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#1 mistake hurting your credit score (10 15 25)

#1 mistake hurting your credit score (10 15 25)

Sally McDonald
October 15, 2025

💵 Today’s Top Stories

The #1 Mistake That Can Hurt Your Credit Score

There’s a common misconception that can get in the way of a healthy credit score and cost you money. Make sure you don’t fall into this trap. Read more.

When To Book Your 2025 Holiday Flights

When it comes to booking holiday travel, timing is everything. But the “sweet spot” for booking is shifting. Here’s what Clark learned from Google’s multi-year trends. Read more.

Best Place to Buy a Car Battery

It’s easy to compare prices. But there’s more to replacing your car battery than the price of the battery itself. We researched the market to find the six places that offer the best overall deals. Read more.

Best Low APR Credit Cards for Carrying a Balance

Carrying a credit card balance long-term? Ditch rewards cards in favor of low-APR ones, often found at local credit unions. Team Clark even found a local credit card with an APR below 10%. Read more.

🍎 Workplace Productivity: How Important Is Lunch?

For the last five years, the conversation about employee productivity largely centered around working from the office vs. working from home.

That remains important. But perhaps in our zest for that topic, we’ve underindexed discussion around another: hunger.

That’s right … a new study suggests that whether workers take a lunch break and eat makes a huge difference in productivity.

According to the fourth-annual report by ezCater, more than eight in 10 workers has experienced “hanger” (hungry + angry). Here are more findings from the survey:

94% of workers say lunch breaks boost their performance
43% take longer to finish tasks when they haven’t eaten
39% make more mistakes
31% produce lower-quality work

Yet more than half of workers skip lunch at least once a week and 33% skip it twice or more.

Breakfast is branded as the most important meal of the day. But perhaps to employers, and ambitious employees, eating lunch during workdays is even more important.

📊 Stat of the Day

🚘️ 20%: Share of new car buyers paying at least $1,000 per month in auto loan installments. More than 22% of new auto loans last for at least seven years. And the average new car down payment fell to its lowest level in nearly four years in Q3 of 2025.

💰️ Deal Alert: Today’s Top Deals

🎙️ Podcast

We’ve hit the three-year mark of this bull market — stocks are up, dividends are strong, and history tells us there could still be room to run. But what happens next? Wes Moss breaks down the data and explains what history says about how long bull markets typically last — and why patience and balance matter most right now. Also, Wes explores what it really means to be financially “set” — and why that doesn’t always mean being settled. Whether you have $100,000 or $10 million, peace of mind comes from having a plan — and revisiting it often.

☎️ Need Money Help?

The Team Clark Consumer Action Center is a free helpline that can help you navigate your money questions. Call 636-492-5275. Visit clark.com/cac for more information.

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