The Clark Howard Podcast
The Clark Howard Podcast

01.28.26 Bypass Finfluencers / Can You Spot A Scam?

January 28, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

🎙️ The Voices & The Context

  • The Format: Casual radio/podcast show blending monologue advice, personal anecdotes, and listener Q&A.
  • The Key Players:
    • Clark Howard: Veteran consumer finance expert, delivering folksy, no-nonsense tips with humor.
    • Krista: Co-host reading listener emails, adding relatable banter.
    • Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Occasional input on investing details.
  • The Vibe: Educational and empowering, mixed with light-hearted humor, frustration over scams/airlines, and heartfelt family stories.

🗝️ Key Themes & Topics

Clark Howard warns young people against finfluencers and short-term gambling disguised as investing, pushes long-term habits like Roth IRAs, shares scam defenses, and fields Q&A on stocks, family support, credit cards, and airlines.

  • Topic 1: Youth Investing Pitfalls. Under two-thirds of young adults trust social media "advice," often sales pitches; Clark stresses diversification, low costs (e.g., Fidelity Zero funds), and "getting rich slowly" over hot tips.
  • Topic 2: Starting Young & Tools. Advice for teens/20s: Roth IRAs, target-date funds, Fidelity youth accounts; stock research via Yahoo Finance, StockAnalysis.com, Investopedia.
  • Topic 3: Scam Warnings. Pretexting scams (fake Microsoft/bank calls) target wealthy; never answer unknown calls, check accounts directly; student loan fraud pers

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What you'll learn

  • 1 (00:35) **Dangers of Social Media Investing Advice for Young Adults**
  • 2 (05:54) **Spotting Hidden Agendas in Financial Advice**
  • 3 (09:33) **Listener Q&A: 14-Year-Old Kate's Investing Start**
  • 4 (12:54) **Listener Q&A: Tools for Individual Stock Research**
  • 5 (14:28) **Listener Q&A: Retired Parent Seeking Help from Wealthy Kids**
  • 6 (21:12) **Rising Scams: Pretexting and Account Access Fraud**
  • 7 (29:00) **Listener Q&A: Fraudulent Student Loan Scam**

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

Many young adults recognize the value of early saving and investing long-term. But with 61% of this age group now trusting social media "finfluencers" for investing tips, it’s more important than ever to distinguish between sound financial advice and sales pitches pushing “get rich” ripoffs and worse - conflating gambling with real investing.  Also today - Clark shares a recent story of a retired lawyer who lost $85,000 to scammers posing as Microsoft security, only to have his bank deny a refund. Con artists continue their rampant looting unabated, with ever increasing sophistication, and no one is immune. BUT, there are tells.  Learn their method of operation, how to verify account activity on your own terms, and how to protect your "keys to the kingdom" from the criminals leveraging your data against you.

  • Finfluencers Vs The Real Thing: Segment 1
  • Ask Clark: Segment 2
  • Block The Con Job: Segment 3
  • Ask Clark: Segment 4

Mentioned on the show: