Pod Insights The Clark Howard Podcast 02.20.26 Clark Answers His Critics on Clark Stinks / Crypto - A Different Perspective About this episode Friday - Clark Stinks day! Christa shares Clark Stinks posts with Clark. Submit yours at Clark.com/ClarkStinks. Also today - with the recent Bitcoin slide costing people millions, and concerns of a possible “crypto winter”, Clark shares his perspective on Crypto and guidance for those interested in this still speculative endeavor. Clark Stinks: Segments 1 & 2 Clark On Crypto: Segment 3 Ask Clark: Segment 4 Mentioned on the show: Trump Accounts: What You Need To Know - Clark Howard Best 529 College Savings Plans By State Free File Fillable Forms | Internal Revenue Service Best Travel Credit Cards: How To Find the Perfect Fit for Your Spending Car Rental Insurance: Everything You Need To Know When Should You File a Claim on Your Homeowners Insurance? NYTimes: Crypto Takes a Deep Slide Despite Trump’s Support How to Refinance Your Student Loans - Clark Howard Clark Howard's Guide to Saving Money on Your Wedding Is Chase Sapphire Reserve® Worth It? - Clark Howard 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 to The Clark Howard Show, where our mission is to serve you with advice and information that empowers you so you make better financial decisions in your life. And I hope you're getting excited for your weekend. I know I am always. But first, I'm excited to hear your corrections and your admonishments for the stinky advice I've given out in our weekly Clark Stinks segment. And later, I want to guarantee that we get more Clark Stinks posts by giving you my perspective on crypto
1:49 Speaker 02 and how I want you to think about it. So get ready. Some of you who are really into crypto, you can go ahead and start writing your Clark Stinks now. But without further ado, it's time for this week's Clark Stinks.
2:03 Speaker 03 I should have never encouraged you to speak.
2:05 Speaker 04 You must think I'm pretty stupid.
2:07 Speaker 05 You should be ashamed of yourself. Well, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe you're right, pal.
2:16 Speaker 02 So I just stand here awkwardly. Those of you watch our YouTube show know that while Krista is dancing, swaying to the music, I couldn't dance if my life depended on it.
2:27 Speaker 06 You should do the Elaine from Seinfeld.
2:29 Speaker 02 I don't know that. Oh, where you?
2:31 Speaker 06 It's the worst dancer in the world.
2:32 Speaker 02 Oh, it's like, is that it?
2:35 Speaker 06 Yeah, that's good. All right. Zach in Texas says, Clark, I love you. You have my favorite podcast, but this Valentine's Day season, you stunk like a bouquet of wilted roses forgotten in the back of a hot car. Here's why. You said on the podcast that Sam's Valentine's bouquets averaged around $50 delivered. I thought, wow, that's amazing. So I hopped onto Sam's site, put that $50 bouquet in my cart, and then, yikes, the delivery fee was $125.
3:06 Speaker 02 What?
3:07 Speaker 06 No thanks. I drove to Aldi, bought four beautiful little bouquets, arranged them myself, and my new wife was absolutely thrilled, and I saved well over that $125 delivery fee. Thanks for all that you do. But yeah, man, you missed the mark this week, last week, really. And then Neil and Chandra wrote in this one. Clark, you stunk on Valentine's Day. Dollar store gifts? Psh, we can beat that. Take your lovely bride to the local thrifty slash Rite Aid, treat her to a 99 cent ice cream cone, escort her over to the Hallmark card section, pick out the sappiest cards for one another, read them to each other aloud while devouring your ice cream, laugh your butts off, then politely return
3:48 Speaker 06 the cards to their proper spots. Voila. Valentine's Day for two bucks. All kidding aside, we love you, Clark, and thank you so much for your valuable advice.
3:57 Speaker 02 All right, let me go back to the Sam's Club thing. You could knock me over the feather, because I looked on their website, didn't see anything about a delivery charge. I know on the Costco site, there were all these arrangements you could do for Valentine's Day for 50 bucks. Now, we're too far past Valentine's Day to know what was actually going on at the Sam's site. But I've always said that nothing beats...
