Pod Insights The Clark Howard Podcast 04.21.25 GOLD As An Asset / The Best Cell Phone Plan For You About this episode Today, Clark talks GOLD! Should you be buying gold to help offset the uncertainty of the stock market? Clark discusses the nature of gold as an asset, and, should you decide to buy it, the best way to do so. Also - you may have seen lots of ads lately from the big cell phone carriers. Is it time to switch? Gold As An Asset: Segment 1 Ask Clark: Segment 2 Cell Phone Plan Update: Segment 3 Ask Clark: Segment 4 Mentioned on the show: Should I Buy Gold? Is It a Good Investment? Should You Buy Gold at Costco? Warning: How You Should NOT Buy Gold Trump Says Tariffs Are Reciprocal. They Aren’t. The trade deficit isn’t an emergency – it’s a sign of America’s strength WSJ: Verizon Offers 3-Year Price Lock for Wireless Customers Best Verizon MVNOs: Cell Phone Companies That Use Verizon’s Towers Verizon Wireless Deal: Get Four Unlimited Lines for $100 13 New Cell Phone Deals in April - Google Fi Review The Best Phone Plan For You – Compare Phone Plans Best Phone Plans: Get Exactly What You Want at the Cheapest Price Xfinity Mobile Review: Verizon’s Network Starting at $20 a Month Spectrum Mobile Review: 7 Things To Know Before You Sign Up Automatic Bill Pay: How It Works and How To Do It Safely Charles Schwab Review: Pros & Cons 5 Money Tips To Know Before You Travel Abroad What Is an HSA Account and How Does It Work? 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 0:00 Speaker 00 This episode is brought to you by Indeed. You're ready to level up your business, but the pressure to find the right person to make that happen is intense. Indeed sponsored jobs can help carry the load. It boosts your job post to help it reach quality talent fast. Cut through the chaos with Indeed sponsored jobs. Get a $75 sponsored job credit at indeed.com/podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring now? Then this is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs.
0:34 Speaker 01 It's my pleasure to welcome you to here at 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. Today I'm talking gold and other precious metals. Should you be buying up gold right now because of the tumult and the stock and bond markets? Also, probably seen, gosh, it's like the biggest ad category it feels like of any now, ads from the big cellphone carriers? Is this your signal that you're in play that you should switch? Well, I'll tell you what I think.
1:19 Speaker 01 And also, I'm going to take your questions. If you have a question for us, please send it to Clark.com/ask. So, gold has been a pretty lousy holding for a good, long time until recently. And the value of gold has skyrocketed. I don't know if inflation adjusted, it's at the highest price ever, but it's at a very, very pricey point. And as luck would have it, I'm being asked so many questions out and about, about gold.
2:00 Speaker 01 I was in Costco, actually the day before yesterday, picking up prescriptions. And I got stopped by one person asking me if it was a good idea to buy gold from Costco.com. The other person was asking me how much of their portfolio should be gold. And these were unrelated things, just walking around the store and I was like, I gotta talk about this because anytime there becomes such a buzz and the value goes up, that's when something suddenly becomes over-loved. Is there any expression like that?
2:39 Speaker 01 Too much love coming its way for your own good. So having gold and precious metals as part of what you do as a hedge against uncertain or bad times is fine. Commodities, gold, silver, whatever, but particularly gold and silver, platinum, whatever, they, other than being used for jewelry, they don't actually make anything. They're a storage of value. And so, over the long haul, they don't create value like investments in profit-making or what you hope are profit-making enterprises.
3:22 Speaker 01 And so, you don't overplay your hand here. I mean, most investment professionals would say, if you want to have hedges like gold or whatever, somewhere like 3%, 5% of what you have. I mean, the highest I've ever seen is like 7% or 8%. It's not the game. You don't go and hide in gold. First of all, it's a pain to buy, more of a pain to sell. You have the very large buy/sells, buy/sell spread. You gotta store it, gotta hope it doesn't get stolen.
4:01 Speaker 01 The most efficient way to do it is to buy a gold fund, a gold exchange traded fund, which is a very simple thing to do and a much less costly way to hedge a certain amount of risk by having gold. One thing about it, and there's been a lot of confusion about it. I had a question about it a couple of months ago, having gold in an IRA. So much hassle, you don't know. And especially when you get older, it's really bad owning physical gold inside of an IRA because of something known as RMDs. If you're younger, don't even worry about what an RMD is.
