12.06.24 Clark Answers His Critics on Clark Stinks / 401(k) Savings - 2025

Summary

The Clark Howard Podcast - Episode Summary (December 6, 2024)

Title: Clark Answers His Critics on Clark Stinks / 401(k) Savings - 2025
Host: Clark Howard

---

1. Introduction and Warm Welcome

Clark Howard opens the episode by reaffirming his mission to empower listeners with financial advice to make better decisions. He sets a positive tone by acknowledging his listeners and sharing his enthusiasm for the day ahead.

"Our mission is to serve you with advice and information that empowers you so you make better financial decisions in your life."
— Clark Howard [00:57]

2. Clark's Christmas Kids Appreciation

Clark takes a moment to express gratitude towards listeners who have contributed to Clark's Christmas Kids, a charitable initiative he has led for 34 years. He highlights the importance of the program in fulfilling the Christmas wishes of children in foster care, ensuring they feel cared for during the holidays.

"I want these gifts for these kids Christmas morning where adults have disappointed these kids over and over again through their lives."
— Clark Howard [01:26]

3. Main Topic: 401(k) Super Catch-Up Provision

Clark delves into a significant update regarding retirement savings, focusing on the newly introduced "Super Catch-Up" provision for 401(k) plans starting in 2025. This provision allows individuals aged 60 to 63 to contribute up to $34,750 annually, significantly higher than the traditional catch-up limit of $31,000.

Key Points:

• Eligibility: Specifically designed for those aged 60-63, providing a critical opportunity for late savers to bolster their retirement funds.
• Impact: Addresses the challenges faced by higher-income earners, particularly those who may have delayed saving due to financial responsibilities like supporting children.
• Strategy: Clark advocates for utilizing the Roth 401(k) option within this provision, emphasizing its benefits for those not in the highest income brackets.

"If you're behind on saving for retirement, the advantage is that effectively you're saving a lot, lot more money saving 30 some odd thousand in a Roth 401k versus 30 some odd thousand in a traditional 401k."
— Clark Howard [21:38]

Clark also mentions additional saving opportunities for self-employed individuals through solo 401(k) plans, which offer even higher contribution limits.

4. "Clark Stinks" Segment: Listener Criticisms and Responses

In a humorous and engaging segment titled "Clark Stinks," Clark addresses various criticisms from listeners. This segment showcases the candid feedback he receives and his responses to improve his content and advice.

Listener Feedback:

• Customer Service Stories: A listener suggests incorporating more positive customer service experiences to balance the typically negative feedback.

  "If Clark does smell a little, it's only because there's not enough positive information coming from the show."
  — Listener [04:16]

• Advice on Walmart Plus: Criticism regarding Clark's recommendation of Walmart Plus, particularly about the requirement to tip for grocery deliveries, which some find financially burdensome.

  "Clark stinks worse than a field of open corpse flowers by his suggestion to try Walmart plus for perks including quote unquote free delivery grocery delivery."
  — Listener [05:37]

• Medicare Advantage Plans: A listener from New York requests more nuanced discussions about Medicare Advantage plans, especially in states with flexible regulations.

  "Clark frequently talks about Medicare advantage plans... would really like his perspective on Medicare Advantage plans for those in the few states like New York that are much more flexible."
  — Listener [06:25]

• Rent Control and Corporate Practices: Concerns about corporate manipulation of rental prices and the ineffectiveness of current solutions like rent control.

  "How is it that major corporations can conspire with a company that created algorithms to artificially inflate rental prices..."
  — Listener [07:50]

• Credit Union Practices: Feedback on Clark's advice about credit unions performing credit checks, with a listener clarifying the standard procedures.

  "Credit union pulling credit is not weird... we did a soft pull of credit when starting a new relationship..."
  — Listener [09:28]

• Medical Information Sources: A listener questions the reliability of medical journals and requests examples of trustworthy sources.

