09.15.25 High Alert: Protect Your Accounts / Employment: Forward Thinking

Summary

The Clark Howard Podcast – Episode Summary

Episode Title: High Alert: Protect Your Accounts / Employment: Forward Thinking
Date: September 15, 2025
Host: Clark Howard
Co-host/Producer: (unnamed, recurring presence)
Podcast Overview:
Money expert Clark Howard offers actionable consumer advice to help listeners save more, spend less, and avoid rip-offs, particularly focusing on protecting financial accounts from scams and future-proofing your employment in an AI-driven world.

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Main Theme

This episode is a two-parter:

1. High Alert: Protect Your Accounts – Deep dive into the current surge in financial scams and actionable steps to protect personal funds.
2. Employment: Forward Thinking – Discussion around AI’s disruption of the job market and the importance of lifelong learning to future-proof your career.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Financial Scams Are Everywhere: Protect Your Accounts

Clark warns about escalating scam tactics and the failure of financial institutions to keep consumers safe.

a) Why Financial Security Measures Are Lagging

• Banks and brokerages are still using voice authentication and SMS-based two-factor authentication (2FA), both of which are now easily compromised.
• Clark: “People in the financial business are Johnny come lately's to doing the proper things to protect your and my money.” [01:36]
• Recent addition of legalistic warnings by banks (“We will never ask you for this code”) is reactionary, not preventive.

b) The Dangers of Zelle and Similar Payment Apps

• Major warning: Zelle has become a primary conduit for scams. Banks blame consumers for losses occurring via Zelle, offering no recourse.
  • Clark: “That’s why you should shut Zelle off. Because when the chips are down, your bank does not have your back.” [05:42]
• Rule: Never give out two-factor authentication codes to anyone—no exceptions.
  • Clark: “Never, never, not ever give that code to another human.” [06:23]
• Caller ID is easily spoofed. Do NOT trust incoming calls from banks/retirement accounts, no matter what appears on your phone.
• Other apps like Venmo and CashApp are also vulnerable.

c) Account Security Recommendations

• Lock your SIM with your cell phone provider to prevent SIM swapping.
• Don’t rely on paper statements as foolproof—they can be forged or stolen from your mailbox.
  • Consider printing your own statements at home to avoid fees and theft risk.

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2. Listener Q&A: Addressing Concerns and Misconceptions

a) Paper Statements vs. Digital Statements

• Listener Mike (NY): Worries about discontinuing paper statements for security.
  • Clark: “Most of [Bernie Madoff’s fake statements] came in the mail…getting something through the mail is not magic that it’s going to be okay.” [09:13]
  • Clark recommends switching to digital and printing as needed.

b) Inheriting Municipal Bonds

• Listener Andy (TX): Inherited muni bonds, wants to know about hidden costs of holding to maturity.
  • Clark: “No downside as long as interest rates stay in the general vicinity they are...in most circumstances it would make sense just to hold those to maturity.” [11:49]

c) Limited Purpose FSA (LPFSA) and HSA Coexistence

• Listener Jay (FL): Clarifies that LPFSAs (for dental/vision) can exist with HSAs.
  • Clark: Accepts the correction, encourages maximizing pre-tax opportunities. [13:49]
  • Not a common plan, but valuable if available.

d) Travel Safety & Crime

• Listener Mary (NC): Asks about best resources for up-to-date travel safety info.
  • Clark: Refer to the State Department for official briefings, but use good judgment—“I am very rarely going to eliminate a place as a place I would go because of crime.” [25:11]

e) Roth 401(k) Catch-Up Rules for High Earners

• Listener Frank (NC): Wonders if the new law forcing “catch-up” contributions to Roth 401(k) at age 50+ is worth it.
  • Clark: “There’s direct advantage to you being forced to put your money in the Roth version...it’s actually like somebody saying eat your spinach. It’s good for you. This is good for you.” [28:13]

f) Digital Health Device “Detox”

• Listener Val (GA): Asks about Clark’s break from his fitness trackers.
  • Clark: Admits failure—“I am data obsessed. I didn’t break any of my data addiction, but I did live without my three devices for 48 very, very, very long [hours].” [29:33]
  • Uses device data to monitor health, does virtual PT, admits need to sometimes unplug.

