09.28.26 TIPS Vs Bonds / How To Protect Your Social Security Now

How To Inflation-Proof Your Portfolio & The Free Account Everyone Needs To Set Up Before Retirement Navigating your investments as you age can get confusing, especially when rising interest rates make traditional bond funds a scary prospect. While young investors can comfortably ride out stock market volatility, those approaching their late 50s and beyond need a more balanced portfolio to protect their hard-earned money. Instead, consider Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) as a powerful, inflation-proof alternative to standard bonds, as Clark explains. Also, there is an urgent security measure you need to take right now – no matter your age. Many people assume they don't need a MySocialSecurity account until they are ready to retire, or they worry the program won't exist in the future. Clark walks us through why it’s so crucial to open an account as soon as possible. Plus, Christa shares your #AskClark questions and Clark gives his take. All this and more on the September 28, 2026, episode of The Clark Howard Show. Submit your questions: Ask Clark. Bond Alternative: Segment 1 Ask Clark: Segment 2 Your Social Security: Segment 3 Ask Clark: Segment 4 Mentioned on the show: TIPS: The Inflation-Proof Alternative to Standard Bonds - Clark.com Long-Term Treasuries: What a 5% Return Means for Your Money Empower Review: How It Works, Pros & Cons - Clark Howard My Social Security: The Free Account Everyone Needs To Set Up Before Retirement How Can I Estimate My Social Security Benefit? - Clark Howard The Best Car-Buying Services - Clark Howard 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. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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• 1:05Speaker 05

  I'm so glad you're with us here on the Clark Howard Show. You know, our mission is to serve you with advice and information that empowers you to make better financial decisions in your life. And in today's episode, something I'm constantly asked about is how to outrun inflation without investing so heavily in stocks. And I'm gonna address that later. No matter what your age, I have a special assignment for you to do to try to prevent someone from hijacking your social security. And you're like, I'm younger. What difference does that make?

• 1:48Speaker 05

  Let me tell you. If somebody fouls up your earnings history, it's a mess for you. All right, let's talk about what's a mess right now. So the stock market values, stock market's gone up and up and up and up and up. There's a lot of people who are worried about what the trajectory for the stock market's gonna be with extreme federal spending, deficit spending, the debt, inflation, all the factors going on right now. It's led to the 10-year Treasury topping 5%,

• 2:27Speaker 05

  which is a big number in the last 15 years. 30-year Treasury, higher yet. Here's the thing. One of the most confusing things for people is, okay, I know I need to have some money, regardless of my age, in the stock market. But as I aged, I want to reduce the percent of my money that's in the stock market. Historically, there was a big thing called the 60/40. You do 60% in stocks, 40% in bonds. But at a time of loss of confidence about federal government having its arms around inflation,

• 3:07Speaker 05

  there's more and more fear owning bond funds, because what happens when interest rates rise? The value of your bonds goes down. It's backwards of what you might think. So people are like, what do I do? Do I just take all my money that's not in the market and put it in savings accounts or money market accounts? Well, there is an alternative that the pointy-headed people in the finance world talk about, but people's eyes glaze over, and it's called TIPS, Treasury Inflation Protected Securities.

• 3:50Speaker 05

  The idea of a TIPS fund, or TIPS themselves, is you get the rate of inflation plus a return on your money. So TIPS were kind of ignored for a long period of time when inflation was so subdued. And they're having their moment in the sun again, as an alternative to traditional bonds. When you're trying to build the lower-risk portfolio because of your age. Now, if you're younger, being overwhelmingly in stocks or stock funds, I'm all about index funds, or ETFs and broad market ETFs, exchange traded funds,

• 4:34Speaker 05

  it doesn't matter if the market craters when you're in your 20s, 30s, 40s. Starts to matter more in your 50s, because it's all about having time for the market to recover and your money to grow again. But it is a normal cycle for markets to go through downdrafts. And we are obviously overdue for one. And Wall Street analysts are always undyingly optimistic, because they want to, they want people in the casino. They want people investing. Short-term buying stocks is a casino. Long-term, it's a smart play.

