Pod Insights The Clark Howard Podcast 01.28.26 Bypass Finfluencers / Can You Spot A Scam? About this episode Many young adults recognize the value of early saving and investing long-term. But with 61% of this age group now trusting social media "finfluencers" for investing tips, it’s more important than ever to distinguish between sound financial advice and sales pitches pushing “get rich” ripoffs and worse - conflating gambling with real investing. Also today - Clark shares a recent story of a retired lawyer who lost $85,000 to scammers posing as Microsoft security, only to have his bank deny a refund. Con artists continue their rampant looting unabated, with ever increasing sophistication, and no one is immune. BUT, there are tells. Learn their method of operation, how to verify account activity on your own terms, and how to protect your "keys to the kingdom" from the criminals leveraging your data against you. Finfluencers Vs The Real Thing: Segment 1 Ask Clark: Segment 2 Block The Con Job: Segment 3 Ask Clark: Segment 4 Mentioned on the show: WPost- 61% of young adults trust social media investing tips. Should they? Ivestopedia - Investing: An Introduction Clark.com - Invest & Retire / Retirement Calculator What's the Best Savings Account for a Teenager? How To Open a Roth IRA Target Date Funds: Clark Howard's Favorite Retirement Investment Stock Analysis - Free Online Stock Information for Investors NYTimes: Tech Support Scammers Stole $85,000 From Him. His Bank Declined to Refund Him. Clark Howard's Take on the Chase Sapphire Reserve® Changes Should I Ditch My Southwest Airlines Credit Card? 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 I'm so glad you're with us here on The Clark Howard Show, where our mission is to serve you with advice and information that empowers you to make better financial decisions in your life. Just last week, I heard from a couple in their 20s that's doing everything right with their money. You know, I wish that was the case for everyone, but of course, that's not going to be. And I'm particularly concerned about people in their teens and 20s taking advice from the wrong people. I want to tell you what I'm worried about in that area. And also, I have a warning for you about a couple of scams
1:48 Speaker 02 that are separating so many people from their money.
1:53 Speaker 02 So Washington Post had a story that just blew my mind. But just under two thirds of young adults trust investing advice that they see on social media. Now, come on, it's possible that you're going to find something that's really decent in terms of advice on social media. But the real problem here is a lot of what passes as advice is actually really sales pitches. And you've got the finfluencers earning a living seeming to give advice,
2:36 Speaker 02 but touting different organizations or investments that are pay for play. They're making money by saying, hey, you should really do this. Also, short, pithy kind of things, as an example, on TikTok, are generally not going to go into enough depth for a real understanding of the overall picture of having... Investing is not about some hot tip and buying this or selling that or doing this other thing or playing options. Being a smart investor is about thinking the waterfront. What are you trying to accomplish?
3:21 Speaker 02 What are the goals here? And I can't get out of my mind a conversation I had with a very enthusiastic 22-year-old woman. I was talking to her about, she said, well, how am I going to get wealthy? I said, well, I'll give you some ideas of things. And I explained what a Roth IRA was. She wasn't familiar with it. And I talked about how it's all about getting rich slowly. And I had her on her phone, pull up a calculator to see, you know, if you put this much away every week. Because I asked when she got paid, she got paid weekly. So you put these many dollars away weekly.
4:04 Speaker 02 Look how much you're going to have in 30 years and 40 years from now. And so think about for her 22, I'm talking about when she's in her early 50s, when she's in her 60s. And she said to me, well, I want to be rich now. And then it made me think of my son, who has an investment account. He's 20, and Grant thinks long-term investing is holding a stock for a few weeks. I mean, it's a hard thing to really get people, when they're new to investing, to think about it as a long-term play. That it's not a tactic, it's a strategy.
4:49 Speaker 02 And it's a goal you're trying to achieve over time. It's something that I've had a really hard time with because of all the emphasis now on social media, and you see it on TV as well, for online gambling that is crazy popular with people in their teens and twenties, especially young guys. It's kind of morphed, and I saw something where the CEO of Charles Schwab was talking about how it's really hard to explain that gambling is a completely different thing than investing.