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3. AI & The Future of Employment

Clark transitions into how AI will reshape, not eliminate, work, and how to prepare.

a) Facing Change, Not Just Fearing It

• AI has eaten some jobs, but will create new fields & force adaptation.
• Clark: “Learning doesn’t end in your late teens or early to mid 20s. Learning should be something that goes on your whole life.” [19:09]

b) Lifelong Learning & Skill Stacking

• Use curiosity as an engine: develop adjacent/complimentary skills.
• Story: Clark’s son is learning both to be a commercial pilot and earning a business degree, expecting the industry to change during his lifetime.
• Clark: “What are the things that are changing around you? ... It means amping up your skills, what you do.” [21:50]

c) The Irreplaceability of Real Humans

• Co-host jokes about replacing Clark with AI, quickly dismisses it: “You need that human element that would be missing.” [23:09]
• AI can’t replicate deep relationships, human touch.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “During a time that crooks are on their A game and the financial institutions we deal with are on their F game.” — Clark, [06:42]
• “You’re the one who has to be your own police officer and protect yourself.” — Clark, [06:59]
• “Never, never, not ever give that [2FA] code to another human.” — Clark, [06:23]
• “If you’ve learned nothing else today, remember, big, bad Zelle, don’t use it. Pretty clear, right?” — Clark, [32:44]
• “Learning should be something that goes on your whole life.” — Clark, [19:09]
• “I didn’t break any of my data addiction, but I did live without my three devices…” — Clark, [29:33]
• “It’s actually like somebody saying eat your spinach. It’s good for you. This is good for you.” — Clark, on Roth 401(k) catch-up, [28:13]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:44 – Start of topic: Account security and SIM locking
• 05:40 – Warning against Zelle
• 08:38 – Listener questions (paper statements, municipal bonds, LPFSAs)
• 14:40 – Transition to AI/Employment Future
• 17:58 – AI, jobs, and lifelong learning
• 23:08 – AI relationships, irrelevance to true human needs
• 24:11 – Travel safety questions
• 27:07 – Roth 401(k) catch-up contributions
• 29:13 – Digital health tracker “detox”
• 32:44 – Final reminders: avoid Zelle, save more, spend less

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Tone and Style

Clark’s advice is direct, practical, and laced with his trademark mild skepticism toward institutions that "don't have our backs." The episode is a blend of urgency regarding current scam risks, empathy for listener concerns, and optimism about adapting to change. The co-host occasionally lightens the tone with personal anecdotes and playful skepticism.

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Summary Takeaways

• Be vigilant: Financial institutions aren’t doing enough—don’t trust calls or requests for codes, and opt out of Zelle.
• Embrace change: Prepare for the future of work by stacking skills and remaining a lifelong learner.
• Listener-centric advice: Each listener question is met with actionable, personalized recommendations.
• Monitor your own habits: Both in finance and health/tracking, self-awareness is essential.

Best Practice for Listeners:

• Lock your SIM, print statements at home, never use Zelle, pursue continuous learning, and safeguard your future by remaining flexible and growth-oriented.

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For more resources, visit clark.com or clarkdeals.com. Submit your questions at clark.com/askclark.

