10.10.25 Clark Answers His Critics on Clark Stinks / The Truth About “Free” Phone Offers

Summary

The Clark Howard Podcast: Episode 10.10.25

Clark Answers His Critics on Clark Stinks / The Truth About “Free” Phone Offers
Date: October 10, 2025
Host: Clark Howard
Co-Host/Producer: Krista

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Overview

This episode features two main segments: Clark’s weekly “Clark Stinks” feedback section—where listeners critique his advice and he responds—and a deep dive into the truth behind “free” cell phone offers from major carriers. Throughout, the tone is lively, candid, and focused on empowering listeners to make smart financial decisions.

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1. Clark Stinks – Listener Critiques and Clark’s Replies

[01:58–17:19]

The “Clark Stinks” segment is a tradition where listeners call out moments where they think Clark has missed the mark. He responds with humor, humility, and further insight, enhancing the show’s transparency and educational value.

Key Discussion Points

• Antenna Advice and Watching Sports ([01:58])

  • Listener Greg in Oregon says Clark should have mentioned resources like AntennaWeb.org for finding the right TV antenna.
    • Clark: “Antenna Web is what I use too… but with rolling hills it’s not always completely accurate. Still, if you can pull that signal in, the picture is so much better than streaming or cable.” ([02:26])

• Cost of Living in Hawaii ([03:26])

  • Kevin in Hawaii notes the high costs but highlights savings on heating, electricity, and other expenses.
    • Clark: “I’d love to live in Hawaii… but Lane [my wife] is freaked about the dog quarantine and we’re far from the kids and grandkids.” ([04:11])

• Massachusetts vs. New Hampshire Housing Costs ([04:38])

  • Pete in Massachusetts says savings can depend much on where you live; border towns have higher housing costs.
    • Clark: “You’re completely right…the migration has driven up border-area costs. People go for tax reasons but pay in housing.” ([05:11])

• ATM Foreign Exchange Fees in Europe ([05:36])

  • RJ in Georgia shares frustration about high markups on ATMs in Europe.
    • Clark: “Use bank ATMs, not ‘convenience’ ones, and always decline conversion to dollars—let your home bank handle it.” ([06:21])
    • Krista adds: “USAA and Schwab refund ATM fees; Schwab is unlimited.” ([08:05])

• Hidden Fees and Homeowner Costs ([08:57])

  • Catherine in Florida warns about HOA and CDD fees that weren’t mentioned in Clark's “28% Rule” for home buyers.
    • Clark: “In Florida especially, there’s the CDD, and sometimes a developer’s fee at resale—a back-end revenue source. Developers are stacking income streams.” ([09:47])

• Scripted Show Accusation ([11:11])

  • Chris in Maryland questions how “the questions always relate to the topic” and if the show is scripted.
    • Krista: “No script. I just put the questions in ahead and Clark glances at them right before we record.” ([11:55])
    • Clark: “It’s all authentic. I use my base of knowledge and years of experience—no script here.” ([11:55])

• NFL vs. College Football Fan Experience ([12:37])

  • Justin in Illinois contends college football games are a better value and experience than the NFL.
    • Clark: “My son tells me the same thing every week. You’re both right—the college experience is, for many, much more fun and less expensive.” ([13:45])

• Credit Cards in Europe and the Irish Approach ([14:12])

  • Noel in Ireland explains the European preference for debit cards, citing cultural and regulatory differences.
    • Clark: “If we had the same consumer protections on debit cards as in Europe, we’d all be better off using them. But here, the protections aren’t equal.” ([15:22])

Notable Quotes

• “I should have never encouraged you to speak. You all must think I'm pretty stupid.” — Clark Howard, intro to Clark Stinks ([01:45])
• “If you can pull that [antenna] signal in, you see the game…so much better.” — Clark ([02:26])
• “You always say euro [at European ATMs]. As a general rule, then there won’t be junk fees.” — Clark ([06:21])
• “Developers are looking for income trails of all different kinds.” — Clark ([09:47])

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2. The Truth About "Free" Phone Offers

[18:50–21:50]

Clark breaks down the “free iPhone” and similar deals heavily advertised by major wireless carriers, especially during football games.