5:33 Speaker 02 But in a lot of people's minds, in their twenties, they're the same thing. And so, how do you get wealthy? Unless you inherit, or you have your own business, or you win some crazy lottery thing, which the odds are much higher you're gonna get hit by lightning. You get rich through habits. Habits are key. One step at a time, and you pay close attention to being diversified, and that you go into
6:12 Speaker 02 things that have extremely low costs, or like with fidelity zero funds, no cost. So be careful where you're getting advice.
6:23 Speaker 02 And always, this is so terrible for me to say, it sounds cynical, but it's being protective. You always gotta really suss out, what's the hidden agenda here? Is somebody trying to sell me something? I mean, sometimes for people that are older, it's clear as day. You get one of those mailers, and these still come in the physical mail, offering you a free dinner for two at some fancy restaurant or steakhouse. Most often, they seem to be steakhouses. And you'll hit a certain age, probably early 50s, where you start getting these mailers for the free seminar at the steakhouse.
7:08 Speaker 02 And what are they pitching? What's the hidden agenda there? About 99.9% of the time, it's a pitch by a commission insurance agent to sell you some kind of crazy insurance product like universal life or whatever. Knowledge is your friend. You gotta know that where you're getting your knowledge is on the up and up. A lot of it is fundamental reading. Like, people ask me, where do you start if you know nothing? I mean, you can always use Investopedia as like your encyclopedia to understand a lot about how investing works.
7:49 Speaker 03 And Clark.com.
7:50 Speaker 02 Clark.com. Well, you know, I don't like to say that.
7:53 Speaker 03 I know, but we do have great info.
7:55 Speaker 02 We do. I believe we do. But somebody may find another site that's really great. And what does investigating a stock mean? Investigating a stock is not being on a message board with people talking about, oh, this, this company is gonna do blah, blah, blah, it's gonna be great. And investigating a company or stock involves something very dry and dull and boring.
8:25 Speaker 02 Reading their financials, understanding what you're reading in the financials and looking at what the trends are with that company and the industry it's in. So somebody who does a cute 90 second video and says, "This is it? You're gonna do all this?" That's not being a well researched investor. That's just doing a flip of a coin. Well, if you have coins anymore. Do you carry any coins?
8:56 Speaker 03 No.
8:57 Speaker 02 I don't have any coins.
8:58 Speaker 03 I have a great coin box where I save up coins.
9:01 Speaker 02 I wonder if the time's gonna come that somebody would use the expression flip of a coin and people are gonna be, "What?"
9:07 Speaker 03 I know. My daughter actually was home over the holidays and she lives in an apartment in Boston where she has to go to a coin operated laundry. And so she raided my coin jar for all my quarters.
9:21 Speaker 02 Okay, that's funny because my daughter who lives in Los Angeles has to go to a coin laundry and is always trying to figure out where to scarf up the many, many quarters she needs to do her laundry.
9:35 Speaker 03 Yeah. I do want to just brag for a second only because I feel like through all the years of osmosis, my daughter, I mean, she's, she's great and maybe she would have done this anyway, but she was so excited. She texted me and her dad and said, "Before the end of the year, I just maxed out my Roth IRA for the year." And we were so excited for her.
9:55 Speaker 02 At 23 years old?
9:56 Speaker 03 Mm-hmm.
9:57 Speaker 02 Is it 23?
9:58 Speaker 03 23.
9:59 Speaker 02 Wow. Good for her.
10:00 Speaker 03 I know. Okay. This one's from a much younger person. Kate in Michigan says, "Hi, Clark. I'm 14 and have recently started working. I have about $3,500 in savings and I also have an investment account. I'm looking to start investing. What would be a good amount to start with and any other tips on investing?" Shout out to my mom who plays the podcast on the way home from school every day.
10:25 Speaker 02 Okay, that's funny.
10:26 Speaker 03 Shout out to you, Kate. Cause a lot of kids might just complain about that. Mine would have.
