12.19.25 Clark Answers His Critics on Clark Stinks / For Christmas Procrastinators

Summary

The Clark Howard Podcast: Clark Answers His Critics on Clark Stinks / For Christmas Procrastinators

Date: December 19, 2025
Host: Clark Howard
Episode Overview:
This episode is a two-parter. First, Clark responds to listener feedback during the “Clark Stinks” segment, addressing criticisms and alternate viewpoints on a wide range of personal finance topics—everything from cell phone plans to warehouse clubs, air travel, password managers, and college sports. In the second half, Clark shares timely advice for Christmas shopping procrastinators, offering strategies to avoid overspending in the final days before the holiday.

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Main Themes

• Listener Critiques and Clark’s Responses: Clark reacts to audience feedback, offering clarifications, acknowledging his blind spots, and providing additional insight.
• Last-Minute Christmas Shopping Advice: Clark shares strategies for those who haven't finished their holiday shopping, including how to avoid impulse buys and when the best deals actually occur.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Clark’s Christmas Kids Initiative

• Clark and his team thank listeners for supporting the annual foster care gift drive.
  “[T]hank you so much. If you have been a long time generous donor, I'm so grateful to you. If this is the first year you do it, I'm so thankful to you.” (Clark, 01:46)
• All donated money goes directly to providing gifts for foster children—with minimal overhead beyond credit card fees.
  "There's no overhead siphoning off. The only fee we face is for Christmas credit card processing.” (Clark, 01:46)

2. “Clark Stinks” – Listener Feedback (02:43–22:50)

A. Scam Prevention Tips (03:15)

• A listener suggests that instead of a family code word, families should ask personal questions only their relatives could answer, such as a pet’s name.
• Clark agrees and highlights the rise of AI-powered voice scams and the importance of having a verification system in place.
• “[T]his thing of people impersonating family members, creating a sense of crisis and stealing money just goes on and on.” (Clark, 03:58)

B. Cell Phone Deals (05:01)

• Comment: Costco members can get better T-Mobile deals in-store, especially with military discounts and promotions.
• Clark’s Take: Great deals are still possible with major carriers—but they're harder to find as prices rise.
  “It's not impossible to get a good deal with brand name AT&T, Verizon or T-Mobile. It's just gotten much tougher…” (Clark, 05:45)

C. The Not-So-Rosy Side of Air Travel (07:35)

• Listener Danny details the many downsides of modern air travel—expensive parking, overpriced airport food, rental car fees, rude passengers, and unaccountable airlines.
• Clark acknowledges these frustrations, sharing a humorous personal story about his laptop being knocked off by a reclined seat—twice.
• “...I still love it [travel]. But I'm so glad you did lay out that my...rose colored glasses are really not telling the whole story.” (Clark, 10:11)

D. Costco vs. BJ’s Warehouse Clubs (10:34)

• Amy in Virginia: Argues BJ’s offers lower prices and better coupon stacking—and their online shopping experience is superior to Costco’s.
• Clark admits that “They all have their own personalities,” showing a BJ’s receipt with substantial savings, but noting BJ’s lacks the bulk purchasing power of Costco or Sam’s Club.
• “You may be paying a little more, but...you're benefiting from BJ’s wholesale and that you can buy much more of what you want there overall.” (Clark, 12:59)

E. Password Manager Debate (14:22)

• Eric in California: Criticizes LastPass for past breaches, suggests switching to Bitwarden.
• Clark: Acknowledges LastPass’s breaches, but reiterates that password managers or the new technology “passkeys” remain much more secure than reusing passwords.
• “The best thing of all is passkeys…it's a thing that all the big tech companies are cooperating on that is far more secure than passwords, at least for now.” (Clark, 14:43)

F. Credit Card Rental Car Coverage (15:45)

• Listener question: Is the Fidelity Visa a good alternative to Chase Sapphire for car rental coverage?
• Clark: Fidelity’s is usually secondary coverage (easier to claim with Chase Sapphire); exceptions exist for international rentals.
• “As best I know it's secondary credit card...not primary...what makes the Chase Sapphire Reserve so valuable...” (Clark, 16:07)

G. Defending Short-Term Rentals (17:25)

• Lisa in North Carolina: Disagrees with Clark’s negative portrayal of Airbnb/VRBO.
• Clark: Acknowledges many do it right, but criticizes the platforms’ lack of renter protections when things go wrong:
  "Airbnb and VRBO have not done a good job of protecting the renters of these properties because they see their customer really as the property owners." (Clark, 18:27)

H. Paying College Athletes and System Fairness (19:29)

• Mark in Florida: Skeptical that salary caps could fix college athletics.
• Clark: Feels current NCAA system is broken—he jokes about wanting to become “emperor of college sports.”
• “The economics and the lack of system in college sports is harming the experience...” (Clark, 19:50)

I. Notable Quip - "Clark as Sleep Aid" (21:54)

• Jake in Ohio: Says the Clark Howard Podcast instantly puts his one-year-old to sleep, a family tradition of sorts.
• Clark laughs and embraces his “superpower”:
  "It is true. I am so dull that, I mean, it's not like a sleeping pill...I can put any baby or adult to sleep in just minutes." (Clark, 22:50)

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3. Christmas Procrastinators: How to Shop Smart, Last-Minute (25:57–31:58)

A. Retailers’ Last-Minute Pricing Strategy (25:57)

• Alert: Prices are now at their highest for in-demand gifts; retailers exploit procrastinators.
• Clark’s Key Insight:
  • The hottest gifts are now at their most expensive.
  • Items that didn’t sell well (“unloved items”) will be discounted as retailers seek to clear inventory.
• "If something's in demand, it will be the highest price it will be of the season, even higher than it will be outside of the holiday period..." (Clark, 25:57)

B. What to Buy Last-Minute (28:19)

• Opt for quality items that simply didn’t meet retailers' sales forecasts—they can be “sweet spot” bargains.
• "I'm not talking about buying somebody something that is like, was so unloved, nobody would ever want it." (Clark, 28:13)

C. Pro Tip - Post-Christmas Shopping (29:19)

• Best bargains: Wait until early January (about the 5th onward), when stores are desperate to clear inventory and markdowns are deepest.
• Suggests (humorously) that the smartest families exchange gifts January 15th for the lowest prices.
• "The week between Christmas and New Year's...Don't do any returns then. Don't do any bargain shopping then, and don't use any of those gift cards till after the beginning of January." (Clark, 29:19)
• “The smartest family in the world would exchange gifts January 15th...you'll save the most money buying them.” (Clark, 29:19)

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4. Quick Listener Questions

A. Is Venmo Safe for Big Gifts? (30:53)

• Clark: Venmo is safe on the recipient end, but set up a separate bank account for Venmo to protect yourself if your account is compromised.
• He remains anti-Zelle due to unresolved security concerns.
• “With Venmo and Cash App, I want you to set up a separate bank account at a place you don't normally bank or credit union…Big bad Zelle has so many structural problems.” (Clark, 31:02)

B. Costco Markups and Black Friday/Cyber Monday Deals (31:58)

• Clark: Deep discounts are usually supported by manufacturers, not Costco lowering its markup below the 14% maximum.
• Price tags ending in .97 means Costco is selling below cost.

C. Maxing Out Roth IRAs—Is a Loan Worth It? (33:27)

• Clark: Don’t take a loan. You can make 2025 IRA contributions until April 15, 2026—no rush. If you need to, temporarily dip into your emergency fund, but avoid loans.
• "You borrow from the calendar is the way you're going to get that full contribution made for 25. But do it in 26." (Clark, 34:34)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Scam Prevention:
  “This thing of people impersonating family members, creating a sense of crisis and stealing money just goes on and on.” (Clark, 03:58)

• On Short-Term Rentals:
  "Airbnb and VRBO have not done a good job of protecting the renters of these properties because they see their customer really as the property owners." (Clark, 18:27)

• On Christmas Shopping:
  "The smartest family in the world would exchange gifts January 15th...and you'll save the most money buying them." (Clark, 29:19)

• On His “Superpower”:
  "I can put any baby or adult to sleep in just minutes." (Clark, 22:50)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Clark’s Christmas Kids and Mission: 00:50–02:34
• Clark Stinks Segment Begins: 02:43
• Scam Prevention Feedback: 03:15–05:01
• Cell Phone Plan Deals: 05:01–07:22
• Air Travel Reality Check: 07:35–10:11
• Bj's vs. Costco Debate: 10:34–14:22
• Password Manager Security: 14:22–15:45
• Credit Card Rental Car Coverage: 15:45–17:24
• Short-Term Rental Defense: 17:25–19:29
• College Sports / NIL Commentary: 19:29–21:17
• Listener Sleep Anecdote / Clark’s Dry Tone: 21:54–23:20
• Christmas Procrastinator Advice: 25:57–31:58
  • Peak prices and bargain-hunting: 25:57–29:19
  • January deals and gift cards: 29:19–30:52
• Venmo Safety: 30:53–31:58
• Costco Markup/Deal Mechanics: 31:58–33:27
• Roth IRA Funding Question: 33:27–end

