goes really well for you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Gosh, what a disconnect. And as I said before and got a lot of blowback, I think there's a generation gap.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Between the ages of the typical corporate executive who wants to be able to see everybody eye to eye as they walk down the hall.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And a workforce that is substantially younger than the average boss in the executive suite.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I saw a thing in the business journals, what additional cost employees now have.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Who were working remotely and now have to come into the office. And this is just hard dollars. $561 a month. An additional cost.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For that worker, commuting, clothing, whatever it is. And I know people who


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Are playing the world's smallest violin with the world's saddest song for people who were able to work remotely. That's a privilege you have not had if you're working in a job that you have to be there to do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In, uh, manufacturing, assembly, service, restaurants, you name it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But there's a significant portion of Americans who were able to continue working doing


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What they do where they wanted to be instead of in a physical office. Well same business journal article found that the average worker


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're not putting miles on your vehicle. You're not taking a chance of being in a wreck, being on the roads. You have more time in your life.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Will suffer lack of raises and promotions that people that are physically in front of this older generation of bosses.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And those are the people who get the promotions. Those are the people who get the better raises.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] By meaningful amounts in recent years because of marketplace pressures to attract and keep workers and because of the inflation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That was so ugly in the economy for a couple years and still not pretty, but not ugly anymore. Most workers fell behind and the only way for those workers to catch up is to be disloyal, to be a job hopper.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because employers still are having trouble finding enough workers. I mean, latest survey data.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is to find more workers, find new workers that are qualified for the jobs they're trying to hire for. So the marketplace provides an interesting set of pressures. One, employees


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is to go somewhere else where they're valued more than where they are because particularly the larger an organization is, the more they have these bureaucratic


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then you can go outside and somebody may offer you 25% more going somewhere else. So there's a lot.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Opportunity's still out there. Think about this. Almost half of employers still looking desperately to hire.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] People who have the talents and skills they're looking for. If you've got them, if you've got those talents, those skills, the training, experience that that employer is looking for, you can maybe move way up the pay scale and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Potentially have the working conditions you want.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All right. So Krista, what do I say about you can't unsee the front of the plane once you've seen it? I mean, you know, George, I just want you to know, be prepared.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When you take an over the water flight, it's going to be hard in the future to not see it again. So just know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right. So uhm, how do you get a cheap deal to buy an island in the front of the plane? It's not going to be cheap, but cheaper. You, you break the fare, not buying a ticket. You're in Colorado, not buying a ticket from


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Colorado all the way to Hawaii in the front of the plane. So not nonstop like nonstop.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You do, you break the fair in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Sacramento, Seattle, whatever, because


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Maybe in coach. And then you do a second fair on the same airline so you don't fret about misconnects. From the west coast to Hawaii.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You'll likely do better. The best deals on first class from the west coast to Hawaii are on, uh, Alaska, Hawaiian,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they're trying to get married right now. Those two tend to offer better deals on their first class seats, but you're going to have to hunt around different departure points. And then you always have Southwest where every seat is first class, but not really.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Going from, uh, your Colorado departure point, Denver, the Springs, over to the West Coast. Give yourself extra buffer time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So that you don't miss that flight. You paid that big money to fly first class to Hawaii. And if you look around on Hawaiian search engine, they fly to so many west coast departure points.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You look, the first class fares are very different from one flight to another to another. Same route. So you may find that, oh well if we go at three we'll get a deal, if we go at one we won't.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Points that you can transfer from a credit card.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There, there are mathematical formulas and the one thing that's absolutely true now, you get within 21 days buying a ticket, you're gonna get clobbered.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And there are certain patterns, but they are not necessarily the databases different people use. They make your eyes glaze over. I think it would be good at Clark.com if we summarized.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What, you know, this one says buy a domestic ticket, 58 days in advance. This one says no, 70 days in advance. This one says 35, whatever. Just, just show the confusion and maybe you try all three dates and see what's cheapest for your trip.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Between the retailers and supermarkets, supermarkets were always the heart of couponing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Between the supermarkets themselves and the product manufacturers and so they both cooperate and essentially compete with each other and so you want to look for


