10.02.26 Clark Answers His Critics on Clark Stinks / Health Insurance Sticker Shock

The Clark Howard Podcast

Clark Howard kicks off the episode with his weekly "Clark Stinks" segment, addressing listener critiques on home repair savings, tech editorial bias, and terminology preferences before diving into a

Key takeaways

• Clark defends his 2.5% home repair savings rule as a practical conversation starter rather than a precise formula, emphasizing that simplicity prevents consumer paralysis.
• Data centers face widespread political opposition unless they pay their own way and avoid burdening local utility grids with water and energy demands.

Main topics

• Home repair savings strategies
• Data center energy and water usage debates

Notable quotes

"The 2.5% is really a horseshoes thing. It's to try to create the conversation to get people thinking about saving an amount of money for the unexpected."

Conclusion

Listeners gain actionable strategies for navigating open enrollment am

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:04) I'm so glad 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 it's Friday, which means it's time for me to learn some lessons in our weekly Clark Stinks segment. Later, something that really stinks, rising health care costs. And many of us are moving into open enrollment now. You may be feeling sticker shock. I want to explain to you what's going on, what you may be able to do about it. But right now, it's time to hear how I can do a better job serving you. I should have never encouraged you to speak. You must think I'm pretty stupid. You should Speaker 1 (0:52) be ashamed of yourself. Well, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Speaker 2 (0:56) you're right, pal. Speaker 2 (1:02) Hope you're starting off with a good description today about how much I stink. Speaker 1 (1:06) Yes. Some people don't like these, by the way. They say that this part stinks, but you know. Oh, come on. It's fine. Speaker 2 (1:12) The Speaker 1 (1:12) Clarkies are so creative. Hi, Clark. This one's from Brian in California. Hi, Clark. You stink worse than Limburger cheese wrapped in a used gym sock. My God, that's so gross. I don't Speaker 2 (1:22) know Speaker 1 (1:22) what Limburger Speaker 2 (1:23) is. Speaker 1 (1:23) It's a smelly cheese. Just kidding. I love your podcast. You mentioned that 2.5 % of a home's value is a reasonable rate to set aside annually for future home repairs and potential upgrades. This seems a little too broad-brushed. As you know, real estate is location, location, location. Therefore, you can have two identical houses in different parts of the country with their values differing significantly solely because of location. For instance, in one part of the country, the value of such a house may be $650,000. a house with identical features, age, and build in another part of the country, $400,000. That would create a set-aside of $16,250 versus $10,000. Quite a difference and does not take into account potential weather extremes that may accelerate the need for repairs in one location versus another. It seems to me that a more accurate measure would be based on repair history averages for a given area. Keep up the great work. Speaker 2 (2:20) Thank you. And Brian, by the way, that's my middle name. Great name you got. So you're right, but you're talking about perfect being the enemy of the good. If people are presented with too difficult a process, I think about a recent podcast where even as I was doing it, I was like, man, this is so technical. I'm really making people's eyes glaze over talking about tips, treasury, inflation, protected securities. It was just like so hard to explain in an audio video environment. If you tell people, well, you know, you got to take local building and remodeling costs and you got to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, people end up doing nothing. So the 2.5 % is really a horseshoes thing. It's to try to create the conversation to get people thinking about saving an amount of money for the unexpected, the rainy day kind of fund, in this case, for our largest asset. which is a home that we own or we're buying. Speaker 1 (3:28) Bill in Washington says, Clark, you stink worse than a coal-fired power plant during an inversion. Your take on data centers is only partially correct. Modern data centers don't consume water the way you described. Most use closed-loop systems that continually recirculate water, and many rely on recycled or reclaimed water for cooling. Older facilities have historically used large amounts of water, but those should be upgraded to more efficient cooling technologies. You're right that data centers use a lot of electricity. Living in eastern Washington, we're fortunate to have abundant, low-cost Speaker 1 (4:06) Thank you. Speaker 1 (4:32) is the best, most sensible option. But let's also hold accountable the people who actually are driving energy prices higher and who have the ability to change it. And then Michael in Georgia says, Clark, you can't be against data centers and against monopoly utilities at the same time. It's the utilities blocking data centers from self-generating solar farms, on-site nuclear gas, precisely because the captive demand is what keeps their rates and their returns up. And so many people wrote in about the data centers, just so you know. Speaker 2 (5:00) And data centers from every angle, they are as unpopular as a tax bill. People look at data centers as like a giant tax on their own wallet. The data centers are something that right now people across the political spectrum are opposed to. So I'm going to say something crazy. I'm not opposed to data centers. I'm opposed to data centers. that don't pay their own way. Where the general vibe in the country right now is we don't want data centers. And as long as they're paying their own way, I'm okay with it. Now, then there's all the creepy stuff about data centers and the AI agents developing their own world and then killing all of us off and all that. Whoa, it can get dark in a hurry, can't it? Mm Speaker 1 (5:57) -hmm, for sure. I'm sure that Speaker 2 (5:58) was some of the stuff that people were writing in about Speaker 1 (6:00) you. Indeed. Eleni in Rhode Island says, Clark, you stink more than my dog's poop bag trash can. That's disgusting. As a dentist. Every time I hear you use the phrase doctors and dentists, I cringe. Doctor is an academic title bestowed upon those who have completed doctoral level postgraduate education. It applies to a wide range of professionals, including but not limited to physicians, dentists, veterinarians, lawyers, and PhDs. There are also doctoral titles specific to pharmacy, education, physical therapy, audiology, psychology, and business administration, speech therapy, and nursing. The list of fields with doctors goes on and on, but I'm sure you get the idea. In the future, please consider using the phrase physicians and dentists when discussing healthcare-related issues. It will more accurately describe the professionals you are referencing. Signed, your dentist. No, I'm just kidding. Speaker 2 (6:55) Thank you for that. You know, the funny thing about that, my daughter is studying to be in some place they call it. OTD, others DOT, Doctor of Occupational Therapy. Yeah, your point's well taken. You know what phrase I'd be more comfortable with is saying medical doctors and dentists. How's that? Speaker 1 (7:16) I don't know. Dan in Florida says, Clark Android called. It says, thanks. I think I've cracked the Clark.com smartphone editorial policy. If it has an Apple logo, investigate immediately. Caution, if it runs Android, nothing to see here. Looking back roughly a decade, I found at least five to six Clark.com articles with a clearly negative or cautionary focus on Apple and iPhone. Comparable negative articles focused on Android, Samsung, Pixel, or Motorola. A big fat zero. Not exactly a peer-reviewed study, but six to zero is a pretty obvious slant. Clark, you stink. I say that affectionately, but maybe scrutinize Android under the same light from your Costco flashlight. So Speaker 2 (8:02) first of all, let me say this. The new flashlights we got are members mark flashlights from Sam's Club. They were a deal. Second, I had no idea that we had the anti-Apple articles. I don't know what. It's probably because Speaker 1 (8:20) when you've never really, like when you do this podcast, I don't remember having a pod that was like. Android's doing something that's a problem. I don't know. But we do a lot of positive stuff about Apple, but you are Speaker 2 (8:33) biased. So Apple, Speaker 1 (8:35) our Speaker 2 (8:35) audience is overwhelmingly iPhone, MacBook users. It's the only thing that disappoints you about our Speaker 1 (8:43) audience and your immediate family. Speaker 2 (8:45) My whole family, my entire family is 100 % Apple, Apple, Apple, iPads, MacBooks. iPhones, what are the ear things called that