Pod Insights The Clark Howard Podcast 05.02.25 Clark Answers His Critics on Clark Stinks / Tariff Adaptation About this episode Friday - Clark Stinks day! Christa shares Clark Stinks posts with Clark. Submit yours at Clark.com/ClarkStinks. Also today, Clark talks about innovation in the face of tariffs. A new tool has been created to help some businesses navigate prices, and it’s a great example of American ingenuity. Clark Stinks: Segments 1 & 2A Tariff Tool: Segment 3 Ask Clark: Segment 4 Mentioned on the show: When Is the Best Time To Collect Social Security? 7 Money Mistakes You Might Be Making at the Gas Station Public Complaint Process | US Department of Transportation Costco vs. Sam's Club: What Is the Difference? From Axios: Perfect timing: A tool for tariffs Are Extended Warranties Ever Worth It? Here's How Long Your Home Appliances Should Last Should You Buy an Extended Warranty for Your TV? 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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1:02 Speaker 02 It's my pleasure to welcome you here 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. Today is our first May podcast. Do I love May?
1:22 Speaker 03 May is awesome.
1:23 Speaker 02 May is just the greatest month. For people who live in really hot climates, it's not intensely hot, yet extreme daylight, and we've got month after month of wonderful, not cold weather, wherever you are in the U.S. I love that.
1:42 Speaker 03 April showers bring May flowers, too. Lots of flowers.
1:46 Speaker 02 Well, you know, I think AstroTurf is beautiful, so.
1:49 Speaker 03 That's true.
1:52 Speaker 02 So in this first May podcast, we're beginning with my favorite activity in the podcast and the YouTube show, Clark Stinks. And after I answer some of your questions, I'm going to talk about innovation in the face of tariffs. A new tool's been created to help companies navigate the implications of tariffs. And to me, it shows why I always tell you, human beings are so innovative. Companies adapt, or they die. They adapt to thrive.
2:37 Speaker 02 We're never just one thing just sitting there. And this is a great example of it. But it's time for you to hear how I may need to adapt in order to thrive in serving you in today's Clark Stinks.
2:57 Speaker 04 I should have never encouraged you to speak.
2:59 Speaker 05 You must think I'm pretty stupid. You should be ashamed of yourself.
3:02 Speaker 06 Well, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe you're right, pal.
3:08 Speaker 03 Alrighty then. Clark Stinks. First Clark Stinks in May, too. Blanket advice like take social security as late as possible is just plain bad, generalized advice. It depends. If you have a bad health history and probably won't live to 70, you'd be crazy not to take it early. I think you need to qualify some of your general investment advice. There are exceptions. My sister died at 63 and was lucky to live that long, but she planned on taking social security at 67, just in case. Men currently have a 75.8 year life expectancy. That means for a lot of people, postponing social security is a terrible choice. Anonymous.
3:46 Speaker 02 Anonymous, you are completely right that although general advice is waiting till 70 is ideal for social security, there are always going to be exceptions. And your late sister is a perfect example, being, in her case, lucky to have made it to 63. And she was going to wait for social security. If her health was that clearly not good, 62 would have been appropriate. There are exceptions. But I want to deal with a stat that you gave. Men living to approximately 76 years old, that's from birth.
4:24 Speaker 02 If you look at how long the life expectancy is of a man or a woman who makes it to different ages, 60, 65, 70, on like that, what are known as actuarial risk, you'll see that the age that somebody on average will live to is actually much later than the 76 for men and 80 whatever for women, whatever it is for women. So if you're playing the odds and there is no pre-existing medical condition and there is no catastrophic financial reason that you need to take social security between 62
5:07 Speaker 02 and 69 years old, 70 is ideal.
5:11 Speaker 03 You don't stink like two-day-old roadkill on a hot summer day, but you're getting close. When you're upset with not being able to record customer service agents, you fail to take into consideration that the recordings from the company or government are for both the employees and the consumers and taxpayers' protection. As for the federal government, these recordings are held for 30 to 40 days and the taxpayer may request a review of the call and the agents could be graded on the accuracy, tone, correctness of the advice given. If a call needs to be recorded by a taxpayer or consumer, they can write to the agency or company and ask for permission to record. You're correct, some states allow for one person, but you don't know where the customer service representative is located and they may not be in a state that allows it.
