Unknown Listener (7:01)

I don't think any of us should do that alone.

Krista (7:02)

That is not something you would want me to ever involved in. Sometime soon I got to talk about my latest project of trying to build something in six easy steps.

Unknown Listener (7:16)

Oh wow.

Krista (7:16)

Yeah. Oh man.

Unknown Listener (7:18)

Are you ready for questions? Dan from Florida wrote this one. So Dan, Dan in Florida says you've said that auto insurance companies initially offer only about 70% of the value for a car that is totaled. Similar to your suggestion about once a year to video record your house contents for insurance reasons in case something happens. Do you think it would be a good idea to take pictures of your car once a year and maybe go to CarMax and get an offer from them to buy your car once a year? That way you would have a recent offer from an independent entity for your car as of a particular date and mileage to use as evidence that the insurance offer is too low. We would have to understand that the CarMax offer would not be the replacement value so that the insurance company should offer some percentage above that.

Krista (8:01)

Okay, so Dan, I love the way you're thinking trying to document the reality is we on average only end up in a fender bender like once every 10 years. So I wouldn't spend your time doing this preventatively once a year, but coming up with a third party value on your vehicle. Let's take an example. So. So you're in an accident, you think the insurer is going to rip you off at that point. So right then and there you can go on CarMax and Carvana and for almost all vehicles they'll give you an instant offer. You'll have what you're looking for without having to worry about what if I have an accident next month? When you have the accident, go ahead and do it just so that you'll have that market value. And obviously you're not going to be selling your car there, but you're going to be able because it's been in the wreck, but you'll be able to have A value that you can print out or you can have in, you know, you can have the email and you can provide that to the insurer as evidence that they are lowballing you on the value of your vehicle.

Unknown Listener (9:20)

Susan in Connecticut says, my husband and I are traveling to Italy this September to attend a wedding at a castle in the Tuscan countryside.

Krista (9:27)

I feel so bad.

Unknown Listener (9:28)

I know, poor us. We will be spending three nights in Florence as part of our trip and I was planning to book an apartment through vrbo, but I'm concerned with the possibility of a last minute cancellation due to the new laws and restrictions being enacted on short term rentals. I always follow your guidelines when booking, looking for a well established rental with lots of pictures and reviews, but am I safer to book a hotel at this time?

Krista (9:51)

So, yeah, what we're talking about, you know, there's all these demonstrations and there's a backlash with new local regulations and laws on people renting properties, particularly in the most over touristed areas. Lawrence is obviously one of those. And so my bias has historically been against Airbnb and VRBO because of problems that have been so much harder to resolve outside the United States, particularly than when a rental is in the US but in this case in Florence, in Venice, in Rome, in Barcelona, in Paris. I would be careful renting from Airbnb and VRBO because of this wave of backlash that made between when you book a place and when you're going to stay there, suddenly you can't stay in that place. And you, historically in Europe have done exactly the opposite of me. You have stayed.

Unknown Listener (10:58)

I have no. I don't know that I would today with what's going on for sure.

Krista (11:03)

The good news is that Paris, Florence, Rome, not as much Barcelona, have a very, very large number of small hotels. And they kind of, in my mind, take the place somewhat of a VRBO or Airbnb.

Unknown Listener (11:26)

Samuel in New Hampshire says, I have a job as a summer custodian at an elementary school. I plan on splitting the money I earn in half. One half is going to savings, the other for spending. What I'm wondering is, where could I get a Roth 401k started? I'm only 15 and I'm homeschooled. Can you help?

Krista (11:44)

All right, Samuel, you win the award of the month of the summer, of.

Unknown Listener (11:51)

The whole summer, kid of the summer, teen of the Summer of Clark, 15.

