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CNN Saturday Morning News

Interview With Clark Howard

Aired December 14, 2002 - 09:47   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CHARLES MOLINEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: The music is playing.
ARTHEL NEVILLE, CNN ANCHOR: It means consumer advocate Clark Howard goes to great lengths to save a buck, and more importantly, to help you save money. His latest book is "Get Clark Smart," and he's here to spread his wisdom.

Good morning, nice to see you.

CLARK HOWARD, POCKETBOOK PROTECTOR: Good morning.

NEVILLE: As always.

HOWARD: Where are you going for the holidays?

MOLINEAUX: Over the river and through the woods and saving money, we hope.

HOWARD: To the airport.

NEVILLE: And how are you getting there? Aha!

(CROSSTALK)

HOWARD: Yes, you're going to go to the airport.

Some fantastic deals I wants you to know about. First, there's a special sale. If you can leave town Christmas Eve, get back by Christmas night, so you get a very short visit with your family, $68 to $198 round trip almost anywhere in America. You need more travel time, well, the fare goes up.

You can start traveling next Wednesday, on the 18th, at special fares. You just have to be back by the 6th of January. Fare is not quite as cheap. Generally, if you go over the longer travel period, $138 to $268 round trip across the country.

MOLINEAUX: Now, we're -- we're less than...

HOWARD: Not bad.

MOLINEAUX: ... two weeks from there, but that's OK?

HOWARD: No advance purchase required on this holiday sale.

MOLINEAUX: Wow. HOWARD: The airlines need you.

NEVILLE: Yes, they do.

HOWARD: Not on every flight, but on the ones that don't have people, they're happy to have you.

NEVILLE: Now, just in case you can't get there, you can call on your cell phone, right, if you get one for Christmas.

HOWARD: Oh, do I have deals for you. OK, see, I have props for everybody.

NEVILLE: Oh, we love props.

(CROSSTALK)

HOWARD: Here, which phone do you want?

MOLINEAUX: ... the phones.

NEVILLE: I want the silver phone.

HOWARD: You want the silver one?

(CROSSTALK)

HOWARD: OK, here's that one. OK. There are sales right now I want you to know about. Isn't that a cool phone?

NEVILLE: I like it, it's -- I need one of these. Can I have this after we're done?

HOWARD: No, actually that company's...

MOLINEAUX: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

HOWARD: ... not offering the special we're going to talk about.

MOLINEAUX: Uh-oh.

HOWARD: So you don't get that one.

But listen to this deal. This is absolutely fantastic, what's going on right now. Three companies are in a price war for the holidays. You can get 1,000 anytime minutes to use for $39 a month. See, $39 is a special price point for people for cell phones. And the 39 for 1,000 minutes, anytime, you know, not just, you know, at 3:00 in the morning...

NEVILLE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

HOWARD: ... but whenever you want to use them, that's a deal. You can do that with AT&T or T-Mobile for national calling. Or you can do it with Cingular Wireless in what they define as your home calling area. So those are three great deals. The one from AT&T and the one from T-Mobile, no roaming, no long distance, as long as you stay on their network. They do not advertise these plans. You have to go look for them.

And then this deal right here, see this beautiful shiny phone?

NEVILLE: Yes.

HOWARD: OK. This is Virgin Mobile USA for people who don't use the phone a lot, the most fantastic deal on a prepaid phone. Right now you can get this prepaid phone for $59. You go to the regional retailer, Media Play, you can get with this $35 of calling, $15 from Virgin Mobile, $20 from them. So you end up paying very little money for the phone. A great deal. Virginmobileusa.com.

MOLINEAUX: Wow.

We do have people, however, who still need your help. The e- mails are coming in to wam@cnn.com.

And Wendy from Binghamton says, "I'm already broke." Oops, too late. Any suggest suggestions for shopping without money? Are there really bartering-type deals out there?

HOWARD: Well, there -- bartering was really big in the last recession, actually bigger than it is this recession, back in the early '90s. But this time, people are doing a modified method of bartering. eBay really is the new modern bartering where people get rid of stuff they have they don't need.

But there are, for small businesses especially, there are professional bartering organizations where businesses barter back and forth. You'll even see people in some cities with special bartering cards, which are almost like credit cards.

But eBay and flea markets are the real way. If you need to raise cash to do other things...

NEVILLE: Interesting.

HOWARD: ... that's the best way to get it done.

NEVILLE: All right. Well, listen, we have another e-mail coming in now from Aaron in Helena, Montana. "I have W-2 income that will likely exceed the limits for contributing to an IRA, and my company has no 401(K) retirement plan. How can I set up my own 401(K)-type plan to effectively reduce my income and thus take advantage of the IRA as well?"

HOWARD: OK, well, one thing, the provisions that limit how much you can contribute to an IRA are much looser on the better kind of IRA, called a Roth. So this person has to be making a lot of money in Montana before they can't do a Roth IRA. If they can do a Roth, that would be step number one.

If they can't do that, there's a fantastic thing for people who are making a lot of money but don't qualify for a normal retirement plan called a tax-managed portfolio. And those are offered most frequently by Vanguard. And if he goes to vanguard.com, he can learn about tax-managed portfolios, a great way to save for the future beyond what you can save in retirement plans.

MOLINEAUX: Clark, we're coming to the end of the year, so we're going to be hounding you a lot with tax questions, I suspect, as we wind down.

HOWARD: Yes.

MOLINEAUX: Thanks a lot.

HOWARD: Sure, thank you.

NEVILLE: Thank you, nice to see you, as always.

