[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Can you tell me any ways to avoid this? Are there less well-known companies who are regional and could save us on these charges?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Since COVID, one has a great job as an engineer, the other's in college. My husband is 55, I'm 56. We have saved and have a good nest egg for retirement.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm wanting to charge my son rent maybe $500 so he develops good habits. My plan is to put it in a CD and give it to him when he buys his own home. My husband is opposed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What resource can I share with him to show that this creates better habits in young people?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And by the way, we're having, having to help my husband's father, a retired doctor out with his finances. Maybe the apple does not fall far from the tree.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So as in terms of resources, I don't know that we have any, but you could play him this podcast.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Alright, Scooter in New Hampshire wrote in, he says, Hello Clark World, December 14th of this year marks 10 years since I filed chapter 7 bankruptcy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My question is this, when will my chapter seven truly fall off of my credit reports? I get mixed information on this. I busted my hump getting to a place completely different financially and I just want this gone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A car, but only if it's absolutely necessary. Go scorched earth and throw all the debt in the filing. I had tried to work with creditors, but it was futile.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Ken in Virginia says our homeowners association moved the entire inventory of dumpsters to one location by our townhouse.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This has caused interruptive sleep as residents drive up with loud music and as garbage is being dumped as early as five in the morning and as late as one in the middle of the night.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] More upsetting is the fact that the garbage truck with backup beepers and spotlights aimed at our bedroom window is dumping all five dumpsters on Saturday mornings at around 6 40 a.m.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We were not aware of the relocation of the dumpsters until after the fact. They shared an email blast survey.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This has been upsetting since we weren't consulted. Because of this action our piece has been breached and our property value diminished. Can you help us?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right, you have to be your own advocate or have someone who advocates for you for sure.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's so great to have you here on the Clark Howard Show. Our mission is to serve you with knowledge that empowers you so you make better financial decisions in your life. In today's show, I want to tell you I've been trying out a new app that promises to delete


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So much of your digital footprint from lots and lots of places, lots of companies that love to have our information and use it or sell it off. I'm gonna tell you my experience with it and later


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Krista and I, uh, each travel a lot.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And there are a lot of cases now where I don't rent a car where I used to and I do Uber and Lyft. And there's some stuff you need to know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's becoming really clear with using Uber and Lyft that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For the reliability side of this, we're going to talk that through. So.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, I don't feel that way because I know our information is out there everywhere and everywhere it is, is another opportunity for an identity thief to try to have a field day as if they're us.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I know it's a game of whack-a-mole, but I play that game. And now it's gotten easier.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Potentially because of money that Consumer Reports has poured into an app called Permission Slip that you can download to your iPhone or Android and I downloaded it to my Samsung phone and I used the app


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] After I set it up, registered and all that, I use the app, which is a pretty automated thing that pops up like, uh, digital cards and it'll ask you, do you do business with blah blah blah? And if you say yes, then you go there and they give you choices.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where they automate things like, do you want them doing this with your information? Do you want them doing that? Or do you want them doing nothing? Do you have...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No desire to have them have any relationship with you at all. And so you click, you choose.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then you click a green button, at least on Android it was green button, and then you're done with that one. Then another card pops up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So to go through the card deck that's available now, actually to set up the app, I was at Chick-fil-A.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I had told Chris that I was going to do this and of course I completely forgot.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So uhm, so I ordered on the Chick-fil-A app, and I go...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Get my food and I'm sitting there and while I'm eating my lunch.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I downloaded the app, did the registration with the permission slip app, and then I started going through the cards and ate my lunch while I was doing it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I had done the whole thing. It was so crazy easy where companies make it so hard for us to keep them from building these dossiers on us that who knows what they do with them. They may sell them off to third parties, whatever.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so you're taking back control because the law allows you to. Now, if I really go where I have no right to go, which I'll do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think Consumer Reports set this up because now they are developing a record of knowing which companies are failing to comply with various state laws that give you these privacy rights.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cause companies pretty much comply anywhere in the United States, even if you don't live in a state that has these privacy rights, cause they don't want to mess up and then get in trouble with lawsuits and fines and all that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Establish more privacy in your life, but they're also able to establish a record who's not complying. Just a guess. So guess what else happened this week?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We were in Maven last week. Uh, California.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] has a new right to be forgotten law that was just signed into law, like the European right to be forgotten.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the advantage of this, let's say somebody is being harassed online or there's stuff about them that's very uncomfortable, whatever. If you are a known public figure,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You don't have a right to privacy, but if you're just a person out there,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You have a right to be left alone and not have people doing whatever about you online.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the California law modeled after the one in Europe almost certainly will work nationally.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, the same reason, cause companies don't want to be in violation will allow you to say, wipe everything clear. So you could, you will in theory, California and automatically


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] People elsewhere, when the law takes effect, which may be January 1, trying to remember, it's January 1, whatever. Anyway, you will be able to say to Google or whoever, I want you to have nothing out there about me, period.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they'll have to wipe it clean. It's worked so well in Europe. And let's mention Google because they were the target.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of the right to be forgotten law in Europe, but it's turned out to have all kinds of applicability and so this thing where we feel like we've given up about our information being out there everywhere. We are piece by piece, bit by bit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Getting that control back and the failure of Washington where Washington doesn't seem to be able to do anything. The states are becoming the laboratories.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Bringing about change and because of the difficulty of complying.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Companies end up going with the most restrictive laws out there typically, even though they're not national laws.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is a brand new one that was just done. So you think it's already, you're right. Wow. Why would I ever question Chris?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I didn't think it went immediately into effect. Wow.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] See, I'm so much better than a sleeping pill. You don't get addicted to, to, like you could do a sleeping pill. No side effects. And I can put you right to sleep. It's great.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I hate callable CDs because it's like, we promise we're going to pay you this interest for this period of time. And then, oh, we were just kidding. Interest rates turn. So now that you can't get a good deal anymore, we're not going to offer it to you. So the,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Using brokerage place CDs is a very convenient, easy way to do it. But if these Schwab rates don't seem competitive when you put in non-callable as a choice,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Go look at other sources like Bankrate does a list of CDs of various lengths that they update all the time. One thing about Bankrate, they front load people who must pay them money to be front loaded.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Almost like advertorial listings. You could move past it to find the best rates on bank rate, but that would be a way that you'd be able to compare


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If what Schwab's offering non-callable is good or not, compared to what the best are in the marketplace.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, because the FTC has a very limited charter.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that's why they keep losing these lawsuits because the judges are so skeptical. I mean, where does it say you can do this, that, or the other or go after this, that, or the other? So the FTC has been, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In my opinion, wasting a lot of effort, a lot of money.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, a failure of the political process in the country that they were allowed to establish this unconscionable monopoly


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On the control of tickets at venues and events.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And there's no way you can make a monopolist behave. Look at the historical problems we've had with other monopolies that Congress allowed. Cable companies is an example. Oh, people really love cable companies, right.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So the problem is the discipline of the marketplace that comes with competition is what's missing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that really is the solution is to bust open the ticket selling monopoly that we have in the country. You're not going to be able to regulate the problems out of existence. The real solution.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is for Congress not to just have show hearings, but to bust up the monopoly that exists.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Times in history where monopolies have run wild and caused so many problems in society and it took a long time longer than it should have.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Ridiculous agreements that they enter into with venues and with promoters


