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The Clark Howard Podcast
12.31.24 BEST OF: Become A Price Negotiator / Warning: Dietary Supplements & Protein Powders
00:36:43
BEST OF: Become A Price Negotiator / Warning: Dietary Supplements & Protein Powders
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- [00:01]
Gemini
This episode is brought to you by Google Gemini. With the Gemini app you can talk live and have a real time conversation with an AI assistant. It's great for all kinds of things like if you want to practice for an upcoming interview, ask for advice on things to do in a new city, or brainstorm creative ideas. And by the way, this script was actually read by Gemini. Download the Gemini app for iOS and Android today. Must be 18 to use Gemini Live.
- [00:25]
Kraken Representative
Is crypto perfect? Nope. But neither was email when it was invented in 1972. And yet today we send 3 billion emails every single day. Crypto is no different. It's new, but like email, it's also revolutionary. With Kraken, it's easy to start your crypto journey with 24. 7 support when you need it. Go to kraken.com and see what crypto can be. Not investment advice Crypto trading involves risk of loss. Cryptocurrency services are provided to U.S. and U.S. territory customers by Payword Ventures, Inc. PVI DBA Kraken. Visit PBI's disclosures@kraken.com legal disclosures hope you're.
- [00:56]
Clark Howard
Having a great holiday week. I am off on adventures, so this is a best of edition of the Clark Howard Podcast. I hope you enjoy it and that you have an enjoyable holiday week. It's great to have you here on the Clark Howard Show. You know our mission is to serve you with advice and information that empowers you to make better financial decisions in your life. I hope that you're getting our free incredible daily newsletters in your email every Monday through Friday. If you're not, what are you waiting for? We work hard to send you relevant, timely and useful stuff that you can act on to make a difference in your own life and so you can see what's there. They're free clark.com newsletters and we're not like some sleazy company that makes it really easy for you to sign up for something, makes you impossible for you to quit. If you hate our newsletters, just as easy to get rid of them as it was to subscribe to them. Isn't that the way it should be when you sign up for something in today's show, I'm going to begin with something that you may not think about because survey says only one in four people realize that you can negotiate price on something you think is a fixed price. Also, does it seem like everyone on social media right now? I mean, everywhere you look they're pitching a supplement or a powder that's supposed to make your life so much better. What do you need to know? I'm going to share the cautions you need to be aware of. So we know when we are going to buy a car that you negotiate the price, right? It's part of the thing. Unless you buy fixed price like from Tesla, it's all negotiable. We know that when you have Internet service at your home that the price is not the price, that it's always subject to bargaining. But what if we're doing a kitchen remodel the appliances for it? We think the price is the price at least 75% of the time according to survey data. People just say, oh, so that's what the new oven costs or that's what the built in microwave is, or that's what the refrigerator is and people just pay. It's Consumer Reports information about how seldom people comparison shop. But you absolutely can negotiate. It's crazy that you can, but people don't. And when they do, do you know that 2/3 of people who try got a better deal? Yeah, that's what Kiplinger says, that if you do try to negotiate, most of the time they may not be happy with you, but the appliance seller is going to offer you a better deal. It's funny that we think about this in so many other parts of our lives and then we're doing something that's really expensive. Just know you can. And while I'm on this topic of appliances, there's something that's a beef of mine I want to share with you. There's this thing where people get excited doing a reno of their kitchen where they think, oh wow, we're putting in these beautiful countertops and we're putting in these beautiful cabinets and we're doing all this wonderful lighting in here and all that. So that means we've got to buy the fanciest brand name appliances that exist on planet Earth. No. And you know, real estate agents will tell you, you know, well, you put in a fancy kitchen like that, you can't put in run of the mill appliances because the buyer is going to just turn their noses up at that man. Let me tell you, the reliability of those high end appliances is terrible. Terrible. On the other hand, the mid market appliances that have large units of production are likely to be much, much, much more reliable. I was talking with a relative who called me for advice because they had done a kitchen reno and put in this really fancy series of appliances and they love to cook and entertain, you know, preparing a feast for people who come Over. So their fancy oven that they bought that was this premium thingy is broken seven times. And they were talking to me about what they do with the manufacturer because the manufacturer was like, yeah, not our problem. And I walked him through the process. But the thing is, the mid market high volume that don't have as many gizmos and gadgets involved with them are going to be much more reliable. And the appliance stores, they say, well, look at this, this one does. I mean it's like they're showing you a circus act. This one does this and that and the other. And you should get this one because it does all these different things. Forget it. Simpler is better and more reliable. What do you want? You want the oven to cook? You want the stove top to cook, you want the refrigerator to cool, the freezer part to freeze. The microwave to do my kind of cooking. And Chris, did I share the story recently about the microwave nightmare we had?
- [07:16]
Chris
I don't think you did.
- [07:17]
Clark Howard
Oh man, this is funny. So we bought this place that had all these fancy appliances and one of them is this crazy expensive microwave. And the microwave has an electrical fire and thank goodness it didn't burn down our place. So then it took seven months to be replaced. Fortunately it was still under warranty. But the thing is crazy expensive. So we need a microwave. So I go to Walmart and I got a 59 microwave. There was a countertop. That 59 microwave was so good and so much better than this built in crazy expensive microwave from some brand in Europe. And then they tell us the replacement microwave is now available. And I'm like, no, what'd you do.
- [08:11]
Chris
With the other one?
- [08:12]
Clark Howard
I have it in our storage room.
- [08:15]
Chris
Because it breaks again.
- [08:16]
Clark Howard
Yeah. And I keep hoping day by day that terrible microwave will break. And I can go back to this $59 Walmart microwave that actually works.
- [08:29]
Chris
All right, well, Larry wrote in Larry Mishka with a question about an appliance as well. Hi Clark. The upper and lower racks from my 7 year old stainless steel dishwasher are rusting and starting to break. Should I spend the $350 to replace them or just replace the entire dishwasher? It is otherwise in good shape.
- [08:47]
Clark Howard
Wow, $350 to replace the racks. Doesn't that seem crazy?
- [08:53]
Chris
It seems like a lot. I mean dishwashers aren't much more than that, right?
- [08:57]
Clark Howard
I wonder. Well, you can buy dishwashers as cheap as 350, but the marketplace is more like 600 for a typical dishwasher. 5. 600 bucks. Okay. So first, if you're not a Costco member, even if there's not one near you, you join it to buy appliances. Buying appliances from Costco is so fantastic because they install them without all the tenant junk fees. They bring all the accessories they need. You're good and you got generally a long term coverage on it. If you buy it from them, see what a new dishwasher of something you'd be happy with would cost from Costco. Otherwise. There are lots of used appliance stores. You may be able to find a used version of your stainless steel dishwasher that you could even buy the whole thing and say all I want out of it. All I want out of this thing are the racks. You can keep it and sell it to somebody else. I just want to buy the upper and lower racks from it. And you may be able to get them far cheaper than the $350.
- [10:12]
Chris
Steven Illinois says, I recently went to a concert and bought two hot dogs from a street vendor. The charge was $20.80. Well, the cost was that much. My credit card showed a charge of $100.80. I disputed my bill with Visa and they initially took $80 off of my bill. Weeks later I got a call from a customer service rep asking me if I had a receipt. I said no. I tapped to pay their response. While an $80 tip on a $20.80 purchase is outrageous, unless you have a receipt, it is your word against the vendors and the vendor wins.
- [10:46]
Clark Howard
That's completely wrong. That's not how it plays.
- [10:49]
Chris
I either entered the tip amount wrong or did not complete the transaction and the vendor did it for me. I must have been distracted when I paid. I'm so sick of tap to pay tipping. And this was an expensive lesson. Always complete your transactions and have your receipt emailed or texted to you. The customer service rep was empathetic, which was nice. He did suggest that I go back to the vendor to get a receipt, which of course is impossible. An expensive lesson to pass on to your followers.
