Pod Insights The Clark Howard Podcast 02.12.25 Finding A Side Gig / Finances: Teach Your Children Well About this episode So many Americans are taking on side jobs to make extra cash. Clark talks about how important it is to have your scam radar up, and to prepare for the latest tax implications of gig work. Plus, for parents, Clark discusses the state of financial education and ways to give your kids the financial know-how they’ll need throughout life. Legit Gig Work: Segment 1 Ask Clark: Segment 2 Financial Education: Segment 3 Ask Clark: Segment 4 Mentioned on the show: Taking the guesswork out of gigs 30 Easy Side Hustle Ideas Is One Medical Membership for Prime Members Better Than a Health Concierge? Amazon One Medical - Portland OR How to Find a Geriatric Care Manager / Senior Planning NHTSA safety | Check for Recalls. Save Lives. Why You Should Never Use a Debit Card To Pay for Anything How to Teach Young Kids About Money How To Buy Term Life Insurance in 7 Easy Steps 4 Types of Term Life Insurance Companies Explained Discover it® Cash Back Review: Earn Rotating 5% in Top Categories Credit Karma Review: Free Credit Score and More at Your Fingertips 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
Transcript 0:01 Speaker 00 Life is all about making decisions. Sometimes you make questionable ones, like buying a new TV that's too big for the wall because the electronics store employee was a little too good at their job. Then, sometimes you make great ones, like protecting your home and auto with Progressive. You get customized coverage options, so you can be sure you have the right coverage. Get your quote today at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company affiliates and other insurers. Not available in all states.
0:29 Speaker 01 Your sausage McMuffin with egg didn't change, your receipt did. The sausage McMuffin with egg extra value meal includes a hash brown and a small coffee for just $5. Only at McDonald's for a limited time.
0:42 Speaker 02 Price and participation may vary. Promotion pricing may be lower than meal pricing.
0:45 Speaker 03 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 to make better financial decisions in your life. In today's episode, so many of us as Americans are taking side jobs to make some extra cash. My own son is driving for one of the food delivery companies. But how do you figure out if the gig work is legit and if it pays enough to be worth doing?
1:23 Speaker 03 Also, I consider what I do being a teacher, and I wish that our education system routinely taught practical money advice to kids, you know, episodically through the years, they would get the kind of content that they could absorb at their ages. And I want to talk about how I do it if I were you as a parent, since so often this is not available. But right now, I want to talk about how common it is today. For people to do some kind of side work. And what did that used to mean? It used to mean you picked up some kind of side job
2:05 Speaker 03 where you would do something for a company, work seasonal retail, or pick up a shift at a restaurant, or whatever. But today, it's endless. I mean, you need to get flat screen TV hung in your home and you can't figure out how to do it. There are all these apps. You can hire somebody to come out and do it. And you hope they know what they're doing. But anyway, they'll do that. And there are apps that people pick up app-based work for so many different things. Obviously, the biggest are transportation-related and delivery-related. And I've noticed how much Amazon is using people driving their own vehicles now, doing app-based work,
2:49 Speaker 03 doing deliveries for Amazon, not in an Amazon truck or anything like that. There are so many things you can do. But at the same time, you've got to know that because this is so common, it's become a common area of scams. And you've got to be so aware about crooked supposed apps that promise you, you're going to make all this money. And they then are trying to steal either personal information from you, to steal your identity, or amazingly often with these apps, that they need some kind of fee from you for a background check, or whatever it is.
3:34 Speaker 03 And then they go radio silent on you. So know that you've got to be so cautious and careful with the gig work. The thing being scammed is not nearly as common, though, is the other thing, that the promises of income you earn are not really great. And as I've talked about with my son, doing deliveries for Uber Eats. He can't be an Uber driver, or auto insurance won't permit it. And he's too young, anyway, to be an Uber driver. But he's doing the Uber Eats, is that you learn what's lucrative and what's not, what job you should take, what job you shouldn't take. And that's part...
