11/14/24 Getting Down to Business with Lori Malkin, Founder of JJ's Legacy

The Moneywise Radio Show and Podcast Thursday, November 14th BE MONEYWISE. Moneywise Wealth Management I "The Moneywise Guys" podcast call: 661-847-1000 text in anytime: 661-396-1000 website: www. MoneywiseGuys.com facebook: Moneywise_Wealth_Management instagram: MoneywiseWealthManagement Guest; Lori Malkin, Founder of JJ's Legacy website: www.jjslegacy.org/ 9th Annual Grillin' & Brewin' November 16. 2024 Click to Purchase Tickets

• 0:00Speaker 00

  From the padded radio room off Stockdale Highway, here is Money Wise. Call or text in at 661-396-1000.

• 0:09Speaker 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 SEF Securities, Inc., member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through SEF Investment Advisors, Inc., SEF Securities, Inc., and Money Wise Wealth Management are independently owned and operated.

• 0:40Speaker 00

  Now, let's start the Money Wise Show.

• 0:44Speaker 03

  Let's, let's get it started. What's up, Steve Z?

• 0:52Speaker 03

  It's Thursday, getting down to business.

• 0:55Speaker 00

  How are you, KP?

• 0:57Speaker 03

  Doing good, doing good. Welcome to Thursday's Money Wise Show. We are live from the padded radio room off Stockdale Highway. Uh, we're on ESPN, Bakersfield, 1230 AM, 101 FM, and always streaming at MoneyWiseGuys.com. You can check out podcasts. It's this new thing, I guess. You can just listen whenever you want to. So, podcasting, I think it's the future.

• 1:21Speaker 00

  You can listen whenever, wherever, however.

• 1:24Speaker 03

  There you go.

• 1:25Speaker 00

  So many different apps and, uh, yeah.

• 1:28Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:28Speaker 00

  And you can text in for the show, anytime.

• 1:31Speaker 03

  Yeah. And I have a wonderful co-host today. Who's, uh, who's over here? Mr. Dustin Weaver. Mr. Dustin Weaver. So, we, uh, we, this is, I don't, we've done a show before, yes? This might be number two. Might be, okay, there it is. It's, well, hopefully it's not going to be number two. So, let's have a good show.

• 1:51Speaker 04

  Wow.

• 1:52Speaker 03

  Let that one sink in for a second there. Uh, we are actually going to be joined today by, uh, none other than Lori, uh, from JJ's Legacy, Lori Malkin, founder, chairperson of JJ's Legacy. So if you don't know about it, we're going to get the scoop. Got some, uh, fun events coming up and, uh, definitely, uh, have loved what she has done in the community for a long, long time. So we'll learn more about that and why it's very, very critical, important for everybody to know what it is. And if you've got kiddos, to teach them young. So she's got some awesome things that she does in the community. So.

• 2:26Speaker 04

  Very good stuff.

• 2:27Speaker 03

  Yep. Very, very cool. But before we do what we do, we always jump into the markets a little bit. Talk about, uh, just kind of what's going on, just a little broad look. Obviously not super surprised. See a little red on the screen. See a little bit of a sell off. Looks like major indexes have, uh, pulled back just a little bit. Uh, not a big shocker, um, after there's been kind of a little bit of a, a melting up, we'll call it, um, since the, uh, uh, the old vote, the old vote came in. So the Trump trade, or whatever you want to call it, uh, pushed markets higher. Uh, right now, as we're sitting, um, as we close today, uh, S and P 500 is at 5949, down about

• 3:10Speaker 03

  six tenths of a percent. We got the NASDAQ, uh, at 19,00107, about same slide there, six tenths of a percent. The dumb Dow, we always talk about, it's about half a percent, uh, down 43,000. The dumb Dow. The dumb Dow, it's only 30 stocks.

• 3:28Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 3:28Speaker 03

  Price weighted. It's not necessarily the best view of the overall markets, but it's definitely been one of the longest indexes that, uh, people look at and, uh, you know, cause I mean, you got Caterpillar in there. You got a couple of different things. So obviously they're thinking, if Caterpillar's, you know, climbing in value, then, then there's, there's, there's dirt moving in America.

• 3:49Speaker 04

  Stuff's happening.

• 3:49Speaker 03

  Stuff's happening. So get on board. Well, there you go.

