11/12/25 America's Job Market, Advisor Shortages, and Holiday Lights at CALM

The Moneywise Radio Show and Podcast Wednesday, November 12th BE MONEYWISE. Moneywise Wealth Management I "The Moneywise Radio Show & Podcast" call: 661-847-1000 text in anytime: 661-396-1000 website: www. MoneywiseGuys.com facebook: Moneywise_Wealth_Management LinkedIn: Moneywise_Wealth_Management Guest: Steve Sanders, Holiday Lights at CALM website: https://calmholidaylights.org/

• 0:00Speaker 00

  From the second floor of the historic Woolworths Building in downtown Bakersfield, here is Money Wise. Call or text into the show 661-396-1000.

• 0:10Speaker 01

  I need a dollar, dollar, dollar, that's what I need. Hey, hey. Well, I need a dollar, dollar, dollar, that's what I need. Hey, hey. Said I need a dollar, dollar, dollar, that's what I need. And if I share with you my story, would you share your dollar with me?

• 0:30Speaker 02

  Securities offered through LPL Financial, member FINRA, SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through LPL Financial. LPL Financial and Money Wise Wealth Management are independently owned and operated.

• 0:39Speaker 00

  Here is Money Wise.

• 0:42Speaker 03

  Welcome, welcome, welcome to the Money Wise Show. As always, live from the second floor of the historic Woolworths Building in downtown Bakersfield on ESPN Bakersfield, 1230 AM, 101.1 FM, always streaming on the interwebs at MoneyWiseGeist.com. Call or text into the show anytime, please do. We got a couple of text messages that popped through in the last 23 hours since we were on the air with you before. So call or text into the show anytime, 24 hours a day, 661-396-1000. That's 661-396-1000. Today, we are your hosts. I'm Justin Leland, here with...

• 1:21Speaker 04

  Sammy Abiyawi.

• 1:23Speaker 03

  Sammy. How you doing?

• 1:25Speaker 04

  Glad to be here with you, Jay Lee.

• 1:27Speaker 03

  Yeah, we're doing, we're getting, getting over Help Day.

• 1:30Speaker 04

  Yes, almost there.

• 1:32Speaker 03

  Almost there. Almost done with Help Day.

• 1:34Speaker 04

  I'm liking, I'm liking the weather. I'm liking the time of the year. I'm getting to the Christmas month, which is one of the best times of the year for me personally.

• 1:45Speaker 03

  Honestly, and you know, and you've taken the wind out of my sails because we are going to be talking to our good friend Steve Sanders today, who's going to be joining the show, who will be talking to us, you know, hey, it's the holidays. And what better time than the holidays? Then to go out to Calm and see holiday lights, right? Um, that's coming up. So Steve Sanders will be joining us here the next segment. And we'll be talking about Calm and and all the wonderful things going on out there. And we might talk about a few lights or so. I don't, I think we might. There's like three or four lights that they have out there. What I saw, like three or four? I don't know, maybe more.

• 2:23Speaker 04

  It's just one of the largest in the United States. Top three, maybe.

• 2:27Speaker 03

  Top three. I mean, it's, it's a, it's a destination. I've got family from out of state that come in just to see the lights.

• 2:34Speaker 04

  You know, I went, I went to the one in Paso a couple of years ago.

• 2:38Speaker 03

  Yes, and sorry, or whatever it is. It's eh.

• 2:41Speaker 04

  It was I.

• 2:42Speaker 03

  Eh.

• 2:44Speaker 04

  It was I, like after the first 10 minutes, I told my wife, okay, what's next?

• 2:48Speaker 03

  Right. Well, and the thing is, it's like, the other thing about the thing in Paso is that you usually have to make your reservations like a week and a half or two weeks in advance.

• 2:56Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 2:57Speaker 03

  And it's like, it's a walk through the park and there's a couple of lights. This is a much more immersive experience at Calm and it's far more.

• 3:07Speaker 04

  Guess what, Steve? They did not have hot dogs, man.

• 3:09Speaker 03

  I know.

• 3:10Speaker 04

  I drove all the way there to see the lights and they did not have hot dogs. It was just an American.

• 3:21Speaker 03

  Hey, so we're going to do what we do. We're going to get down to some numbers here. We had a little bit of a mixed market today. Uh, where the Dow was up, the S and P was up, the NASDAQ was a little bit light on the day. S and P was really kind of unchanged on the day. Um, you know, and I think that the Dow, you know, this is the first time that the Dow has actually closed above 48,000. Um, and you know, we refer to the Dow as the dumb Dow for a reason. Um, it's only 30 companies. They're 30 massively large companies, but that's not a really good barometer of the overall US economy, right? Is to look at 30 companies by the name of Apple and Caterpillar and you know, a couple of other companies.

• 4:06Speaker 03

  You know, when you're looking at the overall economy, you're wanting to look at things like the the Wilshire 5000. I mean, it's like 5,000 companies, right? That's a much better indicator. But the Dow Jones, it's what everybody knows. And, you know, it was started in, what was it, 1896 or 1898, something like that? You know, way back in the day. So it's it's gathered its cult following, I guess you will say. Um, but it closed above forty eight thousand, forty eight thousand for the first time today. Do you know when it first closed above forty seven thousand?

• 4:40Speaker 04

  No.

• 4:41Speaker 03

  Three weeks ago.

• 4:43Speaker 04

  Wow. So so I I did, I before, when you told me that, I went back and see when was the last time it closed above twenty thousand? And it was January twenty fifth, twenty seventeen.

• 4:54Speaker 03

  So basically, in the last eight years, it's nearly doubled in value, more than doubled in value.