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That caused so much harm to the American people, but, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That will, I'd say that's so far down the list of priorities that we need Washington to be working on, that we are going to suffer with Ticketmaster for a good while to come.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Gotta make sure that the check, uh, you're in New York.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Insurance is regulated by the state to make sure that that check from the insurance company doesn't settle the claim in full.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If the cost of repairing your vehicle turns out to be more costly,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then the amount the insurer estimates on the check, which is very common.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is this open-ended that if it does cost more, the insurer has to pay more? Or are you waiving your future rights to the amount you're really going to need to repair your vehicle?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Typically the endorsement on the check or the agreement you'll sign


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We'll make it clear whether or not you are waiving future rights to additional funds if necessary to make your car right.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you do not want to accept anything from them that restricts you receiving what it actually takes to make you whole.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Ironically, we hear far fewer questions.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] About parking lot mishaps for a simple reason.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Backup cameras and audible warnings that are now available when you back up. I was backing up in a parking lot just last night and somebody in another car


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just pulled right back and I went as quick as I could back because it was, I just said it hitting the horn. I went back into drive and pulled forward. They obviously didn't have a backup camera or didn't use it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But the good news is that those parking lot mishaps are so less frequent than they used to be.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because of the new technology and the cars coming up ahead, speaking of transportation, if you use Uber or Lyft, we need to talk about things you need to know about using them to get around. As I mentioned at the beginning of this podcast,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There are times I don't rent a car that I used to.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's because I'll do a calculation if I'm going to a place that's expensive to park a car, uhm, or the cost of the daily rental is very high. I'll then try to figure out


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'll go online and see what's it likely to cost for the various trips I'll have to make if I do Uber or Lyft. And you can do estimates at either of them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But the prices of Uber and Lyft are all over the place. And this is something that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they'll just go and see whatever Uber's charging. Well, I always check both and I strongly recommend checking both because I was at an airport last week and landed. I pulled up Uber.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it was $112 for the ride from the airport. And I was like, $112. All my math went out the window. I should have rented a car. So then I pulled up Lyft. Lyft was $46. I mean, think about that difference.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I do this every time I get in one, I check the price of both. And there's not really a clear pattern, which is cheaper. It just depends on the trip.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, one or the other will be trying to attract drivers, they'll 2X or 3X the rate.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then drivers come out of the woodwork and they, they take those trips. It, it is true capitalism at work. Uhm, but Lyft


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is in a bad way right now, suffering from a loss of market share and having a hard time attracting drivers.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And there's something else, Krista, you and I have both experienced with Lyft and that is a driver will accept the trip and then cancel.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then the next driver will accept the trip and cancel and it will happen with Uber, but it may be that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's not scientific, obviously, and it may be just a freak show, but my daughter was telling me, my middle child was telling me that she booked a lift and five drivers in a row canceled her. Five. And then she switched to Uber and booked a driver and they showed up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, it's hard to know why Lyft is having the problem with drivers continually canceling. Uhm, and again,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There seems to be a pattern there, and so Uber does seem to be more reliable, does have three quarters of the market.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But if lift ceases to exist.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, I guess I'm back to renting cars at that point because you get that monopoly and it's ugly. Oh, interesting thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That night I was at the airport that Uber was 112 and Lyft was 46. While I was waiting for the Lyft, there was a taxi stand.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because the entire time I was waiting, a taxi never came. That Uber and Lyft have so decimated the taxi industry.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That taxis have become in many places almost not a functioning part of the market.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well thank you so much for this and, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This budgeting sounds exactly like what you do, how you'll, you'll categorize and you'll use ways to come up with


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Money for something, and the money you come up with, that's the money you've got. And I love this, and Elaine, uhm, you,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Have come up with a method that means you don't go into debt at Christmas and whatever method works that keeps you from that January hangover that for many people will take till August of 24 to pay off this Christmas


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With the spending you do, and remember this, never forget this, it's full guilt trip. When we spend on Christmas, when we're out and about,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A lot of the spending we do is stuff for us.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because we're out there, we're out and about, we see something, we're tempted, we buy it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, so thank you for reminding me of that. So uhm, I talked recently about how retailers are very, very nervous about this Christmas. They front-loaded a lot of deals for, uh, during October and November.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, in recent years, Black Friday became instead of a weekend became the whole month of November.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This year is blood end October. In addition, retailers, uhm, are not buying as much stuff as manufacturers hoped they would.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Manufacturers now are lowering prices on so many items to try to get retailers to bring in more goods. This is a Christmas where for the first time in several years,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We're going to say, wow, instead of that much, we're going to be like, wow.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's, that's better than I expected. We see a lot of things like that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 700 bucks is, that's real money. I mean, that is serious money. And I'm so glad that you found out about invisible. That's what I call them because.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They, uh, Verizon marketing people can't shoot straight. But, uh, visible is a great deal.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's designed instead of you having to have a bunch of people, one person.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, T-Mobile has Metro by T-Mobile. AT&T has Cricket. They all have these multiple pricing models. In fact, Verizon has nine different discount brands for different segments of the market because there are people who want


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Particularly corporate types love being with AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile. They want the security of that big brand name. But those big brand names sell under a bunch of different brand names at much, much lower prices. Same network, same service.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And she digs deep. She doesn't take the PR fluff from any of these companies. She actually signs up for the service, sees what that's like, uses the service, makes sure the network is reliable.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She's doing a great job making sure that you can, with confidence, make a switch with your cell phone service and save big bucks.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, so, uh, my sympathies to her needing to buy a vehicle now, even though they're cheaper than they've been in a long time, vehicles are still expensive. Uh, cost of new vehicles has come down, uh, many thousands of dollars from the peak.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Use vehicles have been coming steadily down but still well above where they were pre-pandemic.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, that's right. Cars. Cars have come down in cost.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, do the car loan at a credit union. Car loans at credit unions are a real deal if your daughter has decent credit standing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She will get a better deal on that than she would using a graduate student loan to pay for the vehicle. Oh, for the car. It's gonna be hard for me to break that. No, it's okay, just say vehicle.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The best deal in the marketplace, depending on your daughter's driving patterns, is this is weird.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is a used electric vehicle right now. If her driving range is moderate to low.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, electric vehicle ranges have gotten so much wider, so much longer.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That older electric vehicles are wounded ducks in the use car market.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And she may be able to get quite a deal.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On a used older electric vehicle.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And when the marketplace heals, then she can dump that and get something at a more reasonable price than what the general car market is right now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I want to tell you, I so appreciate


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Your questions, your tips, your suggestions. We all work together as members of Team Clark to help each other save more and spend less and avoid getting ripped off. Have a great day.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's so great to have you here on the Clark Howard Show. Our mission is to serve you with knowledge that empowers you so you make better financial decisions in your life. In today's show, I want to tell you I've been trying out a new app that promises to delete


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So much of your digital footprint from lots and lots of places, lots of companies that love to have our information and use it or sell it off. I'm gonna tell you my experience with it and later


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Krista and I, uh, each travel a lot.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And there are a lot of cases now where I don't rent a car where I used to and I do Uber and Lyft. And there's some stuff you need to know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's becoming really clear with using Uber and Lyft that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For the reliability side of this, we're going to talk that through. So.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, I don't feel that way because I know our information is out there everywhere and everywhere it is, is another opportunity for an identity thief to try to have a field day as if they're us.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I know it's a game of whack-a-mole, but I play that game. And now it's gotten easier.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Potentially because of money that Consumer Reports has poured into an app called Permission Slip that you can download to your iPhone or Android and I downloaded it to my Samsung phone and I used the app