• 3:56Speaker 03

  Oh, gold, gold. We're gonna talk about gold. It's down six tenths of a percent too. It's 2,057. Yeah, the precious and silver. I don't even have, oh, silver's right here. That's a, we don't talk about silver all that much.

• 4:11Speaker 04

  Volatility index is up a little bit, which is not surprising because like you said, right after the election, saw some positive. Now we're seeing a little negative. So it means volatility is up.

• 4:21Speaker 03

  Yeah. You know what's crazy is Yahoo Finance has been kind of doing some updates to their little menu or their little board. And they don't even have silver on one of their main indexes to look at. So. So there you go. You did the, the silver sign. We can look it up. I'm gonna actually look it up here in just a second. But the other thing I was gonna say is crude oil with the markets going down a little bit. Crude oil is up 68, 63 a barrel, up about three tenths of a percent. So. I drink your milkshake.

• 4:54Speaker 03

  I drink it up. There you go. Name that movie.

• 4:59Speaker 04

  I, I'm just thinking of an oil milkshake and that sounds terrible.

• 5:02Speaker 00

  That's what it is, isn't it?

• 5:03Speaker 03

  Yeah. It's, uh, it's when they were talking about, uh, I think directional drilling, right? Where you can, you can steal, you can steal oil other, from other people's properties. Anyways.

• 5:15Speaker 00

  There Will Be Blood?

• 5:17Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 5:17Speaker 00

  That's the movie.

• 5:19Speaker 03

  There.

• 5:19Speaker 00

  There Will Be Blood.

• 5:20Speaker 03

  There Will Be Blood.

• 5:21Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 5:21Speaker 04

  I haven't seen that one.

• 5:22Speaker 03

  Trying to, trying to pull up.

• 5:25Speaker 00

  Silver.

• 5:25Speaker 03

  Yeah. It's crazy. They took silver off of, uh.

• 5:29Speaker 00

  Ever since my, uh, I had a hotkey that had all those sound clips for all those years that we used to run through the markets.

• 5:35Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 5:35Speaker 00

  And, uh, of course he starts the show with the dumb down. So I'm searching for that while you're searching for diamond or silver. So I'm like, okay. But we did have a text asking for, uh, the price of Bitcoin. So if you're looking up silver, maybe you'll see Bitcoin around there.

• 5:51Speaker 03

  Yeah. And I can't even see where, um, silver's index, the way that they share gold. This is crazy, but.

• 5:58Speaker 04

  While you're looking for that Bitcoin did drop a little bit today, um, around 2.6% just under. So that was up over 90,000, uh, at open and it went to 88, 172.

• 6:11Speaker 03

  Yeah, so obviously Trump made some Bitcoin comments that made the Bitcoin bug bite. Markets pushed heavy there over on the Bitcoin side of things. And so it's stirred up the pot. You know, it's one of those things where we've always talked about is as advisors, we couldn't even technically talk about Bitcoin with our clients because it wasn't a registered investment or there wasn't a registered investment option. It was off any of the exchanges or those kinds of things. And so here just recently, there are some ETFs and some different ways that you can participate in the ups and downs of Bitcoin price. And it's highly speculative and very volatile.

• 6:52Speaker 03

  But, but yeah, when you have Trump make comments, it makes some of those people think that it's going to send it much higher. And that's what you see. So Bitcoin is one of those things that I've mentioned a few times that it's, it's, it's a very interesting phenomenon in the sense that it boils down to the, some of the fundamentals of investing, supply and demand and human, you know, belief or human thought. So the more people are wanting it, it shoots the price up, then it kind of self fulfills where it makes it seem like it's good. And so more people jump in, but then when it goes bad in the same sense that everybody starts to jump out. So the fear of missing out sometimes can push it up really heavy.

• 7:35Speaker 03

  And then if everybody starts getting out, you know, and so a lot of people have had different experiences with it, but, but yeah, so there's where Bitcoin's at.