• 5:18Speaker 05

  The problem is, long-term, if you are late 50s and beyond, you need to make sure that your portfolio is more balanced. And that's where the confusion is right now, how to do that with the non-stock side of things. Now, a lot of Wall Street clowns will try to sell you private equity and weird kind of hedges and stuff that make them much more money, under the false illusion that it's going to provide you downside protection. Then you've got the insurance salespeople that are gonna say, hey, come over here, come over here.

• 5:59Speaker 05

  We have, look over here, we got this annuity protection scheme. And look only on this side. And don't look over here with what we're gonna charge you for that, with the enormous commissions and fees involved in it. And by the way, you're also our prisoner for up to 15 years, because of something called surrender charges, to cover the massive commissions involved in those. So where's a person to go? I mean, obviously, the easiest answer is just straight in the savings account or money market. But then that money's not going to keep up with inflation. And that's where the TIPS come into play.

• 6:40Speaker 05

  Now, if you start reading about TIPS, it's one of those things that at first is really confusing. The more you read, the more you understand. And you can go to a service online that will build a TIPS ladder for you. You can buy a TIPS fund, low-cost fund. But many people in the investment community believe that this is an area that's much better owning what's known as a ladder of TIPS that are for different maturities in typically five-year bands, or even, I've seen one-year bands, but more often five-year bands.

• 7:22Speaker 05

  For the money you have that you want to make sure keeps up with inflation and makes a little more, but doesn't have downside risk in the market. There is potential for downside risk with the TIPS fund that does not exist with a properly constructed TIPS ladder. Now, I just went way technical here, but I wanted to give you another tool you can use. And this requires homework on your part to learn more about it. Now, we have information on Clark.com explaining TIPS in simple English. It is all about you being knowledgeable and not just being swayed by a salesperson.

• 8:05Speaker 05

  That's why we have an explainer like that. For you at a time that the conundrum is, what do I do about inflation? What appears to be a lack of seriousness and politicians of both parties at all levels, not taking the risk of deficit spending and the federal debt seriously and the harm that it can cause to the American people and to our great nation. And so it's up to you and me to put in place defensive measures that are the smartest choices we can make at the time.

• 8:44Speaker 05

  And for people that are in their 50s and older, TIPS are a part of the scene that may help you outrun inflation and have the defensive protection you need for your overall money.

• 9:01Speaker 06

  Okay, you ready for questions?

• 9:03Speaker 05

  Yeah, I probably just totally befuddled people, because that was a lot to throw.

• 9:07Speaker 06

  Well, go to Clark.com, because our team works hard to try to simplify these things in the articles. Nathaniel in New York says, for years, you've discussed using tools like the old Mint, R.I.P.

• 9:18Speaker 05

  No.

• 9:18Speaker 06

  Or Empower to consolidate.

• 9:20Speaker 05

  That was so good.

• 9:21Speaker 06

  I know. To consolidate all our finances in one place so we could see our full financial picture. The connection was made by giving an aggregator the login credentials for our financial institutions, which would then transfer our financial data. Now, a similar process can be used to give AI our financial information. This could be helpful, because we could then ask AI about our finances. It could warn us if there was a non-typical payment or alert us to subscriptions we may not be using, et cetera. The AI is not able to complete any transactions, because it doesn't actually have access to the bank accounts. How do you feel about the safety of giving AI access to our financial information? Is the benefit of having AI review all of our data and warn us if there are red flags worth the risk of giving over our info?

• 10:07Speaker 05

  That is a great question. You don't give them account numbers. You build your portfolio with AI, but don't treat AI as the decider. You need to use it only as a tool. AI is best used for people making decisions when you're not abdicating your responsibility. Say, well, well, AI made that terrible decision. No, no, no. You use it only as a tool. And I want to go back to what you said about giving your login credentials to financial institutions. Most of the screen scraper kind of technologies that will give you a full portfolio

• 10:51Speaker 05

  look beyond what's available at one firm, but they give you the layout of everything you've got, no longer store your credentials, meaning that they're no longer subject to the risk of a hacker attacking an aggregator's database and then having the keys to all your accounts. And that's significant and important. You want to know, before you use any aggregator for all your financial information, are they storing your usernames and passwords for other organizations? If they are, too risky.

