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[Assistant] And I want you to know that if we didn't get to your question today, go check out our incredible up to the minute resources at Clark.com and you also have the ability to get


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[Assistant] Free one-on-one advice from a member of Team Clark.


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[Assistant] Something we've been doing now for just short of 30 years and


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[Assistant] If you want that free advice, go to Clark.com slash CAC.


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[Assistant] To see how it works, or you can call 636-49-CLARK and we're available for one on one advice, 30 hours each week. Have a great day.


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[Assistant] Okay, we've got something about gas prices from David in Texas here. Much commentary is devoted to high gasoline prices, but I believe gas prices are cheap.


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[Assistant] Why? I see gas being wasted every day and all the time.


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[Assistant] Each time I walk across a parking lot, someone is running the engine while their car is stationary.


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[Assistant] Playing on their cell phone or keeping the AC going instead of going into the store or office building. People also pick up their mail, group mailboxes and read it there while the engine runs.


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[Assistant] And instead they could read their mail at home 50 yards away. This is not, this not only wastes money, it also helps fill the air with greenhouse gas fumes. This also happens at fast food drive through lanes, but those lanes became necessary for public health reasons during the pandemic.


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[Assistant] I just believe that engines should not be running unless the car is moving. Clark, I know this is more of a comment than a question, but why can't there be more awareness of the environmental harm and loss of money when this happens?


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[Assistant] No, I was looking at news stories to see if I could find the one, but I mean, every, it looks like every city's stories about, about car thefts being up, the car left running is the big issue. I've definitely heard.


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[Assistant] This is from Lieutenant Colonel John in Washington. Captain Clark, thanks for the Clark, to the Clark team on a lifetime of great advice that we use every day. We're taking our first trip to Australia and plan to rent a car for part of the time. We have USAA insurance, which we love, but when I called to check if Australia is covered for rental cars, they said it is not. Who should we look at for short-term rental car insurance while there?


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[Assistant] However, I have recently heard discussions that the federal tax credit may not be extended or may be drastically reduced. In addition, I expect car loan interest rates to be higher than they are now. With that said, do you think it would be better to move forward with an electric car purchase now or still wait the 12 to 18 months?


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[Assistant] Alright, we'll go to some questions. This is from Shay in Kentucky. I'm fortunate enough to be in a career that has a pension. I started as a special education teacher, just talking about teachers, at 23 years old. Wow. I'm entering year 19 this fall.


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[Assistant] I'll be eligible for full pension when I'm 50 and I will nearly be tripled if I work until I'm 55 due to actuarial math.


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[Assistant] And this is from Mark in California. I'm in my late 40s and have a decent job running a very small non-profit, but I feel stuck.


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[Assistant] I would like to make a switch, but I don't know what to do. I feel like I'm running out of time. I was placed here out of college and I never left. As a Clark aficionado, of course I am frugal and have a decent 401k plus separate retirement and only have mortgage debt.


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[Assistant] So I could take a lower paying job if there was something that spoke to me. Do you have a resource that you would recommend that would help somebody determine their passion or best life path? I have a lot of interests, but there is not one that sticks out to me. I feel a little lost and thus never take any action.


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[Assistant] Take someone out to coffee or see if they can give you a half hour of their time.


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[Assistant] And I have not been happy working with him. I contribute a large sum monthly and also receive a company match but feel trapped using this brokerage and advisor when I'd rather self-direct.


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[Assistant] What is the best way around using this expensive brokerage? I've pleaded several times to switch to a low cost provider like Vanguard.


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[Assistant] Rachel, you may have said this, uhm, she should, do you think she should still contribute up to the match though?


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[Assistant] We're still trying to figure out what to do between solar and, I know, we need to do something. Cause it takes forever to get them still.


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[Assistant] This is from Manuel in Florida. Would you advise homeowners to cancel their home insurance policy soon after the house is paid for?


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[Assistant] The first fiduciary she talked to was from an insurance company.


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[Assistant] This person was hard selling annuities and whole life insurance for both her and her two small children.


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[Assistant] I think your listeners should be very wary of selecting a fiduciary.


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[Assistant] Also allows additional contributions, something known as the mega backdoor Roth.


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[Assistant] Would it be better for me to contribute my $6,000 through that method instead of the Roth IRA? Thank you for keeping my commute educational.


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[Assistant] We are considering purchasing a place which we will use for three years.


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[Assistant] And then likely rent out for an additional two years minimum. We have the money to purchase and at current interest rates we would come out ahead by purchasing.


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[Assistant] Since 2019, if the housing market crashes due to increased interest rates, will rent prices increase?


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[Assistant] From Karen in Nebraska, my son is a freshman in college and received approximately $8,000 from a tuition reimbursement program.


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[Assistant] With the current economy, would it be wise to park it in his 529 until the fall?


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[Assistant] Thank you for the service you provide. I have successfully used your advice many times. I manage a school kitchen and I am a single mom.


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[Assistant] The gig work allows me to keep this job while still being able to take my at-home kids to school and spend summers with them. And yesterday, I just bought my first iBond.


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[Assistant] Oh, sorry. I thought you looked it up. I can't even read this. It's so tiny. I was trying to find it.


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[Assistant] I also want to mention with the I bonds, we've had a lot of complaints I didn't get to get to, but I didn't get to read, but about the treasury website, how bad it is and if you get locked out.


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[Assistant] This actually happened to me too, but I had three people write in this week that they got locked out of their account.


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[Assistant] And you have to call on the phone and you're in at least a two hour wait if not longer. So it's, their website can have a lot of issues.


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[Assistant] I'm selling my rental house likely to the tenant. Do I need a realtor or attorney or can I, the title company handle everything? I plan to carry the mortgage myself to avoid a large tax bill.


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[Assistant] So I gotta talk about buy now, pay later. Or what's known in the industry as pay in four. There are new developments with pay in four that I want you to know so that you protect yourself moving forward. And I want to talk about medical debt. Medical debt


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[Assistant] Has become shocking because medical debt's been a problem for a while. It's becoming an even bigger problem in the U.S. And I'm sorry I sound so negative today. So let me talk about something positive.


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[Assistant] The unbelievable quality of the writers.


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[Assistant] That we are privileged to have to serve you at Clark.com. People who


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[Assistant] Uh, half thought out product. We make sure that what we submit to you is stuff that is thoroughly researched.


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[Assistant] And is designed to be of service to you first, last, and always. And you should check out our newsletters at Clark.com slash newsletters so you can see what we've got going on.


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[Assistant] For you day by day and subscribe if you wish and if it bores you unsubscribe later, right? But I think you'll find that it really empowers you. So,


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[Assistant] I've talked about a firm and the different pay in fours for a while and the problems people are having that a third of people that are at a register or online are stretching payments out. Many times they'll say no interest for easy payments. And then life happens and people don't make a payment.


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[Assistant] And now more and more that's being reported to credit bureaus and can really hurt you. Well, now I've seen two reports about a problem I never thought about.


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[Assistant] Okay, so you buy something on a buy now pay later, a pay in four and for whatever reason you need to return it or it comes broken or whatever. Well, how do you get your money back?


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[Assistant] So with a credit card, it's pretty easy, right? You don't get a credit, you dispute it. How in the world do you do it with PayIn4?


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[Assistant] Well, one of the stories I read, and I don't remember where, but it was really, I mean, just, it would make you tear your hair out, pull your hair out because the retailers,


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[Assistant] So, here you are, they're coming in, they're pulling money out of your checking account.


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[Assistant] Every two weeks or whatever it is, and you don't even have the item!


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[Assistant] You may have returned the item, or it never showed up, or it's broken, or whatever, and they're still taking your money!


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[Assistant] And you're contacting the retailer, and they say, oh, the money needs to come back from the pay in four, and you're contacting the pay in four, and they say, oh, the retailer's gotta do this, that, or the other, or the refund comes from them. All you know is you're out your money, you got nothing for it.


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[Assistant] Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is trying to figure out what rules, regulations, requirements to impose on the paying for industry. But in the meantime, you're left holding the bag, owing money for something you don't even have or doesn't work. Wow.