• 7:45Speaker 03

  Silver, I didn't even get really the numbers other than it was actually positive today, or at least an ETF. ETF was positive about seven tenths of a percent. So maybe silver did jump up when gold pulled back today. Not sure, I'll try to find the actual spot price after the markets. Definitely a time to reevaluate things. I mean, I remember going into this election and people were, a lot of people were panicking and thinking the worst. And tried and true MoneyWise fashion, we've always tried to say you want to be as aggressive as you're comfortable with, you want to have an allocation that makes sense for your situation, you want to go into the election regardless of the outcome, comfortable that you're fine with

• 8:27Speaker 03

  either way, the way it goes, and then try to not get caught up with like now all of a sudden wanting to be way more aggressive than you normally would have been, even you know, if you like the outcome, the market jumping up, you have to stay MoneyWise, you have to stay diligent and understand that, you know, quick moves like this and stuff usually don't stick around because at the end of the day, it always goes back to fundamentals, it's always going to come back to reality, even when there's a little bit of a, I guess, a sentiment push on the markets, in the same way that when it goes down, it seems like it's going to go down forever, and it doesn't, it's going to get back down to a level where it's just crazy then to not

• 9:10Speaker 03

  put more money into it, and money moves around when it hits certain levels, and sometimes people think that the market will fall forever. Now, can a stock fall forever? Yes, an individual stock can fall forever, and it can go bankrupt, and you can lose everything, and so obviously, that's why we always talk about things like diversification, and most of the ways that people are investing that call the show and MoneyWise clients, and you know, their ETFs, their mutual funds, it's thousands of different stocks, all focused on different strategies, different parts of the market, whatever that happens to be, buy prospectus, that wonderful information you get when you invest in a mutual fund. But, but yeah, so it's the diversification that can give you a lot of peace of mind, that

• 9:55Speaker 03

  there's going to be some winners, some losers, most of them are going to be cruising along, trying to grow and build their businesses, just like all of us out here are trying to build our businesses.

• 10:05Speaker 04

  You know, as you're talking about diversification there, I remembered an analogy that my father shared with me when I was young, and that's, he said, Dustin, do you want to stand in an elevator that only has one cable holding you up, or would you rather have one that had 500?

• 10:18Speaker 03

  Yeah, 500 for sure.

• 10:19Speaker 04

  Yeah, 500, right? I'm gonna feel a lot safer there. And that's the analogy of a mutual fund.

• 10:24Speaker 03

  Right.

• 10:24Speaker 04

  Or some ETFs, right? That follow indexes that are spread out.

• 10:27Speaker 03

  Yeah. And, and what's funny is nowadays, we've talked a lot about, there's a lot of gurus, there's a lot of people uh, on social media that, that, that want to talk about 10x-ing things and different things and the get, get rich quick, um, or talking about things like, oh, diversification is boring. You're right. It is boring because most people are not going to put in uh, the, the time and the efforts um, to, to really like go all in on one stock and then follow it. They'll say like, well, Warren Buffett doesn't diversify. Well, it's like Warren Buffett also knows how to read a, a, a statement of a company's profits and losses in a way that you will pro- I will never probably even fully understand, right?

• 11:10Speaker 03

  You know, so like, when you're talking about a guy that goes all in on one stocks, it's a whole different ballgame. He's going to board meetings. He can pick up the phone and call people and ask a company, um, some certain things to, to feel whether or not he wants to stay as a large stakeholder. And even right now, the funny thing is, is a lot of people are jumping on board and now wanting to be more aggressive due to the Trump thing. And you have Mr. Warren Buffett that's actually been divesting a little bit, taking a little bit out of his holdings, which, you know, people then say, oh, well, does he know something we don't know? No, he's just doing wise management of his risk. He's made huge gains over the last few years in some of his holdings.

• 11:48Speaker 04

  Right.

• 11:48Speaker 03

  He's trimming a little bit of them off, you know, he's moving it around, he's maybe setting some of it in cash. Um, he's not going a hundred percent to cash. He's not selling everything and running for the hills. Uh, but he's doing what we talk about doing all the time, rebalancing your portfolio. That's what you're doing when you're rebalancing your portfolio. You're selling off some of the things that have been doing amazing, moving them to other parts of your account that maybe have some room for growth or protection. You go back over to the boring side of your account when you rebalance. It's just what you do on a regular basis and it's going to uh, give you a great chance for long-term success. We've been saying the same thing, uh, in the studio for 20 years now. And, uh, those that stuck with it have gone through some ups and downs, some scary times,

• 12:31Speaker 03

  some scary seasons of political realms, world issues. Uh, even just in the 20 years we've been on the airwaves, uh, there's been a lot of stuff. But then I always point out the fact too of like, you know, I wish I could go back 40 years ago and buy some stocks, 50 years ago and buy some stocks. And there's been- President assassinations, there's been, you know, wars all around the globe. There's been all kinds of things that have gone, you know, and happened. And there may be even some things that you're concerned about right now with money supply and some different things that seem to be kind of the, the hot topics. But I always break it back down to, uh, human behavior. I think people are going to keep buying cell phones, keep buying vehicles.