• 5:00Speaker 04

  It doubled in value in just seven years.

• 5:03Speaker 03

  Right.

• 5:03Speaker 04

  But before that, it took a hundred plus years, right?

• 5:10Speaker 03

  Yeah, to go from zero effectively.

• 5:12Speaker 04

  Twenty thousand.

• 5:13Speaker 03

  To twenty thousand. Um, but here we are at forty eight thousand. And here we are, you know, the the twelfth of November at forty eight thousand, when on the twenty fourth of October was the first day we closed above forty seven thousand. And on nine eleven was the first day that we closed above forty six thousand. So we're climbing at a thousand point chunks, basically on a monthly basis at this point, um, which is insane.

• 5:42Speaker 04

  It is, it is.

• 5:43Speaker 03

  So at this point, you have to kind of wonder, is this the melt up before the meltdown?

• 5:49Speaker 04

  That's that's probably what a lot of people are asking, that a lot of people, including myself.

• 5:54Speaker 03

  Right. Uh, you know, what goes up must come down kind of a thing. And it's like, uh, you know, we were talking about it and thinking, you know, with with um, with AI and the way that the stock market has been um, fueled, I mean, the S and P five hundred this year is up about sixteen, seventeen percent year to date. Most of that growth is fueled by the the likes of Nvidia, Cisco, AM, AMD, the the chip makers. Uh, these are all AI.

• 6:29Speaker 03

  You know, AI companies that are basically fueling a lot of this momentum. That's not to say that other companies are not growing as well. That's not to say that, but a lot of this growth is is AI generated. So are we in an AI bubble?

• 6:42Speaker 04

  Well, we would know a little bit more, Justin, if we had some data from our Bureau of Statistics. However, we have been shut down for six weeks, so we don't have real data yet.

• 6:53Speaker 03

  So the Bureau of Labor, that's a good point, Sammy. The Bureau of Labor Statistics just came out and said, you know, those jobs numbers that you wanted for October and the inflation numbers you wanted for October? Yeah, you're never going to see them because of the shutdown.

• 7:10Speaker 03

  We're just gonna, we're just gonna, eh, October didn't exist. It didn't happen. Move on. We're in November now. Move on.

• 7:17Speaker 04

  Limping the matrix.

• 7:18Speaker 03

  I know. It's it's kind of infuriating because the Federal Reserve and many banks and investment houses, they rely on that data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to make their calls, to formulate what are they going to do over the next month, quarter, year, whatever? And those numbers are vitally important. You know, I'll ask you this. So Sammy, you were in the banking industry. How often was it that where your contract, if there was a COLA adjustment in some of the contracts, that you would use the CPI numbers from a very

• 8:00Speaker 03

  specific month? I know when I was in finance leasing, our our finance leases were written so that the October CPI number was the number that we used for future CPI and COLA adjustments.

• 8:15Speaker 04

  And banking, banking, very, very similar, because what you just described can be translated into interest rates adjustments, right? And we always, always use the latest, latest number. Okay, we're not gonna, we're not gonna use a number from last year now because you're either leaving money on the table, or you're charging too much and you're not competitive.

• 8:35Speaker 03

  Well, and this is what I remember was we were, I was Doing finance leases and a seven year contract and we would always do the update and the adjustment for January one of the following year. But we would in the contract, we would use the October CPI number as the as the kicker for us to then input the information to then create the new rate for the following year. So if that number is not coming in for October, what's the proxy that you're going to use now? Cause that number doesn't exist.

• 9:06Speaker 04

  Yeah, you're gonna have to wait, I guess, until November, December, what a year end gives us in order for you to do what you just described.

• 9:13Speaker 03

  It is, it is insane the way that some of these things are like, eh, just.

• 9:17Speaker 04

  Correct.

• 9:17Speaker 03

  Yeah, we're gonna wait till next month to give you actual numbers. Um, you know, the 10 year treasury yield actually closed down today. It's just hovering right above 4%. It's like 4.06%, which is down from last month where it was at around 4.5, 4.6. So you're seeing the yield starting to drop. That's also because of the Federal Reserve is lowering interest rates and, you know, um, that's gonna be kind of the thing that's gonna be happening over a little bit.

• 9:45Speaker 04

  That's good for, for commercial real estate, especially long term rates.

• 9:50Speaker 03

  Tri net leases and such, yeah.

• 9:52Speaker 04

  Correct, yeah, because a lot of the banks are using the 10 year treasury rate to base their decision on what rate they charge the clients typically at least two to between a two to three and a half percent. Uh, a spread on the top of the 10 year treasury when they fix the commercial real estate loan. So the fact that they're going down, that might stimulate some refinance refinances from deals that have been done in the last two years in the seven percents or whatever. Unless banks have built a strong prepayment penalties, which most of the commercial banks do to protect themselves. But if the rate goes down so much that it can actually cover for that prepayment penalty, a lot of, you'll see a lot of refinances taking place.

• 10:35Speaker 03

  Yeah. Now, I will say that, um, the consumer, going back to kind of some financing pieces. Consumer debt, you know, you, you know, when you're talking about, um, car loans, credit card debt, um, all of those types of things.

• 10:52Speaker 03

  This is where we're starting to see some of these headwinds in the economy from unemployment numbers, CPI numbers are still stubbornly high, but one of the numbers that we tend to pay attention to is delinquency on debts, consumer debt delinquency. So right now, consumer debt delinquency is rising and it's actually sitting at about four and a half percent at this point, which is not a good number. Typically, you want to see that delinquency number at two percent or below. We're now starting to see those delinquencies bump up. Is that a function, in your mind Sammy, is that a function of maybe partially the government

• 11:37Speaker 03

  shutdown and furloughed employees from the federal government, not getting a paycheck and saying, you know, I'll pay the credit card off when I get my paycheck? Or like, what is it that's driving that delinquency number higher?