5:55 Speaker 03 From personal experience, protocol is to hang up if the person calling declines on stopping the recording. You need to do more research before reaching from the gut, John.
6:05 Speaker 02 John, thank you. All right. Thank you for the specific information about the federal government I've never heard. You ever heard that?
6:13 Speaker 03 Mm-mm.
6:14 Speaker 02 Let's go to talking about with a company. When companies record a call, they're never doing it for the benefit of the consumer. Not at all, not even remotely. And it is wrong on every level, in my opinion, that a company thinks it's fine for them to record us, but it's not okay for us to record them. That's why one of the things I've learned to use of late, when I'm dealing with customer no service, is to do a chat where you can have a transcript of the chat. You ever done that?
6:50 Speaker 03 Mm-hmm.
6:51 Speaker 02 And then there's no question what you were told by customer no service. You've got to think about this from my perspective. Customer no service has become an adversarial thing that companies don't want to provide and do so at the least possible expense, often with contracted call centers where the people you're talking to don't even have the authority or the knowledge to fix the problem you're having. Am I a cynic about customer no service? You bet.
7:30 Speaker 03 All right, two about gasoline that I'm going to read. "Love you, brother, but man, you missed the mark on your episode about top-tier gasoline. Yes, Costco is the best, no doubt, but most discount gasoline retailers are not top-tier like Wawa, which you mentioned. Sam's, Walmart, Buc-E's, et cetera, also, most branded gas stations are indeed top-tier. They even have an app so you can locate a top-tier station near you, which are mostly branded stations. Lastly, Amazon Prime and Walmart Plus also have programs that get you additional discounts on top-tier gasoline at places like Exxon and Mobil. Thanks for your insights to keep us on the path to economic freedom." Bart. And then this one. "Eric's love for the independent convenience store change doesn't stink, but his guidance on their gas sure does.
8:15 Speaker 03 On the podcast, Clark specifically says the oil company brands are not offering top-tier gasoline. However, I've found that aside from Costco, the oil company..." Brands are typically the only locations selling top tier gas. The independent convenience store chain locations are great places to grab a bite or to eat or grab some necessities, but personally, I don't fill up with them because their lower priced fuel is lacking the additives recommended by car manufacturers. Luckily, I have Costco on my daily commute to work, making filling up with top tier cheap and easy. And those other times, I know of a few oil company brand stations in my area that are typically only 10 or 15 cents higher than Costco. Eric in Texas.
8:55 Speaker 02 Eric, thank you very much. And top tier, if you're not familiar with the term, it is an industry standard for the quality of the gas going in your vehicle. It's like a seal that you're getting, an approval seal, like, like we used to have something called the good housekeeping seal of approval. It's kind of like the equivalent of that. It means that you should be able to have the highest level of trust on the gas that's being sold at that place. I was not aware till after that podcast that a lot of my beloved independent giant convenience store chains do not sell top tier gas. And I'm going to do more reading on
9:40 Speaker 02 that. But it's interesting that Costco sells top tier gas and Sam's Club chooses not to. What's up, Sam's Club? You're trying to compete better with Costco? Why don't you sell gas that your members can absolutely trust and sell top tier?
10:01 Speaker 03 You stink because you side with the consumer even though they're clearly in the wrong. An example, a caller said they got to the gate in the quote nick of time and the gate agent refused to let her board since her seat was already given away. Regardless of the sob story, she got there late, probably after final boarding, and they probably called for her on the PA numerous times. And finally, after final boarding, gave her seat to someone else. You gave her advice to file a complaint. Should the gate agent have kicked the other person off the plane to let her through? If she got to the gate on time like everyone else, this would not have happened. Even if there's dislike. Like for the airline, it doesn't mean everything is their fault. Please, Clark.
10:37 Speaker 02 Please name the airline in this case.
10:39 Speaker 03 It was American.
10:40 Speaker 02 It's important with the story.
10:41 Speaker 03 It was American. Call it like it is sometimes. Tell the consumer if it was their fault. Stop enabling everyone to complain about everything that goes wrong, even if it's their fault. Maybe this is why American tourists have a bad reputation in other countries. We are unable to do no wrong and it's always someone else's fault. Tom.
10:57 Speaker 02 Tom, thank you. And I don't know if you work for American Airlines, but American Airlines has been very much in the trade media about this. American implemented a AI system that most passengers that fly American, United and Delta connect at giant transfer hubs. And so American, in its wisdom, came up with a technology that uses AI to decide, okay, that flight from wherever it's gonna post in its gate so many minutes late, and they auto rebook you on another flight, even if, let's say, you're doing carry-on bags.
11:42 Speaker 02 They don't have to worry about moving bags from one plane to another and it misses the flight and all that. And so even if you present yourself at an American Airlines connecting flight, within the time limits you're supposed to be there, they've already taken your seat away from you. I think it's an abuse of the customer. And I think any American Airlines passenger connecting at a hub where you arrive at the gate in the time that's required and they already took your seat away, you have a right to complain and you should to the DOT, DOT.gov. Now, the general issue, you present yourself at the gate past the arrival time,
12:26 Speaker 02 you're supposed to arrive at the gate and you're not a connecting passenger, then yeah, that's your bad. The real problem has been with connectors on American, United and Delta who end up stranded.
12:41 Speaker 03 Which I believe was what the original poster was.
12:44 Speaker 02 Exactly what the original was with American Airlines.
12:46 Speaker 03 And they gave her seat to a crew member is what she said, if I recall correctly. Like to a, it was a non-rev passenger.
12:52 Speaker 02 Non-rev.
12:53 Speaker 03 Clark said that someone, oh, these are, there are two about this one, that someone should keep their Costco card while living in rural Wyoming if they get provisions on their semi-annual trip. And the better question is if they should keep their membership. I agree with that. And to be more specific, 2% of X equals $65 would find us that X is equal to $3,250 a year spent at Costco. It doesn't have to be all in person at Costco, but it could be ordering something online. So I'd check if they deliver to them in Wyoming. If there's an appliance they project, then they may want to keep the card. Signed, a middle school mathlete. And then apparently Clark hasn't lived in rural America and so can't be blamed for not knowing the benefits of a Costco membership for someone living
13:37 Speaker 03 in rural Wyoming. So he doesn't stink like cow manure either. I think he said owning a Costco membership wouldn't be worth it for someone who lives in Wyoming and only makes it to Costco twice a year. Being in that situation myself, I have to disagree. My family finds the items we can order from Costco online diapers, canned foods, shelf stable groceries, et cetera, as well as the cash back from the Costco credit card to be worth the membership fee. Thanks for all your help, Molly.
14:03 Speaker 02 Molly, thank you. And I have a response to both of these because I'm thinking about it. And it should have occurred to me at the time, did I mention that Sam's Club, if you have the plus membership, you get free delivery with almost everything priced the same price as it is in the store, and they'll deliver to you. Costco, when you order Costco online, they're charging you a higher price almost always than what the same item is in the warehouse. So in a situation where somebody lives more remotely from a warehouse club, I think the tie goes to Sam's in most cases, if Sam's in fact will deliver to your address.
14:46 Speaker 03 Clark mentioned on a recent podcast related to the ability to purchase high-end vehicles in the US. Recently, in 2018, a Volvo manufacturing plant opened in Ridgeville, South Carolina, a BMW plant opened in Spartanburg, South Carolina. I would speculate that no tariffs would be on autos produced at these locations. Barb?
15:05 Speaker 02 Barb, I wish that was the case, but the way the tariffs have been designed. You look at a Volvo final assembly in the U.S. in South Carolina, the BMW Mercedes plant in Alabama, Nissan plant in Tennessee, Toyota plant, Toyota's got plants all over the place, Georgetown, Kentucky, Texas, wherever. Anyway, you look at any of these, the tariffs are based on components. And if the components that are final assembly to these plants were all made in the United States, you'd be right, there'd be no tariffs. But even in the cases where foreign automakers have built plants in the United States, or
15:50 Speaker 02 you take GM, or Ford, or Stellantis, which owns Chrysler, and what other brand they have, Dodge, and you look at their final assembly, the parts, the components come from all over the world. So there are still significant tariffs, even on vehicles that are assembled in the United States. That's the way the tariff thing works. And speaking of tariffs, straight ahead, I want to talk about a true example about how, as much as I despise tariffs, and always have, that we will adapt, and so will the world. And I got proof of that for you, coming up.
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18:03 Speaker 06 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.