  "What is an example of a medical journal? And where do I find those I can trust?"
  — Listener [29:42]

Clark responds thoughtfully to each criticism, acknowledging valid points and providing clarifications or additional information where necessary.

"You should be ashamed of yourself."
— Clark Howard [04:07]

"Clark stinks worse than a vacant house strewn with garbage that's been there for a year."
— Listener [07:50]

"What you need is to be your own advocate and not get lost in some kind of Google search that takes you down a rabbit hole."
— Clark Howard [30:04]

5. Listener Q&A

Following the "Clark Stinks" segment, Clark addresses specific listener questions, offering detailed advice and insights.

a. Credit Score Impact from Reporting Practices

A listener shares an experience of a sudden drop in credit score due to unexpected credit card balance reporting.

"I received a notification from the credit agency that my score had dropped 27 points... my issuer is reporting continually to the credit bureau."
— Listener [25:36]

Clark explains the evolving practices of credit card companies in reporting, emphasizing the importance of monitoring credit scores regularly.

"A lot of credit card companies seem the bigger issuers are now reporting to the bureau continually rather than as they used to..."
— Clark Howard [26:41]

b. Mandatory Arbitration in Car Sales

A listener questions the prevalence of binding arbitration agreements in car purchases and seeks alternatives.

"Is binding arbitration a condition of sale for all cars?... I walked."
— Listener [28:04]

Clark expresses his displeasure with mandatory arbitration, labeling it as unjust and unfavorable for consumers, while acknowledging its widespread adoption by large dealership groups.

"It's crooked, it's dirty, it's rotten, and it's unfair."
— Clark Howard [28:29]

c. Trustworthy Medical Journals

A listener inquires about reputable medical journals to trust, amidst concerns over potential bias from advertisers.

"What is an example of a medical journal? And where do I find those I can trust?"
— Listener [29:42]

Clark recommends established journals like the Journal of the American Medical Association, New England Journal of Medicine, and Lancet, along with reputable institutions like the Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic for reliable medical information.

"The medical journals I have faith in and I hope you have a great weekend."
— Clark Howard [30:04]

6. Additional Insights on Retirement Savings

Before concluding, Clark reiterates the importance of maximizing retirement contributions, especially for higher earners who may have the flexibility to do so in their early 60s.

"You want to be doing the Roth provision, especially if you're behind on saving for retirement... saving a lot, lot more money saving 30 some odd thousand in a Roth 401k versus 30 some odd thousand in a traditional 401k."
— Clark Howard [21:38]

7. Conclusion and Upcoming Topics

Clark wraps up the episode by emphasizing the value of continuous financial education and advocacy, both for himself and his listeners. He encourages participation in Clark's Christmas Kids and hints at future discussions on retirement savings strategies.

"Your money is well spent and you know how it's spent on a specific child and his or her wishes."
— Clark Howard [30:04]

---

Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

• "Our mission is to serve you with advice and information that empowers you so you make better financial decisions in your life."
  — Clark Howard [00:57]

• "I want these gifts for these kids Christmas morning where adults have disappointed these kids over and over again through their lives."
  — Clark Howard [01:26]

• "If you're behind on saving for retirement, the advantage is that effectively you're saving a lot, lot more money saving 30 some odd thousand in a Roth 401k versus 30 some odd thousand in a traditional 401k."
  — Clark Howard [21:38]

• "You should be ashamed of yourself."
  — Clark Howard [04:07]

• "It's crooked, it's dirty, it's rotten, and it's unfair."
  — Clark Howard [28:29]

• "The medical journals I have faith in and I hope you have a great weekend."
  — Clark Howard [30:04]

---

This episode of The Clark Howard Podcast offers a blend of heartfelt community appreciation, critical financial advice on maximizing retirement savings, and candid interactions with listener feedback. Clark's engagement with his audience underscores his commitment to providing practical and actionable financial guidance while maintaining an open dialogue with his listeners.