• 11:28Speaker 06

  I mean, you did talk about the dangers of like AI, like even if it doesn't have your logins, like having your financial info and, you know,

• 11:36Speaker 05

  But if you're just putting, if you're just using it for portfolio construction, I think that's okay to do. But there are people that are letting AI actively trade for them. I would not even do that on a bet.

• 11:53Speaker 06

  Sunet in Arizona says Clark said he virtually never needs his wallet when he's out and about because tap to pay is so common. What about his driver's license? What if a cop pulls him over because he's driving too slowly and he doesn't have a license to show the police officer? Does he have any one of those cardholders that sticks to the back of a phone?

• 12:13Speaker 05

  So I have a little micro wallet. Those of you using YouTube can see that I have a little micro wallet and my driver's license is in it. But I also have, as a majority of people in the United States now have available to them, where you can store a fully legal digital image of your driver's license in your iPhone or in your Android. And I have mine on my phone. Do you have yours on yours?

• 12:42Speaker 06

  I do.

• 12:43Speaker 05

  And the way it works, I can use it at security at most airports. I don't have to worry, oh, I'm going to misplace my driver's license. I just use my phone and it has the driver's license, the digital version of it on it.

• 12:59Speaker 06

  Patricia in Florida says, I would love to hear your opinion on the Honda app. We've bought several Hondas over the last 20 years. We love that we have few problems. We can keep the cars for many years and their resale value is great. Recently, we bought a new CRV and we're told about the Honda Link app that will cost us $10 a month to use many of our cars' features. What if the car has those features? Didn't we already pay a boatload of money for them? Why pay a monthly fee? Thanks for your opinion, Clark. We love the podcast.

• 13:30Speaker 05

  Thank you very much. And every automaker is trying to do subscription-based models. And they're experimenting in different countries with different price points, different things. BMW is, you may remember, a few years ago, started testing where they would charge you, they'd install all this stuff in their cars. But then if you wanted to use them, you had to pay a monthly subscription fee, like the seat heater, that kind of thing. And Honda has jumped on the app bandwagon. And I will tell you, unique, as best I know, to Honda, people hate the Honda app. Man, I mean, I had heard it from people. You look online,

• 14:13Speaker 05

  people are very, very unhappy with the Honda app. And when people want to get rid of the subscription, there are a lot of complaints online that Honda has messed that part up too. And this is so un-Honda to do something that's really, apparently, very customer unfriendly. And so when you put an app out there, you need to really beta it for a good while and make sure the functions and features are working as they should and not start rolling it out for prime time and charging people for it. If people find it to be very

• 14:53Speaker 05

  buggy and you're paying money to be part of the beta group then, and nobody likes that. So I would say, for now, I would not do the Honda app just based on feedback from others. And I'm sure Honda will eventually get it to where people are happy they have it, just not yet. Coming up ahead, I have homework for you. And it involves social security, even if you're really young and forever from it.

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• 17:28Speaker 00

  When it comes to my policy, Farmers gives it to me straight, so there's no surprises.

• 17:35Speaker 01

  It's your coverage. You should never be confused.

• 17:38Speaker 00

  You hear that? An insurance provider with a conscience.

• 17:42Speaker 01

  We're a choir, but yes, we have that too.

• 17:45Speaker 00

  Straightforward coverage you can literally understand. That's what you get when

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  you have Farmers.

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• 17:58Speaker 05

  So you think, yeah, I really don't have to worry about this. I'm not saving a lot of money, or I'm saving so much money. And by the way, social security is not going to exist by the time I would be retiring anyway. Why should I worry about anything I would hear about social security? Okay, first of all, social security is not going away. Do you know it is the most popular federal program there is? And politicians are even going to do things sometime, probably sooner rather than later, like raise taxes on social security contributions to make sure that there's enough money for people

• 18:42Speaker 05

  with social security. Right now, social security is supposed to be broke in the next seven years. And at that point, people would only get somewhere like 78 cents on the dollar of what was promised. I promise it's going to be fixed. It would have been very easy to have fixed it a good while ago, but the politicians being politicians ignored it. Now they can't ignore it anymore. They're going to fix that. So social security will continue. Taxes on social security are definitely going up on wealthier people. People who make more money are going to pay more into social security while they're working. But they're not going to get more when they retire. That's a fact. It's just one of the things

• 19:27Speaker 05

  that's going to change coming up. But social security will continue. You don't like anything I just said? Go to Clark.com/ClarkStinks. Post away, Krista. You'll get to read those later.

