Pod Insights The Clark Howard Podcast 04.11.25 Clark Answers His Critics on Clark Stinks / Job Market Update About this episode Friday - Clark Stinks day! Christa shares Clark Stinks posts with Clark. Submit yours at Clark.com/ClarkStinks. Also in this episode - we now find ourselves in a frozen job market. Clark explains how this compares to conditions in 2009, and where laid off workers and others seeking employment, are most likely to find work. Clark Stinks: Segments 1 & 2 Direction For Job Seekers: Segment 3 Ask Clark: Segment 4 Mentioned on the show: 6 Credit Card Sign-Up Bonuses Worth at Least $500 How To Save Money on Utilities Do Not Give Your Social Security Number at These Places 401(k) limit increases to $23,500 for 2025, IRA limit remains $7,000 States rush to hire federal workers out of work after DOGE cuts Booking a Cruise? Here Are 5 Ways To Do It for Less The Only Way You Should Pay for a Cruise How To Freeze and Unfreeze Your Credit With Experian, Equifax and TransUnion Should I Freeze My Credit With the Other Credit Bureaus? How To Monitor Your Credit 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
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1:20 Speaker 02 I'm so glad you're here with us on the Clark Howard Show. You know, our mission is to serve you with advice and information that empowers you so you make better financial decisions in your life. And happy Friday, Krista, because it's time for my favorite segment of the week, Clark Stinks. On a less happy note, we're going to end our Friday podcast talking about the frozen job market. I'm going to explain what that means and why we all need to be beefing up our finances right now. But speaking of right now, it's time for Clark Stinks.
2:00 Speaker 03 I should have never encouraged you to speak.
2:02 Speaker 04 You must think I'm pretty stupid. You should be ashamed of yourself. Well, maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe you're right, pal.
2:20 Speaker 05 Hey Clark, I still love you, but I think you missed the boat on a few points. When someone asked today what the best credit card would be when purchasing $40,000 in airline tickets for a dream vacation. He mentioned he already had the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. You correctly suggested he should utilize a signup bonus. You mentioned the Chase Reserve, but you cannot get the signup bonus on the Chase Reserve if you already have an active Chase Preferred card. In addition, if I were in his position, I would sign up for multiple cards to get multiple signup bonuses. This is a great opportunity to earn substantial points. He could sign up for two cards and his wife, for instance, could sign up for two cards and they could split the $40,000 into four purchases, putting 10K in each card to maximize the points.
3:04 Speaker 05 This would probably net him 300,000 points, just for the signups alone. Love you and the show, and you'll be happy to know one of my cats is named Costco. Linda.
3:14 Speaker 02 Linda, thank you. You know, right now Linda, we have our dog named Kirkland Signature, and we used to have a Costco Wholesale who's passed on. And Lane says, "We should maybe make our next dog again Costco Wholesale." See, how cute would that be if we had Costco Wholesale and Kirkland Signature introducing them when people say, "What's your dogs' names?" Okay, enough about that. Linda, I think you're so right for this, that if somebody will play the signup game and the annual fees would not matter on the huge travel cards, like this would be an opportunity, just as you said, to get one or two Capital One Venture X cards with very
3:59 Speaker 02 large signup bonuses. Or get even the American Express Platinum, which has the crazy $700 signup. But if you're going to get huge value from it, huge numbers of points, it can be so worth it. A friend of mine, recently from a signup bonus on Capital One Venture X, was able to fly
4:24 Speaker 02 Not business class, but first class to Asia from the United States. Round trip, all on signup bonus points.
4:34 Speaker 05 Wow.
4:35 Speaker 02 That ticket is, uh, retails at over $22,000.
4:40 Speaker 05 Wow. Was that like they transferred? Did they have to book it through?
4:44 Speaker 02 No.
4:45 Speaker 05 They transferred it to an airline?
4:46 Speaker 02 They transferred the points to one of the Arab airlines. It was, uh, Emirates.
4:51 Speaker 05 Okay. Wow. That's a really nice first class. Sounds like an apartment.
4:55 Speaker 02 They were able to take a shower on the plane.
4:58 Speaker 05 That's insane.
4:58 Speaker 02 Yeah.