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Tone and Language

Clark’s approach remains friendly, accessible, sometimes self-effacing, and always focused on practical consumer empowerment. The episode mixes humor (Clark as an accidental sleep aid), humility (reading and owning up to critical feedback), and concrete, actionable money advice.

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Summary

This episode is a classic “Clark Stinks”—a community-driven roundup where Clark takes listener critiques seriously, providing clarifications and candidly admitting both strengths and shortcomings in his advice. It’s bookended by highly practical suggestions for anyone still scrambling to complete holiday shopping, encouraging savvy, patient, and strategic spending. Listeners get to witness Clark’s expertise, humanity, and humor—living out his mission to help others “save more, spend less, and avoid rip-offs.”

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 so you make better financial decisions in your life. And I want to begin today thanking all those who donated to this, our 35th year of Clark's Christmas Kids. This is where we help children in foster care have a smile on their faces Christmas morning by giving them gifts to open. And you can still donate to help us in this joyous thing that we have been able to do for 35 years by going to clarkschristmaskids.com and donate whatever you can afford for a child who's not with his or her family this Christmas and is in foster care.

[Co-host or Producer]

Over 10,000 kids and all the money goes directly to these kids.

[Clark Howard]

Yeah. There's no overheads siphoning off. The only fee we face is for Christmas credit card processing. That's the only one we have to deal with. So thank you so much. If you have been a long time generous donor, I'm so grateful to you. If this is the first year you do it, I'm so thankful to you. And if this isn't a year you can afford to do it, but you help us next year, I'll be thrilled. Now let's go to what you don't appreciate, where I'm stinking it up and Clark stinks. And after we do that, I'm going to give you my ideas. If you are a procrastinator who this close to Christmas you haven't filled out your nice list yet. We're going to talk about what you.

[Co-host or Producer]

Should do and I have no idea what you're going to say in that you have not told me so I'm very curious. I can't wait for that.

[Clark Howard]

How do you know it's going to be useful? It might not be.

[Co-host or Producer]

I bet it will be.

[Clark Howard]

Well we'll see. But right now, we get to see where you feel I was not useful. Or worse, in today's Clark stinks. I should have never encouraged you to speak. You almost think I'm pretty stupid.

[Co-host or Producer]

You should be ashamed of yourself.

[Clark Howard]

Well, maybe I'm wrong.

[Co-host or Producer]

Maybe I'm wrong.

[Clark Howard]

Maybe you're right, pal. For those who watch the YouTube show, you didn't dance that much today. Usually you. Yeah, there we go.

[Co-host or Producer]

All right. All right. We're going to start.

[Clark Howard]

Nobody ever wants to see me dance. You want. You want people to say I stink? That would be a way.

[Co-host or Producer]

Oh, my gosh. No way. All right. Ross in North Carolina says Clark wasn't so stinky but could have done better with his suggestion for families to come up with a code word to defeat scammers who are imitating the voice of a family member. The problem with code words is that everyone has to be well informed and then be able to remember that exact word in a time of crisis. Instead, all that it's needed to determine if the person calling is really a loved one or a scammer in disguise is to ask them some question or questions that only the real person would be able to answer. For example, the name of a current or past pet. It's easy to think up unique questions like this, but doing a little beforehand practice could be helpful. Maybe this would be a fun activity to try at the next family gathering.

[Clark Howard]

That's a great suggestion. This thing of people impersonating family members, creating a sense of crisis and stealing money just goes on and on. I just heard over Thanksgiving a story from someone where money was stolen from a grandparent in one of these scams where they were told that a relative was in jail. And that's an oldie but baddie and somebody just got taken by it again. And now with AI with the voice pattern theft, it's so easy for it to sound like the loved one. And that's why we're talking about code word or this case, the pet's name or whatever that you have some way of in that moment where you're panicked, oh, my goodness, this has happened to my kid or grandkid or niece or nephew or whatever. Have something, a system that the whole extended family is in on to protect yourself from these thieves.