• 11:51Speaker 04

  So we have seven hundred fifty thousand government employees, give or take.

• 11:56Speaker 03

  Right.

• 11:57Speaker 04

  So that number could have an effect on that delinquency potentially. A lot of, I mean, on average, American consumer, we don't have savings.

• 12:07Speaker 03

  We have about ten thousand dollars worth of consumer debt, all of us.

• 12:11Speaker 04

  Correct, correct.

• 12:12Speaker 03

  On average.

• 12:13Speaker 04

  And we don't, we're not a culture of, you know, money saving. We do not have savings accounts and if we do, it's very little. That's, that could be that, but also just here, just here, and we've had some listeners giving us some questions and comments about the economy. Oil and ag has had a turn and that's been affecting our job members, just here in Kern County and the Central Valley in general. So that's good, that's good here locally, that could be attributed to that as well. Nationally, absent of a report that shows you where the labor market is at, it's hard for me to, to answer that question, but my gut feel is that.

• 12:56Speaker 04

  What we are not hearing, what we're not seeing is the job creation is not as robust as it's made to be.

• 13:04Speaker 03

  So I I did a quick little search on that. And so there's been about six, you know, six hundred and something thousand jobs that have been filled this year. And there have been announced layoffs through October of one point one million layoffs. That have been announced. So for every one job that's being filled, you've got two people that are either losing their job or being notified that they're losing their job.

• 13:31Speaker 04

  And and and here here's the thing.

• 13:32Speaker 03

  The softening, the softening is happening.

• 13:34Speaker 04

  Well, look, UPS, FedEx, we talked about this, you and I, I mean, I don't know if it's a week ago or two weeks ago, we talked about the layoffs that these two large companies are having. Now, these two, imagine this, we're we're about to start the season.

• 13:49Speaker 03

  Yeah, Christmas holiday season, deliveries are out of the out like crazy.

• 13:53Speaker 04

  And these two companies are laying off people.

• 13:55Speaker 03

  Right. Why?

• 13:55Speaker 04

  Is that indication of us slowing down a little bit? I would say yes.

• 13:59Speaker 03

  Consumer sentiment is is waning and people are not spending as much money.

• 14:04Speaker 04

  And what's the but what what you see, though, is people are like, no, consumers are still spending, spending is up, but we're using what? Using credit cards. That's why you see that rate of delinquency going up.

• 14:16Speaker 03

  It's insane because, I mean, when you look at interest rates on these cards, it's averaging anywhere from twenty two to thirty percent. You know, for some of these credit, and I don't understand it. I I, you know.

• 14:27Speaker 04

  I I I mean.

• 14:27Speaker 03

  I have not paid interest on a credit. I have not paid interest on a credit card in probably five years.

• 14:34Speaker 04

  Yeah, becau- be and that's what we talked about, shared and I on Monday, is this this this listener sent us a question about eight thousand dollar. On average, eight thousand to twelve thousand dollars is what the Americans carry on their credit cards.

• 14:46Speaker 03

  Right.

• 14:47Speaker 04

  If you make the minimum payment, it takes you thirty years to pay that thing off. With sixteen thousand dollars of those payments going towards principal, I mean, towards interest, I'm sorry.

• 14:56Speaker 03

  Well, I'm wondering if you can get a fifty year mortgage on that.

• 15:01Speaker 03

  I knew that would get you.

• 15:05Speaker 04

  Hey, look, look, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, we had the 30 year mortgage and, and, and I'm not gonna, look, I want to stay neutral, no party lines here.

• 15:16Speaker 03

  No, no politics here.

• 15:18Speaker 04

  We had 40 year mortgage presented, approved, I think.

• 15:22Speaker 03

  I think they kicked it back.

• 15:24Speaker 04

  And then now we have 50 year proposal. I mean, definitely the word more in mortgage is going to be applicable now.

• 15:31Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 15:32Speaker 04

  Before you die, you're not going to even see the end of it.

• 15:36Speaker 03

  Yeah, you buy a house at the age of 30, you get no equity in it whatsoever. And by the time that you're 80, you might be able to say you own your house.

• 15:47Speaker 04

  Yeah, you own your house, that's when you can afford a vacation to Morocco. You go in a wheelchair to Morocco to see the desert.

• 15:54Speaker 03

  Yeah, get your, uh, get your.

• 15:55Speaker 04

  You're stuck in the sand.

• 15:56Speaker 03

  Well, you take your walker and you make sure you've got the like, the, the pads on there to make sure it kind of floats over the top of the sand, right? Tennis balls don't work.

• 16:05Speaker 04

  There's some, some of these things I'm hearing just as a, as an ex banker, 50 year mortgage is just, just to me, it's, it's.

• 16:12Speaker 03

  It doesn't make any sense.

• 16:13Speaker 04

  I want to stimulate the economy as, as much as the next guy. Just 50 year mortgages to me is not the, the way to go.

• 16:19Speaker 03

  It's, it's actually going the opposite direction.

• 16:22Speaker 04

  Yeah, I agree.

• 16:23Speaker 03

  It's, yeah, it's a, but anyhow, so we're going to take a quick break now that we've kind of beaten that dead horse. Uh, we're going to go ahead and take a quick break and when we come back, we'll be talking to Steve Sanders from Calm and we'll be talking about the holiday lights when we come back.

• 16:36Speaker 00

  Are you curious to learn more about how you can be money wise? Check out the Money Wise website at MoneyWiseGuys.com to get more info.