4:59 Speaker 05 There's something stinky about the experience of following Clark's advice on this one. At the end of February, my husband was shopping for a used car for around $42,000. Based on Clark's advice, I told him to go ahead and take a loan because he'd be more likely to get a better deal on the car. But then we just paid the loan off at the first due date. But now that the first due date is approaching, I've discovered that I am unable to pay more than $10,000 online, which I did, and 15K over the phone, which I also did. And now I've been instructed to call back to do the payoff in a few days. The lovely woman at the bank's customer service who took my 15K also advised me to be ready for a long wait for the title as it will first be sent by the dealership to the bank and the dealership will likely not be in a hurry to get that done.
5:44 Speaker 05 In addition, I was surprised to find that some interest has already accrued in the three weeks or so since the car purchase. Given the hassle, I've been better off just paying the dealer directly. I guess we'll never know what price we would have paid for the car under those circumstances. Still, I think we're unlikely to car shop this way ever again. Live and learn, and I still love Clark. Maureen.
6:05 Speaker 02 Maureen, thank you. I'm, I'm confused. I must have given some bad advice at some point or something like that. I absolutely love for people to pay cash for buying a new or used vehicle and only take out, if you have the cash, only take out a low. First of all, you never tell the dealer when you're negotiating the price of a vehicle that you're going to pay cash because then they calculate that in and charge you more or quote you a higher price. But on the other hand, if you're at the point of getting ready to buy it and they say, well, we can offer you a $2,500 lower price if you finance or something like that.
6:48 Speaker 02 This is substantial amount of money and the loan has no prepayment penalty, then it's to your advantage to go through the hassles you're talking about.
6:59 Speaker 05 Your recommendation on frequency of vehicle oil changes smelled a little bit of smoked herring. Never trust the owner's manual for fluid changes. The car companies already believe we are keeping our vehicles too long, so why would we trust an owner's manual from the same company that has a vested interest in our vehicle wearing out more quickly? Cars totally today have much tighter tolerances and complex engine components like cam phasers that are very sensitive and picky about clean lubrication. Owners should change their oil every 5,000 miles. Remember, oil is cheap, engines are expensive. Warren.
7:33 Speaker 02 Warren, thank you. A friend of mine who's an auto mechanic says exactly what you said, that you ignore the owner's manual and you change oil every 5,000 miles. Other stuff I've read finds that as long as you stick to the manufacturer's recommended schedule, you'll be fine. The reality is we're talking, you and me both talking about something that the real problem is people who ignore the schedule and don't get oil changes done. But you are right versus the cost of a vehicle and oil change is a very, very minimal expense. And if you want to do it more often, go for it.
8:18 Speaker 05 Clark's advice on saving money on power consumption and bills was almost right. He mentioned that one should try to raise the temperature as much as they can tolerate. He missed one key point here. HVAC systems are not only for heating and cooling. The V in HVAC stands for ventilation. Besides cooling, AC helps remove humidity from your home. I live in Georgia where the humidity is high during the summer months. If the AC does not come on in needed intervals as the thermostat is set too high, then the humidity builds up in the house and can cause damage. I've seen warped wood floors at a friend's place as he set his thermostat too high and the AC did not turn on to remove the humidity. So be careful with setting the thermostat too high, especially if you live in a humid place. Clark, you do not stink, but you need to smell like fresh linen
9:02 Speaker 05 all the time. Grateful to you and your team for helping us save our hard-earned money. Hermann.
9:07 Speaker 02 All right. So I gotta give a follow-up to that. So we have advanced Nest thermostats?
9:14 Speaker 02 And I'll have them set high, you know, automatically in the summer. And the Nest is apparently able to test humidity. And it comes on, the heat pump comes on with cool air. And I'm watching my money just go out the door for this reason. So advanced thermostats apparently now override settings if they need to, to make sure the humidity content is not too high and does not cause damage in a home.
9:47 Speaker 05 Clark, Clark, Clark, no amount of masking the scent will ever cover this up. You go to the Google Play Store, your payment method gets suspended because Google wants government ID with your actual birthday to prove your age for the laws around the game apps. Talk about a scary thought. Pepper spray, an Amazon seller wants your driver's license and actual birthday because of state laws requiring you to be 18 years old to buy. So the Amazon seller has a feed from the California DMV? Huh. Yikes. All healthcare systems, what's your date of birth? Yes, we're looking at you, CVS, right, et cetera. Give it up, Clark. Resistance is futile.
10:23 Speaker 02 Oh, what a great point. So what line of defense do we still have? Don't give them your social security number, too. You're giving up your birthday and your social security number and your address. Man, you got everything. You've just handed on a silver platter to a hacker to steal your identity.