18:16 Speaker 02 Price and participation may vary. Promotion pricing may be lower than meal pricing. So, the way goods are manufactured is so complicated. And you could have a component of something that was made in America, but different pieces of that component were made overseas. And those individual elements are all subject to tariffs at all different rates, depending on what country part of that came in from. Can you imagine what an impossibility it is for a company to figure out the optimal sourcing of an item?
18:54 Speaker 02 Because we live in a world where the complexity of goods that we buy is so extreme that it is pretty much impossible for every part of everything that any citizen in any country ever buys, that every part of it in total was made in that country. So, what do you do if you're a business? Well, I read an Axios article about a company called Optologic, which is a supply chain software provider who launched a product called the Lumina Tariff Optimizer that actually
19:37 Speaker 02 allows companies to figure out where in the world...
19:44 Speaker 02 Each piece that they're going to need to make their item is the cheapest overall cost, including cost of manufacture and whatever tariffs it would be on that item coming into the United States. This is being used right now by big companies, even retailers that source a lot of items are using this. And so it's not for a small business trying to figure something out. But the point of this is that we always figure it out. People always adapt. Businesses always adapt if they want to survive and thrive. And this is just an example.
20:28 Speaker 02 You know, nobody woke up on January 1st, running any company and was like, uh-oh, we're going to have the worst tariffs coming our way since the 1930s, happening in just months. But they did. And there's a lot of confusion with them. You know, when it applies, what item, what component of an item and all that. And so it's hard because running a company is hard enough. Providing a product or service at a price that people want, a tough thing. Getting the quality right, hard. I mean, if you've never owned a business, it's something that you may not understand
21:11 Speaker 02 how hard it is to do it well. But I will tell you, if you dial back five years ago, five years ago, we were right in that initial fog of the COVID war and all the disruptions in so many ways. And all the predictions of all these businesses that were going to just wholesale fail. And yeah, there were failures, but what happened mostly? People learned to adapt. Businesses learned to adapt and survive and ultimately thrive. And so never sell our ability short.
21:58 Speaker 02 To deal with adverse circumstances and figure it out. You know who doesn't figure it out? People who have blinders on all the time, like they're a racehorse and they're not thinking about how conditions are always going to change, always going to change. And that is a certainty of human life and a business. And there will be good times, there'll be bad times, there'll be times in between. Adapt. We always do.
22:28 Speaker 03 Change is constant.
22:30 Speaker 02 Haven't we seen that? I mean, you think about with what we've done, serving people with advice and information, guidance, it never stops changing how we reach people.
22:43 Speaker 03 Right. You just mentioned in a meeting we're in yesterday that we used to send faxes out forever ago. I mean, it's insane.
22:52 Speaker 02 I mean, when Chris is talking about faxes, we actually had an information service that people would pay for and they'd receive a fax they paid for with up to the minute information. And that was the quick way to get things out.
23:08 Speaker 03 I had a doctor's office ask me for a fax recently and I was like, what?
23:13 Speaker 02 Can you believe it? Can you believe it? Okay. All right. I know. I know. We gotta go questions, but I'm sorry. This is a pet peeve of mine. What year is it?
23:25 Speaker 03 2025.
23:26 Speaker 02 2025. Why is it that everybody in medicine and the medical insurance industry thinks it's 1985, 40 years ago? Fax machine? Wait, wait. Okay. So this is typical of a doctor's office. You want to make an appointment. How do you make an appointment at a doctor's office? Okay. You pick up a phone and you call them? Are you serious? Everything else in the world, you go on an app or you go on your computer? And you make an appointment, right?
24:04 Speaker 03 I'm sorry, I disassociated when you said 1985 was 40 years ago. I'm like.
24:10 Speaker 02 What, what's wrong with that?
24:11 Speaker 03 That's insane.
24:12 Speaker 02 What does that mean, disassociated?
24:13 Speaker 03 I just.
24:14 Speaker 02 See, you're English major.
24:15 Speaker 03 Yeah.
24:16 Speaker 02 I mean, you zoned out on me.
24:18 Speaker 03 Psychology term, I just keep hearing 40 years ago.
24:20 Speaker 02 Forty years ago.
24:21 Speaker 03 Wow.
24:22 Speaker 02 So, medicine.
24:24 Speaker 03 But yes, it's crazy that you, I did hear you make a phone call to make an appointment.