• 13:12Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 13:13Speaker 03

  People still want to buy a house and live in a house and they still want to have groceries in their cupboards. And there's all these things that Wall Street provides for us in some way, shape or form. And money flows up to Wall Street and you can participate in the success.

• 13:28Speaker 04

  When you're talking about the news, I would challenge you to pick any day, right? Any one day you look at the newspaper or, or the news, you're going to find some negative.

• 13:37Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 13:38Speaker 04

  Right?

• 13:38Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah.

• 13:40Speaker 03

  Yeah. And our, our economy is so robust and so crazy. And we, we've been reduced now to not only like, like headline news, like, I mean, we've been doing this radio show forever. And we, one of our mantras has always been like breaking through the junk and trying to bring it back to, you know, to, to, to, to Wall Street to Main Street, right? I mean, that was literally like the mantra forever here on the Money Wise Show. And it's like, you, if you try to like, cause sometimes people will retire. Now you have all this extra time and they try to jump onto these websites and start reading headlines and headlines are meant to make you click on a link and go to a page and then they're going to try to sell you stuff over on the side. Um, half of them, I, I, I don't even know what the

• 14:22Speaker 03

  percentage is, are probably put together by AI robots, you know, and just what, what headlines make people click the most? What words do we put in it? And so you just have to remember that so many times the articles that you're clicking on and looking at on Yahoo Finance are not trying to make you a better investor. They're not trying to, to, to make you, you know, win with money. They're trying to get you to click on something and hopefully buy something, uh, because Yahoo Finance is selling advertising. That's what they're doing. They're not necessarily trying to get you to be successful. Now, is some of the topics and things brought up on those links and stuff? Things to consider, things to educate yourself on.

• 14:59Speaker 04

  Certainly.

• 15:00Speaker 03

  Talk about, certainly, right? But hopefully either be working with a financial advisor who can help you kind of dig through the weeds and see whether or not it even pertains to your situation, or have a disciplined approach on how you weed through all this information overload age that we live in, and then stay diligent with your own investment strategy.

• 15:22Speaker 04

  It's probably some combination of both of those things, right?

• 15:24Speaker 03

  For sure, for sure. Well, we have one more segment before Lori from JJ's Legacy is going to join us. So we're going to take a break real quick. When we come back, we're going to talk about a couple of things before Lori joins us.

• 15:35Speaker 00

  Need to get your financial fix on the go? If so, subscribe to the Money Wise Podcast and catch up on all past shows whenever and wherever you want.

• 15:58Speaker 03

  So I guess this is, this song's a good segue, talking about hard times, leading into a discussion that came in, message came in talking about minimum wage.

• 16:08Speaker 04

  Yeah, I am not okay.

• 16:10Speaker 03

  I am not okay. So, message came in, always appreciate it, 661-396-1000. You can send in a message and we can share it with the listeners. So thanks for, thanks for jumping in. We got a couple of messages here. One said, leaving the mall, saw they closed Target on me. Security officers let us know that it's closed after someone intentionally caught the Christmas island fire. Always interesting days here in Baco.

• 16:36Speaker 04

  Oh, my goodness.

• 16:36Speaker 03

  So all I have to say to that is shame on the Grinch. He made his first stop here in Bakersfield, trying to set the Christmas island on fire.

• 16:44Speaker 04

  Oh, that's terrible.

• 16:45Speaker 03

  But went on to say, I know minimum wage is going up in January, but it, will it be the same statewide? Or does it depend on how many employees are on staff? Thanks, guys. So, great question. California will see another increase to its minimum wage, January 1, 2025. It's a state minimum wage increase, $16 an hour to $16.50 an hour. This increase will apply to all employers regardless of size. The adjustment is based on the CPI Consumer Price Index, which saw a 3.18% increase over last year.