10:45 Speaker 05 Clark, you stink like a humid and moldy gym changing room when providing information on Roth IRA income limits. Most recent example was on the episode when Clark stated, you want the Roth unless you're earning giant money. What's giant money? For a single individual, a quarter million or more a year. For a married couple, 500,000 or more a year. The correct limits per the IRS website for 2025, the phase out range is between 150,000 and 165,000 for singles and heads of household. For married couples filing jointly, the income phase out range is between 236,000 and 246,000. JG?
11:23 Speaker 02 JG, what's happening with me? Have I fallen on my head? I know those limits. And if I gave the wrong numbers before referring to huge money, I apologize. But I think what you may be mixing here, or I didn't explain well, what I was talking about, as I recall, Was when you want to be in a traditional 401k and when you want to be on a Roth version of a 401k. Those are the limits I talk about with the much higher amounts that you stated, the quarter million and 500,000. That if you have a 401k at work, people tend to default into the traditional 401k and
12:07 Speaker 02 traditional should only apply to people that are mega income earners, the quarter million and 500,000. If I misspoke and somehow was talking about inadvertently about Roth IRAs and how much you could earn before you weren't eligible, that was my bad because that's not the point I would be trying to make.
12:31 Speaker 05 You answered my question about moving my 529 plan to my parents, the student's grandparents, so I don't have to report it on the FAFSA. However, you quickly said you can't just do that, referring to transfer ownership of a 529 from a parent to a grandparent. I think you're incorrect. My 529 accounts are with Ohio's College Advantage and they have a straightforward form to transfer the ownership. You said some schools may ask about 529 plans owned by a grandparent, but I'm willing to take steps for the more likely case when they don't ask. Can you provide more details of why you can't just transfer ownership of the account, Barry?
13:07 Speaker 02 Barry, it depends on the rules of the state plan if you can do the procedure. And there are a number of reasons why a state 529 would allow a change of ownership. So I just breezed right by that and your point is so accurate. And the second thing you said is true. Although, under general FAFSA rules, the 529 money in a grandparent's ownership for benefit of a grandchild Does not count. An individual school can override that. But again, that is rare.
13:48 Speaker 05 Hi Clark. Thanks to you, I now stink. We went to Detroit this past weekend and the hotel wanted $49 to valet park, plus the tips. I hopped on a parking app and found a spot next door for $10. The valet was not too happy when we checked in and told them their services were not required. But thanks to your show, we pocketed $39. Keep us on our toes. Jennifer.
14:11 Speaker 02 Jennifer, thank you. Okay, I have a true confession. I was at a hotel in Salt Lake last month. And parking at the hotel was $10. So I went looking because it was in an area that if I walked three blocks, I could park on the street for free. I couldn't find a space available. And I went back. And yes, I did it. I pulled in the hotel parking lot. And for two nights, had to pay the $10 a night.
14:47 Speaker 05 That doesn't sound terrible for hotel parking. I haven't seen one that cheap in a long time.
14:51 Speaker 02 Yeah, that is, well, relatively cheap, I guess, for hotels. But I get the bill from the hotel. And they didn't bill me for the parking.
15:01 Speaker 05 Oh.
15:01 Speaker 02 So I go back to the desk. Because you know, you got the thing on your phone with your bill. And I'm not charged for parking. I said, I'm sorry, I was in room blah, blah, blah. And accidentally, you didn't charge me for parking. And she smiled and said, have a nice day.
15:20 Speaker 05 Oh, that's awesome.
15:21 Speaker 02 So I, so I fessed up and still got the free parking.
15:25 Speaker 05 Nice.
15:27 Speaker 02 So I, you know, sometimes, what's that expression your dad always used sometimes?
15:32 Speaker 05 Some days you eat the bear, some days the bear eats you.
15:35 Speaker 02 So think about that. I mean, I take that $20, I put it into an ETF index. And how much money am I going to have in 40 years?
15:45 Speaker 05 Oh, man.
15:48 Speaker 02 Well, thank you so much for your posts on Clark stinks. And I gotta tell you, today I learned something about myself. And that is sometimes I think I'm speaking clearly about something when clearly I'm not. And I really appreciate it when I say something that doesn't ring true, doesn't sound right. Or sometimes I'll just be wrong. It can be any of those things. And so when you take the time to post the Clark stinks, it is so helpful to all of us. The listeners, the viewers, to me, because it's no good if the advice and information I give are not spot on.