[Co-host or Producer]

Great. Time to do it. In the next week, a lot of people are going to be having family dinners with extended family. You could be making a call to a relative and just talk about this real quick. All right. James in South Carolina says Clark mentioned that T mobile would not give him a good deal. But he forgot to mention the Costco deal. We recently got four new Samsung S25 phones for free for $140 a month with the military discount for the experience. More plan. But wait, there's more. Each phone got $400 worth of Visa and Costco cards. So I got $1,600 total and excluding taxes, that comes out to $73 a month for four phones. With the better plan, we have top prioritization for the network. All MVNOs except for Google Fi have much lower prioritization.

[Clark Howard]

You know, I'm so glad about your post because it's not impossible to get a good deal with brand name at&T Verizon or T Mobile. It's just gotten much tougher is all three have been pushing up prices and the CEO of Verizon recently has been on an apology tour saying, yeah, we overdid it. We got, you know, he didn't use the word greedy, but we pushed up prices too much and we made things too complicated for customers. And so the big emphasis you've been hearing from me is people are creatures of habit and they tend to go to what feels the most familiar and comfortable. And that's why you see at&T Verizon&T mobile advertising every three seconds in football, even in the same commercial break, you'll see ads from two of the three of the big three cell phone carriers. And I want you to look at the alternatives. You were able combining what was available to you for your service to this great country with your Costco membership, with the T Mobile thing in the store, you were able to get a great deal for four. That's what I want you doing. I want you to really think through are you getting a good deal? If you're not, how are you going to get a good deal? And that's why we put so much effort on clark.com into offering so many alternatives, including many discount brands that are secretly or quietly owned by the big three.

[Co-host or Producer]

We have someone on the team and her job is to look at these all the time.

[Clark Howard]

All the time. Dallas lives, eats, sleeps 24 7, 365 cell phone plan so you will save money.

[Co-host or Producer]

Danny in Florida says Clark, your aroma continues to fester. Like my sweat socks. Yeah. You continually accentuate the joys of travel, which have their merits, of course, but there are many potential downsides to air travel that you tend to gloss over too much in the spirit of level setting. Below is my list of unavoidable perils that I wish you would voice more loudly and frequently. Hopefully the Clarky base can better manage these by having pre thought their consequences. Here we go. Airport transportation and parking is expensive whether it be a taxi, Uber, Lyft ride or parking lot. Airport food is two to three times more expensive than the general market prices. Rental car companies continue to find ways to add expenses. Expensive rates including toll charges, dent and ding damage charges, gas tank pre fill and other surcharges. Third party booking sites have challenging customer service when it comes to managing changes and issues and service providers, that is Hotels, rental car providers, airlines aren't willing to cooperate when these booking issues arise. Expect inconsiderate people to act in a self serving way. Think seat kickers, seat recliners, unruly behavior, smells and armrest hoggers and potential long waits in lines. Finally, airlines do not care about damaging your baggage and typically are not held accountable for doing so except in certain cases. And good luck filing a claim for damage compensation with these things in mind before heading to the airport. There should be happy trails for all.

[Clark Howard]

All right Denny, okay, everything you said is true. I gotta tell a funny thing that happened to me recently. In fact, people around were laughing. I was on a flight and I was working, had my laptop out on the micro tray and this person in front of me would violently bring their seat back and my laptop goes flying off. It goes bam. To the floor and people around are like oh man. And when the laptop is okay, they were laughing. Then the person gets up later in flight, goes to the bathroom, comes back, does the same thing again. My laptop goes flying. I mean, it's just one of those things that happens when you're in crunch class and you're trying to work. I mean, there are a lot of things that happen with travel that are not so great. I just love the adventure experience, going places, doing things. I'm one of the few people out there who even has fun when I'm traveling for work. I just.

[Co-host or Producer]

True, I've seen it. I've witnessed it many times.

[Clark Howard]

Make the mundane exciting and the exciting mundane. That's me. And so yeah, everything you said is true. But even with all that, I still love it. But I'm so glad you did lay out that my. What's that? My rose colored glasses are really not telling the whole story. You just did.

