← The Clark Howard Podcast
The Clark Howard Podcast
07.06.26 Shining A UV Light On Sunscreens / Side Hustle Savvy
00:30:58
The $8 Sunscreen That Beats Everyone Else & Surprising Truth About Side Hustles
Loading summary
Transcript60 lines
- [00:01]
Krista
When you need to build up your team to handle the growing chaos at work, use Indeed Sponsored Jobs. It gives your job post the boost it needs to be seen and helps reach people with the right skills, certifications and more. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit@ Indeed.com podcast. That's Indeed.com podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need a hiring hero? This is a job for Indeed Sponsored
- [00:29]
Clark Howard
Jobs get business done with the new American Express Graphite Business Cash Unlimited card with unlimited 2% cash back on all eligible purchases, unlimited 5% cash back on flights and prepaid hotels booked through American Express Travel Online and a flexible spending capacity that can grow with your business. You'll have the confidence to keep building. Apply today and earn a welcome offer of $1,500 cash back after you spend $50,000 in qualifying purchases on your new card within the first six months of card membership terms. Learn more at GOMX Graphite. I'm so glad you're here for 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. And I hope you had a great Fourth of July holiday weekend. I always do. And something you may have used this weekend is in the news. Sunscreen. I'm going to begin today's podcast by talking about it and then later, who wouldn't want to make an extra hundred bucks, 200 bucks, something like that, to help you overcome inflation? Well, I recently saw an article about side hustles that points out that most of the time they're not going to get it done. What you should be looking for when you're doing a side hustle. And recently you, Krista, figured out a way to make some money, put some back in your pocket.
- [02:03]
Krista
I did.
- [02:04]
Clark Howard
So we're going to talk about that right now. I want to talk sunscreens because it's so weird. I was in overpriced chain drugstore the other day my wife sent me to buy something and I broke out in hives being in a chain drugstore because they're so expensive. Anyway, I go in there and they had a big course this time of year, sunscreen display. And there's this thing that economists talk about, the paradox of choice. And you look at it, my goodness, how in the world do you figure out what you're going to buy with all the zillion different varieties? I want to tell you my belief for years and Years and years has been the labs at Consumer Reports are really so good at figuring out which sunscreens are worth it, which are not. And again this year, there was a sunscreen that got a Perfect score. Perfect 100, which is almost impossible to do. It's one that's going to be overlooked. Why? Because it's not expensive and it's a lotion, not a spray. I mean, a lot of people just don't have any desire to put on a lotion, but historically, the highest rated ones are lotions. I want to tell you what it is, because it's not only recommended, but it's also what's known as a smart buy from Consumer Reports, meaning that the price is great and the quality is great. And it's Coppertone Water Babies Lotion. That's right. I don't care what age you are, this is one you should consider applying to your skin because it's relatively cheap. $8 more or less, depending on find it on sale. And it works. I mean, can you beat that? Because otherwise, a lot of sunscreens, you're just basically playing games with yourself because you think you're protecting yourself, but you're not. So that was number one. Now, here's one I have never been able to pronounce right. Three times the cost. Now, the Coppertone gets 100 against Coppertone Water Babies Lotion, but it's La Roche Posay.
- [04:23]
Krista
That sounds right to me.
- [04:24]
Clark Howard
And Thaliose Kids, however you say that. But it's 25 bucks. And the copper tones eight and it gets a 90. And the copper tone gets in 100. So those are the two big winners and lotions in sprays. We've got one that comes in fourth, but is a Consumer Reports Best Buy Smart Buy at nine bucks. And it's from Neutrogena. It's Neutrogena Beach Defense Water. And that spray is rated 71. So think about the copper tones 100. And that one I couldn't pronounce at all. The La Roche whatever gets a 90. The Neutrogena gets a 71, but still makes the cut in nine bucks. The top one in that category gets an 88, but a 16 bucks. It's. I won't pronounce this one right either.
- [05:22]
Krista
Usurin.
- [05:23]
Clark Howard
Usurin Advanced Hydration SPF. Sixteen bucks gets an 88. Those are the best. But the big news in sunscreen for scientists is that there's a sunscreen that is sold around the world with a chemical in it that was never allowed in the US but is considered to be the most effective sunscreen chemical that is now going to be allowed to be sold in the US and you're going to see it a lot next summer. And we'll talk about it next summer. Because it's far more effective.
- [05:58]
Krista
Well, it's also less likely to cause health problems.
- [06:01]
Clark Howard
Well, because it protects you from us, a uva.
- [06:07]
Krista
Sure. UVA rays. I know.
