Love this Guy. Clark Howard is So what Real Life America should be and had been. Midwest Roots and it shows ... No BS allowed. Just Truth and Up Front Honesty.
Hi, Clark. I'm a Union electrician and I have installed. L.E.D Light fixtures they were brand name Lithonia lights. And there were some that died as we were installing them on the Poles. And a vast majority I had to change because they were burned out in about a year.i am sure that the L.E.D were still good but other internal parts failed. I wish that they were like the Fluorescent lights that you could change the internal parts and rebuild the fixtures you can't Get.Parts for L.E.D fixtures and Are unable to service the vast majority of them. You have to throw the whole thing away and install new what a waste for the client
When my husband got raises, as a firefighter, they went to his retirement pension. We pinched pennies, so he would not have to work after retiring. He retired at 50 and has not worked since. We have more income than ever before and no worries.
I was born in the 30s and like most people born in that time period we grew up hearing depression stories , and we did not spend money we did not have.
Free tip from an analog design EE: If LED bulbs are consistently failing in your home irrespective of brand, get your wiring looked at. An intermittent neutral connection at the transformer or breaker box could, depending on what other loads are active, cause up to twice the normal voltage to appear at the bulb. A few milliseconds duration of transient over-voltage across the bulb could wipe it out. Semiconductors like the ones converting 120V AC to the low voltage DC needed to drive LEDs are intolerant of transient over-voltage. Good designs will include a protective device (Google transient protection diodes if you’re curious) but the circuitry in LED bulbs is as cheap as they can get away with.
LED's are available in dimmable and non dimmable , interior and interior/exterior . Voltages coming into your house fluctuating maybe 110 to 125 volts . These fluctuating voltages may shorten the life of these bulbs also if you have multiple bulbs on the same fixture need to all be the same batch and manufacturer . So I would suggest getting dimmable bulbs that are also rated for exterior of house and replace with all the same manufacturer.
You will not struggle in retirement if you simply live within your means. My wife and I are in our 70s. We live in the Mid West which helps. But we actually spend less than we receive from SS each month. Our savings sit and gain interest because we don't buy things we don't need.
Always a fan,love that I can watch you from my retirement home in Thailand, living more than comfortably on less than $1000 a month, enjoy staying connected with Atlanta peeps.
We just took our staff trip to Thailand earlier this year! We had an AMAZING time!!! Hope you're enjoying your retirement home there and thanks for continuing to watch from abroad 💚💚💚
@@gif24gt60I own my home free,my health insurance cost are $200 per month at 67. I withdraw $800 a month for living expences. My income is such that I could spend much more but we have everything we need and more. Also, I have a very comfortable portfolio for any situation. $1000 a month is enough to live comfortably. I would advise however you have savings for any unexpected expences.
Clark: We have been with T-Mobile for as long as I can remember and still think we have the best deal. We pay $60 (all in) for 2 lines true unlimited everything, no data roaming in US, Canada and Mexico including Hot Spot Service (that we use a lot). We are grandfathered into their 55 Plus Plan. So not all situations are the same.
to be clear....are you saying $60/mo? $720/yr?....... we switched to Mint mobile and it's $15/mo ....one payment of $180yr 2 x phones = $360........*just sayin"... ✨😀
Us too, we've just been notified they will not accept automatic bill pay on our credit card that we get points on and pay balance in full every month, they now want our debit card or automatic bill pay from checking account. After all their customer data breaches, we're not comfortable doing that. Looks like we'll change providers.
Clark, I just found your podcast. I used to listen to your radio show years ago.I am very happy to subscribe. Regarding this discussion, when your income is lowered (as in retirement) you need to adjust your budget. One issue I have come across as a single middle aged man, (I am 64), I met several woman who have loads of debt and expect the guy to bail them out (classic phrase: I am looking for someone to take care of me") and pay 100% for future spending.
This happened to my brother. She had been married FIVE times before! We tried to warn him. She wiped out his retirement and equity he had in his home and his only income now is retirement disability and only able to rent his housing bc of having to declare bankruptcy and sell his home 😢 But my cousin had the same happen to her, so it’s not just women looking for a meal ticket. Predator love interests know no gender.
Hi Clark, just has a thought AMC stock. By owning one share, you get perks at AMC theaters. Free popcorn, slurpees, candy. Not much down side at $4 for one share.