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[Assistant] I mean it's a mess. Imagine you buy an item of clothing, you take it home, you try it on, it doesn't fit.


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[Assistant] Normally, you pay by cash, you pay by credit card, you pay by debit card, you go back with the item.


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[Assistant] They give you your money back, right? Or they kill the charge, give you credit, whatever it is, right? How does it work with pay in four? You take it back.


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[Assistant] And you still are being billed for the four payments. This is nuts! I know it's so easy.


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[Assistant] And you know, Apple was like, hey, this is great. We're going to do this too. Why is Apple doing it? Well, because Apple is a premium price product.


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[Assistant] And there are a lot of people who want to have the latest this that or the other Apple, and they can't afford it. They just don't have the money to pay whatever.


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[Assistant] So Apple giving you buy now pay later.


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[Assistant] And it's their own thing, so they're not relying on some third party financial institution to approve you for a risk, for credit risk. Apple's just taking it on because they want to get their merchandise sold.


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[Assistant] So if they're trying to sell you the new MacBook with the M2 chip.


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[Assistant] And right now you got an M1 chip, and you're like, well now the new thing's the M2 chip, so I gotta have the M2, because that's the cool thing.


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[Assistant] Well, what if you don't have the money to go from the M1 to the M2? Oh, no problem. We're going to just let you pay it over time. Know that this is the whole purpose.


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[Assistant] of the whole buy now pay later or paying for business is to get you to make buying decisions


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[Assistant] Oh, I don't have to worry about it. I only have to come up with this much money. Not that much money.


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[Assistant] And we trick ourselves to thinking we're going to be okay and we're going to be able to pay for it. Do not fall for it. And obviously eventually,


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[Assistant] You know, the lawsuits will come or the feds will crack down on them or whatever. And the problem with the returns and the broken stuff and the undelivered stuff, that'll be fixed. But in the meantime, it's a fix is a mess for you. So these things are too hot to handle.


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[Assistant] When you get to that register and they say, would you like to pay over time?


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[Assistant] Or you're online and you're shopping, they say, would you like to pay over time?


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[Assistant] You want to buy an airline ticket over time? You want to pay for anything over time? The answer is no, no, no, no.


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[Assistant] Okay, I can't believe I'm going to say this. Using a credit card when you don't have the money is a better choice than using a buy now pay later or a pay in for app or a payment service. Enough said. Krista?


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[Assistant] Chad, that is a current, uhm, I'd say that that is a...


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[Assistant] Learned, learned, is that the term? Learned legal theory. I don't know that that has stood the test of time, but it is an additional potential protection. When you tie in a Venmo payment to a credit card, you're paying essentially for that insurance because you're typically going to pay 3% on their credit card merchant fees.


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[Assistant] And it is looked at as kind of a form of insurance when you're paying someone who's not a family member or friend. I stick though with what I've said over the years is that using Venmo or CashApp


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[Assistant] Well thought out enough and safe enough for a consumer to use to pay bills to strangers. And by the way, my favorite whipping boy.


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[Assistant] They still haven't responded to any of my offers for the Zell people to go on the podcast.


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[Assistant] And boy, I've been hard on Zell on TV too. Anyway, uh, there's more stuff going on with Zell that's really bad, ugly, and you need to shut down Zell on your checking account


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[Assistant] So Greg, you're in a bit of a bind right now, because your 3.375% loan is so awesome. But, uh, she is on the mortgage with you.


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[Assistant] So if she were calling, I'd say, hey, you need to make sure that's refinanced so you're not on the hook. However, if she will let you keep that mortgage in place, you don't want to give that up and have to go from 3.375 up to, uh, nearly 6%.


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[Assistant] It's a huge additional cost to you. Plus, you need additional money out to pay her. If she will allow the existing first mortgage to remain, you're thinking on the right basis, looking potentially at a HELOC,


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[Assistant] For the additional money you need to buy her out, if you have enough equity in the home, or looking at a credit union product known as a home equity loan.


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[Assistant] Home equity loan and they tell you, most credit unions will tell you on their website, you need to borrow on a HELOC or a home equity loan up to 70% of value, 80% of value, 85%, 90%. They'll tell you what the rate is you'll have to pay.


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[Assistant] Before getting that either HELOC money or the home equity loan. The home equity loan money, if I didn't say


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[Assistant] It tends to be for three cycles, either five year, ten year, or fifteen year at fixed rates. The HELOC is a loan granted for a period of time.


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[Assistant] On the money you needed for the buyout, but you'd be able to preserve the main borrowing


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[Assistant] On the 3.375, which is where you really want to try to be. Otherwise, you do have to do a cash out refi if she will not agree to allow that original first mortgage to remain in place.


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[Assistant] Yeah, so Costco's membership rules prohibit you from giving your card to someone else knowingly.


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[Assistant] And it's not just at the gas. They don't want somebody coming inside who you've lent your card to, who turns out to maybe have sticky fingers and they're shoplifting or whatever. They want to know who their members are. And also Costco lives off the membership fees. You know, they run the business as a break even.


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[Assistant] And all the profit each year for Costco pretty much is from the membership fees. So there are clear prohibitions against it. But you realize though the real danger at


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[Assistant] Gas prices are so high, most people have...


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[Assistant] Most Costco members have the 2-in-1 card that's the credit card and the membership card and you tap it at the pump and then you're charged for that person's gas. So on all different levels.


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[Assistant] I don't like this, and I think you did the right thing by, uh, I know this sounds bad, the right thing by not helping somebody else? Yeah, I think it was the right thing.


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[Assistant] So I was at Sam's Club the other day, and it was a deal we had on Clark Deals, where you could join Sam's Club for $45, get $45 back. It wasn't exclusive to us, it was a deal that a lot of people had written about.


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[Assistant] So I, I can't figure out what's going on. There's this line of people out into the parking lot at Sam's. I'm like, what is going on? What's in short supply that people are in this giant line


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[Assistant] To get into Sam's, and then I realized they had two lines. One for members to go on in. And then I asked, what's this other line for? And she said it's for people buying the membership deal. And I'm like, oh my goodness. Now, I don't think you would have ever stood in that line, Crystal.


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[Assistant] Is, uh, is something that they try to get you in because once you're in, maybe you stay in and, uh.


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[Assistant] Costco is more expensive than Sam's to join, and when they offer a membership deal, it's not that much of a deal off the membership, because again, they make all their money from those membership fees. Now let's talk money.


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[Assistant] Medical debts. Medical debts are just bruising people's lives so badly. And they're even causing people who are trying to recover from something so much stress. We gotta talk about this.


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[Assistant] We've heard about people with medical debt forever, and when you think about how bad the problem's gotten,


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[Assistant] With what's been going on with the hospital systems in major urban areas of the United States.


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[Assistant] Now have medical debt that's messing up their lives. Because the laws in a number of states, the hospitals are being


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[Assistant] Uh, taking away their car, any of their possessions. I mean, it's unreal. The hospitals have become very powerful lobbying organizations and states. And so, what's going on in America?


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[Assistant] Is hospitals realized there was not an advantage to being a nationwide player.


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[Assistant] To having hospitals all over America. But what was valuable was to become a dominant force in a metro area. So in city after city after city, hospitals are playing a modern version of monopoly.


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[Assistant] And they're buying up their competitors.


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[Assistant] In a metro area, in the biggest metro areas, they're buying up more than a dozen of their competitors.


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[Assistant] And so you're ending up in large metro areas typically with two to four


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[Assistant] To raise prices to a phenomenal amount and use the medical practices as feeders into other parts of the hospital system.


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[Assistant] Then you add on top of it that hospitals have defied federal law and not issued clear price lists as required by Congress because they don't want people shopping around.


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[Assistant] You gotta know this is how the game is played. And that's how we've ended up with over a hundred million Americans.


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[Assistant] Having their lives crushed by medical debt, and here's the irony of it.


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[Assistant] I don't know the exact percent, but a big percent of those are people who actually have health insurance, not people who don't have health insurance because of all the out of pocket. So if you are someone who has a medical condition,


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[Assistant] But it is not life and death emergency urgent to that moment.