Transcript

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[Clark Howard]

It'S great to have you here on 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. In today's show, I want you to know crooks are working overtime to steal your money and the schemes are proliferating. I want to talk about how careful you've got to be. Also how are you going to future proof your career? Right now everything's about how AI is coming to chew up every job in the United States and worldwide. And we're all going to be. I don't know what we're going to be doing working for the AI. I don't know. We'll talk about that later. I want to talk now about something that is absolutely ugly and that is how criminals are tricking so many of us, no matter how sophisticated we are, into giving them information that allows them to help themselves to our money. And people in the financial business are Johnny come lately's to doing the proper things to protect your and my money. I think about how lame it is now that these financial companies are still using our voice as an identification pattern when now with a high. It's really easy for anybody with our voice, any recording of our voice to fool the voice pattern indicators that financial houses are using. And they're still using two factor authentication with our cell phones. And I talked recently about why you need to lock your SIM with your cell phone provider. And if you didn't hear me talk about that, we've had a lot of people who contact customer no service at their cell phone providers. They're like what are you talking about? Usually on the app with your cell phone provider you can lock your SIM. I did it on mine, took 30 seconds. And that way even if somebody tries to steal my cell phone number so they're getting those one time use codes. They can't do it because you've locked down your sim. Very simple precaution. But a lot of what criminals are doing right now is where they trick us to think that they are with our bank or brokerage house or retirement fund provider. And don't know if you've noticed in a very short period of time, I'd say over the last two months, a lot of banks and brokerages now, when they send you a one time use code to your cell phone, are now also including a warning pretty much of the lines. We will never ask you for this code. You know, don't ever give it to a human telling you that this, you know that criminals are trying to get that code from you. Whatever they're saying, not in layman's terms, but what some lawyer wrote for them. Vanguard just put out a warning on how to out fox the scammers. These warnings are coming whenever you go into your Vanguard account or they're coming, the short one, when you are getting one time use code. Understand that the big fight here, and this is why Zell was just sued again, this time by the Attorney General of the State of New York. Because people are losing perhaps billions of dollars now in Zelle scams. And the banks have made Zelle so vulnerable by having it embedded in your checking account. And so criminals are spoofing, pretending to be either communicating from your bank or, or an employee from your bank. And then the bank's like, well, I mean they stole the money through Zelle. But it wasn't Zell's fault. It was your fault because you believed that you were talking to somebody from the bank. So we're not covering that. And that's why you should shut Zelle off. Because when the chips are down, your bank does not have your back. They don't have it again. The banks have made Zell so easy for criminals to use as a vessel to steal your money with no recourse for you as a consumer. No recourse. That that's why you just flat out do not use Zell. But know this, just as the new warning say, if you get a two factor code, never give it to another human. Never. That's a never rule. Never, never, not ever give that code to another human. And know that when you see on your caller ID you're getting a call from your bank, your retirement account, your brokerage, something like that, do not trust, that's actually who's calling you. I'm not trying to turn you into a Cynic. I'm trying to make you careful during a time that the crooks are on their A game and the financial institutions we deal with are on their F game. They're not doing what they should do to protect us. Because all they do is say, well, it was your fault, so your money's gone, that you worked a lifetime or a long time to save. They don't have our backs. So who's got our back? You do. You're the one who has to be your own police officer and protect yourself at a time that a congress only listens to the bigs and never listens to you and me and has not put in protections for your hard earned money, leaving us vulnerable to the crooks and the banks, the brokerages, the retirement accounts are like, yeah, yeah, not our problem, it's yours. And that's why you're the one who has to be ever cautious.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host/Producer]

So the other day I was talking to someone I did not know well at all. And they were insisting to me that Zelle is the safest and only payment system to use. And I was trying to nicely explain why that wasn't true. And they were like, no, it's the safest because it takes directly from your bank. There's no third party pulling from your bank. And I just finally like job hazard, you know, I don't want to like, I gotta just, I just walked away.

[Clark Howard]

Just gotta chill. No, but Zelle could have been fine, but the bank set it up in a hurry just because they were terrified of non bank actors like Venmo and Cash App. By the way, criminals can steal your money through Venmo and Cash App as well. And they do. But just understand the banks that inherently we are wired to trust let us down. We sell and did not design it from the ground up as a safe method for money to transmit, period. And actually the safest systems are ones where nobody actually has your account number. Like is done in most every other developed country in the world. And even some developing countries have systems where money moves without access to someone's account number.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host/Producer]

All right, should we go to questions?