[Co-host or Producer]

Amy in Virginia says you were incorrect in your recent discussion of warehouse clubs. Everyone knows that Costco is your favorite store, but to state that Costco's prices are lower than BJ's is factually incorrect. I've Done my research and you should, too. I've been a member of Both Costco and BJ's for several years and have decided to cancel Costco and keep BJ's. They carry the same exact items and brands and the prices are always either slightly, slightly lower at BJ's or quite a bit lower for the same item. This is across the board. On top of lower prices, BJ's offers coupons you can clip in the app that are automatically applied at checkout, resulting in far lower prices than Costco. You can use manufacturer's coupons on top of store coupons, which is a fantastic savings. In addition, the BJ's online shopping experience is far superior. I can see if BJ's has an item at my local warehouse and I can see the warehouse price. Not so with Costco. In fact, I find the Costco online experience to be abysmal. Just tell me if an item's available locally and tell me the price. So please do some actual factual research and perhaps name your next dog, Berkeley Jensen. And also, I want to say we had a few people write in about this segment. People are very passionate about warehouse clubs in this audience. And Brian in Florida wrote in, he said Costco's 14% markup is misleading because they have so much an overhead and they keep hiring people and other clubs are becoming more efficient and they're just bringing more people and paying them more and stuff like that.

[Clark Howard]

So BJ's wholesale. I just last week went shopping at BJ's wholesale with their new coupons. I load them electronically into my BJ's app on my phone and it's a little bit of a hassle to load them, but I saved a ton of money using the coupons. And yes, you're right, you can double stack their in their BJ's wholesale coupons with the manufacturer's coupons and get double savings. And I've got a receipt here. Just happens I took a picture of a receipt of how much money I saved in BJ's recently using the coupons. Yep. So here's my coupon savings.

[Co-host or Producer]

Wow.

[Clark Howard]

You saved $52.68 on a 116.68 purchase. So it's so wild. I had a picture of that anyway.

[Co-host or Producer]

Not really.

[Clark Howard]

It's not. I just thought it was so great that I saved that much money. So I was getting BJ's wholesale prices already and then with all the stacking of the coupons, saved another. What was it, $56. That was great. So, yeah, they all do different things. But even though you have found BJ's prices to be the same or lower, that's not routine. That because BJ's Wholesale has far more variety of items, they don't have the same purchasing power that Sam's Club or Costco have. So overall, you're benefiting from BJ's wholesale and that you can buy much more of what you want there overall. You may be paying a little more, but they're all. They all have their own personalities. Now, the thing from Brian again was about the overhead at Costco. So when I talk about the 14%, 15% markup, Costco runs the stores, pays the employees, pays the leases, does all that out of the membership fees. And the 14% is what they mark up the items. So 14 for brand name, 15% for store brand. That's from what they paid for the item to what you pay for it on average. And when I said I mean max, that's the max.

[Co-host or Producer]

When I said it wasn't wild that you had that receipt, I meant because I'm not surprised that you would do that. Okay. Eric in California says in this case it may be Krista who stinks. Well, I agree that password managers are great tools. I don't agree that LastPass is a secure solution. They've had several breaches over the years. Krista needs to change solutions. I was able to easily switch to Bit Warden. I have no affiliation with them.

[Clark Howard]

Yeah, so that was a really embarrassing thing for LastPass because not once but twice as I recall, they've suffered data breaches. And if somebody gets the master password, then they've got the keys to the kingdom to get any of your passwords. And. But it's been years, I think, since that second data breach they had at LastPass. I can tell you that a password manager is superior, even if there's the risk of hacking into them compared to human nature, where people reuse the same password over and over and over again when they're having to create it on their own. And the best thing of all is passkeys. If you don't know what passkeys are, it's a thing that all the big tech companies are cooperating on that is far more secure than passwords, at least for now, and is something involving using your iPhone or Android as your verification instead of a password.

[Co-host or Producer]

Kimberly in Michigan says in a recent question the listener was considering the Chase Sapphire credit card for rental car coverage. He mentioned he currently has a Fidelity visa that pays 2% cash back. Looking into that card as a possible replacement when my Discover IT card is absorbed by Citibank. I see the Fidelity card has rental car covered in its benefits and no annual fee. Thanks for passing on the savings.

[Clark Howard]

So first of all, Discover has been taken over by Capital One, not Citibank, and so far Capital One has not botched up as far as I've been able to read or see any of the wonderful benefits that Discover offered its customers. Now over time corporate America figures out how to mess things up and Capital One may degrade the value of many of the Discover brand products. They have not done so yet on the Fidelity card. As best I know it's secondary credit card it is car rental coverage, not primary what makes the Chase Sapphire Reserve so valuable. And the Preferred also offers primary is primary coverage means it's a much easier process and claim with the car rental company than it is whenever the coverage is secondary. That means your own automobile insurer has to be involved and then credit card companies involved and it's an administrative headache.

