Pod Insights The Clark Howard Podcast 01.22.25 A Warning About Shopping Online / The Risks Of Public Internet About this episode Today - Consumer spending has steadily become a larger part of the economy over the years. Tech and the ability to shop online has made the problem of shopping addiction substantially worse. Clark shares some simple steps you can take to avoid overspending online. Speaking of the internet - Clark has changed the way he goes online when away from home. You’ll want to hear his recommendations to protect your privacy and your money. Shopping Triggers: Segment 1 Ask Clark: Segment 2 Public Wi-Fi Warning: Segment 3 Ask Clark: Segment 4 Mentioned on the show: The Biggest Money Mistakes To Avoid in 2025 Why Clark Says It's Time To Dump I Bonds Why You Might Be Paying Your Credit Card Bills All Wrong Best Phone Plans: Get Exactly What You Want at the Cheapest Price Best Unlimited Data Plans in 2024: Starting at $25 for One Line The Best Unlimited Hotspot Plans The Best International Phone Plans Google Fi Review: My Experience as a Five-Year Customer (Pros and Cons) What Is a 403(b) and How Does It Work? How To Find and Choose a Financial Advisor How Much Does a Financial Advisor Cost? What Is a Fiduciary Financial Advisor and Do I Need One? Clark.com resources Episode transcripts Community. Clark.com / Ask Clark Clark.com daily money newsletter Consumer Action Center Free Helpline: 636-492-5275 Learn more about your ad choices: megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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1:05 Speaker 02 It's my pleasure to welcome you here to the Clark Howard Show. You know, our mission is to serve you with advice and information that empowers you so you make better financial decisions in your life. And one way we're here to serve you is with free one-on-one advice. It's something we've been doing for 32 years, where you can get an answer to a question you have, a problem you're facing, whatever, as best we can at the Team Clark Consumer Action Center. You can learn more how to get that free one-on-one advice if you go to clark.com/cac.
1:47 Speaker 02 Today, I want to talk about how we are a nation of shopaholics. And...
1:56 Speaker 02 I need to caution about this because there are times it's just cute or funny. There are times it's not funny at all. And online has made the problems worse. I want to talk about that. And speaking of online, I've changed the way I go online when I'm away from home. And it's something I want you to know about and consider doing the same thing as I'm doing. So there have been so many stories about people who developed basically shopping addictions and ended up broke.
2:36 Speaker 02 And I remember doing a TV special where I was trying to counsel a couple that had become both the husband and the wife had become so addicted to shopping that they ran out a room in their house for all the stuff they had never used and were having to rent storage units to store more stuff. It is truly a potentially addictive behavior. And I want to share something with you, data from the feds. So do you know that the consumer, consumer spending is 70% of the US economy?
3:18 Speaker 02 And that is way, way, way, way higher than it historically has been. If you go back three generations, consumer spending was 55% of the economy. You go two generations back, it was just over 60%. You go one generation back and it was 62%. Today, 70% of the economy is from consumer spending. And the internet has, I mean, the internet has great to it and has bad to it. And this is something that clearly I lay at the feet of the internet.
4:03 Speaker 02 That the ability on your smartphone to have offer after offer after offer for this deal, that deal, the other deal, either coming in from a social media influencer, or having your phone number registered where you're getting texts about, "Hot deal now, sending today, you gotta buy now, we got eight of these left, we got two of these left." Emails coming in, I mean emails being used as a solicitation method, started really before all the heavy texting and the social media influencers on your phone. But we've got a problem, and that is we're out of balance here.
4:48 Speaker 02 And people are spending money on so many things that are wanna haves, not gotta haves. And so there are people who just don't have enough money to pay for life's basics. And I've addressed this before, that it is a percent of the American people who just can't get by on what they make, pay their rent, pay the mortgage, whatever it is, pay for food, pay for a car, all those things. They're exhausted financially at that. But there's a far larger percent of us as Americans
5:30 Speaker 02 that end up with financial insecurity because of the things that we're conditioned to buy from all the influences that are electronic. So what do I want you to do about it? If I'm speaking to you, and it's something that's a problem for you, I want you to unsubscribe from every retail list you're on, every last one of them. Think about how many things you buy in impulse reacting to an email. I want you to delete receiving texts.