• 19:39Speaker 06

  Fun.

• 19:40Speaker 05

  I know you were cringing when I started talking about the money side of social security. Here's the other thing. There's an account called MySocialSecurity.

• 19:50Speaker 05

  That regardless of your age, I want you to set up an account because people are gaming the system and stealing other people's social security records. And people that are of close to retirement age, you don't have a My Social Security account, you're at great risk that you go to claim social security. And they say, well, you're already getting it. Like, no, I'm not. Somebody else impersonated you and you didn't know it. And you would know with a My Social Security account. So it's really, really easy to set one up. The hard part, you go through a verification process with the feds that's supposed to make

• 20:35Speaker 05

  sure you really are who you are. And you can see if your earnings history is accurate. Very important because your ultimate social security benefit is based on your earnings record. You want to make sure that that's accurate. The sooner you have it set up and you look and you see, oh, they don't show any credit for me from blah, blah, blah employer. That's when you can fix it so much easier than decades down the road. Having this account, and it's one more thing I'm telling you to do, but once you have it set up, no hassle at all. You sign in, you can just check once a year, once every other year, something

• 21:16Speaker 05

  like that, you'll be fine. If you want to know more about it, we have a briefing at Clark.com.

• 21:22Speaker 06

  We do. Speaking of social security, Tim in Florida says, I've not heard Clark mention maximizemysocialsecurity.com lately. Is that still a good resource?

• 21:32Speaker 05

  Absolutely. Nobody's asked me about it. I think it's, is it $40 a year now?

• 21:36Speaker 06

  I'm not sure. I can check real quick.

• 21:38Speaker 05

  Will you look that up while I'm talking about it? So what maximizemysocialsecurity.com does is it takes deep data on your personal situation and comes up with, single or married, comes up with the ideal time for you to claim social security. People do claim social security. Sometimes it's out of necessity, they'll claim at 62, 63, sometimes 64. 62 is the first age you can claim. And some of those people, I mean, if you're broke, you're broke

• 22:18Speaker 05

  and you need it. But a lot of times, people claim earlier than is proper and ideal for their financial situation. And maximizemysocialsecurity.com runs the analysis and will let you know when the right time is for you to take social security.

• 22:39Speaker 06

  49 a year for the basic plan.

• 22:41Speaker 05

  I was wrong. It's 49. Okay. But yes, it's very useful.

• 22:47Speaker 06

  John in Iowa says, I'm looking to buy a new car. I checked out Costco's car buying buying program. I entered the vehicle I was interested in. Information for a local dealer came up. As I reviewed the information, I was surprised to see dealers requiring customers to purchase damage and theft protection package.

• 23:05Speaker 05

  No, no, no.

• 23:07Speaker 06

  I did some research and it looks like this package would cost between $500 to $1,500. Needless to say, I won't be working with this dealer. I'm not surprised the dealer would do this, but I'm surprised Costco would be okay with this. What gives?

• 23:22Speaker 05

  John, you need to call the Costco Auto Buying Program people and tell them they police the dealers. But a lot of times, they know what to look for as a violation by hearing from Costco members. Costco members are really good at advocating for themselves, part of being a Costco member. So I would call the car buying program and report this because if this isn't a violation of the Costco car buying program, I would be stunned. And

• 24:01Speaker 05

  a dealer is stupid to lose their placement in the Costco car buying program because the Costco customer base is one of the most affluent customer bases in the United States. And they're the ones that are still buying new vehicles. And you don't want to lose access to those customers.