- [06:08]
Clark Howard
Yeah. So that will be a topic for next year when we talk about sunscreen. But when you're out all day and you get in the water, when you come back out, you got to reapply. And a lot of people apply once, and that's it. So is that enough about sunscreen for this year?
- [06:27]
Krista
I don't know. I feel like it's an important topic, you know? You know, you have. You have skin cancer in your family. I do, too. It's.
- [06:35]
Clark Howard
Yeah. One of my brothers has had melanoma.
- [06:37]
Krista
Yeah, my mom has melanoma. She has a current thing we have to get surgery on. On top of her head, so.
- [06:42]
Clark Howard
Ooh.
- [06:43]
Krista
Yeah. Yeah. Definitely important to use that when you're having fun in the sun, which is the most important part. Right. Okay. Well, we'll go to some questions that came in for you, Clark. First, Robert in Alabama sent this one in. I'm looking for advice on a homeowner's policy that has a wind and storm clause. I live in Gulf shores, Alabama, about 10 miles north of the beach. My home is paid for. It's worth $425,000. And my homeowner's policy for a wind or hurricane has options for deductibles. 1% costs 5,300, which would be a $5,300 deductible before insurance kicks in. 5,100 covers 10,265% costs 4,300 with a $26,000 deductible, and 10% costs $3,500 with a $53,000 deductible. Before insurance kicks in, what should I do? Or should I self insure?
- [07:42]
Clark Howard
So, Robert, that's quite an extreme to say, should I take a higher deductible or should I self insure? So what I recommend is that you go with a higher deductible for name storm for wind and storm, because it makes you less likely to be canceled by your insurer. If you look at the straight dollars and cents, you can calculate the risk level you're taking on versus the historical pattern of how often hurricanes have brought great destruction to the Gulf coast of Alabama. And if it's very infrequent, then that would mean you take the higher deductible, but you have to be able to afford it. If you're considering going all the way to an extreme as far as self insuring completely, then I would say go with the 10% deductible that you would face. It's going to lower your premium, 1800 bucks a year, and it will likely pay off for you. But it does mean if a storm comes in, you have to be willing to stomach basically 50 grand out of pocket. If that's not a realistic thing for you, then you take on the lower deductible. But I really prefer for people who are in coastal communities to signal to the insurance company that you're likely not to be a claimant. And going with the higher deductible is a great way to signal that it's
- [09:17]
Krista
happening to a lot of people right now.
- [09:19]
Clark Howard
Yeah, and. And I've 10 miles north of the beach. Yeah, yeah. But I mean, think about. There was a tropical storm recently that brought a lot of damage way inland, hundreds of miles from the coast. And it wasn't even a hurricane. It was a tropical storm.
- [09:37]
Krista
All right, we're going to go to Jake in Ohio's question. Jake says, I've considered using Monarch Money to track my credit card spending categories. Dining, groceries, travel, et cetera. Currently I track these manually each month as part of our financial review, so the automation is appealing. However, when linking accounts through Plaid, the service Monarch uses to connect financial institutions, I noticed a disclosure indicating the bank account information associated with my Capital One card included, including account and routing numbers, may be shared with Monarch. That gave me pause. Do you consider Plaid and budgeting services like Monarch to be safe from a cybersecurity and privacy standpoint? My original plan was to link only credit card accounts for spending analysis and avoid connecting my bank and investment accounts altogether. Love the show. Long live King Clark.
- [10:26]
Clark Howard
Whoa. Maybe the clown pretzel.
- [10:31]
Krista
No.
- [10:31]
Clark Howard
Okay, so thank you for that. So Monarch is something we have looked at and reviewed@clark.com it is legit, you pay for it, but it is a good budgeting tool. We have a variety of reviews there. You can see, depending on what style you like, which one will work best for you. Now using Platt, the idea of this is that budgeting tools are much more effective when the data is done automatically instead of you manually having to enter data. And anytime you link things in databases, you create some level of risk from a hack. The architecture that Plaid uses is supposed to be A safer platform. And if it's going to prove to be that over time, I can't say. But if the information you're linking is credit card data, remember you have maximum exposure of $50 when there's fraud involving a credit card. So if there is a hack, your information gets out there, criminals use it to charge. There's hassle factor involved, but your money is not at risk under federal law. So I think the value of the budgeting tools are worth the risk of breach or an encroachment on information.
- [11:58]
Krista
David in Nevada says Clark, thanks to your advice, I have opened checking and savings accounts with my local credit union.
- [12:04]
Clark Howard
Yay.
- [12:06]
Krista
I'm closing my big mega monster bank accounts.