6:08 Speaker 02 From every retailer you're getting them from. Now, if money's not a problem, it's not an issue for you, you can ignore this. But if I'm speaking to you and you realize you're buying things that that money really would be better saved for your retirement, save for a down payment on a house, building up money for whatever rainy day, whatever it is, and you're not getting there because of how many impulsive purchases you're making, then you gotta stop the impulse from hitting you from all the texts and the emails. It's tougher with the social media influencers because you want to follow somebody, you love the stuff that they do, and then how are they making their money? They're making
6:51 Speaker 02 their money by saying, hey, you know, I got this, this great jacket here. It's just incredible and I got it. It's so and so and you know they're on sale right now.
7:01 Speaker 03 Well, for me, it's like this cream is going to make your skin just look amazing. Look at my, and they're putting it on and yeah.
7:10 Speaker 02 And so you-
7:10 Speaker 03 I'm a sucker for those things.
7:12 Speaker 02 Hook and mouth and you just, they real yen?
7:15 Speaker 03 Yeah. I've been doing this though. I was subscribed to a lot of emails from stores I really like and not that I don't like the stores anymore, but I've been unsubscribing because I'm like, I don't need to see it. I don't need to see your new line, your new stuff. Like if I need something, I will go shopping and then I will look. Like I'm not going to be pulled in because there's a sale and then, you know, you just start, it's easy to get, um, to get hooked in and buy stuff you don't need, for sure.
7:40 Speaker 02 But you don't have an automatic answer for me on the influencers, how to avoid-
7:44 Speaker 03 It's hard. I mean, I just, I've been just telling myself like I'm not buying anything. So when I see someone starting to put, say, a skin cream on, I just swipe, swipe on from their story on Instagram, which is where I usually am online.
7:56 Speaker 02 Okay.
7:59 Speaker 03 It's not easy.
8:01 Speaker 02 Yeah, so I find that I'm much more relaxed about all that than I used to be because I have unsubscribed from so many emails and text message services because I've found that I really don't buy nearly as much.
8:20 Speaker 03 Do you still subscribe? Do you still get the Costco emails and do you look at them?
8:24 Speaker 02 Oh, I look at Costco and Sam's Club. I mean, if I am going to spend money
8:28 Speaker 03 Yeah.
8:28 Speaker 02 buying from the warehouse clubs with the smallest markups of anybody. I mean, that's my jam, right?
8:35 Speaker 03 Yeah, okay. We all have one. Okay, David in California wrote in and said, I love your podcast. I don't know how you're always in a good mood. What is your secret?
8:43 Speaker 02 I have the greatest life anybody could ever hope for. I do.
8:48 Speaker 03 I just think you're also naturally an optimistic, happy person. You definitely have a
8:54 Speaker 02 Definitely Pollyanna.
8:55 Speaker 03 No, I wouldn't say that. You just have a, I mean, it's great to be around your energy. You have a natural happiness level that a lot of people would love to have.
9:02 Speaker 02 But I feel like my life from, my whole life has been so very lucky. And even when hardships happened in my life, they ended up being great events in my life. So it's just I've been, I feel like, you know how some people feel like they've got like a dark cloud following them?
9:22 Speaker 03 Right.
9:23 Speaker 02 I feel like I've just got sunny skies.
9:25 Speaker 03 Got a rainbow over your head.
9:26 Speaker 02 Every day of my life.
9:28 Speaker 03 All right. Well, we'll move on now to David's question. I bought some I-bonds when you had recommended them a while back and they did really nicely.
9:36 Speaker 02 Nearly 10% interest.
9:38 Speaker 03 As of today, I've earned about $1,276. I know you're saying sell them now and take the 90-day interest hit, then reinvest them in the new I-bonds with a guaranteed base rate. Besides the interest penalty I take when I sell the I-bonds, I'm also liable for capital gains tax.
9:55 Speaker 02 No, you're not. It's much worse than that. We'll get to that.
10:00 Speaker 03 Between the two costs, it seems like it's taking a big hit from the money I made. Wouldn't it make sense to just hold them? Is there a formula for how long I would need to hold the new I-bonds to recap that loss? Or is there some kind of plan, like I think there is in real estate, where if you reinvest immediately, you don't have to pay taxes?
10:18 Speaker 02 Not that I know of with I-bonds. The thing with I-bonds is it's ordinary income tax, which is worse than capital gains.
