MONEY COACH
With HLN's Money Expert Clark Howard

Having trouble managing money? Do your money goals seem impossible? Clark Howard wants to help you!

We're looking for families or individuals who are willing to be profiled on HLN. Those chosen will get money advice and information from Clark Howard.

This week’s question comes from Coleen Chrystal of Union, NJ:

Filed under: Clark Howard • Living • Money Coach

HELP ME CLARK!
From HLN's Money Expert Clark Howard

Having trouble managing money? Do your money goals seem impossible? Clark Howard wants to help you!

We're looking for families or individuals who are willing to be profiled on HLN. Those chosen will get money advice and information from Clark Howard.

Filed under: Clark Howard • Credit • Finance • Living

HELP ME CLARK!
From HLN's Money Expert Clark Howard

Having trouble managing money? Do your money goals seem impossible? Clark Howard wants to help you!

We're looking for families or individuals who are willing to be profiled on HLN. Those chosen will get money advice and information from Clark Howard.

Filed under: Clark Howard • Help Me Clark • Real Estate

MONEY COACH
With HLN's Money Expert Clark Howard

Having trouble managing money? Do your money goals seem impossible? Clark Howard wants to help you!

We're looking for families or individuals who are willing to be profiled on HLN. Those chosen will get money advice and information from Clark Howard.

This week’s question comes from Ken in New York, NY:

Filed under: Clark Howard • Credit • Finance • Money Coach

Clark Behind The Headlines

From HLN's Money Expert Clark Howard

How young are you?  How young do you feel?

Well, I’ve got a tip for you I saw from travel writer Michelle Higgins that even if you’re not a student, or even if you’re not young like a typical college student, you may be eligible for a number of student deals on airfares and travel.

In fact, Michelle put a number of student travel websites to the test against a number of travel search engine websites. I know you hear me talk about Kayak.com, and I consistently found cheaper prices available through the various student organizations.

One of them is STA Travel. They’re promoting what is called “Flights For Everyone, Regardless Of Your Age.” And they have a variety of negotiated deals that are significantly cheaper than what you could find otherwise. Another group called Student Universe recently extended its student programs to non-students up to age 25.  So it’s not for everybody, but there is an opportunity to get special deals. Student City, which specializes in vacation packages, now allows its discounts to be used by people of any age.

There have always been special promotions and fare programs and packages that have been available to select groups. The student market has always been one of the most lucrative areas for the travel industry, and there were always things geared toward them. You’d think students wouldn’t have any money at all, but many of them have a lot more than you might suspect because of money they get from their parents. So check it out these student travel sites and look for the deals.

What most of us do is we decide in advance where we want to go, when we want to go, then we start looking for the prices we can get for the where and the when.  One thing I never want you to forget - and it is the most important travel rule that I have - you buy the deal, then figure out why you want to go there.  You’ll see the whole world, and you’ll see it much cheaper than you would otherwise.

Filed under: Airlines • Behind the Headlines • Clark Howard • College • Travel

HELP ME CLARK!
From HLN's Money Expert Clark Howard

Having trouble managing money? Do your money goals seem impossible? Clark Howard wants to help you!

We're looking for families or individuals who are willing to be profiled on HLN. Those chosen will get money advice and information from Clark Howard.

Filed under: Auto • Help Me Clark • Taxes

HELP ME CLARK!
From HLN's Money Expert Clark Howard

Having trouble managing money? Do your money goals seem impossible? Clark Howard wants to help you!

We're looking for families or individuals who are willing to be profiled on HLN. Those chosen will get money advice and information from Clark Howard.

Filed under: Clark Howard • Help Me Clark • Living

HELP ME CLARK!
From HLN's Money Expert Clark Howard

Having trouble managing money? Do your money goals seem impossible? Clark Howard wants to help you!

We're looking for families or individuals who are willing to be profiled on HLN. Those chosen will get money advice and information from Clark Howard.

Filed under: Finance • Help Me Clark • Taxes

Clark Behind The Headlines

From HLN's Money Expert Clark Howard

Last year, I talked about Sezmi. Sezmi is a cutting edge way to get television a lot cheaper than what you’ve got with your normal provider.

Sezmi uses your internet connection to provide television to your big screen in a really fancy DVR with a bunch of the normal cable channels plus your broadcast channels. You don’t get a zillion channels but you get a pretty good selection of television.

You do not get ESPN. Well Sezmi is now slowly beginning to bring markets on line. Sezmi is $19.99 a month. You buy the fancy DVR thing and from that point forward, the programming is $19.99 a month. It is something for people who are not that tech-oriented, who want to be able to sit on the sofa and watch television that is available at either websites or over the air. The fancy DVR is $299 upfront but from that point forward, you’re paying $19.99 a month.

Now, this is at a time when the television business is in complete turmoil and transition. There’s this thing going on where two of the most popular shows that were on Hulu have both been pulled from the website. It’s because the owners of those two shows couldn’t see a way of making the kind of money on Hulu that they could make on cable or satellite.

So we’re going to have this clash going on over the next many months about alternative ways to access television products and video content, as well as all the new ways that people are going to get content, such as the brand new TiVo device called Premiere. It’s designed to completely bypass cable and satellite and instead get programming that’s available over an internet connection in hi def right on your big screen television.

The transition is that we’re going from the techies sending television and video entertainment using all kinds of servers and computers with hard drives, where they hook this wire into that thing, to where normal earthlings who are looking for ways to have access to content can hook it up and spend a whole lot less money.

Filed under: Clark Howard • Living

Clark Behind The Headlines

From HLN's Money Expert Clark Howard

I have in my hands a dispatch from the Boston Globe and another from the South Florida Business Journal. In the Business Journal, a prominent Miami businessman and his wife have been charged with running a $135 million Ponzi scheme. It’s alleged they lured investors by promising that investments in their business were safe and would provide annual returns of between 9% and 16%.

Now from the Globe, the Securities and Exchange Commission has accused a trio of Bay State residents of defrauding investors out of $3.5 million, guaranteeing interest to investors of 9%-12% per year.

Completely separate Ponzi scheme operations. But in each case, people were sold promissory notes.

Promissory notes have been a problem for as long as I’ve been on the air going back to the 1980’s. Essentially there are no federal guarantees. There’s no FDIC. Somebody says, “Hey give me money and I promise to pay you so much money at a later date.”

Now, these things work in all different ways, shapes, forms and sizes. They don’t generally promise you something outrageous like 25% or anything like that. But with the promissory notes, they say, “We have this wonderful business we’re doing.”

With both of these examples they were promising that they were taking your money and putting it into high-return real estate ventures. And in each case there was some amount of real estate activity going on just to provide cover. Instead, where does all the money actually go in these things? It goes to cars, private jets, who knows what. And when the thing collapses the money usually is nowhere to be found.

I want you to know that there is a legitimate promissory note business. Except now there are companies that can no longer borrow money from financial institutions because they’re not credit worthy anymore, so they’ll go to the public and offer promissory notes. They may be very legitimate businesses. In fact, usually they are. But the chances that you’re going to see all your money back are an iffy thing.

Do you want to get involved with that? All you have to know is that when somebody is offering promissory notes, I can promise you you’re one step away from personal financial disaster.

Filed under: Behind the Headlines • Clark Howard • Finance • Living