08.27.25 Investing Overseas / Revised Strategy For Shopping Airfares

Summary

The Clark Howard Podcast – Episode Summary

Episode Title: 08.27.25 – Investing Overseas / Revised Strategy For Shopping Airfares
Date: August 27, 2025
Host: Clark Howard

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Overview

In this episode, Clark Howard addresses two major topics: the importance of international diversification for investors and updates on the changing strategies needed to find the best airfares in an evolving travel market. Additionally, the episode features Clark’s practical consumer advice in response to listener questions, covering banking, car purchases, Amazon payment settings, river cruises, virtual cards, and business credit cards. Through the lens of his mission—"save more, spend less"—Clark offers actionable tips and consumer empowerment.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Why Invest Overseas?

[00:53 – 04:54]

• Clark advises listeners not to be “over-patriotic” with their investments and to ensure a meaningful portion is allocated to overseas markets for better diversification.
• The U.S. is only ~5.5% of the world’s population and just over 20% of global economic activity, but most Americans invest primarily domestically.
• Last 15 years: U.S. markets outperformed, but that's historically unusual and U.S. stocks are now highly valued compared to international counterparts.
• Benefits of investing internationally:
  • Exposure to faster-growing economies.
  • Diversifies against a falling dollar.
  • Reduces overall portfolio risk.
  • Potential for greater long-term returns.
• You don't need to open overseas accounts; use international mutual funds or ETFs in your existing accounts.

“It does not make you unpatriotic to invest outside the United States... It protects you, like now with the dollar having fallen a lot in value... having money around the globe... is part of lowering the risk of your portfolio.”
— Clark Howard [03:20]

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2. Listener Q&A: Banking, Minivans, Amazon Payment Risks

[04:54 – 12:16]

Banking: Credit Unions vs. Online Banks

[04:54 – 06:09]

• Credit Unions (e.g., Navy Federal): Offer in-person service and often better loan deals.
• Online Banks (e.g., Ally): Great if you don’t need branches.
• Choose based on your need for physical access and loan options.

Minivan Purchase: Used vs. Hybrid

[06:09 – 07:52]

• Low annual mileage (4-5k miles): Fuel savings from a hybrid are less significant.
• Best value: Buy a well-inspected used gas van rather than a new hybrid.

Amazon’s ‘Backup Payment Method’ Risk

[07:52 – 11:00]

• Listener recounts Amazon charging an alternate stored card without consent after primary card declined — potentially problematic for users with multiple cards for business and personal use.
• How to disable backup payment:
  1. Go to Amazon “Wallet”
  2. Under Payments, click Settings
  3. Disable “Backup payment method”
• Clark’s advice: Only store credit cards online when necessary due to fraud risk and monitor automatic backup settings.

“I’m shocked... that Amazon would have a decline on something... and then they’d run it anyway on just go down your list of cards.”
— Clark Howard [09:24]

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3. Shopping for Airfare: New Pricing Tactics

[14:22 – 17:48]

• Old approach: Buy two one-way tickets, often saving money by mixing airlines.
• Now: Airlines (esp. Delta) have caught on. Half the time, round-trip is now cheaper; sometimes one-way tickets cost more.
• Recommendation: Always check and compare both round-trip and one-way pricing for your flights.

  "The airlines are on to me... half the time now airlines are quoting higher fares when you shop one way than you do round trips. So it’s now a 50/50 thing..."
  — Clark Howard [14:28]

• Brand loyalty costs money; be a free agent when booking airfare.

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4. Listener Q&A: River Cruises, Virtual Cards, Business Credit Cards

[17:52 – End (~23:05)]

River Cruises in Europe

[17:52 – 21:21]

• Polarized reviews: Experiences with river cruise lines can vary dramatically. Read reviews extensively to match your expectations.
• Use an experienced cruise agent for personalized guidance—better than what Costco Travel can provide, though Costco often offers the best price and rebates.
• Costco Travel benefits: Rebates commission via shop cards, possible extra 5% discount for Executive members using their Citi Visa.

Virtual Cards & Online Safety

[21:21 – 22:05]

• Virtual (one-time use) cards: Highly recommended for online purchases. Prevents real credit card number theft.
• Tap to Pay: Also secure; tokenizes card info for each transaction.