- [11:14]
Clark Howard
Okay, first of all, yes, Steve, this is not the lesson I want you to take from this. All right. Number one street vendor with the charge it will have a phone number normally to contact that vendor. The person who was selling you the hot dogs was probably just a paid employee or contractor of whoever owned that concession at the concert. So you want to talk with that individual that owns it. Or it could be a company that owns it. Obviously you did not spend $100 on two hot dogs.
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Chris
I spent $10.40 per hot dog Well.
- [11:54]
Clark Howard
I didn't even want to get into that because I don't want to make light of this ugly. Okay, so Nobody's leaving an 80 tip against already paying a crazy amount of money for the hot dogs and what the credit card.
- [12:09]
Kraken Representative
What?
- [12:09]
Clark Howard
The bank is not Visa, it's the bank that was the issuer. That's ridiculous. What you were told, that's a total lack of common sense. You redispute it with your bank and you want it elevated with the bank. You also should at the same time file a complaint against your bank with the Consumer Financial Protection bureau@consumer finance.gov. this is a complete lack of common sense. I mean, the, the nice person at the bank said, yeah, I know you didn't leave an $80 tip, but burdens on you. No, that's not how this plays. This isn't how this works. And that's why you redispute and file the complaint@consumer finance.gov but I'd also like you to show that you've gone the extra mile and tried to reach the vendor. This is silly and crazy and ridiculous. And when you go to a restaurant and they say, would you like a receipt? You know, as you pay on the tablet, you know, more and more they're using the tablets at sit down restaurants always say, yes, you always want the receipt. 99.9% of servers are honest. But that one in a thousand, maybe who's not. The fact that you didn't ask for a receipt, they can do this same kind of thing as happened to you at the hot dog stand and put down whatever tip and maybe, maybe not get away with it. So that's why you want the receipt. You want to look at it, make sure it's right.
- [13:47]
Chris
Okay. Daniel in New York says, I've been confused about Zelle for some time. I believe you're against it because there's no protection if my money goes away. But if I'm careful and only send it to close family or friends, is there still a risk? How is Zelle more risky than Venmo Square, PayPal, etc, if those are linked to my account and if I mistakenly send money to the wrong person, my money may be gone as well. And that would be my mistake. Wouldn't the scammer also be able to empty my account out with these other apps once I made contact with them?
- [14:16]
Clark Howard
That is a great question, Daniel. So here's the difference. With Zelle, Zelle is embedded. It's like a Trojan horse. It's embedded inside your bank account. So the Banks were terrified of the non bank entities. They were terrified of Venmo Square, Cash App, PayPal. And so they rushed out without really thinking through the vulnerabilities that exist. Having Zell embedded in your account. That's why there's so much what's known as pretexting. The scamsters trying to con you that there's a problem with your account, they need to verify things, did you make this purchase, whatever. Because they're trying to gain access to your account to then move all the money out of your account, untraceable and unreclaimable, through Zelle. The the fact that it's embedded in the account is what makes Zelle so much riskier, more risky. So the banks, under great pressure from media and from the Congress, now offer for those that are assertive, some level of mealy mouth kind of reimbursement to you in the event that you are conned by a pretexter. But I'm finding in real life most people are not assertive enough to be able to use these new administrative procedures to get money restored through Zelle. That's why I call it Big Bad Zelle. It has the enhanced danger of being embedded in your account that makes it more risky than you're going to have with the third party payment apps that put strict limits generally on what can be moved out. Where Zelle is pretty easy for the money, every dollar in your account, plus if you have overdraft to put you into a credit line as well. When you have Zelle active and until and unless there are true, clear, unequivocal protections with Zelle, it remains big Bad sell and is too dangerous for you to have and for you to use, even for family and friends. Because that's not where the danger exists in your case, it's this problem of it being embedded in your banking relationship in the account itself. Coming up ahead, you take supplements, I take supplements. How do you know if they're a okay? How do you avoid risk? We're going to talk about that straight ahead.