• 17:24Speaker 03

  So there you go. There's another amount that they look at is when you talk about full-time exempt employees. So, so they can be what are, what are called exempt employees.

• 17:36Speaker 04

  And they're saying exempt from overtime, right? Is that what that is?

• 17:39Speaker 03

  I believe so. So it's like when you, when you want to have like a, somebody on salary. Uh, now you're not going to, you know, have to do the same considerations for overtime. Or if it's, you work more than eight hours in one day, pretty common amongst, you know, different, uh, anyways, di- different types of salaries and things that, uh, for, for certain jobs where you may work more than, over eight hours in one day, but you may not work five days a week. So you, you still will work about 40 hours. Anyways, long story short, that will increase from 66,000, 560 per year to 68,000, 640. It, it follows the same CPI index. Um, so that amount will go up as well of what is considered

• 18:24Speaker 03

  a full-time exempt employee. So employers hear those informations and thoughts. And I'm sure most people are taking care of it or thinking about it. Um, with inflation and CPI going up the way that it has, uh, it's hit everybody, uh, nationwide. But obviously California being a little bit of a more progressive state in this, uh, arena.

• 18:48Speaker 04

  What was the minimum wage back when you started working?

• 18:51Speaker 03

  I think, I think when I very first started was six, six and a quarter, maybe.

• 18:55Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 18:56Speaker 03

  Don't, don't look at me and judge me.

• 18:58Speaker 04

  Yeah, I believe it was like a little bit, little bit less.

• 19:00Speaker 00

  My first job was five, exactly.

• 19:03Speaker 04

  Yeah, 525.

• 19:04Speaker 00

  That was my first job.

• 19:05Speaker 03

  Yeah. Okay, you, you're.

• 19:07Speaker 00

  I got a $2 raise and I'm killing it.

• 19:09Speaker 03

  How much was gasoline when you guys were in high school?

• 19:12Speaker 00

  Probably like 250.

• 19:14Speaker 04

  No, like 89 cents.

• 19:15Speaker 00

  No way.

• 19:16Speaker 03

  Nine, it was 99 cents almost all my first two or three years of, of driving.

• 19:20Speaker 00

  I don't remember that.

• 19:21Speaker 03

  Good thing too, cause I had a big old gas guzzling truck.

• 19:25Speaker 00

  I remember when the, uh.

• 19:26Speaker 03

  Bakersfield, Bakersfield. I still do. Now, now I've, I'm still supporting oil. You know what? I, I love oil.

• 19:33Speaker 00

  I remember the, uh, the McDonald's by our old house was, uh, the 29 cent hamburgers and 39 cent cheeseburgers.

• 19:40Speaker 04

  I remember that.

• 19:41Speaker 00

  But I don't remember under a dollar for gas.

• 19:44Speaker 03

  Yep. 99 cents was, uh, when I was 16, 17 years old. That would have been 90. Four ninety-five, still there. Um, might, might've went a little bit over sometimes, maybe even got a little bit cheaper, but I just remember it was kind of a buck because it was really easy to calculate how many gallons I'm getting. If I got five bucks, I'm getting five gallons. Uh, luckily, you know, because I wasn't great in math in high school, okay? I was a lineman, a football player, alright?

• 20:08Speaker 04

  Head trauma?

• 20:09Speaker 03

  Yeah, head trauma. That was, you know, that was what I did for fun was, was, uh, was football. So, uh, so yeah, I had to keep math simple, right? Luckily, I got better at it because now I'm a financial advisor, so no worries out there.

• 20:20Speaker 04

  You got better.

• 20:21Speaker 03

  Yep, I got better. There you go. So another, uh, message came in. Did you read that one?

• 20:27Speaker 04

  Uh, no.

• 20:28Speaker 03

  Good afternoon, guys. How does the saver's credit work for someone with a lower income? How can I find out if I qualify for it? Thank you.

• 20:36Speaker 04

  Okay, I lied, I did read that.

• 20:37Speaker 03

  Yeah, because you said you looked up a little bit about saver's credit.

• 20:40Speaker 04

  I did, yes.

• 20:41Speaker 03

  So, enlighten us.

• 20:43Speaker 04

  And what it is, is if you have a certain income level, uh, you potentially could qualify for a tax credit, which is one of the best benefits of a tax return is a tax credit, right? Because it's basically you get that money, right? It's not a deduction.