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[Assistant] You gotta know that this is how it plays. This is how it works.


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[Assistant] And your responsibility is to shop around whether you have health coverage or you don't.


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[Assistant] You've got to shop around because the price differences are so huge from one place to another, one facility to another, and in particular, going to independent facilities. I've talked for years about why


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[Assistant] Any diagnostic testing, the hospitals mark them up five to fifteen times what you could call street price. Where you could go in with cash.


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[Assistant] And pay less than your share out of pocket of being on insurance is what you would pay at a hospital. And it's just one example.


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[Assistant] Of where these, uh, in many markets, they're shared monopolies, often of two major hospital systems. Some markets, again, will have three or four. But the idea is they're all playing the same game.


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[Assistant] They're trying to, uh, squeeze insurance companies in negotiations. Costs then are shifted to you. And if you don't have insurance, man, it's unreal.


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[Assistant] The other thing is that if you are treated for an emergency or any other thing at a non-profit hospital,


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[Assistant] What the hospitals do is they don't even talk to you about the charity care that they're required to offer. They instead turn you over to a collector to come eat you up.


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[Assistant] These hospital systems, the non-profits have and see they're, they're doing the non-profit thing so they can pay their administrators five or ten million dollars a year and pay


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[Assistant] The thing you should do is the hospitals have what are known as patient advocates.


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[Assistant] Or ombudsman or something like that. You go to them and you say, Hey, here's the deal. I'm broke. What can we do here?


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[Assistant] But the most important thing is when it's not an emergency.


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[Assistant] Not avoid care, which can be even more deadly to you. I mean, it can cost you your life.


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[Assistant] More deadly. I want you to make sure you are protecting yourself.


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[Assistant] Afterwards, because the stress of later having your life ruined financially.


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[Assistant] Because you never knew the hospital was going to charge you $140,000 for something that might be $15,000 somewhere else. It's your job when it's not an imminent life and death emergency.


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[Assistant] To do the hard digging, to do the hard work, to shop around and see what alternatives are available. Because the cavalry is not riding to your rescue. But remember, anytime it's a non-profit hospital, they have a duty to the community and to you if you don't have the money to


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[Assistant] Work out something with you other than trying to destroy your life financially. Krista?


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[Assistant] It will not because money you have in a retirement account does not count anywhere I've ever seen in your qualification for financial aid. That is not considered to be


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[Assistant] An asset that can be used for, uhm, eligible college expenses because that money is specifically segregated and set aside for retirement.


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[Assistant] As far as money for a child going to school, you're already at the point of the child going to school.


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[Assistant] At your income level, you're not going to qualify.


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[Assistant] For a lot of tuition assistance programs that would exist except if your state does offer a generalized voucher program that is not based on being low income.


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[Assistant] And I'm not aware of any such thing in the state of Florida. Uh, vouchers are going to be more potentially


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[Assistant] Uh, routine in the future based on likely decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court.


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[Assistant] And it will be more possible that families sending kids to private school K through 12 will be eligible to use money for uh, voucher money


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[Assistant] From the get go right from kindergarten, first grade for your child, your first child to go to private school. And that's your long-term intention.


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[Assistant] You wanna be putting as much money in as you can into a low-cost 529 plan. Florida's is set up as a prepaid tuition plan for college, so you'd have to look at another plan on my 529 plan guide at Clark.com.


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[Assistant] Maybe the Utah plan would be good, because you can use up to $10,000.


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[Assistant] To pay for private school, K through 12.


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[Assistant] So if you and your wife, Eric, start shoving money into


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[Assistant] 529 plan. It gives you the ability to have money grow over these years and use it in later years towards your child's private schooling education.


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[Assistant] Or later on use it towards college and all the earnings you'll have are yours tax free, which is an awesome advantage.


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[Assistant] Okay, so, James, we gotta talk because you want a nest thermostat or something equivalent


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[Assistant] Immediately. Because with it, you set.


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[Assistant] And forget, you set the thermostat to go down to a lower temperature at sleeping time. And then at normal wake up time, the temperature goes back up automatically. So nobody has to remember to go adjust the thermostat. And then when it gets back to evening time and it's getting close to bedtime,


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[Assistant] Temperature goes back down. And so that big increase in your AC bill will


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[Assistant] Most of it will go away if you get a Nest Thermostat or one of its competitors. And you can even adjust it on your phone with these app, these devices with a simple app. Now, I am not capable


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[Assistant] Of installing one of these by myself. Many people are.


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[Assistant] Uhm, in my case, I had to hire somebody to come in, uh, which makes me really lame. But if you're really capable at doing things around the house, you'll be able to install one of these artificial intelligence thermostats yourself. You'll make back the money from one so fast, it'll shock you.


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[Assistant] And I'm really sorry that I caused you this problem by making your wife more comfortable when she sleeps.


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[Assistant] And I want to thank you so much for listening to today's podcast. I hope the rest of your day is absolutely great.


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[Assistant] Okay, you've made it clear you're no fan of the big banks, but then you recommend Citibank double cash back credit card. A better choice would be Apple credit, the Apple credit card, which gives you 2% on all purchases when used with mobile payment and 1% on those used with the physical card.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I use mobile payments, Apple Pay in this case, 90% of the time to avoid card number theft.


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[Assistant] It's faster at the checkout. I tap my Apple watch on the reader while the checker is ringing up the order and it's processed instantly when they're done. With Apple purchases and certain partners, you get 3% cash back. I need, I used to get my credit and debit card numbers stolen about every 18 months. That all stopped when I switched to mobile payment systems. Ken.


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[Assistant] Not Zatwas. Who does, the Zatwas is, uh, Chase. Chase, yeaah.


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[Assistant] That said, Clark stinks because Zenni glasses often need to be adjusted, so it's not such a good deal. Why, I'm a faithful customer of Zenni, and yes, most of the time my glasses need adjusting, and in some cases, a different nose piece put on.


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[Assistant] Well, our good friends at Sam's Club have never blinked an eye at adjusting my Zenni glasses or even replacing the nose pieces at no charge. I even bring them into Sam's in the Zenni cases and they've never given me a hassle. Just a smile and assure we can do that. Now that's customer service, Timothy.


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[Assistant] For the most part, I enjoy listening to your podcast, but I have two Clark stinks. You were talking about an expensive mattress not being in your budget. Please just say it's expensive. It may not be in the budget for the majority of your listeners, but you easily could afford it.


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[Assistant] Just say it's expensive, very expensive. You also mentioned that your teenage son knows where kids underage can buy beer.


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[Assistant] I am sure you are a great friend to your son, but you need to be a parent.


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[Assistant] Do you not think they will drive after drinking beer? You need to report this business, but don't let your son know that you did this, Brian.


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[Assistant] I mean, I think saying it's not in your budget is fine because you would take that money and budget to give to a charity knowing you, so.


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[Assistant] Alright, let's keep going on. Thank you for sharing your story about forgetting your medications when you left town and doing without them for four days rather than paying for several hundred dollars for replacements.


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[Assistant] If you haven't lost your mind, you have certainly lost your perspective on what money is. Besides, couldn't Lane have overnighted them to you? A weight that would have cost you $25. Instead, you put your health at risk.


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[Assistant] From now on, please make meds number one on your take with list. That's from Gloria. We also had a few other people write in and one mentioned.


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[Assistant] Which I was thinking when you said this, you can buy like four pills too, cheaper when you're away. You can do something like that.


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[Assistant] When talking about prescription meds, you always suggest Costco. However, when I use GoodRx, Costco is never the lowest price option on basic thyroid meds. In fact, my last refill, GoodRx, had a $10 coupon. The cashier ran up my two scripts separately and saved me $20. One ended up being $1.94, and that's from Lisa.


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[Assistant] I'm a Clarkaholic and I've learned so much from you, but you seemed really out of touch on your show when talking about the increasing amount of credit card debt.


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[Assistant] You seem to believe that the reason credit card debt went down in 2020 was because people suddenly became aware of how detrimental it was and decided to pay it down. Clark, there was a pandemic and we were all stuck at home.