- [17:08]
Discover Representative
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 creditcard 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 your 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 you find options within your budget. Try it today@progressive.com progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates price and coverage match limited by state law not available in all states.
- [18:11]
Progressive Representative
This podcast is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. You chose to hit play on this podcast today. Smart Choice Progressive loves to help people make smart choices and that's why they offer a tool called Up Auto Quote Explorer that allows you to compare your Progressive car Insurance quote with rates from other companies so you can save time on the research and can enjoy savings when you choose the best rate for you. Give it a try after this episode@progressive.com Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates not available in all states and situations. Prices vary based on how you buy.
- [18:45]
Kraken Representative
Is Crypto perfect? Nope. But neither was email when it was invented in 1972. And yet today we send 347 billion emails every single day. Single day. Crypto is no different. It's new, but like email, it's also revolutionary. With Kraken, it's easy to start your crypto journey with 24. 7 support when you need it. Go to Kraken.com and see what crypto can be. Not investment advice Crypto trading involves risk of loss. Cryptocurrency services are provided to US and US territory customers by Payword Ventures, Inc. PVI DBA Kraken visit PVI's disclosures@kraken.com legal.
- [19:14]
Clark Howard
Disclosures so I take dietary supplements. I take melatonin occasionally to fall asleep. Don't know if it's psychological or actually works. It seems to be of help to me many times when I take it and I take vitamins and I take a thing called generic version of something called CoQ10 that my primary care doctor recommended I take because of some other prescription medicines I take. It's very, very common. In fact, overwhelmingly Americans take herbal remedies and dietary supplements. Now there was a decision that the Congress made 30 years ago to make these completely unregulated free market. So what happens? There's a lot of characters in the dietary supplements, herbal remedies market that are not on the up and up and they will put stuff in them that's not on the label. They'll put things on the label that aren't Actually in them they will be in different dosages than what they say. I think about when you go to a smoothie place now one of the big profit centers for them is selling add on powders that are added in to your smoothie. And who's knowing what's in those, what brand they are? Have they been properly tested? The answer most of the time is who knows and no. So I want you to be really thoughtful about this. And when you're out and about thinking you're doing something good for yourself by adding some kind of powder, the stat show you're not because so often when they are tested they've got dangerous levels of this, that or the other in them. Something that I've been reading about is that it really is a problem for teens and preteens to take these powders that are put into smoothies at the various smoothie chains that you should not do that. And again, they think they're doing something good, but when they're doing something could be harmful. And for those of us as adults taking dietary supplements and herbal remedies, doctors are not as judgmental about those anymore. They're not as judgy. So a lot of times people wouldn't tell a doctor when you were in a visit with primary care doctor or specialist because they'd be embarrassed because they feel like they're going to get an eye roll. Tell them, tell them what you're taking because they may prescribe a regular prescription that could interact with it. I've got a guide@clark.com on what certifications you want to be on the container when you go to buy herbal remedy dietary supplement. There's USP and there's others as well where they've actually the manufacturers of those items have actually voluntarily submitted to independent testing to make sure that the items are what they say they are. The melatonin I take, I used to take these melatonin gummy kind of things, but they had no third party certification on them. So now I take one. I don't like that. That is kind of like a strawberry thing that dissolves in your mouth under your tongue.
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Chris
Yep.
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Clark Howard
But it has been certified in that case by USP. And so I know you take 62 different.
- [23:07]
Chris
No, I don't take that many a day for sure.
- [23:09]
Clark Howard
14.