24:27 Speaker 02 I mean, lunacy, think of all the people you have in that office who could be serving patients that instead are faxing junk to insurance companies for pre-certification stuff and then taking calls from people when they should be able to go on an app and make an appointment or go on the computer and make an appointment. What in the world are you people doing in medicine? Okay, enough rant.
25:01 Speaker 02 By the way, the place you go, doctors, medical providers, hospitals, justify why you're 40 years behind the time with technology. Clark.com/ClarkStinks.
25:14 Speaker 03 Okay, Ian in Ohio says, "We've been planning to finish our basement for several years and have been saving a lump sum to get started. We were planning to pull the trigger this spring but are now reconsidering, given the economic uncertainty. We are financially stable and I'm not concerned about losing my job should a recession occur. Do you think renovation prices may come down in the near future if we enter a recession? Or are the tariffs and inflation fears going to keep prices high or higher for the foreseeable future? Any insights from your crystal ball?"
25:46 Speaker 02 Okay, so, it is my belief that, of course tariffs raise prices on things at first, but then the ultimate effect, if we stay with ugly tariffs. Is economic activity declines. We do have potentially a recession. And a lot of what you do when you do any kind of reno, it's for labor costs, not for materials. Labor costs are such a heavy component of it. So it will be kind of a wash and activity will slow down. People are already putting off bigger projects. So you may find already that contractors are hungrier
26:29 Speaker 02 to do work for you. So I would not freak out too much. And I don't know how much the components of the basement redo are of the overall costs of the job are material inputs and how much is the labor cost. But with a typical home renovation or addition, labor is the biggest part of it.
26:55 Speaker 03 Matt in Colorado says, you talked about being able to give financial gifts to your kids or anyone up to a limit to be tax free. You failed to delve into the federal lifetime gift tax exclusion, which is like $13 million. Is it a workaround to the gift tax? Maybe you want to mention that at some point. I love your podcast.
27:14 Speaker 02 Thank you, Matt. All right. So I kind of think of it as the opposite. You can give $19,000 to anybody. So you can give anybody $19,000 in a year and there's no tax implications at all for you as the giver, them as the receiver. If you do that and give money out to people, it does not count against your estate tax exclusion, which under current law is like, just like Matt said, $13 million approximately. So you don't have to worry if you're handing out money willy nilly to so often as to adult children.
27:58 Speaker 02 You're giving them up to that amount of money. There's no implications for them or for you. And it has no implications for your estate unless you were to die a short while after you gave that money. And wouldn't it be a great problem to have to have $13 million? You have to worry about having more than that that might be subject to estate tax.
28:21 Speaker 03 Anthony says, should I buy a warranty for an appliance that I'm purchasing?
28:26 Speaker 02 So the general answer I give is no way, not any day. And appliances are different than electronics. Electronics is a never, never, not ever rule on ever buying a service contractor extended warranty. And every time I hear a TV salesperson say, don't you want to protect this investment? A TV is not an investment. You don't insure a television. An appliance, appliances are not nearly as reliable as TVs. And they're going to break from time to time.
29:08 Speaker 02 And so that is a more solid pitch for buying a service contractor extended warranty. I still don't recommend them because why are they pitching them? Because the cost of them over the years is so much greater than the occasional oops that you have to pay for a repair. So no, no matter how hard the salesperson pushes you to buy the piece of trash extended warranty or service contract, don't do it. Take that money that you would have paid them for that and put it in your rainy day account. So when something does go wrong with something in your life, you got the money.
29:51 Speaker 02 You don't have to think of it like, well, I better have coverage for this and have coverage for that and have coverage for this other thing. Instead, in your life, you're better off having your own money saved in your own account, your own high yield savings account that's there for you when the oops does happen in your life. Whether the oops is the dishwasher goes bad, or the TV goes bad, or your car needs a repair or whatever, save your own money and you're your own insurance company.
30:25 Speaker 02 I want to thank you so much for joining us this week. And I hope that something you've heard here has been helpful to you in your life. And know that we're here to serve you so many different ways. Social media, one-on-one free advice, our websites, our newsletters. It's all about you being empowered with knowledge so you can make smarter decisions in your life, have more control in your life, and that you learn ways to save more, spend less, and avoid getting ripped off. I hope this is the best weekend ever.
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