01.02.26 2026 Smarter Spending Resolution / Clark Answers His Critics on Clark Stinks

Summary

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Podcast Summary: The Clark Howard Podcast

Episode: 01.02.26 "2026 Smarter Spending Resolution / Clark Answers His Critics on Clark Stinks"
Date: January 2, 2026
Host: Clark Howard

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Episode Overview

Clark Howard launches the first episode of 2026 by tackling smarter financial habits for the new year, especially focusing on rethinking spending behaviors. The episode emphasizes avoiding “buy now, pay later” temptations, offers practical comparisons for grocery savings, covers insurance oddities, and features the “Clark Stinks” segment where listeners critique Clark’s advice. As always, the tone is pragmatic, conversational, and rooted in Clark’s mission to help listeners save more, spend less, and protect themselves from financial pitfalls.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Smarter Spending in 2026: Beware Buy Now, Pay Later ("Pay in Four")

• Clark’s Annual Resolution Advice (00:35–05:00)
  • Clark warns listeners about the dangers of “pay in four” or buy now, pay later (BNPL) options, which banks heavily promoted during the holiday season.
  • Psychological Manipulation: Clark argues that banks use psychological tricks to lure people into spending money they don’t have.
  • Data & Risk:

    “The reality is, and the data shows, about one out of three of these aren’t going to get paid in time and people are going to mess up their credit and they may have all kinds of junk fees they now have to pay.” (Clark, 04:17)

  • Resolution for Listeners: Make a conscious choice this year to avoid BNPL traps, spend within means, and not let new habits formed during the holidays undermine financial health.

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2. Listener Q&A

A. Warehouse Clubs vs. Aldi & Lidl (05:00–07:24)

• Comparison Insights:
  • Aldi and Lidl often have better prices than warehouse clubs, especially for small-quantity shoppers.
  • Aldi is extremely streamlined with fewer choices but deep discounts. Lidl offers slightly more selection but remains very affordable.
  • Key Stat:

    “Expect to pay 40% less at Aldi and maybe 30 plus percent less at Lidl versus a traditional supermarket.” (Clark, 07:10)

• For daily shoppers not needing large quantities, Aldi/Lidl are often the best value even when factoring in warehouse membership fees.

B. Digital Detox & Social Media Habits (07:24–09:35)

• Listener Kathy shares her “digital detox” strategy: one day a week on social media, reward herself $20 per successful week.
• Clark confesses to not using social media personally but acknowledges increased phone screen time. The conversation expands to new phone tech (Samsung’s Tri Fold).
• Quote:

  “Think about how much time you spend on your phone, how often you open it, all that.” (Clark, 08:43)

C. Home Insurance Rates & Credit Mix (09:50–11:50)

• Listener Robin receives a 25% home insurance hike due to “mix of credit”, despite an 800+ score and no claims.
• Clark calls the reasoning “the goofiest thing ever” and urges listeners to re-shop insurance regularly, as pricing criteria can be arbitrary and vary by company.
• Quote:

  “They’re clearly looking for any reason to raise your rates.” (Clark, 10:46)

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3. Clark Stinks Segment (14:02–29:50)

A hallmark of the show, “Clark Stinks” features listener critiques—sometimes lighthearted, sometimes serious—about Clark’s advice.

Notable Listener Feedback & Clark’s Responses

• Child Life Insurance (15:01–16:04)

  • Listener Bo suggests a policy for children to provide parents income relief if mourning.
  • Clark remarks on the novelty and sadness of this perspective, reiterating that life insurance is for replacing lost income.

• Financially Supporting Adult Children (16:08–17:16)

  • Story shared about siblings reliant on parent support, complications after the parent’s death.
  • Clark agrees, highlighting risks in enabling poor spending habits, and praises listener’s responsible approach.

• Cash vs. Digital Spending Habits in Young Adults (18:10–18:55)

  • Listener Ben’s children feel more connected to digital spending, contrary to traditional thinking about “pain of paying” with cash.
  • Clark finds this revelation illuminating and plans to discuss it with his own kids.

• Travel Sites & Surveillance Pricing (19:20–20:58)

  • Listener has caught airlines displaying lower prices in incognito mode than when logged in.
  • Clark recommends booking at the best price regardless of login status, expects more “surveillance pricing” industry-wide.
  • Quote:

    "We are going to see an increase in the use of what the industry calls surveillance pricing…based on the pattern of how you historically have been price sensitive or not." (Clark, 20:33)

• Grabbing Extra Condiments at Restaurants (21:03–22:32)

  • Listener Tom points out that “free” condiment hoarding increases restaurant costs, affecting all customers’ prices.
  • Clark recounts global norms where condiments are charged per serving, emphasizing these costs are real.

• High-Fee 403(b) vs. DIY Roth IRA (22:32–24:32)

  • Listener Art Vandelay notes it’s wasteful to stick with a 1% fee 403(b) instead of a Roth.
  • Clark agrees but explains some need forced, automatic savings—even if expensive—because otherwise, they might not save at all.

• Surveillance Economy & Data Privacy (24:32–28:28)

  • Listener Janet warns Clark enables surveillance pricing and data collection by advocating for loyalty clubs and digital payments.
  • Clark concedes:

    “So much of what you said is accurate… we need in the United States is legal opt out rights.” (Clark, 26:09)

  • He supports a national right-to-privacy law and acknowledges the challenge of remaining off the grid in modern America.

• True Costs of Electric Vehicles (28:28–29:50)

  • Listener Barrett highlights steep insurance hikes for EVs vs. gas cars, criticizing Clark’s “optimism.”
  • Clark admits insurance variances are real, shares that Tesla offers their own (often cheaper) insurance in some states, and encourages listeners to factor insurance, maintenance, depreciation, and financing when comparing car ownership modes.
  • Quote:

    “It’s never just the purchase price…it’s all part of the cost of the ownership cycle.” (Clark, 29:39)

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• On BNPL Schemes:

  “You think the bank is trying to do something nice for you. Next thing you know, you get sucker punched.” (Clark, 04:01)

• On Condiment Economics:

  “So please use all you need, but quit filling your pantry at my expense.” (Tom, 21:54)

• On Digital Surveillance:

  “We need explicit rights to privacy in U.S. law.” (Clark, 28:07)

• Clark's Philosophy:

  “What we’re about is empowerment through knowledge so you can save more, spend less, and avoid getting ripped off.” (Clark, 29:44)

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Important Timestamps

• BNPL Warnings and 2026 Resolutions – 00:35–05:00
• Warehouse Club vs. Aldi/Lidl Grocery Savings – 05:00–07:24
• Listener Qs: Tech Detox, Home Insurance, Phone Habits – 07:24–11:50
• Clark Stinks (Listener Feedback/Critiques) – 14:02–29:50

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Tone and Style

Clark Howard continues his signature style: accessible, relatable, and heavily focused on listener empowerment. He welcomes critique, incorporates real-life stories, and addresses flaws or oversights with humility and humor.

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Takeaways for Non-Listeners

• Avoid BNPL traps in 2026—living beyond your means is more dangerous than ever.
• Aldi/Lidl are outstanding for grocery value, sometimes better than big warehouse clubs.
• Insurance pricing can be arbitrary; always shop around.
• Listener experiences drive the show—feedback, corrections, and alternative perspectives heavily shape the discussion.
• Protect your privacy where possible; convenience trades are increasingly risky in the surveillance economy.
• When comparing costs (cars, investments, etc.), look at the total picture, not just headline numbers.
• Being open to critique is core to Clark’s approach—you’ll always hear all sides on his show.

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Transcript

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[Clark Howard]

I'm so glad to welcome you to the Clark Howard show, our inaugural show of 2026, where our mission is to serve you with advice and information that empowers you so you make better financial decisions in your life. And if you're new to our show, welcome. Normally on Fridays we start with our Clarkston segment where I get to hear where I let you down. Got something wrong, missed some information. But don't worry, I'm still going to do Clark Stinks today. But because we at the beginning of every year, we have so many new listeners and viewers, we're going to do things backwards today. We're going to start by talking about how you can rethink your buying decisions in the new year. Then we're going to get to your questions followed by your Clark Stinks. So some bad habits crystallized after being kind of like a side issue this past Christmas shopping season. The banking industry is crowing about how many people they got to do pay in for buy now, pay later that they are hoping, and I'm hoping not, that they have changed the trajectory about how people buy things. And so now we're at the real test. A lot of people during the Christmas buying season feel stretched. They're buying something maybe their wallet can't handle and they give into temptation and they use these horrendous pay in for products buy now, pay later products. And so what the banks are hoping is that they've gotten the serpent under the tent. Is that the right expression? The elephant snows under the tent Anyway, wherever the snake fits in this snake equals bank anyway, that they now have created this new habit in you and you're going to just do it routinely throughout this year. I got to tell you, paying for is a rotten, terrible thing. Paying for now is being very heavily reported on people's credit reports. A lot of people succumb to a pay in four at a cash register or shopping online. I mean, you go to buy an airline ticket paying for, you go to the register to buy who knows what pay in four. You go to a website pay in four and the lure is, and the fact is the, the banks, the retailers, the airlines, they're all so excited because they get people who are right on the bubble about whether or not they're going to buy something, whether or not they're going to book the trip, whether or not they're going to do who knows what. And they know in their heart of hearts that it's not money they can afford to spend right now. But what the banks have learned is they can trick your mind, they can play a psychological game on you and they can get you to say, yeah, I really shouldn't do it, but I'm going to do it because look, I'll get it paid off. And then the reality is, and the data shows that about one out of three of these aren't going to get paid in time and people are going to mess up their credit and they may have all kinds of junk fees they now have to pay because the whole lure of the paying for is paying for easy payments, no interest. It's all like, come here, come here, I got something for, got something for you. And you think the bank is trying to do something nice for you. Next thing you know, you get sucker punched. And so through this year, I ask you to resolve to not allow paying for to harm you. Do not allow it to trick you into spending money you really can't afford to spend.

[Caller/Listener]

All right, we'll go to questions now. If you have a question, you can go to clark.com ask Kevin in North Carolina sent this one. Clark, you love the warehouse clubs and I've heard you compare them to each other and how they're better than the Hilo grocery stores. But has anyone ever done a study or do you have any thoughts on how they compare to Aldi or Lidl? If we do our daily shopping at Aldi and Lidl, are the prices still cheaper with the membership fee at BJ's or one of the other warehouse clubs?

[Clark Howard]

So, Kevin, I am such a believer in Aldi and Lidl Aldi now I think they've crossed the threshold. They're now the third largest supermarket in the United States. Traditional supermarket. A lot of people wouldn't consider them traditional. Aldi and Lidl have such a unique business model that they are the best idea I know to stretch your grocery dollar better even than the three warehouse clubs. They're also very different and they're hard to compare because a lot of the groceries you buy at any of the warehouse clubs, you're going to buy bigger quantities. Lidl and Aldi because they come out of walking cities in Europe originally both from Germany and their arch rivals. They have always been. Their DNA has always been about buying small quantities. So if you go in and you want to buy a banana, you're going to get a phenomenal deal on that banana. You buy a single apple, you're going to get a fantastic deal. Whatever you buy, it's going to be so well priced. At Aldi and Lidl and they do it like the warehouse clubs generally that they very much limit choice. You'll have one type of catch up, one type of anything, and that's how they're able to sell huge quantities of a limited assortment at crazy low prices. I love them both Aldi and Lidl. If you're a regular shopper at both of them, you know there's a lot of differences between the two of them. Aldi is a more streamlined, cheaper place, potentially with less selection than Lidl, but Lidl is dirt cheap as well. Expect to pay 40% less at Aldi and maybe 30 plus percent less at Lidl versus a traditional supermarket.

[Caller/Listener]

Kathy in Pennsylvania says Clark, I really enjoy listening to the podcast and have learned so much. I tend to listen while I'm on the dread mill and it helps pass the time.

[Clark Howard]

Have you ever heard that expression?

[Caller/Listener]

I call it the dread mill.

[Clark Howard]

Yes, I love that.

[Caller/Listener]

On a recent episode, you talked about cell phone addiction and I wanted to share my solution. I found I was spending too much time scrolling on social media as a way to unwind. I knew I didn't want to spend that much time on my phone, so I decided to start a digital detox. I declared one day a week I could scroll away and keep up with the latest info, but no social media on the other 60 days. As an incentive to help me stick to it, I pay myself $20 a week as a reward for my digital detox. It's just the incentive I need to and I need and I'm on week three and it's going well. Thanks for all the great advice.

[Clark Howard]

Okay.

[Caller/Listener]

In a time of New Year's resolutions.

[Clark Howard]

I thought that how much time do you spend on social media?

[Caller/Listener]

Probably too much. Oh, I don't do. I mean I really just look at Instagram mostly and once in a while.

[Clark Howard]

I'll look at Facebook because I have never used social media personally and so it's never been something that that has been part of my life.

[Caller/Listener]

But we put you on there. You.

[Clark Howard]

I'm all over social media but personally I don't use social media. So I've not had that issue.

[Caller/Listener]

But screen time.

[Clark Howard]

Screen time. My phone sends me that warning every week and tells me I used 18 more minutes on my phone the last week than the week before. Think about how much time you spend on your phone, how often you open it, all that. And now you know Samsung is coming out with the Tri Fold phone.

[Caller/Listener]

Oh, gosh.

[Clark Howard]

So those of you who are aware.

[Caller/Listener]

That sounds like a joke.

[Clark Howard]

No, I mean, I've seen the videos of it. And so it opens up, your regular old tiny phone opens up into a 10.1-inch tablet. And my son, when, when the videos were first released last month, said, dad, are you going to order one of these? I said, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know.

[Caller/Listener]

It might go against what Kathy's trying to teach us all. Might incentivize you to spend more time on your phone.

[Clark Howard]

So, yeah, but the advantage for me traveling as much as I do, a lot of times I don't take a laptop on a trip anymore because I've got this folding tablet phone from Samsung and then if it folds, another time open.

[Caller/Listener]

Robin in Ohio says I just received a letter from my home insurance company telling me they are going to raise my rates by 25%. The reason they give is because even though I have a credit score of over 800, I don't have a proper mix of credit. And they suggest I get an auto loan. I don't understand why they apparently say what. Why they apparently believe I'll be more likely to file a claim because I paid cash for my car. I've never filed a home or auto insurance claim. Last year they raised my rates because I had opened up a new line of credit by getting a credit card within the previous 12 months. Now they're raising them because I didn't open up a new line of credit. I researched, I searched on the Internet and saw others in Ohio were complaining about their rates going up. But they said the reason was because last year Ohio had the most tornadoes that it ever had. If that's the real reason, why wouldn't the home insurance company say so?

[Clark Howard]

What a great question. And you know, this thing we, we talked about this, something we talked about last month, how in most states, auto and homeowners insurers set your rates not based on factors you would think, but set it based on your credit report and your credit standing with it. So, but that's most, that's not all. And they all do it differently too. So I'd say what your insurer is telling you is go reshop your insurance with other people would be the thing you really need to be about Robin because they're clearly looking for any reason to raise your rates. And this thing about the mix of your credit when you've got a score over 800 having anything to do with setting auto and homeowners, that's the goofiest thing ever. I would go reshop both your auto and homeowners. Coming up ahead, it's time for our first Clark Stinks of 26, where you get to hear how I'm stinking it up.

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[Caller/Listener]

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We will protect you as a family.

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[Clark Howard]

That is fantastic.

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[Clark Howard]

Time has it been?

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[Clark Howard]

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[Clark Howard]

Terms it's time to time for Clark Stinks where you get to hear how I fail to serve you well. Bad advice, bad information, being lame, whatever it is. In today's first edition of the new year of Clark Stinks. I should have never encouraged you to speak. You almost think I'm pretty stupid.

[Caller/Listener]

You should be ashamed of yourself.

[Clark Howard]

Well, maybe I'm wrong.

[Caller/Listener]

Maybe I'm wrong.

[Clark Howard]

Maybe you're right. Out. You got some Fun ones for 26.

[Caller/Listener]

We're going to start out with this gem from Bo and Rhode Island. He says you remind me of my AM bm.

[Clark Howard]

Okay, that's one of the funniest I've heard in the years of Clark Stinks.

[Caller/Listener]

It is often suggested that you don't need a life insurance policy on your children. I would suggest that you do have one so that you can replace your income if you have to mourn. It seems seems like an easy way to alleviate some stress during a difficult situation.

[Clark Howard]

Wow, Bo. Gosh, what an interesting perspective that. I mean, I hear what you're saying because if one of my children passed away, I'd be just broken and it takes a while for that to heal enough that you can function again. I've never heard of that as a reason to have child life insurance. Wow.

[Caller/Listener]

Yeah, I would just never ever buy it.

[Clark Howard]

Yeah, it's. You know, life insurance is designed for replacement of income that the person who has it dies and the family depends on that income and part or in whole. And that's generally why you buy life insurance. Yep.

[Caller/Listener]

Sorry. So that was kind of a funny to a very sad. Sad Clark Stinks.

[Clark Howard]

Right?

[Caller/Listener]

Kathy in Florida says, hi Clark, you don't necessarily stink, but you miss something odiferous regarding parents financially helping out their adult children who will make up the immediate shortfall when they're gone. My mom had been gifting my sister and I money on a monthly basis for years. I didn't need the money, so I put some toward my student loan and put the rest in a Roth ira. My mom recently passed away after two years of declining health.

[Clark Howard]

Sorry you lost her.

[Caller/Listener]

I received a call two days after her passing from my brother in law asking for financial help as they didn't couldn't meet their bills without the monthly deposit they were receiving from mom despite my warning several months prior that it would be ending when she passed. The inheritance is in a trust and it will take several months to settle. We got them taken care of with an IRA outside of the trust, but as a sibling I would have rather not received a call like that. I think parents really need to think twice about financially supporting your kids. If your adult children aren't fiscally responsible, giving them money may not necessarily help them in the long run. Thank you Clark for all you do. I was able to afford to cut back on work to take care of my mom in her last months because I listened to you. Also, these parents need to think carefully about who they give financial power of attorney to.

[Clark Howard]

That is all very very solid advice at a very difficult time for you and I thank you so much for sharing your story. And it's true. You could have five siblings and each of them handle money completely differently one from another. There are people who have spent every last dollar they'll ever see in their lives and there are others who are just wired to be savers. And the hard part is a parent helping an adult child is you're with the ones you know that are wired to always spend. You're enabling that behavior and it's hard out of love when you want to help a kid, but is it helping when you're creating a pattern that's so unhealthy?

[Caller/Listener]

Moving away from death.

[Clark Howard]

Yeah, we had two very, very downbeat kind of things involving passing away.

[Caller/Listener]

Okay, Ben in Ohio says no whiffs of moldy cheese or rotting meat, but just a new perspective. During a recent show you discussed the psychology of using cash and how it kept people from overspending. Typically this would be accurate for the older generations, but in Talking with my 18 and 21 year old children, they explained how they felt no emotional tie to spending cash, but it felt a much stronger tug when using digital currency. As we talked more, I realized it was not only their youth and comfort with the technology, but that they also viewed cash as extra and and it's not tracked in their spending the way credit and debit cards or other forms of spending do. Apple Pay, Venmo, etc. It was an interesting perspective.

[Clark Howard]

I love this because I've never heard that perspective before. I'm going to talk to my kids about that and bring this up and see what they think. Because just like I was just talking about. Of my three children, two are extremely careful with money and one is not at all.

[Caller/Listener]

And I've been looking at I've been testing out. My daughter wants a budgeting app and she and I are both starting to test out some of the ones we [e-mail] on our article reviewing budgeting apps. So I'm going to see how that goes because I think that is something that younger generations do. And I get that the electronic thing makes a lot more sense then Patricia in Arizona says Clark, you stink, but only in the way a browser does. After tracking me across eight airline sites, I was left hanging wondering what I should do if I find that I get a better deal on travel if I'm not logged into the airline or hotel's website. For example, if I see that when I'm incognito mode, my price is reduced, should I screenshot the prices and contact the airline or hotel or should I post about it on the airline or hotel's X page?

[Clark Howard]

Actually, what you should do is you should buy it while you're on the incognito price and they're not going to raise that price once you've clicked through to purchase and you add your information. If it's an airline, if you really want to be careful, you don't add your frequent flyer number to the account till after you've purchased and then you go back and add the frequent flyer number. But we are going to see an increase in the use of what the industry calls surveillance pricing, where pricing will be individually based, and you're going to see steadily more difference between an incognito search and searching where they know who you are because they're basing the individual price on the pattern of how you historically have been price sensitive or not.

[Caller/Listener]

Tom in Alabama says Clark, I'm not sure you stink, but Krista does. On your podcast, you were answering, wait, wait, wait.

[Clark Howard]

That's the second time in the last month you've read one where so what?

[Caller/Listener]

It's all right. You were answering a listener who asked if they should ship condiments to their Airbnb in Hawaii to save money versus buying them in Hawaii. Before you gave an answer, Krista suggested they just grab extra condiments at a fast food restaurant and stick stick them in their luggage. Really, Clark Chick Fil a serves about 1.6 billion customers a year, and if half of them, or 800 million, took just one extra pack of ketchup at a cost of 8 cents and it costs Chick Fil a 64 million dollars a year. Who pays for that but all the other customers as that cost is passed on to all of them. So her cheapness is causing my food to cost more and thus costs me money and higher food costs. Or the restaurants charge more for condiments. So please use all you need, but quit filling your pantry at my expense.

[Clark Howard]

So I got a little funny annex that you have experienced and in most of the world when you buy at a fast food restaurant, well, I would experience this more.

[Caller/Listener]

I haven't.

[Clark Howard]

Yeah, they charge you if you want ketchup for your fries or in some countries people use mayonnaise with the fries. You pay per pack and they'll ask you do you want ketchup with it? Do you want. Or if you're at a terminal and you'll see the price go up for having the condiments, they treat every last thing you get as an additional purchase on your part because it does have a real cost.

[Caller/Listener]

I don't know if you've seen a lot of Seinfeld, but this was written by Art Vandelay. You stink worse than the BO valet from Seinfeld. Never thought I would have to write one of these. You suggested that a caller continue to contribute to a 403B with fees as high as 1% rather than doing, quote all the work of doing a backdoor Roth. For someone who drives out of his way to avoid tolls, I would have thought you would understand the impact of a 1% impact on growth over a lifet. Given that it takes about five minutes to complete a backdoor Roth, the compound savings of thousands of dollars would certainly be worth the hassle.

[Clark Howard]

Thank you for that. Okay, so when would I want you to contribute to a brutally high cost 401k at work? Most 403Bs are crazy high cost. Only if there's an employer match or. And this is the other part of this, what you said is completely right. You would much rather do an ultra low cost Roth IRA than contribute to a 401k at work or 403. You have to know consumer behavior though. There are people who will never get around to doing the Roth ira. So when you talk about the compounded loss of funds from the high fee and a 403B or a high cost 401K, everything you said is right. But we've got opportunity cost here. Because a lot of people will never ever get around to funding the Roth if that's their behavior pattern and they know it. Having the money forced out of their check every pay period will be superior because in the Roth example, if they're never going to get it done, they're going to have no money in the one where it's for savings. They will have inefficient, high cost money, but they'll have money down the road.

[Caller/Listener]

Janet in North Carolina says I must say that you are partially responsible for the surveillance pricing recently discussed on the show. You said all the data companies collect on us makes this possible. Are you not encouraging this by telling people to sign up for every company's members club under the sun just to save a few bucks? I've also heard you say that digital currency is the way of the future and cash is going the way of the dinosaur. I know you love being able to just put items into your cart at Sam's and walk out without ever having to go through the register. But you don't seem to be aware that that means you're submitting to facial recognition and access to your financial data that can easily be used against you. Very soon, every shopper in a store will be recognized by their face and have individual pricing for every item they buy based on their income or shopping habits. Our cars track our driving habits and sell our data to insurance companies to jack up our rates. Biometric data from your health tracker ring is sold to companies to determine your rates for life and health insurance. We're all just giving this data up freely for convenience and a few bucks saved. Well, a few bucks saved now can result in hundreds of dollars later. My advice? Use cash as much as possible and avoid companies who don't accept it. Use VPNs and shop as a guest instead of creating profiles and digital wallets for every store you shop at. Opt out of all biometrics and airlines scanning your face and refuse digital IDs at all costs. We have the power to resist these things in a free capitalist society, force change and protect our sovereignty. It's lazy and anti American to suggest that this is just the way of the future. Consider also that your show may become obsolete in a surveillance economy because there will no longer be any way to skirt the system to save money.