We use a Costco card for the bulk of our purchases and know that it will be between 800 and 1200 monthly. We do an automatic payment of 500 fifteen days early and another automatic pay the balance at the due date. Our credit score is plenty high to suit us even though we no longer have car or home financing
Why do you recommend a target retirement fund instead of e.g. 80% in an S&P500 index fund and 20% in a short term bond fund? At least at my workplace all the target age retirement funds perform poorly and have much higher fees (1.5% vs 0.1%).
same thing with car insurance as with cell phone service. after state farm made me pay my deuctable for a claim i was found to be 100% free of liability, i went to a company who does no advertising. when a company pays 2 nfl qbs and the coach of one of them to do their ads, you will be overcharged. i saved over 40%, the new company would have made me pay my deductable for the same claim, but i know that from the start. state farm changed that somewhere in the 35 years i overpaid them.
@@OrianaMalina Erie, good rates, but they're not perfect either. they just declined to renew me, for who knows what reason, i never made one claim against them. but the joke's on them, i was getting rid of my car before the renewal date anyway and they knew that. it appears to me they were playing the "you can't break up with me because i am breaking up with you" game. but if they wanted to be even more vindictive, they could have cancelled my homeowners as well, but no, that's money out of their pocket. bleep them, i cancelled the homeowners.
@@thomasrudy6132 thank you for responding! I feel like insurance companies know that they can play hard ball in these tough times. State Farm keeps raising their prices and last time I renewed in January I told them I will be looking elsewhere and they didn’t care one bit. Few years ago it would be a different story. I’m sorry you are going through issues with Erie also. Are you just going to go without homeowners or are you changing to someone else? I use to have to have homeowners and flood ins. As soon as I payed of my mortgage I canceled flood ins. I’ve had since sold the house bc it was prone to flooding.
@@OrianaMalina i just sold my house, i'm moving abroad, no need for any of these insurance American companies. years later after state farm told me to go elsewhere and i did, they're sending me "please come back, we miss you" junk mail at least twice a year, hahaha, bleep them.
Thanks for the video. I have had a lot of problems over the years with LED lights. Quality and where they are bought seems to be the issue. Not a big fan going forward.
The bathroom fixture as with all light fixtures have a Maximum Watt rating for the purpose of heat produced to keep from starting a fire. Those watt rating are for INCANDESCENT light bulbs. So if the maximum watts is 60 watts, you would have an LED bulb rated at 300+ watts to equal the power consumption. Switching ANY light bulb off and on is what reduces it's life cycle from electrical surge. An LED is about 40 to 50 percent efficient. This means that 40 to 50 percent of its output is in the visible light spectrum while 50 to 60 percent is output as heat. The LED replacement for a 100 watt incandescent / halogen draws 18 watts so less heat is radiated.
It's not that complicated. People with lower incomes are always struggling therefore they learn to buy more efficiently and buy less ridiculous junk. Well, some of them learned a lesson.
As I’ve mentioned in another Clark video before, Navy Federal CU provides no fee prepaid debit /credit cards. They also have very nice card designs if you want to give them as gifts. You can see the cards on their site but they also have them available in branches (albeit with fewer designs than on the site). If they’re lost or stolen and were then registered then if you alert NFCU within 3 days of the loss, NFCU will refund the balance on the card. Another option is NFCU's GO prepaid card (again, no fees). One extra benefit with the GO card is that you can refill it online.
@@Clark I believe so. That said, NFCU is *by far* the largest credit union in the USA (with about 13 million members). They also refund ATM fees in most of their checking accounts (Clark mentioned recently that USAA Bank does so but NFCU does too and is actually a larger financial institution than USAA Bank).
How does this factor in for people with a pension? Retired from the US Air Force, in my mid-40s; would I estimate the “amount saved for retirement” by assuming the pension is like a “4% withdrawal”? (That is, every $1,000 in pension is like having $25,000 in a retirement savings account?) My wife and I have retirement savings also, TSP and my current job, just want to be sure to be well within the comfort zone for retirement.
@@lizadivine3785 Who cares where they come from? Sylvania. They've all lasted more than eight years so far, inside and out, except in the enclosed kitchen light.
You can improve you living standard if you learn how to invest. It requires hard work but it may keep you out of poverty. Build your wealth slowly and spend only as necessary.