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[Assistant] We were also getting stimulus checks with nowhere to go and all that extra money of course we could pay down debt. Now they're basically back to normal with inflation so of course debt is rising again and that was from Tracy.


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[Assistant] Uh, Clark, you recently said you think of Walmart as the greatest anti-poverty program we've ever had in the United States, in the same breath as mentioning how poorly they treat their workers. Their poor wages are supplemented by the billions in SNAP benefits that their employees take in.


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[Assistant] Where is the praise for actual anti-poverty programs like the child tax credit? Costco may not deserve your high praise. Costco may deserve your high praise. Walmart most certainly does not. Best P.S. Best Max. And then he wrote a P.S. I love your show. Keep it up.


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[Assistant] I am lucky to work for one of the Fortune 500 company's public supermarkets.


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[Assistant] The largest privately owned company in America. I never hear you speak about what a great place it is to work at Publix and be an owner, Natalie.


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[Assistant] Okay, this is the last one. I have to finally call you out based on your comments that you made last week regarding your opinion on the stock market.


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[Assistant] Based upon reversion to means and rising interest rates and yet you're doing nothing because you don't need the money.


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[Assistant] I get it. Time is your friend and ride out the waves. However,


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[Assistant] And most are probably not millionaires, so any advice you can provide on market time, timing is welcome advice.


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[Assistant] Imagine if Michael Burry, who predicted the housing crash, ignored the data.


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[Assistant] Well yeaah, I do love Matt Ryan, Boston College graduate.


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[Assistant] Alright, we'll go to some questions. Kathy in North Carolina says we've earned a lot of travel miles and hotel points over the years. I wanted to know what happens to all of the points if we were to pass away before using them. Can we have them go to the kids? I'd hate for them to be lost.


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[Assistant] This is from Clinton, Florida. We're 90 days away from flying to Orlando, from Orlando to Missoula, Montana for a wedding. Should we expect the prices of flights to drop over the next three weeks? Checking Priceline kayak and Google flights is giving me price anxiety.


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[Assistant] And from Cowan, Alabama, I'm considering making a life income gift to my favorite charity that would pay either a variable or fixed income to me monthly. I know that the charity itself is well managed, but they work with investment partners to manage the annuities. What questions should I ask to ensure that the annuity payout is secure for my lifetime?


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[Assistant] And knowing your criticism of most annuities, what is your opinion of them associated with charitable giving?


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[Assistant] My pleasure to welcome you to the Clark Howard Show where our mission is to serve you and empower you so you make better financial decisions in your life.


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[Assistant] Up first today, our weekly Clark Stinks segment and later some of it doesn't stink. There are deals in the midst of all this inflation. There are deals all over the place. I'm going to tell you how to zig when prices are zagging.


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[Assistant] For Clark Stinks, this is your opportunity at Clark.com slash Clark Stinks to let me know when you feel I've missed the mark


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[Assistant] Uh, shown to be that I'm thick in the head, giving bad advice, you disagree with me, whatever. Just go to Clark.com slash Clark Stinks and post. And then right here, right now, Krista reads her favorite posts from Clark Stinks over the last week.


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[Assistant] So, Ralph, I must admit that the shirt I'm wearing is from Sam's Club, not from Costco.


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[Assistant] Cause the Sam's Club clothing.


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[Assistant] Anyway, so this was $7, uh, Costco shirts are generally too expensive for me, because they're in double digits. So yeaah, it is true, I am


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[Assistant] Uh, very, very, very thrifty with what I buy and it's just how I'm made up and so.


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[Assistant] When the warehouse club movement started in I think 1978 with Price Club on Morena Drive in San Diego, uh, I saw Price. Yes, it's for me that was like.


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[Assistant] It was like this whole new era where somebody figured out how to squeeze.


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[Assistant] All the overhead out of retail.


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[Assistant] And you have to accept the more limited selection. So you are right. What was the thing you said?


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[Assistant] Clark only supports terribly cheap options. That's true Ralph, except for services, is that


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[Assistant] You're having your car repaired. You want to have someone who you know is really good at what he or she does, who's very honest, trustworthy. That's where you open up the wallet and you pay what you need to, to get the right service


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[Assistant] For whatever it is you're doing, but for products, yes, guilty is charged.


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[Assistant] So that is a very valid point, you know, that came up talking about how Nissan


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[Assistant] Let its customers down by having defective battery packs in the leaf and told people to pound sand.


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[Assistant] And so it's really important for reputational reasons for an automaker who's making electric vehicles and just because it's the right thing to do to offer these very lengthy warranties on the batteries because it's a newer technology and there's a lot of question mark about


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[Assistant] So far other than the Nissan problem


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[Assistant] Batteries have proved in electric vehicles to be very, very reliable and have great longevity.


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[Assistant] Aunt Mel, uh, so when I used that term, state sponsored commuter colleges, what I meant was in a lot of states, there are,


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[Assistant] Uh, state schools, you know how a state system will have its flagship university that'll be, uhm, university of or blah blah blah state university and then it will have state colleges and a lot of state colleges are built without dormitories


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[Assistant] And these are local commuter colleges, state supported, that offer four year degrees, and it'll say Florida State College, and then the city name of wherever it is, or the area it is in the state.


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[Assistant] Texas does it a little differently. They have the $10,000 four-year degree for commuter students.


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[Assistant] And it will be University of Texas campuses, but not the main one in Austin. So it'll be University of Texas.


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[Assistant] Uh, at so-and-so. University of Texas at so-and-so else. And so each state that has this does it in a different way. In a lot of other states, the, it will be in typically,


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[Assistant] Major metro areas, like you might have one in Maryland and Baltimore, uh, there may be one in the Washington DC suburbs that is a commuter school that has


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[Assistant] So there is no universal system for these and I'll look and see if anybody, since you looked online, you couldn't find anything like that.


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[Assistant] I'll look and see if I find any kind of like clearing house list showing the most affordable state colleges in each state.


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[Assistant] Tammy, thank you. Zelle is a thorn in America's side.


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[Assistant] Zelle is garbage. And I guess again, after my last attack on Zelle, no one from Zelle's parent company, which is owned by a consortium of eight of the nation's biggest banks, they're still being mute. Nobody wants to talk with us.


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[Assistant] And the banks are every single, every single day on my newsfeed.


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[Assistant] There are news stories posted from around the country of people who had money swiped from their account.


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[Assistant] Due to Zelle and the bank says, tough. We don't care. You just lose your money.


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[Assistant] This is so stupid of the banks. Why are they doing this? Why are they not giving people the ability to permanently suppress Zelle on their bank account? And I don't understand the mentality of why these bankers


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[Assistant] would want to bring harm on their fellow Americans. Zelle is what they call in tennis an unforced error. There is no reason for this defective product to exist in its current form.


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[Assistant] And I'm as frustrated as you are that there's no way with your bank to suppress it permanently moving forward.


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[Assistant] Becky, thank you, and what you said is true all the way around, that if you sell the home,


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[Assistant] Then you may forestall the need to move to.


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[Assistant] An assisted living or nursing home that accepts Medicaid. There are a lot of, uhm, a lot of really good facilities don't accept Medicaid for long-term stays.


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[Assistant] In the case of the question I was asked, it was by an adult child of the person who wanted to be able to have the house. And what you talked about


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[Assistant] Is setting different priorities that instead it was about


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[Assistant] Making sure there could be the best care for a parent.


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[Assistant] In which case, your suggestion is completely on the money, which is you sell the home, then you have a pile of money to pay for assisted living potentially for several years.


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[Assistant] I do use a checklist on my phone and not to dwell on the stupidity of leaving my meds behind, but I decided at the last minute to switch to a smaller suitcase and I


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[Assistant] My meds in this pouch inside the other one and I forgot to open the pouch and move the pills across. So it was like even using a checklist, I still flaked out.


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[Assistant] Uh, any kind of pain med. I remember before I had my back surgery 20, almost 21 years ago that I was in excruciating pain and the strongest thing I'd take was, uh, I guess an Advil at that point, a generic version of course of ibuprofen.


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[Assistant] I don't know why I'm so afraid of getting addicted to something like that, but that's what it's about. It's about fear of addiction.


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[Assistant] Dave, thank you. And yes, you're right that Southwest family boarding is really for kids, uh, generally up to first grade. And then after that, I figure if, you know, particularly if kids, a teenager that they're okay sitting a few rows away, I know that my son, by the time he was 10,


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[Assistant] Those historical averages for each route, each day of the week, each flight, how many


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[Assistant] Families with children are likely to be on that flight. It's not a perfect system, but it gives them the ability


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[Assistant] It's just, I always think it's really cool to make fun of yourself. It's just who I am and uhm, it,


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[Assistant] It really is who I am. I know I have a lot of shortcomings, we all do, and I think it's really important.


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[Assistant] To, uh, to walk humbly. And so that's why you'll hear me make fun of myself about


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[Assistant] As we were talking earlier about being such a flake, even using a checklist for packing and still leaving my meds behind. I mean, I am just a flakosaurus and there are other things, uh, certainly I'm not in any pamphlet of sports legends.


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[Assistant] So, I mean, we all have our skills and then we have areas where we have deficits and I just think it's important to be humble and modest, so.


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[Assistant] That's just who I am and thank you so much for sharing.


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[Assistant] The impact that I have been able to have in your life and then you being a member of team Clark sharing it.


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[Assistant] I'm gonna do the opposite of what we just talked about, and that's how to buy bargains right now. And it's weird. In the midst of the ugliest inflation we've had,


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[Assistant] Since the early 1980s, two generations ago,


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[Assistant] There are wonderful deals to be had right at this moment. So we're in the craziest rotation.


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[Assistant] That I can recall so many things.


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[Assistant] Start with the preamble because of the pandemic. And this is one of those, you know, in 20 and 21, people overwhelmingly were into being at home and either because they had to be because of


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[Assistant] Lockdowns are just because they were doing so to be safe or their employment was from home instead of going to an office. All these different factors played into people wanting to improve their nest at home.


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[Assistant] Fitness equipment, people went crazy buying it. Think about Peloton. Peloton was one of the hottest stocks in the United States. And Peloton now is losing a ton of money because they ramped up for this huge demand that has now evaporated.


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[Assistant] And they're just one example. Uhm, Netflix, you know, the stock has collapsed because Netflix


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[Assistant] For the first time, I guess, in its history is reporting a decline in viewership.


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[Assistant] Because people were streaming like maniacs during the pandemic.


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[Assistant] It's not like the pandemic is done with us, but we are definitely done with the pandemic.


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[Assistant] And so people are back out and about doing things. So anything involving the home, I mean, I look at these ads, the ones for Memorial Day.


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[Assistant] Have endless numbers of sales on fitness equipment.


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[Assistant] Because everybody's sitting with it stacked to the ceiling because nobody's buying it.


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[Assistant] By the way, look for home fitness equipment being sold second hand on Facebook's


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[Assistant] Community marketplaces on any forum you go to.


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[Assistant] Be careful on Craigslist because you never know who you're going to be dealing with, but exercise equipment that people bought that they thought was a great idea a year ago or two years ago, now gathering dust, they're getting rid of it.


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[Assistant] There's one thing after another, after another, after another like that, that we were all into, that we're not now. Think anything to do with cooking.


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[Assistant] Okay, so I shared with you that I lost 12 pounds.


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[Assistant] During the first nine months of COVID, why? Because my wife locked me down cold till I could get my vaccines. She was sure that I would get COVID and it would be over.


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[Assistant] The irony is that my whole extended family, I'm the only one who's not had COVID. I don't know how. Anyway, so we were eating all our meals at home and we were eating much healthier.


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[Assistant] Then we ate going out. We were eating perfectly balanced meals and healthy stuff. And so I just kept losing and losing and losing. And so now I'm back


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[Assistant] To the weight I was before I lost all that weight during the first phase of COVID because now we're eating out again. Higher calorie counts. Hopefully I won't keep gaining past where I was pre-COVID. But anyway, anything for the kitchen. You look at uhm,


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[Assistant] Those things that have been so in those, uh, what do you call those, air fryers?


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[Assistant] That every appliance manufacturer in the world decided they had to have 47 different models of air fryers.


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[Assistant] Because people were so into those for cooking at home. Now you look, the air fryers are all on deep discount and a lot of them on clearance and it's not all unusual to see them selling at two thirds off their original price. You know what's consistently selling two thirds off its original price? Robotic vacuums. For some reason, when we were at home in 20 and 21,


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[Assistant] People decided it was really fun to sit there with the remote and watch some streaming service while the robot went around and vacuumed the floor.


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[Assistant] Every American must have 12 of these things now because I'm seeing these sales on them. Like I saw, I saw a sale the other day on one, $89.


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[Assistant] I don't know why, but people just decided when they were home in 20.


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[Assistant] That it was time to get a new washer and dryer just when the manufacturing plants were shutting down because COVID was spreading through the plants because they were all working by each other and COVID was really bad in manufacturing facilities.


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[Assistant] And so getting like washers and dryers became really, really hard and then very expensive. Now they're a deal.


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[Assistant] So just think about anything for the home. Furniture. You know what stock is doing terribly now? Wayfair.


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[Assistant] Wayfair was so in during COVID. I mean, what was there not to like?


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[Assistant] You went online, you said, okay, this sofa we're sitting on is old, dumpy and lumpy. We're going to get a new sofa. So you'd go on Wayfair, you'd order the new sofa and like magic, it would show up and there you had the new one. Now suddenly people are like,


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[Assistant] So furniture has become, after being an extreme short supply, and it still is for people that buy fancy designer furniture like Krista, but for regular people just buying furniture, it's us.


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[Assistant] You're going to make money selling them. I love that. So, uh, oh, you know what else is a deal right now? Mattresses.


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[Assistant] Everybody decided with COVID, they wanted a new mattress and, uh, the mattress industry's way overproduced mattresses.


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[Assistant] And there are deals everywhere on mattresses. Plus we've gone from the cartel like thing where we used to have three manufacturers that controlled almost all mattress sales in the United States to now a wide open chaotic marketplace. Most of the companies aren't going to survive.


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[Assistant] So there's oversupply of mattresses, great deals on them, and I could name many more things. The point is just about anything for the home, the yard, the kitchen, the laundry.


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[Assistant] Their deals. Oh, and I forgot. Computers. Computers.


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[Assistant] Have now been overproduced and there are great deals on computers as well.


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[Assistant] Teresa, no. In fact, that's why there's all kinds of stuff online about, uh, unique fake social security numbers that will never be assigned to someone that you can fill in on one of these medical forms because the medical industry accounts for half of identity breach problems in the United States.


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[Assistant] They are lousy at back office security.


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[Assistant] And giving a social security number to a hospital, a lab, a physical therapist,


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[Assistant] Anybody in medicine, you're asking for trouble down the road. And they're just going to send you some letter that we had a data breach and would you like some worthless credit monitoring for a year now that we've ruined your identity forever. And the answer is don't give them the opportunity to ruin your identity.


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[Assistant] And you did the right thing by refusing to give your social security number.


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[Assistant] You'll have, from when you get a price, don't just do Carvana. Get a price from Carvana, get a price from Carmax. Many times Carmax will now give you an online price. Uhm, there's, uh, independent dealers.


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[Assistant] Whatever brand you have, oh you have a Chrysler.


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[Assistant] Chrysler dealers, you don't mention to anybody what you're doing, uh, at the dealership that you have leased the vehicle.


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[Assistant] You don't want to go to the effort to buy the vehicle and then find out after you bought out your lease that it's not bringing in the marketplace what you'd hoped for.


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[Assistant] So at the very last minute before you have to pull the trigger on buying out the lease, you've got that seven day period.


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[Assistant] For Carvana or Carmax to honor the price they give you.


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[Assistant] You execute the payoff on the lease, you take the vehicle to Carvana or CarMax, and with Carvana, all you have to do in the seven day period is accept their offer and schedule the date. So even if it takes you longer to get all the paperwork done at the dealer,


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[Assistant] You'll be able to still make it work at the price that Carvana has agreed to.