• 16:51Speaker 03

  Welcome, welcome, welcome, we're back, welcome to the Money Wise Show.

• 17:03Speaker 03

  Hey, we got a couple of messages that came in over the break and Sammy, we got a couple that won here. I really like those. I love the show.

• 17:12Speaker 04

  Yeah, I want to read it for you because you're the financial advisor. I want you to weigh on this.

• 17:16Speaker 03

  Okay, alright.

• 17:18Speaker 04

  "My husband has been off work since the shutdown and has been listening to your show with me and is now really wanting to step away from his job in the new year and become a financial planner."

• 17:29Speaker 03

  Good for him.

• 17:30Speaker 04

  "My question before he jumps into that world, is there a need in that field? That is the only thing we aren't sure about here in town. We have heard we are short on doctors, tax professionals, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask, just wanting to be money wise. Have a great day." Very good question, Justin.

• 17:49Speaker 03

  It's an amazing question. And I will say that there is a shortage of all professionals in no matter which industry you're really talking about, whether it's here locally or nationally, regionally, whatever which way you want to look at it. Let's put it this way, the average age of a financial advisor/financial planner is in their late 50s. 58 or 59, I think, is the average age for financial advisors. I'm not that age, thank goodness, but I will be not too distant future, right? It is an aging population of advisors that are going to eventually need to retire.

• 18:32Speaker 03

  There are more people retiring than there are people entering into the business. So you do the math. If there's more people that are leaving and the average age is 58, there's not a whole lot of young bucks out there that are taking the training and the licensing and everything to get into the industry. So, yes, there is a shortage of good financial planners. By all means, give us a call. We can point you in the right direction.

• 19:04Speaker 04

  Yeah, I would say, call Justin, have a coffee downstairs at Reverb with Justin, one of our financial advisors, and ask questions. We will be more than happy to, to at least give you some pointers and hopefully help you make a decision. Talking about Reverb, we have another comment here. Love the show and a big shout out to the coffee shop in the Woolworth offices, our new lunch wake-up spot. Cool dudes that know their coffee.

• 19:37Speaker 03

  Oh, yes, they do.

• 19:39Speaker 04

  And my pocket will agree with that, too.

• 19:42Speaker 03

  Yes, yeah, my credit card tends to smoke. It's been going through that thing so fast.

• 19:48Speaker 04

  Yeah, I don't know about being money-wise with our coffee downstairs, Justin, you and I.

• 19:52Speaker 03

  I don't know.

• 19:52Speaker 04

  Two, three times a day.

• 19:54Speaker 03

  At least twice a day.

• 19:55Speaker 04

  That's what we want.

• 19:57Speaker 03

  So I know the morning, I typically am going in there and getting myself a good, you know, whatever coffee I want. But typically, the afternoon, one o'clock in the afternoon, a Cortado, a little, you know, a little pick-me-up, a little get-your-afternoon-started kind of a coffee drink. Love it.

• 20:14Speaker 04

  They do, they do a very, very good job making these drinks. They have homemade syrups that they, they're not, they're not coming from, what is it called, that place?

• 20:23Speaker 03

  Not super sweet, not, yeah, not a ton of sugar, all that kind of stuff, right? Okay, and we had one other question that popped in there, but yeah, if you get a chance, by all means, head on down to Reverb Coffee, grab yourself a coffee. It's some of the best coffee in town. I know that for a fact.

• 20:41Speaker 04

  Yeah, the latest one, any movement on us getting a $2,000 tariff check, a 50-year home loans, I thought that was a fake, but is it real?

• 20:52Speaker 03

  Yeah, so the talk about the 50-year home loan is actually a real conversation that was brought up. Now, most economists and most people that are in the mortgage industry are laughing at it and saying, this is a really dumb idea. And I tend to agree with them, but it is a real...

• 21:15Speaker 03

  A real discussion and a real piece of, hey, this is what we're gonna do. We're gonna bring in it. We're gonna solve the, the, the, the housing crisis by, you know, having a 50-year mortgage and lowering your payment by 200 bucks a month. But, you know, extending the loan and having you pay hundreds of thousands of dollars more for that loan than you ever needed to.

• 21:35Speaker 03

  Now, I will say, so we've, we've heard that people talk about the $2,000 tariff check. I would say you have a better chance of getting a $2,000 tariff check than you do of winning the lottery. Not happening. I don't, I, I would, I would be shocked if we see any kind of tariff, quote unquote, tariff rebate.

• 21:56Speaker 03

  What say you, Sammy?

• 21:58Speaker 04

  I mean, it would be, it would be good. I'm not talking about myself, but I know, I know a lot of people are hurting throughout, throughout the country. So $2,000, $2,000.

• 22:08Speaker 03

  It's a lot.

• 22:08Speaker 04

  Especially if it hits during the holiday season, man. That, that's gonna make somebody's Christmas.

• 22:14Speaker 03

  It really would. I'm just saying from a, from a, from a, a, objective standpoint, I don't. I don't see how that gets done.

• 22:24Speaker 04

  Here's the thing, though. Here's the thing. The $2,000 is not an additional income to you. Because you've already paid for it.

• 22:32Speaker 03

  Exactly.

• 22:33Speaker 04

  At Walmart, at, at other stores.

• 22:36Speaker 03

  I'm putting it all in.

• 22:36Speaker 04

  The tariffs have been, have been weaved into your, uh, uh, grocery, uh, bill.

• 22:44Speaker 03

  Right.

• 22:45Speaker 04

  In cents, maybe you don't pay attention to it because it's pennies, but it has been weaved into that.