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] After I set it up, registered and all that, I use the app, which is a pretty automated thing that pops up like, uh, digital cards and it'll ask you, do you do business with blah blah blah? And if you say yes, then you go there and they give you choices.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where they automate things like, do you want them doing this with your information? Do you want them doing that? Or do you want them doing nothing? Do you have...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No desire to have them have any relationship with you at all. And so you click, you choose.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then you click a green button, at least on Android it was green button, and then you're done with that one. Then another card pops up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So to go through the card deck that's available now, actually to set up the app, I was at Chick-fil-A.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I had told Chris that I was going to do this and of course I completely forgot.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So uhm, so I ordered on the Chick-fil-A app, and I go...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Get my food and I'm sitting there and while I'm eating my lunch.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I downloaded the app, did the registration with the permission slip app, and then I started going through the cards and ate my lunch while I was doing it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I had done the whole thing. It was so crazy easy where companies make it so hard for us to keep them from building these dossiers on us that who knows what they do with them. They may sell them off to third parties, whatever.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so you're taking back control because the law allows you to. Now, if I really go where I have no right to go, which I'll do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think Consumer Reports set this up because now they are developing a record of knowing which companies are failing to comply with various state laws that give you these privacy rights.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cause companies pretty much comply anywhere in the United States, even if you don't live in a state that has these privacy rights, cause they don't want to mess up and then get in trouble with lawsuits and fines and all that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Establish more privacy in your life, but they're also able to establish a record who's not complying. Just a guess. So guess what else happened this week?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We were in Maven last week. Uh, California.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] has a new right to be forgotten law that was just signed into law, like the European right to be forgotten.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the advantage of this, let's say somebody is being harassed online or there's stuff about them that's very uncomfortable, whatever. If you are a known public figure,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You don't have a right to privacy, but if you're just a person out there,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You have a right to be left alone and not have people doing whatever about you online.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the California law modeled after the one in Europe almost certainly will work nationally.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, the same reason, cause companies don't want to be in violation will allow you to say, wipe everything clear. So you could, you will in theory, California and automatically


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] People elsewhere, when the law takes effect, which may be January 1, trying to remember, it's January 1, whatever. Anyway, you will be able to say to Google or whoever, I want you to have nothing out there about me, period.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they'll have to wipe it clean. It's worked so well in Europe. And let's mention Google because they were the target.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of the right to be forgotten law in Europe, but it's turned out to have all kinds of applicability and so this thing where we feel like we've given up about our information being out there everywhere. We are piece by piece, bit by bit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Getting that control back and the failure of Washington where Washington doesn't seem to be able to do anything. The states are becoming the laboratories.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Bringing about change and because of the difficulty of complying.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Companies end up going with the most restrictive laws out there typically, even though they're not national laws.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is a brand new one that was just done. So you think it's already, you're right. Wow. Why would I ever question Chris?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I didn't think it went immediately into effect. Wow.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] See, I'm so much better than a sleeping pill. You don't get addicted to, to, like you could do a sleeping pill. No side effects. And I can put you right to sleep. It's great.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I hate callable CDs because it's like, we promise we're going to pay you this interest for this period of time. And then, oh, we were just kidding. Interest rates turn. So now that you can't get a good deal anymore, we're not going to offer it to you. So the,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Using brokerage place CDs is a very convenient, easy way to do it. But if these Schwab rates don't seem competitive when you put in non-callable as a choice,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Go look at other sources like Bankrate does a list of CDs of various lengths that they update all the time. One thing about Bankrate, they front load people who must pay them money to be front loaded.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Almost like advertorial listings. You could move past it to find the best rates on bank rate, but that would be a way that you'd be able to compare


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If what Schwab's offering non-callable is good or not, compared to what the best are in the marketplace.


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[Assistant] Yeah, because the FTC has a very limited charter.


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[Assistant] And that's why they keep losing these lawsuits because the judges are so skeptical. I mean, where does it say you can do this, that, or the other or go after this, that, or the other? So the FTC has been, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In my opinion, wasting a lot of effort, a lot of money.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, a failure of the political process in the country that they were allowed to establish this unconscionable monopoly


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On the control of tickets at venues and events.


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[Assistant] And there's no way you can make a monopolist behave. Look at the historical problems we've had with other monopolies that Congress allowed. Cable companies is an example. Oh, people really love cable companies, right.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So the problem is the discipline of the marketplace that comes with competition is what's missing.


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[Assistant] And that really is the solution is to bust open the ticket selling monopoly that we have in the country. You're not going to be able to regulate the problems out of existence. The real solution.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is for Congress not to just have show hearings, but to bust up the monopoly that exists.


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[Assistant] Times in history where monopolies have run wild and caused so many problems in society and it took a long time longer than it should have.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Ridiculous agreements that they enter into with venues and with promoters


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[Assistant] That caused so much harm to the American people, but, uh,


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[Assistant] That will, I'd say that's so far down the list of priorities that we need Washington to be working on, that we are going to suffer with Ticketmaster for a good while to come.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Gotta make sure that the check, uh, you're in New York.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Insurance is regulated by the state to make sure that that check from the insurance company doesn't settle the claim in full.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If the cost of repairing your vehicle turns out to be more costly,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then the amount the insurer estimates on the check, which is very common.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is this open-ended that if it does cost more, the insurer has to pay more? Or are you waiving your future rights to the amount you're really going to need to repair your vehicle?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Typically the endorsement on the check or the agreement you'll sign


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We'll make it clear whether or not you are waiving future rights to additional funds if necessary to make your car right.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you do not want to accept anything from them that restricts you receiving what it actually takes to make you whole.


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[Assistant] Ironically, we hear far fewer questions.


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[Assistant] About parking lot mishaps for a simple reason.


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[Assistant] Backup cameras and audible warnings that are now available when you back up. I was backing up in a parking lot just last night and somebody in another car


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just pulled right back and I went as quick as I could back because it was, I just said it hitting the horn. I went back into drive and pulled forward. They obviously didn't have a backup camera or didn't use it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But the good news is that those parking lot mishaps are so less frequent than they used to be.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because of the new technology and the cars coming up ahead, speaking of transportation, if you use Uber or Lyft, we need to talk about things you need to know about using them to get around. As I mentioned at the beginning of this podcast,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There are times I don't rent a car that I used to.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's because I'll do a calculation if I'm going to a place that's expensive to park a car, uhm, or the cost of the daily rental is very high. I'll then try to figure out


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'll go online and see what's it likely to cost for the various trips I'll have to make if I do Uber or Lyft. And you can do estimates at either of them.


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[Assistant] But the prices of Uber and Lyft are all over the place. And this is something that


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[Assistant] And they'll just go and see whatever Uber's charging. Well, I always check both and I strongly recommend checking both because I was at an airport last week and landed. I pulled up Uber.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it was $112 for the ride from the airport. And I was like, $112. All my math went out the window. I should have rented a car. So then I pulled up Lyft. Lyft was $46. I mean, think about that difference.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I do this every time I get in one, I check the price of both. And there's not really a clear pattern, which is cheaper. It just depends on the trip.


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[Assistant] You know, one or the other will be trying to attract drivers, they'll 2X or 3X the rate.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then drivers come out of the woodwork and they, they take those trips. It, it is true capitalism at work. Uhm, but Lyft


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is in a bad way right now, suffering from a loss of market share and having a hard time attracting drivers.