Buying individual stocks in a retirement account is fine and very normal. The choice of a borderline bankrupt company in a dying industry with debt equal to multiple years of revenue is suboptimal, though.
I may be wrong, but if, for example, a LED light replaces a 60 watt bulb,!it will only use about 7-8 watts. I’m not sure the wattage of LED Vs Incandescent should matter that much (on the fixture) unless you are using overall more watts than what is recommended. I hope that makes sense… can someone clarify that please?
My husband just retired 2wks ago, the only thing that could be a struggle for us in retirement would be property and school tax we live in NY State ugh! but we have no debt of any kind.
@@KC-dr3cg because we both have elderly parents one at 92 in a NH and another is 84 we want to stay here as long as they are alive then we plan on moving.
Sell the house and live in an apartment, no maintenance (cleaning, yard care), and low property tax. Many retirees do that. We also have a super who takes care if something breaks in the apartment, sometimes we have to pay, but never much. I don’t like sharing the washing machine, but I don’t have to take care of it either. It allows money for travel, dining out, etc.
Yrs ago, my brother in law had back surgery and, fortunately my sister had a brain and asked for itemized bill. They tried to charge HIM for a PAP smear. For once, my sister had a brain so questioned it and asked what they knew about ho I'm that she didnt..
31:25 … Krista… I don’t think that’s accurate- you should research that. Typically (Incandescent) fixtures watt ratings are based on the heat the fixture can safely handle without creating a fire hazard. LED’s run much cooler. Now, if the fixture was designed for LED, than maybe over-watting a bulb might shorten it lifespan.
💯 You're right! The watt equivalency on LEDs relates to the amount of light emitted, not the heat. The watt limits on fixtures are based on the heat emitted from incandescent bulbs. LEDs don't produce much heat, so you can go above the watt limits. Thanks for fact checking! 🙌
If you don't mind the ads on your screen, it's worth a try! Test it out along with Clark and let us know what you think. You can always switch back if you don't like it. 💚
People need to take more responsibility for their financial well being and stop depending on the government or others for their retirement. Even lower income earners can plan responsibly for retirement. HAVE LESS KIDS!!!! Live below your means. Get a part time job to fully fund a Roth IRA each month. So many options to take responsibility for spending/investment choices.
That company Text Now is a garbage! Got their SIM and it's impossible to make it work and impossible to reach customer NO service. I trash it same week
Love this Guy. Clark Howard is So what Real Life America should be and had been. Midwest Roots and it shows ... No BS allowed. Just Truth and Up Front Honesty.
Hi, Clark. I'm a Union electrician and I have installed. L.E.D Light fixtures they were brand name Lithonia lights.
And there were some that died as we were installing them on the Poles. And a vast majority I had to change because they were burned out in about a year.i am sure that the L.E.D were still good but other internal parts failed. I wish that they were like the Fluorescent lights that you could change the internal parts and rebuild the fixtures you can't Get.Parts for L.E.D fixtures and Are unable to service the vast majority of them. You have to throw the whole thing away and install new what a waste for the client
When my husband got raises, as a firefighter, they went to his retirement pension. We pinched pennies, so he would not have to work after retiring.
He retired at 50 and has not worked since.
We have more income than ever before and no worries.
Way to go! 👏👏👏
I was born in the 30s and like most people born in that time period we grew up hearing depression stories , and we did not spend money we did not have.
Free tip from an analog design EE: If LED bulbs are consistently failing in your home irrespective of brand, get your wiring looked at. An intermittent neutral connection at the transformer or breaker box could, depending on what other loads are active, cause up to twice the normal voltage to appear at the bulb. A few milliseconds duration of transient over-voltage across the bulb could wipe it out. Semiconductors like the ones converting 120V AC to the low voltage DC needed to drive LEDs are intolerant of transient over-voltage. Good designs will include a protective device (Google transient protection diodes if you’re curious) but the circuitry in LED bulbs is as cheap as they can get away with.
LED's are available in dimmable and non dimmable , interior and interior/exterior . Voltages coming into your house fluctuating maybe 110 to 125 volts . These fluctuating voltages may shorten the life of these bulbs also if you have multiple bulbs on the same fixture need to all be the same batch and manufacturer . So I would suggest getting dimmable bulbs that are also rated for exterior of house and replace with all the same manufacturer.