• 22:50Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah. Well, the, the, here's the other thing, though, that, that. Remember when COVID happened and we were doing the stimulus packages, right? Everybody was getting $600 a person or whatever, whatever the amount was. And that was blamed for a massive amount of inflation. What do you think $2,000 per person's gonna do to inflation when we're already in an inflationary environment?

• 23:12Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 23:13Speaker 03

  So like not a good plan. It sounds great on paper. I would love to get that $2,000. But I don't see that happening. I don't see it passing muster.

• 23:27Speaker 04

  I would not be surprised if it takes place because frankly, after six weeks of shutdown, the country basically being shut down for six weeks, the $2,000 would not surprise me.

• 23:39Speaker 03

  Donald Trump needs to buy some political capital?

• 23:42Speaker 04

  I don't, I don't, that's not what I mean. I'm just saying, not, it will be very hard for us to, to be surprised with whatever happens. You know, six weeks of shutdown, $2,000 tariff check, 50-year mortgage. It's just not where we need to be going.

• 24:03Speaker 03

  No, and I would say this, a very wise man once told me, and I will always remember this, I'm never surprised, I'm often disappointed.

• 24:12Speaker 04

  And that's what, that's, that's, that's the reality, really.

• 24:14Speaker 03

  I'm not surprised anymore by anything that happens, but I'm often disappointed.

• 24:19Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 24:20Speaker 03

  Kind of the way of the world at this point. We're going to take a quick break. It's the bottom of the hour. We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, Steve Sanders from Calm will be joining us.

• 24:29Speaker 00

  Are you an employee with a company-sponsored retirement plan? Do you fully understand how you're invested? And whether or not you are maximizing your retirement plan's options? For more information on a free assessment, contact MoneyWise's 401(k) specialist, Justin Leland, at 661-847-1000.

• 24:50Speaker 03

  Welcome back to the Money Wise Show.

• 24:54Speaker 03

  Thank you for being a listener. Thank you for joining us. By all means, reach out, 661-396-1000 with your comments, questions, concerns.

• 25:05Speaker 03

  Tell Sammy how wonderful he is. Right?

• 25:10Speaker 04

  I like, I like hearing that.

• 25:11Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 25:12Speaker 04

  It boosts my ego.

• 25:15Speaker 03

  There you go. So by all means, six, six, one, three, nine, six, one, thousand. We're here, ESPN, Bakersfield, twelve thirty a.m., one oh, one point one FM. We're getting down to business right now with a good friend of the show, good friend of Money Wise, just a good dude, just in general, Mr. Steve Sanders, joining us and be talking a little bit about Calm and the Holiday Lights. Steve, how are you?

• 25:41Speaker 05

  I'm doing amazing. How are you guys?

• 25:44Speaker 03

  You look like you're, you look very festive.

• 25:46Speaker 05

  Well, I have the holiday lights behind me and you were mentioning how disappointed you are in things, but one thing you won't be disappointed about is holiday lights.

• 25:56Speaker 03

  I never am. That's the one thing in my life that gives me joy and a reason to wake up in the morning.

• 26:02Speaker 05

  Well, besides Steve Sanders, yeah.

• 26:07Speaker 03

  Nice. Hey, so yeah, so this is, what year are we on now? It's like you're, what is, how many years has Calm been doing the holiday lights now?

• 26:16Speaker 05

  Yeah. So first of all, thank you guys for having me on, Sammy.

• 26:18Speaker 03

  Absolutely.

• 26:19Speaker 05

  And then Justin, I love being on Money Wise. This is our twenty-third year, believe it or not, of holiday.

• 26:25Speaker 03

  That is amazing.

• 26:27Speaker 05

  Yeah, it started twenty-three years ago with Vision and the same guy, Josh Barnett, who was a kid back then and now has, I think, eight or nine light shows throughout the country and full-time business with employees and just in.

• 26:47Speaker 03

  The whole nine.

• 26:48Speaker 05

  Yeah, exactly.

• 26:49Speaker 03

  And every single year you guys add on to what you've done in the previous years. It seems like it's like an ongoing thing from, you know, being a small little, you know, light show to now it's this massive thing with trains and bubbles and foam and.

• 27:07Speaker 05

  Yeah. So I look back at the beginning, like the first several years we had, I'm gonna say thirteen, fifteen thousand people come through.

• 27:17Speaker 03

  Uh huh.

• 27:17Speaker 05

  You know, the last two years, we had almost seventy thousand people.

• 27:21Speaker 03

  That is just amazing.

• 27:22Speaker 05

  And, you know, from all over, not only just Kern County, but we were named one of the top ten light shows in the country.

• 27:30Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 27:30Speaker 05

  A USA Today and so we just attract a lot of folks and it's it's my thing is it's a family experience. It's artistic. We're not going to have bounce houses and things like that. It's a place to kind of settle down, walk through, spend time with your family, and the kids just love it. And so it's an amazing experience.

• 27:55Speaker 03

  And it's, you know, you get to, it does kind of take you back and I'll just, I'll give you an anecdote. You know, my wife's grandmother, who's in her 80s, she comes up from Los Angeles County just to see these lights every year with, you know, with her walker and the whole thing. And she, I'm not kidding you, she gets absolutely transformed into that little girl again.

• 28:20Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 28:21Speaker 03

  Uh, you know, 60 years ago, 70 years ago, and she's, the, the, the joy in her eyes of seeing the lights and, and being able to walk around the grounds and just, uh, just, it's an awesome experience. And it's all young and old alike. It's just, uh, it's a great, great thing.

• 28:39Speaker 05

  Well, you mentioned that and what's cool is we have, uh, you know, 23 years in, we now have generations coming. So we have people that came as kids that are bringing their kids. We've had several weddings there. We've had, uh, last year I was working the train and a guy proposed in line at the train to his mate and they rode the train and ended up getting married at Calm later on in the year. So it, it's just become a family tradition and something that we're really proud of.