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[Assistant] And there's something else, Krista, you and I have both experienced with Lyft and that is a driver will accept the trip and then cancel.


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[Assistant] And then the next driver will accept the trip and cancel and it will happen with Uber, but it may be that.


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[Assistant] It's not scientific, obviously, and it may be just a freak show, but my daughter was telling me, my middle child was telling me that she booked a lift and five drivers in a row canceled her. Five. And then she switched to Uber and booked a driver and they showed up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, it's hard to know why Lyft is having the problem with drivers continually canceling. Uhm, and again,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There seems to be a pattern there, and so Uber does seem to be more reliable, does have three quarters of the market.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But if lift ceases to exist.


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[Assistant] I mean, I guess I'm back to renting cars at that point because you get that monopoly and it's ugly. Oh, interesting thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That night I was at the airport that Uber was 112 and Lyft was 46. While I was waiting for the Lyft, there was a taxi stand.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because the entire time I was waiting, a taxi never came. That Uber and Lyft have so decimated the taxi industry.


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[Assistant] That taxis have become in many places almost not a functioning part of the market.


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[Assistant] Well thank you so much for this and, uh,


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[Assistant] This budgeting sounds exactly like what you do, how you'll, you'll categorize and you'll use ways to come up with


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Money for something, and the money you come up with, that's the money you've got. And I love this, and Elaine, uhm, you,


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[Assistant] Have come up with a method that means you don't go into debt at Christmas and whatever method works that keeps you from that January hangover that for many people will take till August of 24 to pay off this Christmas


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With the spending you do, and remember this, never forget this, it's full guilt trip. When we spend on Christmas, when we're out and about,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A lot of the spending we do is stuff for us.


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[Assistant] Because we're out there, we're out and about, we see something, we're tempted, we buy it.


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[Assistant] Yeah, so thank you for reminding me of that. So uhm, I talked recently about how retailers are very, very nervous about this Christmas. They front-loaded a lot of deals for, uh, during October and November.


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[Assistant] You know, in recent years, Black Friday became instead of a weekend became the whole month of November.


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[Assistant] This year is blood end October. In addition, retailers, uhm, are not buying as much stuff as manufacturers hoped they would.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Manufacturers now are lowering prices on so many items to try to get retailers to bring in more goods. This is a Christmas where for the first time in several years,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We're going to say, wow, instead of that much, we're going to be like, wow.


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[Assistant] That's, that's better than I expected. We see a lot of things like that.


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[Assistant] 700 bucks is, that's real money. I mean, that is serious money. And I'm so glad that you found out about invisible. That's what I call them because.


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[Assistant] They, uh, Verizon marketing people can't shoot straight. But, uh, visible is a great deal.


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[Assistant] It's designed instead of you having to have a bunch of people, one person.


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[Assistant] Uh, T-Mobile has Metro by T-Mobile. AT&T has Cricket. They all have these multiple pricing models. In fact, Verizon has nine different discount brands for different segments of the market because there are people who want


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Particularly corporate types love being with AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile. They want the security of that big brand name. But those big brand names sell under a bunch of different brand names at much, much lower prices. Same network, same service.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And she digs deep. She doesn't take the PR fluff from any of these companies. She actually signs up for the service, sees what that's like, uses the service, makes sure the network is reliable.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She's doing a great job making sure that you can, with confidence, make a switch with your cell phone service and save big bucks.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, so, uh, my sympathies to her needing to buy a vehicle now, even though they're cheaper than they've been in a long time, vehicles are still expensive. Uh, cost of new vehicles has come down, uh, many thousands of dollars from the peak.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Use vehicles have been coming steadily down but still well above where they were pre-pandemic.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, that's right. Cars. Cars have come down in cost.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, do the car loan at a credit union. Car loans at credit unions are a real deal if your daughter has decent credit standing.


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[Assistant] She will get a better deal on that than she would using a graduate student loan to pay for the vehicle. Oh, for the car. It's gonna be hard for me to break that. No, it's okay, just say vehicle.


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[Assistant] The best deal in the marketplace, depending on your daughter's driving patterns, is this is weird.


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[Assistant] Is a used electric vehicle right now. If her driving range is moderate to low.


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[Assistant] Uh, electric vehicle ranges have gotten so much wider, so much longer.


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[Assistant] That older electric vehicles are wounded ducks in the use car market.


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[Assistant] And she may be able to get quite a deal.


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[Assistant] On a used older electric vehicle.


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[Assistant] And when the marketplace heals, then she can dump that and get something at a more reasonable price than what the general car market is right now.


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[Assistant] And I want to tell you, I so appreciate


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Your questions, your tips, your suggestions. We all work together as members of Team Clark to help each other save more and spend less and avoid getting ripped off. Have a great day.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's my pleasure to welcome you here to the Clark Howard Show. You know, our mission is to serve you with info that empowers you to make better financial decisions in your life. And today I want to talk about the work from home thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And how that is shifting in some ways and not others. And later something came up in yesterday's podcast is making me, made me really think about something.


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[Assistant] And that's what are the fees that you're actually absorbing.


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[Assistant] In investments you make that can so affect your future financial security and dare I say wealth or lack thereof. We're going to talk about that. So the whole work from home thing became the thing for people who could do it during COVID. And there's been a lot of morphing with it.


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[Assistant] We've talked about some of the things employers have tried to do to either force or lure people back in the office. But as we're talking right now, there's been a real


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Somewhere around 15% of people overall.


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[Assistant] Work from home. I mean, obviously if you do factory work, if you are a service worker to live, you know, going to fix equipment or whatever, um, there's, there are so many jobs, uh, over the road truck driver. I mean, your office is on the road. There's so many things where,


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[Assistant] The nature of the work you do can't be from home. And listen to this.


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[Assistant] In states that are not office oriented, the number of people who,


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[Assistant] Do you know in Mississippi, according to Axios, only 5% of people lowest in the United States work from home. 95% have to go somewhere to work. But then in big.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, office oriented cultures, you know, big cities that have a lot of office workers. It's more like 30% of people are working from home.


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[Assistant] And that doesn't even get in the whole hybrid thing in the office environment with people working in the office two, three days a week and home other times. So I've got a lot of thoughts in this area. First, I do think that workers lose something working at home all the time. And what it is is I think you lose the connection with other people.


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[Assistant] I think there can be uh, actual loneliness that occurs from working at home.


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[Assistant] But then there are other situations where working at home is absolutely fantastic. Like someone who's got young kids and cutting that commuting time out.


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[Assistant] Makes, uh, your connection to your kids better and you got more time with them and you got time for work. And in a lot of cities, traffic is not as bad, especially early in the day, although it seems to be bad or worse than ever later in the day. Well,


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[Assistant] People are supposedly working at home or out doing whatever, but this is something that has been,


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[Assistant] A tough dilemma for employers and if you're a regular listener or a podcast, you know that we have, uh, people working for us all over the country on our websites. And when COVID hit, there was, we didn't miss a beat because we had already worked in a remote collaborative environment.


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[Assistant] And it's worked for us, it's worked for us very well, but you know what I worry about, Christa? I worry about, uh, somebody who's fresh out of school, comes to work for us and is not in that environment with other people that they can learn from, learn


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[Assistant] I was going to say, and where will we go on our next trip? It depends on what the.