16:33 Speaker 02 And so I really am grateful when you take the time to post. And coming up ahead, there's a shift in the job market that I want to talk about that we have not seen since 2009. And it's significant and meaningful for your wallet.
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18:44 Speaker 02 The hardest time I've ever had in this job, which is not really a job, it's a joy. But it was very, very tough after the banking scandals resulted in the Great Recession. And the term that came into vogue in 2009, when the job market seized up and we were having big jumps in unemployment, was that the job market was frozen. Now, today, we have moved into perhaps another frozen job market, but not at this moment
19:28 Speaker 02 anywhere severe like what happened with the Great Recession. What it does mean is that employers are afraid right now to engage in new initiatives, new hiring. Employers are afraid to expand right now because the economic dislocations of a steady parade of tariffs. Has so disrupted business confidence that just for now employers are afraid. And it's why we were this year supposed to have a solid economy.
20:11 Speaker 02 And now economists are debating, laying percent odds on us going into recession. So the job market is not in a deep freeze, which when it was frozen from 09 to 12, it was in the deep freeze. And if you lived through that and you suffered from it, you know what I'm talking about. We're not anywhere like that right now, but we're not in a great space right now. For the first time in years and years, the job market is not an employee job market anymore. And how long that's going to go on? Don't know.
20:54 Speaker 02 We're a large economy, we're a diverse economy. And as much as I've made it clear, I don't like tariffs at all. We will eventually adjust because business people do that. They don't want to go out of existence. They adapt and we will adapt. The job market will heal again. But in the meantime, it means you've got to be creative. Where are the opportunities going to be? And number one, the opportunities are going to be in smaller, service-oriented companies and businesses, not well-known brand names.
21:36 Speaker 02 Because most big enterprises in some way are involved in businesses where they are directly affected by the tariff mania.
21:50 Speaker 02 Small businesses operate in a different environment. And they only shrink from a decline in economic activity, i.e. a recession, or as I described recently, a growth recession. So the big names are not where you're going to find the market thawed out. You're going to find that in local activities. You might find it even with a state or local government job, is an example that I talked about before. It may even be as it was so much from 2009 to 12, that that business idea you always
22:32 Speaker 02 had, that you get out there and start that. And so this is a bump in the road. This is not an unmitigated disaster like what followed the banking scandals. So this is a rougher patch than we've had in a while, but it is not something that needs to feel hopeless in any way. It just requires you being more flexible, more creative. In the meantime, I mean, pick up gig work or whatever that brings some money in to pay bills if you're somebody who has been laid off.
23:12 Speaker 05 Okay, we'll go to questions. Dan in Florida says, Clark, I frequently book cruises and have noticed that if I pay in full, I can't get a refund if the price drops. However, some cruise lines offer a purchase protection program that allows me to get the difference back if the price changes. This program comes out at an extra cost, but I'd plan to monitor prices regularly to take advantage of any drops. I did this on my last cruise before it was paid in full and saved $500. Do you think this type of protection is worth it, or is there a better strategy to ensure I get the best deal?
23:44 Speaker 02 Dan, I love this question because having been on just now 30 cruises, I can tell you, it's almost impossible to know that whatever you booked is the best price that's going to be available on that ship, on that cabin, on that sailing date, no matter how much they say, second passenger 50% off, free this, free that, free the other.
24:10 Speaker 02 And then later you booked and you paid and then there's a cheaper deal. So yes, I do think that it's worth it to pay a small amount at the time you book for the purchase protection program. And then it's only worth it though, if you like a hawk, keep watching to see if the price on those cabins drops. I think about where we once went on a cruise that we booked less than two weeks out. I guess someone had canceled the cabin that we booked. We got such a ridiculous deal and became friendly with somebody on the ship. And they said, so what'd you get that cabin for?
24:55 Speaker 02 Cause they knew I was cheap guy. And I said, I'm not sure you really want to know. And they said, yeah, yeah, yeah, we gotta know. What did you do? What did you do? What'd you get? And so I told them the price and then I heard a string of expletives, one after another, because you know, we got one of those great, great deals that popped up. And so that's the, the danger with booking whenever you book. And that's why I like, particularly if you're a planner and you buy way ahead. I like the purchase protection plans if you stay on top of it though.