Transcript

[US Cellular]

This episode is brought to you by US Cellular. Don't sacrifice a great experience for a great deal. Now with US Cellular Prepaid, you'll get a new Samsung Galaxy A15.5G free without the hidden fees you get with other prepaid providers so you can use U.S. cellular's nationwide 5G coverage without sacrificing anything. Terms apply. Visit us cellular.com for details.

[Atlassian]

This episode is brought to you by Atlassian. Atlassian makes the team collaboration software that powers enterprise businesses, including over 80% of the Fortune 500. With Atlassian's AI powered software like Jira, Confluence and Loom, you'll have more time to do the work that matters. In fact, Atlassian customers experience a 25% reduction in project duration per year. Unleash the potential of your [e-mail] Atlassian.

[Clark Howard]

I'm so glad you're with us today on the Clark Howard Show. You know, our mission is to serve you with a advice and information that empowers you so you make better financial decisions in your life. Happy Friday to you. I hope your day is going so well. I'm having a great day and my great day is about to get a whole lot better thanks to you because we're going to hear how I stink.

[Listener]

Can I also say one quick thing? And thanks to you, to everyone who's donated already to Christmas Kids. Have you seen like people are so generous. It's really incredible.

[Clark Howard]

I mean I every year this is our 34th year of Clark's Christmas Kids and I get nervous every year we're going to take care of the wishes of these precious children who sometimes at birth or at different ages, all the way through their teenage years, end up without parents that can take care of them and end up in the foster care system. And I want these gifts for these kids Christmas morning where adults have disappointed these kids over and over again through their lives. I want them to know they're cared about because the kids get to make these wish lists and the teenagers never expect that they're ever going to see anything and certainly not what they asked for. Which is why the match game we play with Clark's Christmas Kids is so important because the kids say what they want and how cool is it that Christmas morning they actually have those gifts thanks to your generosity. And I'm just so grateful. And you know, this thing works that we're at it 34 years. Clark's Christmas kids.com It's a great thing, by the way. Later, after Clark stinks. Do you know that under a new obscure Provision older workers can now sock more money away in their 401ks and 25 a lot more. And this is a stunner because it's hard for people who start saving later and they're like, oh boy, I gotta get on this to catch up. And this is a turbo catch up provision. Don't know how long it'll be around, but it's around for 25. I'm going to tell you who's eligible, how it works, and we've got a tool for [e-mail]. you know, we keep designing these individualized tools that you can put in your exact circumstances and see what works best for you. This is a tool that makes it possible for you to estimate how much your retirement accounts will grow over time based on your age, what you got in that kind of stuff. So you can see if you're on track or not. So now it's time to see where I got off track, off base, just flat out wrong. And Clark stinks. I should have never encouraged you to speak.

[Atlassian]

You must think I'm pretty stupid.

[Clark Howard]

You should be ashamed of yourself.

[Progressive Insurance]

Well, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm wrong.

[Clark Howard]

Maybe you're right, pal.

[Listener]

Alright, we're gonna start off on a positive note. If cork does smell a little, it's only because there's not enough positive information coming from the show. Perhaps you could figure out a way to include more stories about great customer service or companies doing the right thing. Here is an example of customer service that goes beyond belief. Back In August of 21, I purchased a very expensive and awesome surround sound speaker system from Klipsch with a one year warranty and no extended warranty. About a week ago and more than two years outside the warranty, the soundbar started cutting out and then died. No power, nothing. After doing some research, I found out the power supply buried deep in the soundbar was built with faulty components for this product line I called Klipschlipsch. I really struggle to say it.

[Clark Howard]

Sorry, I don't even know what this is.

[Listener]

It's a fancy premium brand corporate customer service with a smile on my face. And after jumping through some minor hoops, they are sending me a completely brand new system valued at $1,100. No charge to me. They know about the faulty power supply and decided to do the right thing. Steve.