Key Points

• Carrier Gimmicks

  • The new iPhone is advertised as “free” by Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile, but the reality is it requires long-term contracts.
    • “You’re getting credits, as long as you jump through every hoop they have, month by month, over multiple years… But you have so overpaid for monthly service you could’ve just bought the phone.” ([18:50])

• Better Alternatives

  • Many discount carriers—often owned by the big three—offer service at a third of the price.
    • “All that difference is more than what you’re saving on the newest phone. So think about that before you do it.” ([21:50])

• Insurance Company Ads

  • Hints at a future discussion: the companies saturating TV with ads tend to score poorly on customer service.

Notable Quotes

• “What they do is way overcharge for monthly service, and you’re not getting the phone free… That’s the game, that’s the gimmick.” — Clark ([18:50])

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3. Listener Q&A

[21:50–31:47]

A grab bag of financial questions, from scammy real estate texts to HSA strategies and playful football betting stories.

Highlights

• Spam Property Sale Texts ([21:50])

  • Use of personal information for property prospecting; Clark suggests credit freezes if worried about identity theft but considers it likely a simple data mismatch.

• Credit Score Drop ([23:46])

  • A listener’s score dropped despite excellent habits.
    • “Nothing to worry about if you’re still in the upper 700s, but check annualcreditreport.com for stray items.” ([24:08])

• Maximizing HSA vs Roth 401k for Retirement ([27:09])

  • Listener wonders whether to use HSA for retirement spending or maximize Roth contributions.
    • “If you use the HSA for medical expenses, the tax benefits are unparalleled. If not, maximize the Roth 401K for tax-free withdrawals.” ([27:09])

• Football Pool Strategies ([28:54])

  • Fun exchanges about betting: picking by favorite city, having a dog choose, and how even sports reporters struggle to win reliably.
    • “Doing something randomized…may work out for you.” — Clark ([29:48])

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4. Memorable Moments & Notable Quotes

• “I'm in one pool. I paid $85 for the whole NFL season because I wanted to be more interested in the games.” — Krista ([30:05])
• “I said I will watch even a bad NFL game…Those two were so bad, couldn't do it. Anyway, speaking of streaming, Monday I’m going to talk some more about streaming TV…” — Clark ([31:25])
• “Thank you everyone for taking time to post today on Clark Stinks. What I marvel at is that every single edition of Clark Stinks is different.” — Clark ([15:22])

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5. Segment Timestamps

• [00:53] — Show begins
• [01:58]–[17:19] — Clark Stinks segment (Listener feedback and Clark’s responses)
• [18:50]–[21:50] — The Truth About "Free" Phone Offers
• [21:50]–[31:47] — Listener Q&A

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6. Takeaways & Tone

• Clark is candid and humble, welcoming challenging feedback.
• He encourages skepticism of financial marketing “gimmicks.”
• Practical, hands-on advice with updated insights for 2025.
• Emphasis on consumer empowerment and transparency.

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For Listeners

If you want to avoid hidden financial pitfalls, maximize your savings, and stay wise to industry tricks, this episode captures Clark Howard at his engaging, practical best.

Transcript

[Clark Howard]

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[Clark Howard]

It's my pleasure to welcome you here to the Clark Howard show where our mission is to serve you with advice and information that empowers you so you make better financial decisions in your life. Well, I'm fully back watching TV is football, and that means I'm seeing a lot of commercials. And coming up later, I'm going to talk about what I'm seeing that you need to really think through is they're using that to brainwash you to do things I don't want you to do. But right now it's time for my favorite thing we do every week. It's time for Clark Stinks. I should have never encouraged you to speak. You almost think I'm pretty stupid.

[Krista]

You should be ashamed of yourself.

[Clark Howard]

Well, maybe I'm wrong.

[Krista]

Maybe I'm wrong.

[Clark Howard]

Maybe you're right, pal.

[Krista]

May. Boy, I stink. I didn't have the Clark Stink sounder up. You had to do that.

[Clark Howard]

Did I do it right?

