Pod Insights The Clark Howard Podcast 11.12.24 Sandwich Generation Challenges / Holiday Air Travel About this episode Are you a part of the sandwich generation, caring for children and parents at the same time? Clark talks about the unique challenges involved, and ways to prepare if you foresee this often difficult squeezeplay in your future. Also today, as we move into the winter weather holiday travel season, Clark shares strategies for dealing with delayed or canceled flights. The Sandwich Generation: Segment 1 Ask Clark: Segment 2 Holiday Flight Tips: Segment 3 Ask Clark: Segment 4 Mentioned on the show: The Clark-Approved Way To Invest in Real Estate Roth vs. Traditional 401(k): What's the Difference? How and When To Refinance Your Mortgage: A Step-By-Step Guide How To Improve Your Credit Score in 5 Key Areas The Best Ways To Protect Yourself Against Airline Cancellations FlightAware - Flight Tracker / Flight Status AutoSlash Review: How To Save on a Rental Car Car Rental – Search, Compare & Save 5 Things to Know About the Costco Car Rental Program Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card Review: What You Should Know About the Travel Card Travel Insurance: What You Need To Know Before You Buy InsureMyTrip Review: Why We Like It and How to Use It How To Pack a Carry-On the Right Way 4 Things You Should Always Pack in Your Carry-On Clark.com resources Episode transcripts Community. Clark.com 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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1:05 Speaker 02 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 to make better financial decisions in your life. Are you sandwiched in? Are you part of what economists like to call the sandwich generation? That means you have children and aging parents who need you at the same time. Woo, tough place to be. I'm going to begin today's show with that. Then I'm going to talk about the upcoming holiday season. I've got some tips for you to keep in mind, especially if you have problems or issues with your flights.
1:49 Speaker 02 So people generally have kids later than they used to in age. And parents tend to live longer than they used to, but often not as healthy as they'd hope. And so adult children today are in a classic squeeze play.
2:13 Speaker 02 Because you think of the age that someone used to become a grandparent versus today, the age they become a grandparent, it's all stretched out. So if I'm talking to you that you're really feeling the squeeze between the time and expense involved in taking care of a parent or parents and raising children, you are not alone. And it is quite a responsibility that you have taking care of both ends of the spectrum as your kids are growing and your
2:52 Speaker 02 parents are aging. It's something that if you are looking down the road and this could happen to you, how do you prepare? Not easy. You start with having conversations with your parents. You know, what is it you really think you want down the road? And maybe that's a common conversation in your family, but maybe not. Where do you think you want to live when you're not working anymore? What do you think you want to do? And then the time will come, you guys talk about, do you have the ability to pay for it? However, you ask that question in your family ahead of time. But most of us aren't going to get
3:33 Speaker 02 around to that. And we're going to get there. We're going to have a parent who needs or parents who need assistance. We adapt, but many times it's sacrifice to ourselves and our families. Sometimes it brings great joy into a household when you move an aging parent or parents into your own home. But you might have to modify things in the home for them to live there. And it's an adjustment. But if you go back in history in the United States, and you look in other cultures today, it's very common to have a multi-generational
4:13 Speaker 02 household. A parent at younger, more fit age, helping to take care of your kids. And there's a lot of joy for those kids. Getting to know a grandparent in a whole different way than they do when a grandparent lives across town or across the country and speaking across the country. That's when it puts the most stress on an adult child, raising young children and taking care of a parent elsewhere in the country. Number one thing we learned, because I'm the only one of four adult children in our
4:54 Speaker 02 family who was in that situation, raising minor children, because I had kids later in life and having aging parents. And actually, my mom, my dad passed away when I was fairly young. And we, as adult children, had conference calls that we did once a month, and then eventually, we had to do them more often. And figuring out care for my mom and taking care of my mom, and we divided up responsibilities as adult children. And each of us had different things that we contributed and did to provide for our mom.
5:38 Speaker 02 And we were fortunate there were the four of us. It's harder if there's just one, but often, there's more than one adult child, but the burden tends to fall too heavily on one and cause resentments. And so communicating among adult children is really, really important. And you don't want to cause strain in your marriage with the time you're having to devote to this, but it is a reality that there are times you're going to be called out of town to deal with a parent, or there's going to be money problems for the adult parent, and you're going to have to potentially pitch in.
6:21 Speaker 02 And these do cause strains. I don't have silver bullets for this. But the most important silver bullet, if there is one, is talking about this when your parents are healthy and talking about it with them when they're healthy. Talk about what their expectations are, what their plans are, and what they want. And I wish I had the magic pill for this. I don't, but it's something to not ignore. It's something to address.
6:56 Speaker 03 Okay, we'll go to questions. Brian in Texas says, "I've been investing in real estate for over 20 years. I currently have six rental properties."
7:04 Speaker 02 Good for you.
7:05 Speaker 03 Three of which are fully paid off. "I'm turning 50 this year, and while real estate has been good to me, I'm starting to see more and more difficulties. Underqualified renters, renters who don't take care of properties, major repairs like the roof, AC, foundation, insurance and taxes going up, et cetera. I hired a property management company back in 2021 to manage my properties, and they have greatly taken the burden off my shoulders. However, I'm curious if I ought to just sell my properties and take the money and put it into REITs that pay monthly dividends. Some of these REITs pay upwards of 15% to 20% yields monthly. No tenants to deal with, no toilets to fix, no insurance to navigate. Are these REITs risky?"
7:46 Speaker 02 Are REITs risky? They can be, but the 15% to 20% yields you're talking about is actually a partial return of principal that you're getting from a REIT. A real estate investment trust is what we're talking about, and they tend to specialize in particular types of housing. Could be apartments, could be storage units, could be hotels. There are all different kinds of REITs. Shopping center REITs. If there's an area of real estate, there's a real estate investment trust that does it. It's a totally different kind of flavor. And if I were gonna invest...
8:31 Speaker 02 In REITs, which would be completely the opposite of what you've been doing with these six rental properties, I would invest in an index fund of REITs that gives you wide diversification. There are a variety of those. The lowest cost of all, of course, is from Vanguard. But you have taken these six rental properties and you've taken a lot of the pain out of managing them, screening tenants, collecting rent and all, and accepted a little bit lower return on these six by having a management company.
9:10 Speaker 02 If you don't have a compelling case of what would be a better place to put the money, I would consider continuing with the process you're doing. I imagine having bought them over the last 20 years, buying individual properties over time, that you've got a very low cost basis in there and you're earning a nice cash flow from the six rentals. I used to own six investment properties myself. I'm down to two because what happens to a lot of us who own rental properties or investment properties is over time, we get weary of dealing with them.
9:54 Speaker 02 And that's what I hear from your words more than anything else is, you know, you've been there, you've done that, the fun is no more. You hired a management company because the hassles became too great. So if you want to cash out, great, but it should be because you're fatigued from doing it, not whether, you're not talking about whether or not they're sound financial investments. If you are fatigued and you want to stay in real estate, again, I'm repeating myself, I love an index fund of REITs rather than you trying to select the right individual REIT.
10:35 Speaker 03 Tony in California says, my wife wants me to ask Clark Almighty, would you put $900 extra a month to the principal on a house? Or into an investment like VTSAX, Vanguard's total tax, total stock?
10:51 Speaker 02 Total Stock Index Fund.
10:53 Speaker 03 The mortgage rate is 3.99% in 2024 and will go to 4.99% in 2025. Our work 401ks have over 100,000 each and my wife and I contribute 20% per paycheck.
11:05 Speaker 02 That's fantastic.
11:06 Speaker 03 I have a maxed out Roth as well. My wife does not.
11:09 Speaker 02 Okay, so the first thing I'd do with extra money is I'd make sure you're funding your wife's Roth IRA to the max. In terms of the 401ks at work, you say you're contributing an enormous 20% of your paycheck. Fantastic. That is phenomenal. You don't say if your 401k is traditional or Roth. If your family income is under 400,000 a year, you should be looking at doing Roth 401k instead of traditional. And I talked about tax brackets a couple of weeks ago on the podcast and why that's the amount for a married couple
11:52 Speaker 02 that tilts towards doing Roth 401k versus traditional. You got a mortgage at 4%, basically it's going to 5%. What I don't know from what you've said is 5 it? Or is in 26, you're going up to 6%? Was this some kind of buy down from a builder? And if your long-term play in that mortgage is 5 or 6%, I'd say there's not a high priority to prepaying principal on that mortgage. If on the other hand, your loan is subject to continually adjusting,
12:34 Speaker 02 then we make a really strong argument after next year's 5% that if you go fully free floating after that, you really want to look at doing prepayment of principal? Or when the moment is right, refiing that loan when interest rates support that?
12:55 Speaker 03 Patel in Texas says, "Thank you for the advice on freezing our credit. I have a follow-up question. If I close a credit card, do I need to unfreeze or thaw my credit before doing so?"
13:04 Speaker 02 You do not. If you want to close an existing account, credit freeze has no impact on that at all. If you are going to close a credit card, though, know that it can affect your credit score depending on what it does to your ratios. The second most important factor in credit score is how much of a percent of your available credit you're using. You never want that above 30%. And if you want to have a rock-solid, ultra-high credit score, what's known as your utilization has to stay below 10%. So if you close this account, what's it going to do to the percent of available credit you're using in a month?
13:47 Speaker 02 If it's still going to be great, no issue, close that account. Coming up ahead, we're moving into the bad-weather travel season, and we're moving into the Thanksgiving to Christmas to New Year's travel period. That's a rough collision, bad weather and packed airplanes. We got to talk about what you've got to know about how to protect yourself with holiday travel.
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16:05 Speaker 02 If you're a longtime listener or viewer, you're aware that two years ago at Christmas time, my wife and I got stranded for three days by the Southwest Airlines flight meltdown. And it was pretty brutal for so many people. Fortunately, Lane and I were able to roll with the punches. We were in the Northeast US and we were going to Atlanta to be with my wife's family. And we were able to take an Amtrak train from New York City to Washington DC and thought
16:46 Speaker 02 we were taking a plane two days delayed, Christmas Eve, from Washington to Atlanta. And the gate agent had just called boarding for the flight when a notice popped up on my phone and other people's phones that the flight was canceled. And then we went and rented a car and drove partially through the night and then the next day. And we're a little late for Lane's Christmas festivities with her family, but we rolled through it in a really terrible situation that Southwest went through two years ago
17:25 Speaker 02 and ended up in better shape than a lot of other people that were like refugees in airports, sleeping in every available space. And I remember when the flight canceled at Reagan Airport, the gate agent then announced, "Do not go stand in any line. We have no one who can help you." Man, that was the point at which I was like, okay, trains, no planes, automobiles. And we made it to the events late, but we made it. Here's what you need to know that was only partially have helped us in that situation because that was an entire airline-wide meltdown.
18:10 Speaker 02 Barring an airline-wide meltdown, always set up alerts with whatever airline you're flying, where they send you alerts to your phone, the status of your flight. Most people just go to the airport, assuming their flight's going to fly when it's supposed to. It's a big mistake regularly. It's a huge mistake during a holiday period. And I love FlightAware to look independently, where I go and look and there's a button, you put in your flight, and then there's a thing you can click, where's my flight now? And you go see where it is.
18:51 Speaker 02 And if it's already delayed there or canceled there, you know you're not going when you think you're going. And if no status is listed for the flight coming to where you are, click on go the next step, where's my flight now? And go two flights back. And I do this particularly holiday periods, I'm going all the way through and checking because the early bird wins the race. Is that the expression? Anyway, we're going to use that now. Because if there's a problem with your flight, and you know early, your ability to re-accommodate
19:31 Speaker 02 with that airline, or scramble if you need to with somebody else to get booked, is so much better when you have early warning of the flight problem.
19:43 Speaker 02 Very important. And when you are at the airport and then suddenly there's a cancel, if you go stand in the longest line, all the seats are going to be gone on any other alternative before you ever get to the front of the line. You use that airline's app to try to rebook yourself. Not a phone call unless you're ultra-high status and not a line, you want to see if you can re-accommodate on the app. There's some airlines now in the big airports have terminals you can go to that are set up to help you rebook. In the worst busiest travel days of the year, though, around Thanksgiving, the Tuesday, Wednesday
20:27 Speaker 02 before, the Sunday, Monday after, even the best strategies may not work because the flights may all be full. But I can tell you, I have avoided a lot of strandings over the years with those strategies I just mentioned.
20:44 Speaker 03 Okay. Speaking of travel, Ken in Florida says, "Do you still use Auto Slash for car rentals? They seem to be only displaying Priceline deals. I have found better deals on Costco Travel. What's the arrangement between Priceline and Auto Slash?"
20:58 Speaker 02 So I don't know what kind of arrangement there is between Priceline and Auto Slash, but I don't use Auto Slash anymore. And it used to be a common tool I used because they would automatically rebook the rate when a lower rate came and stuff like that. And I just haven't found it to be effective in recent times. I thought they had a great idea. It worked really well for a good while. And now what I do is I go to rentalcars.com and I survey the market. And then I go to Costco Travel and I'd say almost 100% of the time, I get my cheapest rental through Costco Travel. The other thing you get with Costco Travel...
21:44 Speaker 02 Is your spouse or one other driver is able to drive without an additional daily driver fee through Costco Travel. And so it's been a really great source for Costco members to save a lot of money on rental cars. I had a problem with a rental recently that was overcharged and I've been having trouble with the rental car agency. And my next step, it was when I booked through Costco Travel. I'm still trying to resolve it, but then my next call is going to be to Costco Travel and see if I can get help. So you have somebody else there who might be able to help you. And I'll eventually tell that saga, but I
22:27 Speaker 02 never tell a story like that while I'm trying to resolve it.
22:31 Speaker 03 Okay. Joan in Pennsylvania says, when we rent a car via Turo or a traditional rental car agency for our trip to Alaska in June of 2025, our insurance agent told us, E R I E.
22:42 Speaker 02 Erie.
22:43 Speaker 03 Erie told us they will pay for damages, but they won't pay for loss of use or depreciation of the rental vehicle while it's repaired. Where can I get insurance to cover this? We're flying in and out of Anchorage, spending four nights in the Denali area and six nights in the Cooper landing area.
22:58 Speaker 02 Well, I am so jealous because I love doing the road trip in Alaska and I've not done so in a long, long time. Anyone who who loves nature, if you can ever do it, you know, go to Alaska. Most people only see Alaska on an inside passage cruise. I love doing it on land. I've been on the inside passage on the Alaska State Ferry system, not a cruise, and have been to Alaska mainland four times. And it's just the best. Okay. So this is not just for you, Joan. I've recommended for a while and we have a clear
23:40 Speaker 02 review, lengthy review at Clark.com of why for someone who even travels infrequently, but in the length of your trip, 10 nights, this is a slam dunk. Get the Chase Sapphire Preferred Credit Card. Preferred, not the Reserve that's $550. The Preferred is 95 or 99, something like that.
24:07 Speaker 03 95.
24:08 Speaker 02 95. And it provides primary.
24:13 Speaker 02 Auto coverage when you rent a car. And they do a great job generally handling the back and forth with the car rental agency. There's always a tiff about the loss of use charges and whether they fight you for depreciation. But Chase has done a decent job for people and negates getting your own insurer Erie involved in the back and forth because it is primary coverage for damage to the vehicle. If you're at fault and there's another vehicle that's damaged from another driver, you'll
24:54 Speaker 02 involve both parties, Chase for the damage to the rental car and Erie for the damage to somebody else's car. But it is a really great deal at 95 bucks a year for someone who even rents a car infrequently.
25:14 Speaker 03 Paul in North Carolina says, please help me decide which travel insurance for medical emergencies if needed for my trip to Vietnam in January for about two months.