25:33 Speaker 05 Gary in South Carolina says another podcast host explained how his credit monitoring company notified him that someone was trying to take out a payday loan in his name. He was able to stop the attempt, but he was told by the monitoring company that he would have to contact the three or four credit bureaus that only provide credit information for payday loans. Does Clark know what these three or four firms are? They're not related to Experian, Equifax, TransUnion or Enovus, according to this host.
25:59 Speaker 02 Yeah, so there are specialty credit bureaus.
26:04 Speaker 02 I don't know if there's two or three or 400 of them. I mean, it gets really mind numbing. And I thought there are more than three or four that are specialty for people with their subprime or specialty like payday loans. And so you just go crazy trying to set up a credit freeze at every last one of these. But you start looking at the percent of activity that is with one of these minor credit bureaus. And I have not wanted to get into that game. And so what I've encouraged
26:47 Speaker 02 people to do is absolutely set up the credit freeze where most of the activity is not 100%, but most of it with Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian. And even to this day, only a tiny fraction of Americans have done credit freezes with big three. So the credit monitoring, telling you about the payday loan app in your name. So that is pretty far out there as something that's going to happen that's going to be a mess you're going to have to deal with. I would not feel like credit monitoring you pay for is worth it for the minor activity that happens on these minor bureaus.
27:31 Speaker 02 I may change my opinion on that someday. But so far, I've been happy just having the free credit monitoring that I get from Credit Karma, that then they get all my data, but I get all these things in return, including being able to monitor how my score is doing whenever I want.
27:52 Speaker 05 Lisa in Florida says, "My boss saw a Norton antivirus charge on her business account online." Charges on your statement have an 800 number associated, so she called that number to dispute the charge from what she thought was Norton, but it was the scammer's number who imposed the charge. This man answered and said he would be glad to return the charge. Just link your account and type in a reverse. of the amount. When she did, she mistakenly added too many numbers, making it a return of like $8 million. The guy freaked out, so she knew it wasn't legit. It was Sunday night, so she couldn't undo this. She called me at 8:30 a.m. on Monday. He called her back, but she put a recording of a crying baby on her cellphone, so he couldn't hear it in
28:34 Speaker 05 the room. She said her grandson was crying and she needed to settle him so she could concentrate. Give 30, give her 30 minutes and call back. As soon as they hung up, she went to the bank and froze all of her accounts. Here's the lesson. Don't assume an 800 number on your statement is real. Always call the company directly with questions.
28:51 Speaker 02 Yeah, okay, so remember when we had the people who were getting ripped off for a tiny amount per month by a scammer and a con artist that had bought 2 million people's credit card numbers, no questions asked from a bank? You remember that? And people were never noticing that they were getting these bogus charges. It had just an innocuous explanation on their statements, which proved nobody was actually looking at their statements each month. And this is an opposite. Your boss saw this supposed Norton antivirus charge.
29:32 Speaker 02 And this is one that I don't know where I'd already read about these phony Norton charges showing up on people's statements. But know that what you just heard is true, that criminals have been able to penetrate the credit card numbers and be able to post phony charges for who knows what. And before you call a number that is there in the explanation, you need to look up on your own at the company's own website and see what number you call
30:10 Speaker 02 for customer service there. And I can't believe I'm having to say this, but it's just a fact. Because then otherwise, you can get scammed twice, like almost happened in this case.
30:26 Speaker 02 A lot for us to have to fool with and worry about, right? And remember, just as this happened with the scandals inside the cellphone companies, where they just have to have one dishonest person working in one department to be able to steal a lot of information on individuals, steal service, steal new phones, all the rest, and then the bill comes to you. These systems at big corporations are so easily penetrated through Trojan Horse strategies of just getting somebody in a department, even as a low-level employee who has access to data.
31:09 Speaker 02 And that's why we always have to be on our guard. And I want to thank you for being with us this week. But know that we continue to serve you through the weekend at Clark.com and ClarkDeals.com. And when you're looking for great information on something, I hope that you will go to our newsletters, subscribe to them, they're free. Who doesn't like that? But the great part of our free newsletters is the information is good, it's well researched, and it's there for you.
31:48 Speaker 02 If you want to subscribe to one of our newsletters, go to Clark.com/newsletter or Clark.com/newsletters in either case. And remember, they are free. So have a wonderful weekend, and I hope we've empowered you with strategies that will help you save more, spend less, and avoid getting ripped off.
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