• 29:12Speaker 03

  And is a teen challenge, is, are they still coming out and doing the food vending and, and all of those types of things?

• 29:18Speaker 05

  Thank you for mentioning them. So from the beginning, our partner agency has been Kern County Teen Challenge. Uh, they help all the guys in the parking lot, all the concessions are Teen Challenge. And so, um, this year they're selling the Christmas trees. So

• 29:35Speaker 03

  Oh, wow.

• 29:36Speaker 05

  You can get a great deal on live Christmas trees out there. All the proceeds go to Teen Challenge. So I always tell people, when you come to Calm, it's an investment in Calm and Teen Challenge and you get a great family experience. You can't go wrong.

• 29:52Speaker 03

  And so. Let's talk a little bit about the economics of it, because I mean, we are on MoneyWise.

• 29:59Speaker 05

  Yeah, of course.

• 30:00Speaker 03

  So when you're talking about when it started really small, you're looking at like, you know, 10, 15,000 people coming through the gates.

• 30:06Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 30:06Speaker 03

  Now, and then, you know, fast forward to COVID year where we couldn't even get out of the car, we had to do the drive-through thing for what, two, three years?

• 30:15Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 30:15Speaker 03

  Three years of doing that.

• 30:17Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 30:17Speaker 03

  So now we're back to being able to get out of our car without a mask and actually go in and actually physically see this zoo one and the lights and all of the things that are going on. So now we're getting 70, 75,000 people showing up. What kind of economic impact is that bringing to our own community? Because it's not all Kern County folks that are going to this event.

• 30:40Speaker 05

  Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's funny you mentioned the COVID years. Three out of our 20 years were drive-through.

• 30:47Speaker 03

  Right.

• 30:49Speaker 05

  So hey, is it still a drive-through? But I'm way better inside the park. We adjusted. Actually, the COVID years were two of our, three of our best years economics-wise. So to give you an example and answer your question, Justin, in the beginning, we were making, you know, probably netting $40,000, $50,000. But, you know, back then, that was a lot of money back 23 years ago. This last year was our most successful year ever. We netted about $400,000. Um, which sounds like a lot of money, but I'll put it in context in a minute. Teen Challenge, it's their best fundraiser, so they're, you know, making a couple hundred

• 31:34Speaker 05

  thousand dollars to support their program. So it's a huge, um, not only is it a family tradition, but it's hugely important, not only to us, but Teen Challenge is.

• 31:46Speaker 03

  Yes, I mean, as an organization doing what they're doing to help at-risk youth, really, is really what they're trying to do.

• 31:54Speaker 05

  Well, and all the, all the guys and gals that are working for those 37 nights, they're in the program. You know, people don't know Kern County is what they call a Induction Center. So you're off the streets, you're needing that immediate help. You're here for a while. And then you move on to Southern California. So we're able to provide a safe environment. Uh, give those guys and gals some training as well as um, you know.

• 32:23Speaker 03

  Job experience?

• 32:25Speaker 05

  Well, and and feeling good about, hey, we're really making a difference in the community uh, is amazing. I wanted to put real quick in context that we netted $400,000 for Holiday Lights. Uh, just recently, we built three flight cages and three cement pads, which is vitally important for our rehab. Uh, that was $180,000. So.

• 32:50Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 32:51Speaker 05

  You know, things are just super expensive. And so while it's our biggest fundraiser, it's uh, one of many. And super important to what we do, but the economics of running a zoo, it's it's a lot.

• 33:05Speaker 03

  So yeah, we had a couple of messages pop through. So the first one was, looks like I think probably already answered says, dang, it's already time for the holidays. Will they be doing the drive through the park again this year? Is that only for COVID? Yes, that was only for COVID. Um, my parents are older and can't walk too much. I will say that uh, you know, our family, you know, yeah, mobility is an issue, but calm is pretty flat. There's a couple of little staircases here and there, but there it's it is such a great family event. There's people to help you. I I've never run into somebody who's like, get out of my way.

• 33:41Speaker 05

  No, and I would say if you can go, especially for those folks that are in wheelchairs and stuff, try to go Monday through Thursday. Early on in December, it's less crowded.

• 33:51Speaker 03

  A little less, less busy.

• 33:52Speaker 05

  I would say eighty, eighty, seventy-five percent of it is um, wheelchair accessible and on concrete. And then a lot of people don't know our train, which we dubbed the Candy Cane Express during uh, Holiday Lights. That's handicapped accessible. So we have. Uh, and so you can ride the train if you're in a wheelchair, which a lot of trains, you can't do that. So.

• 34:16Speaker 03

  Yeah, so it's awesome. It's just a great event. And then the last question we had here, how much are the tickets? And does the money go back to the zoo? Heading to the coffee shop?

• 34:26Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 34:28Speaker 05

  So all of the money definitely goes back to the zoo. The tickets this year for thirteen and up are nineteen dollars. Ages three to twelve or sixteen, two and under are free. Military and com members get a discount. And then I will mention the first two weeks, Monday through Thursday, if you can get out then, tickets are three dollars off.

• 34:52Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 34:53Speaker 05

  So it's under twenty bucks. The food is very reasonable out there.

• 34:57Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah.

• 34:58Speaker 05

  And

• 34:58Speaker 03

  I can already smell the kettle corn.

• 35:01Speaker 05

  Yeah, if you have not been, I guarantee you'll be blown away and you'll be like, this is the best, you know, eighteen, nineteen bucks I've spent in a long time.