4:15 Speaker 03 Of making it worth your while and worth your time to use these apps. If you've got some kind of side gig though, that's not app-based and you've been getting paid through, let's say Cash App or Venmo or PayPal or whatever. And last year, there was this huge scare about everybody getting these 1099s for any amount of money you receive on any of these apps. It was anybody $600 was going to get them. You could even be getting $600 from a family member or friend. Then it's going to generate a 1099. So that lunacy didn't happen and it was suspended for a year.
4:59 Speaker 03 And this year, as you're getting 1099s from last year, they'll only go to people who earned more than five grand or received, I should say, more than five grand on the apps. And when you're doing your tax return, let's say you weren't doing any kind of work with them. You still have to report it and then back it out. Back it out is a process where you report that, yeah, I got $5,500, but it was money from my dad or whatever it was that was not earnings from a job. So you report it and then back it out of your income. Cause if you don't report it, the IRS is going to send you a bill for tax for that.
5:41 Speaker 03 But you can avoid that simply by, even though you don't just throw it away, you report it and then it's a fairly simple procedure using tax software to then back out that income. So you've told the IRS, yeah, I got this. You attach the 1099, but you don't pay tax on it. If you did make the money from doing something though, and in past years, you just kind of pocketed the money. It's not going to work this year if you earned five grand or more from some kind of side thing.
6:12 Speaker 04 Okay, we'll go to questions. Lynn in Oregon says this, "I'm trying to move my very elderly parents from another state to a graduated care facility with assisted living, memory care, etc. near me. However, they both have an array of health problems and many specialist physicians they have seen for years. I've been calling around in my state to try to line up a doctor and can't even find a primary care physician taking new patients. One place that said yes was an independent practice that charges $2,100 per year per person for concierge medicine. However, I went to TrustPilot.com and this company got terrible ratings," and that's the name of the company. "People complained they didn't get the 24/7 access to doctors as promised and still had
6:57 Speaker 04 long wait times. Clark, I'm so afraid to move my parents near me and risk their health with no relationship to good local doctors and long wait times for serious medical conditions. Is the alternative that I just keep flying out of state every month to check on them and get them in-home help that I have to manage from a distance? I'm their only child and nearing 70 myself. This is becoming unsustainable. Help, I need advice. Thank you, Clark."
7:21 Speaker 03 Lynn, this is something that is happening to so many adult children with aging parents who now need significant care. You experience the frustration so many fellow Americans are having all around the country, and regardless of your parents being elderly, that finding a primary care doctor now has become like a needle in a haystack. We have a severe shortage of primary care doctors in the United States. So, a lot of people who are Medicare eligible, like your parents, are ending up finding
8:02 Speaker 03 that the only people who really want them now are concierge practices that you pay an annual fee, usually 1,500, to, believe it or not, as much as $5,000 a year to have access to a doctor. But what's hap- What's happened is a lot of these services have overpromised. Like you saw when you read reviews of the concierge practice, you were looking at the promises of same-day appointments and access 24 hours a day and all that. That was a bunch of marketing hooey, and it's not really happening. They want those annual fees, they don't want to provide the services necessarily they promised.
8:41 Speaker 03 I have been in One Medical for a while, which is a kind of not really concierge practice, but it's a practice available from Amazon. In fact, they now call it Amazon One Medical. And you're in Oregon, they're in Portland, they're nowhere else in Oregon, so I don't know what part of the state you're in.
9:02 Speaker 04 And you used to be in concierge medicine?
9:03 Speaker 03 I used to be in concierge medicine because of my heart problems and cancer, and I left concierge medicine because I was finding what you were reading on reviews, that I was not getting access, and so why was I paying money? So now I pay minimal money each year, a hundred something dollars, I think it's $1.99 I think, for the One Medical, and I've been very, very happy with how that's working. And for me, traveling, I've been to One Medical offices around the country when I've been under the weather somewhere else in America.
