Pod Insights The Clark Howard Podcast 06.06.25 Clark Answers His Critics on Clark Stinks / Best Sunscreens About this episode Friday - Clark Stinks day! Christa shares Clark Stinks posts with Clark. Submit yours at Clark.com/ClarkStinks. Also today, sunscreen is so important in the prevention of skin cancer - but how to choose? Clark shares some excellent recommendations offering protection that is both cheap and effective. Clark Stinks: Segments 1 & 2 Best Sunscreens: Segment 3 Ask Clark: Segment 4 Mentioned on the show: Does the Brand of Gasoline Really Matter? Wills & Funerals Archives - Clark Howard Is It Ever OK To Co-Sign a Loan With a Family Member? Warning: Watch Out for This Retailer Pricing Trick The Best Cheap Sunscreens in 2025 The Best Places To Buy Tires / Clark.com - TIRES 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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0:25 Speaker 01 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.
0:40 Speaker 02 Price and participation may vary. Promotion pricing may be lower than meal pricing.
0:42 Speaker 03 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 so you make better financial decisions in your life. And it's Friday, and that means it's time for me to go to school. The school of Clark stinks. And I can't wait to hear what I got wrong this time. Also today, it's time for you to remember to protect your skin when you're out and about from the sun.
1:23 Speaker 03 I have family members who have had skin cancers, have them, whatever. This is not something to mess with. And I'm going to tell you, this year, you can actually get skin protection ultra cheap that's really effective. How's that for a tease?
1:43 Speaker 04 Sounds fantastic.
1:44 Speaker 03 But without further ado, it is time to hear how stinking I am.
1:50 Speaker 05 I should have never encouraged you to speak.
1:54 Speaker 06 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.
2:03 Speaker 03 So those of you who watch the YouTube show get to see Krista do her Clark stinks dance.
2:09 Speaker 04 I was just swaying there. If I were dancing, you would know it.
2:12 Speaker 03 But, sorry, you're not going to see me even sway because of people who should not even attempt to dance. Nobody more than this man right here.
2:25 Speaker 04 Oh, man. All right. Here we go. Clark, there are two about this one. Clark, there's no difference in the quality of top tier and regular gasoline. What designates top tier gasoline is the detergent additive that is added to it that makes it different from non-top tier gasoline. All the gasoline is made in the same refinery. The only difference in them is the additives, which usually is added when it is delivered to the individual station. The detergent is to keep the fuel injectors and intake valves from building up deposits. Jim, and I'm not going to try and compete with the creative people describing how you stink, but you and your top tier gas. I currently drive a 2018 GMC pickup with 155,000 miles and my wife drives a 2012 Buick
3:09 Speaker 04 with 117,000 miles. I'd say that 85% of the gas that has been run through both vehicles was not top tier gas. I buy most of our gas from Walmart using Walmart Plus and my Sam's MasterCard. I get 10 cents off a gallon and another 5% as well. Neither vehicle has ever needed a repair on anything regarding gas or the internal combustion portion. Don.
3:33 Speaker 03 Thank you both for this. We get, anytime top tier gas ever comes up, we get a lot of posts on Clark stinks about it. So first of all, let's go back to Jim's comment. It is true that when gas is shared among all different distributors, and then when the truck gets to a particular station or wherever in the process from leaving the fuel farm, they add the additives for that particular brand of gasoline. If I'm not an engineer, there are those who believe that top tier gasoline gasoline is in fact safer, potentially better for your car than non top tier gas.
4:18 Speaker 03 I'm just going to leave it at that. And Don, what I'm especially excited about is you're driving a vehicle with 155,000 miles on it. Your wife, a vehicle with 117,000 miles on it. You're keeping vehicles on the road, having fully paid them off. You own them free and clear, no monthly payment, and that is great news.
4:45 Speaker 04 On your website, you advise to be cautious of buying funeral insurance because the funeral home may not be there when you need them. We bought a funeral irrevocable insurance annuity sold by the funeral home. This policy follows you anywhere. And if you should lose the policy, the funeral home has a copy that is as valid as the original. Rory.