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Chris
But I do take supplements. Yes. And I make sure they're all. I actually get most of them through my doctor. Well, they're brands that my doctor sells and I get them cheaper online but they are certified by the proper places. But you know What I'm sick of. Oh, my gosh. Every podcast I listen to, every person I follow on Instagram that's like well known or, or a doctor or a chef, everybody powder. But like, these are real MDs or other people that everybody's got a powder or a gummy or something that they're pedaling. It is everywhere.
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Clark Howard
Like, I mean, because the profit margins are off the charts.
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Chris
Yeah.
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Clark Howard
I mean, they are unreal. So you can have people who are either as influencers, who are just making commissions cuts, what they promote through social media, podcasts, whatever, or those that are actually acting as the merchant and making these gigantic markups on these things. And so that's why this is an area. Even if you really enjoy listening to somebody, you really love following them on social media. Be aware with anything somebody's pitching that they're no longer operating on a basis of arm's length. Because this is a big revenue producer and profit generator for them. Doesn't mean it's not okay for you. But it means that you should have a healthy dose of skepticism before you take a dose of the powder or supplement.
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Chris
I mean, I've actually been working on. I want to spend less money on supplements. Like I take a vitamin B supplement, for example.
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Clark Howard
B isn't bravo.
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Chris
Right. It has different B vitamins in it. I take a D supplement, but I'm trying to cut down by like looking up what foods I can eat to get more of those vitamins. You know, you can be out in the sunshine 15 minutes a day, I think is what they say can give you great amount of vitamin D. So there's things you can do too, to try to spend less money on it. If you're worried about that, which I am worried about that.
- [25:14]
Clark Howard
So I spend so much time outside, you know, walking every day and all that. And I still have an extreme vitamin D deficiency. Oh, yeah.
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Chris
And that's important to take care of.
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Clark Howard
I have to take my 4,000 units a day, I think is what I.
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Chris
Have to take care. I take five.
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Clark Howard
5,000.
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Chris
Yeah. Okay, we'll go questions. Because we are not doctors and we're not peddling any supplements. Marcus in New York wrote in and says thanks for your help over the years. I'm feeling like a personal finance and anti fraud expert thanks to your help and your team. I have a situation and I am stumped. My energy company has recently launched a community choice aggregation and he links to the website for that. And I can't make heads or tail of this program. Certainly I'm feeling the Stress of higher energy bills. But I don't know if this program is the best solution or even what the program is. Hopefully I'm not the only one confused by all of this because it gets pretty cold in upstate New York. Yes, it does.
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Clark Howard
Yeah. I mean, Krista spent extensive time in upstate New York and I just, I'm a wimp. I don't handle deep winter well and cold environments. So you're a much tougher person than I am, Marcus. All right, so this is very common that this is a co op kind of effort. And these co op efforts are generally done for propane or natural gas, depending on the state and what the laws and rules permit in a jurisdiction. And so you are using the group buying power of the energy company, the co op, to be able to buy natural gas at a negotiated fixed price for a period of time based on the volume of customers. So when the marketplace is open, you have the opportunity to do this with group buying power. And I for years had a home, for 10 years had a home in a very rural area and we ran on propane. And so we joined a propane buying co op and it saved us a great deal of money when prices spiked. It ended up being a negative when prices fell because we were locked in at a set price. But most of the time it gave certainty and it is a common thing to use that group buying power, that co op for you to have that certainty and most of the time lower prices.
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Chris
So you recommend that, Marcus?
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Clark Howard
I, I think it's looking at this. I think it's fine for you to do it, especially because if there is a big spike and you've locked in, you're not going to have to worry about that. This is different than when power companies try to sell you budget billing. All budget billing is, is they charge you the same amount every month and then later they say, oh man, the joke's on you. Here's what you actually owe and here's how much more you're going to have to pay us. This is different. You're locking in a clear set price.