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[Assistant] And so this is an opportunity for you to potentially make thousands.


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[Assistant] On the turn in of the lease vehicle, buying it rather than turning it in.


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[Assistant] No, Amy, you're the best for driving a 17 year old vehicle. You know, we as a society tire out of vehicles way before they are tired.


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[Assistant] And you by continuing to drive that vehicle, you're saving the really big money, which is on the cost of a newer to you vehicle, our new vehicle. If you have to take out a loan for it, the payments you'd be making month after month, year after year.


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[Assistant] And then on top of it, by having a vehicle that is depreciated out, you save all that money on insurance. So you are the hero and good for you, Amy.


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[Assistant] And I want to thank you so much for listening to our podcast today. No podcast on Memorial Day. Remember, what is the purpose of Memorial Day? To have a barbecue? No, you can have a barbecue, but take a moment to remember our fellow Americans


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[Assistant] Who paid the ultimate price with their lives to protect and preserve our freedom and this great nation. Have a wonderful Memorial Day holiday weekend.


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[Assistant] It's my pleasure to welcome you to the Clark Howard show where our mission is to serve you and empower you. So you make better financial decisions in your life.


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[Assistant] In this episode, so many of us are working for ourselves now, or we're doing side jobs, what's called side hustles these days.


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[Assistant] So what becomes hard when you're your own boss is saving any money for the future. I want to talk about strategies on that and later, I had a simple tip for you.


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[Assistant] Is something that is a tale of two cities, essentially, because


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[Assistant] Those who work for a large employer, roughly half of people in the country, have easy access to a retirement plan at work, usually, hopefully a low cost one.


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[Assistant] Low cost 401k's hopefully again at any large employer, uh, so heavily dominating


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[Assistant] The 401k space now, Fidelity Investments and Vanguard.


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[Assistant] Both offering very low cost 401k plans, but what about you and me who do our own thing? Let's say you're a one person entity. It's just you. How did you say, well, for you, there are


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[Assistant] Two things I've talked about through the years, and one is the SEP. S E P. Simplified Employee Pension.


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[Assistant] And ultra simple if you're a one person kind of thing, but you can even use a SEP and use it effectively and without a lot of paperwork.


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[Assistant] And without any crazy administrative costs, if you're a small business with a small number of employees, because what a SEP is, is it's a half page form that you fill out and


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[Assistant] Takes you just a couple of minutes. You can then set up an account with one of my favorite low cost children. Fidelity Schwab or Vanguard.


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[Assistant] And you can have your SEP with them, go into any of their low cost funds, no administrative costs for the SEP and you as the owner of a company.


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[Assistant] Can put aside one quarter up to one quarter or as little as zero dollars of what you've made in the business, sheltering it from current tax.


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[Assistant] And having that money grow for the future for ultimately your retirement.


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[Assistant] Steps are hyper easy to do and almost nobody


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[Assistant] A quarter of what you make. There is a cap. This is a good kind of problem to have.


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[Assistant] If you're running your own business and you're making quarter million dollars or more, well let me tell you, they cap you.


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[Assistant] Right now at about 60, 61,000 thinks the current cap on this app.


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[Assistant] Uh, but that's a problem I haven't really dealt with with a lot of people asking me questions who have seps.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But again, any of the low cost outfits will offer you the possibility of a SEP.


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[Assistant] There's another thing I want to talk about. If you work just for yourself, there's only you, no one else in a minute, but I would be really remiss if I didn't mention the value of an HSA. If you were self-employed, it was just you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You can buy a high deductible health plan and then have with it something better than really any other retirement plan out there is a health savings account.


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[Assistant] If you understand the right way to use an HSA, what is the right way to use an HSA you might ask? Glad you did ask that. So what you do is you put


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The money you're allowed to put into the SEP each year, which


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You invest it. You want to be with a low cost provider. Fidelity is a great choice for this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You invest the money like you would in a retirement account and you just keep putting that money in year after year after year that you're HSA eligible and you get the benefit of an upfront tax deduction


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then the money grows tax free all through the years.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then when you're in retirement and you're old and you're with your friends and you're all talking about what doctor appointment you're going to, the money you have out of pocket


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You use tax free the HSA money to pay for those expenses and that money remember is grown through the decades tax free. It's awesome. Now there's one other thing.


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[Assistant] For you, if you are a one person company, you should know about you now with the low cost companies.


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[Assistant] Sometimes also referred to as the Solo 401k. It allows you to have an ultra


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And with that ultra low cost 401k, you can do normal investing in it and you can do either, um, the Roth version or.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As a single person company are going to move towards doing the traditional. So you get the big tax deduction upfront.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the amount you're able to contribute.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is not the normal thing like you'd have at a normal big company job.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You again can contribute much more of what you make.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Up to the same 61,000 as you would do in a SEP.


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[Assistant] Whole different process, but again, you've got to really be comfortable that you're a one person business and you're going to stay a one person business. Where should you never go?


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[Assistant] This is a never never never not ever rule where you never go for your HSA, for your


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or for your solo or self employed 401k, you never, never, never, not ever go to a bank under no conditions. Do you go to a bank?


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[Assistant] You think Jesse James knew how to take money from banks? Let me tell you how the banks will take from you if you do a retirement account or an HSA with them. They're not where you go unless you're just feeling really charitable and you want to have less money and you want somebody else to have more.


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[Assistant] Where else should you never go? An insurance company. Never, never, never, not ever.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Do your HSA, your self employed 401k or you're set with an insurance company and last place you shouldn't go.


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[Assistant] Any bank affiliated brokerage because


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[Assistant] It's not as bad as doing one of these things directly with the bank. It's just almost as bad.


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[Assistant] It was funny because, I don't know if you heard, Elon Musk said, well, if suddenly I get taken out, you know, it's the Russians. Right. So in my case, who's it going to be? Is it going to be the banks, the insurance companies?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes, yes and yes. Scott, you got your act together and the best thing is that you're selling them off because that means you can't step on them barefooted and hurt yourself.


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[Assistant] This is, this is an occupational hazard of having children, if you're not aware, is when they go through the Lego stage, that they end up strategically placed everywhere you're accidentally going to step on one in the house.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It is a pain, look, I'm trying to think, the closest equivalent I can come up with is if you go to a beach that has those burrs in the sand and you're barefoot instead of wearing sandals.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Who really understand the Lego market have been able to make money buying Legos in bulk and reselling.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well Eric, first thank you for your service to our country.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Second, the calendar is getting to a point that it's gonna be blazing hot for you in Kuwait.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, third, uh, for people who aren't aware what MAS is, it's an on-post, uhm, car buying service.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That makes it smooth and easy for military personnel stationed overseas.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To buy a car. There's no magic about the car buying service. And...


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[Assistant] Unless you specifically need a car now, I wouldn't say and you're going to have it shipped to you in Kuwait.


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[Assistant] I would not say that there's any real advantage using MAS as a way to buy the car. If on the other hand,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You need to do it by remote control or you're having the car shipped to you, yes, then the MAS process.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So for a single bill like this, you're doing the right thing trying to resolve it. I want you to call the hospital and ask for the patient advocate.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If they don't have a patient advocate title person, they would have


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, hospital social worker is a common phrase they'll use. And you will be able


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With the help of an internal advocate to hopefully get the double billing result.


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[Assistant] Yesterday that was all about the misadventures people have with how fouled up medical billing is and how you've got to protect yourself and be all over it and I don't know


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[Assistant] If you have written to them, eh, it sounds like you have talked to people.


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[Assistant] I would send an old fashioned letter through the mail, even consider sending it by certified mail. And I would put in that letter if this item ever appears on your credit report and harms your reputation and your credit that you will sue them


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[Assistant] Getting to the hospital social worker or patient advocate, whichever title they use, you can probably even find it online, the hospital website, what they call it, should be able to get


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This kind of billing snafu resolved, and it's a shame because this kind of thing is


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[Assistant] Exceedingly common. Do you know that half of all problems with people's credit now


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[Assistant] Foul ups in the billing operations, back office operations of doctor's offices, labs, hospitals, uh, surgery centers, diagnostic centers, anything medical, it's an industry that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, does a good job keeping people alive and helping people get well, but really, really lousy.