You will not struggle in retirement if you simply live within your means. My wife and I are in our 70s. We live in the Mid West which helps. But we actually spend less than we receive from SS each month. Our savings sit and gain interest because we don't buy things we don't need.
Thank you Team Clark.
Probably not. I just turned 74 and have 22 more years until retirement. Enjoying every day.
Always a fan,love that I can watch you from my retirement home in Thailand, living more than comfortably on less than $1000 a month, enjoy staying connected with Atlanta peeps.
We just took our staff trip to Thailand earlier this year! We had an AMAZING time!!! Hope you're enjoying your retirement home there and thanks for continuing to watch from abroad 💚💚💚
People who post with a diaper on their faces are morons.
How can live there on less than 1,000 including health insurance?
@@gif24gt60I own my home free,my health insurance cost are $200 per month at 67. I withdraw $800 a month for living expences. My income is such that I could spend much more but we have everything we need and more. Also, I have a very comfortable portfolio for any situation. $1000 a month is enough to live comfortably. I would advise however you have savings for any unexpected expences.
Clark: We have been with T-Mobile for as long as I can remember and still think we have the best deal. We pay $60 (all in) for 2 lines true unlimited everything, no data roaming in US, Canada and Mexico including Hot Spot Service (that we use a lot). We are grandfathered into their 55 Plus Plan. So not all situations are the same.
to be clear....are you saying $60/mo? $720/yr?.......
we switched to Mint mobile and it's $15/mo ....one payment of $180yr 2 x phones = $360........*just sayin"... ✨😀
@@bshef3424nice, tks!
Us too, we've just been notified they will not accept automatic bill pay on our credit card that we get points on and pay balance in full every month, they now want our debit card or automatic bill pay from checking account. After all their customer data breaches, we're not comfortable doing that. Looks like we'll change providers.
(for over 55 plan with tmobile)
@@bshef3424 With Mexico and Canada and No Roaming for data or voice?
Hey Clark!
Hope you're doing well!🎉❤ Thx for another excellent video with some good tips n trips!🎉❤ Live reasonable and prosperous always!🎉❤
Clark, I just found your podcast. I used to listen to your radio show years ago.I am very happy to subscribe. Regarding this discussion, when your income is lowered (as in retirement) you need to adjust your budget. One issue I have come across as a single middle aged man, (I am 64), I met several woman who have loads of debt and expect the guy to bail them out (classic phrase: I am looking for someone to take care of me") and pay 100% for future spending.
YOU must be kidding! What entitlement!! NEXT!! should be your phrase!
Glad you found us! Thanks for being a long-time listener and contributing to the conversation. Great tip to adjust your budget in retirement 💚
A woman wants a man not for one thing..but a thousands things...(ie meal ticket FOREVER)
This happened to my brother. She had been married FIVE times before! We tried to warn him.
She wiped out his retirement and equity he had in his home and his only income now is retirement disability and only able to rent his housing bc of having to declare bankruptcy and sell his home 😢
But my cousin had the same happen to her, so it’s not just women looking for a meal ticket.
Predator love interests know no gender.
My blood pressure medicine is $4 at Walmart. I got two months supply for vacation and it was $7.02.
Give the dr. office a prepaid debit like clark said.
Hi Clark, just has a thought AMC stock. By owning one share, you get perks at AMC theaters. Free popcorn, slurpees, candy. Not much down side at $4 for one share.
We use a Costco card for the bulk of our purchases and know that it will be between 800 and 1200 monthly. We do an automatic payment of 500 fifteen days early and another automatic pay the balance at the due date.
Our credit score is plenty high to suit us even though we no longer have car or home financing
Has a certified medical coder, kickbacks are a huge compliance issue and the DOJ should be made aware
They’re too busy trying to take down Trump.
Why do you recommend a target retirement fund instead of e.g. 80% in an S&P500 index fund and 20% in a short term bond fund?
At least at my workplace all the target age retirement funds perform poorly and have much higher fees (1.5% vs 0.1%).
same thing with car insurance as with cell phone service. after state farm made me pay my deuctable for a claim i was found to be 100% free of liability, i went to a company who does no advertising. when a company pays 2 nfl qbs and the coach of one of them to do their ads, you will be overcharged. i saved over 40%, the new company would have made me pay my deductable for the same claim, but i know that from the start. state farm changed that somewhere in the 35 years i overpaid them.
State Farm sucks.
Who did you go with? I’m in OH. I have been with State Farm since I was 18. Now, I’m 50.
@@OrianaMalina Erie, good rates, but they're not perfect either. they just declined to renew me, for who knows what reason, i never made one claim against them. but the joke's on them, i was getting rid of my car before the renewal date anyway and they knew that. it appears to me they were playing the "you can't break up with me because i am breaking up with you" game. but if they wanted to be even more vindictive, they could have cancelled my homeowners as well, but no, that's money out of their pocket. bleep them, i cancelled the homeowners.
@@thomasrudy6132 thank you for responding! I feel like insurance companies know that they can play hard ball in these tough times. State Farm keeps raising their prices and last time I renewed in January I told them I will be looking elsewhere and they didn’t care one bit. Few years ago it would be a different story. I’m sorry you are going through issues with Erie also. Are you just going to go without homeowners or are you changing to someone else? I use to have to have homeowners and flood ins. As soon as I payed of my mortgage I canceled flood ins. I’ve had since sold the house bc it was prone to flooding.
@@OrianaMalina i just sold my house, i'm moving abroad, no need for any of these insurance American companies. years later after state farm told me to go elsewhere and i did, they're sending me "please come back, we miss you" junk mail at least twice a year, hahaha, bleep them.
The free phones with ads ... are the ads displayed on the device or are they audio and disrupts calls?
Thanks for the video. I have had a lot of problems over the years with LED lights. Quality and where they are bought seems to be the issue. Not a big fan going forward.
The bathroom fixture as with all light fixtures have a Maximum Watt rating for the purpose of heat produced to keep from starting a fire. Those watt rating are for INCANDESCENT light bulbs. So if the maximum watts is 60 watts, you would have an LED bulb rated at 300+ watts to equal the power consumption. Switching ANY light bulb off and on is what reduces it's life cycle from electrical surge.
An LED is about 40 to 50 percent efficient. This means that 40 to 50 percent of its output is in the visible light spectrum while 50 to 60 percent is output as heat. The LED replacement for a 100 watt incandescent / halogen draws 18 watts so less heat is radiated.
It's not that complicated. People with lower incomes are always struggling therefore they learn to buy more efficiently and buy less ridiculous junk. Well, some of them learned a lesson.
LED bulbs take far less energy than incandescent bulbs, so there is no way they could exceed wattage requirement of a fixture.
As I’ve mentioned in another Clark video before, Navy Federal CU provides no fee prepaid debit /credit cards. They also have very nice card designs if you want to give them as gifts. You can see the cards on their site but they also have them available in branches (albeit with fewer designs than on the site). If they’re lost or stolen and were then registered then if you alert NFCU within 3 days of the loss, NFCU will refund the balance on the card. Another option is NFCU's GO prepaid card (again, no fees). One extra benefit with the GO card is that you can refill it online.
Thanks for sharing! You must be a member to purchase, right?
@@Clark I believe so. That said, NFCU is *by far* the largest credit union in the USA (with about 13 million members). They also refund ATM fees in most of their checking accounts (Clark mentioned recently that USAA Bank does so but NFCU does too and is actually a larger financial institution than USAA Bank).
thank you!
I thought about it, and, Team Clark rocks!
How does this factor in for people with a pension? Retired from the US Air Force, in my mid-40s; would I estimate the “amount saved for retirement” by assuming the pension is like a “4% withdrawal”? (That is, every $1,000 in pension is like having $25,000 in a retirement savings account?) My wife and I have retirement savings also, TSP and my current job, just want to be sure to be well within the comfort zone for retirement.
Thanks
I took IRA Distribution and paid OFF CCards ect my credit score was 716 is now 824!
Dollar Tree LED bulbs are $1.25 each and last indefinitely so far, except in enclosed fixtures because they need proper ventilation.
You couldn’t pay me to use a dollar tree lightbulb, you don’t want a fire do you?
@@lizadivine3785 Who cares where they come from? Sylvania. They've all lasted more than eight years so far, inside and out, except in the enclosed kitchen light.