[Clark Howard]

Steve, thank you. And I really love, appreciate, positive messages. You know, as a general rule, when people are having a good experience, they don't share it like you do. They share with us when they're frustrated and Dealing with customer no service. That's why you hear more negative than positive.

[Listener]

Clark stinks worse than a field of open corpse flowers by his suggestion to try Walmart plus for perks including quote unquote free delivery grocery delivery. Unlike Amazon, they suggest you tip for your delivery. If you spend $100 on groceries each week at 15% tip, that's over $750 a year in tips that could be saved by just doing pickup at store where they bring to your car without a tip. Keep this up and you'll have to change your slogan to save less and spend more.

[Clark Howard]

Rich Rich. Good point. The tip is voluntary as I understand it, so you can give as little as zero or as much as you wish. But you're right, I mean picking it up yourself, you eliminate that issue at all. Curbside.

[Listener]

Clark stinks worse than our kitty litter box after a long weekend. Clark frequently talks about Medicare disadvantage plans and quotes, but fails to discuss the states we're in New York that allow folks to switch back to standard Medicare without requiring Medigap underwriting. I understand that this affects only a small percentage of the audience, but would really like his perspective on Medicare Advantage plans for those in the few states like New York that are much more flexible than other states. Scott.

[Clark Howard]

Scott, thank you. And your point is completely valid. I'm trying to remember there are three states. It's just a tiny handful that do it right, that allow you, if an advantage plan turns out to be a disadvantage plan, to not be punished for the rest of your days and be able to migrate to back to traditional Medicare. Interestingly enough, I just saw a story a couple of weeks ago that the disadvantage plans themselves are patient dumping, that if somebody ends up with a really terrible illness, they're saying, you know, it'd be so much better for you if you went to traditional Medicare, you'd get much better care. And then the taxpayers are getting stuck because then the insurance companies are only cherry picking and dumping really sick patients back onto the taxpayers rolls rather than the insurance company rolls.

[Listener]

You stink worse than a vacant house strewn with garbage that's been there for a year. Don't believe in rent control? How is it that major corporations can conspire with a company that created algorithms to artificially inflate rental prices based on fake occupancies and run that program mafia style to make sure the corporations comply? While rent control is one solution to deal with high rent over and over again, corporations continue to prove that they are greedy and will do anything to take the most amount of money out of working people's pockets. We need real solutions for working people. Finding out down the road you've been duped out of money is not helpful. Neither is another class action suit. Jane.

[Clark Howard]

Jane, thank you. This is a story that has gotten a lot of publicity in the financial press and not in the general media. But the apartment owners have been conspiring, allegedly price fixing through sharing confidential data with each other through a third party data company to be able to push rents up above where they would be in a free and open market. And my attitude about that kind of thing, fines don't do anything. Class actions don't do anything. What makes a difference when there's illegal behavior is when people go to prison. And we never seem to prosecute corporate crime in any meaningful way other than these meaningless fines. So absolutely I understand your frustration and it is flat out wrong that the apartment owners have been engaging in price.

[Listener]

Fixing not so much a stink as an educational opportunity when you answered a listener's question about their credit union pulling credit in the process of opening a checking account, you said it was weird that the credit union would do that. You did mention that all institutions are going to do some sort of verification to find out if you have a bad history using a checking account before this part is true. There is a system separate from the credit bureaus that is used to check for a bad checking behavior. But as an ex credit union employee, pulling credit is not weird. I know that we did a soft pull of credit when starting a new relationship with a member for two reasons. One, it was one way to help mitigate against fraud. If someone's credit was frozen, that always stopped us. We weren't opening an account from identity theft. And two, a soft pull was enough for us to see if there might be opportunities to offer a refinance of an existing loan held elsewhere to save the member money. Since it was a soft pull, it did not affect the person's credit score or history.