4:23 Speaker 02 Self-delivered flowers instead of stranger-delivered flowers. So, you know, I always buy Lane roses from Costco before the price increase for the weeks leading up to Valentine's Day. I did that this year. But then she sent me to Trader Joe's with a shopping list and they had a special on tulips.
4:44 Speaker 06 Hmm.
4:45 Speaker 02 And so I bought her an arrangement of tulips that they had and it was like, like $7 or something?
4:52 Speaker 06 They, I love Trader Joe's flowers.
4:53 Speaker 02 And the tulips were just beautiful and she loves tulips.
4:57 Speaker 06 Oh, yeah.
4:57 Speaker 02 They were wonderful, except what did she have to do with the tulips?
5:00 Speaker 06 Put them in a vase?
5:01 Speaker 02 Put them in a vase high up because one time I brought her tulips from TJ's and what happened?
5:09 Speaker 06 One of your dogs ate it?
5:10 Speaker 02 Ate them.
5:10 Speaker 06 The dog that likes to-
5:11 Speaker 02 All ate, ate everything, all the way down the stem and then we had to go to the emergency vet center.
5:17 Speaker 06 Is this the same dog that ate like cocoa powder one time?
5:20 Speaker 02 Yeah, ate, uh, cooking cocoa powder and another time ate grill wipes.
5:27 Speaker 06 Oh, my gosh.
5:28 Speaker 02 Has been at the emergency center for all those things.
5:31 Speaker 06 She weighs like two pounds and-
5:33 Speaker 02 Nine pounds.
5:34 Speaker 06 She's, she's got nine lives.
5:36 Speaker 02 And she has made it-
5:37 Speaker 06 Nine pounds and nine lives.
5:38 Speaker 02 She has made it to double digits.
5:40 Speaker 06 Okay.
5:41 Speaker 02 And it's absolutely shocking. This is our dog Winston Churchill, who's made it to 10 years, 10 and a half now.
5:49 Speaker 06 All right, we'll move on.
5:50 Speaker 02 It costs more than a college tuition for all these vet costs.
5:55 Speaker 06 But you love her.
5:56 Speaker 02 Oh, absolutely.
5:57 Speaker 06 Josh in Pennsylvania says, Clark's explanation of Trump accounts gave off an especially foul odor. To call it an explanation isn't even accurate because he didn't say what investment options are available or what the tax treatment is other than quote unquote crummy. I understand you don't like it, but how am I supposed to make an informed decision based on your segment? Also, isn't this a big step towards helping people save for retirement and not depend on social security? And this one from Mike in Maryland, Clark, you're missing out on a great strategy with the Trump account that will hand your child a $10 million tax-free retirement account. When they turn 18, it converts to a traditional IRA. During those likely low-income college years, they can then convert everything to a Roth without paying any or very little taxes. Let time work its magic from there.
6:42 Speaker 06 And then they have a tax-free account sitting there with eight figures in it waiting for them at retirement. You should rethink your strategy here. And also, many people wrote in wanting further explanation of what the tax
6:53 Speaker 02 Tax time bomb is.
6:54 Speaker 06 Yeah. And then others were angry that you even talked about it for political reasons. I won't go into.
6:59 Speaker 02 Well, I mean, that's the hard part in a country that's so split for all these things to have the president's name on them, because things that could be really good to use, there are people who won't do it because the president's name is on it. There are other people who will put money into something or make a choice because the president's name is on it, and it may not be a good option for them. So I wish that these things had more benign names like Child IRA for this, or something like that. So we don't do politics here on the show because we are a safe zone for people away from politics. There's plenty of places you can go if you want to be angry at each other.
7:44 Speaker 02 That's not what we're about. Okay, so on the Trump accounts, because that's what they're called, they are set up to be very advantageous for kids born over a three-year period where the government will cede the money with $1,000 you just get. Then there are companies and individuals that are giving money to kids, maybe for income levels or whatever, whatever people want to do. And then that's free money. Absolutely great to have a Trump account in those two circumstances. And yes, there are things you can do where you can put money into a Trump account, even though tax time bomb.