• 21:02Speaker 03

  Correct.

• 21:02Speaker 04

  It's a credit. So, you're getting actual dollars for it. So, they actually have a really good resource on the source, IRS.gov, that talks a lot about this. So, there's different income brackets depending on the tax year. The benefit of it is, or one of the benefits, you can look back and make the decision even after a year. You're, you know, you're going to file and you're looking at the previous year. So, so you're meeting with your tax accountant and you think you might qualify. It's not too late, right? So, if it's February of twenty twenty-five and you're wanting to make a decision for the previous year, you can do it up until you file for April, you know, on April fifteenth of that year or, um, when you file, whatever comes first.

• 21:47Speaker 04

  But basically, they're saying, hey, if you put two thousand dollars into an IRA and you're below a certain income bracket, you know, you might be able to get a tax credit of a thousand dollars for that. That's the highest amount you can get. But it's basically a fifty percent return on your money right away.

• 22:01Speaker 03

  There you go.

• 22:02Speaker 04

  Put in two thousand and they take a thousand off your tax bill.

• 22:06Speaker 03

  So it costs you a lot less to put the 2,000 bucks in. You get the 1,000 bucks in your pocket. Exactly. And you got the 2,000 bucks sitting in your account, hopefully invested.

• 22:17Speaker 03

  Hopefully growing. Growing.

• 22:18Speaker 04

  Grows still a lot more than 2,000.

• 22:19Speaker 03

  There you go. There you go. Make sure to look into that. So, thank you again for that comment because I think it's a great thing that maybe some people don't realize that certain income levels, there is tax credits available for you if you're keeping your budget in order and slamming a little bit of money into a retirement account for your future. So, so very cool. Well, that takes us about to the half of the hour. We are really excited. Like I said, we are going to be joined here in just a second to learn a little bit more about JJ's Legacy. We're going to be joined by Lori Malkin, founder, chairperson of JJ's Legacy, talking a little bit about some of the events coming up. And hopefully, if you haven't heard of it, you're going to learn a little bit about it. So, please stick around and hear about this great organization.

• 23:04Speaker 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 about what we do.

• 23:19Speaker 03

  Welcome back to the Money Wise Show. We're very excited, like I mentioned before, to have Lori Malkin, founder, chairperson of JJ's Legacy here with us today. How are you doing Lori? I'm wonderful. Thank you. Thanks for having me. I just enjoy the show so much. Thank you. Yeah, we're always excited to have you here. I love, I love what you've done in our community for a long time. Very exciting stuff. Thank you. Most people already know about it, but we always like to go back to the basics and just kind of get the story out there of how it started, why it started, kind of the history of it. Most people know, especially listeners to Money Wise, but we just love to keep sharing the story and, and all the good that you've done through the years. So, so Thank you. Talk a little bit about that.

• 24:01Speaker 05

  Um, well, I'll try to make a brief story, because I can go on forever with the story. But my son Jeffrey Johns, and the organization is named after him, JJ, he was in automobile accident and he was pronounced dead and brain dead. And so, brain dead is dead, but when you're brain dead, you could be an organ donor. And to be an organ donor, you have to, you don't have to be registered, but you are registered through the DMV when you get your driver's license. And for some reason Jeff was not. So, the one legacy staff came and spoke to Tom and I, his dad, and said Jeff is brain dead, he could be an organ donor, but he's not registered. So, we need your consent. And of course, we said yes. Knowing Jeff's personality and who he was and what he did,

• 24:46Speaker 05

  he would be honored to know that he saved lives through organ donation, and tissue, and cornea. So, it became my passion to educate the community. So, you've made that decision. If anything ever happened to you, your loved ones would know what you would like. So, there we are.

• 25:02Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 25:02Speaker 04

  I don't remember the number, but I know it was pretty significant, the amount of lives impacted by his decision.

• 25:08Speaker 05

  Yes, there was eight lives saved, I'm sorry, five lives were saved, but all eight organs were saved. Two lungs to one person, and then a kidney and a liver to another person.

• 25:18Speaker 03

  Wow.

• 25:19Speaker 05

  And cornea, so two corneas, the one that received his corneas, they can now see sunrises and sunsets, which is pretty remarkable. They could not, they didn't have any sight at the time. And then over fifty people were enhanced with the tissue donation.