9:43 Speaker 03 It's not perfect either, medicine is not perfect, but One Medical has, in a lot of cities, they have an office of geriatric specialists that attend to people that are Medicare-eligible, and if you are in Portland, you could check that out. The other possibility that I've read about is finding a NP, a nurse practitioner, or a physician assistant who has a specialty in geriatric medicine and would be available
10:17 Speaker 03 For having your parents in their patient load. And then they're able to be traffic cop, refer to the specialist, deal with the multiple medical conditions your parents have. But the one thing I wanted to say as an alternative, you mentioned, oh, so what do I do? Do I leave them in their house elsewhere? And go see them once a month? And deal with having home health aides come in and all that? Or what you did not say? What about finding a graduated care facility? Where your parents live now? They already have their specialist. You already know they are. And you travel to them instead of relocating them? By moving them into a graduated care facility? Where they are? This is a very difficult area.
11:01 Speaker 03 My suggestion on top of this? Hire a geriatric care manager. That's what they're called technically, right? Geriatric care manager? To assist with helping you with coming up with what is the best care plan? For your parents? And what's the best placement for them?
11:21 Speaker 04 Kathy in Washington says, my husband and I have a 2011 Toyota RAV4. It has nearly 150,000 miles on it. It has been in three accidents. A deer ran into the passenger side. A pickup slid into the passenger side and it just got rear ended. It is now in the repair shop. While at the repair shop, my husband asked about repainting the hood? As the paint has issues. It looks like someone threw acid on the hood.
11:45 Speaker 03 What?
11:45 Speaker 04 This is the only place the paint has done this kind of decaying. The auto body shop said it would cost between $800 and $1,200 to repaint. The radio also has issues. We've replaced it three times. It works, but the display is inconsistent. Sometimes one can see the info and other times it has a display of some weird characters. It would be nearly $1,000 to replace the battery, a lot in labor. We'd like to sell the car in the next year or so. I say we leave the car as is. Be honest about the radio. The paint is obvious. My husband disagrees and thinks we should pay to get the car more perfect. Your thoughts? Clark is my husband's go to for everything. And we never do anything without Clark's podcast approval.
12:25 Speaker 03 Well, Kathy, uh, thank you very much for that.
12:28 Speaker 04 And sorry about that.
12:30 Speaker 03 And I'm thinking about, man, you're usually, I'm talking to people about Toyotas and a 2011 Toyota with 150,000 miles. It's just a baby.
12:40 Speaker 04 It's a baby.
12:41 Speaker 03 It's, it's, I mean, it hadn't even made it into junior high yet. Because they are so crazy reliable over the long haul. But you've had really bad luck here. Three wrecks. You got this electrical problem that nobody seems to be able to fix that is most visible on the radio. You got this hood that's all discolored. It's got all these miles. It's 14 model years old at this point. I think you have the body shop finish the work. And when the time comes that you want to sell it, you sell it. If you got a paint job on a vehicle that's almost 15 model years old, I would go to
13:26 Speaker 03 one of the chains that does the no frills paint jobs and paint it there for a lot less money than a really highly skilled body shop would do. It wouldn't be worth the money to spend more than a grand to paint the hood of that vehicle.
13:43 Speaker 04 Also, I know there was a paint recall on Toyota RAV4s at one point. I don't know if you can still do it, but definitely look up to see if you're part of that recall.
13:52 Speaker 03 Good job.
13:52 Speaker 04 Yeah, and you go to NHTSA.gov for that, right?
13:56 Speaker 03 That's right.
13:56 Speaker 04 NHTSA.