5:05 Speaker 03 Rory, thank you. And let me say something about buying one of these insurance products. There are some funeral chains and funeral homes that are licensed now to sell insurance products or have a cooperative arrangement where they refer people to a licensed insurance salesperson. These policies tend to have very high fees built into them. They are generally for smaller amounts. So the commissions and the ongoing expenses as part of the policies tend to be higher. I am not a big fan of those Rory.
5:45 Speaker 03 It's obviously going to work out for you not having to worry about the cost of final arrangements. But as a general consumer purchase, it's not something that I advise because of the high cost built into them.
5:59 Speaker 04 Boy, did you upset the healthcare industry. I had so many posts about this. I'm going to read two. Starting with this one. Hopefully Clark has enough years left in his life to go to medical or other healthcare school, so he can see just how difficult it is to run a healthcare practice. Ranting about fax machines is not useful and a phone conversation with a patient is far more useful in vetting the severity and urgency of a problem than online scheduling or an app. This isn't McDonald's. John?
6:29 Speaker 03 Thank you, John.
6:30 Speaker 04 And you asked why docs have you call for appointments. There is triage over the phone. Routine, we'll see you in weeks. Urgent, that's our definition, not yours. Sometimes you don't even know your symptoms are urgent. We fit you in sooner. Also, our margins are razor thin. Who's going to pay for that scheduling app? What happens to the patient who falls through the cracks and needs a phone call anyway? We just ponied up $25,000 to $50,000 with yearly maintenance fees for an electronic medical record. That fax machine is paid for. Jennifer?
7:00 Speaker 03 Thank you both for this.
7:03 Speaker 04 Thank you so much. I have another.
7:05 Speaker 03 No, we can as many as you want.
7:08 Speaker 04 No, you can't. There's too many.
7:09 Speaker 03 People in medical practice right now are in a squeeze play like you can't imagine. And I know this is hard for patients to understand, but particularly doctors in primary care are getting squeezed and the profit of running a practice is becoming invisible. The income, earnings of primary care doctors not keeping up with inflation after all those years of training and learning expertise and all the rest. And I'm talking about adding something on to it. Now, let's go to the thing from the first post about doing proper triage through
7:53 Speaker 03 phone calls. As a practical matter, maybe not in your practice, but so often, Jennifer, what happens is when someone does
8:04 Speaker 03 Call in, they have to leave a voicemail and often that voicemail isn't even returned the same day because of how overwhelmed practices are with people calling. The system has essentially broken down and I don't have automatic answers for it. And I understand exactly what you're trying to do, which is triage to see if somebody needs to be seen instantly that day, the next day, next week are not urgent at all. The problem is there's just not enough staff for the demands to be able to respond in
8:47 Speaker 03 the normal triage kind of way you're saying, at least that's my experience.
8:53 Speaker 04 Okay, a few about this one as well, Clark. Regarding the recent college graduate who asked about student loans versus investing, you missed a great opportunity by not addressing the family member loan. If I lent a loved one 20K for their education and they were putting me last on their fiscal responsibility list, I'd be perturbed. Better suggestion is to review with them your desire to pay off high interest and then company match 401K, then make payments to them. Share the amount and timeline for their payback and make sure you stick with it. Don't have the funds to include their payment as well? Time to find your side hustle, Uber, Lyft, wait tables, et cetera. It's wrong to assume that it's a gift or no timeline expected.
9:36 Speaker 04 Worst case, the lender will feel appreciated that you want to consider their needs before your own. Love your show, Bill.
9:42 Speaker 03 Bill, thank you. Okay, so over the years, we have had so many family drama situations that we've covered from people who lent money to a family member or friend, or people who were the borrower from a family member or friend. And it gets really messy and there's no way around it. And your point from the side of the family member lending money, you are completely correct in everything you said. That was an oversight on my part that I didn't address. The family member loan at all.
10:21 Speaker 04 A lot of times too, somebody's been in a relationship, we'll get that one.
10:26 Speaker 03 Oh, we do get.
10:26 Speaker 04 Girlfriend or boyfriend.
10:28 Speaker 03 Oh, I knew you were gonna bring that up.
10:29 Speaker 04 Did a car loan or something for them, right?