• 25:32Speaker 03

  Mm-hmm.

• 25:33Speaker 05

  So, yeah.

• 25:34Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's really amazing to think about this. And then one of the things that I think we've talked about before is, a lot of times, when, when kids are sixteen, they're not thinking through this kind of stuff unless they're educated, right?

• 25:48Speaker 05

  Correct.

• 25:49Speaker 03

  And so, it's like you're getting your license, you have nine million things on a sixteen-year-old's mind of getting your license, which I feel like now they're like seventeen and eighteen getting their license.

• 25:58Speaker 05

  You're absolutely right.

• 25:59Speaker 03

  They're putting it off for whatever reason. I was wanting my license at nine. Um, but, but hey, maybe they're even a little bit more mature and educated by the time most folks here in town are getting. Their license, but so you're educating them and talking to them about that. And so the program, uh, I think is, is that you're talking about one of the main sponsors that's going to be kind of helping with, what, what's the name of the program that tries to talk to the kids?

• 26:24Speaker 05

  Yes, it's called Got the Dot High School Leadership Club. And we, it's an academic club and they're with us from August to May and they do a lot of different community activities. We have a walkathon in March that they completely, um, they're the committee that organizes it and they bring all of their friends and families to the walkathon and, um, our major sponsor is John Boffans Homes. And, um, so we're so proud to have them on board and, and be able to educate the students and then they get scholarships at the end of the process, at the end of the year to help them further their education.

• 26:57Speaker 03

  Yeah. Yeah. Again, it's, it's such an important thing to, uh, to have the kids like maybe be aware of this before they even start the process of getting their license so that then when they're asked, because it's such a, it's such an easy question to maybe be like, oh, whatever, you know, not thinking about it. But then in a situation where you have unfortunate circumstances, the, the huge impact that can be had. And then unfortunately, you're also put in a situation where you guys made the decision to follow through with that because you felt like it honored him and it would have been something that he would have chosen. Um, it's probably very difficult for a lot of parents in the same situations to make that decision. Maybe they didn't, they don't know whether or not, and so they've never had the discussion and so they don't do that

• 27:39Speaker 03

  and then might even look back and go, man, I could have had a major impact in a lot of lives. Um, and, and, and, you know, no, no judgment on a grieving family or parents. But again, it's just not being educated and not understanding the impact that that can have. And I can understand a parent being thrust into that situation and, and it would be very difficult to make any kind of decisions and stuff.

• 28:01Speaker 05

  And not knowing what it means and what it is. So what we do at the high schools, we educate them. They do projects to be able to educate their friends, peers to peers is really important, and then their family members and dispel all the myths and the misconceptions about it. But it is mandatory when you go to the DMV to get your driver's license the first time and it's, yes, I want to be an organ donor or no, not at this time. And you have to answer and they'll, they will say no if they're not educated. So our goal is to educate as many people and many students as we can. And then every time you go back to get your driver's license, ever it's in mail or whenever you, the answer, you have to answer it again. So it is mandatory.

• 28:41Speaker 03

  Yeah, and so, uh, every time they, you renew and stuff like that, you have to keep answering?

• 28:45Speaker 05

  Yes, you do.

• 28:46Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 28:46Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 28:47Speaker 03

  Yeah, cuz I, I mean, I remember, I forget when it was, I, it may have been because of JJ's legacy, that I actually went and I added like an old school paper dot. They, back in the day, they like, if you weren't, like, if you already had your license, and you could, you know, it was four years until I renew. I remember having a little red, little paper dot that I put on my driver's license till I finally got the new one now that's just printed on there, so, uh, and then, go ahead.

• 29:13Speaker 04

  I have a quick question.

• 29:14Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 29:14Speaker 04

  You mentioned myths, I'm sure there's a long list, but what are two or three things that are common misconceptions?

• 29:20Speaker 05

  The biggest misconception is, um, your ethnic group, they don't believe in it. Um, the second one is, oh, if I register to be an organ donor, they won't save me if anything happens. And the biggest thing is, is that you have to be brain dead, which is deaf, but you're not in a coma, you're not in a heart attack, you're not in, you, your brain is, is actually dead, because then you don't have any blood flow through your, uh, stems to your organs. And there's machines keeping those alive until you're able to, you know, ha- have the trans, you're, they're recovered to go for a transplant. So the biggest one is, um, people say, oh, if I have a pink dot on my driver's license, I want to be coming down the hallway, and they go, oh, here comes a pink dot, here comes

• 30:05Speaker 05

  a pink dot, you know? So that's the biggest one.