[Clark Howard]

Judy, Judy, wonderful post. Very thoughtful post. And I love that the credit union you work for was doing soft pulls. Soft pulls. If you're familiar, a hard poll is one that will impact your credit score. And if there's a lot of those, it actually shows a pattern that could cause a problem applying for a mortgage. A soft poll does not do that. It's almost like what happens in most states where your auto or homeowners insurer is checking your credit every month. Those are soft polls, not hard.

[Listener]

You stink more than the Minnesota Vikings trade for HERSCHEL Walker in 1989. Just kidding. No one stinks that bad. Recently I told you my father in law fell prey to the Iraqi dinar scam and I asked where I might unload it and you said quote unquote the black market. Truth be told, I loved your answer and I think I get what you mean. But I forwarded your response to a bunch of friends and others and none of them thought it would be good advice to have anything to do with a black market. What I think you meant in this case is not some sweet low lit back alley trade, but take my chances with one of the unregulated trading quote unquote businesses that a simple Google search might list. I love what you do, Fred.

[Clark Howard]

Fred, thank you very much and yes, that is what I meant that it was not something you could trade on traditional forex exchange.

[Listener]

Clark talked about going across state lines to buy big ticket items, avoiding sales tax. He should not be advocating this because every state that imposes a sales tax also has a use tax. People are supposed to declare items they bought out of state and brought back home and paid less or nothing in sales tax than if they bought it in their home state. I know a lot of people do this anyway, but it doesn't make it any more okay. And you should at least warn people of how it's supposed to be done. Matthew.

[Clark Howard]

Matthew, thank you. This came up a lot. If you go back when Internet sellers were not charging sales tax, they had a direct advantage over local businesses and a number of states at that time publicized that. That didn't mean you didn't owe the sales tax, it just wasn't collected by the Internet seller. As a practical matter, there was no effective way for states to collect those taxes and it has been a common practice that by your telling, is tax evasion. I think a lot of people put this in a category of tax avoidance, but you may be technically correct that it is tax evasion to not then settle up with your state on the tax.

[Listener]

Clark stinks like my daughter's hockey goalie gear.

[Clark Howard]

Well that's really stinky, right?

[Listener]

I was glad Clark stood up for paying good attorneys reasonable fees and the $700 an hour is a relatively low fee these days. But he missed the mark by calling the fee for attending correspondence sent by a client, a quote unquote junk fee. As attorneys we are responsible for knowing everything and any correspondence set our way, however delivered. If the correspondence that the caller sent would have change the estate plan or otherwise had a negative implication. The failure of the attorney to take the time to read it and appropriately address it would not just be bad client service, it could get them into trouble with the bar. My father, also an attorney, would fire clients who complained about him taking time to read a letter that they sent and quote unquote just wanted to put in the file and not be reviewed. Also, Krista suggesting to look for reviews of attorneys online is bad advice. As a specialty profession, I would not trust unverified and out of context online reviews. I've seen many reviews for colleagues that are clearly not from clients but people wanting to trash the attorney for some reason. A better route is to ask for referrals from people you trust in the profession or that work with attorneys regularly. And additionally, there are good organizations that keep lists of qualified attorneys in the trust and estate practice. The well regarded American College of Trust and Estate Council has a good list of members.

[Clark Howard]

John John, thank you. And I do get asked questions a lot about hiring attorney who specializes in wills, estates and trusts. And I had no idea that there was this particular association with a list of members. I appreciate that.

[Listener]

Clark, you stink as bad as my New York Giants.

[Clark Howard]

You mentioned we got NFL references all over. I love it.

[Listener]

You mentioned on Tuesday's, or I guess it was a podcast I listened to on a Tuesday that you should check the flight status before you leave home and see if it's delayed or canceled. You can come later. I used to think that, but one time my flight said it was delayed so I did not go to the airport and then it changed to on time and I missed my flight. The airline would not rebook me and I had to pay out of pocket, y'all.