[Krista]

You did. I'm sorry about that. All right. Greg in Oregon wrote in with this one, you stink like burnt gear oil. On a podcast you said to try different antennas to find one that works on the Internet. You can find what size antennas you need to receive the signal and even the direction you need to point them in. One of the websites I've used is antennaweb.org Love your cheapness. Keep it up.

[Clark Howard]

Thank you very much, Greg. Antenna Web is what I use too. But even with Antenna Web, I live in a city with rolling hills and I find that Antenna Web is not always completely accurate. It'll give me a good idea of what Antenna Web will do. It'll show you what you can watch and whether you need a rooftop antenna or what rated power range you need for one. If you're going to have an in home antenna. If you live in a high rise, obviously it's got to be one of those, but it's so great having the antennas because I talk later about my obsession with football, but the picture I'm getting is so much better than what you get with streaming or with if you still have old fashioned cable. It's crazy. If you can pull that signal in, you see the game, whatever sport you love. So much better.

[Krista]

Speaking of streaming by the way, also you're slated to talk about streaming on Monday too, so we're getting lots of information on watching TV these days. Kevin in Hawaii says Aloha Clark I don't think you're wrong. The cost of living is much higher in Hawaii. It's not for everyone. You must make changes and spend wisely. I hear that you would like to move to Hawaii other than for personal family reasons. Why wouldn't you? I don't need heat or AC at all and grow some of my own food. I don't have an electric bill. Water is not expensive and you can catch it as well. Gasoline is used less. You don't need a snow shovel or winter clothes. You can even podcast from here. Just make sure you have solar and a Tesla battery.

[Clark Howard]

I love Hawaii. So for Lane the dogs have to be go through a special process and quarantine and all that and she's freaked out about that. Then we're so far from the kids and the grandkids and so I'd love to live in Hawaii at least several months a year. Been negotiating that for a while. Have not been successful in that negotiation yet.

[Krista]

Pete in Massachusetts says you said that New Hampshire was about 40% cheaper than living in Massachusetts, though this may be true. It depends on what cities you're comparing. If you want to be on the border of Mass in New Hampshire, you'll pay nearly the same housing costs as if you lived in Mass. If you lived in northern New Hampshire, you would have saved more, but you could also save more by moving to western Massachusetts. Living in New Hampshire you save on taxes, but other costs like housing and groceries will not necessarily be 40% cheaper depending on where you choose to live.

[Clark Howard]

Thank you for that post. You know the migration to the border areas that still keep you basically in the Boston metro area. The people who've done so have done so for taxes usually, but they do call it Taxachusetts. Taxachusetts Yeah, but what you say is completely true. That with that the housing costs have as a result gone up.

[Krista]

Okay, RJ in Georgia says Clark, your advice about getting foreign currency from an ATM when you arrive at your destination is great. But you did not warn us about the extra 10 to 15% markup charged by so many ATMs. I skipped the airport atm because I had €70 in my wallet. But now I'm wandering around Paris trying to find an ATM without a big, huge giant junk fee. The best I've found has been 10% and I'm trying to make do with my last few euros and a credit card. So where's the best place to take money out? The airport. Specific banks. My sister in law is about to travel to Europe for the first time by herself and I sent her your video. But now I feel like I need to solve this so she isn't stuck paying big fees in Italy. Thank you Clark for all your great advice. I'm down to my last euro.

[Clark Howard]

All right, rj. I. I feel terrible. Lane and I, my wife and I just went to Paris and what I did was I went to a bank and used their ATM in Paris. And when you go to an ATM so often in Europe, this is something we explained last year on a podcast. So a lot of times they'll say, do you want your money converted in euro or in dollars? You always say euro. And as a general rule then there won't be junk fees. But you're right, if you go to a non bank ATM in Europe or you go to one, typically in an airport, they're going to charge you these really junky junk fees. Now in addition, this doesn't help you since you're already there, but if you check with your bank or credit union provider of an atm, they will usually have an electronic list on their website or on their app that'll show you what ATMs you can use in various countries around the world that you'll not have any junk FEES using those ATMs. We took out €250 at an ATM. How many do we still have after eight days in France?

