Pod Insights The Clark Howard Podcast 02.28.25 Mindful Dining / Warning: Pseudo Health Insurance About this episode Money doesn’t mean much without health and well-being, and Americans are enjoying one life’s simple pleasures less and less. We know what a hazardous distraction phones can be while driving. But a new study shows this and other distractions impact one’s ability to disconnect and focus on enjoying healthy meals - more important to health than we realize. Also today, a cautionary tale about health insurance plans that don’t comply with the ACA. Banish Phone Distraction: Segment 1 Ask Clark: Segment 2 Non-Compliant Health Plans: Segment 3 Ask Clark: Segment 4 Mentioned on the show: The Best Time and Place To Buy a TV ClarkDeals - The best deals on TVs available now Health Plans That Don’t Comply with the ACA Put Consumers at Risk How and When To Cancel a Credit Card Should You Buy an Extended Warranty on Your Car? Best Budgeting Apps in 2025: Our Top 6 Rocket Money Review: 6 Things To Know Before You Sign Up Clark.com resources Episode transcripts Community. Clark.com / Ask Clark Clark.com daily money newsletter Consumer Action Center Free Helpline: 636-492-5275 Sponsor: Surfshark Surfshark Alternative Number: your online identity safeguard with Surfshark Learn more about your ad choices: megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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0:42 Speaker 01 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.
1:16 Speaker 02 It's great to have you here on 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. Now, money doesn't mean anything without your health, your well-being. And having joy in life is so much a part of well-being to me. And there are so many things we're enjoying less and less for a simple reason. Later, there's something you've got to know about health. And that is a change you've got to be on the lookout for with individual, small group,
2:01 Speaker 02 small company, health plans.
2:05 Speaker 02 So, oh, wait a minute.
2:10 Speaker 02 What is this right here? Oh, oh, what was I doing? Oh, that's right. I got distracted by my cellphone. I was looking at it instead of talking to you. Just kidding.
2:27 Speaker 02 So, I want you to think about this. Next time you're at any kind of restaurant, from fast food to the fanciest ever, I want you to see if people are actually having a good time. If they're looking at each other. If they're telling stories, laughing, carrying on. Or what are they doing? What do you see more and more and more and more? People are staring at these addictive devices that we carry. No wonder there's this backlash that a small number of people are going back to flip phones, to dumb phones,
3:12 Speaker 02 because they don't like the way their life is being controlled by the smartphone. It's like a conditioned response. Oh, I just got a vibration on my phone. I better see, what did I get? Was that something on Instagram? Was that something on TikTok? Was it a text? What's going on? I gotta see it. I mean, it's a strong addiction. And I think it's really affecting enjoyment. Think about if you're eating alone. You're eating that bowl or that burger or whatever it is you're having. If you're fully absorbed on your phone, I promise you don't remember enjoying your meal.
3:53 Speaker 02 And our minds, our minds benefit from just chilling. My phone tells me every week if I'm using my phone more than I did the week before, less than I did the week before. When Lane and I were on a vacation recently, I got a notice that I'd used my phone so much less that week. It was an hour and like 35 minutes less. I was like, man, I usually use my phone just way too much. And so I want you to think about how this Swiss Army knife we carry. Why is it called a Swiss Army knife? Because think of all the different things the phone does that's great.
4:36 Speaker 02 But then think about when it's too much of a good thing. And so one thing is the meals. And I remember us going to a friend's house for dinner and they had a phone house. And before you sat down at the table, you had to check your phone into the house and leave it. It's something I've thought about ever since that meal. How nobody was suddenly being distracted, looking at their phone, no longer engaging with other people. What do you do at a dinner? Do you find that you pull your phone out and look at it?
5:14 Speaker 03 No, uh-uh. If I'm dining with anybody else, no, I don't do that.
5:18 Speaker 02 How do you feel when that other person picks up the phone?
5:21 Speaker 03 It doesn't usually happen when my kids are home. That's a thing.
5:26 Speaker 02 Well, I mean, just look at a restaurant and you'll see people out for what should be a time to really enjoy each other. If they enjoy each other's company.
5:36 Speaker 03 Yeah, well, that's another, that's another segment.
5:39 Speaker 02 You'll see so many people looking at that phone. What about you? Do you do that? Heal thyself. What's up, Krista?
5:46 Speaker 03 All right, well, Hoyle in North Carolina wrote in with this. What is the best buy on a 50-inch smart TV?
5:53 Speaker 02 Is this like Best Buy, the retailer, or Best Buy on a TV?
5:56 Speaker 03 The best, best deal.