[Clark Howard]

So yoel, that is a terrible story and it's inexcusable that United left you stranded and you had to buy a new ticket. I mean, if they're the ones that put the flight is delayed, what heads you lose, tails you lose. That's just not the way to do business. I have found that the real advantage to me when I check status of a flight and I see that it's canceled or delayed is I'm then scrambling to rebook before other people can get those seats because it's kind of like Hunger Games at that point when a flight gets canceled, especially during a holiday period, which is what I was referring to. That's why I want people to use FlightAware in addition to an airline's own status updates to see what's actually going on with your flight. With FlightAware, I want to state again, you put in the flight you're taking you know the route you're going and then you find your flight, you click on it and then there's a thing that'll show you. Where's my plane? Now you can click on it and see what's actually going on with your flight and have early warning system if there is a problem with it.

[Listener]

Clark, all my boyfriend does all day is listen to you. I go to sleep to your voice and I'm startled awake by it. I'm starting to hear it in my nightmares. Any advice, Claire from Connecticut?

[Clark Howard]

Well, Claire, I think you need to tell your boyfriend this is a line he can't cross. That it's either him or Clark and kick me out of his life.

[Listener]

Clark or you, Claire. That's what you mean. It's either. She says it's either me or Clark.

[Clark Howard]

Yeah, right. Right. Thank you. Yeah. So I think you let him know that I am the most annoying person you've ever had to listen to and.

[Listener]

I gotta go or go to clarkdeals.com and find some cheap headphones for Christmas gift for him. Don't you think? Then he can listen with headphones on.

[Clark Howard]

Well, I think. I think it's easier to say just get rid of me, right? I mean, I'm coming through as a digital file. Just. Just dump me. That would be the easiest thing. Okay, I know you don't like that answer.

[Listener]

I don't?

[Clark Howard]

Of course. You immediately did a pitch for Clark deals since his holiday season.

[Listener]

Sure, why not?

[Clark Howard]

Yeah. All right. Well, Claire, I'm really, really sorry. Maybe by osmosis you are picking up some great financial advice that will help you in your life or later in your life. Maybe that'll be the good part of being stuck listening to annoying me. Well, thank you so much for all your posts. I appreciate it so very much. Coming up ahead, I want to talk about great new news with 401ks.

[Progressive Insurance]

This podcast is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game? Shifting a little money here, a little there and hoping it all works out well, with the Name youe Price Tool from Progressive, you can be a better budgeter and potentially lower your insurance bill too. You tell Progressive what you want to pay for car insurance and they'll help find you options within your budget. Try it [e-mail] Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates Price and coverage match limited by state law. Not available in all states. This episode is brought to you by public.com did you know you can lock in a 6% or higher yield with a bond [e-mail] the Federal Reserve announced a big rate cut, and there could be more rate cuts this year and in 2025 as well. That's good news if you're looking to buy a home, but it might not be good for the interest you earn on your cash. So if you want to lock in a 6% or higher yield with a diversified portfolio of high yield and investment grade bonds, check out public.com it only takes a couple of minutes to sign up, and once you lock in your yield, you can earn regular interest payments even as rates decline. Lock in a 6% or higher yield with a bond account at public.com saving but remember, your yield is not locked in until you invest. Brought to you by Public Investing member FINRA and SIPC. As of September 26, 2024, the average annualized yield to worst across the bond account is greater than 6%. Yield to worst is not guaranteed. Not an investment recommendation. All investing involves risk. Visit public.com disclosures Bond account for more info. When it comes to smart money management, one of the best pieces of advice is to make your money work for you. Well, Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide, and you automatically earn cash back on all your purchases. That means there's plenty of opportunities to make that money work. So shop smarter, not harder. Basically, anywhere you go nationwide, it pays to discover. Based on the February 2024 Nielsen report. Learn more at discover.com credit card the ever increasing tools professionals are expected to use to improve efficiency are actually causing their work to be fragmented and exhausting. It's also costing your business. Grammarly delivers a consistent communication experience across your organization's ecosystem, so roadblocks of work get unblocked. Best of all, it only takes days to implement no IT overhead required, so you can unify your team and see results right away. Grammarly unifies your team's voice across platforms. It works seamlessly across over 500,000 web and desktop apps, so all the tools your team uses will work better for your business. When every word your team writes is clear, concise and on brand, everything gets better. Teams that communicate better with Grammarly report 66% less time editing marketing content and 70% improve brand compliance across the company, saving 19 days per year per employee. Equip your team with the gold standard of responsible AI. Join 70,000 teams and 30 million people who trust Grammarly to work faster everywhere they communicate. Go to Grammarly.com enterprise to learn more Grammarly Enterprise Ready AI if you're behind.

