10.09.26 Clark Answers His Critics on Clark Stinks / Home Monitoring Tech

Friday - Clark Stinks day! Christa shares Clark Stinks posts with Clark. Submit yours at Clark.com/ClarkStinks. Also, is your home insurance company offering free smart tech? It is becoming increasingly common for insurers to send free monitoring devices to prevent two of the biggest – and costliest – headaches homeowners face: electrical fires and water damage. Such offers can be a win-win - for the insurer AND home owner. All this and more on the October 9, 2026, episode of The Clark Howard Show. Clark Stinks: Segments 1 & 2 Home Monitoring Tech: Segment 3 Ask Clark: Segment 4 Mentioned on the show: 4 Things To Know Before You Buy a TV Antenna - Clark Howard How To Watch Local Channels Without Cable - Clark Howard Fixed Wireless Internet: Using Your Cellular Service Provider for Home Internet 5 Ways To Manage the Massive Run-Up in Insurance Costs Easy DIY Upgrades To Save on Home Insurance - Clark Howard Free Smart Home Devices From Your Insurer: Is There a Catch? The Home Service Clark Howard Says You Should Actually Pre-Pay My Auto and Homeowners Insurance Went Up Substantially. Should I Fire My Independent Agent? Avalanche vs. Snowball: Which Debt Payoff Method Is Best? YNAB Review: 5 Things To Know About the Budgeting Tool How To Track, Plan, and Budget for Annual Expenses - Clark Howard Best Budgeting Apps in 2026: Our Top 7 - 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 Submit your opinions or questions: Ask Clark. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 1:05Speaker 02

  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 so you make better financial decisions in your life. And one decision that I made back in the 1990s was to ask you for feedback in our Clark Stinks forum that you don't call it a forum anymore. What do you call where people post now? It's just-

• 1:32Speaker 03

  Well, we have a form that you can fill out.

• 1:35Speaker 02

  Form instead of a forum. Because originally it was a forum when that was a thing.

• 1:39Speaker 03

  It was the 2000s.

• 1:41Speaker 02

  And then we adjusted to the way you do the form now. And what we started in the 1990s was picking highlights of your posts to share with you. Then on radio, now on podcast and YouTube, because it's so important that we all learn from each other. And most important, I learned from you where there are things that I've said that, well, you disagree with, or I'm just lame or dumb or whatever, or just need to rethink an opinion I've had. So I appreciate so much that every Friday I get to hear from you.

• 2:25Speaker 02

  And later today, I want to talk about your homeowner's insurer and pitches they're sending to you that could actually be good for you and for them. Yeah, actually interests aligned. We're going to talk about that straight ahead, but right now it's time for you to hear how much I stink in today's Clark Stinks segment.

• 2:54Speaker 04

  You must think I'm pretty stupid.

• 2:57Speaker 05

  You should be ashamed of yourself.

• 2:58Speaker 06

  Well, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe you're right, pal.

• 3:07Speaker 03

  Okay, we got a couple of reactions to a question that you took. I'm going to read those now. Phil in North Carolina says, Clark, you certainly don't stink and you have a very good answer to the 39-year-old electrician diagnosed with early onset Parkinson's. I just wanted to add that my local Home Depot had a former disabled electrician working in the electrical department that people would stand in line to get help from. I even found out his working hours, so I could be sure he was there when I worked on a DIY electrical job. The electrician you talked about could consider working at a similar store or even an electrical supply outlet where his expertise would certainly be valued. Maybe the pay would not be as good, but there should be medical benefits that could help

• 3:51Speaker 03

  him more easily navigate his illness. And Paul in Massachusetts-

• 3:54Speaker 02

  I love that, by the way.

• 3:56Speaker 03

  Right.

• 3:57Speaker 02

  I love that thinking.

• 3:58Speaker 03

  Paul in Massachusetts has another suggestion. He says that your advice centered around trying to find an employer, union, or some other entity which would provide disability insurance. What you did not discuss, in case the caller became so incapacitated that he would no longer be able to stand the rigors of the job, is that he considered using his skills and experience to teach students to be electricians. In this way, he could both continue to earn a living, pass on his hard-earned knowledge, and remain a community asset as he passes on his experience to young, future electricians.

• 4:31Speaker 02

  Thank you both. Thank you very much, because I was really affected by that question, as many people were who heard it or were watching on YouTube. Thank you for broadening my answers. I'm so grateful.

• 4:50Speaker 03

  Boomer in Oklahoma says, someone shared the brilliant tip that you can rename all the reward cards in your digital wallet, so you can easily find the right one when you're at a restaurant or gas station, especially when one of your cards offers a bonus for that type of merchant. I got so excited, I literally pulled off the highway so I could immediately reorganize my wallet. Finally, no more scrolling through a pile of cards trying to remember which one has the restaurant bonus and which one gets the gas bonus. There was just one tiny detail. It only works in Google Wallet. I have an iPhone, so there I sat on the side of the highway staring at my Apple Wallet, tapping, swiping, and searching for a rename button that does not exist.

• 5:34Speaker 03

  Clark, you don't stink, but your stink stunk. You got my hopes up, made me pull up the highway, and then left me sitting there with the exact same disorganized wallet I started with.

• 5:45Speaker 02

  Okay. So you can't add a Google Wallet on an iPhone? You can't download that on an iPhone?

• 5:54Speaker 03

  I don't think it's Apple Pay. I don't know.

• 5:56Speaker 02

  You can't- I thought that Apple lost a lawsuit in the European Union.

• 6:02Speaker 03

  Let's have someone check in real time in the studio who has an iPhone.

• 6:06Speaker 02

  Does anybody here have an iPhone?

• 6:08Speaker 03

  No. Oh, Grace does.

• 6:10Speaker 02

  Grace has an iPhone. So Grace, we'll circle back to that.

• 6:13Speaker 03

  Please hold. Yes, we'll get back to that.

• 6:15Speaker 02

  If you see you can download Google Wallet to an iPhone. I thought they weren't allowed to discriminate on apps anymore.

• 6:22Speaker 03

  Okay, well, we'll see.

• 6:23Speaker 02

  Grace will tell us in a minute. Okay.

• 6:26Speaker 03

  Matt in California says, hey, Clark, you have saved me thousands of dollars through the years, but it hurts my heart to hear you unwilling to spend money on Sunday ticket to watch your favorite NFL team play every week. I'm sure that amount of money is a rounding error to your overall finances. The book Die With Zero by Bill Perkins has me realizing that as aggressive as I was in saving money and delaying gratification for decades, it's time to spend some fun chips this season of my life in my 50s. I'm early retired, thanks in large part to you. As a Saints fan, I'd be willing to donate $283 as a way to say thanks for all you've done, even if I say, forget the Falcons.

• 7:05Speaker 02

  That's not what they actually say.

• 7:10Speaker 03

  Seriously, thanks for all you've done for me and so many others, but as I tell my wife all the time these days, spend the money.

• 7:16Speaker 02

  So did you clean that up for Matt?

• 7:19Speaker 03

  No, he cleaned it up.

• 7:20Speaker 02

  Or Matt cleaned it up for himself? Okay.

• 7:22Speaker 03

  And one more. Christopher in Arizona, Clark, you stink worse than the Atlanta Falcons jerseys that haven't been washed yet. It's NFL season, and why haven't you had a segment dedicated to the best tips to save money on streaming? There are so many options now, and you have to subscribe to certain places, Netflix and Amazon, just for certain games. It's outrageous. The best $20 I've ever spent was for a TV antenna. I got all my local games plus a few other games for free. So a lot of people, more people wrote in about you not paying for Sunday ticket, but I thought you could address two sides of the coin there.

• 7:53Speaker 02

  Yeah, so we've done that season after season. We haven't mentioned this year about the value of having an antenna that you hook up to your TV. Because a lot of the games that are behind paywalls this season and last and the year before, you can see for free with an antenna. If you get a picture with an antenna, it will be better on your TV than what you get from streaming. It'll be just a gorgeous picture of the game. And as to the NFL, okay, so I didn't say something else that I mentioned last year that I've been doing a cheat.

• 8:34Speaker 03

  Oh, I know.

• 8:36Speaker 02

  I've been watching the recaps of games that are posted usually one hour after the game on YouTube, and I watch the highlights of the games. It takes, college games take about 12 minutes, NFL about 18. And I feel like I'm really there and I'm getting the full gist of the game, but I'm getting it much quicker. And that way, I'm out, on a pretty fall afternoon, I'm out walking, doing things outside instead of being hermetically sealed inside watching a TV. So I didn't say that, but that's part of the experiment of not paying for NFL Sunday

• 9:17Speaker 02

  ticket, is not feeling like I gotta be right there and manically switching between games or, I mean, sometimes I'll be going three, four, five games, trying to keep up with them at once when I had NFL Sunday ticket. And so I feel like I'm rearranging my Sunday clock.