13:57 Speaker 03 And you'll see if there is a paint recall and how long it would last and all the rest. But I lean towards you in this case, even with it being a Toyota. That RAV4s had a rough life and I think it is time to move on. And I don't know that you necessarily fix those items, but if you did, I would do one of the cheap aftermarket paint jobs on it if you wanted it to be more presentable for sale. The radio thing, I'm stumped on that. I wonder if you, instead of putting in a replacement Toyota radio, you went and had a independent, you know, a third-party radio put in it that had the ability to stream
14:42 Speaker 03 or whatever that would make it up-to-date music-wise and make it more appealing for a buyer. You'd enjoy it for another year or whenever you're going to sell it, and then you dump the vehicle.
14:53 Speaker 04 Lexi in Florida says, I went to the Bank today to withdraw cash. I used the ATM at the drive thru. To access my account, I tapped my digital debit card from my Apple Wallet onto the NFC reader, entered my PIN and the amount that I wanted to withdraw. I retrieved my cash, counted it and drove away. After I drove away, I realized that I never unlocked my debit card before getting the cash. I was under the impression that locking your debit card will reject any attempt to make a transaction at any ATM or in an in-store, in-person, online. I logged into my account to double-check and my debit card was indeed locked the entire time. How was I able to get cash out?
15:29 Speaker 03 No way, no way.
15:29 Speaker 04 Is this something I should be concerned about?
15:31 Speaker 03 Yes, yes. So, just because you used your Apple Wallet to get money, at most financial institutions, if you have card lock in effect on your debit card, it will not work at the ATM, should not work at the ATM. I see you're with Bank of America. You know, I know with Bank of America, they're a little squirrely about the protections with a lock, but my understanding of it is, just because you used Apple Pay or somebody else used Google Wallet, it should not have allowed that withdrawal with the lock. I think you need to talk to
16:12 Speaker 03 Bank of America Customer No Service and find out. Now, there is another thing that some financial institutions and banks, credit unions, offer. It's where you have it set for $0 for what's called point of sale. That would be using it as a card anywhere other than at an ATM. And I guess that's a slight possibility, but I think there's just some problem that happened at Bank of America, and you need to see if you can get to the bottom of it there. Because it's something I've not talked about, except when people
16:51 Speaker 03 ask me questions, is I call the debit card, the Visa, MasterCard debit card, "piece of trash, fake Visa, fake MasterCard," because of the lack of consumer protections. So, if you're only going to use it very rarely, and your financial institution offers you the ability to lock the card, so even if it's stolen, a criminal can't use it, take advantage of that. It's to your best protection. Coming up ahead, something that would really help a lot of people. Is if we offered sustained personal finance education as our kids go through the educational system at all different ages, but it's kind of hit or miss on that.
17:35 Speaker 03 So what can you or I do?
17:39 Speaker 00 Life is all about making decisions. Sometimes you make questionable ones, like buying a new TV that's too big for the wall because the electronics store employee was a little too good at their job. Then sometimes you make great ones, like protecting your home and auto with Progressive. You get customized coverage options so you can be sure you have the right coverage. Get your quote today at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company affiliates and other insurers, not available in all states.
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18:20 Speaker 02 Price and participation may vary. Promotion pricing may be lower than meal pricing.
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19:53 Speaker 03 I'm really excited that it's become more and more the thing that in order to graduate from college, a lot of colleges require that you go through personal finance education. That it's an age where people are already having misadventures with credit cards. They're trying to understand how loans work. You can teach about retirement accounts. For people of the 18 to 24-year-old group who go to college, this being part of the game is great. But then we've got such a large percent of Americans who don't go to college, who go to a technical school or do who knows what.
20:36 Speaker 03 They don't have the access to this. And it's pretty rare in high school that personal finance education is taught. And it's one of the most valuable things for life you could have. I remember years ago, there was an expert I used to have on TV who was a brilliant financier, before we were shooting or after. He'd ask me personal finance questions that showed he knew nothing, he knew the big picture and big money and all that, but knew nothing about everyday finance.