[Clark Howard]

Sure.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host/Producer]

This one came in from Mike in New York. Mike says, hey, Clark, I've had IRA accounts at Vanguard for 30 years and I'm getting charged $25 per fund each year for the quote unquote privilege of getting statements mailed to me. Is there any risk if I opt to do away with the mailed statement so I'm not charged? I, I think about scams that investors like Bernie Madoff and others Experience with fake statements. And I'm wary of discontinuing the mailed statements. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but the mailed statements make me feel more comfortable. But I hate being nickeled and dimed.

[Clark Howard]

So, Mike, basically, people are hitting us over the head with a baseball bat to not get paper statements anymore. I don't know if I mentioned think it's Denmark that's doing away with their postal service.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host/Producer]

Really?

[Clark Howard]

Yeah. The amount of mail in a lot of countries that exist now is so smaller than the packages that a whole country is like, yeah, we don't even need a mail service anymore.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host/Producer]

Makes me a little sad just because I love a handwritten note.

[Clark Howard]

And they'd had mail service for like nearly 500 years.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host/Producer]

Wow.

[Clark Howard]

And they're doing away with it. So this thing of forcing us into not getting paper statements, it's happening with cable companies, phone companies, mobile phones. Name who it might be, credit card statements, whatever. More and more you pay a fee or they give you a discount if you don't get a paper statement. So this is how I'd handle it. You don't want to pay the $25 a year per fund. So a lot cheaper for you to have a printer every quarter print out your statements. And the statements, I'm not worried about the Bernie Madoff statements. Most of them came in the mail. I mean, so getting something through the mail is not magic that it's going to be okay. I don't like not having paper statements, but we're pretty much being forced into behavior modification to go without paper statements. And that's why you now have the cost shifted to you with a printer. Be much cheaper for you to print your own than to pay Vanguard 25 bucks.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host/Producer]

And I would also just note that there is a lot of mail theft in the US So if someone goes into your mailbox and grabs your statement, then they know how much money you have in this account.

[Clark Howard]

Then you become a target for them to go after. Yeah, yeah. We are really freaking people out.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host/Producer]

This job will make you so paranoid. Andy in Texas says, a few years ago I inherited $100,000 in individual municipal bonds from my father that mature in the2030s.

[Clark Howard]

Well, I tell you, I'm sorry you lost your dad when you got these. And what a nice thing to inherit.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host/Producer]

Yes, I've been collecting a steady $4,000 a year, tax free at 4%. Is there any downside to owning individual munis if I hold them to maturity and do not sell? I feel like I'm missing some type of hidden cost. What's the catch? Was there an initial cost that I missed because they were inherited? Again, these are individual bonds, not an etf.

[Clark Howard]

So holding individual bonds to maturity is why a lot of investors buy individual bonds instead of ETFs or bond funds like I hold. And the reason is you know what you're going to earn. You don't have to worry about what the direction of interest rates are and when the bonds mature next decade you're just going to get the money and you're earning a decent yield. Since it's tax free yield depending on your tax bracket, it'd be helpful to you and your effective yield you're earning. So no, there is no downside as long as interest rates stay in the general vicinity they are if interest rates go up a whole lot, then you may be earning significantly below what the market would pay you on a tax free municipal. Then that's the point at which you might consider selling them early potentially, but otherwise just hold them to maturity. By the way, if you do end up selling them for maturity and interest rates have moved up a lot, you have to sell them at a discount. So I mean it's really at this point thinking it through, in most circumstances it would make sense just to hold those to maturity.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host/Producer]

Jay in Florida says there was a discussion about FSA and HSA coexistence and by the way Clark so many emails and Clark stinks about this. Just to clarify, the dental and vision only FSA that Krista mentioned that can coexist with an HSA is called a limited purpose FSA lpfsa. The employer needs to offer that as an option alongside the HSA unless that has changed since I last had employer insurance about five years ago by my choice to go part time and then retire in my late 50s in part thanks to your advice.

[Clark Howard]

So what was it that we got so many Clark stinks about?