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Electronic coupons at the website of the manufacturers of your favorite items.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And also at the, particularly with supermarkets, the supermarket chain itself, to see what kind of electronic couponing they offer. Uhm, the nation's second largest supermarket, Kroger, that operates under like two dozen different names around the country,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They have an incredibly complex, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] App and website you have to use where you have to click.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On digital coupons, when you're at the register, sign into your account.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then in theory, the register will pick up that you clipped.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean Kroger is a high-low, and this is where the coupons really matter.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is high-low retailers that the regular prices on things are very expensive, but when something's on discount and then in addition to discount being on coupon,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Couponing does happen now. It's actually more complicated than it was when you used to have to take the glossy coupon things and cut them out with scissors and turn them into the register. It's more work now than it was before.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That when they went to their national convention of the, uh, of the credit unions, that uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] About adopting binding arbitration because this is not an isolation. We've heard this repeatedly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Over the last year, credit unions, uh, trying to behave like a bank.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And take away your rights under the U.S. Constitution to a day in court and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is, this is an abusive practice because


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Binding arbitration imposed by big organizations is always a kangaroo court stacked against a consumer.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Why do consumers lose in arbitration over 99% of the time?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because the arbitrators are handpicked by the financial institutions and they crush the consumer. The arbitrators don't find for the financial institution, the financial institution doesn't hire those arbitrators anymore. It's that simple. And so,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Good you read the notice. If you can take the time, opt out of the arbitration.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you'll be like the only person who read anything that came or did anything about it. And then you'll preserve your rights.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That are so key to why we've shed so much blood over the centuries to preserve our freedoms in the United States.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that the Congress thought it was a great idea to allow


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Kangaroo court justice in the United States and our dealings with corporate America is just disgusting. And it's an example of how big corporations call the shots.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's a shame, they give the money and the congressman march to their drummer. And this is just another example, the abuse of consumers through arbitration.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In these financial industry arbitrations. And obviously it's not a fair system. Uh, that was so negative.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I feel bad about that. Sometimes the facts are negative and, but most of the time things are good, just not in this particular circumstance.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I want to thank you so much for joining us on today's podcast. And remember what we're about.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm so glad you're with us here on the Clark Howard show where our mission is to serve you with advice and information that empowers you. So you make better financial decisions in your life. And one way we serve you is through the team Clark consumer action center where we answer your questions one on one.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Free advice available to you is we've been doing now in our 32nd year of providing one-on-one free advice. You want to learn about the hours, how to reach us, go to Clark.com slash CAC.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The first one we're going to talk about is something that happened at my own company.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Later, a warning if you receive packages from online retailers.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's something you need to do immediately when you receive an item. So it's funny in my own company, I own, I own a couple of companies and one of them,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Almost everybody who worked there got techs the other day.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was like, hey Krista. It says, uh, said I had a new phone number, had my name with a New York City number.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Let me know if you got this text. Thanks Clark Howard. Yeah. Which I would never address. And now I'm helping out the criminals. It would always be just my first name. Let's see. She said, hi, I got this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I need you to handle something for me. Please let me know if you're available at the moment. And uh, my employee answered I am. Okay, I'm on a conference call meeting now and I need to provide a client with some gift cards.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Can you confirm if you can get the gift cards from the nearest store to you? Goes on. And this is a classic scam.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Taking advantage that in a corporate environment, a lot of people are like always wanting to please the boss. No one cares about that with me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They didn't respond to that. But uhm, but it's funny because we deal with, uh, scams all the time and warning people about them and my TV work and all that. So nobody on our team,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Attacks from me, but at other places you might be working in an environment that if you got a message from the boss any time of the day or night, you would hop right to it and know that you always want to call when you're asked to immediately go do something, purchase something, spend money, whatever.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You want to talk with the boss. Hey, hey, did you really send this? This doesn't sound like something you would have asked me to do. I just want to verify this because what will happen is you think you're pleasing the boss when the boss finds out later that you spent company money


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On something trying to please him or her and it turns out, uh, you got scammed out of company money. That's not gonna go well. And what's funny is this has been around how many years?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Has this scam been hot? It's a long time now. Yeah. And I guess cause it's worked again and again. But, uh, my wife and I were at dinner.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they targeted everybody who might have access to some way, a company card or anything like that. I wonder if it could be through any of the company credit cards. If there was a breach at a credit card company.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, uh, but the thing is, it's just really a good warning. And we were in a position to not, uh, do anything other than