10:27 Speaker 02 So whatever your overall tax rate is, you're paying that on the I-bonds. If the I-bonds put you into a higher tax bracket, you're paying that higher tax bracket on the I-bonds. So why would I have you just pay the tax on the $1,276 and buy the new I-bonds? Because if you're going to hold them as a long-term holding, having the spread where the I-bonds you bought back when they were earning just under 10%, you just got the rate of inflation, which has trended steadily down. You don't get any bonus.
11:09 Speaker 02 The new series I's, you get the rate of inflation plus bonus interest. So over the years, if you hold them a long time, you'll benefit from the hurt today for the long-term benefit. On the other hand, if your intention is not to hold the I-bonds for, you know, 20, 30 years, if that's never what you intended, it's not your plan, then you're probably right to not pay the taxes if your intention long-term is not truly long-term.
11:44 Speaker 03 Jen in Wyoming says, "I have a pre-tax 457B that I would like to start rolling into an in-plan Roth. I plan on rolling about $30,000 each year as I can afford the taxes and it keeps me in my tax bracket. Is there any advantage or disadvantage to doing a lump sum at the beginning of the year or over 12 equal amounts over the course of a year?"
12:05 Speaker 02 So this is a great question. So you're going to pay tax based on the value of the account. As a general, this is general, what I'm about to tell you. The values of the underlying investments in your 457, if it's in stock-type holdings in there, are very, very high right now. The stock market has had an incredible run upwards. And there's pretty good likelihood at a time impossible to determine that we're going to have a meaningful correction in the market, potentially a bear market. So if you all at once, beginning of the year, transfer the 30 grand,
12:49 Speaker 02 and then the market falls by an appreciable amount, you've paid tax on it at its peak value. This is kind of like a form of dollar cost averaging. If you keep doing it year after year in monthly increments, you're not having to worry about the movements in the market that could mean you paid tax on phantom money that you don't have. And that's why I like doing it in the equal amounts over the course of a year.
13:21 Speaker 03 Gary in Tennessee says, Clark, I know you regularly advise people to check credit card statements monthly. Some years ago, I began checking our cards and bank accounts on a weekly basis once they became available for review online. It takes less than one cup of Costco's excellent Don Pablo coffee on a Saturday or Sunday morning to review charges and credits to all four of our credit cards and both of our banking accounts. Investment accounts for retirement are reviewed monthly. I've found it much easier to remember what has changed a few days ago, charged a few days ago, instead of a few weeks ago. Over the years, there have been a couple of fraudulent charges that were quickly cleared up. After the review's done, I pay the balance on each of those credit cards. That action has ensured that we have never had a late payment, nor have we paid any interest on a card in many years.
14:06 Speaker 03 There have been a few times that I've chosen not to pay the full balance one week, but always caught back up the next week. There's also been a few times I've chosen to hold off on some purchases for a week due to a high spend another week. The weekly reviews and payments have made a big difference in our financial life.
14:23 Speaker 02 Okay, I love your personal discipline.
14:28 Speaker 02 I have a hard time getting people to look at their statements at all. I mean, the truth is, most people just look at whatever balance is reported by the credit card company, by the bank or credit union, and never look at the individual charges. And that can be so dangerous, as we've heard again and again, when people later realize, "Wait, I was paying, that was coming on my credit card statement, month after month after month? I don't have that. That must be a fraudulent charge," or whatever. And your rights to dispute it only go back 60 days. So, as a basic, at least check the statements monthly.
15:08 Speaker 02 What we do in our household is we check them twice a month and pay credit cards twice a month. In your case, it works wonderfully doing it weekly. But that's a heavy lift, a heavy ask for most people. And I'm so glad you're willing to do it, and it's working so well for you with your money. Coming up ahead, speaking of money, your money is so at risk when you use public Wi-Fi. And we got to talk about it.
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17:57 Speaker 02 It's so easy. You're anywhere out and about. You're at a restaurant, a cafe, you're in an airport, whatever, any public space. And you hook up to the wifi there. This is a practice I want to break you of. It's very rare today that on our phones, we don't have enough data on our plan that we need to use a public wifi spot. You are so much more secure. Let's say you're, you're at a place with your laptop. What I do is I bring up the hotspot on my phone and I'm connected to my own hotspot.
18:42 Speaker 02 I know it's safe. The problem with public wifi is it's rarely safe and secure. Also, you have the problem that you might connect to something that you think is the place you're at, but it's actually a crook who's either trying to snoop on you, load a virus on your device, whatever.