10:33 Speaker 02 I can't tell you, you know, since I, since I was a broadcaster for so many decades, how often somebody in their 30s or 40s will come up to me and say, I used to have to listen to you in the carpool.
10:45 Speaker 03 Oh God, I mean, you got a national shout out on a huge podcast that I listened to. My favorite one, Armchair Expert, the co-host said, oh, my dad used to drive me crazy in the car, listening to this guy, Clark Howard. I thought he was so boring and he wouldn't turn it off the radio. I was like, huh.
11:04 Speaker 02 And it's true. I am boring.
11:06 Speaker 03 No.
11:06 Speaker 02 Yes, I am. I'm the most dull man alive. But anyway, 14, I love this because you have this 3,500 you already saved and you want to invest and you always start with what's known as the core. And that is building a nest egg that is widely diversified. I like the total stock market index where you own little pieces of thousands of companies. And because you're 14, there's one company that is my favorite for you. They've been the most innovative in this area and that's Fidelity Investments that has the youth investment
11:50 Speaker 02 account where you have pretty significant control over your own account. The account's free. You need $1 to open it. You can easily do that and you can add money regularly to your investments with them. The beauty of going into the Fidelity Zero Funds is Fidelity absorbs all the costs of running the funds. So every dollar you put in goes to work for you. There's no commissions and the money grows tax-free. And because it's a widely diversified index fund and they have several of them in there and you can read about them online at Fidelity, you are able to spread your money out, have minimal tax, pretty
12:32 Speaker 02 much zero tax each year, and have the money grow. The only problem with you having money in your own name is if You're anticipating going to college and hoping for a lot of financial aid. If you've got money in your own name, it actually harms you for financial aid. Worth the risk of that because you're learning to invest methodically and build your money for your future.
12:59 Speaker 03 And I know, I'm surprised you didn't mention it, but Kate's working, so Roth IRA.
13:04 Speaker 02 Roth IRA too. Yeah, so Roth at Fidelity or Vanguard or whatever. And with the Roth thing, you want to go in what's known as a target retirement fund. And we have a good explanation of how target retirement funds work at Clark.com and how to pick one.
13:23 Speaker 03 Bob in Georgia says, Clark, I'm interested in purchasing individual stocks. I don't want to play the stock market like a trader, but I want to get a little more granular in my investing beyond something like a mutual fund. What are safe, trustworthy and easy tools that I can use? Is Robinhood a good tool and what recommendations do you have?
13:40 Speaker 02 So if you're investigating individual stocks, you really want to understand a company. I don't get excited about the research tools at any of the brokerage houses, even at my favorite children. One company that's never mentioned anymore that does a good job in this area is Yahoo.
14:01 Speaker 03 Oh.
14:02 Speaker 02 Yahoo Finance does a good job at understanding stocks, industries and the best, the rest. But if you want deep dive into individual stocks with great tabs to look at different things about a company you're interested in. Stock analysis is one that I really like. It's free. They do a great job with you being able to do deep dives on research. Some of what you'll see. When you first start doing it will be a little bit confusing. That's why Investopedia having that in another window, if there's terminology there you don't understand, you
14:46 Speaker 02 can use Investopedia as a guide to understand more what you're seeing when you're deep diving on an individual stock.
14:54 Speaker 03 All right. And this is, this is a tough one. This is from anonymous in North Carolina. I'm retired and struggling. In my late 60s, my children make a lot of money and typically donate to churches and to other charities upwards of $150,000 to $250,000 per year. Yet I'm never gifted the $19,000 that is allowed by the tax law, that was in 2025, because they cannot write it off. What are your thoughts on grown adult children not doing this for their parents who are struggling and living off of social security with extreme rising costs for everyday expenses and taxes? You recently did a podcast on adult children being helped by their parents nearly $20,000 a year, and I'm wondering if the reverse
15:36 Speaker 03 should be given to parents whose children can afford to help them but do not. I've had my own grown children mention that everyone needs to make their own way and each family is responsible for themselves. However, with aging parents, it's hard to get jobs and I just feel like it's a slap in the face for adult children who can afford it to not give their parents their money each year, but they, they don't because they can't write it off or feel the parents are still breathing and they should go out and work in their near 70-year age.