• 9:39Speaker 03

  I didn't know about that. What I thought you were talking about is I thought maybe a couple of years back, you had a college student who had his own NFL Sunday ticket account and you would watch with him.

• 9:51Speaker 02

  I would steal grants. No, you can only have one feed at a time, so I would steal his. And then he'd call and say, Dad, I can't get on NFL Sunday ticket and I have to get off of it and let him use it.

• 10:05Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 10:06Speaker 02

  Because it was his.

• 10:07Speaker 03

  Yeah. James in New York says, hi, Clark, I was shocked that you advised your listener against funding 529 to pay off their student loan. The rules allow a lifetime limit of up to $10,000 to be used for that purpose. Even if he didn't want to keep the money parked there, hoping it grew, he could very easily use it as a pass-through simply to get the state tax deduction. That's what an extra $300 to $500 or something, not insignificant, for minimal effort. Hoping they don't take your advice this time. Anyway, have a nice day and go Bills.

• 10:40Speaker 02

  Okay, thank you. And you know, I was thinking about that at the time. I was just following the keep it simple rule there. But you're right, if somebody's willing to spend the time, and there's a state tax benefit, I was neglecting that, ignoring that. And, James, I don't know, since we're on the NFL theme, have you been to the new Bills stadium that there's been so much griping about? And do you like it or not? I was talking to a guy, I saw a guy in a Bills hat last week, and I stopped him, and he was so animated about it. Absolute stranger. I mean, you talked to somebody about their football team,

• 11:23Speaker 02

  and he was going on and on about the problems at the new stadium. They spent billions building. And could you explain to me, you lived in Massachusetts, you lived in upstate New York, you went through those brutal winters. Why would they not build a retractable roof in Buffalo? I mean, come on, that lake effect, cold and snow and wind that comes across there, and those fans have to be out. Remember, last season, they had fans come and volunteer

• 12:02Speaker 02

  to shovel snow out of the stadium? I think it was last season. Build a retractable roof. Okay, end of editorial.

• 12:11Speaker 03

  Connor in North Carolina says, when talking about internet options, you missed a large part of the country. For many rural Americans, we are lucky to have even a single ISP, and 5G service can be spotty at best in these areas. Instead of telling people to just switch providers, maybe focus on how to save in situations where we don't have a choice.

• 12:32Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, you're 100% right. And the good news for not deeply rural America, but for more rural areas of the country is there's now what are known as overlay builds going on, where fiber providers are now coming in and wiring up areas that have never had reliable, high-speed internet. This is something that started in suburban areas, and as more competitions happen there, there's more and more overwiring going on in rural. But

• 13:09Speaker 02

  right now, fact, if you're in a deeply rural area, you've got one player, and you've got SpaceX. And the problem with the SpaceX is that it's so expensive. They realized they had a captive audience, and Elon Musk has really pushed those rates up. So it's a deal with the devil, not Elon Musk's devil, but that you are paying a huge amount to get very, very fast internet service. And that will benefit from additional competition.

• 13:50Speaker 02

  You know, Bezos and Musk don't like each other, and Jeff Bezos is building a high-speed, satellite-based internet service as well. Once his is up and working, that's going to force more price competition in rural America. But right now, you're right, there are pockets that SpaceX are basically almost nothing.

• 14:16Speaker 03

  Also known as Starlink, the product.

• 14:18Speaker 02

  Yeah, the product.

• 14:19Speaker 03

  Trying to find it.

• 14:20Speaker 02

  Everybody calls it.

• 14:21Speaker 03

  Really?

• 14:22Speaker 02

  Everybody, really, you think that people really go by, like, I never call, what's that fake name Comcast came up with, Xfinity or something? Because their user experience was so poor, they thought, oh, we'll just change the brand name from Comcast to Xfinity. Yeah, that really helped. By the way, Comcast and Charter, the two big players in cable, are seeing enormous loss of customers now. Now that they face more and more competition in particularly suburban and urban areas, they're not standing up to the competition test, and they're losing so many people. So if you haven't shopped your internet, we

• 15:05Speaker 02

  did this recently on the podcast and YouTube show, if you haven't shopped your internet in a competitive zone, do it. That's actually what Connor was talking about, was what I talked about with going and shopping.

• 15:19Speaker 03

  And I am trying Minternet, and so far, so good.

• 15:23Speaker 02

  Oh, you are happy with it?

• 15:25Speaker 03

  I am happy so far. I mean, the signal kind of goes out in certain parts of the townhouse I'm renting, but it seems pretty good.

• 15:32Speaker 02

  Do you have a repeater?

• 15:33Speaker 03

  I need to get one.

• 15:34Speaker 02

  I mean, that's, if the speed is good enough, you can stream okay and all that?

• 15:39Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 15:40Speaker 02

  And, you know, they're doing the ads with the Ryan guy, what's his name?

• 15:45Speaker 03

  Ryan Reynolds, who's like a part owner, I think.

• 15:47Speaker 02

  Okay, no, it's owned by T-Mobile. Now, I think he was one of the founders originally. So they're now doing a deal that is your cell phone service and the Minternet for 45 a month combined. And you think about what people are paying to Comcast and Charter for internet, which is, I don't know if it's a zillion or two zillion, that you pay one of them a month.

• 16:13Speaker 03

  Okay, Mike in Ohio says, after 15 years of listening and learning from Clark, he has finally made my blood boil. I could not even finish the podcast.

• 16:22Speaker 02

  Oh, no.

• 16:23Speaker 03

  PSA for all agents in Clark's area, if he calls, run. He talks as if real estate agents are the only professionals that shouldn't be paid for their time. Common practice with the new laws is for home buyers to use a buyer's agent to show them houses until they find one they like. Spending all weekend or multiple weekends with a client, and when the client finds the home they're looking for, they dump their agent and call the listing agent, hoping to save a percent or so. Now agents have to put it in writing that they will get paid for all the work they have done. And Clark calls that crooked, wrong, unethical, and dishonest. It sounds like cheapskate Clark is exactly the kind of home buyer that agents are defending themselves against.

• 17:04Speaker 02

  Wow, wow. I obviously struck a nerve with you. What I was talking about were these situations where somebody has an agent show them a single home, and that's all they do. And then months later, they get in the home market, they buy a home, and then that agent, they had signed a time-based contract, and even if the agent wasn't involved in showing the homes, they are in fact stuck with paying a commission to that agent. Obviously, there are people who do what you said, who take advantage of agents' expertise and time

• 17:45Speaker 02

  and show them around. So it's not all one thing. And you bring up a very good perspective, and that's somebody just stealing your expertise. You deserve to be paid for that. So somewhere between what you feel I said, and what I thought I said, is probably where the truth is. And I apologize for offending you like I did. And Krista, we never gave the answer on whether you could put Google Wallet on an iPhone.

• 18:19Speaker 03

  Well, now we're going to. Grace tells us you cannot.

• 18:21Speaker 02

  Cannot.

• 18:22Speaker 03

  Nope.

• 18:23Speaker 02

  Wow. Gosh, I thought they had to now. Okay.

• 18:29Speaker 03

  Maybe it's other apps.

• 18:30Speaker 02

  You know, it's funny about that, because if you go on a laptop, you can go anywhere you want. But the iPhone and the Androids, them being able to restrict what you can use, the phone you paid for to buy, that drives me crazy. So I guess the point is, on an Android, you can change the description of your credit cards. And so when you're using Google Wallet, you can say, oh, hotels, restaurants, blah, blah, blah, you know, whatever it is. You know which card to use by giving it a title like that. And on an

• 19:14Speaker 02

  iPhone, you can't do that.

• 19:17Speaker 03

  Apple Pay won't do it yet.

• 19:18Speaker 02

  Apple Pay doesn't do it. So, Apple programmers out there, get cracking, get to work, make it as good as Google Wallet. See, that's how you get it.

• 19:31Speaker 02

  Coming up ahead, you get a mailer or an email from your insurer and they're saying, "Hey, we got a deal for you." How do you know friend or foe? We're going to talk about that.

• 19:48Speaker 00

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• 22:18Speaker 02

  So I've gotten these and they're more and more common. You get an offer from your homeowner's insurer for a monitoring device for your electrical system in your home to prevent an electrical fire. But more common and often, you'll get one offering you free devices to detect water leaks. So both of them are factors that cost insurance companies a fortune and are a mess for you as a homeowner. A problem with the electrical system in your home that causes a fire, I mean, a tragedy could cause you your life,

• 23:03Speaker 02

  all those things. And now more and more common with insurance companies, and depending on the state where they may require it, you'll be offered a monitoring device for free for your electrical system. And it just simply plugs in and monitors that the electrical system in the house is safe, triggers an alarm if it's not. And then the water detection systems come in two flavors. And we keep getting questions based on solicitations people get because the, the water monitoring systems and water is the, I think, the number one