[Krista]

150.

[Clark Howard]

We have 244 because everywhere we went we used tap to pay. Except twice when I had to have some euro.

[Krista]

I do know also it's been mentioned before on the podcast USAA and Schwab refund the ATM fees.

[Clark Howard]

Schwab unlimited number USAA I think has a cap on how many ATM charges they'll rebate.

[Krista]

And so I would check with your credit union.

[Clark Howard]

But it's not just this isn't what we're talking about. This isn't the ATM fees, okay? This is ripoff charges that are now embedded on more and more ATMs around the world where they charge you a discriminatory exchange rate. And the key to beating that generally is you never want to accept the yes where they're converting it as a courtesy for you into US Dollars. You want the conversion to be handled by your financial institution back here in the United states.

[Krista]

And Catherine, Florida says Clark, your recent show about the 28% rule about the various expenses potential home buyers should consider when house hunting stunk up the joint worse than a spring competition at a skunk convention. How could you not mention the onerous HOA fees? In many cases, HOA fees can be as much as a monthly mortgage payment. And on top of that, many developments assess what's called a CDD Community Development District fee every month to pay for all the fancy sports facilities, golf courses, clubhouses, landscaping, and even water slides and playgrounds, whether you use them or not, and whether or not they're located in your particular subdivision within a planned community. I was house hunting recently in Ponte Vedra beach and was shocked by the CDD fees. They were a deal breaker. Please warn your followers about this.

[Clark Howard]

Well, you just did. We did a segment on another podcast, not the one where I was talking about the old 28% rule where we were talking about mandatory versus voluntary homeowners associations. The other thing is you mentioned the cdds. There's another fee as well that is big and a lot of Florida communities has been big. And Ponte Vedra where you're talking about where you at time of sale, there's a junk fee assessed at that time also that goes back in many cases to to the original developer who developed the community that someone is doing a subsequent purchase in as like a back end additional revenue source for the original developer. And those can be substantial money too. So developers are looking for income trails of all different kinds, including often you were talking about the the fees you have to pay mandatory fees for the amenities. Often those may actually still be owned by a corporation developed by the developer who maintains the amenities in perpetuity as a continuing income source.

[Krista]

Chris in Maryland says love the show though. It's so fake. How is it that Clark has questions always related to the topic? How is it that he knows all the answers on the fly? You can't tell me he researched the questions before Christa asked them. Just be honest with people. Your show comes off as really scripted. Although Chris says love the show in the beginning, I will answer this one because I produce this show, it is not scripted. Clark literally does most things on the fly. Right before we start, he'll glance through the questions to make sure there's no additional research needed. And I put the questions in days before we record. And if there's one that's related to a topic, I love to do that. That's just my thing. Do you have anything else to say about that?

[Clark Howard]

Yeah, I, I don't do well in a scripted environment. I have to just be me. So you think about sometimes when I'll, when I'll answer a question and then later somebody will post, why didn't you mention this, that or the other like we just had there? And so it's more authentic, more genuine if I'm just taking my base of knowledge and years of experience doing this and answering the question rather than. I mean, you're right. If all I'm doing is if there was a script here. There's no script here. It just has the question says like here's one Justin from Illinois. And I see some of the question that you're going to read.

[Krista]

You never see the Clark stinks before. You only see them as we're going to read through it. Okay, that's good. I mean, it's true. The next one's from Justin in Illinois. Clark smells worse than a tailgate porta potty in the fourth quarter. That's nasty. It's time to set the record straight on college versus NFL football. Although the NFL surely has better talent, college football provides a far better fan experience. From student sections and bands to long standing game day traditions. Entire towns shut down on game day and the tailgating is legendary. Let's not forget the Weekly updated top 25, which can make for some incredible upsets. The which lead to fans rushing the field and an occasional goal post torn down. If that's not enough to let me take a shot below the belt, as in your wallet, the average lowest cost NFL ticket is $156 versus around $100 for college. The average of all P4 conference teams. I invite you to heed your own words to save more, spend less and don't be ripped off by the inferior fan experience and higher price tag that the NFL offers.

