Clark Howard Responds to Listener Critiques and Explains the Rise of Free College Tuition

In this "Best of" episode, Clark Howard opens the floor to listener critiques in his "Clark Stinks" segment, where he addresses corrections, disagreements, and refinements to advice he's given. The episode also explores a surprising trend: college tuition has flatlined, and more schools than ever are offering free tuition programs—though finding them requires serious digging.

Solar Generators: More Than Emergency Backup

A listener from South Carolina challenged Clark's characterization of solar generators as merely backup power for outages. Steven described purchasing an EcoFlow system with 12 kilowatts of battery storage, using time-of-day (TOD) rates to charge at six cents per kilowatt-hour off-peak and drawing exclusively from batteries during peak hours when rates hit 28 cents. His payback period: three years. He also noted that for extended outages, a 3,600-watt inverter generator can keep the system running indefinitely.

Clark conceded the point enthusiastically. "Most homeowners aren't gonna get into the weeds of how all this works, but the great news is the battery costs keep going down, down, down." He predicted that by 2030, having personal battery storage will be completely common, especially as data center demand drives up electricity costs nationwide.