25:22 Speaker 02 Okay, so Paul, this is a great question because when you're looking at having medical coverage for a trip to Vietnam is an example of a country that you likely, if you had a severe injury or illness, you want to be airlifted out and you want a policy that includes that. And what I've heard in the past is that people who have a serious medical emergency in Indochina usually are medevac to Singapore or to Thailand, both which have a bunch of, I mean, Singapore are obviously really incredible medical facilities.
26:07 Speaker 02 Thailand has Western-style medical facilities in Bangkok. So you want a policy that includes. The medevac and those are going to be more expensive. A two-month policy though is not crazily more than one that might be a shorter policy, two-week in Asia or something like that. Go to insuremytrip.com or one of their competitors and look specifically for policies that include medevac. Read closely in a policy, the terms and conditions that trigger eligibility for medevac.
26:47 Speaker 02 And be aware of this, a lot of policies talk medevac, but all they do is arrange the medevac for you. They don't pay for it. You've got to make sure that the policy pays for the medevac you're going to need. You didn't hear me recommend a specific company because you want to read the policies that actually do pay for medevac overseas. Read the limitations and the coverages before you make a decision which policy and which company.
27:24 Speaker 03 Okay. And then this one from Russell in New Hampshire. You mentioned you only pack everything you need in a carry-on suitcase and you said you would go on seven or 10-day cruises. I would like you to do a video of exactly how you select what you need and pack it for 10 days. Show us how, I would love it. It would probably be funny to watch Krista react as you did it. I have a 10-day cruise coming up and I need a lesson.
27:47 Speaker 02 Should we do that? Do people want to see my underwear and my socks?
27:50 Speaker 03 I mean, you know, you can just...
27:52 Speaker 02 Okay. So what I do is on a trip up to five days, I'm plus one on socks and underwear, you know, one, one additional to what I'm taking. And I pack enough shirts for the trip, enough pants for the trip on a cruise if I'm going warm weather. That's not hard because I only have my shorts and... My toilet articles and stuff and my computer and chargers and all that are in my laptop bag, you know, my backpack, but it's a laptop oriented backpack. I'm going with a thinner one now, putting less stress on my shoulders. And there are times like when we went on a,
28:37 Speaker 02 was it a nine day or 10 day cruise, I had to sit on that suitcase in order to zip. And I've learned one of the things with doing a carry on for a trip longer than seven days and I'm taking more stuff, is that I have to unzip the wider thing, you know, the expander thing, sit on it, zip it, then stay sitting on it and zip down the expander thing. Cause a lot of airlines won't let you take it as a carry on once it's expanded by a few inches. And I'm always able to do it, but I accept the challenge for us to shoot a video of
29:17 Speaker 02 me packing for a seven or 10 day cruise. You'll think I'm nuts. Oh, one thing I should say that makes it possible for me to do it, and not for a lot of people, I don't do formal nights. I go to the cruise ship cafeteria or wherever I'm allowed to go, not playing dress up, because I'm on vacation on a cruise. The last thing I want to do is wear dress up clothes. I can't stand wearing dress up clothes. And when I go to an event, that's what I call them, and I have to put on a suit and a tie, yuck. Yes, I know, I sound
30:01 Speaker 02 like an eight year old boy. I know I do. It's true. And thank you so much for joining us today. If you need one-on-one advice, you know, that's free. It's been since 1993 that we've offered free one-on-one advice from the Team Clark Consumer Action Center. If you go to clark.com/cac, you'll see how to get that free advice 30 hours a week as we are there to serve you with ideas and ways for you to save more, spend less, and avoid getting ripped off. Have a great rest of your day.
30:49 Speaker 00 Progressive's Accident Response can contact emergency services if you're in a major accident. The only thing worse than someone you love being in an accident is not being able to help them. So Progressive is here to help when you can't. So get peace of mind knowing your loved ones are protected with Progressive's Accident Response. Learn more at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. Limited availability in California. Driver is responsible for emergency and towing charges not covered by the policy. Coverage subject to policy terms and conditions.
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