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[Assistant] At the back office side of the medical industry.


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[Assistant] Coming up next, I got a special warning for you if you drive a car. Do you know that there's an old commercial about this?


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[Assistant] I'm not going to paraphrase that commercial, but neglecting to do simple maintenance, a simple maintenance step can cost you big time.


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[Assistant] Alright, I'm here is your summertime nag.


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[Assistant] How about that? I've never called myself a summertime nag, but so many of us are going to hit the road in numbers.


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[Assistant] Too large to ignore, probably the largest number of mass movement of people, that was bad grammar, hitting the road, hitting the air,


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[Assistant] Summertime travel because well, people didn't exactly appreciate being cooped up in 20 and 21. So people are going to be out there.


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[Assistant] And so there are things we may have gotten out of the habit of, or we never have been in the habit in. And I got the simplest thing I want you to do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I want you to check the condition of your tires before you take a summertime trip.


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[Assistant] And if you've been kinda neglectful about doing tire rotation, get it done. Doesn't take that long. Doesn't cost that much. You don't want uneven wear.


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[Assistant] By forgetting to rotate your tires and being in a position like you go through, uh, area where the roads are wet. You don't have the traction you need. You don't want to put yourself or, uh, let's throw the guilt card out. Got your family in the vehicle with you. You don't want to put your loved ones at risk. And how about for your wallet?


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[Assistant] You get rotations done regularly, whatever you're supposed to. You get those done.


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[Assistant] You're gonna get a lot more life out of the tires. You neglect it. You don't get the rotations done. You're gonna have premature wear.


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[Assistant] You're gonna be spending money to replace tires sooner than you would, and you face this conundrum.


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[Assistant] So often you get a better deal buying a set of four tires at a time instead of two.


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[Assistant] So often people who don't get around to rotating end up with too bad tires on many vehicles.


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[Assistant] Easy to do. And now so many cars have the idiot light that tells you when a tire is low.


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[Assistant] When it's deflated, and that's not as much something you'll see as temperatures are warmer.


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[Assistant] And so if you have a tire that the idiot lights on,


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[Assistant] In warmer temperatures that tire is way low on air.


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[Assistant] What the, uh, pounds per square inch is in that tire, uh, PSI or.


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[Assistant] It's really easy now for you to get that tire filled back up. And if you're a Costco member.


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[Assistant] You can go there and some, a lot of them have the self serve.


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[Assistant] To pump your tires back up. Others, you go there and the tire people, the tire center will make sure your tires are properly inflated. Just do these simple things before you go on the road. And also I saw a suggestion


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I forgot where I read it, that when you're getting ready to take your summertime trip,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is the time that you want to make sure your wiper blades are still good.


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[Assistant] Because particularly if you're going to go into really humid environments with the afternoon thunderstorms, it's really good if you can see out the windshield instead of not really see out of it because you don't have up to date wiper blades. And one other motivation for the tire thing, Krista just replaced her tires.


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[Assistant] Yeah, uhm, as vehicles have gotten bigger, heavier,


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[Assistant] Oh you were, you were actually born then. Okay, you were two years old. Anyway, so my tires were 15 inch wheel tires.


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[Assistant] And when I had to replace them as radials, I was so upset it was $25 a tire. Wow. Installed.


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[Assistant] Now obviously you add in all the inflation, but the big difference is that, uhm,


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[Assistant] The cars are so much bigger, so much heavier, the wheels.


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[Assistant] The tires themselves, it's more, it's more rubber there, it's more steel, all that. So, uh, it's not as simple a life as it was before, but.


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[Assistant] At least now, we don't have what my first car had. I had a Datsun B210.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it was, uh, the, the four boards were metal with just a thin vinyl on top of them. The seats were vinyl. The side panels were metal.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With a little bit of vinyl on them and you could get the car inside any color you wanted as long as it was the color of your shirt.


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[Assistant] Black, that was the only choice you had. There were no options at all.


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[Assistant] It was, it was hot and of course it was crank windows, you know, there were no power windows or.


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[Assistant] Because back then an automatic was a lot more money. And it's funny because


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[Assistant] And, uh, it was before I learned you buy used cars. And today people, without even thinking about it, add an option to their car that's more than I paid for that entire automobile back then. That's enough down memory lane, isn't it?


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[Assistant] Alright, so this is a terrible, terrible story and happens in a handful of states. The dealers in certain states have gotten, the dealer groups are really powerful and they've gotten laws through in a handful of states that allow the dealers to have a monopoly


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On how lease vehicles are turned in and charge whatever junk fees they want. So it's open market where


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[Assistant] One dealer may not charge all the ripoff fees, another one might. Uhm, so, there is a technique that people have done.


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[Assistant] And a lot of people who live in Florida also have roots in another state.


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[Assistant] That you turn a lease vehicle in elsewhere. Do not turn it in in the state of Florida because Florida doesn't even have a cap


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[Assistant] On the junk fees a dealer can charge on turning in a lease vehicle.


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[Assistant] It is an abomination. So the amount of money involved is so much, Jillian.


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[Assistant] That if you've got the ability to go to a nearby state or you have roots in another state, arrange the turn in of that lease vehicle somewhere else.


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[Assistant] Where you will not have to pay any of these three thousand plus dollars in junk fees. And the dealers keep saying how important they are and how valuable they are and they keep fighting these moves in states to allow manufacturers to sell vehicles directly to the public.


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[Assistant] The reality is that is an interference in the free market.


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[Assistant] And people should be able to buy a vehicle however they wish, either through a local dealer or direct from a manufacturer if that's what they wish to do.


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[Assistant] Well, you could do that, but, you know, if depending on...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where she is in Florida, she could be close to the Georgia state line, could be close to Alabama, could be close to Mississippi, and you could potentially turn it in.


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[Assistant] In another state and avoid having to get into any negotiation with all the junk fees that the dealers are adding in the state of Florida on lease turn ins.


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[Assistant] Excuse me, I said something wrong. I said, least buyouts. I said least turn-ins, sorry.


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[Assistant] Yeah, so this is something that came up a couple of years ago, and I had a number of people ask me about it then, Nate. So, yes, it is true that if suddenly every single person


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Did all their investing through index funds.


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[Assistant] It would be a mess. Uh, the reality is that has not happened even though the share of investing being an index, index funds has risen.


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[Assistant] It's not likely to get to where it will completely.


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[Assistant] Dominate and monopolize funding, uh, investing here in the United States or in other countries where indexing is rising so much in popularity. Indexing grew in popularity because for a smaller individual investor,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's too hard to make money over the long haul unless you are doing it, uh, 10 to 20 hours a week devoted to investing to be able to outperform


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[Assistant] Over the long haul, what you can do simply by owning the market.


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[Assistant] 10, 20, 50, uh, you know, 80 hours a week on this.


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[Assistant] Trying to figure out what the best individual investment opportunities are and they create


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[Assistant] What's known as price discovery in the marketplace and they create the dynamic


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[Assistant] So yes the alarmist kind of commentaries that are written like the one you saw in the Atlantic


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[Assistant] Are a hundred percent accurate if.


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[Assistant] The market went all index but I'm very doubtful even with the high market share that index funds have now, they would ever get to a point that it would destroy


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[Assistant] The competition in the investing marketplace and eliminate price discovery.


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[Assistant] So, do you remember when I told the story about what I did to my three kids with cereal, how many people were angry and posted Clark Stinks?


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[Assistant] So if you've not heard this, you can now be angry and post a Clark Stinks. So I did the same kind of stuff as Greg. We're not the same person.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] with kids cereal is that they would want the brand name


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[Assistant] Grant is, uh, brand name man to the max. And he, like,


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[Assistant] Three years old could tell that I had sub serial in. My two older kids never ever said a word.


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[Assistant] But shampoo, that's a different thing. You don't mess with my hair. So it's funny because the Aldi insider, which is the uh, weekly newsletter,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That writes about all things, Aldi, and also to...


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[Assistant] I don't know if you've ever seen it, it sells like crazy. That shampoo, conditioner, and body wash all in one.