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[Assistant] But I do worry about people in isolation. I mean, for so many things in society, I do worry about, uh, people not


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[Assistant] Working with others, rubbing shoulders with others, I think there's an advantage to that.


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[Assistant] Uh, for so many people, I mean think about people who are living all the way across the country from where their work is, and they're able to, in most cases, make it work.


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[Assistant] But it's definitely not going away. I know there were a lot of older.


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[Assistant] Owners of businesses that were like, I don't really believe people were working if I can see them with my own eyes. Yeah. Yeah. Got to get past that.


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[Assistant] Just registered in the last few weeks.


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[Assistant] That doesn't mean they're bad or anything. So there have been a number of attempts


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[Assistant] To have consignment arrangements, particularly for business to business sales, business to consumer, because people often in business, you're just trying to run your business and


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[Assistant] If you're having to deal with inquiries from people wanting to buy this, that, or the other. So that's led to these consignment organizations.


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[Assistant] That either physical consignment places that they have a lot and your, uh, industrial equipment, farm equipment.


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[Assistant] Uh, no way of knowing the only people paying are the, the people listing stuff with them. Pay a listing fee.


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[Assistant] The buyers, it's similar to what you'd have otherwise, except you're having this third party servicer handle the delivery for you. Uhm, the concept is just fine.


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[Assistant] It's all about execution and no way for me to know, no way for us to know.


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[Assistant] So there's, there's not enough for you to make a good decision. The idea is fine. Whether this particular consignment seller is okay. No way to know.


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[Assistant] And you're interested in doing medical courier. You want to chat up people who do it already, find out the pluses and minuses of doing it. Sometimes medical couriers, you're going to have to be out of town doing it.


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[Assistant] To being a medical courier, even to the point of doing time sensitive delivery of vital organs. I mean, there's so many different aspects to it.


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[Assistant] So there's no like blanket, this would be great to do or bad to do.


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[Assistant] So that's, you know, what's funny is that Chris just said that and I was thinking that because that's what we always say.


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[Assistant] About going into something that's tangential to what you've been doing.


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[Assistant] Go work for a company that does that, you'll find out pretty quickly, yeaah, this is for you, it's not for you, it's more lucrative, it's not more lucrative, but uhm, it is a potential


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[Assistant] Morphing opportunity for you from what you've already been doing.


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[Assistant] So Richard, the purpose of the umbrella is for everything going on in your life. And I don't know if you own a home, but usually the umbrella is when you own a home, you drive an automobile,


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[Assistant] And you have a variety of assets, what are called uncovered assets, where there's no money owed on them. So you got something that's a nice juicy target. If somebody was trying to hold you liable for something.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now it will be up to the company you have your


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[Assistant] Umbrella policy from your excess liability policy. If they have minimum triggers required and often they will say,


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[Assistant] You must first in order for the umbrella to be


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[Assistant] Uhm, to be in effect, you must have this much in liability coverage on your automobile policy, you must have this much in liability coverage on your homeowner's policy or any other thing you have, you have a boat, anything like that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Company you get the umbrella from if it's different than who.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Handles your auto insurance. You have to ask them that question first.


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[Assistant] And you can reduce down to whatever the minimum is.


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[Assistant] That they require for your umbrella to be in effect. If it's with the same company as your auto insurance is from, then it's pretty much automatic. They would say, Nope.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Can't lower that liability below this because you have the umbrella policy with us. Uhm, coming up ahead,


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[Assistant] Question yesterday triggered this today.


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[Assistant] And it's something that so often we look at as a mystery. What are we actually paying for the investments we have? And long haul, that's going to be key.


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[Assistant] To your future financial security, and that's coming straight ahead.


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[Assistant] It was a question I had yesterday that just mentioned in passing.


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[Assistant] That the fidelity investments target date funds were a ripoff with their fees. And I went into this long explanation about how


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[Assistant] Uh, Fidelity offered two different types of target date funds and one was terrible and one was good and blah blah blah blah blah.


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[Assistant] And you gotta look and see which you have under the hood.


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[Assistant] In the 401k plan, IRA, whatever you have with fidelity. And then that...


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[Assistant] Made me think about something I've read several times recently in financial publications. And that's how I was talking about how in the fidelity case, there's this index version of the target fund and there's the regular version. You want to always be in the index fund. But index funds generally in the marketplace are not created equal. There are a lot of companies ripping you off


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[Assistant] In an index fund. Let me start with what an index fund is because it should be the base for your investing for just general investing and for retirement that what you're up to is index funds because what an index fund is


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is it's where there's basically no professional manager say, Oh, I should absolutely buy this stock and that one and sell this one and that and all that. When an index fund is, is you just own little pieces of many, many, many companies.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My favorite, the total stock market index, which is where you own little pieces of many, many, many thousands of companies basically owning publicly traded American capitalism. I'm a big believer in international investing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, I own an international index fund as part of what I do and so basically an index fund


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is where you're just taking a pulse of the market. And you're very average.


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[Assistant] I'm very average. I just want to ride with the market. I don't want to be too cute.


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[Assistant] The most important thing is live on less than what you make, hold down the cost of investments and spread your money out. An index fund takes care of two and three. Number one is all you and me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Living on less than what you make so you have the money to invest. But just because I love index funds doesn't mean I love all index funds because


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[Assistant] Brokerage operations charge massively higher costs on index funds. Insurance companies that offer index funds


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[Assistant] Even worse than the bank based brokerage operations on charging ridiculously high fees on these funds. On the other hand


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[Assistant] If you go to my three favorite children, Vanguard, Fidelity and Schwab.


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[Assistant] You're going to pay teensy, tiny amounts, tiny, tiny management fees and no commissions for being an index funds. If you go in there, uh, close sibling exchange traded funds, which is where, where like an index fund trades like a stock, those can be even cheaper. And the big sellers of those,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You got Vanguard that's huge in that, but they're not even the biggest. There are others that are big in selling.


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[Assistant] The index funds. But this is something that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Selling the exchange traded funds. This is something we're paying attention to the expense ratio. You have to pay.


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[Assistant] Is one of the key parts of you creating longterm wealth.


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[Assistant] And I want to talk about a wealthy investor for a minute, because in the Wall Street Journal, they gave an example of the difference it makes how much money someone will have


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[Assistant] Going from a low cost portfolio to a higher cost portfolio and over the course of the years


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[Assistant] It is absolutely a stunner.


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[Assistant] What a difference it makes in how much money you have. So here's a $1 million account invested for 40 years going from


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A fee of whatever to half a point lower, like going from


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[Assistant] Uh, I'm sorry, going from a one percent fee, which people so often pay today when they go get outside advice to paying a typical index or ETF fee of five, one hundredths of one percent point zero five percent.


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[Assistant] That one million dollar account will end up with three hundred and seventy thousand more dollars.


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[Assistant] Over a working lifetime just by holding down those expenses. So you may think that


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[Assistant] These are that I'm worrying about pennies. No, I'm worrying about for you. Think about hitting retirement.


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[Assistant] And having hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars more just by paying attention to expenses. So here's your assignment in your 401k at work or the IRA you have, what are you paying in fees? What are those fees that you're absorbing? Find out because knowledge here is power. And if you're paying too much,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I want you to get those fees down, down, down. Cause there's no difference basically


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[Assistant] With a broad market index from one issuer to another to another.


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[Assistant] The only difference that matters is what you're paying in fees.