[Clark Howard]

Okay, so just so you know, Justin, this is the same argument my son and I have all the time that he says that I just don't get it, that the college experience at a game is just so much more fun than the NFL game experience. And so you've said it. He says it to me every single week.

[Krista]

All right. Noel in Alabama says hey Clark, you stink worse more than the litter box my 15 year old swore he cleaned last week. Just kidding. You smell peachy. But just to inform your listeners about why the person's credit card was refused in Europe. The point is we barely use credit cards. We don't have credit scores as a specific number, just a general check to see if we have a history of non payment. We don't need them to build credit and have a healthier attitude toward money. We were taught from birth that if you can't afford it, you can't have it. So we use debit cards because what's in your account is your limit. We have great protections on our cards and we can do chargebacks if the product or service was not as advertised. And tap to pay is limited to €50 per transaction with a maximum of three transactions before you have to enter a PIN to verify the card is yours. The max you could lose if your card is lost is €150. This is the Irish way. I can't speak for all Europeans, but we do have a system called sepa. Sepa, which is Europe wide and offers banking protections and communication across every European bank. All in all, I think it's just a cultural difference. Why borrow money when you don't need to?

[Clark Howard]

Well, I love your post and I'm glad you listen in Ireland. So the reason that you hear me talk badly about debit cards is not there's nothing inherently bad about a debit card. It's only because the banks use their corrupt influence in Congress to prevent consumer protections equivalent for a debit card. What exists for a credit card. Many of us would be far better off using a debit card rather than a credit card because it would eliminate the ability to go into debt, just as you said. So if we could get adequate consumer protections in place, then me calling a piece of trash fake visa or fake MasterCard would not be an expression I'd use for the debit card anymore if in fact there were adequate protections like as you have pointed out so well exist in Europe where credit and debit both have consumer protections and that equal event does not happen in the United States. Thank you everyone for taking time to post today on Clark Stinks. What I marvel at is that every single edition of Clark Stinks is different. The topics brought up, the things that that maybe I've gotten lazy about or that I really haven't thought about or that maybe I'm just wrong about that. It's so good for me to get that feedback from you and I appreciate you taking the time to post each and every Clark stinks that you post. Coming up ahead, I want to tell you why the TV ads I'm seeing during football, college or NFL stink.

[Don McDonald]

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[Clark Howard]

My marathon isn't about time. It's about my 26 friends with intellectual disabilities I'm dedicating each mile to. I'm Joseph. I'm running my first bank of America Chicago Marathon for Special Olympics Illinois to help give my friends a place to shine.

[Krista]

Join bank of America in supporting Joseph's cause. Give if you can@b of a.com supportjoseph what would you like the power to do? Bank of America References to charitable organizations is not an endorsement by bank of America Corporation.

[Clark Howard]

So none of us here. For those of you watch the YouTube show none of Us here. Sally Krista I Grace, if she were not on vacation right now, would be able to give me one to hold none of us Carry iPhones. This isn't a knock on the iPhone. It's a knock on how the big three cell phone carriers use the latest intro of the iPhone. Now the 17 is a way to con you into a terrible, awful, overpriced, crazy expensive cell phone plan. You know, if you go in the Wayback Machine, the funny thing during sports was there were two kinds of ads. There were beer ads and, oh, car ads. Beer ads and car ads were what you saw. One after another after another after another after another. Now what do you see? Insurance company Ads and cell phone company ads. And so they're all touting, get your new iPhone 17 free. What is it you're really getting? You're getting a handcuff to a terrible, awful, rotten deal from the big three. Because what they do is they way overcharge for monthly service and you're not getting the phone free. You're getting credits. As long as you jump through every hoop they have, you're getting credits month by month by month over multiple years, where ultimately the phone ends up being net zero to you. But in return you have so overpaid for monthly service that you could easily bought your phone anyway. That's the game, that's the gimmick, and that's what they're up to, is using the lure of the latest greatest phone as a way to get you into one of these long term basically contracts where you're way overpaying. So if you look at the discounters, many of which are owned by the big three, the cost of monthly service is as little as a third what it is buying it from the brand name itself a third. So all that difference is more than what you're saving on the newest phone. So think about that before you do it. As for all those auto insurance things, I got something I'm going to talk about sometime soon. About how none of those companies that advertise wall to wall with all those cute ads, that none of those are actually high quality in terms of service to the customer on survey after survey. But that's for another time.

[Krista]

Okay, we'll go to questions. Blanca in Florida says in the last year I've received multiple texts regarding a property that does not belong to me, inquiring if I would sell it. I did some research regarding the property and found that there are two owners associated with the property in question. One of the owners has my same last name. The property currently is not for sale and it's located in a different county from where I live. I had my phone number for many years. Which government platform can I reach out to to assist me to determine if there's any fraud involved and why my number is affiliated with this property?

[Clark Howard]

So they found your number. I don't know, Blanco, what your last name is, but if your last name is a more unusual one, then that may be somebody who's just prospecting, trying to find their way to one of the property owners. This is not normally a concerning situation. The problem is usually the other way, where somebody is impersonating the actual owner of a property, trying to steal the equity out of it or steal ownership of it in your case, this is not something I would worry very much about. But if you are worried in any way, shape, form or fashion about potential of somebody impersonating you, that's why you hear me obsessed with credit freeze. And if you don't have your credit files frozen, I would do so. But before you would freeze your credit files, which is free to do, you see how to do it? Clark.comCreditFreeze Go to credit Karma, set up a Credit Karma account, then freeze your credit files. You'll be able to monitor what's going on in your name so many different ways. And once your credit's frozen, it's hard for anybody to get credit pretending to be you anyway.

[Krista]

Louise in Georgia says, though my credit has always been in the 800s, the past year it's dropped as low as 769 and nothing has changed. I owe no money on anything. I pay my one credit card in full every month. I haven't bought anything valuable like a car, a house, et cetera. All my credit reporting companies are frozen. So no one is behind my back buying stuff. How can I find out why this is happening?

[Clark Howard]

Okay, so first of all, if what it's dropped to is 769, rest easy, you're in great shape. My credit score that I monitor regularly because we get so many questions about credit has moved as much as 90 points in the last year up and down. It is normal that based on the snapshot, and there's not just one credit score you have, you have. There are many different scoring models and each credit bureau has different data on you. So you could have a different FICO score on the same scale from all three different credit bureaus. Then you got the Vantage scores and you have specialty scores for applying for a car loan, applying for a mortgage, all these specialty scores. So I wouldn't worry about that. But what I would do is I go to annualcreditreport.com and for free you can get copies, a full detailed copy of your Equifax, TransUnion and Experian credit reports. And you can look through them and see if anything's on any of the three of them that shouldn't be there. Because what can happen even with your credit frozen is that information of someone same or similar name to yours can marry into your file and something can be there that's lowered your score from in the 8 hundreds to the upper 7 hundreds. It could be something as simple as something of somebody else's that is not as good as how you maintain your credit could accidentally be a stray item on one or more of your three credit files. Again, when you get to annualcreditreport.com they're going to try to sell you all kinds of junk. Don't buy anything, just get your free credit files.

[Krista]

And then with that one credit card you use, Louise, I would also look on that credit card. If they offer a credit score, mine usually will say factors affecting your score. Like there may, there may be some include in there too just to see first. Jared in Indiana says, I have an idea for my HSA and I would like your advice. I'm 36, I make $56,000 based 70k depending on overtime. Currently I'm maxing out my HSA Roth IRA and contributing 9%. 6% is me, 3% my employer. So there's $17,200 of room in my Roth 401K. I'm hoping to utilize my HSA as a retirement account. At age 65. I don't like it that there would then be another taxable 401k for non medical expenses. So I want to reimburse my medical expenses now and increase my Roth 401k contributions, getting that money into the Roth 401k instead. When I retire, then that money would be tax free and it wouldn't face income tax. I would also be able to access that money at either 55 or 59 and a half. So is this kooky or do I have something here?