• 23:45Speaker 02

  reason for a claim with a homeowner's insurer now is water damage in a home. The water detection monitors work as a passive system or an active. The passive systems are really cheap and you don't need a plumber to install them. And it's common that insurance companies will offer these devices for free, normally with free monitoring. A lot of people live in condominiums. The condominium association installs water monitoring things to lower the insurance cost for the condominium association. And they monitor them, if it's a staff front

• 24:25Speaker 02

  desk or security, they're monitored real time because, you know, so often people will be out of town, a water leak goes undetected, it'll ruin multiple units. But we're talking about insurers offering these water detection devices. So they tend to offer the passive ones that just send you a text alert saying, there's a water leak detected in blah, blah, blah place in your home. Then that alarm alerts you and hopefully you're, you're somewhere nearby that you can go shut off the water, see what the problem is, and prevent serious

• 25:07Speaker 02

  damage. But even if it takes you more than a minute to get there, you know, you got to drive home from work or whatever, if you're able to prevent a leak going undetected for hour after hour after hour, you limit the damage. Don't ignore these things from your insurer. Now, then there's the other category with water, and that is an active system. With an active system, you normally have to have a plumber that you pay to come on site to install. And what an active system does is it detects a leak, and it could even be a false alarm, it shuts the water off to your home. So you don't have to take any

• 25:51Speaker 02

  action other than when you get home, you can turn the system back on, go to where it says there's a leak happening and see if it was a false alarm or not. And it's just too bad, people don't think building a new house to have an active water detection system installed because it costs like nothing to do it when you're building, building out a house, or if you're doing a big reno or something like that, you want to add an active system. But whatever the insurance company's offering is not to take advantage of you, it's to benefit them. And oh, by the way, you benefit too. I mean, they're really doing

• 26:34Speaker 02

  it for them, not for you, but you both benefit.

• 26:38Speaker 03

  All right. Robert in Texas wrote in with this question. Are the service plans most HVAC companies offer worthwhile? In Texas, they run about $16 per month, but include twice a year checkups, discounts on needed service and installations, and priority for service. I got one from a big company for a discount on the installation of a heat pump, but I wonder if I should drop it at some point.

• 27:02Speaker 02

  Okay. So you always tell me, don't ever, you always hear me say, don't buy extended warranties, blah, blah, blah. This is one that I like for people to do, and it varies a lot from one region of the country to the other. I was computing yours under 200 a year. That's cheap for two service visits a year. It's really useful to have a check of your system when you cut over seasonally, from heating to cooling, from cooling to heating. And so you're just basically prepaying for those visits. But the reason I like them

• 27:40Speaker 02

  is that they'll, they'll bug you to get on their schedule to have the check done. And I want you to do it. If you're really good about remembering to do things seasonally, then you don't need the plan. But a lot of people are flaky like I am, and I need that because I won't ever remember to have the HVAC checked out. Now, a lot of heating and air conditioning companies have been in what are called rollups, where private equity has bought your local, family owned, heating and air conditioning provider. And they pay

• 28:21Speaker 02

  for that by putting a lot of pressure on the technicians to tell you, you need stuff you don't need. So if suddenly your system's working fine, and a tech is trying to tell you, you need to spend so much money to do whatever, that would be a point at which I want you to get a second opinion from another company and try to find one that actually is locally owned and operated.

• 28:50Speaker 03

  Gail in Ohio says, it's time for me to renew my auto insurance. I asked my agent of five years for quotes from different companies to see how much I could save if I dropped full coverage on my 11-year-old car with a current value of about $5,000. He tried his best to convince me to continue with full coverage. He provided me with the reduced cost from my current insurance company only, but no others. Yet he advertises his agency from multiple companies. Clearly, he is not acting in my best interest. I'm not savvy when it comes to this type of online research. When I tried to compare coverage with different companies before, I became very confused. For now, I decided to renew with my old company

• 29:33Speaker 03

  at the lower rate to give me time to find another agent, another policy, or both. My question to you, is personal service a thing of the past? Is there such a thing as an insurance broker who can help those of us who require extra service?

• 29:48Speaker 02

  Yes. And they're known as independent agents. They have this special independent agent logo that you know that they write as a free agent. They are independently shopping the market. Now, independent agents are generally getting steadily older, and it's not a growth area because most people under 40

• 30:14Speaker 02

  Do things online and the role of agents has become less significant in the sale of auto insurance. So there are most agents, though, quote unquote, agents, are what they call in the industry captive agents. They only sell for one particular company and subsidiary brands of that company. So if you're expecting them to quote, many different companies to you, it's not going to happen. So I would gather, based on what you said, that your agent is, was known as a captive, not a true independent agent. And that's what you want to look for.