19:06 Speaker 02 I think how often it is, what's the first thing people do when they connect to public wifi? It seems the first thing they do is they go check their email. Imagine that network's not secure or secure enough and prying eyes are having a direct path into your life with your email. Think about people who access their banking apps or brokerage or any kind of app involving money and doing it over public wifi. This is not safe.
19:45 Speaker 02 You think about how common all the data hacks are and think how easy this is. This is low hanging fruit. You don't have to be that sophisticated as a crook to be able to steal from somebody who's accessing public wifi. Now, for me, I'm not on an unlimited data plan, but I routinely use the hotspot on my phone. A lot of other people are on unlimited data plans. I get 50 gigs a month of data. Let's see, I've used seven gigs of data and I'm exactly at the halfway point of my monthly
20:30 Speaker 02 allotment. So I've used seven out of 50. I'm in no danger of blowing through my data. But if you travel a lot like I do, but I guess I'm not on my devices that much, or you do travel a lot and you are on your devices a lot, it's really affordable now to be on an unlimited data plan with an unlimited hotspot. You can look at our cellphone plan guide and find something that fits your needs. But whatever's going on in your life, I want you to cut your instinct to go on public wifi because you're giving a direct highway to thieves.
21:14 Speaker 02 One of the data security analysts that I have interviewed for television has made it clear that there's not a circumstance, not a single circumstance where he ever uses public wifi. Because it's flat out not safe.
21:34 Speaker 03 Okay, this came in from Vicenza in Montana. This is not a question, but some input. I'm a solo female traveler to Southeast Asia. You helped me be confident and I used a lot of your recommendations, but I have some things to add that I think might be helpful. You may have already covered this. I'm visiting Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam on a two-month trip. Each of those, yeah. Each of those countries uses a different eSIM. So I've had to buy a new eSIM for each of those countries and I needed to be in Wi-Fi. I only found this out as I got to a new country and arrived with no cell service and bus depots don't have free Wi-Fi.
22:13 Speaker 02 Yeah, and several of the countries you're in, the access to Wi-Fi isn't that great anyway, which I'm sure you've seen repeatedly.
22:21 Speaker 03 I'd land and I couldn't book a Grab taxi service. I would ask to use someone's hotspot and thankfully someone would help. I became a master at loading new eSIMs. Use a different web-based designated email address like Gmail for all your itineraries, tickets, et cetera. I found it frustrating to weed through my regular emails to find all my travel emails because of my eSIM issues. I found that my Outlook emails sometimes didn't send or receive until I got a new eSIM. Even then, some emails were just lost. Two-factor authentication was hard because I ended up with an international number and my US number wouldn't work. And my email was spotty, so I couldn't authenticate. My credit cards did not like it. Update your new emails with them before leaving. I'm currently only halfway through my epic journey.
23:06 Speaker 03 I have more, but I'm out of characters. Thank you for being you. Love your show.
23:10 Speaker 02 Well, thank you and I hope you continue to have the best time ever in Southeast Asia. And the time of year, think about it. You escaped winter in Montana, which has felt like Montana in much of the country recently. But that's really, really wonderful. I've been to several of the countries that you're in and what a great experience. So it's so weird. I've talked in the past about Google Fi. And anybody taking an extended trip like this would benefit from having Google Fi as your primary and then you buy a local SIM where you are because you'll need both.
23:53 Speaker 02 Google Fi eventually, if you've not been a regular customer of theirs, it's going to send you a warning for a long, long trip like yours, it's two months and eventually they might cut you off. But because you land anywhere and you use it just as if you're home, it's a great thing for you to have for international travel is like the backbone of what you're doing. And then you use the eSIMs, as you said. I love your advice of having a trip-based email that you're using that everything for your trip is found there and it doesn't get cluttered in your regular email.
24:34 Speaker 03 I also, I do create a folder usually for a trip in my regular email and I put all those emails in there. If someone doesn't want to create another email address, that's a good way to do it too. So you just go to that folder and you've got them all categorized. Okay. And have a great trip. That's amazing.
24:49 Speaker 02 Awesome.
24:50 Speaker 03 Marilyn in Pennsylvania says, "I just started a new job that offers a 403B. I have a 403B from my previous employer. Can I roll it over or is there any benefit from rolling my old 403B into the new one? Can I continue to fund both of them? Is there a yearly total contribution limit if I'm funding multiple 403Bs? Thank you for all you do."