[Clark Howard]

Okay, so that may have been a little hard for people to follow. So let me lay this out, Jared. So what you're saying is you're putting money into the HSA as a tax free, additional tax free account and then in retirement that you'll withdraw money not for medical expenses but for living expenses and then you'll have to pay tax on the HSA money. That's not the design of investing money over the years in HSA. In retirement we all end up with a lot of medical expenses as we move through our retirement years. The out of pocket medical expenses go up with an hsa. If you use the HSA in retirement for only medical expenses, not only have you gotten a tax break up front, had the money grow tax free all through the working years, then in retirement, when you spend it on eligible medical expenses, you spend it tax free. That's the design. You don't use the HSA as another retirement account, use it for medical expenses in retirement. If that's not your plan for the hsa, then what you're thinking of doing makes perfect sense that you would increase your contribution to the Roth 401k. You build up a tax free pile of money to use in your retirement years, and then you'd have to use that money for medical bills, but it would have grown and be spent tax free. The HSA is a more specialized kind of environment where you're building up the tax free money to use tax free specifically for medical expenses.

[Krista]

And then I'm just throwing in this extra fun one From Therese in Colorado. Dear Krista, I heard on a recent CH episode how you're betting on which football team will win that week's game. Here's how I won when I had to make picks for a friend who was unable to one week, not knowing much about each of the team's win or losses, I chose the winner based on where I'd prefer to live. Guess what? I won that week's picks. No statistics needed. And I met someone the other day who has his dog make a speech picks for him. Like, he'll put like two, like teams on like a bone. Like he'll put like a picture and then chooses which one the dog. You know, whichever one the dog chooses wins. I like that.

[Clark Howard]

What I get a kick out of are the sports reporters who live in this world all year long and then they make their predictions based on the spread, which is what you're doing often. Although you're often doing it straight up.

[Krista]

Oh, yeah, it's just straight up what I do.

[Clark Howard]

But their winning percentages are usually not that high for people who live in that world all the time. So doing something randomized. Well, it may work out for you.

[Krista]

Yeah, you never know.

[Clark Howard]

So all these betting pools you're in illegally, gambling.

[Krista]

I'm. I'm in one pool. I paid $85 for the whole NFL season because I wanted to be more interested in the games. My dad likes watching the NFL and stuff. And so each week you pick winners and losers. There's 30 something people in it. And then each week you could win. I think it's $130 a week or something. So if I win once, just once, although statistics are not good in terms of whether I'm gonna win or not, I almost won the first one.

[Clark Howard]

But how do you pick?

[Krista]

I let my friend pick for me. He's much more knowledgeable and by the way. But I pick a couple based on if I know someone, like someone played for BC and is on that team now, I'll pick that team and.

[Clark Howard]

All right, so for those of you watching the YouTube show. You see Krista's wearing a color that could be Eagles fan or could potentially be a Jaguars fan. Is this just randomized? Has nothing to do with.

[Krista]

Totally random. Totally random. Nothing to do with that.

[Clark Howard]

You were looking at me like you didn't know.

[Krista]

I didn't know what you were. I don't really.

[Clark Howard]

Okay.

[Krista]

This is why I want to be more interested. And it's worked. I'm super. I love watching the games now. It's fun for me. It's given me the, the fun enjoyment that I wanted. But I peter out by, you know, the end of the Sunday, the second set of games. If I know there's no way I'm winning that week, I lose interest.

[Clark Howard]

You're no longer interested? Well, I've always said that I'll watch even a bad NFL game. Recently there was a Monday night with two Monday night games instead of the normal one. Both games were so bad that I turned them both off.

[Krista]

What?

[Clark Howard]

Yeah.

[Krista]

Okay.

[Clark Howard]

I'm a liar.

[Krista]

Wow.

[Clark Howard]

I said I will watch even a bad NFL game. Those two were so bad, couldn't do it. Anyway, speaking of streaming, as you alluded to earlier Monday, I'm going to talk some more about streaming TV and some simple choices. With the new price increases coming from a number of streaming services, the things you can do to stretch every dollar and fight back against the new higher prices that doesn't involve stealing.