“Paying with a one time use card number is the only way to go online...”
— Clark Howard [21:32]

Business Credit Card Selection

[22:10 – End]

• High annual fee cards (e.g., Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business): Only worth it if heavy usage and travel justifies the rewards and sign-up bonuses.
• Low-volume spenders: Use no-annual-fee cash-back cards instead.

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Memorable Quotes & Timestamps

• “It does not make you unpatriotic to invest outside the United States... It protects you... is part of lowering the risk of your portfolio.”
  — Clark Howard [03:20]

• “I’m shocked... that Amazon would have a decline on something... and then they’d run it anyway on just go down your list of cards.”
  — Clark Howard [09:24]

• "The airlines are on to me... half the time now airlines are quoting higher fares when you shop one way than you do round trips...”
  — Clark Howard [14:28]

• “Paying with a one time use card number is the only way to go online...”
  — Clark Howard [21:32]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [00:53] – Investing overseas: why and how to allocate globally
• [04:54] – Q&A: Credit unions vs. online banks
• [06:09] – Q&A: Should you buy a used or new hybrid minivan?
• [07:52] – Q&A: Amazon’s backup payment method risk and how to disable it
• [14:22] – Airfare: Why shopping one-way tickets isn’t always cheaper now; how to adapt your strategy
• [17:52] – Q&A: How to shop for and save on river cruises
• [21:21] – Q&A: Virtual cards for online shopping safety
• [22:10] – Q&A: Business credit cards—when high annual fees are (and aren’t) worth it

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Summary

This episode of The Clark Howard Podcast delivers Clark’s latest insights into portfolio diversification and current travel industry tactics, while responding to a diverse set of listener financial dilemmas. His trademark approach: empower consumers with actionable, research-backed recommendations that help listeners save, avoid pitfalls, and make smarter choices. Whether you’re investing, booking a flight or hotel, buying a car, or choosing financial products, Clark’s advice in this episode is both timely and timeless.

Transcript

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[Clark Howard]

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[Clark Howard]

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[Clark Howard]

It's my pleasure to welcome you here to the Clark Howard Show. You know, our mission is to serve you with advice and information that empowers you so you can make better financial decisions in your life. And today I'm going to talk about a couple of things I want you to know. Later, I'm going to talk about an update on how to shop for airfare. There's a game of cat and mouse going on with the airlines trying to force us into higher fares. I'm going to tell you what you need to know to protect your wallet when you're buying a ticket. That's later. And right now I want to talk about why I have been obsessed for so long with you. If you are an investor having a meaningful portion of your investment dollars inside an investment account, retirement account invested overseas, you know the United States represents somewhere around five and a half, six percent of the world's population and represents a little more than 20% of the world's economic activity. But most Americans, if they are investors for retirement or investors period, invest only in the US not in funds that invest overseas. And over the last 15 years, that was a great win because if you were diversified around the globe, the US Outran most of the rest of the world over a 15 year window. Very unusual. And now US holdings are much higher valued versus the profits of companies than is the case outside the United States. Now, I've always been into investing worldwide because economies generally around the world have been growing faster than our economy. And again, if you're only investing in the United States, you're missing the economic growth story around the world, where again, 94 to 95% of the world's population lives. And in terms of economic size, somewhere close to 80% of the world's economic activity is not here in the US and it does not make you unpatriotic to invest outside the United States. Would you say that an American company that sells overseas is unpatriotic? Selling overseas? No. That's what we want. We want our companies to be so successful they're selling other places. And so you do have some exposure to overseas by owning American companies that sell outside the United States. But you're still missing a big part of companies that are owned elsewhere. So I ask you, when you think about allocating your money, think about at least having a portion of your investments outside the United States. That doesn't mean you have to open an account overseas. It just means with the index funds and mutual funds you might choose from or ETFs, exchange traded funds that you have exposure to companies outside the United States as well as inside the United States. It protects you like now with the dollar having fallen a lot in value. It protects you by having holdings outside the United States. It's just one example. But having money around the globe, if you are an investor, is part of lowering the risk of your portfolio and over the long haul may in fact get you a higher overall return.