5:57 Speaker 02 Yeah, okay. So TVs go on sale in cycles. And we just had a really good cycle leading up in the two weeks between the AFC, NFC championship game and the Super Bowl. And, um, Now who needs to watch a TV anyway? The deals are gone for now because they do come in waves. They come, you know, over Black Friday month, the month of November. They come very heavily in the lead up to the Super Bowl. During the summer, there will be certain cycles because people aren't watching TV as much. You'll see a lot more clearance deals on TVs.
6:40 Speaker 02 50-inch TV, the typical lead price on a 50-inch TV is $199. But during the sale cycles, you'll see a 50-inch TV easily for like 129 bucks. So the calendar is really the most important indicator, more than anything else with TVs, is buying in those inflection point periods when the retailers have all the doorbusters. Often, like for example, a lot of the Super Bowl, pre-Super Bowl sales on TVs are the season of TVs that are about to be replaced with the newest models. Doesn't mean there's anything wrong with them.
7:23 Speaker 02 The manufacturers make sweetheart deals to the retailers to have those move on. You shop around a lot for those TVs.
7:32 Speaker 03 And I would definitely sign up for our Clark Deals newsletter at ClarkDeals.com because they track TV prices every day.
7:38 Speaker 02 Yeah, they do a TV roundup of various sizes of TVs. And if your TV croaks and you can't wait till one of the normal sales periods when TVs are a real deal, then just watch the bargains that we publish at Clark Deals or any other bargain site to find deals available on the TVs.
8:02 Speaker 03 Bob in Oklahoma says, "How do I decide if buying a rental property is right for my family? The opportunity in front of me is a $292,000 home that is move-in ready and only a few years old. The thought is, we could put $100,000 down on it. We have great credit and part to you, thanks to you, so we'd be looking at a payment of about $1,600 all-in. We could rent it out for $2,100, according to Zillow."
8:26 Speaker 02 Thank you. It was the number I was looking for. Okay, so this violates, a lot of real estate investors aren't buying
8:35 Speaker 02 Investment real estate right now to rent out because the threshold that makes a rental compelling is when the rent you can get per month is equal to about 1% of the purchase price. The numbers you gave at 2,100 purchase price, just under 300,000, you're looking well below that 1% in return of rent. At the numbers you gave, it wouldn't be a really bad investment. It just wouldn't be a remarkably lucrative investment, having the money you
9:15 Speaker 02 would have sunk into it versus a rent of, let's say Zillow's right, and that's a question, getting 2,100 a month would not be a rental that I'd say, yippee, I can't wait to own that. On the other hand, if you own a rental for the long, long term, you own it for decades to come, the fact that it doesn't fit the 1% ratio will be taken care of over time by inflation.
9:45 Speaker 03 There was more information that I think you should hear too, from Bob that might make a difference in your answer.
9:50 Speaker 02 All right, let me hear.
9:51 Speaker 03 He said, "The $500 rent sounds good, but I'll still have to repay the $100,000 down payment. How do I know if this makes financial sense? We have a current mortgage of $167,000 and we're paying 5% interest on it. Should I just pay it off instead of getting the rental? All funds would be coming from our retirement. I'm a huge fan of the show and would appreciate any help you could provide."
10:12 Speaker 02 Okay, Bob, thank you for that additional because the first was the straight numbers. The circumstance of what you'd be doing, borrowing the money or pulling it from retirement accounts, this is not a compelling purchase that would make it worth doing all that, taking money from a retirement account or anything like that. I would not do this.
10:32 Speaker 03 Kimberly in Pennsylvania says, "Help, I joined a quote-unquote professional association that costs $1,000 a month. I signed a contract for 12 months stating I would pay that monthly using a credit card, the association..." Kept on file. After three months.
10:47 Speaker 02 Lead generation pitch?
10:49 Speaker 03 After three months, I realized this association was not helping me and my hard-earned money was being wasted. They promised my business would grow by 20 to 50 new clients. It did not. They promised one-on-one coaching. I got that, but they sucked. I tried my hardest to get most of this professional group, but I just couldn't wrap my head around spending $1,000 a month for what? They promised me big results. This is my own company I own, and I fell for the "we can help you make more money if you follow our advice."
11:18 Speaker 02 I'm really sorry.
11:19 Speaker 03 I called and complained. I emailed to cancel. Finally, they agreed to let me downgrade to launch member and pay $500 a month for the remainder of my contract, six more months. I know I was wrong for ever signing up for this or for signing anything, period. These quote-unquote "coaches" make me anxious, and it's just all too much smoke and mirrors. They finally agreed to let me suspend my membership for three months and take a break. Since the break, I canceled the credit card they were charging monthly and blocked all their emails and calls. An email came through today that states if I don't start paying them again, they will send me to collections and blah, blah, your credit will suffer. How do I get out of this cleanly?