• 35:09Speaker 03

  And it sounds to like, those ticket prices sound very similar to what they've been for the past, like, three or four years. They haven't really changed much.

• 35:18Speaker 05

  No, my goal, Justin, is to, I really want this to be a family-friendly thing. And, and so we've, you know, our costs go up, so we've raised them a few bucks, but we're under twenty dollars. And I'm really trying to commit to doing that.

• 35:32Speaker 03

  That's it. You're doing a fantastic job.

• 35:34Speaker 05

  Thank you. And one other thing I want to mention is New Year's Eve. We're doing our second annual New Year's Eve Extravaganza with Mento Buru.

• 35:45Speaker 03

  Oh, okay.

• 35:45Speaker 05

  They played last year. We have a giant ball that will drop at nine o'clock. But it's all for kids, families. We have sparkling cider, no alcohol, holiday lights. It's a drug and alcohol-free event. So it's an amazing place for families and you guys could be celebrating New Year's Eve and be home in your recliner by ten thirty, so.

• 36:08Speaker 03

  Now, is the giant ball, is it like a massive pumpkin that you give to the bears to tear apart, or?

• 36:15Speaker 05

  No, but that would be kind of cool.

• 36:16Speaker 03

  That would be kind of cool.

• 36:18Speaker 05

  Josh spent so much time building it, I don't want the bears to eat it.

• 36:21Speaker 03

  Don't let the bears to get a hold. So then, Uh, is, uh, speaking of like holiday lights and everything in the past, we've always had Santa Clauses come out. So is Santa Claus making an appearance again this year?

• 36:35Speaker 05

  I'm glad you mentioned that. Yes, Santa Claus will be there through Christmas. Then of course he's on vacation.

• 36:41Speaker 03

  Yeah, for the rest of the year. I mean, he's done.

• 36:43Speaker 05

  Year, but then we're doing something new this year after, uh, between Christmas and then the New Year's Eve thing. We're going to have character nights. So we've got a group that's coming out and they're going to do Cinderella one night, Star Wars one night, Harry Potter night.

• 37:03Speaker 03

  Nice.

• 37:04Speaker 05

  And so kids will be able to dress up if they want. We'll have characters out there. Really a way to let folks know, you know, even after Christmas, when you have family in town, it's a great, uh, place to come. We're open till January 3rd. So.

• 37:19Speaker 03

  That's gonna be awesome. That's gonna be great. Hey, thank you so much, Steve, for joining us. If you can, by all means, if you've never been to the holiday lights, you have to do it once in your life. It's really just that cool. Um, Steve, thank you very much for joining us. We're going to take a quick break and we'll take you into the end of hump day when we come back.

• 37:41Speaker 00

  Are you nearing retirement and currently working with a financial advisor? Are you not sure if you're invested appropriately? Call our offices at 661-847-1000 to sit down with a Money Wise financial advisor for a no obligation assessment.

• 38:03Speaker 03

  Welcome back to the Money Wise Show.

• 38:09Speaker 03

  Welcome back. Thank you to Steve Sanders for joining us today on the show, talking about calm and the holiday lights. Um, can't say enough good things about the event. It's, uh, it really is a fantastic event. So if you get a chance, you have the time, it's running for, uh, a month, a little over a month, actually. So from Thanksgiving, basically all the way, uh, through the end of the year and into the new year. So go ahead, grab yourself some tickets and get on out there and, and take a look because it is really a fun time. Um, Sammy, you got a, you got a Gen Alpha, Gen A, uh, individual in your household, uh, Gabe, right? Now.

• 38:50Speaker 03

  Has he uh, has he ordered any of the Domino's six, seven pizza? Have you heard of this thing?

• 38:58Speaker 04

  Oh yeah, we uh, we had him here at the, at the World Work for his birthday with his friends last Saturday. And the ticket number that we had that they give you when you order.

• 39:10Speaker 03

  Was six, seven?

• 39:11Speaker 04

  Was six, seven. And, and I put it on the table and I had four teenagers just going berserk because of that. And I happen to understand what that, like, there's something with it.

• 39:23Speaker 03

  There's a thing.

• 39:23Speaker 04

  Hand motion, you know, it's six, seven, six, seven. But, but it's, it's just, it's just crazy. I, I, I don't understand where this originated from. I just know it's a big deal for these kids and it's, it's, it's crazy.

• 39:38Speaker 03

  Yeah, I mean, I partially wanna like pull up an old video of Pauly Shore in a biodome and show them what, what stupid really is, cause we can, we can win that game, right Stephen?

• 39:49Speaker 00

  Oh gosh. We said that juice.

• 39:54Speaker 03

  Exactly. No, but Domino's, Domino's Pizza is channeling the six, seven meme with a six dollar and seventy cent large pizza.

• 40:04Speaker 04

  Yep, I saw that.

• 40:05Speaker 03

  You can add one, one topping, so you get your black olives or your pepperoni or your sausage, or you get the one, one topping.

• 40:11Speaker 04

  You forgot, you forgot pineapple.

• 40:13Speaker 03

  Uh, hmm.

• 40:17Speaker 03

  Maybe.

• 40:19Speaker 03

  If you're a.

• 40:19Speaker 04

  I saw, I saw, I saw that and it was, it was, I mean, that's goo- good for them to think about it.

• 40:24Speaker 03

  You know what, if you're gonna market it, you nailed it.

• 40:28Speaker 04

  Yeah, no, this six, seven thing is, is, is crazy. I mean, if you have.

• 40:31Speaker 03

  You killed two birds with one stone with this offer. You, you did the meme, the six, seven meme, and you're taking care of families who are like, what am I gonna get for dinner that's not gonna cost me an arm and a leg?