10:32 Speaker 03 Okay, so some of the nastiest situations we've ever dealt with is where somebody signs for a vehicle as the owner on the loan, or as a co-signer on the loan, which is the worst possible situation. And they have what's now an ex-girlfriend or boyfriend driving around in the vehicle, not making payments, and they're responsible for it.
11:00 Speaker 03 Those stories are really ugly.
11:02 Speaker 04 Clark used an example of sugar prices once rising, but then returned to normal. What he didn't mention was that the normal price was now for a four-pound bag of sugar instead of the traditional five-pound bag. Laura.
11:15 Speaker 03 Laura, I'm gonna check on that.
11:16 Speaker 04 Shrinkflation, right?
11:18 Speaker 03 Yeah, shrinkflation. Laura, I was not aware of that, and I will look next time I'm in the supermarket. I don't go normally to traditional supermarkets. I'm usually at warehouse clubs or discounters. You ever seen the size of the sugar you have to buy in a warehouse club?
11:38 Speaker 04 Yeah.
11:39 Speaker 03 I wonder how many pounds those are.
11:42 Speaker 04 First, the non-stinky part about Clark. I've been listening to his radio show since I was a kid, and my parents constantly had the local radio station on in their kitchen. Also, when I recently went through a bout of depression, not the scary kind, but no fun nonetheless, his podcast was about the only thing I could stand to listen to. His pure positivity and enthusiasm felt comforting and familiar, and I'm excited to finally have a Clark stinks. Recently on the show, someone asked about options for discounted blood work, and Clark didn't have any very helpful suggestions. One avenue that folks should explore is lifeextension.com. It's a company that sells supplements, but they also offer discounted blood work through a large lab chain, LabCorp.
12:27 Speaker 04 I can attest that the vitamin D test was less than a quarter of the price I paid by going directly to a lab, and was recommended to me by the neurologist who diagnosed my symptoms as a vitamin D deficiency, because most insurances won't cover that test. Kelsey.
12:42 Speaker 03 Kelsey, thank you. First, I'm really, really thrilled that you're doing better. Second, this is one of the reasons we do Clark Stinks, really the principal reason. Someone brings something to the table that I didn't think of, that I didn't know, that I wasn't aware of, and then you become a member of Team Clark by helping your fellow listener or viewer. So, thank you very, very much for taking the time to do the post. But most important, I'm so glad for you that you are doing better. Coming up ahead, we're going
13:20 Speaker 03 to talk about something that I talk about every single spring going into summer because I've seen the consequences of people not using sunscreen with the health problems that result from skin cancers. And I want to tell you, it doesn't have to be expensive for you to get effective protection. And I'm going to share that with you straight ahead.
13:49 Speaker 00 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.
14:15 Speaker 01 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.
14:27 Speaker 02 Price and participation may vary. Promotion pricing may be lower than meal pricing.
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15:31 Speaker 03 All right, so summer means a lot of sun, a lot of out and about. And you know what you need to be using? Sunscreen. And this is something that is so important to your health because not using it means that you could become very familiar with the dermatologist. You don't want that. Have your checkups. You don't want any problems. And also, I don't want you to waste money. Consumer Reports, once a year, does appropriately enough for summer, does a sunscreen test.
16:13 Speaker 03 And this summer, again, there was a sunscreen that got a perfect 100, a perfect score. And it's not even expensive. I mean, 100? That was something beyond my reach in school. This sunscreen, it's about eight bucks. It's the Coppertone Water Babies Lotion. It's in a pink container, not just for kids, it works for adults. And it's not a spray. Sprays do not give the protection you're going to get from a lotion.
16:54 Speaker 03 So just put up with it, spread that lotion on you, save your money, save your health. Coppertone Water Babies Lotion. So again, it's eight bucks, gets 100. The next highest gets a 90. I'll mess up this name. La Roche Posay Anthelios.
17:16 Speaker 03 Kids lotion. This one is three times the price of the Coppertone that gets an 100. I know when you're looking at sunscreen in a discount store, Warehouse Club, you think the more exotic sounding the name of it, it's gotta be better, right?