[Clark Howard]

Thank you for your post and so much of what you said is accurate and something that I feel we need in the United States is legal opt out rights which we don't have right now that we should be able to choose instead of having to do some of the things you said we should be able to choose if information about us is captured and stored we don't have. There's no explicit right to privacy under the U.S. constitution. There's no explicit right under federal law. Some states have been passing laws like this, but they're scattershot and we need an era of technology that can track our every movement, every second. And you're right, I'm contributing to it by saying do this, do that, sign up for this, sign up for that national right to privacy law. That is an opt in instead of an opt out, meaning that you have a right to privacy explicit with the business unless you choose to allow them to capture your data. That you would have to opt into letting them have your data and using it is something we should have as a country, as many other countries in the world have now adopted the idea of going as off the grid as possible. There are people that are doing that, but it is hard to do. I have a friend who pays cash for everything and doesn't join anything except the loyalty program at his favorite restaurant he goes to all the time. And it does take some work to create that trail of anonymity.

[Caller/Listener]

But you're, you're using all the restaurant apps and everything. You're not worried?

[Clark Howard]

Yeah, I'm being tracked every last way except my Aura fitness ring. Aura does not allow any tracking of data that would be personalized down to an individual. But they could change that, they could change ownership. They'd say, hey, look at this, look at what we can sell to insurance companies. All that. That's why we need explicit rights to privacy in U.S. law.

[Caller/Listener]

All right. And Barrett in Minnesota says, Clarkinator, I love your show, but I feel you have such misguided optimism with electric vehicles in particular. When I asked my insurance agency for a quote to add a new Model Y, the estimated monthly increase to my policy is 140 per month. In contrast, I recently bought a brand new 2025 loaded up Silverado. The increase was 25amonth. I have no kids in the household and good credit and good driving history. So what gives when you shill the Teslas and electric cars? Please give a thorough comparison of gas versus electric when it comes not only to purchase operating costs, but the cost to insure as well.

[Clark Howard]

Yeah, some insurers have been extremely anti electric vehicle because they don't know yet and they don't have good actuarial data yet what it's going to cost them for people having those electric vehicles. That's why in so many states Tesla offers Tesla branded insurance. My middle child lives in California, drives a Tesla and she switched to Tesla insurance and her insurance rates dropped by, believe it or not, almost 80% and Tesla's willingness to underwrite at that cost. So we do have something pretty clear here that the insurance industry has not really gotten comfortable with electric vehicles yet. And it's possible that actuarially, their trends show that it costs more to insure an electric vehicle driver because of the way they drive or the cost of repairing them. Who knows? But what a valid point that with any vehicle, it's never just the purchase price of the vehicle. It's never just the cost of gasoline. You have to look at the cost of maintenance, insurance, the depreciation, and if you finance it, the cost of that financing, it's all part of the cost of the ownership cycle. And particularly with electric vehicles, because the technology has been changing so quickly, they depreciate like nobody's business. So they depreciate a lot quicker than gas engine vehicles, where the change in technology is very incremental, where electric vehicles, the change in technology has been absolutely revolutionary in very short cycles. So that's another factor to consider with electrics. And I want to thank everybody who takes the time every week to post where you feel I didn't get it right. And so for those of you that are new to us here in 26, we do Clark stinks. And we've been doing Clark stink since the 1990s. And we do it because I don't want to have the last word. We're all in this together. We all learn from each other. Knowledge empowers each and every one of us. And so I'm just a guy. And if I get lazy in my habits or lazy in my intellect and I'm missing a bigger picture or I'm just thick in the head and I miss something, it helps me so much to do a better job. So serving you to have Clark stinks and for you to take the time when you feel let down with me, to let me and your fellow listener and viewer know. So thank you. And know that what we're about is empowerment through knowledge so you can save more, spend less, and avoid getting ripped off. We'll be back at your service on Monday.