8:29 Speaker 02 If a kid is an adult, just takes the money and spends it, the tax treatment of it is not good at all. I'll leave it at that.
8:37 Speaker 06 Well, no, I think you should say it, because people want you to be explicit. What does a tax time bomb mean?
8:42 Speaker 02 Tax time bomb means a lot of things with the code if they're not used for the intended purpose, like this for retirement.
8:51 Speaker 02 You will have what's known as ordinary income tax, which is the highest tax rate it could be. And if a child is a dependent, depending on what tax laws might be 18 years from now, it could be the much higher parental rate instead of the kid's own tax rate. Also, potentially subject to a 10% penalty when not used for specific purposes. Okay, so let's move away from that and tell you, we heard all the feedback. And so we have put together a comprehensive guide to how Trump accounts work, the pluses and minuses, how to benefit the most from the pluses and avoid as much as possible
9:36 Speaker 02 the minuses at Clark.com. And it's just straight information. That's where you should go to find out much more specifics. Now, going back to what I said when I talked about on the podcast, if you are thinking, hey, our kid might go to college, other than the free money you get from somebody else, the superior move is to open a 529 account for your child. We have a full explanation of those on Clark.com, Clark.com/529. And that money, up to 35,000 of it, can later grows tax-free. Many states have an upfront tax benefit doing a 529.
10:18 Speaker 02 It's tax-free when used for eligible expenses, which goes beyond college. It can be a private school, K through 12, it can be for various training programs, technical school, that kind of thing. And then whatever's not needed, if the person ever goes to college, whatever, up to 35,000 can be moved tax-free into a Roth IRA and continue for a lifetime to grow tax-free. It is, in my opinion, a superior choice to the Trump account. Now, going back to one thing I did not mention, investment choices. One of the things that's really nice about the Trump account is they recognize that these kind of accounts
11:00 Speaker 02 can be ruined by high commission unethical salespeople with very, very costly inferior products. So there are tight guardrails in the law to make sure that the investment choices in a Trump account are very, very low cost. Going to the 529s I've talked about in the past. We show you very clearly what are the investment choices in whatever state plan you're in that your 529 money should be invested in so that you also avoid high costs. Krista?
11:33 Speaker 06 Okay, two more that were very popular posts. This one is an example of that from Hama in California. Clark and Krista stink like a corpse flower, but like a corpse flower, it only blooms once a year, so no big deal. Kidding aside, there's a very simple and elegant solution to making sure credit card charges are authorized and easy to reconcile. You don't need a third app and you don't need to scan receipts unless you want to. I set up alerts on all my credit cards, so I get a text or app notification every time a charge is made. The upside is huge. If anyone uses my card without authorization, I know immediately and can contact the credit card company right away. No end of the month detective work required. So many people wrote in and said they do the same thing.
12:15 Speaker 02 I love it. Because, you know, I get that on Google Wallet, where I get an alert every time. But this is where you have alerts from all your credit card companies. Beyond that, that's really a good idea. Thank you for that suggestion. And what kind of flower are you and I?
12:32 Speaker 06 Corpse flower. Okay, Tony in Texas says, I can't believe I have to write a Clark stinks about Clark's response to a Clark stinks. That's like hiding a stinky diaper in a litter box. On a recent episode, Clark said he doesn't talk about IRS free fillable forms because you have to mail your return in. That's totally incorrect. You can e-file for free. I've been doing it for years. For those of us that can't use Free File but still like to spend less and save more, Free Fillable Form saves you from spending on tax software and provides the opportunity to understand the tax code better. And lots of people do the same.
13:08 Speaker 02 Yeah, and I want to tell you how this is like the perfect example, these last two posts about why we do Clark stinks. Never am I supposed to have the final word. We all learn from each other. And I'm just a guy. I can't remember everything. You also become lazy in your habits. So these posts help each other so much and help me as well. And I just love it.
13:37 Speaker 06 Scott in Washington says Clark smells worse than a number two diaper left in my trunk after a long road trip on a recent hot summer.
13:44 Speaker 02 We got a lot of diaper references, don't we?