4:46 Speaker 01 Required minimum distribution. It's complicated. But you could own a gold ETF inside an IRA. The advantage of that is gold precious metals are subject to higher punitive taxes than regular real investments. But especially now, don't be a Johnny come lately to the gold thing or precious metals because they've gone up so much in value that when market conditions settle down, you have a greater chance that the value is going to go down, even if there's a spike moving forward from now. And it's like Clark's an idiot. Look, he said, you know, it spiked, could spike more from here.
5:31 Speaker 01 But gold can be volatile in price during times of market uncertainty, market panic. So yes, it can play a role, but don't overdo it. And remember, I love the ETFs so much more than having physical gold. And even though it is true, as I told the person in Costco two days ago, that owning physical gold that you buy from Costco is the best way to buy physical gold that exists. When you go to sell it, Costco's not the buyer buying it from you.
6:13 Speaker 01 You have to go sell on those terrible exchanges where you pay the big sell cost, the buy, sell spread when you go to sell it.
6:24 Speaker 02 Are you ready for some questions?
6:25 Speaker 01 I sure am.
6:26 Speaker 02 Okay, this came in from Noreen in Ohio. This is not a political question about the tariff issue. If Clark thinks tariffs are bad, I would like to know his opinion on all the other countries that have had ridiculous amounts of tariffs on the USA for many years, yet nothing is ever said about it. And a lot of people wrote in with this question.
6:44 Speaker 01 Yeah, and it's a great question. And by the way, when other countries have tariff barriers is pre-existed, they're not just targeted at the US, there are all other countries that are exporting to them. And they're the big loser in that country. It gives them lower economic growth. It means they have an inferior selection of goods at higher prices. And tariffs have been proven over the years to be the most harmful not to the country that would try to export to the country with tariffs. It's to the country that puts those tariff walls up.
7:25 Speaker 01 Their citizens and the country itself is harmed with lower economic growth. So I despise tariffs. I don't like tariffs in any case at all. China, though, I said any case at all, China is the big question mark because China is such a large exporter of goods. And there's a lot of allegations that China has engaged in, since 2001, in unfair trade practices. What does that mean? That there are subsidies that the Chinese Communist Party has provided to certain companies
8:09 Speaker 01 to produce goods that without those subsidies, they would be selling the goods in the marketplace at a loss. That's why China is kind of a unique circumstance and situation. But as a general rule, countries that impose tariffs on us as an exporter selling goods to their country and their citizens. Or any other country selling as an exporter to them. The real loser is that country that imposes the tariffs, period.
8:40 Speaker 02 Can I also ask you, because I had asked you about this, and you sent me a Wall Street Journal article that did an explanation that some of the numbers were really about trade deficits? Is that right?
8:49 Speaker 01 Oh, yeah. I mean, that's such a... The chart, again, gosh, I don't want... We don't do a political show. But I have to point out that that chart that the president put up on, was it called Liberty Day? Or whatever that was coined by the White House. That chart was not accurate because it was also including in it trade deficit, but did not include current account deficits, all the rest, did not include all the services. The United States is a service powerhouse to the world with real, meaningful exports
9:32 Speaker 01 that generate enormous income for the country. And so, the whole thing of like, well, we're going to do to you what you do to us, was really not an accurate representation. And...
9:46 Speaker 02 We'll put the link to the Wall Street Journal article, maybe that'll...
9:49 Speaker 01 Or any publication is written about that.
9:53 Speaker 02 Allison in Georgia says, "I'm hearing the value of the dollar will likely decline. Is it a good idea to exchange funds in savings from dollars to another currency when this happens, euro or pound?"
10:04 Speaker 01 So, it's hard playing what's known as the Forex market. It's hard for an individual, unless you're an extremely wealthy individual, or an institutional setting, or something like that, to play the currency markets. And the president has stated his desire for the dollar to decline in value. And there are specific reasons for that, that I'm not even going to get into right now. So, the question of what the value of the dollar is going to be going forward versus other currencies becomes a tough game to play. How would I be playing it?