[Clark Howard Show Co-host/Producer]

Just that you didn't know you you said I've never heard of having an fsa. If you have if they're like that being offered with an hsa.

[Clark Howard]

So so the point of this is exactly why we do Clark stinks. To expand my pool of knowledge to correct errors I make. And so the limited purpose flexible spending account is not a common thing. But if you have an HSA and you can benefit from a limited purpose FSA then it's so wonderful that I can stand corrected and tell you that this is a perfect opportunity for you to get additional pre tax money back in your pocket.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host/Producer]

Yep.

[Clark Howard]

So thank you to everyone who contacted us about me having a missing piece.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host/Producer]

Of knowledge up here, which is shocking because you have so much knowledge.

[Clark Howard]

No, no, I'm just a guy. I'm a human being.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host/Producer]

Okay.

[Clark Howard]

So anyway, coming up ahead, we're going to talk about how if I had an AI chip plugged into my brain.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host/Producer]

Oh, please. No, no, stop.

[Clark Howard]

Now we're talking about all the fears about AI and what's misplaced and what's not, about those fears and your career.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host/Producer]

We all have moments when we could have done better. Like cutting your own hair. Yikes. Or forgetting sunscreen so now you look like a tomato. Ouch. Could have done better. Same goes for where you invest. Level up and invest smarter with Schwab.

[Clark Howard]

Get market insights, education and human help when you need it.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host/Producer]

Learn [e-mail].

[Don McDonald]

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[Clark Howard]

Was all anybody was talking about six months ago. Stock market got overhyped with AI and there were all these news reports about how AI was going to shred everybody's career. Now AI is still going to be a big factor in our lives, but some of that hype is cooled down. And it is true there are people that AI in the short term is going to eat up their jobs. And it's brutal. If you're somebody that happens to Every new development with science and technology leads to changes in the job market, but it does not eliminate the need for workers and work. The nature of that work just changes. And there's no questioning at all that there are people who will lose their jobs because of AI. It will disrupt workforces, but other things will be created. And that's why, if you've been a longtime listener or viewer, you've heard me or watch me talk over and over again about how important it is to not to be a racehorse with blinders that all you see is what's in front of you. Narrow vision. As humans, we tend to put on our own blinders and we see things as they are today, not where they might be in the future. Because if we think about the future, I don't know what it is about us. As humans, we think about the negatives that the unknown could cause. That when we think about the range of possibilities, we think about what could go wrong, not what could go right with things that are new to us. It's just part of the human experience for most of us. I want you to think of it a different way. My obsession through my life with being a lifelong learner. I'm naturally curious. My favorite book as a kid who was Curious George? That's the Way I am. I'm always looking at what's new, what's Possible. And there are times I get overly optimistic about something new. It's just the way I'm wired. But I want you to think about this concept of life. Learning doesn't end in your late teens or early to mid 20s. Learning should be something that goes on your whole life. Having multiple skills, part of being able to deal with constant change. Because that is something about the human experience. Throughout history, I mean, there were time periods that people were subsistence and things didn't change a lot. But through so much of human history, change was always there. And right now, because of all the methods of communication we have, change hits us in the face much quicker. And so this is something that you can't just outlast. I know people in some old media fields who were just trying to get to retirement or get through enough years that they wouldn't have to worry about what came next. But the real creators are the ones who said, hey, you know what? Things are changing. There's now, it's called new media, all the new ways people communicate. I want you to think about that in your own life. What are the things that are changing around you and what you do and what else is out there that interests you doesn't mean starting a whole new career. It means amping up your skills, what you do. I think I told the story recently about my son who is learning two skills. Learning to be a commercial airline pilot and getting a degree out of the business school. Because he doesn't know how long there will be a career as a pilot. He's 20 years old. He figures between now and age 65 will be flying around and who knows what and it won't need a pilot. And so he's got to know something else. And so maybe it's him wired the way he is or by osmosis, growing up around his parents who are always looking at where things are going. But he gets it. And that's something that we all have to think about. What's our next opportunity? Where's our skill set most useful at this point in our career? If what I do right now isn't going to exist anymore, potentially because of AI, what do I do next? When are you replacing me with AI?

