MONEY COACH
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.

This week’s question comes from Tony and Terri Dinkins of Naylor, Georgia:

Filed under: Clark Howard • Living • Money Coach • Mortgage

Clark Behind The Headlines

From HLN's Money Expert Clark Howard

Kiplinger magazine has done something that is almost like satire. With all these lists that people put out, it's almost trite.  But I saw Kiplinger's list of the ten best cities for the next decade, and I thought the logic behind what they did to choose the cities was excellent.

 The criteria they used was: where would you find the best opportunities moving forward? And maybe even, where are the places that would be the most fun to live? They based it on innovation: cities that seem to have real creativity going on, places where it is encouraged, is part of the culture, where everything is about innovating and creating and imagining new ways and processes to do things.

 By their telling, the number one place in the United States in terms of innovation and creative energy is Austin, Texas.  What a fun town, too. Number two: Seattle. Three: Washington D.C.  I lived in D.C. for five years, and some of the brightest and best-educated people in this country are there. 

 Number four is Boulder, Colorado. Five: Salt Lake City. Six: Rochester Minnesota. That one might surprise some people. I’ve spent quite a bit of time in Rochester and it was a very creative and well-educated environment there.

 Number seven is Des Moines, Iowa. Eight: Burlington, Vermont. Ninth place goes to West Hartford Connecticut.  And then, number ten: Topeka, Kansas. 

 You may come up with a different list or a different reason to decide that someplace is a great place to live for your future and your career. But there was a general theme that was common to a lot of the places on Kiplinger’s list: they tend to have a younger work force, more creative, very highly educated. Brain power is what matters so much and where economic growth occurs.  And this list speaks to that.

Filed under: Behind the Headlines • Career • Children • Clark Howard • Economy • 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 • Living • Mortgage

MONEY COACH
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.

This week’s question comes from Tamika Debose of Alpharetta, Georgia:

Filed under: Clark Howard • Economy • Living • Mortgage

Clark Behind The Headlines

From HLN's Money Expert Clark Howard

It’s a funny thing when I ask, “Does money buy happiness?” My whole show is about money!

But a survey was done of 136,000 people in 132 countries. And people were asked, if they make more money, are they happier with their lives? The answer was yes, and it doesn't matter if people are young or old, male or female, living in cities or rural areas.

But something I found quite fascinating about this: although people considered money to be the source of happiness, as the surveyors dug in, they found that the positive feelings in people's lives are “less affected by money and more affected by the things people are doing day to day.”  Being in control of your life, having friends and family, feeling respected.  Overall satisfaction in life doesn’t come from how fat your wallet is.

This dovetails with the work of a psychologist named Abraham Maslow. I remember studying his stuff in graduate school in 1976 or '77. He came up with Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. It says that once you have the basics taken care of, money doesn't make a big difference in someone being happy or unhappy.

You’ve got to have enough so you know that you can put food on the table, to know that you have shelter and clothing. But once you get past those basics and it's not about money anymore, it’s the other factors that matter. And it's so interesting that this new study speaks to that.  

Money is something that we think makes people happy. But it's actually people and experiences that make you happy.  I want you to remember that what really matters are the people around you that you care about, and who care about you, and the experiences you have.

Filed under: Behind the Headlines • Clark Howard • Economy • 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 • Investing

Clark Behind The Headlines

From HLN's Money Expert Clark Howard

The National Retail Federation, the trade association for the nation's retailers, has put out a new report on who's growing and who's shrinking in retail. And I don't think it would surprise anyone that all the growth is in the discount category.

The retail stores that sell full price or are not known as discounters have just not been very exciting over the last year.  But when you look at the discounters – wow. I mean, unreal. Family Dollar, Dollar General, Dollar Tree –  these stores are all about real thrift.

In terms of the biggest of the bigs, Wal-Mart is four times larger than the next biggest retailer. Wal-Mart sales last year were nearly a third of a trillion dollars. They are soon going to sell a billion dollars worth of stuff on an average day.

The second-biggest retailer may surprise you: Kroger. The supermarket chain wasn’t considered a viable survivor in the new retail environment. But it adjusted better than anybody expected to a whole new thinking in people about how they want to spend. Kroger put a big emphasis on value and found a spot in the marketplace after getting a little lost early in the great recession.

In the supermarket category, Aldi had the biggest jump in position in terms of the 100 largest retailers in the country. Aldi is now the 44th largest retailer in America.  And Aldi has been in America for more than a generation, never with any significant growth until the great recession.

But the real story when I looked through the sales figures is the massive increase in sales of the deep discounters like Dollar General. 

I shop regularly at Dollar General and they are now the 28th largest retailer in the United States. Their archrival, Family Dollar, is the 45th largest. If you have not tried these deep discounters like Family Dollar, Dollar General, and Dollar Tree, they are truly value-oriented. They're discount places with really, really low-priced goods.

Filed under: Behind the Headlines • Clark Howard • Commerce • Economy

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 • Economy • Help Me Clark • Living • Mortgage

MONEY COACH
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.

This week’s question comes from Jack Kramer of Zanesfield, Ohio:

Filed under: Clark Howard • Investing • Money Coach • Retirement

Clark Behind The Headlines

From HLN's Money Expert Clark Howard

Did you know your mobile phone is becoming the new, best source for discounts?

 Every couple of days, I get a new coupon from one of the big bookstore chains. Here's the one I got today: any item, 33% off list price, and it comes right to my cell phone. And I can click a button and almost instantly, a bar code pops up on my phone that can be read by the cashier. And so it eliminates having to carry around coupons.

 Well, now this is percolating throughout retail. There’s a huge number of people adopting smart phones. So we are going to become walking coupons. And retailers are becoming more and more sophisticated.

 You may remember I told you about the program Sam's Club does that is drilled down to each individual member. You get your own coupons based on your shopping pattern. And we're going to see this become a bigger and bigger part of retail, that you are going to be subject to what's known as  "behavioral targeting.” And you're going to see it at restaurants and retailers. Clothing stores especially are going to do offerings that are based on your individual shopping pattern.

 Again, it’s a case where you trade privacy for getting a coupon specifically for you. It used to be we thought about coupons just as part of the Sunday newspaper. Anyone that was willing to organize them could use them.

 Today, we're talking about a complete breach of your anonymity. But in return for it, you get great, individualized savings. It's a choice that a lot of people might not be willing to make. But I'm willing to do it, to save the dough.

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