Krista (11:58)

Fifteen working as a school custodian, saving half of your money. And yes, you can't do a Roth 401k, but you can do a Roth IRA at 15 what's known as a custodial Roth, which means that until you're 18, don't know in New Hampshire, 18 or 21 is the age that you would have full ownership of it. But in the meantime, an adult parent has to be the custodian of your Roth IRA that you fund with money from your summer job as a custodian. This is great, great stuff. I have a guide for you that'll walk you through. Samuel how to set up the Roth ira and everything in that is the same as it would be for anybody else with the one addendum for you that you would have a custodian who would be named over the Roth, but the investing in it is exactly the same. Great job. I love this. Coming up ahead, we're going to talk about something I'm obsessed with and that is energy. And it's become so politicized in the U S over the last several years. I want to talk about what's actually going on in the energy markets, what you need to know, and what I've always felt was the answer for us.

Clark Howard (13:33)

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Clark Howard (14:38)

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Unknown Auctioneer (15:08)

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Krista (15:39)

That we, the United States, are the leader in energy in the world. It is so important because modern economies cannot run without a great deal of energy. And when you think about what happened recently in the Middle east and that the price of oil didn't go crazy when missiles and drones were flying, why was that? Because we used to be completely dependent on energy supplies for oil from overseas. We didn't really produce much. Today we are a giant of energy production of oil and of natural gas. We also, surprisingly for some people, are now a huge supplier of alternative forms of energy, specifically solar and wind, which are the fastest growing sources of energy in the world. Do you know that of new energy being added to the grid around the world Every year, 80% is solar and wind. Because why they're the cheapest forms of energy to have now going I don't do a political show, but politically energy's been a football in the United States, political football. And we were really into solar and wind. And now we're not going to be for solar wind. Now we're going to be against solar and wind and all that reality is we need quote unquote old energy and we need new energy in order to deal with the supplies we need. And also we need to look at nukes again, because there's a technology that has been talked about for at least 15 years, it's now real, and that is micro nuclear reactors. And what's different about them versus we had a nuclear plant that was a disaster that was built in Georgia, the only new nuclear plant built in the United States in the modern era. And it had cost overruns that have made the power from it the most expensive power generated in the United States. And it was way behind schedule. Blah, blah, blah, blah blah. Well, the new form of nuclear are micro reactors that can be built in a factory in components and brought to site. It's not reinventing the Wheel every time. It's already happening other places in the world, only starting to happen here in the United States. But there is not something you can say, well, we're just not going to have energy from natural gas, or we're not going to have energy from wind. We're not going to have energy from hydrogen or solar or whatever. We need a multifaceted supply of energy of all different types because we can't do it by saying, oh, we're only going to do this. And I know there are people in the whole political thing that are like, oh, well, we only want to do these things or we only want to do those things. The truth is we need to do what is the most efficient way to provide energy, period. And ultimately money wins. Why is it that coal virtually doesn't exist as a power supply in the United States? It's not because of how highly polluting coal is. It's because coal is an expensive, extremely expensive source of energy. Ultimately, the market flows to what is the cheapest form, which right now is natural gas, solar and wind. And ultimately, if I'm right about these micro nuclear reactors, they're probably going to be cheaper than anything else. So, you know, look at the wider picture to really have a feel, how do we get affordable energy? How do we get reliable energy? And try not to look at this through politics. There's enough else we can waste energy on politics about.

Unknown Listener (20:16)

All right, we'll go to questions. Kathy in California sent this one in. I have a question about mobile phone plans. You never seem to mention plans that are good for those of us who do not need unlimited data. My husband and I are on the shared 1 gigabyte plan with Xfinity. We pay only $20, including tax per month total for both of us.

Krista (20:35)

And think about that. Ten bucks a month. Yep, a line.

Unknown Listener (20:38)

We mostly use our phone data when we have access to WI Fi. Lots of free Xfinity hotspots are around. We rarely go over the 1 gigabyte, but if we get close to going over, they send us a notice and we can up it to 5 or just pay for the extra we use if we're traveling in our rv. And we'll need much more data for navigation, wi fi, hotspot, etc. It's easy to switch to one of the phones to unlimited, then switch it back to the shared plan when we get back home. So don't forget about us.

