10.05.26 DIYing to SPEND LESS / Steel Your Heart Against ROMANCE SCAMS

The Clark Howard Podcast

Clark Howard explores practical strategies for consumers navigating today's high-cost environment, emphasizing skill-building through DIY projects and monetizing unused

Key takeaways

• DIY learning via YouTube can lower household costs and potentially evolve into profitable side gigs without relying on expensive professionals.
• Romance scammers operate from professional centers using classroom-trained staff, fake profiles, and months-long grooming tactics targeting both young adults and lonely seniors.

Main topics

• DIY home repairs & skill development
• Online romance scam tactics & prevention

Notable quotes

"Romance scams are affecting people of every age group... Criminals do them because they're patient and they work."

Conclusion

Listeners gain actionable financial tactics to reduce expenses, protec

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:04) I'm so glad you're here with us 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. Today, I'm going to begin with something that is core to everything I do, helping you find new ways to spend less and maybe earn a little extra money. And later, something that often does not get reported, in fact, overwhelmingly doesn't get reported because of embarrassment, is way on the rise. And that's romance scams. And they're hitting so many people so hard. Hopefully, I will have useful information for you that you can share with others who you know. or in some kind of online relationship, warning, danger. We'll talk about that later. So I shared recently a story that I took auto mechanics for nine months when I was in my early 20s because Cars were much less reliable then. And I got hit with a big repair bill on a car. And I was like, nope, nope. And I was working a full-time job. I'd finished graduate school. But I took two nights a week, auto mechanics for nine months. Just so I would understand what was going on with cars. Cars were much simpler then. Speaker 2 (1:44) The things that I would be able to do for myself. Let me tell you, it was dangerous for me to try to do anything to cars. But I did learn some stuff. And this whole thing about feeling like you need to hire someone for everything. Maybe part of the answer is you learn how to do some things for yourself. Not the thing that happens where people say, oh, I'm Speaker 1 (2:13) not going to pay the plumber for that or Speaker 2 (2:15) I'm not going to pay whoever for that other thing. If you just are winging it, you're going to be a problem to your wallet. You've got to actually skill up. And more and more people are doing things DIY because they've got to conserve money. And I've learned as I've shared anecdotes from time to time about how I have looked on YouTube and been able to do something I've not been able to do before. It's a project that I tell others, hey, I fixed this myself. I did this on YouTube. And they look at me like, you are so lame. You needed YouTube to know how to do that? Well, yeah, I probably did. because I'm not normally really good at anything mechanical, but I've been doing more things for myself. And there are things you can do for yourself that will lower costs. Who knows? You might even develop an interest in something that you develop enough skill, get the training, and you have a new part-time gig. Or maybe something you realize, should be what you're actually doing. for a living. You know, a lot of things that we hire others for are things that AI, if you're worried about AI taking your job, AI isn't going to be able to replace them. So the more you learn, the more you can take care of things potentially yourself, and the more you may create a new money-making opportunity for yourself. And speaking of making money, Krista? Yep. The closet test. We haven't talked about the closet test in a long time, have we? No. Go shop your closet. See what's there that maybe you should be selling online. Who knows what it is that you could sell? And one of our kids' friends is really into buying old cameras. Did you know that's become a thing? Old film cameras? now have market value. You got an old film camera sitting somewhere. There may be somebody who really wants that thing and it could generate money for you. Who knows what you've got in your home sitting there unloved, forgotten about that you can turn into money online or at a flea market or who knows Speaker 1 (4:55) where. I'm a big Facebook marketplace person too for buying and selling things for my home. It's been a great thing for me, especially in my move. See, Speaker 2 (5:04) I've only ever heard of you buying things on there. You sell things? No, Speaker 1 (5:08) I Speaker 2 (5:08) sell Speaker 1 (5:08) things for sure. Yeah. Okay. Ever had to Speaker 2 (5:11) deal with anybody who was sketch? Speaker 1 (5:14) No, people just flake all the time. Well, yeah, you'll get messages from people and you know it's, you know, they want you to ship it or whatever. I only do local meat in a place like neutral place, that kind of thing. All right. Doug in Georgia says, hi, Clark. I got hit by a car while biking to work about a year ago. Not knowing how to manage the situation, I used a lawyer to make and manage my claim. I just resolved in the amount that I'll receive from the driver's full 25K liability limit minus the lawyer's cut will make me whole in terms of replacing my bike and covering the amount I spent on medical bills from the accident. I'll get about 14K and that's just a bit more than I spent out of pocket. My lawyer now wants to pursue more by making a claim against the underinsured motorist coverage on my own car insurance policy. She says there's no reason not to. She says it can't affect my standing with the insurance company. And the worst that can happen is that they determine I've been made whole already and deny the claim. I've learned so much from you over many decades, and I'd really value your opinion and knowledge on this situation. Should I ask the lawyer to call off the second claim? I've had a policy with one of your highly recommended insurance companies for a long