21:16 Speaker 03 And he was a PhD, but never learned anything about the everyday kind of money stuff we talk about, which is so well taught in the school system. I mean, I started teaching my kids basics about money when they were in elementary school. My kids all knew what unit pricing was by the third grade because they were getting enough math in school that I could teach unit pricing. There's so much age-appropriate stuff that can be taught, the most elementary things in elementary school, more in middle school, and then absolutely in high school. But that's been my wish for forever.
22:00 Speaker 03 And it's just hit or miss. So that brings you to the table, you as a parent. You're the one who's got to take the time to teach your children age appropriate about money. Let's face facts, a lot of parents aren't comfortable doing it because they're not that comfortable with how they've been handling money. Use that as part of the teaching. Say, "I wish I knew at your age what I want you to know now, so you don't make mistakes like I made."
22:38 Speaker 03 And mistakes you're willing to share with a kid age appropriate are valuable because kids generally look up to you. And so they can learn so much from you. When you're out shopping, when you're out doing things, when you're trying to make decisions about this, that, or the other. Talk to them about it. It's not a conversation. We know that doesn't work with the birds and the bees, and especially doesn't work with money. So take the time to talk repeatedly. And when your kids ask you a question that's about money, take the time to answer it and try to understand why they're asking it.
23:21 Speaker 03 I know it'd be great if it were part of curriculum. Generally, it's not. So under your own school of mom and dad, or mom or dad, I want you teaching. I want you doing it. And you know, if it changes some of your habits to be better things along the way, even better. Krista?
23:41 Speaker 04 Lori in South Carolina says, "I have a life insurance policy that will end in the year 2036. Right now, my monthly rate is $46 a month."
23:50 Speaker 03 Gotta be level terms.
23:52 Speaker 04 Right, for sure. "At the end of this 20-year policy, I was told that my term life policy rate would go up to $680 a month."
24:00 Speaker 03 Well, think about that. So that's 11 years from now, it goes from a flat $46 a month to $680 a month.
24:08 Speaker 04 This is a super outrageously high premium. If I'm still in good health and living before this policy ends, what should I do as an alternative and/or should I make this change now?
24:19 Speaker 03 Okay. I absolutely love this question. The only thing I wish we knew is how old you were, Laurie, to know what the insured need period is for you. So 20-year policy, usually people buy a 20-year policy because they have young children, minor child, they want to make sure they have money to get them to adulthood. But what about living costs and all that? That calls for a longer term. If you're extremely healthy still, you may want to today buy a new 20, 25, or 30-year policy. What's the period of time, Laurie, you're trying to insure with that level term insurance
25:02 Speaker 03 that will cover you for the lion's share of your working lifetime? So while you're healthy, you go ahead and buy that. You could at that point, it's going to have a higher premium because you're nine years into it, you've got more mortality risk for the insurer, but it will take away this fear of this cliff 11 years from now, as long as you're healthy, because then you may not even be healthy enough to qualify for a good level term insurance policy. So this would be the time to go ahead and replace it or add to what you have with a new level term.
25:41 Speaker 04 Paris in Florida says, "I've recently become a follower of your podcast and love the information you provide. Talk about super helpful. I was hoping you could help me. I'm 31 years old and have no credit cards at the moment. I'm only an authorized user on my mom's Chase Bank credit card. I have a credit score that is in the lower 700s and was interested in possibly getting a credit card of my own. Discover has an amazing promotion on their new card called the Discover it Cash Back Card. My question to your show is, do you think it's wise for me to get a credit card of my own, especially because this particular card is offering a 0% intro APR and pretty awesome benefits? And if not, what should I be more focused on financially as I have debt that is under
26:24 Speaker 04 $4,000 in collections at the moment? Thank you and God bless you."