- [28:26]
Chris
Brent in Ohio says, my wife had a universal life policy created for her when she was born. The Death benefit is 32k with a cash surrender value of 9 and a half k. Last year we opened a term policy, a 20 year term, $500,000 policy that covers her. We were thinking of cashing out the universal life policy and putting it towards our daughter's 529 account. She's currently seven and her 529 has a value of around 18,000. The other option would be to add it to our retirement savings which combined value is around 500k.
- [28:58]
Clark Howard
Fantastic.
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Chris
We are both age 40.
- [29:01]
Clark Howard
Wow Brent, great news about what you save for the future. So you obviously know with your 20 year level term you got half a million in it, that a policy with the death benefit of 32 grand that you have to pay. Universal life policies have these huge premiums you have to pay and the policy may still hollow out on you value under 10 grand after all these years. Your wife's 40 years old and it's still only worth 9,000 from birth. So dump it or not. That's unclear. So there's a service I recommend from a non profit organization called the Consumer Federation of America where you can pay a fee is about a hundred and fifty dollars. I think to have an insurance industry expert evaluate the policy and recommend to you whether you should keep it, if your wife should actually keep it, if she should do a conversion of it of some kind, maybe to some form of term insurance or cash it in which may have tax implications. And the website that you go to for the Consumer Federation of America insurance evaluation is evaluate life insurance.org and was.
- [30:25]
Chris
I right about 150 for the first policy and 100 for each additional?
- [30:30]
Clark Howard
Absolutely. A well spent $150. And there'll be specific documents that Consumer Federation of America will ask you to get from the insurer. You get, your wife gets those documents, sends them off and you'll have a clear answer that without equivocation will tell you do exactly this and you can trust it and follow it.
- [30:57]
Chris
Sean in North Carolina says I read about finding missing money on your website. My mother in law has missing money available on some of the sites you suggested. How do I know this is legitimate and not a scam? Mainly because they require sensitive information like her Social Security number. I don't want to steer her wrong and compromise her identity. Some of these sites are not.gov sites and it has me skeptical.
- [31:19]
Clark Howard
The state sites should end.gov so when you go to missingmoney.com or unclaimed.org ultimately you end up at a state website or it could be money that is held by some part of the federal government or something like that. So these should be clear transparent government websites of different government agencies at different levels. I want you to file at those, not through a third party. Once you file at those sites. So then you're giving the information of the Social Security number and other key personal information not to any third party but directly to the unclaimed property office of a state or a federal agency. And that's where I want it done. Also coming up ahead, I want to tell you it is time for a Clarky. We have clarkies from time to time. This is where there's something that's happened in your life you feel like you want to share with your fellow listener or viewer. You can call 404-981-207-12071 and leave your clarky. So what do we have today? Krista?
- [32:39]
Bridget
Hi Clark, this is Bridget in Pittsburgh. I just wanted to say thank you. My husband and I have just officially paid off $275,000 worth of debt, the majority of that being student loans. I called into your show about three years ago looking for advice. I followed that advice and took it to heart and we are officially debt free except the mortgage. So thank you so much for all that you do. We appreciate you.
- [33:04]
Clark Howard
Wow. I appreciate you. That's so fantastic. 275,000.
- [33:10]
Chris
Amazing.
- [33:11]
Clark Howard
That's incredible. I mean, the freedom you now have in your life, it must feel so great. The discipline that was involved, making it happen, being debt free except for your mortgage. Just a wonderful inspiration for you to share with others who feel overwhelmed, buy debts that have accumulated in their lives from all different ways, all different purposes. It's all about building that roadmap to figure out how to get it paid off. You got to set that map in place, follow that route and get it done just like you did. And thank you for taking the time to share. I'm really excited for you and I hope you have a great rest of your day tomorrow. Clark Stinks, where people are not excited with me. They're aggravated or annoyed or angry with me about advice I've shared or answers I've given on the podcast. It's a great way we all learn together from Clark Stinks and we'll bring that to you tomorrow. Remember what we're about. You learning ways to save more, spend less, and avoid getting ripped off.