10:43 Speaker 01 It's what I said weeks ago that I have a meaningful part of my investment portfolio, about a third, it's more precisely about 35% invested overseas. I've had that for a while. And so when the dollar was going up and up in value, that was hurting me having roughly a third of my investments overseas. Now, if the dollar does decline, there's real benefit to me. It's part of spreading out your risks and it's the easiest way for a consumer to play this. Now, I know there are people who use Revolut as a way to hold different foreign currency
11:26 Speaker 01 holdings and Revolut's an affordable way to do it. But this is a pretty difficult game for an everyday consumer or investor to play.
11:39 Speaker 02 And this one came in from Viv in Florida. Being avid listeners to your program, we thank you for all the advice you've given us as we try to follow everything that's applicable to us. I'm 58, my husband's 55 and going through déjà vu all over again. I was supposed to open a business with less than $50,000 back in May of 2020 when the pandemic hit. We canceled just before signing a lease when everything shut down in March of 2020. We moved to Florida since then. Last year, he was finally on board for me to pursue opening a business, so I stopped work while he works full time. For the past eight months, I've negotiated and put a plan together and just today, a draft for the lease was presented to me to sign to start this new business.
12:24 Speaker 02 We'll pull about $100,000 from our savings from CDs and high-yield savings account. We'd be left with approximately $120,000 in our 401K, which we understand is going to be volatile at this point, and another 50K in CDs. We do have about 500K in real estate equity and owe about $400,000 on a mortgage. The business itself would have been a sure thing if the economy is normal revolving around family and kids' leisure. However... With fear of a depression, our concern is that families will be limited to disposable income and this business would take a hit. I'm reaching out for advice as this has been eight months in the planning and all we have to do now is sign and go about opening the doors.
13:06 Speaker 02 Am I crazy in starting something right now? Would you risk a new business today? If I do put this on hold, I risk losing a great site. Thank you tremendously.
13:16 Speaker 01 So Viv, there's never the perfect moment to be out there as an entrepreneur. There's always things that will cause self doubt. I believe that there's advantage starting a business during a time that people are pessimistic. Now, the conditions of the economy are still strong. Leasing space right now is pretty expensive. The vacancy rate's very low. It's really later in an economic cycle that conditions are more favorable to sign a lease and
13:57 Speaker 01 start a business. But I want to go back to something you said. Would it be terrible to start a business that is based on families being willing to spend discretionary income to come to your business because the possibility of a depression? The odds of a depression are very low, even though if if we did go into an all out extended trade war in the world, history shows that it has a great likelihood of leading to a depression. I don't believe that we're going to be in an extremely extended trade war that could lead to a depression. The uncertainty of
14:41 Speaker 01 today and whatever tariffs stay in effect for whatever period of time could lead to will lead to a slowdown in the economy and could lead to a recession. But that would not be a reason for you to not go forward. One thing though, I do want you to think about with this business is you know the cash it's requiring for day one, you have to have as part of your business plan and know how you're going to fund initial losses that with a new business, opening up, new location, that you could cover six to 18 months of initial losses. It's even if the business
15:24 Speaker 01 ends up being a roaring success, it is common that you'll go through a period of time that you will have losses that you have to be prepared to cover as the business finds its way in the marketplace, finds its customer base, and hits break even and then beyond. But I love the entrepreneurial spirit. I hear the fire in the belly and what you've said, and I think if your overall finances feel good enough to do this at this time,
16:01 Speaker 01 go for it. Coming up ahead, advertising like crazy from the cellphone carriers right now, and the ads are very defensive in nature, not offensive. Why does that signal to me that there's real opportunity for you? I'm going to tell you straight ahead what you should be doing for your wallet.
16:27 Speaker 00 This episode is brought to you by Indeed. You're ready to level up your business, but the pressure to find the right person to make that happen is intense. Indeed sponsored jobs can help carry the load. It boosts your job post to help it reach quality talent fast. Cut through the chaos with Indeed sponsored jobs. Get a $75 sponsored job credit at indeed.com/podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring now? Then this is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs.