[Caller/Listener]

Speaking of returns, Javon in North Carolina says, do you suggest a credit union like Navy Federal or an online bank like Al for day to day banking, for example, a checking and savings account?

[Clark Howard]

Well, they serve different purposes. If you're a Navy Federal account holder, it's the world's largest credit union. It's a giant. You have all the normal bank type services and you have branches in so many facilities by so many bases in so many big cities. So you have the physical presence as well. Ally as an online bank is online only, obviously. And if you're somebody who never ever, ever needs to walk into a bank branch, you're fine with an online bank like Ally. If you feel like you're occasionally going to need the services of a branch, then that would give the nod to Navy Federal. Plus, Navy Federal offers really good deals on loans that often are superior to what you can get from an online bank or a physical bank. And that's one of the great advantages of being a credit union member.

[Caller/Listener]

And we do have an [e-mail] Best online banks, free checking and high interest savings accounts if you want to check that out. Corey in California says, my wife and I are looking to purchase a minivan to haul our kids around. We are debating whether to go with an older used traditional gas van or a new hybrid van. We really like Toyota Sienna hybrid, but we're not sure if it's worth the higher cost to get a hybrid. We both work from home so we don't have a lot of drive a lot of miles, probably around four or five thousand a year. Our oldest child is three so we plan on keeping the car a while. Love to know what you think.

[Clark Howard]

So Corey, you got a double dilemma for me. California where gasoline one of the states where gasoline is much more expensive than the national average. And at the same time you drive minimal miles a year. I mean you think about the average family may be putting 14,012 to 14,000 miles a year on a vehicle. At 4 to 5, the cost of the fuel becomes less significant as a factor in making a decision. So if you were telling me you're trying to decide if you get a used van, hybrid or gas and you're driving that small a number of miles, as long as it checks out well with a mechanic prior to purchase that the condition of it is good, I think that's the best money spent more important than buying one that is new because so much depreciation happens, vans depreciated a slower rate than other types of vehicles. They still depreciate. So I would not worry as much about the gasoline. And when you do the Costco runs, that's where you buy your gas because it's the cheapest place in California to buy gasoline.

[Caller/Listener]

Michelle in Virginia says I'm the PTA president of my kids elementary school. I recently placed a large order on Amazon for new recess equipment using the PTA credit card. As often happens with this card it was declined. A separate issue I need to sort out with that bank. Amazon alerted me on my order page that the payment was declined and that I should choose another method. It was the weekend I wasn't able to call the bank to sort out my issue. So I left the payment method unselected and figured I'd get the issue fixed and then put the order through once it was working again. Monday morning I logged into Amazon to check something else and was surprised to find my recess equipment order had gone through using a credit card on file I never authorized.

[Clark Howard]

Wait, I've never heard of that. So wait, have you experienced this before? You go to place an order with Amazon card gets declined, they on their own automatically just pick another one and.

[Caller/Listener]

Charge it hasn't happened to me but she figures out why. Let me tell you, Amazon didn't even use my default card. I contacted customer service and they said they were unable to change the payment method. They said automatically charging a backup method without notifying the customer or using the default payment method is a setting on my account. And after pushing and pushing, I was finally issued a small promo credit as an apology. And Amazon turned off the backup method setting. But this could have been a bigger issue for someone who runs closer to their credit limit or has a family member or other business cards on their account. I wanted to let you know so you can advise your listeners to watch out for this automatic backup payment method setting. My husband and I are big fans of your show.

[Clark Howard]

Well, thank you for that. I'm. I'm shocked. I mean that wouldn't even occur to me that Amazon would have a decline on something. You'd go away from it and then they'd run it anyway on. Just go down your list of cards. This goes to something we haven't talked about recently and that is the benefit and convenience of storing credit card numbers on a website comes with the added risk of hackers to that site getting your card numbers and things like that. And so with any website you really have to think through do you want to store a credit card there? And that's just wild that Amazon did not. Doesn't have a procedure where they ask you, they just saw them. Are you looking to see the setting on your account right now I am.

[Caller/Listener]

I'm looking to see where I can.