13:46 Speaker 06 Yeah, now they're stinky. Clark often touts the various trip coverage benefits of the premium travel credit cards. I have a Chase Sapphire Reserve card and a number, I got this for a number of years ago for these benefits. Late last October, we got stranded overnight in Reykjavik after a freak snowstorm when all outbound flights got canceled. Who knew snowstorms in October were unusual events in Iceland? While our third stay in Iceland was not unwelcome, we love it there. Dealing with Chase reimbursement was a nightmare. They eventually denied all claims as the airline policy states that they will reimburse travelers for expenses incurred due to canceled flights. Meanwhile, we're still waiting on the airline to process our claim more than three months later, and that stinks.
14:28 Speaker 06 The quote unquote, "coverage" was really nonexistent. I canceled the card, but I'll never cancel Clark.
14:34 Speaker 02 I want to thank you so much for that post because there's a lot written about the coverages from the premium travel cards. And what happens, I find, is that the marketing people come up with these things. And then the, the numbers crunchers are like, wait, do you realize how much that costs us? And so they overpromise and underdeliver. And I'm not speaking specifically about Chase. I'm talking about any of the cards. And it's the same problem if you buy a standalone trip policy of some kind. Getting paid on them is crazy difficult. And the insurers fail to act in good faith.
15:18 Speaker 02 Now, let's talk about failing to act in good faith. The airlines across Europe just cannot stand the consumer protections that are part of the law. And what Europeans do and what Americans who are eligible under European rules need to know. Is that they hire advocacy firms that take a cut of the action because 100% of nothing is still nothing. And when Americans try to handle a claim with a European airline or a US airline on a flight to or from Europe, you will just beat your head against the wall because they're just going to stonewall you and not pay. These third-party firms that tend
16:02 Speaker 02 to take somewhere around 20 or so percent of the money, sometimes 30%, know how to play the game and have much more success getting claims paid. I would be shocked if you ever get paid by the airline trying to do your claim directly.
16:22 Speaker 06 And Ross in Texas says Krista stinks like a nasty fast food order that gave me a tummy ache. During the question about Costco Travel car rentals offering add-on auto insurance, Clark said to check if the coverage was secondary. Stinky Krista did a brief cursory Google search in the background and confidently responded that Costco Travel was offering secondary coverage unless outside the US and poor Clarky gave praise for the quick response as he was hoodwinked by the stink. You were reading the Citi Costco credit card car rental coverage documents, not the coverage offered through Costco Travel for their own rental cars, which was the original question.
16:57 Speaker 02 Is that right?
16:57 Speaker 06 So I looked at this and I, well, that is the correct, that is for the Citi card. And when I look at Costco's travel policy, it says, can I buy additional coverage on the rental cars? And what they say is you can buy additional coverage from the rental car companies and you have to talk to them, or you can use our Costco Citi card, which provides the coverage I described. So I think if you buy a third policy, like an overall travel policy, it's from usually Allianz, I believe, through them, right?
17:26 Speaker 02 I never have known how to say that company. I think it's Allianz, something like that.
17:29 Speaker 06 Yeah.
17:30 Speaker 02 We need a French speaker.
17:31 Speaker 06 Yeah, I'm not sure about what that policy. So I guess I do stink.
17:36 Speaker 02 No, I mean, come on. This car rental coverage is a toughie.
17:40 Speaker 06 Yeah.
17:41 Speaker 02 I have defaulted to the very card we heard the complaint about, about another travel thing, the Chase Sapphire Reserve, and I use that for my rental cars because of it being primary coverage. Fortunately, I've not had to deal with the claim and don't know how that would go.
17:59 Speaker 06 I use that with booking through Costco Travel. But also, someone else wrote in and said that you stink about the rental car travel coverage because their actual car insurance company says they cover rental cars. But the problem with that is then you're doing a claim against your auto insurance, which is why...
18:15 Speaker 02 Which is the big thing you want to avoid is having a claim against your auto insurance because insurers don't cut you much slack on that. And so I want you to avoid making claims. Which brings up a completely separate topic I'm just gonna cover for one second that I apparently have confused people no end about, and that is homeowner's insurance and when to make a claim. And I just want to emphasize this because obviously I've not explained it adequately. So I'm just gonna throw this in right now. Completely unrelated to this Clark stinks, but this made me think of it.
18:56 Speaker 06 You're saying you stink, right? Is that what you're saying?
18:58 Speaker 02 I do stink. Okay. So homeowner's insurance has become a use it and lose it kind of proposition. The only time, the only time you make a homeowner's insurance claim is for a catastrophic loss. Do not trust where the policy says, oh, you can make a claim for this, make a claim for that, make a claim for the other thing. And you're only gonna have your deductible. That's why I want your deductible to be as high as your mortgage company will let you do. Or as high as you can stand, no more $500 deductibles, $1,000 deductibles, whatever. You need to be your own insurance company for more routine events.
19:43 Speaker 02 And you only file a homeowner's insurance claim for what would be a catastrophic loss. Now, everybody's definition of catastrophic is different, but you need to know that with the difficulties of obtaining and keeping homeowner's insurance, the last thing you want is anything that is a claim because it's like a mark of shame. Hey, that rhymed. Anyway, thank you so much for all your Clark stinks. And coming up ahead, I'm teeing you up for a full round of Clark stinks as I'm going to talk about crypto.
20:24 Speaker 06 So I stink again. I just looked at Costco travel. I was wrong. It's not alliants.
20:29 Speaker 02 I thought I was done.
20:30 Speaker 06 I know. Well, we're always trying to correct, right? If you're just saying wrong. Zurich, it looks like they underwrite a lot of the, they write a lot of the Costco third party travel insurance policies.
20:41 Speaker 02 And you know, that is a moving target. It could be different by state. It could be different by product.
20:48 Speaker 06 And you have to really read that individual policy before you book any travel insurance and see what it actually covers.
20:54 Speaker 02 When you've got no distractions, not while you're watching something or having your kids running around or whatever, you need to fully focus because the brochure sounds great. The contract language and insurance policy is always what they don't want to do, not what they are going to do for you. Oh my goodness, that crossed into cynical. I don't like cynical. I just want you to be.
21:23 Speaker 06 Careful.
21:24 Speaker 02 Careful. Yes, thank you.
21:25 Speaker 06 Just careful.
21:26 Speaker 02 And then straight ahead, crypto.
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22:58 Speaker 04 I'm Dexter Morgan. I've been killing killers for half my life. It gets to you.
23:03 Speaker 03 You're having a midlife crisis.
23:04 Speaker 04 I'm not ready for this.
23:06 Speaker 03 He's back.
23:07 Speaker 04 I'm older. I'm wiser.
23:11 Speaker 03 And sharper than ever.
23:12 Speaker 04 Things are gonna get messy. But if I can't believe in myself, I can't believe in anything.
23:20 Speaker 03 Dexter Resurrection. New season now.
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23:41 Speaker 02 Crypto is a really, really polarizing activity. I have talked in the past about how my son, from time to time, plays in the crypto thing. And his best friend, going all the way back to middle school, is really into it. Talks about his crypto wallets and all that. The thing you need to understand is that crypto is still, still, a truly unproven form of money. Why do I say unproven? Because one of the keys with money is that it represents stability.
24:24 Speaker 02 Crypto is anything but stable. Having been very much part of the social media world with influencers talking about this new crypto is going to go to a zillion. Or this is how you're going to make money with crypto. And you need to do this on this crypto exchange and whatever, whatever, whatever. Crypto is still an infant. And it also came to life in an era where buzz can create these enormous swings up and down. And I love it that recently I was reading an item in Barron's magazine
25:05 Speaker 02 about how certain people in the financial industry were touting how, in spite of the rough ride Bitcoin has had lately, that it was going to go to 200,000 a Bitcoin. And then others were saying the value of crypto is zero.
25:26 Speaker 02 It's all a hype machine. So it's too early to know which extreme is right. But what is clear is that crypto is highly volatile. And a lot of people are doing things in the crypto market where they're gambling with leverage on small moves in the crypto, leading to big returns. And what they're not counting on, sorry, say banking on, that would be a bad way to describe it, is that if the crypto you bought goes down, those losses are magnified because you did so with leverage, which essentially borrowed money.