17:38 Speaker 03 No, I mean Coppertone's been around forever. It's absolutely best. Now, third place with an 83, again, a lotion. Everyday Humans, oh my God.
17:53 Speaker 03 15 bucks. So that's when play show. Coppertone, Roche Posay, and Everyday Humans, oh my God. Now, if you do insist on buying a spray, only one spray gets a top, top, top rating. And I want to tell you, it's not this year Trader Joe's, which in recent years, Trader Joe's Spray SPF 50, actually, a couple of years ago, got a perfect 100 score. Now, it's still recommended, but it got a 74. So if you don't want to listen to me about using a lotion,
18:36 Speaker 03 you want one that's reasonable in price, you got three choices in first place. Trader Joe's, third place. First place, Userin Advanced Hydration Spray. 16 bucks. Gets a score of 88. Really good for a spray. Second place, Black Girl Sunscreen Kids. 12 bucks. Gets a 77. And then in third place, formerly in first, Trader Joe's Spray SPF 50. Now, you may think, well, I mean, this other one. I'm buying this one because it's on sale or whatever. Let me tell you. It is shocking how low.
19:21 Speaker 03 A lot of brand name sunscreens rate, I mean, really, really, really low. I hit you with the ones that are recommended lotion, the best. If you want to buy a spray, buy one that is effective. Why play games with yourself? Pretend you're protecting yourself and buy something and put it on just because it's what you bought. Buy something that the testers have been able to find in labs and in real experience really do work. And so you better know that we have in our household, the Coppertone Water Babies lotion, just like we had last year. Why?
20:06 Speaker 03 Because you can always aspire to be a perfect hundred. And this way I can be buying that lotion.
20:14 Speaker 04 All right. Trina in Georgia says, when ordering a to-go order and you pick up the order, is it customary to leave a tip? And if so, how much and how does the tip get distributed?
20:27 Speaker 03 So Trina, I don't think I shared that tipping is way down.
20:32 Speaker 04 Is it? It doesn't seem like it to me.
20:34 Speaker 03 Yeah, the percent people are tipping are way down.
20:38 Speaker 04 Oh.
20:38 Speaker 03 During COVID, a lot of places that people historically did not tip were accepting tips. And the percent people were tipping for essential workers. They were working in restaurants, working in stores, whatever. The tipping percent went way, way, way up. And there's like been a reversion to mean a return to more normal kind of levels of tipping. There's a place I go to for a bagel regularly. So being the nosy person I am, I watch because they have a thing for carry out bagels. And when you pay, it asks if you want to leave a tip.
21:21 Speaker 03 And what I've noticed is that roughly four out of five people are not tipping anymore on the carryout orders when they're buying bagels, where before it was kind of universal. So this is something that everybody's trying to find what works for them. And you talk about the dreaded iPad.
21:46 Speaker 04 Right, the flip, they flip the iPad at you.
21:49 Speaker 03 And you always feel like there are prying eyes watching what you put in as a tip. So this is really personal choice. When I go somewhere, I do tip, whether it's carryout or not, it's just what I do. And everybody's got to do what you feel best about, what feels right to you.
22:13 Speaker 04 And in terms of how it's distributed, I think it depends on the individual restaurant.
22:17 Speaker 03 Completely.
22:18 Speaker 04 Or place, how they do it.
22:19 Speaker 03 If I become a regular at a place, I ask, okay, do you actually see any of the tip? And they'll kind of look at you and say, well, maybe, or whatever. You know when the money's not going to the employees. If you're a regular and you're just kind of a little nosy like I am, watching what people punch in.
22:39 Speaker 04 Okay, another.
22:40 Speaker 03 Is that bad that I watch like that? I've just been curious.
22:43 Speaker 04 That's fine, you're curious. Okay, Kay in Missouri says, where can I purchase Model 3 tires for a good deal?
22:51 Speaker 03 So Kay, we've done at Clark.com, we've done extensive research on this. The first answer you're going to hear from me won't surprise you at all because of my built-in bias, and it is a clear bias, that the warehouse clubs are the best place to go to. Costco, Sam's, or the regional warehouse club, BJ's Wholesale. Their markups are so much lower on things sold in the store than they are other places. But only Costco has a 14% maximum markup on branded items. And all the tires they sell are branded. I don't think they sell any Kirkland Signature tires.