[Clark Howard]

Where in the world would you even manage it? So let's see if there's any settings. Settings, your purchase preference. Manage backup payment method. There it is.

[Caller/Listener]

Yep. Backup enabled.

[Clark Howard]

Off. All right, so you go to Settings.

[Caller/Listener]

And then you go to Wallet. Under payments, you go to Settings and then you scroll down to under Payments and then you go to. So then you go to your payments, you'll be on Wallet, you want to click on settings and then there's right there your purchase preference. So we'll do an article about this on clark.com showing you how to turn this off. And maybe we can even do a video on this too at YouTube.

[Clark Howard]

Because think about how many people in their Amazon account use it for business purpose. In this case it was for a non profit you're part of and personal and all that. And you don't want something that is for one purpose to be charged to a card for another purpose. So absolutely you want to turn that setting off. And thank you so much for bringing it to our attention. And it's exactly as you said. So this is part of what we're all about is we're all part of a team together helping each other, providing information to each other so that we stay out of harm's way. And I'm glad this didn't cause a big problem for you. Just a little hassle. And now you've helped a lot of other people that could have caused a big problem before. Speaking of which, this is a game of hide and seek. I'll talk about a way for you to save money on travel or who knows what, and then somebody in that industry will decide, hey, we don't want people to know about this. We're going to take this money saving tool away. Let me tell you what's going on when you go to buy airline tickets.

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[Clark Howard]

All right, all right. The airlines are on to me. I figured out something about airline pricing that I shared with you a good while ago, that when you're buying a US Domestic ticket, which almost all travel people do, is within the United States, that it was much cheaper to shop for tickets one way than round trip. And the reason is that the airline that has the cheapest fare one way may not be the one that has the cheapest fare coming back. So as people would shop one way, going one way, returning, they were consistently saving a lot of money on their travel. Well, the airlines didn't like that. This became a spreading practice and I wasn't the only one yapping about this. So thrifty traveler, which is always watching the airlines forest to see what games they're up to, did recent research that found that half the time now airlines are quoting higher fares when you shop one way then you do round trips. So it's now it's a 50, 50 thing where before overwhelmingly you were getting a cheaper fare shopping your fares one way. And it's forcing me, when I shop for fares to do it both methods where I shop fares round trip and then shop them one way to see what is going to get me the lowest price so far. And away in their research, two thirds of the time Delta is quoting higher prices each way if you shop one way than if you shop round trip to try to keep people from doing what's called, they used to call it plating away, booking away from the airline you fly going that you fly somebody else returning. And so offering you a lower price round trip basis versus one way, that's skewing it because in the industry otherwise it's actually a better than 50, 50 chance that you're going to potentially save money shopping fares one way instead of round trip. So all it means is that you take a little more time and comparison shop fares one way for your trip and compare round trip for your trip to see what's going to get you the best overall deal. The reality is up till this change, principally by Delta, if you shop fares one way, overwhelmingly you would get a lower fare because of the fact that it's just math that whoever's cheapest going likely won't be the cheapest returning. So you're going to have to do a little more puzzle work to figure out the best deal. But who consistently pays too much for their tickets. People that are brand loyal to a single airline leave that for the corporate travelers charging to their companies. The rest of us need to be free agents every time we shop for a ticket. All right, how about Thrifty Traveler figuring out that the airlines were starting to change on this?

[Caller/Listener]

Love it. All right.

[Clark Howard]

It's just saving people too much money. The airlines didn't like that.

[Caller/Listener]

Okay. John in Virginia says hi, Clark. My wife and I would like to take a river cruise in Europe in 2027 to celebrate our 10th anniversary. We're looking at some of the higher end lines including Ama Uni World and Avalon. This will be a pricey trip, but I'd like to try and wear my Clark shaded goggles where I can. So I have a few questions about how to save money. First, do you have any tips about when to book the cruise? Second, one of these cruise lines, uniworld, is available to book through Costco Travel. Can you please discuss what the advantages there might be of booking through Costco? And I'll accept any other tips you may have.