11:58 Speaker 02 Kimberly, you're gonna hate what I'm gonna say. You can't just get out of this, and they did allow you to get ripped off at half the amount for the remaining months. I think you need to pay them the $3,000 and be done with them. You need something in writing that the amount of money, whatever amount it is you agree to pay, is a full and complete release from them. That's gotta be in writing. You have pointed out something that, I mean, I knew from almost the second sentence that this was one of those lead generation rip-offs.
12:37 Speaker 02 These locusts appeal to small business owners that are trying to break out, you know, bring their business to a new level, and they do a song and dance about how they're experts at lead generation, getting you new clients, all the rest, and it's all a bunch of hooey. I'm not familiar with any that have really delivered on what they said. The way the contracts are written for these organizations.
13:07 Speaker 02 You don't have a leg to stand on saying, well, they failed to deliver services. The services are so fuzzy, what they claim to offer, they can get away with saying, yeah, yeah, we did what we promised we were going to do, what the contract says. And yes, they can come after you with collections. They potentially can, depending on what you signed. If it pierces your corporate entity, ruin your credit that could hurt you for years to come. The only, you asked me how to get out cleanly. You got to sue for peace. You got to come up with an amount of money that you're willing to part with in return for a full release of commitment.
13:50 Speaker 02 And let me tell you, just by you asking this question, Kimberly, you're helping so many other business owners know about this. This is not a new scam. This scam and various forms has called it a scam. This ripoff has been around for so long, I can't even remember how long, at least three decades. So you are now getting the word out to others. But the best thing for you to do is limit the hurt to your wallet and be done with these people. I'm really sorry. Coming up ahead, I got something that small business owners need to be really alert to.
14:34 Speaker 02 Individual consumers really need to be alert to. We are moving into a new era of pseudo-health insurance that's going to leave a trail of tears.
14:47 Speaker 01 Are you ever shopping online and suddenly a discount that helps you save pops up? It makes your day, sometimes even your week. Want that feeling month after month? Well, new customers who save by switching their home and auto insurance to Progressive save hundreds. Cue your happy dance. Get your quote today at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company affiliates and other insurers. Not available in all states.
15:14 Speaker 04 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.
15:26 Speaker 05 Price and participation may vary. Promotion pricing may be lower than meal pricing.
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16:59 Speaker 02 The cost of health insurance, when you have to buy it for yourself as an individual, you buy it for yourself as a family, you buy it for your small business. It's shocking how much health coverage costs. Real health coverage. And the question is, why does it cost so much? Because the cost of medical care in the United States. Has been going up way beyond the general rate of inflation and almost all of it is hospital-based charges. The general cost of healthcare has not trended any significant variance from general inflation,
17:40 Speaker 02 except for, in rare cases, prescription drugs, but in all cases, hospital care. And I've talked in the past about that. So what happens is health insurance directly reflects the extreme increase in costs for healthcare in the United States. So people are wheezing on those costs and that's made it possible for a lot of, could call them shady operators, whatever, to sell what are known as non-compliant health insurance plans to individuals, couples, families, self-employed companies, that sort of thing.
18:25 Speaker 02 Not big companies, but small companies that are looking at extremely high costs. So a compliant plan, just so you know, has to comply with the rules that Congress passed for what has to be covered in a health insurance plan. A non-compliant plan can exclude people based on pre-existing conditions or can exclude coverage specifically for a pre-existing condition you have, but cover other things. A non-compliant plan will have things that look really good, they'll have visit charges or copays at a doctor that look really great.
19:09 Speaker 02 The premiums will be very low, the deductibles will be very low or nonexistent, that you'll have to meet before coverage kicks in. And there is no free lunch here. What you'll find with a noncompliant plan most often is that it will not cover a cancer. It will not cover heart failure. It will not cover liver failure. That when it comes to serious conditions with vital organs in your body, it's not covered. These plans cover just routine kind of visits for simple things.
19:51 Speaker 02 And that's why the premiums are like so low. And you compare, I mean, you look at a compliant plan, it's going to have high deductibles you've got to meet. It's going to have high premiums you have to pay. But then if something really bad happens to you, that's covered. That's the difference. And that's what you need to be aware of when you are weasing from very, very high health insurance premiums, is that the substitutes that are being touted may not be worth the tiny premiums that come with them.
20:33 Speaker 03 Okay, we'll go to questions. Michelle in Ohio wrote, "My credit rating history has been very favorable of late, maybe the last 10 years. It's ranged from the mid 700s to mid 800s. I do have quite a few credit cards, probably eight to 10, as I like to play the 0% interest for 12 or 18 months when I make more expensive purchases. I do always pay them off, and right now I have four with balances with no interest. I'm wondering if I should clean up my credit report and fully close some of the cards, starting with the ones that are inactive without balances. Will it matter much to my credit score? I'm not sure about the risk of hackers getting a hold of or accessing these cards. I also like the idea of having a much simpler credit report to manage."