[Co-host or Producer]

Plus I would rather not file a claim with my primary car insurance and that could be yeah, and also the Fidelity does kick into full primary insurance only if you're overseas. I did look that up.

[Clark Howard]

Oh, you looked it up, yes.

[Co-host or Producer]

Oh Lisa, North Carolina says Although I generally value your advice, Clark, I'm growing weary of the persistent negativity towards short term rentals like Airbnb and vrbo. As with any industry, there will always be bad actors and negative experiences, but those are the minority we own three guests, favorite properties, work hard to deliver exceptional stays, including a recent guest who got engaged on our deck and have the reviews and repeat visitors to show for it. Short term rentals may come with challenges such as stricter cancellation policies, although not always, and guests should be aware of that, but they also have many benefits such as having an actual home in which to stay. As professors who run this as a side business, it's discouraging to hear our work repeatedly dismissed. And instead of blanket criticism, I'd encourage you to advise listeners to reconciliation policies carefully prior to booking and review past guest feedback. Not to say new hosts won't also do a great job, but reviews do speak volumes. And a couple people who are, you know, kind of entrepreneurial in this and using this as a small business did write in with similar sentiments and I.

[Clark Howard]

Appreciate that so much. And you and others that do this as a part time living, you may be running the greatest businesses ever. The problems that keep occurring are that for people who aren't running these as great businesses And a consumer rents. Airbnb and VRBO have not done a good job of protecting the renters of these properties because they see their customer really as the property owners. It's been an unbalanced kind of thing. And so that's where for me the problem has been. Absolutely. This is something that can work out great. And I've had great experiences with both VRBO and Airbnb. But what keeps coming up is when people do have a problem, getting it resolved has not been favorable to the renter in so many cases.

[Co-host or Producer]

Mark in Florida says Clark, you don't stink, but you are naive. You mentioned that the major colleges need a salary cap and then it will be an equal playing field. You should know better. Prior to nil, there were so many under the table or backroom deals with bad actors buying players. That will occur again. It probably is still occurring. Just my thoughts and I enjoy the show.

[Clark Howard]

Thank you, Mark. Right now we have a system in college football that is no system. College basketball as well. And to protect the fans, protect the sport and protect the players, not to mention university budgets, there needs to be a real rethink of how college football operates. And we're not a sports show. But the economics and the lack of system in college sports is harming the experience. And for my next role in life, I'll be the emperor of college sports and everybody in the conferences will hate me. But I promise it'll be a much more functional system. What do you think of that about that emperor of college sports?

[Co-host or Producer]

Yeah. I think if they looked into your history, the skeleton in your closet is that you helped get rid of the football team at your college and you wouldn't get that job.

[Clark Howard]

Oh, man, you know things.

[Co-host or Producer]

No, I had to bring it up.

[Clark Howard]

So what's funny? Last time I visited American University, that's where I got my undergraduate degree. They were selling T shirts in the student bookstore that were still undefeated for the football team. And I said to one of the students working there, I said, you know, American used to have a football team. He said, no, we didn't. I left it at that.

[Co-host or Producer]

So quickly. You. They did have a football team when you were there and you were on.

[Clark Howard]

We were in financial trouble, and I was on the university senate as the undergraduate student representative, and I led the motion to kill the football team.

[Co-host or Producer]

And after that in the hallway.

[Clark Howard]

Oh, that was before. That was when it was on discussion. I got roughed up by two of the football players.

[Co-host or Producer]

So this is a really remember.

[Clark Howard]

I remember one of the big linemen had picked Me up against the wall, my voice squeaking. You can't intimidate me.

[Co-host or Producer]

All right, this is like the longest Clark stinks ever. But it is our last one of the year. We're only doing a couple more shows, so I'm going to read one more quick thing from Jake in Ohio. Clark, I don't think you stink, but my one year old son thinks you do. When a car ride sleep is mission critical and he fights it like the big monster megabanks fight. Despite moral decency, my wife and I have discovered a secret weapon. The Clark Howard podcast. Without failure, calm, measured voice and dry financial topics act as the perfect lullaby, delivering a near 100% NAP success rate. The irony is not lost on me because when I was a kid, my parents would consistently listen to your radio show in the car. I nagged them to change the station to literally anything else. But somehow, through financial osmosis, I am now a willing and regular listener. So while my son may not yet appreciate the man from Roth, I certainly do. You and your team have greatly enhanced my financial literacy, which will serve my family for years to come. And for that, I am grateful.