16:04 Speaker 02 Anonymous, I am very, very sorry because I hear in your words that Krista read, the pain that you feel that your adult children don't appreciate you, aren't grateful for what you did in raising them. No doubt, there are different cultures and different families. I mean, another topic we dealt with on this podcast last year, and we've dealt with it before that one time, is how many adult children are taking care of their aging parents and everything involved in that. For whatever reason, your kids
16:47 Speaker 02 Feel like you're, um, you're not worthy when they're making all that money. And so this is a hard conversation for you to have because you're definitely, you feel the hurt. I, I mean, I hear it in the words, but I think you need to have a conversation with your adult children and say, I need to tell you, I'm really struggling here and I'd love it if you could provide me with some financial support. Don't talk about what anybody else does or anything like that. Just, just address it, one human being to another, a parent to a child.
17:29 Speaker 02 My late father used to say, one parent could take care of 10 children, but 10 children can't take care of one parent. And it's true that kids often have amnesia about what their parents did for them or do for them. So that's why it's just a straight request. You can't compel them and you don't want it to be out of anger. You just say, I'm really struggling here. And by the way, you know, you can give up to this amount of money per year, 19,000, without having to worry about any tax issues for either you or for me.
18:08 Speaker 02 So whatever you could do, I'd really appreciate it and keep it that simple. Because as soon as any of your hurt comes out, your kids would become defensive. So you just say it as a request and hope that your kids will respond in the way that you need, which is to give you some financial support. And I'm really, really sorry that you feel like your adult children have abandoned you, at least financially.
18:48 Speaker 02 Coming up ahead, I want to talk about scams, which are a steadily moving target, but some things I want to make sure you're completely aware of.
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21:16 Speaker 02 We have a, what we call our show meeting, where we talk about different things we might discuss on our podcast or our YouTube show, or write about on Clark.com. And when we were meeting most recently, doing planning, I was looking at our section that we have when we're talking about topics. The scam section had 11 different scams that were hot or hotter than they'd been right now. And scammers don't need to go rob somebody with a pistol. They don't need to go rob a bank.
21:58 Speaker 02 Instead, it's all about being a con artist. The chances of ever being arrested, the chances of ever, even if arrested, getting convicted, the chance of getting convicted, serving any real time are so small, these are almost crimes without punishment. And this form of theft of money, I guess we could call it modern bank robbery, where criminals are specifically targeting you to get to your money, pretending to be, through
22:36 Speaker 02 pretexting, pretending to be from, uh, Microsoft has always been the most popular for the crooks, where they pretend they're from Microsoft tech support, Microsoft security, Microsoft something, and they need to tell you there's been a hack of your computer or whatever. And it's, you know what this one's all about? Same thing as the pretexting, where somebody pretends to be from your bank or credit union or brokerage. It's all about trying to get access to your accounts. And the position of the banks, and typically with the brokerages, is you are not protected
23:21 Speaker 02 by their fraud systems.
23:24 Speaker 02 And your money is not restored even if the person impersonated a bank employee or a brokerage employee or whatever, because you gave them the information they needed to take the money out of your account. There are some simple rules. Remember, the MO is not always the same. It could be somebody pretending to be from the government, somebody pretending to be from a data or computer company like Microsoft, somebody pretending to be from a financial institution. It's all based and starts with pretexting, making you believe there's something they're not.
24:06 Speaker 02 And if you think this couldn't happen to you, let me tell you, the sophistication of people whose money is being stolen through these various scams is usually pretty high because they're going after people who have a good deal of money. And how do they know who to target? Because of all the data breaches and all the information available online. And if they buy a file with data breach information on a particular person, they already know your social security number, they know your address. What's one of the things they look for? Anybody who has more than one residence. Somebody who's got a mountain home and a regular home, or a lake home and a regular
24:51 Speaker 02 home, you know, a beach place and a place up north. In those circumstances, you've got a bullseye target on you like you can't imagine. Because an automatic lead that is a phenomenal lead for a con artist is anybody, this is like another form of success tax, anybody who's wealthy enough that you've got more than one residence. If they know what's on your credit file, and there are lots of ways they find that out, by the way, and they see you've got all these great lines of credit and credit cards and all that, again, you're a target. These crooks are not looking for somebody who doesn't have anything.