21:14 Speaker 02 So Michelle, you bring up a very interesting question. So if you look from a credit score standpoint, you leave all that stuff there. You don't close anything. But when you start looking at the risk of all the hacks and dishonest employee inside a bank or something like that, you got an old, it's not an inactive account, but one that's inactive for you. There is that risk of fraudulent activity that you then have the hassle with. So if you have an older card, you've got tons of available credit. You have an older card that you've not actively been using in the last, let's say, 24 months. You've not used it at all.
21:58 Speaker 02 If you want to close one, close it and see what happens if there's any meaningful movement in your score after you close it. If there's not one, take another one that you haven't used in a good long time and close it. In other words, I'm not going to say to you all at once, oh yeah, go close four or five of those, clean things up. You need to make sure you don't harm that good credit score you have by reducing all in one fell swoop, a great amount of your available credit. And you'll see the pain point, what's the point that you need to stop closing any more cards.
22:40 Speaker 02 But ones that have not been active for a significant period of time may actually be having less impact on your ratios or no impact on your ratios, which is the important part besides paying your bills on time to having a great credit score.
22:58 Speaker 03 Mark in North Carolina says, recently I purchased a 2025 vehicle. I got about 13 to 14% off before they tacked on the doc fee.
23:06 Speaker 02 A doc fee.
23:09 Speaker 03 Not a bad deal for a top performer. When I got to the finance manager, he threw me a curve. He said that unless I purchased the extended warranty, I would need to come there for all my vehicle's services to keep the powertrain warranty valid.
23:22 Speaker 02 That's a big fat lie.
23:25 Speaker 03 I think there's a federal law that says they can't require that. I ended up purchasing the warranty but canceled it the next day after my mind cleared. It took me two and a half months to get my money back, but at least they were honest. I think this is something people should be aware of.
23:39 Speaker 02 Yeah, so there's so much profit in that piece of junk extended warranty because they're not selling you the manufacturer's own. They're selling you some marketing outfits warranty because the profit margins are unreal on those. They don't really cover anything. So that's an insurance product. And you have to have a look period that depending on the state, because insurance is regulated by the states, most commonly is 30 days to say, I don't want that. And you have the right essentially to unwind it, to turn the clock back when they sell you
24:18 Speaker 02 that junk. It was an abuse of you, strong arming you into buying the extended warranty. I'm really glad you stood up for yourself, got it canceled, and got that ill-gotten theft of your money by that dealer back in your hands.
24:36 Speaker 03 And this is from Jean in Louisiana. Hi Clark, I'm a longtime listener turned podcast watcher, thanks to my dad, I hope I'm saying it right, Gazner, who used to listen to you when I was younger. My question is, what are your thoughts about online money management tools like Mint or Rocket Money? Well, Mint is gone.
24:54 Speaker 02 Yeah, Mint's gone.
24:55 Speaker 03 Y N A B, too. You need a budget.
24:57 Speaker 02 Yeah, Y N A B. Rocket Money has, right now, we're at a point that a lot of these have fees. And we've done some serious digging into these various budgeting tools and apps. And we have very useful reviews for you, for you to decide if one of these would work for what you're trying to accomplish or not, and be worth the fees.
25:25 Speaker 03 At Clark.com.
25:26 Speaker 02 At Clark.com. Thank you. We'll have it right for you in our show notes, because I'm looking at the link now. That is a long link. So we're going to have it there as a hyperlink you can click to, to review the various ones. And we have a specific review of Rocket Money you can see. It's a separate review right there.
25:48 Speaker 03 And the main story is called the best budgeting apps.
25:50 Speaker 02 So you can see, because there are different goals people have with a budgeting app or budgeting tool, and there is no one, one size fits all. I mean, if somebody feels like they just got no idea where their money goes every month. I'm a big advocate for YNAB. You need a budget that does a really good job of coaching you to better money management habits. But there are a variety of things that these budgeting apps and tools are really good at, better than one than another. That's why you need to read the reviews to see which one, if any, would be best for you, Gene.
26:35 Speaker 02 And I hope you have a great rest of your day. It's Friday, so I hope your weekend in front of you is fantastic. Know that we do serve you all weekend long at the prior mentioned Clark.com. We also have deals for you all weekend long at Clark Deals. Just know empowerment is available to you through knowledge around the clock. And that's our deal is that you learn ways to save more and spend less and avoid getting ripped off. And I'll see you on Monday.
27:18 Speaker 01 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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