[Clark Howard]

On saving for retirement and you're approaching the years that you hope to be able to dump out of work. There's a special provision that Congress passed that starts this year that is weirdly only for people in their early 60s, 60 to 63 years old. And it allows you, when I say this year, I mean obviously your elections for 401k, for 25, you're allowed to save a crazy amount of money in a workplace 401k. If you're staring down the barrel and not having enough money aside to be able to bag work and having the opportunity over those four years to pile money in, it can make a big difference. In just the traditional or Roth version of the 401k, somebody 60 to 63 years old is allowed to put in almost $35,000 into their 401k. The exact amount, 34,750. I mean, this is called super ketchup. That's actually what Congress labeled it, is the super catch up provision. They didn't allow it for people who are 64 and older. They didn't allow it for people 50 to 59 who are covered by regular catch up, which now will be 31 grand you're allowed to do per year. And I saw a chart in the Wall Street Journal they'd taken from Vanguard about what percent of people participate in catch up, and of people who are earning six figures, 150,000 and above, only a little more than half participate in catch up. And it may be they're not even aware it exists because catch up really and particularly super catch up is geared towards people at the higher end of the income scale. Maybe when they were younger, they were dealing with paying for kids and now their kids are out of the nest. And this is an opportunity for catch up and super catch up to put more money aside and build up more wealth. Now, I know I've always got this argument from people about whether you should do traditional or Roth, and it's all about your tax rate right now and all that. But as I've said in the past, if you're earning less than a ton of Money, let's say 400,000 is what I'm calling above, that is a ton ton. You want to be doing the Roth provision, especially if you're behind on saving for retirement, because the advantage is that effectively you're saving a lot, lot more money saving 30 some odd thousand in a Roth 401k versus 30 some odd thousand in a traditional 401k. And then there are some big employers that have something that's on top of this that allows you to do additional money into a 401k that you may not even know exists, but that will allow you to save potentially up to as much as nearly 70 grand in a year. And if you are self employed, you're a solo employee, you have special privileges at any age in something known as a self employed or solo 401k that lets you just shove money into retirement accounts. That is a great opportunity and it's an advantage of being a self employed individual.

[Listener]

Krista okay, Ben in Florida wrote in with this I've always taken your advice to pay off credit card balances a few days before my statement date in order to increase my credit score and this has served me well. Until recently I received a notification from the credit agency that my score had dropped 27 points. What had happened was I had some large bills, home and auto insurance. I'm in Florida after all and I that I had charged to the card and I was planning to pay off a few days before my statement date. As it turns out, the credit company reported my card balance a full two and a half weeks before my statement due date, resulting in a high utilization rate and a massive drop in my credit score. As a result, I no longer have an exceptional credit rating. I've been demoted to very good. I hope my experience will be helpful to other listeners. It's not your statement balance that's reported, but rather your credit card balance at any moment during the month whenever the credit card company decides to report it. So going forward I'll be watching my balances more closely during the month and paying them down if they get above a specified dollar amount.