[Clark Howard]

So with my middle child, Stephanie, who when she would have trouble falling asleep, she would say, tell me a story, daddy. And I'd start telling her something like really dry, like talking about dollar cost averaging or something, and she'd go like, right to sleep. So. So it is true. I am so dull that, I mean, it's not like a sleeping pill that could have bad side effects. I can put any baby or adult to sleep in just minutes.

[Co-host or Producer]

A superpower.

[Clark Howard]

It is a superpower. Oh, man. You can tell when you're talking to somebody and they start looking at their. If they wear a watch, their watch, or they're yawning or they're looking around looking for an escape. You can tell they're talking to Dollsville Me. I love that one. Oh. Coming up ahead, we're going to talk about the roughly third of you who haven't done anything yet. With less than a week till Christmas to fulfill your nice list, how you going to not have your wallet ripped apart? I'm going to tell you.

[Sponsor/Advertiser]

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[Clark Howard]

So you hate shopping. You hate the crowds. You haven't done anything for anybody on your list. Or maybe you've bought things for a couple people, but you haven't bought the rest. What are you going to do now? Because the retailers, they know your game and the prices are the highest they are of the Christmas season, the last week leading into Christmas Day. Because this is when they got you right where they want you. But do they? Yes and no. Because what happens this close to Christmas? Christmas is prices go two ways at once. There are items that are the in demand items that retailers may have offered great deals during Black Friday month. They may have offered incredible bargains Black Friday weekend, Cyber Monday. But now it's a whole different thing. If something's in demand, it will be the highest price it will be of the season, even higher than it will be outside of the holiday period when you look forward. But not every item is a hit. And the other thing that happens in the last few days before Christmas is retailers online. Although really it's probably pretty much Too late for online. So a lot of the last few days are in person. There will be items in the store that were unloved that retailers bought to plan. They plan out like a year ahead, some retailers, more than a year ahead, we're going to have these promotional items and they'll be guesstimating what demand's going to be for them. Well, a lot of those items they buy just for the Christmas selling season will sell below plan. And they don't want to get stuck with them after Christmas because then the markdowns they have to take are brutal. So there are items that did not sell well, but could be totally appropriate for somebody on your nice list.

[Co-host or Producer]

So wait, let me get this straight. You're saying buy the stuff that nobody else wanted?

[Clark Howard]

Nobody. Not as many. Okay. So yeah. So for people on your naughty list that you have to buy something for anyway, buy the item nobody wanted. But a lot of these items, you know, a big national retailer will have bought so many thousand units or whatever the measurement is, that was what they anticipated the demand was going to be. It could be a perfectly fine item, but the demand was not as strong as their buyers anticipated. Those are the sweet spot items where something that you think would be the nice for that person. I'm not talking about buying somebody something that is like, was so unloved, nobody would ever want it. That's not what I'm talking about. Unless it's somebody you really don't like and you have to buy them a gift. But there's a lot of items out there that are in this kind of zone where they are marked down and. Can I say something about the week after Christmas right now or do you want me to shut up?

[Co-host or Producer]

Of course.

[Clark Howard]

Okay, I've mentioned this before. I mentioned it like a few weeks ago. I want to emphasize it again that the week between Christmas and New Year's has become a huge shopping week, particularly in person at stores. Because the people who are going to get gift cards Christmas Day and they'll go in the store to use them, at the same time people are returning items. So it creates this huge demand cycle. The week between Christmas and New Year's don't do any returns then. Don't do any bargain shopping then, and don't use any of those gift cards till after the beginning of January. The reason you do is January is dead time. In retail stores that were packed, you could now shoot a cannon off inside. You get to mid January, you're not going to hit anybody. Just make sure you don't get into that return cycle after you're allowed to at a particular retailer. That's when things are marked down their most. In January, starting about fifth, sixth forward. Anything left, they got to get rid of. And those are the cheapest prices. In fact, the smartest family in the world would exchange gifts January 15th. I mean, that's the ultimate procrastinator prize. You don't give people gifts to open December 25th. Give them gifts to open Jan15 or something like that, and you'll save the most money buying them. All right. I am crazy, aren't I?

