Ideal winter thermostat temp (1 19 26)

Author

Sally McDonald
January 19, 2026

💵 Today’s Top Stories
Thermostat heat

Cooler temperatures might mean you’re cranking up the heat. But will that bust your budget? We offer tips to regulate your home’s temperature and keep you comfortable. Read more.

Credit freeze

Freezing your credit is the best thing you can do to protect yourself against identity theft. Here’s how to do it at Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. Read more.

Credit cards in hand blue

Clark recommended this credit card for years and even keeps it in his own wallet. But he’s downgraded it from “great” to “good” in recent years. Here’s why. Read more.

Happy cell phone

Interested in trying out a new cell phone provider but not ready to go all-in with something you’ve never tried? Get a free trial from these providers. Read more.

🏠️ Today’s Current Mortgage Rates

According to Freddie Mac, 30-year mortgage rates are 6.06% and 15-year rates are 5.38% as of January 15, 2026. The following chart shows the 30-year mortgage rate trend over the last year.

Mortgage Rates 011526
🏈 Tickets To Headline Sporting Events Price Out Many

Weeks away from Super Bowl LX, sports fans everywhere are facing giant ticket prices for premier events.

Tonight, Indiana and Miami face each other in the College Football Playoff championship game.

The game, which will take place in Miami (coincidentally home of one of the two participants), includes a school with the largest alumni base in the U.S. (Indiana) who has never won a college football national championship. Its Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback, Fernando Mendoza, went to high school in Miami.

Prices have trickled down. But at one point Friday, the lowest get-in price on Ticketmaster was $3,270.15 (for nosebleed seats). That’s for a single ticket, excluding travel, lodging, meals and entertainment.

Last week, the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games opened registration for a lottery – the winners of which get the rights to initial ticket sales. (Yes, that’s right: You need to win a lottery to even have an opportunity to buy tickets.)

The World Cup in North America, including the United States, later this year is causing all sorts of hand-wringing as well. FIFA, soccer’s organizing body, has received more than 500 million ticket requests. It is asking for up to $8,680 per ticket.

An outcry from fans all over the globe led to FIFA agreeing to offer a small number of $60 tickets for every game, handed to the national federations of the 48 participating countries.

The cheapest face-value tickets to the final: $4,185. It’s possible tickets can go much higher by the time that game arrives. (Early knockout stage games that the United States may slot into are selling for several thousand dollars, minimum, on the secondary market.)

And that’s not mentioning the 2026 Winter Olympics, which start Feb. 6 in Italy.

Unless you’re prepared to spend deep into the five figures for a family of four, watching these types of events from the couch for the relatively low cost of streaming services or cable TV seems awfully inviting in comparison.

📊 Stat of the Day

📱 $20: The credit Verizon is issuing to a large swath of customers who experienced an outage of more than 10 hours on Thursday. The outage lasted from about noon ET to after 10 p.m. ET. Affected customers can log into the myVerizon app to accept the account credit.

💰️ Deal Alert: Today’s Top Deals
luxury travel
bank bonus
🎙️ Podcast

It’s time for "Clark Stinks!" Christa reads the latest "Clark Stinks!" submissions and Clark responds. Also, the job market is in a lower gear as businesses continue to lay off employees and slow hiring. Clark’s take? Anytime the employment picture darkens, entrepreneurial opportunities emerge. If you’ve been laid off or you feel anxious about your job right now, you really need to hear Clark’s perspective as a lifelong entrepreneur.

☎️ 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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