• 40:44Speaker 04

  Six, seven.

• 40:45Speaker 03

  Six dollars and seventy cents for a pizza, that's not too bad.

• 40:48Speaker 04

  That's not bad. That, actually Domino's, in my opinion, has a very good deal. I mean, you can, you can get, uh, there's a deal for six ninety-nine, two pizzas, and once you order the two, they're like, hey, this coupon is still valid. Do you wanna add some more? So you add something else, and then this, this coupon.

• 41:03Speaker 03

  Yeah, exactly.

• 41:04Speaker 04

  And then you, you end up walking into the house with four different boxes. You can't even.

• 41:09Speaker 03

  Got food for the week.

• 41:10Speaker 04

  Freeze the rest.

• 41:11Speaker 03

  Yeah. So, um, Sammy, are you gonna get, uh, maybe Steven might get one being that the Steven is the thing, the, the, the, all things Taylor Swift. Um, are you gonna get an invite to the wedding? Steven?

• 41:27Speaker 04

  I, I'm not a big, I don't listen, not that I'm not a big fan. I like her music. I'm just not a connoisseur like Steven.

• 41:35Speaker 03

  No.

• 41:35Speaker 00

  I'm a Swiftie. You can, you can say it as much as you want, but no, I don't have the, uh, the ins to be, uh, to be invited to the big wedding.

• 41:44Speaker 03

  But you know what? I think all of us are gonna be invited to the big wedding because most likely it is going to be streamed. And they're talking about a seventy, seven zero million dollar broadcast deal to stream their wedding worldwide.

• 42:03Speaker 03

  Princess Di didn't have, I mean, like the, the royal weddings don't carry that much weight.

• 42:09Speaker 04

  Well, she carries a lot of weight. I'll tell you that. Anywhere she goes, she draws a lot of attention. She draws a lot of fans into the stadium. She fills up stadiums, not just one night. She, she does the show two or three nights in a row. And I'll tell you, some friends went to her show two nights in a row because they divided the show into half. They saw the first half, then the second night they went to the second half because they, they're older like me, so they wanted to go to sleep.

• 42:32Speaker 03

  Yeah, they couldn't do the, couldn't do the whole thing. But yeah, they're taught, they're in talks right now. Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swift are in the, the, they're basically in the, the throes of the, basically figuring out how to stream a, a record-breaking seventy million dollar broadcast deal for their wedding.

• 42:54Speaker 04

  Hey, good for them to, to capitalize on that.

• 42:56Speaker 03

  Hey, if you can, yeah, that's good. It's called capitalism for a reason, right?

• 42:59Speaker 04

  That's right.

• 43:00Speaker 03

  Capitalize on, uh, on the, you know, hit, strike when the iron's hot, right?

• 43:05Speaker 04

  Yeah, I mean, she's got a long career in front of her, I think. Uh, I mean, his career is probably not as long. You know, his career is, it's probably his last year, I think, Steven. I'm, I'm.

• 43:17Speaker 03

  He's probably done. He did not, he did not look good this year. I mean, we're only halfway through the season. He is not looking like himself.

• 43:23Speaker 04

  And maybe his podcast is, he's gonna continue it when his podcast with his butter. I don't know how popular that podcast is.

• 43:28Speaker 00

  It is popular.

• 43:29Speaker 04

  But.

• 43:30Speaker 03

  It's getting popular, yeah.

• 43:31Speaker 04

  I mean, if, if they, if they charge sixty-seven million, that would have been great, too.

• 43:36Speaker 03

  Yeah, six, seven million.

• 43:40Speaker 04

  No, good for them. I mean, I'll, I don't know if I'll, I'll buy the to, to view that. Definitely. I'll, I'll see the highlights afterwards.

• 43:47Speaker 00

  I'll watch the replay on SportsCenter.

• 43:49Speaker 03

  Yeah, I'll, I'll watch the highlights on SportsCenter.

• 43:52Speaker 04

  That's right.

• 43:55Speaker 03

  I'll watch the highlights when, uh, when Jason drops the ring.

• 44:01Speaker 03

  Oops. Did you see the news here? So Nvidia, somebody came out this morning and said Nvidia had agreed to build a $1 billion investment in northern Mexico.

• 44:16Speaker 03

  And it was flanked by a bunch of Nvidia staff members to say that this is a deal. And then literally an hour later, Nvidia denies putting together a billion dollar investment in northern Mexico for their AI platform.

• 44:32Speaker 04

  Was it AI generated?

• 44:34Speaker 03

  I, I don't know. The video, I mean, it says so. Nvidia on Wednesday denied the plans to invest a billion dollars in the northern Mexican state of Nuevo Leon, hours after the state governor touted the firm's plans to build their data center there. So they said they were going to build the data center. And then like an hour and a half later, Nvidia is like, no, we didn't, we didn't say anything like that. We, no, nothing to see here.

• 45:00Speaker 04

  They, they got a phone call from the White House.

• 45:03Speaker 03

  Probably did, probably did. Like, no, this is not a deal. You're gonna, you're gonna build it in Arizona.

• 45:08Speaker 04

  They, they, they, uh, he, he took them to the Middle East. They got billions of dollars of investment because of, of the president. That would be a slap on the face if they take a billion dollars across, across the borders to Mexico. I would do the same thing. I'll call them like, hey, I'm gonna take everything back. You don't want this across the border.

• 45:25Speaker 03

  I bet you that's what happened. I don't know, but you know, whatever. Hey, so there's not a billion dollars going to Mexico. Nvidia is not building their data center out there. Hey, be smart, be safe, be money wise. We shall see you tomorrow. Have a great day.