26:10 Speaker 02 And there are a lot of really, really, really brilliant people, big money people, who've lost billions of dollars with leverage recently betting on the movement of Bitcoin. And Bitcoin is just one of, and the best known, and considered to be the most mainstream of crypto. If it is an alternative money, it would not have, if it was really one, it would not have these enormous swings in value. Those swings in value are clearly an amateur marketplace. It should not be that hard to show value day to day.
26:51 Speaker 02 And there are times that crypto, which a lot of people touted as an alternative to holding gold, moves in very different cycles than gold or another precious metal, a hedge against difficult times or uncertain times. Crypto acts more like a straight speculative endeavor. I will not call it an investment. And that's why the movements are so erratic and don't follow a normal pattern. So, am I telling you not to put any of your money in crypto? No. Am I telling you not to bet the farm on crypto?
27:33 Speaker 02 Yes. Am I telling you to only put money in a crypto? It's money you would lose zero sleep over if you lost all your money? Absolutely. That's the most you put in crypto is what you can afford to lose and make no impact on your life. And borrowing, speculating, where you leverage your positions? Oh, man. And when people tell you that you can put your money on a crypto borrowing exchange and earn a great return on your money? And that it's so much better than having money in a CD or savings account where you are lending money to a financial institution?
28:15 Speaker 02 You tell me where the FDIC is or the NCUA for a crypto exchange? Let's talk about the people who thought they were doing zero risk lending and lost their money. So know that this is playing with fire. Now I've said it. Now, Clark.com/ClarkStinks is where those who are crypto advocates and feel, I'm telling, a slanted, one-sided, unfair, lame kind of idea about crypto. That's where you go post and then Krista will read your posts.
28:53 Speaker 06 Okay. We'll get to some questions. Brian in Pennsylvania sent this phone in. In May, my fiance is scheduled to graduate from vet school.
29:00 Speaker 02 Congratulations.
29:02 Speaker 06 Yep. Brian says, woo-hoo, it has been a struggle, but she's almost there.
29:06 Speaker 02 That's great.
29:07 Speaker 06 We have a house together and I've been covering the mortgage and home expenses. Last year I had to take out a small home refinancing loan for some repairs. So her income will be welcomed. We also want to start saving for a wedding. Unfortunately, between undergrad and vet school, she has approximately $400,000 in student debt. I know she will be a great vet and it will be worth it. But right now I'm worried about a plan for her loans. She also has a little credit card debt for personal expenses. Do you have any recommendations for budgeting? She's very excited about her future first year salary, but I'm worried about the school debt and our house expenses slash wedding savings.
29:43 Speaker 02 Okay. So Brian, both of you are gonna hate me.
29:49 Speaker 02 So I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say the part you're gonna hate first, then I'm gonna talk about what you specifically asked. $400,000 in student loan debt. You got the mortgage, you had to take out a renovation loan, isn't that what Brian called it? You have to do that. She's got some credit card debt. Your wedding is going to be beautiful because of the love the two of you have for each other. It's not gonna be beautiful because you do a big fancy blowout wedding. Do a budget wedding. Don't build on more debt. That's my suggestion. Okay. Now with the student loans, you gotta get all the contracts out, and you gotta figure
30:34 Speaker 02 out private loans, federal loans, fixed interest rate, floating rate, and then what those rates are. The federal loans probably qualify for one or the other of the various IBR programs, income-based repayment. And the IBR loan payments allow for the payments to rise and fall based on your income, first her income, then your income together. And then, after so many years of payments, the remaining balance is forgiven. It's subject to tax, but it's forgiven. The private loans are a whole different matter, and I hope that it's very heavily tilted
31:19 Speaker 02 towards federal loans. They may in fact have a floating interest rate, and there's no loan forgiveness for them or anything like that. The priority generally is to pay only what's required under IBR on the federal loans, and throw money as heavily as you can towards the highest interest rate private loans. That will change over time which one's the highest interest rate. And then minimums against the others. Of the private loans. So this is a complicated process that requires just taking some time to figure out what makes up those $400,000 in loans so that every dollar that goes
32:03 Speaker 02 towards them is most efficiently put towards them. And congratulations on her completing unbelievably difficult education. Veterinary medicine is so hard. It was funny because Laine was talking about, imagine a human doctor just has to understand the human body. Think about a vet has to understand the bodies of so many different animals. I mean, wow.