25:34 Speaker 02 They're looking for people who've got big balances and a bank, credit union, or brokerage, or the bonanzas when they got all three. And what they're trying to get, the method of operation is not the same. There's similar goal to get to your money, but the method of operation is what you've got to be aware of. It starts with the phony phone call, or text, or email. And then what they're trying to get is the keys to the kingdom. Access to the accounts where your money is. New York Times did a story recently where a retired lawyer had $85,000 stolen after a number of conversations
26:18 Speaker 02 with crooks pretending to be from Microsoft, trying to protect the retired lawyer from a data breach. The money gets stolen from his account. His bank says, "Tough toenails. You gave the criminal the information they wanted. You're not getting anything back." How long did it take for the lawyer to figure out that something bad had happened? 150 minutes. And is contacting the bank saying, "Hey, I think I got scammed." Bank says, 150 minutes later, after the bank accommodated the crooks and wired the money out, bank says, "Tough. You're out the money. You gave them the information."
27:01 Speaker 02 And know that these are the elements you've got to watch out for. My rule? You should start following my rule. I don't know who's calling. I don't answer that call. Period. If somebody's calling and the caller ID says, "Blah, blah, blah, credit union." I don't have a bank account, but I have credit union accounts and brokerage.
27:27 Speaker 02 The caller ID says it's one of those. Do I answer that call? No, I do not. Do not ever answer that call. What do I do? I wait, listen to the voicemail. They say blah, blah, blah about my account. Do I then call back? No, I don't. I sign into my account. And I'm able to see nothing funny is going on. Nothing weird is happening. So the key is the criminals try to pretend something they're not. They create a sense of danger to you by telling you, "Quick, quick, you gotta act." Something's gonna happen, so there's a sense of urgency.
28:11 Speaker 02 And then they get you to help them create the crime that they told you was already happening. Remember those elements. Don't care what age you are. The criminals are only after money. And you're the one who has to be the police officer. Because law enforcement cannot get your money back. You think I feel some strength about that, Krista?
28:38 Speaker 03 Tough toenails.
28:41 Speaker 02 I don't even know where that expression came from.
28:43 Speaker 03 I've been thinking about all these expressions. You've been saying them lately. And then some other ones I heard, like, "There are many ways to skin a cat." Like, what is that?
28:51 Speaker 02 I don't know either. There are all these things that you learn growing up that are all these phrases that nobody knows where they actually came from.
29:01 Speaker 03 Yeah, we don't question them. Okay, we'll go to questions. Kathleen in Alabama says, "I wondered if you're familiar with a new scam with student loans. Someone took out a fraudulent student loan in my daughter's name, used it toward graduate school, then dropped out of school. And the money was returned to the student rather than FAFSA. Even with credit freezes and fraud alerts with all three credit bureaus, they were able to get the loan approved because a credit check is not required by FAFSA. It has been a huge headache."
29:28 Speaker 02 Kathleen, I am so sorry, and this is a crime that has been around for a while. Again, because of how careless so many organizations have been with our information. Criminal gets your profile, they can buy it very easily online because of all the various data breaches. You did the most important thing, having the credit freezes in place, and it still was not enough to prevent this. And yes, when somebody takes out student loans impersonating you, it's a huge hassle to get it cleared up. Now, something we learned over the years, because this crime has been around for decades, by the way,
30:12 Speaker 02 is when you get this cleared up, the documentation that you get showing that you're released from responsibility for this or whatever, you keep it for how long? The rest of your life. You keep it online, you keep a physical copy, because what we've had in the past is criminals will impersonate somebody, take out student loan debt as if they're them. You think you got it all cleared up, and 10, 15 or so years later, you start getting hassled by a debt collector trying to collect on that loan that was never yours in the first place. So, once you get it cleared out, cleared up, you're not done with it.