26:29 Speaker 03 Thank you very much, and thank you for your compliments about our show. So I don't know how recently you looked at your credit score. Once a collection item posts to your credit report, you'll go into a penalty box. Your score is going to go down a fair amount. You're not going to be able to qualify for new credit. If it's a medical debt collection and it's less than a year old, it's not posting on your credit report yet. And I'm not trying to get you to be irresponsible, but go ahead and apply for our card. Now, the Discover it Cash Back Card is a very good card. Knock on Discover, it's not accepted everywhere,
27:10 Speaker 03 but as they're running these ads full tilt during the TV season, they were running them, that Discover is accepted 99% of places, whatever.
27:19 Speaker 04 TV season to you, meaning football.
27:21 Speaker 03 Football, that's the only TV season there is. It's football season now coming to, it's over. It's over, there's spring football.
27:29 Speaker 04 Okay.
27:30 Speaker 03 Anyway, so if it is a medical debt, you gotta pay that thing. And with that amount of debt, it will really, really harm you over time. I'm assuming that's what it is. If it's not medical debt, I don't know why it hadn't already devastated your score. I want you to go to creditkarma.com, set up a Credit Karma dashboard, see what's on your credit reports. You'll be able to see those, see what your scores are. If you're okay to go ahead and apply, go ahead right now. Get the card, use it sparingly. Your real effort needs to be paying off this $4,000 because it will hang over you.
28:11 Speaker 04 Anonymous in Texas says, I know annuity is a cuss word on your show, but you've said in the past that you will occasionally make exceptions for immediate payout annuities and longevity annuities. When do you recommend that someone even consider these? I'm fortunate to be a very high income earner and I currently max out my backdoor Roth IRA, 401k, HSA and ESPP.
28:34 Speaker 04 I'm wondering if using extra cash and savings from the proceeds of my ESPP, or my equity compensation would be better served in a taxable brokerage account and buying an S and P 500 fund, one of the annuity options mentioned previously, or something else entirely? I am 27, have no debt, and have about 350K in my various tax advantaged accounts. I know, don't pass out. Don't pass out. Thanks for everything you do. Listening to you at my desk during my first internship was the reason I've become such an aggressive saver, and I credit my current financial stability to your guidance on dollar-cost averaging and sticking through market rough patches without panic selling.
29:10 Speaker 03 Okay, first of all, oh my goodness, anonymous, 27, having saved already more than a third of a million dollars, you're doing, you know, all the alphabet soup. The ESPP, for people aren't familiar, it's an employee stock purchase plan that's available where anonymous works. Annuities have no role in your life, and the immediate payout or longevity annuities, those are not till you're retired. It's like creating your own pension for yourself. So, keep doing what you're doing. As to whether you should be doing the employee stock purchase plan, or you're better off doing a investable brokerage
29:55 Speaker 03 account, going into index funds. The thing with the employee stock purchase plan is everything rides on the company and how well they do. So, it takes away diversification, but you're already doing all the other things, fully funding a 401K, doing a backdoor Roth IRA. That means you make a lot of money, not eligible to do a regular IRA. Doing an HSA, you've got great diversification. Just keep doing what you're doing, and I'm very impressed. Congratulations. And this concludes today's podcast. I hope that you've learned something today that's useful to you, that you can put to work in your life. You think
30:40 Speaker 03 of some of the complexity of the questions I was asked, there is no One right answer. And there are people who say, you know, I do exactly what you say. Please take what I say as an opinion. And there are times that what I give is straight out fact. There are other times that they are questions with nuance, with answers that have nuance as well. So take it as one piece of learning that you can put to work in your life along with on really complicated situations with other additional research you do. Because I want you empowered with knowledge so that you take charge, take control, so
31:21 Speaker 03 that you can save more and spend less and avoid getting ripped off. And I'll see you on Valentine's Day. Hope that you have a great rest of today.
31:39 Speaker 07 Life is all about making decisions. Sometimes you make questionable ones, like buying a new TV that's too big for the wall because the electronics store employee was a little too good at their job. Then sometimes you make great ones, like protecting your home and auto with Progressive. You get customized coverage options so you can be sure you have the right coverage. Get your quote today at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company affiliates and other insurers, not available in all states.
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