32:33 Speaker 06 That's so true. All right. Dara in Maryland says, with tax season upon us, is it safe to enter our banking information into software like FreeTaxUSA or TurboTax?
32:43 Speaker 02 Yes.
32:44 Speaker 06 To receive our tax refund?
32:45 Speaker 02 Absolutely.
32:46 Speaker 06 And you talk about setting up other bank accounts for Venmo or paying only utility bills. Should we be doing the same to get our tax refund?
32:53 Speaker 02 No, I mean, the risk level is almost nonexistent with the tax prep firms. You don't need to go to an extra step like that, like you would with Venmo or Cash App. And remember, big bad Zelle, don't use it.
33:10 Speaker 06 Dave in Ohio says, I was listening to your recent discussion about businesses no longer accepting cash. For retailers, managing cash is quite an ordeal, beyond just fearing robbery. Counting drawers each shift, managing the flow, moving cash between drawers, reconciling what's in the drawer versus the cash sales and returns throughout the day, researching discrepancies, pulling cash out to make bank deposits, adding change acquired from the bank, and yes, the risk of theft by an employee or a quick change artist pulling out that classic scam. It all adds up to be a lot of risk and overhead. On the flip side, businesses have to deal with credit card transaction fees, plus the lag between when they complete the sale and when they get the deposits. Add the risk of chargebacks and credit card
33:54 Speaker 06 fraud, the seemingly simple transaction of accepting and receiving payment is really not so simple. No wonder there are so many fintech companies in the game. I don't blame a small retailer for opting to forego cash or to pass on the crazy credit card transaction fees to the customer.
34:10 Speaker 02 I really appreciate this post because I have glossed over the other expenses that are kind of like hidden expenses of accepting cash beyond just being more subject to armed robbery. And I went to have acupuncture recently from an acupuncturist I've seen for years. She was charging me for the session and she was using Square. And I said, how come you're not charging me a fee for accepting Square? And she said, well, I don't feel really right about that. So what about if you gave a discount for your cash customers? And she
34:53 Speaker 02 said, well, I'll think about it. But the reality is, it's one of her biggest expenses, the credit card merchant processing fees. And I'm a big fan, even though I love using these reward cards, I'm a big fan of businesses that are charging me a fee to cover those expenses. Since we don't have a free market because of the Visa MasterCard Cartel, I think that businesses should feel free to pass those costs on to us.
35:25 Speaker 06 All right. And Monica in Pennsylvania had actually a question for me. She said, on the podcast Krista mentioned she receives $10 a month off of her Peloton membership by using one of her credit cards. Can you please share which credit card offers this benefit? And that is the Chase Sapphire cards offer that $10 off.
35:43 Speaker 02 This is the Chase Sapphire podcast?
35:45 Speaker 06 But you know, we've been, we've received a lot of questions about this. Like, you know, it's very hard to keep up in these offers from all the credit cards. They come and go and you have to opt in. And so we're working on a, we're trying to find a free solution for people to organize that better at Clark.com.
35:59 Speaker 02 Yeah. So what we're trying to do is come up with a tool because it's so hard to keep up with the idea that every one of them, except the Capital One Venture X, the Citi Stratolite, the American Express Platinum, and the Chase Sapphire Reserve have become basically coupon books. And
36:20 Speaker 02 Some of them automatically activate, others you have to manually enroll. How you enroll in them can be different from one thing to another, even with the same credit card and their website. And so it gets to be a bit of a bother. And so most of those ancillary benefits that will defray that annual fee are never used by people because of the complexity of it. And that's why we've talked about and we're working on trying to come up with a way to streamline that so that you don't leave money on the table.