30:56 Speaker 02 You keep the documentation. And no, I don't know a procedure to prevent somebody from taking out a student loan. Now, private student loans, they're going to pull credit. They're not going to be able to because of the credit freeze in place. But government loans, there's no system like that to prevent this from occurring.
31:20 Speaker 03 Kenny in Florida says, because of a huge increase in the annual cost of the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, I will not be renewing my card. My annual subscription that I will not renew is in May, and I've already purchased flight tickets with points for July. Since I won't have an active card in July, will those flight tickets still be valid?
31:40 Speaker 02 Yes. Yeah, and you are dumping or did dump your Chase Sapphire Reserve?
31:46 Speaker 03 No.
31:46 Speaker 02 Well, I thought you were because of the fee bump up.
31:49 Speaker 03 No.
31:50 Speaker 02 No? Okay.
31:51 Speaker 03 I'm just making sure I use every single benefit I can.
31:54 Speaker 02 Yeah, it's funny because I've seen the new Capital One Venture X ads that talk about how easy it is to use their credits, comparing them to Chase, City, and American Express, which are now like coupon books. And so you have these much higher annual fees. And what they're banking on is consumer behavior that most people don't use all the benefits there are. So I have longstanding, I've had the American Express Platinum, and they raised the annual fee to a million dollars. Was it 8.95?
32:32 Speaker 03 Oh, I thought it was like a thousand.
32:34 Speaker 02 I think it's 8.95. And they've added these other credits. And one of them, it's so funny because it's for a place that's so overpriced, I can't imagine 50 years from now paying what things cost there. Lululemon.
32:49 Speaker 03 Lululemon.
32:50 Speaker 02 But one of my daughters and my wife both wear stuff from there. So every 90 days, you get a credit where you can buy $75 worth of merchandise for free. So what do we do as soon as the new quarter starts? Either Lain or Steffi, go buy something at Lululemon. And the rule is, it's gotta cost no more, my rule, than $10 more than what the credit's worth.
33:22 Speaker 03 Okay.
33:23 Speaker 02 So that way, we pick up $300 of the crazy annual fee right there.
33:29 Speaker 03 Mark in Georgia says, hi Clark, thanks for all you do in keeping us informed on how not to get ripped off and how to save money. Like you, I've taken the Southwest Airlines breakup somewhat hard and have booked my future travel with Delta and Alaska Airlines. I stopped using my Southwest Chase credit card today and I called to cancel the card. The representative asked me why I was canceling. I informed her the $229 annual fee was too much. She immediately said, we are willing to lower your renewal annual fee to $149 for one year and provide you with a 100% $50 statement credit if I'd be willing to keep the card for one more year.
34:04 Speaker 02 Wait, so providing the card for a year, paying you a dollar to keep the card?
34:09 Speaker 03 Uh huh. This happened to me too with a different card I have. It's actually an airline reward card. I called to cancel it and they gave me more than a free year of the card and I get a companion certificate with it. So I kept it for one more year. They asked if I'd be willing to keep it one more year. So that means in 2027, my annual fee will then increase to 229, providing Chase doesn't increase it. I decided to keep the card for one more year, just in case I do end up booking again with Southwest. Keeping the card active will at least provide me a free checked bag. I set up a reminder on my Alexa to cancel my card before my annual renewal date in March. I thought this might be helpful information for other listeners.
34:48 Speaker 02 I love this. And when I canceled my Southwest card, they didn't offer me anything. They said, okay, go have a nice life. So you did much better than I did, getting another year essentially for free. And you know, I, I expressed great anger about Southwest that you've always called.
35:11 Speaker 03 Anger. I feel like it was more hurt. Like you really had a personal relationship with that airline. You were so upset about it.
35:19 Speaker 02 And yeah, I mean, the love airline, the heart, the heart and everything.
35:23 Speaker 03 Stabbed you in the heart.