- [12:09]
Clark Howard
Giant Monster Mega Bank.
- [12:12]
Krista
I have a couple of credit cards with the Monster bank that have approximately $20,000 total in available credit, which I've slowly paid off and have zero balances. I'd like to open credit cards with my credit union, but I'd like to know if I'll be able to close the big bank credit cards, apply for new cards and not have a negative impact on my credit. I have an 815 credit score and I'd like to keep it that way.
- [12:36]
Clark Howard
Okay, so unless the giant Monster megabank credit cards have an annual fee, you don't even think about closing them. You keep them open even if you're not using them. The credit history will stay there and you'll be able to leave that credit open even if you fail to use the cards regularly for a period of time before the giant Monster megabank says, hey, wait a minute, this person's gone inactive when it close their account or cut their limits. If you use them occasionally through the course of a year, then you will reduce the risk they're going to do either of those things. But keeping the available credit, again if the cards have no annual fee is good for that credit score. The added credit you would get from the credit union actually gives you the ability to slightly boost your score. And I say only slightly because you're already at 815, so your credit is golden. So you're in great shape. You would potentially harm your credit score if you were to close those giant monster mega bank accounts because you'd be eliminating that available credit. But good job going to the credit union, by the way. It's not at all unusual that people continue to have credit cards with the giant monster megas. I mean, you think about Chase and Citi alone have monstrous levels of market share in the credit card business. And the big problems that people so often have at the giant monster megas are when things go wrong with their checking account. Having that kind of stuff with a credit union and then adding to what you get from a credit union is great, especially including auto loans and mortgages tend to be significantly better from credit unions than they are from banks. So there's a lot of advantages to you doing these things with a credit union instead of a bank. But you don't want to hurt yourself when you're helping yourself by closing those existing lines of credit. Coming up ahead, a lot of people hurting financially because of the cycle of inflation we're in now and there's just not enough money for the month. And so people are looking everywhere for side hustles and I want to talk about that for a second straight ahead. Well, it'll be more than a second straight ahead.
- [15:09]
Krista
This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Listening to this podcast instead of doomscrolling Smart move. Another smart move getting help from one of State Farm's 19,000 local agents when you choose to bundle home and auto bundling. Just another way to save with the personal price plan. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts, and savings and eligibility vary by state. At Ollie, we've got wellness down to a science. From PMS to pregnancy to menopause, our women's wellness line offers science backed support for every stage. No judgment, no shame, none of the stigma. Just supplements designed to meet you wherever you're at. Olli. Choose science over shame. Find support at a retailer near you or on ollie.com that's o l l y.com tomorrow morning is knocking. Stock your fridge now. How about a creamy mocha Frappuccino drink? Or a sweet vanilla smooth caramel maybe? Or white chocolate mocha? Whichever you choose, delicious coffee awaits. Find Starbucks Frappuccino drinks wherever you buy your groceries.
- [16:18]
Clark Howard
Do you hear that? Sounds like breakfast is ready because Quaker's coming in hot with Morning Nutri. 100% whole grain oats and a good source of fiber to fuel the rhythm of your morning and kickstart your day. And that sounds absolutely delicious. Fuel to start whatever's next. Quaker, official sponsor of FIFA World Cup 26I. Oh, let's go. Trading at Schwab is now powered by Ameritrade, giving you even more specialized support than ever before. Like access to the trade desk. Our team of passionate traders ready to tackle anything from the most complex trading questions to a simple strategy.
- [17:00]
Krista
Gut check.
- [17:01]
Clark Howard
Need assistance?
- [17:02]
Krista
No problem.
- [17:03]
Clark Howard
Get 24. 7 professional answers and live help and access support by phone, email and in platform chat. That's how Schwab is here for you to help you trade brilliantly. Learn more@schwab.com trading There's a TikTok influencer that recently got a lot of coverage because she tried various side hustles for a hundred days. And it's really interesting watching what she had to say about how much of what was available as simple side hustles you could pick up were basically a waste of her time. And when she talks about all the side hustles she tried over 100 days, she found three that maybe they'd be okay. 3. This is important because when you pick up side work, if it's really easy for you to pick it up, then it means that there's no what's known as effective barriers to entry. Pretty much anybody can say, yeah, I think I want to do this. And so there's really no culling of the herd. So whoever is the organizer behind the side hustle, whoever owns it that they're pitching to you to do it, well, they don't have to pay very much because it's so easy for anybody to do it. And so where do people make money? When people do things on the side, if they're going to make any meaningful amount of money, it has to be standing out in some way that you have a skill or experience, history, doing education, training that makes it possible for you to do something in your spare time using skills that not everybody's going to have training, not everybody's going to have an insta kind of thing that you can start doing is not going to make you a lot of money. And there are things you can do as a way you pick up one time cash. Krista, you did that recently by shopping your own closet.