Krista (21:05)

You know what, Kathy, you're a genius. Because people's use of data buying from the mobile phone company is Going down, down, down. Because almost all our time is spent where we have trusted, reliable WI fi available to us. So an overwhelming percent of us no longer need unlimited data. Krista and I both have gone. We're on the same plan together. We both gone from unlimited data plans to buying a monthly allotment of data. And neither of us have ever gone over. The only person who ever went over once was my son. Anyway, that's a conversation for another day. But the need for unlimited data on mobile plans is a was, not an is. And there are so many plans that are now metered and the price per month is so often exactly what you're talking about per line. 10amonth, 15amonth, or 20amonth are the three most common price points now for people who no longer need unlimited data. And we keep updating our guide@clark.com to cheap cell phone plans for these metered plans, which is where most of us should be. And you think how much you and I use our cell phones and neither of us need unlimited data anymore.

Unknown Listener (22:41)

So true. Joanne in Texas says, do you always take the cheapest car rental you can find or do you look at satisfaction ratings of each agency to determine which one you will go with? We've taken the cheapest in the past and waited in long lines for them. Sometimes time is money. I would love to hear your thoughts and I want to throw in this question from Joanne. I'm currently looking at booking a rental car. The cheapest one I've shopped around, as you recommend, is from Hertz, and I can't decide if I want to spend extra money with what's been going on with Hertz. Yeah, yeah. So it's not about long lines for me. It's about Hertz.

Krista (23:15)

Hertz has been hurting a lot and the customers are the ones really hurting because Hertz has been messed up. So there are car rental companies that I will not book with. I rent so many cars every year. I rent at least 30 times a year. And there are some that the experiences are really, really bad. Now, I will rent from Hertz, but they're definitely not a first choice. And some of the off brands, based on what we've heard from so many listeners and viewers, I've learned for myself some experiences, I don't rent from some of those. Now let me tell you what's happened with the car rental business. What you have is you have Hertz is a brand name. You've got Avis as a brand name and you have Enterprise as a brand name. And those three Own so many of the other brands as well. So some of the off brands are actually a brand of one of those three. And so when I'm looking at a car rental, I stick so heavily to Enterprise, Alamo and Avis is somebody who rents repeatedly. I found that those three have been the most reliable. For me, that's my own experience. You may say, he said Enterprise, he said Alamo. Those people are horrible. Or Avis. Let me tell you the bad experience I had with them. There are no perfect rental cars agencies, but there are a number that I'm not naming here that I will not rent from even if they paid me to rent from them.

Unknown Listener (25:17)

Okay. Marion, Virginia says, during my recent stay at a major hotel, I noticed a QR code posted on the bathroom mirror that said I could use the code to tip our housekeeping person. Before using this QR code, I decided to ask Clark, is this safe?

Krista (25:32)

Right. And I have seen this Marion Hotels as well. The reason why is tipping to hotel housekeepers has declined significantly because so many travelers don't carry any cash. Think about what's happened if you live in a city where you have to valet a lot of places, if you go to restaurants or whatever, and the valets now all have their own Venmo accounts or whatever for tipping because the customers don't have cash. Cash is becoming something that is more and more rare. I will not use one of those QR codes posted in a hotel. And because of how much I travel, I always have ones, fives, and tens in cash so that I can tip out in cash. And I don't know with QR codes, you just don't know if that particular QR code is one that somebody put there with ill intent or is actually a real one. I guess you could call down to the hotel front desk and find out. But that does make me nervous because it's so easy for criminals to concoct their own QR code and steal information or steal money. A little bit of cash when you travel is a really good idea. And thank you so much for joining us today. I hope that you heard something that think, hey, I'm going to put that away. That's going to be useful to know at a later date. Or somebody starts telling me a story, I'm gonna say, hey, wait a minute, I gotta tell you something about that. Be careful, because we all help each other. We're all here for each other. At least we should be. And I want you in a time that people don't know who to trust to develop a reservoir of information that gives you the ability to be more trusting. I want you to be careful. I want you at times to be skeptical. But I want you to know that trust is a valuable commodity. And we've lost some of that today. And I want you to be able to regain it some by having the confidence to know what you can trust. And I hope that you have a great, great day the rest of today, and that you remember what we. We're devoted to, to you. That you learn ways from me, from everything we do, so you can save more, spend less and avoid getting ripped.