Hi Clark
You can improve you living standard if you learn how to invest. It requires hard work but it may keep you out of poverty. Build your wealth slowly and spend only as necessary.
Your siblings choice words were only in retaliation for you being moms favorite.😊
🕊️ Good Topic on Savings 💸
Yes! being a good faithful stewart 👪
I love studies, they so accurate! Yeah, right! lol
Buying individual stocks in a retirement account is fine and very normal. The choice of a borderline bankrupt company in a dying industry with debt equal to multiple years of revenue is suboptimal, though.
I may be wrong, but if, for example, a LED light replaces a 60 watt bulb,!it will only use about 7-8 watts. I’m not sure the wattage of LED Vs Incandescent should matter that much (on the fixture) unless you are using overall more watts than what is recommended. I hope that makes sense… can someone clarify that please?
Yep, we stand corrected. Thanks for fact checking 🙌
@@Clark thank you for your reply. I appreciate it, especially since that I’m not an electrician, lol.
Yes , 60 Watt replacement using only 8.5 watts
My husband just retired 2wks ago, the only thing that could be a struggle for us in retirement would be property and school tax we live in NY State ugh! but we have no debt of any kind.
Why would you not move to a warmer State without all of the taxes
Income taxes was my biggest surprise in retirement.
@@KC-dr3cg because we both have elderly parents one at 92 in a NH and another is 84 we want to stay here as long as they are alive then we plan on moving.
Sell the house and live in an apartment, no maintenance (cleaning, yard care), and low property tax. Many retirees do that. We also have a super who takes care if something breaks in the apartment, sometimes we have to pay, but never much. I don’t like sharing the washing machine, but I don’t have to take care of it either. It allows money for travel, dining out, etc.
@@bryanseverino6967 we pay 12% income taxes in retirement, we are so happy with that.
Yrs ago, my brother in law had back surgery and, fortunately my sister had a brain and asked for itemized bill.
They tried to charge HIM for a PAP smear.
For once, my sister had a brain so questioned it and asked what they knew about ho I'm that she didnt..
@@RickMartinTH-cam I told what happened, so not sure what you are referring to
This home is not being reported in my credit so that is another damage done to me
31:25 … Krista… I don’t think that’s accurate- you should research that.
Typically (Incandescent) fixtures watt ratings are based on the heat the fixture can safely handle without creating a fire hazard. LED’s run much cooler.
Now, if the fixture was designed for LED, than maybe over-watting a bulb might shorten it lifespan.
💯 You're right! The watt equivalency on LEDs relates to the amount of light emitted, not the heat. The watt limits on fixtures are based on the heat emitted from incandescent bulbs. LEDs don't produce much heat, so you can go above the watt limits.
Thanks for fact checking! 🙌
Simple..these 28 percent of high earners that are broke probably have two or three new expensive cars, mega mansion, etc. Its all about choice.....
Tello is working for me use a 4g phone it didn't with with my 5g both are unlocked phones
What kills us is cell phone service. But Armstrong Cable is worse.
I do not believe in single stocks but that is nice that he got in with AMC but I think it is time to sell because of the risk like Clark says.
I wonder if text now has child restriction features. This might be good for kids if you could restrict the ads to be child friendly.
Good point! Something for us to research 🙌
I have a flip phone, no internet. "Text now" a good idea?
If you don't mind the ads on your screen, it's worth a try! Test it out along with Clark and let us know what you think. You can always switch back if you don't like it. 💚
you can get free long distance with google voice.
People need to take more responsibility for their financial well being and stop depending on the government or others for their retirement. Even lower income earners can plan responsibly for retirement. HAVE LESS KIDS!!!! Live below your means. Get a part time job to fully fund a Roth IRA each month. So many options to take responsibility for spending/investment choices.
🏆
I hate adds I couldn’t tolerate it. PS I had an MCI phone card! Lol
That company Text Now is a garbage! Got their SIM and it's impossible to make it work and impossible to reach customer NO service. I trash it same week
They’re based in India that’s why
Thanks for sharing! We'll see if Clark has the same experience. 💚
Move to Mexico.
AMC is a failing company that is basically a meme stock at this point
You're still paying for long distance, simply by paying for a cell phone.
I will only struggle in retirement because of JoE . FJB.
TextNow has no 9-1-1 capabilities.
WOW! Thanks for letting us know. We'll look into this. 🙌