• 30:56Speaker 03

  Jordan in California wrote in to you with this, Clark. My parents adore you and your podcast, and I've caught myself rolling my eyes at some of the remarks you've made over the years. But now I'm kicking myself for not hopping on the Clark train sooner. I have a lot of shame tied to what I'm here to ask your advice on. So be gentle with me, please. And Mom and Dad, if you're listening, I'm sorry, but hey, I'm on Clark Howard. I have racked up a bunch of credit card debt, $30,000, while simultaneously trying to pay the rest of my student loans off, which feels never ending. I feel incredibly stupid having done this with my credit cards, especially after getting them all down to

• 31:36Speaker 03

  zero balance once before. I can see how, in retrospect, it was due to me getting a job where I was making the most I have ever made and thinking I had more money than I really did. And of course, not following the cardinal rule of paying off my statements each month. I finally sat down and calculated my after-tax income in comparison to my expenses, and it does not paint a pretty picture. I've been living above my means, and the shame comes from not realizing that two years ago, when the debt started accumulating again. I understand there are sacrifices that need to be made, but budgeting and sticking to it has always been so incredibly difficult for me. I know life is long, and I'm still

• 32:18Speaker 03

  young enough that I'm not too deep in a hole where I can't recover, but I'm attempting an avalanche method and still feel like I'm not making any progress after five months. I guess I just needed to vent for one, but I also ask for your advice on budgeting and possible other forms of income that I can start considering while still working my full-time job. But really, how do people actually stick to a budget? Side note, I have ADHD, so my brain needs a little extra help sticking to the things that aren't so stimulating. Are there any budgeting tools that aren't just a spreadsheet that I'm going to look at once, think it's cool for two seconds, and then never touch again? I'm not sure if this is something you can help with, but I thought I'd let you know if you've

• 33:00Speaker 03

  helped my fellow ADHDers. Thank you. And hopefully, the next time you hear from me, I'm debt-free. Also, if you read this on the pod, tell my mom and dad I love them, and thanks for making me listen to Clark.

• 33:15Speaker 02

  Thank you for that story about how you ended up in debt. And Jordan, first of all, the shame thing, stop with it. Stop with it. Stop beating yourself up. So many of your fellow Americans, at one time or another, have been where you have what's called the big barn, where you got a lot of money coming in, and then that money's going right out the other side of the barn. You feel this loss of control, the impulse to buy. And I like the YNAB. You need a budget, and you actually have to pay for YNAB. I

• 33:56Speaker 02

  think it's about maybe 100 a year, somewhere about that. But it is an active budgeting tool that really makes you stop and think before you spend money. You said you got out of debt before, you'll get out of debt now. If the avalanche isn't working for you... Let me explain the difference between the two coin phrases, avalanche and snowball. So avalanche is financially the better way to get out of debt from a strictly financial standpoint. You throw as much money you can every month at your highest interest rate debt, minimums at everything else. And then when you pay off that highest, then the next

• 34:40Speaker 02

  highest is where you throw as much money at, minimums against everything else. But you feel like you're making no progress. So maybe you're better off with snowball, which is a psychological tool, where you ignore what the interest rates are, but you throw the most you can every month at your lowest balance card. Wipe it out, then go to the next lowest balance card. And yeah, you'll pay more money over time, but a lot of people feel the progress of going, let's say, from six cards to five, to four, to three, on like that, till there are zero cards without a balance. We have reviews

• 35:20Speaker 02

  of various budgeting tools on Clark.com, but based on what you said, for you, maybe YNAB would be the best for you to have that sense of control. And I'm really sorry your parents made you listen to me over those years. I hope now that I can be of help to you, and I do want to hear back from you, that you did successfully wipe out that $30,000. You have enough income, based on what you've said, that if you put your mind to it, you can get it done. And I want to thank you so much for joining us this Friday,

• 36:00Speaker 02

  and hope that you have a wonderful weekend ahead, and look forward to being of service to you on Monday on the podcast. And Clark.com and Clarkdeals.com are there to serve you all weekend long with knowledge that empowers you so you can save more, spend less, and avoid getting ripped off.

• 36:28Speaker 05

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• 36:55Speaker 04

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