35:24 Speaker 02 And you know, I've had enough time. It's like any relationship. First, there's, what is it? Anger, denial, acceptance? I've reached acceptance that the Southwest that I loved no longer exists. And I've fully processed that they have decided to become just like any other airline. And good luck to them with that. If they can make it work, they're opening lounges. They're apparently going to fly all over the globe. I mean, they're basically becoming, I'd say most like Alaska Airlines,
36:06 Speaker 02 which is steadily growing internationally and doing, you know, lie flat beds and all that. And they're as big as American, United and Delta. But the model I look at is they're morphing into more like Alaska. And I just have to accept that that they're gone.
36:24 Speaker 03 Oh, you don't have to like it, just have to accept it.
36:27 Speaker 02 And I'm over my anger and my hurt.
36:29 Speaker 03 Okay, I'm glad. That's awesome.
36:33 Speaker 02 Thank goodness I never named a dog Herb. We were gonna name a dog Herb.
36:38 Speaker 03 After Herb Keller.
36:40 Speaker 02 The one of my lifelong heroes, well, not lifelong, but as long as I knew Herb Keller.
36:47 Speaker 03 He founded it, right?
36:49 Speaker 02 Well, he didn't.
36:50 Speaker 03 He was the CEO.
36:50 Speaker 02 He didn't found it, but he ended up basically running it.
36:54 Speaker 03 Mm hmm.
36:55 Speaker 02 Cause he was the lawyer for the founder.
36:57 Speaker 03 Oh.
36:58 Speaker 02 And he won the court case that at that time, the full fare airlines of that era were trying to keep Southwest from existing because it just wasn't fair that they were offering these cheaper fares.
37:09 Speaker 03 Hmm.
37:10 Speaker 02 And Herb ended up running it and creating this most amazing airline where the employees loved the company and loved the passengers and loved him and all that. And, you know, a lot of people said Southwest was never the same after Herb Keller retired. So it's just one of those things and I'm cool with it and I'm and now I'm flying, I really, you know.
37:39 Speaker 03 Cool. I'm cool with it.
37:40 Speaker 02 Yeah. You look at how many different airlines I fly.
37:45 Speaker 03 I know.
37:45 Speaker 02 In a few months now, you know, there's no, I'm not looking first at Southwest.
37:51 Speaker 03 There's no standout.
37:52 Speaker 02 There is no standout anymore. I am a free agent looking for my best deal all the time. So what can you do? But anyway, enough about my personal problem
38:07 Speaker 02 with my girlfriend.
38:09 Speaker 03 Ex-girlfriend.
38:09 Speaker 02 Ex-girlfriend dissing me and ditching me and going for extra legroom seats instead of me. Anyway, that's fine.
38:20 Speaker 03 And bag fees and.
38:23 Speaker 03 Yeah.
38:24 Speaker 02 Well, since I don't check a bag, the bag fees actually benefit me. It's kind of like renting a car. The people who buy all that fake pseudo awful pretend insurance from the car rental agencies for a zillion dollars subsidize me when I rent a car. The same thing now is true at Southwest, that the bag fees mean that I can buy a fare that nominally is cheaper than it would have been before. And people who check bags are paying the fee.
38:57 Speaker 03 Yeah.
38:57 Speaker 02 So.
38:58 Speaker 03 Except now it's going to be harder to get your bag on a Southwest flight because people aren't going to take the free check bag.
39:04 Speaker 02 Gonna be. They're already charging for the bags. Lane and I have been on Southwest twice in the last few weeks, and it's like Hunger Games. It's like being on American, United, and Delta, trying to find room in an overhead bin. And if your boarding number's too late, you ain't taking that check bag, that carry-on bag, onto the plane. Enough, enough, enough. Because I could talk about this for what, three hours, four hours, straight? So, anyway, have an absolutely wonderful rest of your day. Know what we're about is your empowerment with knowledge, so you can take more control
39:48 Speaker 02 over your life involving your wallet, so you can save more, spend less, and never, never, never, not ever, let somebody rip you off. Have a great one.
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