#1 reason to remodel your home (4 2 25)

Author

Anthony Hazzard
April 02, 2025

Robinhood shook up stock trading when it introduced options to trade for free. Further down this email, learn more about Robinhood and what it forced other brokerage companies to do. 

💵 Today’s Top Stories
Home

The harsh truth about home renovations is that you’re not going to recoup your costs. There’s one reason and one reason only to consider doing it, Clark says. Read more.

Library card

Did you know you can get free streaming with your local library card – without any advertisements? Here’s what’s available in the content library. Read more.

Southwest Airlines airplane

The changes the airline made are “just terrible” for customers, Clark says, including no more open seating, no more free checked bags and diluting its rewards points. What should you do? Read more.

Cell phone in hand

This month, new customers can get cell phone plan deals as low as $5 with Twigby, $10 with RedPocket, $15 with Cricket and more! Read more.

📣 Today’s Top News
💹 Robinhood Continues To Compete With Discount Brokers For Customers

Robinhood changed the investing market with zero-commission trades when it launched in 2013.

Intentionally or not, its free, accessible, gamified approach to investing – including a casino-like app -- appealed to a younger generation of retail traders who often treated the market more like gambling than investing.

The fintech company, coming from the “move-fast-and-break-things” ethos of Silicon Valley, made some major missteps along the way, drawing the ire of Clark Howard and others.

(Clark is especially critical of what he views as Robinhood nudging people to treat long-term investing more like gambling.)

Robinhood has been shipping new products at hyper speed, including:

  • Retirement accounts including IRAs (Robinhood even offered a 3% match on contributions to win market share).

  • A robo-advisor.

  • Robinhood Gold, a $5 monthly subscription that gives you access to 4% interest on your cash, Morningstar research, margin investing, a 3% cash back credit card and more.

  • Extended, 24-hour trading on most all high-volume stocks and ETFs.

  • “Robinhood Cortex,” an AI-powered tool that offers real-time analysis.

  • More advanced research tools, including “Robinhood Legend,” a trading platform with advanced and customizable charts.

  • Futures contracts, one of the most robust crypto offerings from a brokerage and event contracts on things like the NCAA Tournament and presidential election.

When Robinhood introduced free stock trading, it forced companies like Fidelity and Schwab to follow suit.

Whether Robinhood is good or bad for individual retail investors, it’s introducing a clear element of competition and forward-thinking features that hopefully will continue to improve the entire industry for customers.

💸 Today’s Top Savings Rates

Check out our updated list of Clark.com-approved high-yield savings accounts with the highest rates. Here are the top five APYs on our list as of April 2, 2025.

📊 Stat of the Day

📺️ +53%: The increase in YouTube’s share of TV usage in the last two years per Nielsen. YouTube accounts for 11.6% of screen time across America. That’s up from 7.9% in February 2023 and atop the list ahead of Disney (including ESPN and ABC), NBC, Netflix, FOX, Paramount and more.

💰️ Deal Alert: Today’s Top Deals
Burrito Day
Aruba
🎙️ Podcast

If you think about the most important fundamental in retirement planning, it’s determining the amount of money we can withdraw and still not run out. Fiduciary financial advisor Wes Moss discusses the longstanding 4% rule and runs the numbers on the probability of running out of savings if you bump it to a 5% withdrawal rate – or more. Also, it’s never fun to watch our portfolios drop. Wes walks us through historical corrections and why we shouldn't panic.

☎️ 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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