23:36 Speaker 03 So the warehouse clubs are far and away, based on our research, the best place to buy tires. Costco is actually better.
23:49 Speaker 03 Then Sam's or BJ's Wholesale though, because they include a long list of things in the purchase of the tires and the tire price includes all those things. There's no extra junk fee. If you go to a traditional tire store, you've got fee on top of fee on top of fee. In addition, Tire Rack is a really good source if you're looking for the lowest cost tires for a Model 3 or really any car. Tire Rack is a no frills seller of tires. They deliver them to where you want them delivered, usually to a tire center
24:34 Speaker 03 that you've chosen. They also own a big tire center that's a retail. And you just want to make sure with Tire Rack that you have what the actual total cost is for everything involved at where the tires are installed for you.
24:54 Speaker 04 And this came in from Carrie in Ohio. My husband and I are in our mid 70s. We're retired educators. We've been generous to our kids and grandkids' education expenses and now we're in good health, but we're beginning to look at options for the next step in our journey, retirement communities. We would like your take on not-for-profit versus for-profit options.
25:16 Speaker 03 Okay, I'm so glad that you posed this question, Carrie. I'm a big believer in the faith-based retirement communities. The reason is that you have the charitable organization standing behind the facility, but you've got to make sure of something with this. And that is, some of the nonprofit retirement centers have now been contracted out to for-profit operators. You want to find out
25:53 Speaker 03 Is it actually being operated by the nonprofit rather than being a nonprofit that is simply a front for, if you will, a for-profit enterprise that may cut corners and all the rest on the care facility or retirement community? Continuing care retirement communities are a big deal. That's where you move to a campus and they have typically all four levels of care from what I call semi-independent living to assisted living, memory care, skilled nursing.
26:36 Speaker 03 These facilities you generally have to buy into with a big upfront amount of money that varies widely from facility to facility. Unfortunately, most states in the country have not put in place strict requirements to protect the money that you use to buy in. A facility will go bust and your money goes bust with it. Sadly, this is happening a lot around the country. So if you're investigating facilities in Ohio or in other states, let's take Ohio. If you stay in Ohio, you want to know from the State Department in Ohio that handles
27:21 Speaker 03 it, what is required? Is there a bond, an active bond that is required to be in place that covers making sure you get your money back in the event the operator of that continuing care retirement community fails to operate, you know, goes insolvent? This is really important because many times you're taking a big chunk of your life savings and putting it into this. And again and again, states have failed their citizens and not protected this buy-in money that can be more than a million dollars to buy into a community, but most often half a million to 750,000.
28:04 Speaker 03 And I don't know any of us that have a spare half a million that like, oh, well, I'll talk to accounting. No, it's your money you worked hard through your lifetime to save, and you can't replace. So this is really important when you're going examining any continuing care retirement community that has a buy-in. Depending on the state laws, they may have to file with public record their financial condition, what their financials are. This is one of those times you actually want to get those records. And if you need to, take them to somebody who's really good at numbers, an accountant, or a family member
28:46 Speaker 03 who doesn't nod off reading documents like that and can tell you, there's a problem here. This is solid financially, at least according to what they're filing with the state. And if you find out, as an example, Ohio does a really bad job, but adjoining states that you might consider living in do a good job of protecting the money that you would use to buy in, you should look at facilities in those neighboring states, just a thought for you. And you can hire a fee-only person who operates as a fiduciary to help you find facilities. Know that this business has a lot of people who say, this
29:30 Speaker 03 is no cost to you, but they're getting paid commissions and kickbacks by facilities to steer you to them if you're not actually paying them for their expertise. Gosh, that's a lot. Just know positively that what we're about is you having an absolutely great weekend in front of you. Yes. Right? That's what I want you to have. And all weekend long, be empowered with knowledge you learned through the week on our podcast, or on Clark.com, or Clarkdeals.com,
30:09 Speaker 03 so that you can save more, spend less, and avoid getting ripped off all weekend long. And we'll see you Monday on the podcast.
30:24 Speaker 00 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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