The Clark Howard Podcast

Clark loves the Impossible Burger - not a fan of Beyond or veggie burgers. Recent reports reveal the Impossible burger isn't particularly healthier. That high calorie meat taste comes from multiple plant fats. Experts initially thought these meat substitutes would only sell in white collar environments and high end restaurants. Turns out Carl's Jr. and Burger King are successfully selling meat sub...

Even with solid education, skills and jobs, it's difficult for many in high-cost cities to live without wheezing financially all the time, often with dim prospects of home ownership. Especially in the NE, DC and the I5 corridor from Seattle to SanDiego - people work hard to just tread water. If this is your situation, think about relocating. Even taking a lower paying job in a community with a muc...

Travel agents are a thing of the past, right? Nope! While booking travel online has become incredibly easy and also allows you to compare prices more easily, travel advisers still have a helpful role to play in how you book. Specifically, if you tend to book stays at more expensive hotels or love to go on cruises, booking via a travel agent can gain you perks and discounts that you wouldn't otherw...

Home internet has been way too expensive without much competition. Monopoly cable companies have cornered the market in most of the country. Clark predicts this is the last year we’ll be suffering that lack of competition. In 2020 & 2021, we’ll see the roll out of various forms of high speed home internet, changing the equation for consumers. T-Mobile has launched a wireless home internet service...

Clark has a Spotify family plan. $15 a month includes 5 different streams - $3 per person. Spotify faces competitive market threats from Apple Music. Pandora seems to be fading a bit. Now all face a new threat from Amazon. Amazon’s free, ad supported music service for Prime members has greatly expanded music offerings in an effort to hook users on the pay service. Joel’s already paying. This compe...

According to the FBI, wire transfer fraud is growing exponentially. Typically homeowners, small to mid-size business owners and nonprofits are targeted. When buying a home, you receive wire transfer instructions for the home closing from your real estate agent, escrow agent or closing attorney. Criminals are infiltrating email services, taking over the email of real estate agents, lawyers and escr...

The Trump administration has issued rules that has the medical industry in furious. New rules will require consumers have access upfront to costs for medical care and procedures. What other industry is so arrogant to think they could avoid price disclosure forever? They’ve hired lobbyist to spread money around to politicians, most pretending to be non-profits – all to hide their prices. Many consu...

Many fly only during the holiday period near the end of the year. Airlines gouge you on checking a bag, so many bring carry on bags. Airlines quickly run out of overhead bin space during boarding so – gate check - they seize and tag some of them at the gate. If you put everything important in your carry on, once it becomes a checked bag, airlines don’t cover anything of value. You are vulnerable t...

Google’s Project Nightingale is a huge initiative by the second largest hospital system in the U.S. Some are hostile to Google doing this. But this is an important initiative. With the tech available today, it’s ridiculous we don’t have solid medical databases for continuity of care. Patients themselves don’t keep track. It’s important this succeeds and expands. A woman at an exclusive country clu...

California passed a law that is having national impact. In the U.S. we lack any digital rights to privacy, while internet behemoths collect our data, compiling deep dossiers to sell off for marketing purposes. Due to the breakdown of political function in D.C., technology is moving faster than a do-nothing Congress. So California has emulated Europe’s privacy law, The Right to be Forgotten – which...

Waffle House has been in the news lately! One recent late night, only 1 cook showed up for his Birmingham Waffle House shift. So the customers pitched in taking & serving orders and washing dishes. The customers ran the joint for no pay. Waffle House acknowledged the incident as gracefully as possible, suggesting the customers fill out applications. What’s it take to work there? Ironically, the da...

Clark comes from an immigrant family. All 4 of his grandparents were born overseas. From the time they became citizens, serving in the military became part of the Howard family culture. Clark’s had the privilege of speaking at 3 Veterans Day events over the last 3 days. All gratitude to the brave people who have served our nation. The all-volunteer military structure today means only a small porti...

A new study shows that the effects of screen time on small children could be physically changing their brains. The study which was published in JAMA reports a decline in "white matter integrity" of 3-5 year olds because of time spent using screens. Christa reads listener posts about how Clark has missed the mark in his advice this week. If you have a "Clark Stinks" to share you can leave it here....

The FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) movement was a hot topic last year. People set early retirement goals and modified lifestyle dramatically to make it happen. Now we can add the ROWE (Results Only Work Environment) movement, giving people the freedom to work when and where they want. Many employers can’t handle this. But if you do task oriented work with measurable results, this can b...

Roughly 20% of American adults have no credit file at all. There’s not enough data to establish credit risk. Around 25% of American adults have low credit scores. That’s 45% total. Lenders use different strategies to figure out who among them are worth taking a chance on. Data is more sophisticated today than traditional credit reporting. The Pedal Card uses proprietary criteria to issue credit ca...

Clark recommends a minimum ownership cycle of 7 years for houses and 10 years for condos. There’s enormous expense involved in both buying and selling a home – 10% in and 10% out. In addition to expenses in and out, condo values are more unstable than home values. So owning for a decade is best for your wallet. Historically, 7 years has been the typical amount of time people stay in a home. But ac...

ID theft criminals are entering post offices with fake IDs and doing address changes. The USPS gets 37 million address changes each year. An unwitting pawn in ID theft, they say working to prevent false address changes, but determined criminals can get this done. If your mails suddenly stops coming, it’s 5 alarm fire drill time for your finances. Immediately freeze your credit with Equifax, Transu...

ClarkDeals has created a new poll that reveals some of the Holiday consumer shopping trends. Clark discusses the findings and how you should approach Holiday shopping in order to save the most money. Christa reads listener posts about how Clark has missed the mark in his advice this week. If you have a "Clark Stinks" to share you can leave it here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone...

Clark talks about the best places to open an HSA. Some providers do a better job for people attempting to save money in their HSA while other providers do a better job helping people invest well inside of their HSA. Two of the best overall providers are Fidelity and Lively. A new TX law allows sky high fees inside of teacher 403b plans. This is Clarkrageous and will have a major impact on the over...

Clark discusses the fed rate cut and how the economy is slowing. Online installment loans are rising to prominence. The interest rates are almost as high as payday loans. You should never sign up for an installment loan when attempting to purchase something online. Amazon has stopped charging grocery delivery fees for Amazon Prime members. Clark discusses the details and what this means for Amazon...

Open enrollment is near for corporate workers and individuals on the federal exchange. Employers are facing major cost pressures providing healthcare for workers. Strategies to reduce costs include sending workers to seek out of state care, and in rare cases care outside the U.S. This is a result of the hospital system chokeholds in most metros. Employers may waive your deductible if you go out of...

Affordable housing is in short supply in the U.S. these days. It hasn’t been this difficult to acquire affordable housing since 1948. Restrictive zoning – a NIMBY problem, has made it difficult to impossible for builders. But zoning changes are making affordable housing more possible. A few months ago metro Minneapolis passed such zoning changes. Now Oregon has passed a law to phase in by 2021 to...

More people would be willing to create a will if the process was easier. So states across the country are changing laws to allow people to create their will completely online. Christa reads listener posts about how Clark has missed the mark in his advice this week. If you have a "Clark Stinks" to share you can leave it here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Two US Senators have introduced legislation to get rid of non-compete clauses in almost all cases. This is GREAT news because these non-compete clauses are terrible for individual earnings an the overall economy. Moviepass has gone out of business after disappointing millions of customers. But Moviepass is STILL charging money to their former customers. This is truly Clarkrageous. Drone delivery i...

California has passed legislation to delay school start times. This is great for kids! Apple's parental controls for Screen Time have been easily bypassed by kids. Parents need to take more proactive approaches towards limiting technology use by their children. Hackers are stealing personal information while you are purchasing things online. Clark tells you what you need to know and how to protect...