[Co-host or Producer]

No. Yeah, that's crazy. Like Fox.

[Clark Howard]

I don't know.

[Co-host or Producer]

Jeff in Tennessee says his Venmo a secure way to transfer a large annual monetary gift to a relative. I don't want to send a check in the mail.

[Clark Howard]

Yeah, it's absolutely safe for the person who's getting it. The issue is for you, if somebody gets into your Venmo account and they're sending money to themselves. That's why with Venmo and Cash App, I want you to set up a separate bank account at a place you don't normally bank or credit union. That's just for Venmo or Cash App. And for reasons I've stated too many times, Big bad Zelle has so many structural problems. I don't like using Zell under any circumstance because of the failure of them to properly protect consumers. But if you're going to use Venmo to send money to a relative, absolutely fine. That's not the problem. It's that somebody else gets into your Venmo tied up with your regular bank account, and then money that you need to live on goes out the door.

[Co-host or Producer]

All right, now this goes back to Clark Stinks. We're talking about warehouse clubs in your segment about Costco's markup. But I thought we'd ask this real quick. Glenn in Minnesota says Clark recently said or implied Costco is a maximum 14% markup on furniture. Yet during the Cyber Monday week, I saw sales with price reductions much greater than 14%. Is Costco selling at a loss or is their markup actually greater?

[Clark Howard]

Okay, what a wonderful question. All right, so if an item at Costco, normally the price code is ends in 97 cents, Costco is marking it down below its cost. But when you look at something like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, all the deals Costco offered in phases through the month of November, actually, they started the first one late October this year. When you see those deals that are being offered, they're not doing that typical retail Thing of marking it up to marking it down. They have worked out in advance with the manufacturer to do a promotion with them where the manufacturer is taking the hit on reducing the cost of the item for a Black Friday Cyber Monday promotion. So the markup remains 14%. The manufacturer wanting to sell move those units through Costco gave them that special discount on those units that they sold during the holiday cycle.

[Co-host or Producer]

And Andrew in Iowa says, is it worth it to take out a loan to max out my wife's and my Ira Roth IRAs. I recently got a raise and we have had some unanticipated expenses. But since my income wasn't increased until recently and some of that went towards this expense, we might not fully fund our Roth IRAs this year. I could almost entirely liquidate our emergency fund to hit the contribution limit, but that makes me uncomfortable. I think a small loan might be a better option. Unless we were to put money in at the exact worst time and the market immediately crashed. This seems like an easy yes. We save roughly 25% by having a tax advantaged account in exchange for an annual interest rate well below that and it would be paid off before a full year of interest anyway. What are your thoughts?

[Clark Howard]

So you save 25% of your pay. Is that what you. I think that's the implication here. I'm not worried about you temporarily eating up your emergency fund to fully fund the Roth in this cycle because if.

[Co-host or Producer]

Something happened you could pull out the contributions.

[Clark Howard]

Yeah, but I don't. I don't even want to.

[Co-host or Producer]

You don't want to do that?

[Clark Howard]

No, I don't. I don't even want to go that path. So you have until you file your return, 425 and 26 to do the contribution you want to do to the Roth 425. So you may not need to even do this either or because you obviously live on substantially less than what you make even with this unusual cycle of expenses you had recently. So if you can get the money funded into the Roth 425. Because remember, if you make a contribution in 26, it will say online or on a physical form it'll say is this a 25 contribution or is this a 26 contribution? So you're able to look back with it up to when you file your return. So I don't think you have to look at this as a start kind of thing. You got to get done by New Year's Eve. It can happen in 26 and have the look back be helping you fill out the 25 contribution. But even if it meant you had to temporarily reduce your emergency fund, I'm not worried about you, because you have this mentality of living on so substantially less than what you make. And you just got the raise. So, yeah, I want you to make the full contribution. No, you don't need to do a temporary loan for it. You borrow from the calendar is the way you're going to get that full contribution made for 25. But do it in 26. And remember, next year, larger contributions allowed to Roth IRAs. First time in a long time. The limits have gone up 7,500. Next year, 50 and over 8,600. And I want to thank you so much for joining us today. Hope you have an absolutely wonderful weekend. And that next week, as Christmas approaches, is absolutely joyous for you. And we will be at your service Monday.