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[Assistant] Have you seen that at Trader Joe's? Huge seller there. And women apparently freak out about it because the idea of using one


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[Assistant] Detergent thingy, cause that's all we're talking about is different.


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[Assistant] Detergent is using a detergent for, to,


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[Assistant] Wash your hair, to condition your hair, to wash your body, apparently just absolutely


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I did enough of that as a camper when I was young. That's not happening again. But I want to thank you so much.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For being with us today, and if you've got a specific question, you'd like to have


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Free, one on one advice, answering that question.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We are here to serve you 30 hours a week answering your questions for free one on one at our Team Clark Consumer Action Center.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, the hours are, these are Eastern time zone hours, 10 in the morning till four in the afternoon.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you can go to Clark.com slash CAC to see all the details and grab the phone number to call in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

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


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One of the ways we help you make better decisions is through our content at Clark.com and our money saving deals at ClarkDeals.com. I hope you'll visit and while you're there, hey, why don't you sign up for our free newsletters? Remember the price I said? Free.


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[Assistant] Today there's been a lot of big and confusing news about student loan forgiveness. And I want to tell you as best I can what the deal is. And if you're a regular listener to our podcast, you know that I hate Zell.


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[Assistant] Z-E-L-L-E. It is a Frankenstein's monster creation of the giant monster megabanks that is causing so much financial hardship for so many people. I need to tell you


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That you have a special assignment I'm going to give you later in this podcast to take that Frankenstein monster out of your life. But first, do you know today?


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[Assistant] Is National Teacher Appreciation Day. So I didn't know that, but my boss Krista told me that.


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[Assistant] And I'm sure you are always the kind of person who is taking an apple to your teacher at school or something. You were such a goody two shoes teacher's pet.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He was a war hero, fought in World War II, was wounded in the war, uhm, and fought in Korea, fought in Vietnam, and then, uh,


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[Assistant] Taught and he was this guy who just every day was like the greatest day of his life and he brought that positive energy to everybody and I think it's important to mention


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[Assistant] That who we remember, who inspires us, are the people who bring


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[Assistant] That positive energy, I'm sure that was why you remember a third grade teacher.


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[Assistant] You should share with people that you run your own zoo at your house.


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[Assistant] Okay. All right. Well, speaking of education, there's this elephant in the room with education where there's a segment of the American people who want total college loan forgiveness.


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[Assistant] And I should tell you that I'm not a fan of that, even if that's going to disappoint you because you're sitting there with college loans and you feel like, Hey, this is just burning my life. I wanted out of my life. It's not.


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[Assistant] Equitable for the people who did not go to college.


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[Assistant] Or who paid off their student loans to just say, magically those loans are going away.


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[Assistant] And so I should preface anything I say about this, that I'm not a fan of just allowing colleges to charge whatever they want.


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[Assistant] People borrow whatever amount they want under the federal student loan program and then the government says, oh, well, we're just going to forgive all that because a lot of the high cost of college today.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is because of the fact that all that student loan availability is there.


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[Assistant] We would greatly restrict access to student loans.


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[Assistant] And then colleges having to fill their enrollments would become more efficient. But anyway that's, that's an overview.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In the midst of that, there is a lot of stuff going on because I am a big fan of public service loan forgiveness.


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[Assistant] Past, uh, virtually unanimously by Congress, uh, 15, 20 years ago, whatever, and it was designed that if people were willing to do things like, uh, be a firefighter, police officer, teacher,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, various public service jobs work for non-profits where they were choosing to provide public service


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And as a result earn less money than they could in the private sector that the trade off and the deal for them was after 10 years of working in a job like that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Their student loans would be forgiven. Well in the past we talked about how


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, that did not happen because of abuses by the contractors.


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[Assistant] That we're working, collecting student loan payments that they made more money by ignoring the student loan forgiveness rules than honoring them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So now there's going to be some one time government waivers, supposedly going to be automatic. I want you to read our briefing at Clark.com on how this works.


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[Assistant] And you're not in theory supposed to have to do anything. You're going to have a certain amount of loans forgiven just for breathing if you work in public service, in a public service job.


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[Assistant] There are also things happening with people that are on income based repayment plans that are not in public service jobs who were deprived of the tools that were supposed to be available to them


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[Assistant] By the private loan contractors working for the federal government on student loans, the servicers who misled students.


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[Assistant] And had them in the wrong payment plans so they could make more money servicing those loans. There are now going to be provisions to give credits when credit should have been earned. So it is a part of a loaf. It's not a whole loaf. It deals with some of the things that went wrong.


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[Assistant] With the student loan forgiveness programs, but again, I am a hundred percent opposed


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[Assistant] To total forgiveness unconditionally for student loans. I think that is wrong, wrong, wrong.


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[Assistant] There are situations though where that should happen and that's, I'll give you another one. With for-profit schools.


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[Assistant] That hoodwink people into really expensive loan programs to attend programs


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[Assistant] And the schools either folded or never provided the education they promised. And then the student ends up with a massive amount of loans.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because of the fraud involved in those situations, I think it is reasonable to have loan forgiveness in those cases. But what we really need is we need a complete rethink about how paying for a college education works.


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[Assistant] And, uh, have an 18 year old, 19 year old not understand the implications of signing loan agreements that obligate them for massive amounts of loans that can be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars before they can really even understand what that all means. That's just terrible. And we are not there.


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[Assistant] With this monster we've created, which is approaching, you ready for this? Two trillion dollars, two trillion dollars outstanding on student loans. That is ridiculous and unconscionable.


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[Assistant] With that having been said, enough negativity. I talked earlier about how positive energy is so important, Krista. Let's go positive here.


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[Assistant] Well, Ethan, congratulations on having fully pre-funded college. Uh, that's a fantastic thing. So,


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[Assistant] To the credit card company when you know you're going to make a big tuition payment and then what's reported the credit bureau is your.


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[Assistant] Balance that you have already prepaid essentially rather than the balance that results from the charges for tuition. However, one thing you should check and.


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[Assistant] It may not be a problem with the Florida system, but it is in most states that you will have to pay typically a 3% fee for using your credit card and at 3%, if that is in fact the fee, it will


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[Assistant] Probably wipe out any positive benefits of you accumulating the points.


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[Assistant] On your, uh, world program, your one world mileage program that you're trying to accumulate extra points on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Costco is pretty great store, but you'll decide if it's great for you. All right. So you don't pull the money out of the 529 and congratulations to you for having saved all this money in a 529 account. What you do is in the 529 account, there will be a age based portfolio based on, or they'll call it some term like that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With your son entering college this fall, your money should all go into.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The fund for the current enrollment year, it's basically at that point in something more like an ultra low risk fund rather than invested in index funds or anything like that. That's why you saw


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The nine thousand dollar drop in value in a short period of time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because you have it so totally invested.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is not the point to do that, but it stays in the 529 because whatever it earns over the four years, you'll continue to earn tax free and then spend tax free on your son's college costs, eligible college costs. So you only withdraw from the 529 as the money is needed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For actual tuition bills and other eligible expenses and leave it in there till 26 or 27 whenever your son does finish school.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So Peter, because of the inaccuracies and record keeping by the student loan servicers, I would keep your proof of


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When we'll hear from someone who has paid off their student loans, not have them forgiven like you did, but paid them off. And then a collector calls, uh, the longest I had was 20 something years later. I did a TV story on this where someone had paid off all their loans and now is being harassed by a collector saying, well, how can you prove it?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they had no actual proof because it was more than two decades back that they had paid off their student loans because of the haphazard nature


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of how the student loan programs work and the failures of the banks and the servicers to keep proper records. You need to keep the proof for the rest of your days. That was negative again!


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because we're going to talk about big bad zeal. There's never a week that goes by that we don't hear from people.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] About how money has vanished from their bank account because of big bad cell cell.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of what was going on with Venmo and Cash App and how they were.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Encroaching on bank territory. So the banks were like, Hey, this is terrible. We, we gotta, we gotta get in there. So they half baked this lousy app called Zelle that attaches to your bank account.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And has zero consumer protections at all.