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, anything like that you want to verify. And I know there are already people thinking, well, what about these AI things with people faking the voice of somebody? Yeah, that's going to be an additional issue we'll deal with. That's why you check and check and recheck and whatever before you respond, particularly off hours and spend company money. Gosh.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To pre-teens and especially the one for teens for your 13 year olds, I love this because


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Kids are being taught the concept of investing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Saving and investing from a very young age.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Instead of what is so much the push in the financial industry, which is to teach kids to spend, spend, and spend some more.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so I love what Fidelity's doing. My son, who's 18, uh, took


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Money he'd made from work and stuff and he opened a Fidelity investment account and he is doing some crazy investing, not of the kind that I would recommend.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And uh, but he's learning. He's learning by being involved. He's, he's uh, looking for quick scores. He's buying stocks. I would add, I'm not a big individual stock guy as you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I don't care because it's his money.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's like a living laboratory and he's learning important life lessons. So there's real advantage to have


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A child learning the fundamentals of investing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And when they get as old as my son, making mistakes as well that they will learn from that will carry him the rest of his life.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You are so smart, Lyle, and I have actually installed one of these before.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And this is something that was popular forever in Europe where water costs so much more historically than it costs here. Now that the cost of municipal water supplies has gone up so much in the United States.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not sitting around waiting for water to get hot, wasting precious water is a great idea. And I don't know why this isn't routinely done in new home construction, so it involves a retrofit. But what happens is it's like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, you're essentially having instant hot when you turn on the hot instead of waiting for it to warm up. We have this in our shower and our, our home we live in. And it's funny, you turn on the water and we don't have a, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Tankless water heater, we have a traditional, but the water is instantly hot.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because we have one of these systems and I highly recommend it to reduce water consumption and water cost.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We're not allowed to anymore, but any you can and you're saying that, uh, Amazon still permits it. If you can, yes. And you're right. It cuts your costs so very much. I love that you're doing it. And the question is, are you paying the extra $3 a month?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm happy to watch the ads, which I can say since I don't watch any content other than football. So I have nothing to watch till September.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Alright, well coming right ahead, I want to talk about something that can infuriate you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it goes to something that I started saying 20 plus years ago when you buy electronics, there's a lot of internal theft at electronic stores and employees will


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, dishonest employees that could be from a criminal ring or whatever.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They will back in the store room remove a valuable item from its packaging, put in the box something of equivalent weight, uh, and then expertly seal the box back, and you go to leave the electronics store,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you get home and you open it up ready to set up whatever and you find bricks in there or whatever it is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then you're trying to convince the electronics store, you're not the thief. They sold you something that didn't have anything in it. Well, I never.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Leave the premises of an electronic store without opening the box because unfortunately I heard from enough people this happened to, to make sure that the actual item I'm buying is in that box.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it was packaged in there terribly. I went right back in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And got an exchange for a new inbox item. Cause I didn't get any discount for getting a, uh, returned item that looked terrible. Well, that was then, this is now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now we're dealing in the era where a very large percent, depending on the retail category of items purchased, are being returned.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then there are a lot of people out there that are doing the kind of thing I talked about in electronic stores. They open up the item.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Take out the valuable merchandise, put something of, uh, could be even be identical weight back in the box, seal it expertly. It goes back to the returns department that's deluged with these packages and what's happening


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is the retailer starts out as the victim and they don't even know it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The item looks to have been returned in, uh, unused, perfect condition, unopened. It goes back in inventory. And then the next person comes along and orders that item and gets it. And then when they open the box,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What do they find? They find the item's not there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The legitimate customer who's the next one in line. They talk about a woman who bought something high end from, uhm, from Saks.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And she'd never been a TikToker. She's a lawyer, posted this. And then Sax.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, cheerfully replace the item in her case, but you're always on your back foot with this because the retailers are facing so much of this fraud. How do they know you're not the one taking advantage of them? So this is hazard and what I recommend


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is that you cannot prevent a retailer from feeling like you're the bad guy. But time matters.