- [19:21]
Krista
So I did. So I have two kind of ideas for people all related to this. So Poshmark is a site where people sell used clothing. And I was gonna sell my clothes, but I've gone to do it before and I just never get around to it and just don't know how to take, you know, just the photos, the who thing. So I was doing a donations bag and I was like, these things are actually really good. And so I found out they have a program where you can. They'll send you a big bag, you fill it up with clothes, they come and pick it up. They have like an Uber, pick it up and bring it to someone who is affiliated with them that sells the clothing they take 50%. So I know I'm gonna get some, you know, some Christmas.
- [20:02]
Clark Howard
You're getting half of half.
- [20:03]
Krista
You get half. And it's not half of half. Like, Poshmark doesn't take half. It's the. But the reseller person does. But this woman who has her small business, she got half of what I got. $120. So she made 120. She has mannequins. She does a great job marketing this stuff. She did a fantastic job. And so she's doing this all the time with lots of people's closets and making money.
- [20:27]
Clark Howard
See, I love this because it's not really about the money you picked up. It's about how she has figured out a way to use her skills to build a business on the backs of Poshmark and you being the supplier, providing the inventory.
- [20:48]
Krista
But I would never have done it. And so for me, it was found money and she's got a great little business going.
- [20:54]
Clark Howard
I think that's such a perfect example. And you know what was funny about what you said? How did the clothes get to her?
- [21:01]
Krista
Uber.
- [21:02]
Clark Howard
Uber. Uber picked up the clothes. So Uber and Lyft are one of the most common side hustles that people have. There are people who do it full time too. But I have noticed I ride in an Uber Lyft about twice a month and I'm hearing more and more griping from the drivers. I think part of it is from the run up in gasoline prices this year that squeeze the profits they're making from it, but that there's too many drivers. They say it's funny because as a passenger, sometimes it feels like there's not enough as you're waiting. But that's the hard part, is this person took an existing idea that anybody can sell their clothes on Poshmark. One of my daughters buys from Poshmark.
- [21:55]
Krista
I buy stuff from them too.
- [21:56]
Clark Howard
Yeah. And she created her own business out of it. Where is that creative idea that you can create even if you're riding on the backs of somebody else's business? But you were seizing an opportunity because what you said, Krista, is so right, you would have never done it. And so here's somebody who says, hey, I'm a full service bureau for somebody who would like to make some money from their clothes but isn't going to do it.
- [22:24]
Krista
Yeah. Find a problem that you need to solve. And she solved the problem of lazy people like me who aren't going to get around to it.
- [22:32]
Clark Howard
But these side hustles that are like Oh, I can do this. And then you start doing it. And anybody can say, without even thinking about it, do that. There's no real revenue from it. That's the thing. You've got to go a step beyond and figure out how you're serving a need in the marketplace or using your skills in a way that you never thought about being lucrative as a side gig.
- [23:01]
Krista
I love it. Okay, we're gonna go to some questions now. Dwight in Florida says, we own a villa in a 55 plus HOA community in Florida. We, my wife and I would like to know if it would increase the value of the villa if we remove the lanai that's in very poor, basically unusable condition to add a Florida room, air conditioned and heated with regular windows, et cetera, in its place. The HoA does not govern the lanai. We would attempt to get at least three quotes to compare. We're weighing whether it's worth the expense to do this or not.
- [23:34]
Clark Howard
Okay, so, Dwight, what an interesting question. Because the reason you do this is not to increase the value of your home, your villa. You do it to improve the quality of your life. If it's something that would bring you and your wife great joy, know that almost no home improvement, I mean, it's the greatest exception to the rule that a home improvement makes back the money it costs to do it. You are adding something on that improves the. Adds to the square footage of the house, essentially having a conditioned space that you're adding on. But don't do it because you think you're going to get a return on it in money. You might get a little more money for your villa because it's there and it stands out from other properties. But getting back what it's going to cost you to do it, no, that would be not unheard of, but extremely unlikely. So this is an investment in your enjoyment, not an investment to get a return on the dollars you spend doing it.
- [24:47]
Krista
AJ In Wisconsin says my high school daughter will be traveling to Europe for spring break of 2027 with her French class. What would be the best way for her to handle her spending money?