[Clark Howard]

All right, so first things first. I need to tell you, John, people are so polarized about river cruise companies. It's amazing. Like go look at reviews online. And with river cruises more than traditional cruise lines, you'll find totally polarizing 5 star reviews and 1 star reviews. It's like there's nothing in between. People's expectations of river cruises often are based on what they may have experienced with traditional ocean cruises. They're very, very different experiences. Before you book with Ama Uni World, Avalon or you know, the big players, Viking, before you book with any river cruise, go spend time reading reviews thoroughly because the things that people are objecting to that are posting the one star reviews, maybe things that you say they're ridiculous or oh man, that would upset me too and try to figure it out that way. I also really like with river cruises, unless you're somebody who's done a lot of river cruises that you go to a very experienced cruise agent, either a cruise agency or somebody who all they do is cruises at a traditional travel agency because yeah, you're going to save money at Costco Travel, but they're not going to give you the kind of advice, deep advice I want you to have before you spend the money on a river cruise because somebody who's really, really involved in that is what they do is going to be really valuable to you at giving you a sense of not just what's the cheapest price but what's the best cruise for who you are, your lifestyle and the rest. I'm telling you, I'm trying to think of what other thing I've ever looked at reviews of that people are as crazy about or crazy mad at as river cruises they've been on.

[Caller/Listener]

And then the benefit of if you do book through Costco on the one line.

[Clark Howard]

Oh, oh, the discounts. So what Costco does is they rebate a big part of the commissions to you with shop cards. And if you are a Costco executive member and you have the Costco Citibank Visa card, you're getting an additional 5% off the cost of the cruise just by booking through Costco Travel. In addition to the rebating much of the commission in shop cards.

[Caller/Listener]

Georgia in North Carolina says what is Clark's opinion about using virtual cards for online shopping? Does it help prevent identity theft or scam and or scams or my info being sold on the dark web?

[Clark Howard]

It helps a lot, Georgia, but all it helps with is that nobody captures your actual credit card number. So paying with a one time use card number is the only way to go online because so often criminals look at that as a treasure chest if they can break into the database of an online seller and capture all those credit card numbers. If you've used a one time only use number, they got nothing.

[Caller/Listener]

Also, Tap to Pay does the same thing.

[Clark Howard]

Tap to Pay does the same thing in person. Thank you.

[Caller/Listener]

Frank in Maryland says I'm a longtime listener and first time small business owner.

[Clark Howard]

Congratulations to you being in business for yourself.

[Caller/Listener]

I need to apply for a business credit card and I'm in the process of reading about the best cards, including Clark's recommendations. I'm considering the Sapphire Reserve for Business which has a lot of benefits but a very steep annual fee. Since my business is not going to be spending $30,000 in the first six months, I I will miss out on the new card member offer of 200,000 points. Assuming that I could deduct the card annual fee as a business expense, will it still make the card worth it?

[Clark Howard]

No way. Not at all. If your charge volume isn't going to reach 5,000amonth, you absolutely don't want a high annual fee card like the Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business. I know that Chase is advertising that card and promoting it like it's the greatest thing since individually wrapped cheese slices or sliced bread, but it's not. I mean you got to be a high volume charger who travels a lot to really make the sapphire reserve for business pay off with the $800. I think it's $800 annual fee for it. Yeah. And so in your situation, you want one of the cards like there's like a business quicksilver and there's nothing wrong. You're going to have to, you'll be personally liable anyway as a business owner to go with a consumer version card that'll get you 2% cash back on everything, no annual fee. Those are the cards I think you should think about. And if you go to clark.com we have an article on the best cash back cards and just get whatever is the best one for your situation and that's what you use. You're not going to have to overcome an $800 annual fee. You're not getting their 200,000 points anyway. So you might as well go something simple, cash in your pocket. And thank you so much for joining us today. I hope that something today, something that triggered in your mind, hey, I should be doing that or I shouldn't be doing that and that you're able to use the knowledge in order to booster shot your wallet and your money. Because what we're about in everything we do on social media, the markets I'm on television markets I'm on radio, podcasts, YouTube, everywhere you reach us, our team Clark Consumer Action center, our newsletters, it's all about empowering with knowledge so you can make better financial decisions in your life so you can save more, spend less and avoid getting ripped off. And I'll see you again on Friday.