[Clark Howard Show Co-host/Producer]

Stop. It's not happening.

[Clark Howard]

You're not going to replace me with AI.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host/Producer]

Never. Never. That's the thing. You need that human element that would be missing. Although AI is ridiculous, it is really insane. Someone on our team, literally, I ask him any question and he gives me an AI response, like as a joke at this point, like he'll Just like have AI compose a response from him and I can tell it's AI and I'm like, you know, your wife must be a little worried about your relationship with AI This AI bot, it's.

[Clark Howard]

Do you know about all this with people developing these deep relationships with their AI bots?

[Clark Howard Show Co-host/Producer]

I do.

[Clark Howard]

I think that's very isolating.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host/Producer]

I know. Okay. Mary in North Carolina says Clark, I'm in the process of planning my 2026 travel. Yay. It seems that since the COVID era, many places both in the US and abroad that were once safe places to travel are no longer. Yet I still see places that I wouldn't consider safe on a cruise or tour itinerary. What are the best resources to find out the most up to date information?

[Clark Howard]

So, Mary, I don't think you were talking about illness. No, I think safety, safety, safety like crime.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host/Producer]

So isn't that the State Department? Don't they.

[Clark Howard]

Yeah, Well, I was going to say that the State Department puts out briefings on what the crime possibilities are in various places in the world. Take those with a certain grain of salt because I read those when I'm going to a place I've not been to in a while. I'll tell you, I've been to some places that are not safe by historical measures in terms of street crime, that kind of thing. And it's all about being really smart about what you do when you travel, how you travel once you're there. Are you part of an organized group or are you wandering off on your own? I am very rarely going, going to eliminate a place as a place I would go because of crime.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host/Producer]

I've known you 27 years and maybe seen you do that two times. I think like a sale was so good, but you were like, I need to.

[Clark Howard]

Generally, generally I don't go somewhere if there's an active war going on.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host/Producer]

Sure.

[Clark Howard]

I mean, that's, that's generally when I've not gone somewhere.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host/Producer]

When's a deal? Not a deal.

[Clark Howard]

Right. So, Mary, I'm probably the wrong one to ask because I don't think I'm too stupid. But I do think that I take maybe more risks with my travel than a usual traveler would take. But I'll say again, when I go somewhere that I have reason to worry about street crime, I am much, much more careful about what I do and how I do it. And I'd say that's more important than worrying about a particular place having a big X on it is a place you're not going to visit.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host/Producer]

Don't you think like a cruise ship, for example, like if they're going into a port and you're using, I know you don't love it, but the cruise ship's own excursions, you're probably third party.

[Clark Howard]

Excursions, you know, that compete with the cruise line. And the odds that something's going to go wrong in that case is more often going to be an injury on whatever excursion, not crime targeting anybody on the organized excursion. The only places that specifically terrorists have targeted tourists and it's been very rare, but it's happened where people on a tour from a cruise ship or something like that has been in Egypt. People on tours of the pyramids have occasionally been targeted, but even that has been rare.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host/Producer]

You might get water gunned in like Barcelona too.

[Clark Howard]

Oh, you will get water gunned in Barcelona. But you know, if it's a hot day, it's not bad to get water gunned.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host/Producer]

Frank in North Carolina says can you talk about the new 2026 catch up rule for 401ks that high income earners have to put catch up money in a Roth 401k with after tax income. I'm 50, should I do it or not? It just seems that starting at 0 at 50 with the addition of 10k ish in contributions isn't as good as investing that somewhere else. My income is $200,000 a year. I have 300k in my 401k and about 150k in a high interest checking account.