25:09 Speaker 02 Yeah. So first of all, there's something you got to know with 403Bs. There are really junky, terrible 403Bs with extremely outrageous commissions and very high ongoing expenses. And then there are ones that are not trash. And it's hard for you to know, and don't know if you are a teacher or work for a nonprofit, work for a hospital system, whatever it is, you need to know that, that there's a big difference from one employer's 403B to another. So would you move the money from the old one to the new one? You would only do it if
25:52 Speaker 02 the new one is a lower cost plan. Than the old one. And there's a website I mentioned just recently on the podcast, 403bwise.org. If you go there, they may have database on your old plan and your new one, telling you what the expenses are that nobody wants to tell you of your old plan. What are the expenses of your new plan? And you're able to make that decision. If your old plan is a very low cost 403B, leave it. If your new plan is an expensive one,
26:34 Speaker 02 you want to see if there's alternatives that you can use at the new employer. You're capped in total contribution each year, regardless of where you put the money. But just know that most 403B plans are, you know, we talk on Clark stinks, how much I stink, whatever the worst putrid thing is anybody's ever said I smell like. Most 403B plans are that times 100.
27:02 Speaker 03 Bob in Minnesota says, after rolling over my old 401k, I'm feeling dissatisfied with my financial advisor. Since we're hoping to retire next year, I'm considering rolling that account over to Fidelity where my current work account is held and investing it in a Vanguard target fund with an expense ratio of 0.075%, which I'm already invested in. I'm also thinking about consulting a fee only advisor to help create a retirement plan rather than having someone else manage my investments. Would you recommend having an advisor manage my accounts for the first few years of retirement? Or should I handle it myself? Also, is it a bad idea to combine my old 401k with my current Fidelity account? Or should I keep them separate? I like the idea of consolidating.
27:41 Speaker 02 So Bob, I love consolidation, but in this case, I don't love you flying blind here. You picked a financial advisor who obviously you don't trust, and you need to exit from that individual. I think it is a good idea for you to go to a fee only financial advisor. In the early years of retirement, when it's really hard to know, not just how to manage your money, but what are the things you need to be aware of? How much money is safe for you to spend each year in retirement and all the rest? I think a fee-only financial planner is invaluable. You can hire somebody by the hour.
28:24 Speaker 02 You can hire somebody at a, the most common amount is 1%. You talked about having a Vanguard target fund. If you instead consolidated your money at Vanguard, you could potentially participate in Vanguard PAS, Personal Advisory Service, where you were assigned to a Vanguard fiduciary employee. And the maximum you're charged for that advice is 0.30% of a percent per year. There are a number of ways you can hire somebody who is a fiduciary. You don't want somebody who starts hemming and hawing or saying, "Well, we're a fiduciary for some things, but not for others." No.
29:07 Speaker 02 You want someone who is a fiduciary, period. And it's not just that they're doing it the right way. They also have to mesh with you. They've got to be the right personality. They've got to be a good listener. They'll ask you a lot about what your goals are and all the rest. And it is a very valuable time to hire somebody who you trust, who you're comfortable in working with, and will set you on the right spending path and right investment path during retirement. I'm glad you asked this question when you did. And I wish you a great, great retirement in front of you when you get to it.
29:52 Speaker 02 And thank you so much for joining us today on the podcast. It's a wonderful opportunity as we all learn from each other. And what I love doing this podcast is every day, people take me to questions I never would have thought about. It broadens me. It makes me think about things in a more holistic way than I would otherwise. So I am grateful to you for this interactive we get to do on each podcast we do, each YouTube show we do. And know what this is all about. It's all about you.
30:33 Speaker 02 I want you to learn ways from me to save more, spend less, and avoid getting ripped off. And remember, on Clark.com, you'll find our information.
30:45 Speaker 02 On different ways you can get that advice you can trust.
30:54 Speaker 00 Progressive's Accident Response can contact emergency services if you're in a major accident. The only thing worse than someone you love being in an accident is not being able to help them. So Progressive is here to help when you can't. So get peace of mind knowing your loved ones are protected with Progressive's Accident Response. Learn more at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. Limited availability in California. Driver is responsible for emergency and towing charges not covered by the policy. Coverage subject to policy terms and conditions.
Previous 01.21.25 Ask An Advisor With Wes Moss - Why Successful Investors Buy Stocks (Mostly) and Stock Market FOMO Next 01.24.25 Clark Answers His Critics on Clark Stinks / Job Change and Your 401(k) Page updated November 7, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated
