06.01.26 WARNINGS: AI Privacy Risk & Ponzi Schemes Net Millions

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Clark Howard Podcast

Episode: 06.01.26 — WARNINGS: AI Privacy Risk & Ponzi Schemes Net Millions
Date: June 1, 2026
Host: Clark Howard, with co-host Lane Howard (substituting for Krista)

Overview

Clark Howard focuses this episode on two major themes: the privacy and financial risks of over-sharing with AI chatbots, and recent examples of underreported Ponzi schemes that siphoned hundreds of millions from investors. The episode also features practical Q&A covering everything from investing and savings strategies to credit freezes and financial literacy education, all true to Clark’s mission to empower listeners to save more, spend less, and avoid financial rip-offs.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. AI Chatbots & Privacy Risks

Clark launches the episode with concerns about the widespread adoption of AI chatbots, now used by more than half of Americans (00:56).

• Chatbots feel like trusted friends: They communicate politely and personally, which leads users, especially the lonely and young, to over-share sensitive personal information.
• Risks in sharing medical and financial data:
  • No legal privacy protections (like HIPAA) for chatbots.
  • If companies go bankrupt or are hacked, your detailed info (medical, financial, account statements) could get exposed or sold.
  • “Every time you add your information somewhere else, you magnify the risk that the information will be compromised.” (03:20, Clark)
• Clark’s advice: Use hypothetical or dummy data when querying chatbots for financial help (percentages are OK, real numbers are not); never upload personal account documents.
• Caution with health inquiries: AI might offer falsely authoritative answers; it can be easy to over-trust and misdiagnose yourself.

Notable Quote:

"You don't know till you use them how much it feels like it's a friend you're communicating with...you do suspend that normal protective layer you might have on your personal information." — Clark Howard (05:25)
"If you're kind of lonely or vulnerable in your life right now, you're much more likely to try to connect too much emotionally to one of these. Just remember that it's a computer." — Lane Howard (08:17)

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2. Q&A: Listener Money Situations

Series I Savings Bonds (08:37)

• Q (Karen in Alaska): Is now a good time to buy Series I savings bonds?
• A: Yes—interest is up again, combining a base rate (0.9%) with current inflation rates, making them attractive for today’s environment. They're best held for at least one year (and ideally five) to avoid penalties.
  Notable Quote:

"Now that inflation is above where it was four years ago, there's a great advantage looking at buying Series I savings bonds." — Clark (09:01)

Young Savers Planning for a Home (11:05)

• Q (AJ in Missouri, age 19): With $15k in savings, $5k invested, no debt, and building a 401k, what should I do to set up for a home purchase and long-term security?
• A: Focus on maximizing Roth 401k contributions at work. If your 401k is expensive, consider a Roth IRA. Roth IRAs also offer flexibility for first-time home buying.
  Lane is impressed by AJ’s maturity at 19.
  Notable Quote:

"What I didn't hear from you...my big emphasis would be for you...pile money into [the 401k], especially if there's an employer match." — Lane Howard (12:05)
"[Roth IRAs] give you specific enormous flexibility on...buying that first home." — Lane Howard (13:15)

Spirit Airlines Voucher & Bankruptcy (14:09)

• Q (Tom in Michigan): Can I recover a Spirit Airlines voucher after bankruptcy?
• A: Dispute the original charge with your credit card issuer citing services not rendered; persist through an appeal if necessary.

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3. Under-the-Radar Ponzi Schemes

Segment begins: 21:16
Clark highlights two Georgia-based Ponzi schemes—First Liberty and Drive Planning—that took over half a billion dollars from investors without much mainstream press.

Details:

• Common characteristics:
  • Both promised unusually high, “safe” returns (First Liberty: 8–18%, Drive Planning: even higher).
  • Pitchmen claimed investments were “low risk” (bridge loans/real estate), often through promissory notes.
  • High commissions to unlicensed salespeople.
  • Outlandish spending by ringleaders (boats, jets, jewelry, luxury goods).
  • Early investors’ payouts used as proof to lure others.
• Warning signs:
  • Promises of above-market, no-risk returns.
  • Fuzzy investment products, unregistered securities.
  • Comparison: "When somebody promises you an above market return... and supposedly with no risk, run not to them. Run away." — Clark (27:45)

Clark’s Fundamental Advice:

• Higher returns always come with higher risk; there are no exceptions.
• Real investing involves risk (potential for loss), while saving is about preservation with modest returns.
• Watch for anything pitched as a “risk-free” investment with double-digit returns or heavy commissions.

Notable Quotes:

"So people were told there was no risk...but the money was being used to buy boats, private jets, houses, jewelry..." — Clark (22:26)
"There is no safe thing like that. There is no guaranteed return. Guaranteed by who?" — Clark (27:53)

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4. More Listener Q&A

Teaching Financial Literacy to 8th Graders (29:36)

• Q (Charlie in NY): What should a middle school financial literacy curriculum emphasize?
• A:
  1. Living below your means: Save before you spend—reinforced with "millionaire" picture puzzles.
  2. Fundamentals of investing: Even 8th graders can begin understanding Roth IRAs and stocks.
  3. Understanding credit: Teach what credit is, when to use it, and the dangers of borrowing.
• Clark and Lane warn against the pro-debt attitude perpetuated by the banking industry in youth education.
• Clark lauds New York and other states for mandating financial literacy education.

Notable Quote:

"Most people who end up millionaires live below the radar, live below their means." — Clark (31:09)

Credit Freezes vs. Free Credit Monitoring (35:46)

• Q (Sarah, NC): With credit freezes in place, should I also use company-offered free credit monitoring after a breach?
• A: Free monitoring is an extra layer—doesn't hurt, might help catch breaches with minor credit bureaus not covered by a traditional freeze.

Using HSA Funds to Pay Down Mortgage (37:45)

• Q (John, NY): Should I reimburse myself from my HSA for a 2019 expense and put it toward my low-rate mortgage?
• A: If your HSA is just in a savings account, using it to pay off a 4% mortgage can make sense. If invested, HSA may earn more. Paying off a mortgage this low is only marginally advantageous, so weigh it against other debt and future flexibility.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Chatbots:

  "You don't know till you use them how much it feels like it's a friend... you do suspend that normal protective layer..." – Clark (05:25)

• On Ponzi Schemes:

  “When somebody promises you an above market return...with no risk, run not to them. Run away.” – Clark (27:45)

• On Financial Literacy:

  “Most people who end up millionaires live below the radar, live below their means.” – Clark (31:09)

• On Young Savers:

  “Congratulations on the maturity you’ve shown with what you’ve already saved as a teenager. Incredible.” – Lane (11:55)

• On Credit Freezes for Kids:

  "Doing the credit freeze is the heavy lift...it wouldn't hurt you to do [the free credit monitoring]." — Lane (36:32)

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Useful Timestamps for Key Segments

• AI Chatbot privacy risks: 00:56–08:33
• Series I Savings Bonds Q&A: 08:37–11:05
• Young Saver Home Planning Q&A: 11:05–14:06
• Spirit Airlines & Bankruptcy Refunds Q&A: 14:09–17:28
• Ponzi Schemes—Red Flags & Lessons: 21:16–29:36
• Financial Literacy Curriculum Advice: 29:36–35:46
• Credit Freezes vs. Credit Monitoring: 35:46–37:45
• Using HSA for Mortgage Q&A: 37:45–41:03

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Tone & Style

Clark maintains his signature practical, clear-eyed, and somewhat avuncular tone throughout, with Lane adding warmth and humor in Krista’s absence. Their exchanges include personal anecdotes and light asides, keeping advice relatable and actionable for listeners at any stage of financial literacy.

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Final Thoughts

Episode 06.01.26 of The Clark Howard Podcast provides a sharp warning about the risks of over-sharing with AI and falling for “can’t lose” investment pitches, offers actionable advice for savers young and old, and delivers an insider’s checklist of what to teach the next generation about money. Clark’s message is clear: save more, spend less, and never get ripped off—even by the friendliest chatbot or most persuasive sales pitch.

Transcript

[Clark Howard]

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[Lane Howard]

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[Lane Howard]

June 30th terms at aka mscollegepc. I'm so glad you've taken time out of your day to join us on the Clark Howard Show. Our mission is to serve you with advice and information that empowers you to make better financial decisions in your life. In today's episode, I want to talk to you about creating a personal relationship with your AI chatbot. I mean I saw stats recently what percent of people are using AI chatbots and it's gone from 1 in 10 a year ago to well more than half of people now. Got to know your privacy is partially on the line. And later I want to talk about just two under the radar Ponzi schemes that didn't get a lot of media coverage outside of the financial press that these two little operations stole more than half a billion dollars from consumers, investors, whatever and not that much time. Money that is gone in boats, jewelry, private jet travel, you name it. The con artists ran off with that much money and how easy it was for them to do it. A lesson in there for all of us. So the AI chatbot space is so hot. I was reading in Barron's magazine about this guy who came up with a new chatbot idea, new AI company and it doesn't really even do anything yet and it has a supposed pre market value of you ready a billion dollars. There's so many people who are in this gold rush of dare to be rich putting AI on anything. So the bigs have most the market share Claude, which people in the field believe is the best of the AI tools. And then you've got ChatGPT and Gemini and then there are A bunch of, of second tier and now we're moving to third tier and all that. So these chatbots communicate like a trusted friend. And you feel like they're, they're so polite and they're so like on your team that you really start to let your guard down. And there's certainly an issue with people that are suffering from loneliness or that are younger that they almost start to think of it like as their human friend is just a computer you're talking to. And so one of the things that's happening is people are over sharing with their chatbot. And I'd say there are two areas I want you to think about how you share what you share. One of them I brought up about six months ago just in passing, and that's medical because there is no HIPAA for these chat bots. And remember, there are a lot of them out there that are going to struggle financially, they might go bankrupt, and there's no privacy protections under the law that if a chatbot has all this information about you financially or medically, because financial is the other I'm worried about. And you shared all this stuff, very specific detail, whose hands could that end up in? I mean, I'm not trying to creepy out or freak out. I just want you to think this through. Michelle Singletary, who's a financial writer, syndicated financial writer, was writing about this recently about people that are over sharing very specific financial information from their own lives, about their investments, exactly what their holdings are, where they are, all that uploading account statements. So we got the warrior hackers, the worry of insolvency with any of these, a dishonest player. Every time you add your information somewhere else, you magnify the risk that the information will be compromised. So if you are trying to seek answers, and let's say you're trying to use one of the AI bots to get financial investing advice. Don't use your real numbers. You can even keep the percentages of what you're thinking of doing in different things the same. But don't use your real numbers. Don't load your actual account statements. This is one of those things that if you don't use, if you're in the nearly half of people who don't use these chatbots, you're like, you're telling me somebody just loads it up to these things. You don't know till you use them how much it feels like it's a friend you're communicating with. And so you do suspend that normal protective layer you might have on your personal information. And I want you to remember that as you use ChatGPT or any other to think through, hey, is that really a good idea for me to put that specific detail there? And with medical, you know how there's the old joke that you can find your way to cancer with two clicks on Google? Well, now you've got, with the chat assistance, if you're having a medical issue or problem or you got aches and pains, the way the bots respond is so strong in their wording that they'll. They'll give you very specific medical responses and you think the way it's written and you, you've let your guard down. You trust this thing, oh, I've got blah, blah, blah. And in the doctor, it can help you interpret results you get. But to decide what you've got, that's where you need to be cautious that you don't work yourself into a frenzy worried you've got who knows what because one of these bots said you do. And if you missed our podcast last week, we have a worthy substitute for Krista. Hello today and Wednesday, this is my wife, Lane.

[Clark Howard]

Hello there.

[Lane Howard]

Lane is handling the Krista chores while Krista's on an exciting vacation. Yeah, and we're working.

[Clark Howard]

I hope she's having a great time.

[Lane Howard]

Of course she is.

[Clark Howard]

I have to tell you, I've asked Claude some things recently and it is very polite. It's a little unnerving. I asked it a medical question and it said, oh, I hope you're feeling better or something like that afterwards. And I thought, oh, okay. Thank you.

[Lane Howard]

Especially warning for you. I said it up front. If you are kind of lonely or vulnerable in your life right now, you're much more likely to try to connect too much emotionally to one of these. Just remember that it's a computer.

[Clark Howard]

Okay. I have some questions for you.

[Lane Howard]

Ready?

[Clark Howard]

Karen in Alaska asks. Clark, you haven't talked much about Series Guy saving spons lately. Is now a good time to buy them?

[Lane Howard]

Yeah, they're good again. And thank you, Karen, because I haven't talked about them in the last few years because they weren't a great deal anymore. If I remember right, I'm going by memory, you get a base rate of 0.9% plus the rate of inflation. Now that inflation is above where it was four years ago, there's a great advantage looking at buying Series I savings bonds. And I'll give a quick recap of how they work. I is for inflation, you get the rate of inflation plus the bonus of 0.90. So as you hold them over the years, you get the guarantee essentially that you're getting inflation plus which makes them in a time of high inflation. Well, we're not by historical numbers, 4 point something percent inflation is bad. Ugly but not horrific. Higher inflation than we'd like to have by about double is where we are right now. So this is a window that buying series I savings bonds are good again and you buy them electronically and you can hold them for a minimum of one year or up to 30 years. If you hold them less than five years, you forfeit the last 90 days interest on them. And the time where you would bail on them is if we get back to a very low inflation cycle. Then there may come a time where I would recommend cashing in series I bonds. And Lane and I bought Series I savings bonds for the first time in the 90s, long time ago. And that was when you got a spread of I think inflation plus 3.6% or something. And those are going to mature soon and we're going to have to cash them out. You know, I know people would say and you're going to have to pay all that tax. That's just fine. Because we had to make money to have to pay the tax.

[Clark Howard]

It's true. All right. AJ in Missouri writes Clark. I'm 19 years old with almost 15,000 in high yield savings account.

[Lane Howard]

At 19. Yes.

[Clark Howard]

Listen to this. Along with about 5,000 invested in my brokerage account. I don't have any debt with a full time job and building my 401k but I'm looking to possibly buy a home for myself and soon to be fiance. What are your thoughts?

[Lane Howard]

Congratulations. 19.

[Clark Howard]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Lane Howard]

I was certainly not mature enough at 19 to be talking about a fiance. Wow.

[Clark Howard]

Okay. AJ says, what are your thoughts on what I should be doing to set myself up not only for the home but just for our futures. Thanks and love the show.

[Lane Howard]

Well, congratulations on the maturity you've shown with what you've already saved as a teenager. Incredible. What I didn't hear from you, you are building your 401k. I don't know what you're putting in your 401k where you work at that full time job. That's where my big emphasis would be for you is that you do. You've got this great opportunity to pile money into it, especially if there's an employer match. You want to be in the Roth version of the 401k from your employer, not traditional and just keep popping money into it. The only reason you would want to, you know, I refer to myself as the man from Roth that you'd want to have a Roth IRA. In addition to that 401k would be if the 401k provider your employer uses is charging you high expenses on the account. High expenses would be anything all in of more than half a point in management and administrative Fees on the 401k, you'd be able to open a Roth IRA and look at our roth [e-mail] at a much lower cost than that. Now the other reason though doing a Roth IRA would be advantageous is there's special advantages to you piling money into your own Roth IRA for the purpose of buying that first home. It gives you specific enormous flexibility on that and you'll be able to understand why in our Roth guide. But fantastic for you to already be of the maturity that I'm still shocked at 19 that you're thinking of getting married. I just wasn't as mature as you. And that you're already building, putting the building blocks in place for buying a home, for building long term financial security, which is great.

[Clark Howard]

AJ's got it together.

[Lane Howard]

I hear it.

[Clark Howard]

All right. Tom in Michigan says, hi, Clark, thank you for all of the great information over the years. Just wish I'd listened to you even earlier. My question is about the Spirit Airlines bankruptcy. We had tickets we bought in November for a March trip that we had to cancel due to a family member in the hospital. We were issued a voucher for use on a future flight. Is there any recourse to recover that lost money? Can I dispute the charge on my credit card? Is there a procedure through the bankruptcy process to file a claim? If so, how do we do that? Total voucher was for about $600. We already lost $200 in total just to get the voucher. Thank you for all you do. I never miss an episode from you or Wes.

[Lane Howard]

Well, Tom, thank you very much for that. And you live in Michigan. Spirit was really important in Detroit for holding down airfares. I think they were based in Detroit at one time and that was so much an important part of their operation. Now Delta is dominant in Detroit and that dominance has obviously increased. And fares will go up quite a bit in the Detroit metro area because of the Spirit failure. More impact there than most other cities. Your money, all the stuff about the voucher and all that, leave that out. Just dispute the charge with your credit card company. And all the credit card companies had Spirit, all the banks, the whole processing system had them on special holdback provisions because with Spirit in bankruptcy there was so much worry that they would unfortunately liquidate as they have sadly done so. The banks, the credit card operators were holding back extra money in order to fund refunds to customers with purchases from Spirit for money never flown. So your situation is more complicated. A lot will depend on your credit card issuer if they are customer friendly or not. But you go ahead and dispute and see where this leads. You may get back the entire original purchase amount. You may get back the amount minus the voucher. And there's also the possibility that they turn you down first pass. If you get turned down on a dispute, you always appeal that with a credit card issuer, the first pass. Often credit card issuers will turn you down. And then when you do appeal, which almost nobody does, you have a much greater chance of success. Your dispute is on the basis of failure to deliver service the flight. Let me know how it plays. And coming up ahead, we're going to talk about people out collectively more than half a billion dollars who may only see pennies on the dollar, if anything of their money back because they got

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[Lane Howard]

And in a time that people have seen their lifestyles suffer because of mismanagement by the federal government, inflation Getting out of Control Again after getting out of control earlier this decade, people are looking for a way to make back some of that loss and purchasing power. And you're especially vulnerable to people pitching you an opportunity to make an outsized return on your money. And so Ponzi schemes are something that in times where people feel more insecure, more anxious about their money, we're more likely to be susceptible to pitches. I want to just talk about two of them. Ironically enough, they both originated in the same state in the state of Georgia, although took money from people around the country. One of them was called First Liberty, which I talked about on the podcast and YouTube show, I think first two or three years ago when we were starting to hear from people with problems. And then the other is Dry planning, which we heard from people about around the country. The founders or principals of both have now been convicted or pled guilty in federal court. Unrelated, but the idea of them is something I want you to think clearly about. And by the way, so often when I emphasize this again, because whenever I've talked about Ponzi's, going all the way back to when we provided a lot of coverage here and on radio and TV of the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme that promised Bernie Madoff, if you remember, promised a 10% return on your money without risk. One of the two that the founder has pled guilty with promised returns of 8 to 18%. That's the first liberty. And then we've got the one from Drive Planning that was promising returns even higher than that. So people were told that there was no risk. And the First Liberty situation, people were told their money was being used for low risk bridge loans. In the case of Drive Planning, people were told that they were doing things in real estate, two different real estate funds. And in the case of drive, unlicensed people who were not financial professionals were getting huge commissions to go out and pitch. And then what was the money going to in both of these money was either going back to pay early. People who then would say, hey, you're not going to believe it. I'm getting this great return in this. And word of mouth was in bringing in other people. And then money was being used to buy boats, private jets, houses, jewelry, so many different items that the insiders were using the money supposedly being invested but using it in their own lives. And in these cases, the returns were higher than normal, but they weren't crazy kind of returns being promised. You know, people looking at putting money in CDs or savings accounts would take money out of those because the salespeople in both of these Ponzi's would convince them that this was the similar kind of risk of being in an FDIC insured or NCUA insured savings account or cd. But you're going to get a much higher return. And this is a can't lose kind of opportunity. Okay, so I want you to think about this. All right? So if dry Planning is paying 4% commission, then on top of it is promising people double digit earnings on their money. How are you going to generate that kind of money? You're not, it's not possible. Somebody who says they have a low risk kind of way for you to save your money or invest your money, but they have, they have the resources to have commission salespeople pitching it to you. Ain't no way anytime somebody promises you a safe path for you to save or, or invest in their notes, promissory notes, whatever they call them, the unregistered securities, which is really what they are, they're pitching. And I could have used any of a number of examples. It's just both of these Ponzi's have kind of come to a head at the same time. And I waited to really talk about till both of them. The, the principals have now ended up either pleading guilty or convicted that when somebody promises you an above market return higher than what you can earn in savings or CDs or as we talked about series I savings bonds or whatever, when they're promising you numbers meaningfully higher than that, particularly when they hit the upper single digit or double digit, you got to know there is no safe thing like that. There is no guaranteed return. Guaranteed by who? A bunch of documents. They give you promises made to you. So a promissory note is, hey, how about you give me $5,000 and I promise to pay you back 15% on it. That's what a promissory note is. There is no fdic. There is no, when you buy a US treasury, there is no US government that is issuing them. Please remember this because Ponzi schemes go back, gosh, a hundred and something years in the modern financial era forward and they happen again and again and again and again. And you know what I hear so often from people who get taken in these? I thought I was doing something good and safe with my money. Because we want to believe, we want to believe that somebody has come up with a way for us to make our money grow beyond normal without risk. You do the stuff I talk about Investing in your 401k or a Roth IRA or a regular investment account. Invest. The word invest comes with it. Embedded risk that you could get back less later than what you started with. If the company you bought stock in or the fund you bought or whatever performs poorly over time, you can lose money. But you're taking that risk of losing because over time you believe that the company you bought stock in or the funds you bought, that the holdings in them will grow, profits, grow sales, and will generate a nice return for you. You are an investor taking risk when you are a saver. The whole idea is to preserve the money you put in and in return for that being able to preserve it, you're accepting a lower interest rate or return on your money. When somebody promises you this fuzzy thing in between where you're going to get these high single digit or in the double digit returns on your money, but supposedly with no risk, run not to them. Run away, Lane.

[Clark Howard]

Yeah, too good to be true, huh? Okay, I've got Charlie in New York who says I'm a middle school math teacher who's an avid listener to the podcast. A new state requirement is that all students must be taught financial literacy as a class or a part of a class in each level of education, meaning elementary, middle and high school. I will be teaching financial literacy and writing the curriculum for the class in my school. I wanted to ask you what are the most important topics you think I should focus on for an 8th grader age student in a diverse population school?

[Lane Howard]

Okay. Wow. That's an assignment. Good luck.

[Clark Howard]

Good luck.

[Lane Howard]

Okay, New York. Charlie gave you this mandate in the schools, but didn't normally they design a curriculum that they recommend or that they produce for different mandatory courses of study? All right, so if I were designing this, I would start with a puzzle for eighth graders. And I'll tell you what I've done before when I've spoken to both elementary schools and middle schools. Different for high schools. You said this was middle. If you've heard me say this before, I think this is the start of a curriculum. You put up two pictures on the wall with whatever digital system you have where you can put up pictures. And one. And this is what I've done many times in the past and they always get it wrong. One of them shows a very basic residence, older car, just a very simple kind of life. And the other shows a, a big house and a boat and a luxury car and big screen TV and all kinds of consumer items. And the question I ask both elementary and middle, and doesn't matter if they're from third grade to eighth grade, they all get it wrong. Which family, which picture are the millionaires just to get their attention. And the kids will all say the, the big house, the big, you know, fancy car, the boat, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. The picture of wealth is, what's that old thing? Potemkin Village. It's not the real Most people who end up millionaires live below the radar, live below their means. And I would kick off a middle school curriculum with that concept. And then from that you build knowledge. And for me it's all about creating the saving spirit. Because by eighth grade, most of your students, I would bet, have plastic in their, in their hands or with tap to pay on their iPhone or Android. And they think that money just magically grows electronically. So the core concept that comes out of those pictures and as part of a curriculum is the idea of saving before you spend. Living on less than what you make is the core principle that I think you can age appropriately, do it at any age, from elementary all the way through high school. The way you would then teach those components would be different at different ages. But living on less than what you make is the most important concept because kids are wired today since they're not dealing with cash, to have this idea that, oh, I need money, I just tap. Isn't that amazing? I just tap. And then at some point declined. What happened? So spending less than what you make, first core principle, second, I think totally appropriate with eighth graders. Think about Fidelity Investments allows kids of the age of 8th graders to have a semi independent investing account. You can teach the fundamentals of investing at that age. And then if I thought of a third component that might be enough to cover, I don't know, this is like a six week course or whatever it is, but whatever it turns out to be, I'd say the third element would be the role of credit. Everything the banks do in their supposed education for adolescence is all about spend, spend, spend, spend, spend. And this is how you borrow, spend, borrow, spend, borrow, spend, borrow. You have to swim against the tide, against the current of what the banking industry's agenda is, is to turn this generation of kids into indebted individuals. And so that to me is where the curriculum goes is spending less than what you make and knowing how basic investing works, Roth, ira. And then the role of credit in your life, when credit's appropriate, when it's not. I am so anti bank. It's just, it's uncool.

[Clark Howard]

Is that uncool?

[Lane Howard]

I think it's uncool. How. I mean, banks aren't by their very nature automatically bad, they're not automatically good. They do a lot of. There are a lot of things that the banking industry does that are important for society to function. It's just the modern banking industry is so tilted against people's best self interests.

[Clark Howard]

Well, it's great that New York is doing this it's really great.

[Lane Howard]

States all over the country are either designing or requiring these curricula. Curricula. Curriculum.

[Clark Howard]

Yeah. Maybe you should design it. Really get in the weeds of it.

[Lane Howard]

Maybe.

[Clark Howard]

All right. But in the meantime.

[Lane Howard]

Yes.

[Clark Howard]

We have Sarah from North Carolina. She says, hi, Clark. I did a credit freeze for everyone in the family, including my kids. She said what a pain it was to do for the kids since it feels like companies are being hacked. That that's now the norm when you receive a notification and they offer free credit monitoring and fraud assistance. Is it worth doing that even if you have credit freezes in place? I've listened to your show for years and say the phrase. Well, Clark says regularly. Recently I was driving and listening to the podcast with my nine year old daughter. She said, Clark Howard. I thought it was Clark Coward. So they said they had a really good laugh over that.

[Lane Howard]

You should find. See if you can find online. There was a spoof song about me where they called me the Clark Coward Show. And you could play that. If you can find it. You could play that for your nine year old. Anyway, doing the credit freeze is the heavy lift. I do have a credit karma account that you can only set up when your account's temporarily thawed, when you're applying for credit or whatever, when you'll do it for your kids. Because it's hard to temporarily thaw a kid's credit file. But they give those kind of alerts if there's any funny stuff going on. You could, if you're getting one of those legal notices that every company uses where they give you the two years of free credit monitoring, it wouldn't hurt you to do that. I've not bothered with them, but you could. And that way if somebody had gotten around any of the credit freezes or they applied for something that the monitoring was, but the company was using one of those minor credit bureaus, you'd get alerted that way. And so, yeah, I mean, it's free. Wouldn't hurt you to do it. Might help.