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[Assistant] That may work, but what I would say is that if you're in a crummy 401k plan, and the investment choices they offer are crummy,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You put into that 401k plan up to the employer match and then you do your own fantastic low cost Roth IRA.


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[Assistant] I'm glad that we're able to educate your dog as well.


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[Assistant] The business credit cards don't have the same protections under the law as a consumer card. But at the same time,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You are personally liable on that business card. So just get a good consumer card.


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[Assistant] That you can use for the expenses you have and you're not going to get the great


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sign up bonuses, but you don't have enough charge volume. Let's say at $5,000 a year that a lot of the, uh, fancy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Reward cards are not really going to be appropriate. Just get a simple one and a half or two percent cash back card.


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[Assistant] Again, there may be a sign up bonus that would be within reason on one of those. You can look at our list of cash back cards at Clark.com or at any site that does, uh, cash back card, uh, shows cash back card deals.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that would be the simpler way, since you're liable anyway, you just get that card, but you use it only for the rental property, only in that LLC.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you're big enough that you are, uh, need the type of card where you can have individual expense tracking for individual employees and you're giving out


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A significant number of these cards to different employees. That's when it makes sense.


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[Assistant] Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. What happened to the un-carrier?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What happened? John Ledger, come out of retirement, stop doing your cooking videos and come back and bring that magic back that T-Mobile used to have. Cause my son said recently, it was funny cause he said, dad,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What's the difference between T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon today? I said, there's no difference between them now. I mean, I think about when John Ledger was running T-Mobile and he called Verizon and AT&T dumb and dumber.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they were run like typical bureaucratic monoliths. And now all three of them are. That was the worst advice they could have given you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, so that, that completes the thought. Yes, T-Mobile, get your act together. You want to be better? Be better. Don't be like dumb and dumber. I guess we're gonna call them dumb, dumber and dumbest.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Jerry, your son's gonna buy a local sim in New Zealand.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A local SIM card. That's gonna be a service. Gotta make sure that the phone.


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[Assistant] That he's got with T-Mobile is unlocked. If necessary.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You'll either have to pay off the remainder of that contract so it's unlocked on the phone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or, he'll need a different phone to use in New Zealand.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because he's not going to want to use, in fact, you want to suspend the T-Mobile service for those six months he's in New Zealand.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cause he'll do a local sim, he'll be able to make calls and all that in New Zealand. He'll have data in New Zealand. This is how you do any extended stay.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then with you, he'll communicate either on the backbone of if your iPhone family, you'll do your communicating back and forth on I'm on iMessage and FaceTime and blah, blah, blah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you're a mixed family with Android and iPhone, you'll be using WhatsApp or Viber, those kind of apps, to do free calling, free video calling, all of that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is so easy and it'll be really easy for your son because most of what you need is data backbone. And so you want, he'll learn from


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[Assistant] His friends in the study abroad program, when he gets there, which is the best?


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[Assistant] Local Sem to have in New Zealand that he just pops into that phone for those six months and he's a really lucky guy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They do drive on the other side of the road. Australians generally drive much better than Americans. I've driven in Australia, uh, multiple cities, multiple times.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But Sydney, if your five nights are in Sydney, the public transit in Sydney is so incredibly great.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You will never need a car at any time in Sydney. Uh, the public transit is not confusing. In fact, before you go, you can download uh, public transit apps for Sydney.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You, you will at first maybe be a little disoriented.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It will be very easy. It's a much quicker way to get around Sydney than driving anyway. And they don't have to worry about parking a car, knowing what the boot and the bonnet is and all of that. And it'll be great.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Wonderful. I remember the first time I rented a car in Australia, I rented a stick shift. So the six shifts on the wrong side and I'm trying to drive and, uh, Oh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But it's a, it's a great thing to go to the South Pacific and go to, uh, what did they call? There's some term they call.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Australian, New Zealand, and combo. Whatever it is.


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[Assistant] So we got two wonderful adventures going on back to back there. And I want to tell you, we have lots of stuff for you.


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[Assistant] Other than this podcast, the audio or video version of the podcast, we have our websites and we have our free newsletters.


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[Assistant] And if you want more information coming to you in your email in basket for free, go to Clark.com slash newsletters. I want to make something clear to you. If you subscribe to one of our newsletters and you're like, this is a waste of time. We make it really easy for you to can us.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At the same time, I think you'll find really good advice in our newsletters at the best price of all, free. Hope you have a great day.


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[Assistant] Because on the Clark Howard show, we're about your empowerment with knowledge.


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[Assistant] So that you can make better financial decisions in your life. Today?


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[Assistant] We begin with my favorite segment every week. Clark stinks. Something else I think stinks potentially stinks Medicare advantage plans. And as it turns out.


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[Assistant] A lot of people who thought they were making a good choice later burns them really badly. I'm going to tell you what you need to know


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you, a friend or family member are approaching


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 65 where you have to make a key choice for your healthcare from the government moving forward. I'm going to tell you what you need to know, but right now it is time for Clark Stinks.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Brian, thank you. No doubt what you said is a part of the picture.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, unfortunately in jurisdictions also.


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[Assistant] Where there are tighter controls on.


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[Assistant] When, uh, shoplifting becomes a serious crime, the shoplifting is also a problem but, but, uh, there is no doubt


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Low dollar threshold shoplifting. It's led to a plague of it and.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is, I don't know what people were thinking about with this because


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That makes no sense at all to me. I'm a big believer in the broken windows theory of policing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which is when you tolerate low level crimes, it leads to crime creep in a city, a community, in an area.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Wes, I think there was some jest towards the firefighters, uh, and...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How should I say this? That I appreciate and feel gratitude to all first responders of various types and firefighters. It is true.


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[Assistant] It's somewhere, depending on the jurisdiction, 97 to 99% of calls are not fire related. But I want you to think about it. Who in their right mind,


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[Assistant] Has the courage to run into a burning building.


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[Assistant] Because even if it's 97% of the time, that means your number is going to come up where there's that burning building. And I am very impressed with the bravery of firefighters and of course, police officers as well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Greg, I still remember something very clearly when Aldi was newer in the United States. They first came but had not a lot of stores. They came I think in the


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Mid to late 70's maybe in the United States, but really only became part of the public consciousness in the last 20 years. And I remember I was at a, uh,


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[Assistant] Speech and book signing event in Raleigh, North Carolina. I don't know if you were at that event with me Krista.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Aldi came up, somebody was asking me how I felt about Aldi because they were new in that market. And I asked, well, how many of you have ever shopped at Aldi?


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[Assistant] And you know, huge number of hands went up cause they were, I mean, they were interested in a Clark Howard event. They're thrifty. And then I said, how many of you like Aldi?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And a much, much smaller number of hands went up. I mean, it is an acquired taste and obviously it's not for you, but I do love Aldi so much so that I wanted to name our dog Aldi, but on social media you voted me down. And so now it's Kirkland Signature.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sebastian, I am actually a T-Mobile customer. I recently returned from a trip overseas.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And as I have for years, I've used T-Mobile's international coverage, but now it's capped at 5 gigs of data for the time you're overseas. And someone who's trying to do a lot of work overseas will go through 5 gigs of data


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Probably before their trip is up and then T-Mobile at that point starts charging you, uh, really high.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Data rates if you choose to buy them from them, just like the outrageous rates from AT&T or Verizon. The good news.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With T-Mobile is they do see to you that five gigs of data, which my son who was with us on this trip,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Managed to go through five gigs of data and how long Krista? Five minutes.