36:57 Speaker 06 And if you have that Chase card, by the way, I texted you about this when I saw it, that Aldi's giving, I think it's 10% back.
37:03 Speaker 02 7%.
37:04 Speaker 06 If you add it to your card.
37:05 Speaker 02 For the next 10 minutes and 10 minutes only. Get to Aldi with your-
37:09 Speaker 06 I was like, Clark, Aldi, you can get even more back.
37:12 Speaker 02 Oh, there's an Aldi being built near me. And it seems like it's taking them forever to build it and the sign is up.
37:21 Speaker 06 Oh, you're peering in the windows?
37:22 Speaker 02 And no, they've got a big chain link fence around it.
37:26 Speaker 06 Keep people like you out.
37:27 Speaker 02 You can't get close to it. But I, you know what I won't do? I won't be going there when it first opens because it's a madhouse. You ever been to an opening of an Aldi?
37:38 Speaker 06 I have not.
37:39 Speaker 02 Oh, well, this just shows what a loser I am.
37:42 Speaker 06 No.
37:43 Speaker 02 I've been to the opening of, you know, Aldi and I've been to the opening of Lidl. And these two German arch rivals that are growing in the United States have, to call them cult followings, doesn't quite suffice.
37:58 Speaker 06 I've done that with the Trader Joe's.
37:59 Speaker 02 You've gone to a TJ's opening?
38:01 Speaker 06 Oh, yeah, I love Trader Joe's.
38:02 Speaker 02 What do you get at a TJ's grand opening?
38:04 Speaker 06 Well, I just wanted to get in the store and see it. I didn't get any prizes or anything.
38:08 Speaker 02 No prizes?
38:09 Speaker 06 No, but they had awesome merchandise. It was great. I love Trader Joe's.
38:14 Speaker 02 Well.
38:15 Speaker 06 This is not a commercial.
38:16 Speaker 02 For TJ's?
38:17 Speaker 06 No. And when you say that, I only hear TJ Maxx, which is another store I love.
38:23 Speaker 02 Oh, I always hear Trader Joe's referred to as TJ's. I guess I'm just more inside than you are.
38:28 Speaker 06 Yeah, you are. You definitely are.
38:31 Speaker 02 Yeah, and how funny is it that the same family owns Aldi and Trader Joe's, which are such different vibe stores?
38:40 Speaker 06 Very different.
38:41 Speaker 02 But Aldi is on its way to being the third largest supermarket in the United States with their little stores. Well, enough today from us, and I hope that you have a great, great weekend. And we've got so much for you on Clark.com and Clarkdeals.com. And we now have on the weekends, an investment, personal finance kind of newsletter as part of our regular Clark newsletters. And our newsletters are free. They have what's known as a sky-high open rate, which means people find the information in our newsletters valuable enough that even with busy lives, when you get them, the open rate is, anytime I ever talk with anybody about our open rate,
39:26 Speaker 02 they're like, "What? What?" Because they've never heard of any newsletter ever having people open at such a high rate. And I really am so proud of our staff that worked so hard to make the information relevant, usable, actionable by you. And if you ever want to sign up for any of our newsletters, Clark.com/newsletter or newsletters, both get you there and you see the choices. We make it just as easy to dump us as to sign up. So if we're wasting your time, you delete it. If you find it useful, you open it. And when I say delete it, I mean, you can discontinue getting a newsletter product for ours if you don't find it useful
40:09 Speaker 02 just as easy as the initial signup, which is how it should be with things you sign up for, that then people play games with you to discontinue them. I don't believe in that. I want it to be serving you, empowering you with ideas so you can save more, spend less, and never, never, never, not ever get ripped off. So you go enjoy that weekend, and we'll be serving you Monday.
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41:10 Speaker 01 LinkedIn is pretty amazing at helping you grow your small business. We cannot stop your new clients from emailing you at 3 a.m.
41:19 Speaker 01 We can help you sell, market, and hire in one place. We cannot help you be in three places at once. And while we can't help you organize your calendar, LinkedIn can help you land more clients so you have a calendar to organize. Grow your small business on LinkedIn. Learn more at LinkedIn.com/smallbusiness.
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