[Clark Howard]

Okay, so this is a very good post and let me tell you that I've noticed that a lot of credit card companies seems the bigger issuers are now reporting to the bureau continually rather than as they used to what your closing balance was for the month. It's not universal at all. That's what's going on. But obviously your issuer is reporting continually to the credit bureau and showing a spike within the month. Now if you look though, if you have like a credit Karma account or something like that where you can check your score constantly, you will probably see that the score is changing dynamically through a month now where it really didn't do that before. But in the case of your situation the 27 point drop from being somebody who's who is some level of gold and above 780 and now you're still upper 7 hundreds, you're still fine, you're still getting the best loan products and all that. There's no danger sign for you. Where it becomes a problem is somebody who is around 700. A 27 point drop is significant, meaningful and harmful.

[Listener]

Kate in Alabama says is binding arbitration a condition of sale for all cars. Now I negotiated a purchase price and was ready to give them my money, but they would not sell me a car without signing the agreement. I walked. But will I be able to find anyone besides a private seller who won't require an arbitration agreement? I last bought a car more than 10 years ago and I refused to sign then and they still sold me the car.

[Clark Howard]

Okay, so great question, Kate. I had this before from somebody who was so annoyed about this and it's become standard operating procedure. A lot of the dealership groups now are very large publicly traded dealer groups and they as best I know universally they've all adopted the arbitration agreements. Corporate America is terrified of ending up in court and you having your constitutional right to a court event and they're doing these kangaroo court arbitrations. The good news, if there is any, when buying a new vehicle, there's not a lot that might happen that you would have a need to go into arbitration or want to file a suit against a dealer. But I don't like mandatory arbitration at all. I don't want to beat a dead horse because I've been beating that dead horse for decades. If arbitration was a fair system, I'd be okay with it. It's not. It's crooked, it's dirty, it's rotten, and it's unfair.

[Listener]

Greg in California says I hear you talk about medical stuff frequently and almost always as frequently you tell us to get info from a quote unquote medical. Well, what is an example of a medical journal? And where do I find those I can trust? It seems if there's a publication advertisers could be paying for so called studies. Meaning how can I trust them?

[Clark Howard]

All right, so here's my deal is yes, there have been scandals involved where researchers have not done the straight up and up. Occasionally that will happen with the really respected medical journals. But very, very rare that there's any cooking of the books on what you're going to find in the Journal of the American Medical association, the New England Journal of Medicine and Lancet, those three publications. Lancet's a British one. I find that they are excellent and a lot of times doctors are so busy in practice they can't keep up on the latest. That's why I want you, because you're motivated, because you've been diagnosed with something to read to the source where the researchers are cutting edge. What is the latest science and medicine on whatever it is that ails you that may not be widely known in clinical practice. In addition to that, I find that the Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic, even though they're not writing the research of the other three, their explanations of what you need to know about a specific condition you have. Not necessarily the latest, greatest research you'll find in the medical journals, but the information put out for medical consumers at Mayo and at Cleveland. Both of those clinics I think is great. So you're hearing this from somebody who would not have made it an hour in medical school. I don't have a medical or science brain in the least. The only thing I'm worse at is anything in the arts because I got no art side at all. But I can tell you that the medicine and science is tough for me. But I've been able to learn what I've needed to learn with the medical conditions I've had, including cancer, and with my heart. I've been able to learn what I've needed to know by reading these publications. They've been so helpful even if it's hard for me to understand them without reading the stuff and looking at medical terminology and understanding what it means. But it's been very, very helpful to be your own advocate and not get lost in some kind of Google search that takes you down a rabbit hole of stuff that you never know what's accurate, what's real and what's not. The medical journals I have faith in and I hope you have a great weekend. And I want to mention again this weekend we're active with Clark's Christmas Kids trying to take care of children in foster care their Christmas wishes. If you want to make sure that you have impact with your generous dollars this Christmas season, you have my word on it that this our 34th year of Clark's Christmas Kids. Your money is well spent and you know how it's spent on a specific child and his or her wishes @clarks christmas kids.com.