• 24:24Speaker 06

  John in Wyoming says, I wanted to brag to Mr. Kirkland Signature that I received in the mail my 40-plus-year executive membership Costco card a few weeks ago, hoping I could upload a picture of it for bragging rights. I joined the third store ever in existence in Spokane, Washington in 1986, back when you had to have a business credit union membership, work for healthcare organizations, et cetera, to be a member. It has a 40-plus year logo on the front. It came with a nice notice from the CEO as well.

• 24:55Speaker 05

  Look how many years I have, Krista.

• 24:57Speaker 06

  33.

• 24:58Speaker 05

  33. You got bragging rights on me. Oh, man. So I want to throw my oldest brother under the bus.

• 25:07Speaker 06

  Oh.

• 25:08Speaker 05

  I was the co-member with him, the predecessor to Costco Price Club, way, way, way back. And one day, I'm in Price Club in San Diego with my car. I walk in, front door of my card. They said, your card's not valid anymore. Go to the membership desk. Go to the membership desk. My brother had removed me and put someone else on my place as a member. So my...

• 25:41Speaker 06

  What would you have?

• 25:42Speaker 05

  Oh, I'd be well up there with Mr. Kirkland Signature here.

• 25:48Speaker 06

  He called you Mr. Kirkland Signature.

• 25:50Speaker 05

  I would have 40 plus.

• 25:52Speaker 06

  You and John are chest bumping over your Costco membership years.

• 25:56Speaker 05

  So then I had to rejoin on my own. Thanks, Gary. I would have, I would have my 40, I would have my 40 plus, but oh, well.

• 26:09Speaker 06

  Andrea in New York says, I booked a non-cancelable hotel reservation recently as it was the only option in the location I needed to stay. Unfortunately, my plans changed and I was unable to use the reservation. I called the hotel to cancel directly and they refunded me my money, even though it was a non-refundable reservation. I just wanted to remind Clark listeners that the hotels have discretion regarding refunds, and we should always make the call regardless of the official corporate refund policy. I almost didn't call, but I'm sure glad I did.

• 26:41Speaker 05

  So Andrea, I can validate exactly what you said. My wife and I were in a rental vehicle and we were driving to Pennsylvania, had a hotel reservation booked for that night. Car breaks down. We get stranded. And we don't make it for one additional day. So I called the hotel that day and I explained what happened. And she said, well, you still want to stay here? I said, yes, tomorrow night instead of tonight. And she said, great. I just changed your reservation. Didn't cost me a penny. And it was non-refundable at that point,

• 27:20Speaker 05

  non-refundable and non-changeable. So it really is possible. And they don't have to do it. And some hotels aren't gonna do it. And sometimes you'll call and they say, yes, we'll do it. And then they don't. So you're really depending on the kindness of strangers. And thank you. I forgot I wanted to tell that story about the hotel in Pennsylvania. You reminded me of this, Andrea, and appreciate it very much.

• 27:50Speaker 06

  It's a great reminder.

• 27:51Speaker 05

  We're all part of Team Clark and we all help each other. And that's my thing. That's what I love, is how we all are here to serve each other. So thank you for the suggestion. Absolutely right. You call the chain at their toll-free number. Policy is policy, no exceptions. You call the hotel directly and that person can extend kindness to you, just like they did to you, just like they did for me. And thank you so much for joining us on today's podcast. I hope, I didn't even say it earlier, I hope you had an absolutely

• 28:30Speaker 05

  great weekend and that this week is a wonderful week for you. We will be here to serve you all week long. I'll be back with you on the podcast on Wednesday, all about your empowerment with knowledge so you can save more, spend less, and avoid getting ripped off.

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• 29:24Speaker 03

  This holiday, all plans, even unlimited, are just $15 a month. A holiday deal this good obviously deserves an enormously expensive holiday song, like All I Want [bleep]. Right. Okay, we can't afford that. You know what? Forget the music budget. We're going to stick with whatever's in the public domain. Give it a try at mintmobile.com/switch.

• 29:43Speaker 04

  Upfront payment of $45 for three months, $90 for six months, or $180 for 12-month plan required. $15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra. New customer offer for initial plan term only. Greater than 50GB may slow when network is busy. See terms.