- [24:58]
Clark Howard
AJ the best way, not just for a high schooler, but now for a lot of travelers, is a Revolut card. You say, what's a Revolut card? Revolut is. Is they're now a bank.
- [25:15]
Krista
It's R E V O L U T. Thank you.
- [25:19]
Clark Howard
No E on that because my addiction's so poor.
- [25:21]
Krista
Well, it's spelled funny.
- [25:22]
Clark Howard
Yeah. So Revolut is a European financial House now a bank that issues a traveler's card at no fee that gets you preferred exchange rates around the world. So you'll be able to send your daughter to Europe with a revolut card. And it works kind of like a stored value card, which means if she loses the card, the money's lost too. She has to treat it like cash. But it's the most efficient way for travelers in the US to be able to have the equivalent of instant foreign exchange wherever you are at a preferred rate. And so you use it just like you'd use a credit card overseas. But it's dynamic converting it into local currency.
- [26:18]
Krista
And Amy in Oregon says, I'm booking travel to the east coast and was wondering if hotel slash and auto slash
- [26:25]
Clark Howard
are legitimate, completely legit. The business idea behind both is absolutely brilliant where they dynamically continue to reshop travel for you. And both they started with just car rentals, added hotels later on. The biggest problem with the Mamie is it's not full waterfront. It does automate the rebooking process and looking for lower rates. But so many suppliers don't want to cooperate that it is an effective tool. But it'd be much more effective not hotel slash or auto slash's fault, but if people in the travel industry, hotels and car rental companies in far larger numbers cooperated with what they do. So I like it a lot. It's especially great to if you want to set and forget and let it do the hunting for you within the boundaries of what hotel slash and auto slash can do. I think it's fine. I manually is you may have heard in the past reshop my hotels and cars as I get close to travel. And I will tell you that for hotels and cars when I reshop close to travel it's north of 90% of the time I will find a lower price close into travel. And so if you can treat that as something you you can use both of them. But if you also will check on your own for hotels less than three weeks out for car rentals, about a week out most of the time you're going to find okay, I can rebook at a lower price. And I want to thank you so much for joining us today as we are now in the heart of summer, my favorite time of year. It was funny I took the dogs out for their last outdoor visit of the evening the other day. It was funny that it was still light out right about 9 o' clock at night and do I love that. And then I completely got the stink eye from my wife And I said, think about it, honey. On your birthday. It's already been dark four hours by now. That won me no friends at all. But I want to share with you today something that happened when my son and I were out on a walk in a park recently. And I want to share it because it's such the kind of thing that goes on every day in America that doesn't get talked about. And it's when people help each other just randomly. My son and I were right by a walking path, and we were sitting on park benches just talking about stuff, and all of a sudden, bam. Woman lost her footing walking her dog and landed face first on the pavement and was. I think she had a concussion, was bleeding profusely. We, of course, jumped up and went over to her. But what was so heartwarming was people stopped one after another after another to do whatever they could to help until help came. And it was right next to a road, and cars kept stopping, and the drivers said, anything we can do? And somebody gave me a towel. Somebody else gave us antiseptic wipes. And it was just so great to see because we, as Americans, I talked about it recently, so many of us are kind of down on the feel of the country and. And where we are right now. But every day, people do things for each other without even thinking about it. And I want you to remember that when you feel bad about your fellow human. I believe that most people, not just here in America, but around the world, that most people at base, at heart, are good people. And we saw it right there as people came together as community to help out. Don't know how well she came out of this, but I really felt a renewed sense in faith and humanity at that moment. And it was like a special gift for me right around the Fourth of July. So have an absolutely great know. What we're about here is your empowerment with knowledge so you can save more, spend less, and avoid getting ripped off. And we'll be at your service coming up on Wednesday. Stitch fix. Stop shopping. Get styled. Not today, sweatpants. Somebody's wearing jeans that fit.
- [31:43]
Krista
Wow. No photos, please.
- [31:46]
Clark Howard
I'm just a regular dad who happens to have a stylist. I really look my best when someone else makes the decisions. Hey, we can all see you two way mirrors. Just share your size, style, and budget, and your stylist sends personalized looks right to your door. Stitch fix. Get started today@stitchfix.com. i want to hug you. I'm going to hug you. I'm coming in for a hug. Your team just added its 67th AI tool and also your 67th security blind spot. The good news? The Vanta Agent works like a GRC engineer in the background, finding every app your team uses, scoring the risk and drafting fixes for you. Vanta is the platform used by over 16,000 fast moving companies like Ramp, Cursor and Harvey who are shaping the future with AI and staying ahead of AI risk. Get started@vanta.com.