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[Assistant] Oh, I thought I told you this, that he went through five gigs of data in 10 hours. I don't even know how that's possible.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right. The only company that offers unlimited data overseas is if you're with the, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Google Fi folks and Google Fi, your service works outside the United States, just like it works inside the United States. And if you're on an unlimited data plan in the United States, you have unlimited data overseas and who knows how long Google Fi will continue to offer it, but it's quite a deal.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Ryan, thank you. And you're, the thing you said was about what was going to come out of my mouth. And it's a hundred percent what I should have said at that time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You need to go meet with a CPA who does tax or an enrolled agent before you embark on something like that with a transition of a primary residence


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[Assistant] Being turned into a rental property temporarily. And there actually is a work around.


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[Assistant] That will preserve the greatest tax benefits, but that's why you go.


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[Assistant] To a CPA who does tax or an enrolled agent.


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[Assistant] But your explanation of three of the last five is exactly right.


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[Assistant] And in the scenario you gave, you're also right. There would be a 36 month cap on how long you could rent it.


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[Assistant] Philip, thank you. And although it varies by state, how much of what you end up paying.


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[Assistant] Run all those billboards and TV ads and all that. And I'm a big free speech guy.


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[Assistant] I hate that the Supreme Court said that lawyers were allowed to advertise because I think it has debased the legal profession.


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[Assistant] And has probably to some percent led to the increased cost of insurance. I certainly can't disagree with that. I couldn't put a number on it.


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[Assistant] On our podcast, which is tough because we're a family friendly show and it's tough to have cuss words on it. But these annuities, I believe are an exception.


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[Assistant] To what I normally say because an immediate annuity is one that allows you to create a equivalent to a pension of a lifetime stream of income.


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[Assistant] And then if you do the longevity annuity, it means you don't face a point in your older age.


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[Assistant] Where you run out of money before you run out of life. Yes, they are annuities but they are a very different thing.


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[Assistant] Then the index annuities are so heavily pushed and the variable annuities of various types and so I put them in a different category. Most


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[Assistant] Insurance agents don't want to sell these that I'm talking about because the commissions are so tiny.


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[Assistant] George, uhm, gosh, that's why we have on Clark.com the Capital One Venture X is one of the best cards you can get hands down if you like to travel.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I have that card. I pay the $395 annual fee.


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[Assistant] We have the additional family cards that you get for free, but you get the benefits. The card is, I know it's weird to say to someone who doesn't live in this kind of space.


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[Assistant] At some point, Capital One will get the number of customers.


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[Assistant] That their goal was, and then they're going to start pushing up the feet. Right now, hands down.


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[Assistant] Capital One Venture X is the best travel rewards card you can get, in my opinion.


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[Assistant] George, George is right. The 60,000 I normally talk about is connected to the airline cards, you know, if you become a captive of Delta American United, their cards.


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[Assistant] There are very few circumstances and the Capital One Venture X is absolutely an exception.


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[Assistant] Where if you travel even just a few times a year, you can make the Capital One Venture X work for you at net zero cost.


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[Assistant] The, the newsletter post that said that I had said Vanguard was based in Virginia. I was like, Oh, no.


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[Assistant] Correction. Correction and an apology. Uhm, I don't even know how that clerical error happened but whatever, uhm,


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[Assistant] From the customer service standpoint, they're very bad.


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[Assistant] Going on at Vanguard right now. So I apologize for our clerical error referring to them as being from another state bordering, uh, Maryland in Virginia. But anyway, uh, I, I tell you we try to avoid


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[Assistant] Errors because we never want to erode any of that trust you have with us and I just hate that happen.


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[Assistant] Is that it? That's it. Wow. More coming next week.


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[Assistant] Yeaah, we need more stinks. Maybe I just talk too much after the pose? Maybe.


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[Assistant] Okay, coming ahead, I'm going to tell you why all the pitches for Medicare Advantage pretty much stink.


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[Assistant] And you need to know what that is and you need to know what to be on the lookout for.


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[Assistant] I got a key warning for you if you are approaching age 65 or if you are someone with a family member or friend.


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[Assistant] Maybe a parent who's coming up on 65. Needed to give him a warning as clear as day.


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[Assistant] That their mailbox, traditional mailbox, the kind you go and they send postal service, deliver stuff, will be overrun with a volume of mail that I don't even know how many trees it takes out when someone's approaching age 65.


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[Assistant] They're going to get strong armed with pitches trying to get you to not go into traditional Medicare and instead go into something that's a hybrid, a private public thing called Medicare Advantage.


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[Assistant] Keep this in your mind. I call it Medicare disadvantage.


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[Assistant] Because Medicare Advantage plans will be pitched as they are the greatest thing ever that has ever happened in your life. And they're trying to lock you in, hook you in.


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[Assistant] When you turn 65. Because it is Hotel California. You can check out, but you never leave.


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[Assistant] Once you've gone into one of these Medicare Advantage plans, here's the story.


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[Assistant] If you go into a Medicare Advantage plan when you turn 65, whatever illnesses you have, they have to cover them.


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[Assistant] But once you're in, and let's say you develop some kind of illness or whatever, you're their prisoner and they can


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[Assistant] Really degrade the benefits over time and you're still their prisoner because nobody else wants you anymore.


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[Assistant] And the overwhelming number of people who go into an advantage plan tell pollsters that they're happy. I saw an item recently in Kiplinger that 70%


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[Assistant] of advantage plan members are glad they went into it. Okay, but I want you to think about that. 30% of people being in something that could be life and death.


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[Assistant] Regret the decision they made and they can't get out?


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[Assistant] I mean, it'd be fine with Medicare Advantage if you could bolt on them, but that requires states of which only a handful have the right for you to get out and go into somebody else regardless of pre-existing condition.


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[Assistant] But see the trap that these advantage plans set in most states that you can't get around is that once you're in,


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[Assistant] You're stuck because nobody else is going to take you as you age because you may have this wrong with you, that wrong with the other wrong with you. With traditional Medicare,


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[Assistant] You choose who you see, what care you get, and the rest. You go into an advantage plan. They tell you who you can see, when they're going to cover this, when they're going to cover that.


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[Assistant] The worst is if you end up with a really bad disease, let's say a form of cancer, and they don't have any facility or oncologist in the plan,


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[Assistant] That are considered to be good or cutting edge or whatever. If you wanna go get good care.


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[Assistant] You should be, not have to worry about this loophole where states, most states have not done anything about this, that you are permanently imprisoned.


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[Assistant] Like people go into regular Medicare, which is roughly, I think, 50-60% of people are in regular Medicare.


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[Assistant] Because then you've got to buy what's known as a Metagap policy, which you're having to pay a monthly premium for that covers expenses that Medicare itself doesn't pay for. Metagap plans aren't cheap, but you retain your freedom. So something did go wrong with you and you needed to see


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or wanted to see this specialist or go to this hospital or this cutting edge cancer center or whatever, you're able to make that choice. But if you're in an advantage plan, you can't.


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[Assistant] And so for these reasons, that's why I call them disadvantage plans. And by the way, every time I talk about this, we get a huge number of posts from people who love their advantage plan and are happy they're in. And I think that's great. And I'm glad you're there.