HOWARD: Good to see you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired December 14, 2002 - 09:47   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CHARLES MOLINEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: The music is playing.
ARTHEL NEVILLE, CNN ANCHOR: It means consumer advocate Clark Howard goes to great lengths to save a buck, and more importantly, to help you save money. His latest book is "Get Clark Smart," and he's here to spread his wisdom.

Good morning, nice to see you.

CLARK HOWARD, POCKETBOOK PROTECTOR: Good morning.

NEVILLE: As always.

HOWARD: Where are you going for the holidays?

MOLINEAUX: Over the river and through the woods and saving money, we hope.

HOWARD: To the airport.

NEVILLE: And how are you getting there? Aha!

(CROSSTALK)

HOWARD: Yes, you're going to go to the airport.

Some fantastic deals I wants you to know about. First, there's a special sale. If you can leave town Christmas Eve, get back by Christmas night, so you get a very short visit with your family, $68 to $198 round trip almost anywhere in America. You need more travel time, well, the fare goes up.

You can start traveling next Wednesday, on the 18th, at special fares. You just have to be back by the 6th of January. Fare is not quite as cheap. Generally, if you go over the longer travel period, $138 to $268 round trip across the country.

MOLINEAUX: Now, we're -- we're less than...

HOWARD: Not bad.

MOLINEAUX: ... two weeks from there, but that's OK?

HOWARD: No advance purchase required on this holiday sale.

MOLINEAUX: Wow. HOWARD: The airlines need you.

NEVILLE: Yes, they do.

HOWARD: Not on every flight, but on the ones that don't have people, they're happy to have you.

NEVILLE: Now, just in case you can't get there, you can call on your cell phone, right, if you get one for Christmas.

HOWARD: Oh, do I have deals for you. OK, see, I have props for everybody.

NEVILLE: Oh, we love props.

(CROSSTALK)

HOWARD: Here, which phone do you want?

MOLINEAUX: ... the phones.

NEVILLE: I want the silver phone.

HOWARD: You want the silver one?

(CROSSTALK)

HOWARD: OK, here's that one. OK. There are sales right now I want you to know about. Isn't that a cool phone?

NEVILLE: I like it, it's -- I need one of these. Can I have this after we're done?

HOWARD: No, actually that company's...

MOLINEAUX: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

HOWARD: ... not offering the special we're going to talk about.

MOLINEAUX: Uh-oh.

HOWARD: So you don't get that one.

But listen to this deal. This is absolutely fantastic, what's going on right now. Three companies are in a price war for the holidays. You can get 1,000 anytime minutes to use for $39 a month. See, $39 is a special price point for people for cell phones. And the 39 for 1,000 minutes, anytime, you know, not just, you know, at 3:00 in the morning...

NEVILLE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

HOWARD: ... but whenever you want to use them, that's a deal. You can do that with AT&T or T-Mobile for national calling. Or you can do it with Cingular Wireless in what they define as your home calling area. So those are three great deals. The one from AT&T and the one from T-Mobile, no roaming, no long distance, as long as you stay on their network. They do not advertise these plans. You have to go look for them.

And then this deal right here, see this beautiful shiny phone?

NEVILLE: Yes.

HOWARD: OK. This is Virgin Mobile USA for people who don't use the phone a lot, the most fantastic deal on a prepaid phone. Right now you can get this prepaid phone for $59. You go to the regional retailer, Media Play, you can get with this $35 of calling, $15 from Virgin Mobile, $20 from them. So you end up paying very little money for the phone. A great deal. Virginmobileusa.com.

MOLINEAUX: Wow.

We do have people, however, who still need your help. The e- mails are coming in to wam@cnn.com.

And Wendy from Binghamton says, "I'm already broke." Oops, too late. Any suggest suggestions for shopping without money? Are there really bartering-type deals out there?

HOWARD: Well, there -- bartering was really big in the last recession, actually bigger than it is this recession, back in the early '90s. But this time, people are doing a modified method of bartering. eBay really is the new modern bartering where people get rid of stuff they have they don't need.

But there are, for small businesses especially, there are professional bartering organizations where businesses barter back and forth. You'll even see people in some cities with special bartering cards, which are almost like credit cards.

But eBay and flea markets are the real way. If you need to raise cash to do other things...

NEVILLE: Interesting.

HOWARD: ... that's the best way to get it done.

NEVILLE: All right. Well, listen, we have another e-mail coming in now from Aaron in Helena, Montana. "I have W-2 income that will likely exceed the limits for contributing to an IRA, and my company has no 401(K) retirement plan. How can I set up my own 401(K)-type plan to effectively reduce my income and thus take advantage of the IRA as well?"

HOWARD: OK, well, one thing, the provisions that limit how much you can contribute to an IRA are much looser on the better kind of IRA, called a Roth. So this person has to be making a lot of money in Montana before they can't do a Roth IRA. If they can do a Roth, that would be step number one.

If they can't do that, there's a fantastic thing for people who are making a lot of money but don't qualify for a normal retirement plan called a tax-managed portfolio. And those are offered most frequently by Vanguard. And if he goes to vanguard.com, he can learn about tax-managed portfolios, a great way to save for the future beyond what you can save in retirement plans.

MOLINEAUX: Clark, we're coming to the end of the year, so we're going to be hounding you a lot with tax questions, I suspect, as we wind down.

HOWARD: Yes.

MOLINEAUX: Thanks a lot.

HOWARD: Sure, thank you.

NEVILLE: Thank you, nice to see you, as always.

HOWARD: Good to see you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com