16:57 Speaker 01 So the tone of cellphone advertising has shifted very heavily. If you watch the ads from AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, they overplayed their hand. All three of them pushed up rates so much on their customers and kept thinking, "Oh, nobody's going to notice this increase. Nobody's going to notice that new fee. Nobody's going to notice that we're taking away this automatic payment discount." Well, the cumulative effect, people are angry. They're frustrated and you're not trapped.
17:36 Speaker 01 You are not trapped by the Troika, by AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile. The gang of three cellphone carriers. Because yeah, they've run those rates up on you. But today you have more alternatives than ever to kick them to the curb. Verizon so realizes they overplayed their hand that they're doing all this defensive advertising about a three-year price lock. It's also a tweak at T-Mobile. For T-Mobile telling people they were in price lock plans and then saying, "Just kidding, just kidding, we're raising your rates." And life's tough.
18:21 Speaker 01 But is it really? You have so much more power than you realize. So many options other than being with this big three. Even with the big three, you can go to one of their discount brands that they own completely. And it was funny because I've read all these comparisons recently about the new ultra-premium plan from Visible, which now is marketed by Verizon, is visible by Verizon. And the new ultra-premium plan from them is half of what the same cellphone plan is from Verizon.
19:03 Speaker 01 And it's the same thing, just for half the money. But that's just one tool in the toolbox I've talked about. There are so many alternative brand names that are owned by particularly T-Mobile and Verizon. AT&T has not played this game as hard. They have Cricket, but not much else in terms of where they own a discount brand. And so if you are risk averse, but you hate paying too much money, this is where I'd have you look at the brands that Verizon uses to discount, the brands that T-Mobile uses to discount. These are ones they own.
19:47 Speaker 01 And then you've got, well Cricket for AT&T. What are you doing over there at AT&T anyway? Anyway, then below them, you've got all the independents that buy wholesale network access from the big three, but sell coverage service at a much, much lower price. And then the wild card growing like crazy, the cable monsters have gotten big time into selling wireless service. Because what they do is they concentrate only in markets where they have their cable monopoly.
20:29 Speaker 01 And they all change the terms and conditions for people who buy internet service from them to where they have the ability to, you're paying them for your monthly internet service, and then they steal part of that capacity from you to provide cellphone service to people around you. So they're getting double use. You're getting to use the internet and they're using what you're paying them for to provide cellphone service to people around them. Yeah, that's why the cable companies can offer it so cheap. And then when you're traveling somewhere that they don't offer blanket coverage for Internet,
21:10 Speaker 01 they buy capacity from wholesale from the big three and then provide you with service at what are potentially great prices, especially if you already buy Internet service for your home from a cable monster. They then offer wireless service, cell phone service, mobile service, whatever you want to call it, at a much cheaper price than you're now paying buying it from one of the three. I got a gang of three, AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile. Let's try that, the gang of three. And if you are fed up with how Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile are charging you these ridiculous
21:55 Speaker 01 prices for your monthly mobile phone service, we have a tool I'm really proud of at Clark.com, our Phone Plan Finder. The way you find it is you go to Clark.com/phoneplanfinder and you can put in your exact situation and we'll be able to help you find your alternatives that can save you money. Now, I just bashed the gang of three, but I want to say something positive about Verizon. Verizon, for its most premium plan, is geared towards the most affluent of Americans, now
22:34 Speaker 01 has significantly improved international service included in the plan at no additional cost. And the only company that offers better for people who travel regularly than what Verizon has just done is Google Fi, which is so far ahead and shoulders above everybody else for people who travel outside the United States. Nobody's close.
23:03 Speaker 01 Krista?
23:04 Speaker 02 All right, this came in from Frederick in Missouri. I just received notice from my cellphone carrier that the $5 quote unquote discount I have been receiving for being enrolled in Auto Pay is ending in two weeks since I use a credit card. If I switch to ACH, then I will receive a $10 discount per month. Would you consider it safe to allow this company to draft my bank account each month via ACH? My bill is $76 a month, so the extra $5 if I do nothing amounts to almost 7%. Thanks.