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[Assistant] But the lack of portability, the lack of mobility is a marketplace flaw with how the program is set up and the way the law works. And so if you had that portability and you wanted to go into an advantage plan, great, but have something that could be life and death and 30% of people wish they weren't in it, that's a problem.


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[Assistant] Yeah, isn't that weird? You could have a long time relationship with a medical office, a dental office, whatever, and you go in there and they know who you are.


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[Assistant] In order to get reimbursement from whatever dental insurance you have to be able to prove they have a valid government ID.


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[Assistant] And driver's licenses, those, those devices, they have it all doctors and dentists offices now, uh, digitally record the front and the back. And if they don't do that and for whatever reason, somebody says, no, that wasn't me, whatever. They can't provide that driver's license or other form of government ID. They don't get the insurance reimbursement. So that's why it's going on.


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[Assistant] For the oops that occur as a homeowner. So what do you do now? First let me give a suggestion to others.


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[Assistant] Whenever you are doing customer no service with a warranty company,


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[Assistant] Usually you can do some kind of chat or text. You always want that digital record and if they don't let you store that, take a picture of the chat so that later when they say, oh we didn't authorize that, you have that right there. A phone call, you got nothing.


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[Assistant] And this is a constant refrain with the warranty companies. They do the rope a dope. You try to get


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[Assistant] Hire your own person and get reimbursed, but you have no proof of that. What do you do now? File a complaint because all these warranty companies have a license with your state insurance department. You're in California.


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[Assistant] California's insurance department is one with real teeth. You file a complaint against the warranty company and then they will send on an insurance commissioner inquiry to the warranty company and I can't guarantee you it will get it paid.


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[Assistant] But it will improve the odds. But remember this.


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[Assistant] Home warranties, if you got lucky and had a home warranty company that actually paid your claim,


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[Assistant] Here's what you should do. When there's a big lottery jackpot, you go buy a ticket because you're as lucky as somebody who wins a billion dollars in one of those big gamey powerball-y things.


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[Assistant] It'll be in your own account and you will have that money working for you, not for them making false promises to you.


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[Assistant] Bob, uh, first of all, if you have family or friends in Hawaii that were affected by the Maui fires, I want you to know you have my sympathies and I hope that everyone who has been dislocated


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We'll find our way back to some stability and permanency in their lives. Uhm, on the issue of the much happier topic, your daughter's wedding, I have a real bias here.


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[Assistant] And that is the only check you should write is whatever amount you have decided


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[Assistant] As a couple, you're going to fund the wedding for whatever amount of dollars that is and give that in one check to your daughter and let her and her intended figure out how they want to spend that money.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They spend less than whatever it is you've intended for cause you're creating a marketplace incentive for them to spend less. Then they got money for, uh, setting up their new lives together, a down payment towards a house or whatever. If they want to spend more than what you've decided would be the amount


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then that comes out of the couples.


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[Assistant] Funds. The idea is so often with a wedding,


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[Assistant] Tensions and conflicts that arise between parent and child over the cost of this for a wedding or that for the wedding or the other for the wedding. So I would like for you to write that check and stay out of it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I promise it leads to much more family harmony. My oldest, I only have one child who's married and we did this for her and gave her and her, uh, now husband set amount of money.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They ended up doing a wedding for a third of that cost and used all that money towards down payment for their home. Everybody's got their own values about how they want to do it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But that inevitable conflict between parent and child.


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[Assistant] That's why I would just do the cash. Now, as far as how to pay for things, even if you have to pay extra paying deposits and things like that on a credit card, they should do that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, Christa has told the story over the years many times about how her wedding photographer went poof. She has no pictures of her wedding at all. Uh, and it's because, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But wedding deposit should be paid by credit card even if they charge you 3% extra. Because there are some protections.


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[Assistant] That you have for failure to deliver goods and services that are not ironclad, but you pay deposits with Venmo, you pay with cash in different ways, you pay with the check, you got no rights at all. So that's why the credit card is so valuable.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, because, I mean, you've even painted that space at your house with Amazon's logo since the truck is in your house every day, so you should be taking advantage of all the prime benefits.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, I want to thank you for being with us today and I want to tell you the post here from Jana about giving more information about how to, uh, leverage the membership


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And Amazon get free reading and all that. That's exactly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What being a member of team Clark is about. We all help each other. We all learn from each other. And with the Clark Stinks segment earlier this podcast, why do I love Clark Stinks so much? Because it's normal for someone to become a creature of habit and, and their, their mind just narrow over time. And what Clark Stinks does is it's kind of like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, uh, wake up therapy for me. It gets me thinking wider, thinking of angles. I didn't think about improving on what I can do.


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[Assistant] Taking the time, even when I've made you so mad, like sometimes when you write the card, six, I can tell you're really, really upset with me and I want to thank you.


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[Assistant] For in that moment, taking the time to share what you felt and what you think, because we all help each other in life. We either all benefit from working together in life or we lose something when we live in an isolated bubble.


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[Assistant] And that's not our thing. We want us all to work as one team. And I hope you have an absolutely great weekend and whoever your team is, I hope that when toe meets leather,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This weekend that your team is victorious, whether it's NFL or that inferior thing you love, Krista, college football. See you next week.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's so wonderful to have you here on the Clark Howard show because I love what we're able to do together. I want to serve you. I want to empower you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Why? Because I want you to be in a position to take more control of financial decisions in your life. And there's a trend I want to talk about that you may want to consider if you're near or in retirement age and that's going back to school. I know that's weird.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I want to tell you why it might be a neat thing to do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm also going to talk about something that used to be popular, then wasn't for a long time. And now there's a lot more buzz about it. It's renting to own a home.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I want to tell you the opportunity and the hazards that that presents. So going back to college late in life or at retirement, um, I have a friend who


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is going back to school to grad school.


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[Assistant] She's very late in career, still working but very late in career and is so excited about it and is getting a skill that will help her employer and benefit her. And it's neat because


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's an opportunity to expand your mind.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I want to talk about what if your past late career, you, you were semi-retired or retired. In a lot of states, you can go to state schools.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For free or nearly free, if you're past your 60th, 62nd or 65th birthday, and it varies by state if they offer one of these programs, and keep your mind stimulated. You know, one of the most important things is to have interests


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Particularly when you're not going to work every day. The people who can't wait to retire.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then think they're just going to play golf every day. That gets old really quickly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so doing things that keep you active, that keep you thinking.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Whatever it is and there are all these stories in medical research about how you can, uh, improve your mental acuity and stave off the possibility of, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Progressing dementia or Alzheimer's or whatever by keeping your mind extra, extra active and whatever that is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Learning a new skill, uh, going to college, it can be so many different kind of things, but that keep your mind going strong.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is really, really important sitting around sedentary.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As you age will make you age quicker.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just sitting there watching video content.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We'll do the opposite of simulating your brain. You become a bit of a zombie.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sitting there consuming video content all day. So, this is a trend.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That I'm excited about, you know, universities are all over this right now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Coming up with whatever program they can to attract, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] People who are late career or retirees because they're all short of students and only in the state schools do they have the free or reduced rate tuition based on age. So you'll find a lot of traditional universities.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Are making active efforts where in the past they wouldn't have been interested in older students. Now they're like, yeah, let's have them. I've even seen some advertising now that's very heavily tilted towards mid career people trying to get them back into the classroom.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At the dorm type apartment they built at Arizona State University in Tempe.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For, uh, senior citizens. And when my son and I were there visiting the flight school at Arizona State, we went by. It just happened by.