[Clark Howard]

All right, we have John in New York and John says I have. I'm going to just round these numbers a little. I have a 17,000 left on a home loan that has an interest rate of 4%. My HSA account has about 10,500. I had a medical expense in 2019. The HSA account was already established. This medical expense was about $4,600 that I paid myself. I wanted to reimburse myself that $4,600 and push it towards the home loan. Is that a Good idea.

[Lane Howard]

So you do that money from the hsa. Hopefully the HSA money has been growing over these last seven years since you incurred those medical bills and you could let that HSA continue to grow to deal with medical expenses in the future. It would depend on the return you're getting on your hsa. If it's just in a HSA kind of savings account, you're falling behind the 4% interest rate on your mortgage. 4% on mortgage is a really low rate. HSA that's invested instead of saved would have performed well beyond 4% over the last seven years. Who knows what it'll do in the future. But if you just are using a simple HSA savings account and you're not worried about needing that 4,600 for a future medical expense, then yeah. If your goal is to get as close as you can to being mortgage debt free, there's not a big return on doing this. But you could take that money, put it towards your mortgage and be done with your mortgage even sooner. And I'm guessing, just guessing here, John, that this is the only debt you have in your life. If you had credit card debts or anything like that, they would be a higher priority than your mortgage because they'd be carrying a much, much higher interest rate. If you have a car loan, it would likely carry a rate higher than this mortgage. That would be a higher priority. If you're looking to get your reimbursement for the HSA money and put it somewhere. Extinguishing debt is normally a great idea. It's only a marginally good idea with a mortgage rate as low as you've got. And how about that? You're this close to owning your home free and clear. It's a shocking stat to people who are having to pay a mortgage every month that today roughly a third of people own their homes free and clear. No mortgage. It's a great club to be a member of. But again, if you are sitting there with a rate even lower than John, let's say you got a loan that you got when interest rates were being artificially suppressed and you've got a mortgage rate to 3%, it's a hard argument to make to do any prepayment on a loan that low when even a simple savings account will out earn that. And thank you so much for joining us on our first show of June. June is my favorite month of the year.

[Clark Howard]

Yeah, it's, it's his birthday month.

[Lane Howard]

But that's not why, right, honey? That's not why. Are you sure it's because of the endless daylight.

[Clark Howard]

That is great.

[Lane Howard]

I love daylight. I mean, I really am somebody who should live, you know, part of the year in the southern hemisphere, the winter in the northern hemisphere and just have that daylight all the time. I just love it in reverse when we get to the shortest days of the year in December.

[Clark Howard]

Oh, it's horrible. That's when my birthday is. He likes to remind me that.

[Lane Howard]

That's why once we celebrated with a party on your half birthday.

[Clark Howard]

We did.

[Lane Howard]

I enjoyed that on June 9th. Yes. That was great. And so then we had both of our birthday celebrations basically in the same month.

[Clark Howard]

That was a good year.

[Lane Howard]

Doing a 0.5 for you. You want us to do that again?

[Clark Howard]

Yes, please.

[Lane Howard]

Well, that's next week.

[Clark Howard]

All right, let's do it.

[Lane Howard]

Half birthday for Lane next week and Lane will be with us. One more episode and then Krista's back from her vacation. And so thank you so much for joining us on this Monday, the first day of June. The only bad part is there's no football right now.

[Clark Howard]

Sorry, can't have everything.

[Lane Howard]

I know. Worth it to have the long days, the warm days. But have a great rest of your day today. Know that we're here to serve you all week [e-mail] clarkdeals.com with free one on one advice available to you. Our posts on social media, our posts on YouTube, every which way are newsletters. And if you live in a market where you see me on the news in your local market or hear me on radio in your local market, thank you for joining us that way as well. And Wednesday we'll be serving you again and can't wait to hear what you bring my way with questions on Wednesday night. Every everything we do is about your empowerment with knowledge so you can save more, spend less and never, never, not ever get ripped off.