[Clark Howard]

So Frank, it's fantastic you've got that amount of money saved but it's not enough for you to live the lifestyle you've become accustomed to making 200,000 a year. So yes, you do want to do the catch up and yes, it's actually an advantage to you that you're being forced to do it in Roth money. And at 200k you don't say if you're single or married. If you're married, definitely you want to do the non catch up money into the Roth version of the 401k because tax rates are historically unusually low. Right now we're running these big budget deficits, have the huge overall debt of the United States and those things are like time bombs that are going to lead to higher tax rates in the future. So there's direct advantage to you being forced to put your money in the Roth version. And remember this. Yeah, you're putting in after tax money that is never taxed again. You open a regular, let's say investment account you're using after tax dollars that will be taxed at more favorable capital gains rates, but they'll be taxed at the end. So the Roth is crazy beneficial to you and you need to boost your savings for retirement. So absolutely take advantage of catch up and put it in that after tax like they're forcing you to do. Because it's actually like somebody saying eat your spinach. It's good for you. This is good for you.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host/Producer]

Valen, Georgia says what happened to Clark's digital health devices detox? A few weeks ago, Clark acknowledged that he had a bit of a health monitoring addiction with his aura and other devices. He took them off and was going to do a weekend without them. Was there an update? Did Clark go through with it? What did he learn?

[Clark Howard]

I did go through with it. That was a long 48 hours for an addiction. But you may take them off now and leave them off the rest of the podcast. I did do it. I did learn that I am data obsessed. I didn't break any of my data addiction, but I did live without my three devices for 48 very, very, very long.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host/Producer]

I mean, did you even feel like your steps counted?

[Clark Howard]

The steps didn't count. Oh, I mean it's like it just was not even there. I. I forgot my Garmin and a Charger before I went on a two week trip early this year and so I look at my garment history and it shows in January. Like I didn't walk any steps and it just stares at me every time I look at my annual recap. So I don't have a problem. Actually, I do. I have a huge problem about addiction to health devices. The detox didn't work, just made me feel bad. So maybe I'd need to just get rid of them for a much longer period of time.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host/Producer]

I don't know. It depends. It's not the worst addiction, that's for sure.

[Clark Howard]

Well, it's just important for me with the pre existing health conditions, I have to be as mindful as I can of what I eat, how much I sleep, and that I'm continually exercising. And now I'm doing a PT program as well because I have tremendous lower body strength and not nearly sufficient upper body strength. And so I'm doing PT specifically to increase upper body strength.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host/Producer]

Nice. And you're gonna become a gym bro.

[Clark Howard]

No, no, I travel too much. So I'm doing a program that is offered through my health insurance where I have a human who I can consult with, but I have a video exercise program geared to me for upper body strength and flexibility. And I also do Yoga.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host/Producer]

That's awesome.

[Clark Howard]

And it's really weird you're not supposed to be competitive in yoga, but every yoga class I'm in, I'm the worst at it.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host/Producer]

It doesn't matter. It's a practice.

[Clark Howard]

I know, I know. But you know, I've got these perfection syndrome issues.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host/Producer]

Yep. And so we've all got something.

[Clark Howard]

We all have something. Addiction to devices. Oh, and I also did that thing a few years ago that I promised I would do where it tracks if I'm using my cell phone too much. And I get a report card every week telling me if I'm using my device, basically more than I should. And I got a really good report for the last week.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host/Producer]

Oh, nice.

[Clark Howard]

Yeah. That's another addiction, isn't it?

[Clark Howard Show Co-host/Producer]

Oh, yeah. I mean, who doesn't have that these days?

[Clark Howard]

Oh, man. All right. Well, I hope something you're addicted to is becoming financially independent and doing the things you need to do so that you are in control of your wallet and you're not going to let anybody try to scam you out of that money that you've worked so hard to save. And if you've learned nothing else today, remember, big, bad sell, don't use it. Pretty clear, right? And also that what you're about is saving more, spending less. And don't ever, ever, not ever let somebody rip you off. Have a great day. Packages by Expedia. You were made to occasionally take the hard route to the top of the Eiffel Tower. We were made to easily bundle your trip Expedia Made to travel Flight inclusive packages are atoll protected.