23:36 Speaker 01 And otherwise, you're going to get a 7% greater discount, or close to it, based on the math you said, if you go to ACH. Now, we're going to see more and more of this, and I was having so much fun there bashing AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile, but this is actually about the ongoing war with us having the highest credit card rates for processing credit cards for merchants accepting cards in the world. And so, you're going to see more and more businesses that used to be able to pay with an automatic charge to your credit card, now going to something where they say, "Nope,
24:18 Speaker 01 no deal for you anymore, but if you let us do ACH." So what you can do if you're worried about the security of using automated clearinghouse, where they just come in in debit from your checking account, you set up a separate account at not where you normally bank or credit union, where you put money in there for various ACHs. It makes it easy for you to monitor what ACHs are coming out by having it in a separate account, and you don't bet the farm on no hacks or anything like that from ACH. With your regular account, you need to pay rent, pay mortgage, pay car payment, pay all your bills.
24:59 Speaker 02 Shawn in Alaska wrote this one. I've got a Charles Schwab checking account and debit card that I opened in the past based on your advice and having no foreign exchange transaction fees and ATM fee reimbursements. I recall using it in Mexico exceptionally well in 2016 for my first wedding, but I was curious if this is still the case for that account and why it wouldn't be listed in the top checking accounts on your website due to the international travel benefit.
25:26 Speaker 01 Great question, and we really work hard on having that best checking account list. And the reason Schwab didn't make the cut, and by comparison Fidelity did, is Fidelity pays, at least at this moment, a much higher interest rate on the funds in the checking account than Schwab does. For people who travel, and so I do, full disclosure, I have accounts with Schwab, Fidelity, and Vanguard, but I do my, equivalent of my checking, my banking with Schwab, and that's because I do travel outside the United States. At least 60 days a year I'm not in the United States.
26:11 Speaker 01 And so having access to the free ATMs is very, very valuable to me. Not paying foreign currency junk fees, extremely valuable to me. So even though I don't get the higher interest of a lot of the checking accounts we list on our best checking account guide, Schwab did not make the cut because of the lousy interest they pay.
26:35 Speaker 02 Shannon in Georgia says, medical bills, HSAs, and credit cards, oh my. Clark, thanks to technology, the process to be reimbursed for medical expense from an HSA account is rather simple versus having to submit paper claims and wait for payments, etc. However, I want to ensure that I'm not missing something crucial. Rather than use the debit card provided by my HSA account, I am opting to pay my medical bills via my regular rewards credit card, if there's no upcharge. Since the process is a breeze, I simply log into my HSA and submit the claim request for the same payment. I always put the bill information in the notes so I can tie it back. And it's transferred out of my HSA into my bank account in a matter of days.
27:17 Speaker 02 This allows me to get the rewards on my credit card, but ultimately still use the funds for my HSA. Am I missing something in this process that I need to consider?
27:26 Speaker 01 No, Shannon, I love the way you think because you're playing both ends of this game. You've got your triple tax benefit HSA. You're getting the reimbursement from the HSA in a way that also earns you tax-free cash back on a credit card. I mean, that's really, really awesome. There is one thing more awesome than what you're doing, though. Depends on how solid your funds are. The best thing to do with an HSA is not use it. Isn't that a stupid thing for me to say?
28:05 Speaker 01 I mean, you have it for pre-tax benefit to pay medical bills that aren't covered by insurance. So why would I say the best thing to do is not use it? Because the best advantage with an HSA is to have the money invested. And an HSA with, like I mentioned fidelity a minute ago is an option. And you have it invested where it grows through the years, tax-free. And then much later in life, when you're going to have more medical bills that are not reimbursed, you're going to have that tax-free money. You've got the tax deal upfront, putting money in. It grows tax-free, you spend it tax-free.
28:49 Speaker 01 And so time is your real friend here. If you need the money, you need it to pay the medical bills. But if you don't, deferring using the HSA is even better than what you're doing. Being able to squeeze all the advantage from reward cards as part of your use of the HSA.
29:13 Speaker 01 And if you have access to an HSA at work, if you're in a HSA eligible health plan and you're not contributing to the HSA, do you know it's the one thing that should be a higher priority than saving in your employer provided 401K past a match? And it's a higher priority than my beloved Roth IRA. It's true. So have an absolutely wonderful day and I look so forward to being with you on Wednesday.
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