• 30:07Speaker 04

  That's not the case.

• 30:08Speaker 05

  That's not the case at all. Doctors will do everything in their world to save you. And when you explain it that way, they go, yeah, that makes sense.

• 30:17Speaker 03

  Yeah, is there, is there, um, that big of a need? Um, I guess, because like, y- you talked about the impact that, that JJ's donation made, right? And, and how many lives were touched? Is, is there that big of a need ongoing?

• 30:30Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 30:31Speaker 03

  That, that the more people that had the dot, it would just constantly be filled, or?

• 30:34Speaker 05

  It would. Well, right here in Kern County, we have over 450 people waiting for a transplant. Eighty-five are, uh, kidneys. Um, but in the United States, there's over 122,000. And sadly, 22 people die daily waiting for their life-saving transplant. But then there's so many added every day, too, that are sick. Um, kidneys are the hardest, um, organ to receive, and, um...

• 31:02Speaker 05

  We have like five right now on our, on our transplant list in Kern County lungs. But the majority are kidneys.

• 31:09Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 31:09Speaker 05

  And you do have two kidneys, so if you're healthy, you can be a living donor and donate one of your kidneys to somebody. It could be an altruistic, it could be a perfect match, it could be within what they call a chain reaction. I just want to give a kidney to my girlfriend, we're not a match, but somebody else might want to give and they match, so then your kidney would go to somebody else that you would match.

• 31:30Speaker 03

  I feel like these scenarios sometimes pop up on primetime television medical shows, where it's the ice chest and they're rushing it off in the helicopter. Does it, is it usually, does it stay local? Like, you know, or is it just, how does that usually work? I mean, is that kind of the focus is?

• 31:52Speaker 05

  Well, there's, there's a process of time that each organ will live. Heart lives five hours, so you would go within a five hour radius. Kern County does not have any transplant hospitals, so they're all in the Los Angeles area and in Stanford. So we have seven in California. So, you know, a kidney would go to Arizona, could go to Utah, Montana, because they live 14 hours. So each organ has its own process time. And yes, they do come, wherever the patient is, they would come to that hospital, the transplant surgeon, recover the organ, make sure it's viable, and put it in an ice chest and off they go.

• 32:33Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 32:33Speaker 05

  So that is true. But the great thing about organ donations is that Donate Life California, they have a whole staff that works with all the Hollywood writers to make sure that the message is correct.

• 32:46Speaker 03

  Wow. That's, that's what I was going to ask. Is it like accurate or, you know,

• 32:50Speaker 05

  It's becoming accurate over the last maybe 10 years.

• 32:53Speaker 03

  Good.

• 32:54Speaker 05

  Because the Holly, the Hollywood writers will work with Donate Life California or One Legacy, which is our organ procurement operation in California, and help them have the right message.

• 33:04Speaker 03

  Yeah, shed accurate light on what it is.

• 33:07Speaker 05

  Because there's so many television shows that are medical.

• 33:10Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 33:10Speaker 05

  Yeah, so. It's come a long way since Jeff passed away March 1st, 2009. And so, and it's not a household name because nobody wants to talk about the end of their life.

• 33:22Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 33:22Speaker 05

  And that's what they think, oh, if I put that pink dot on there, that's the end of my life, but it's not.

• 33:27Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 33:27Speaker 05

  At all.

• 33:28Speaker 03

  And it's, it's, you know, I mean, this is a tough thing to talk about. So again, for you to take, you know, your situation and, and what happened to Jeff and to make it into something so beautiful and to serve this community and to try to help people, because the one thing I've learned is like, I mean, like even here in this office, we've been sharing Gero's situation and having a massive stroke earlier this year and the devastation that that's had. And I mean, we've had clients that have had strokes or family members of clients and ourselves, you know, you, you, you have people that are kind of outside of that sphere, but then when you have something so close to home hit and you see, I mean, because you can just picture that there's probably parents out there that have a child that needs a transplant or whatever situation is.

• 34:10Speaker 05

  Exactly.

• 34:11Speaker 03

  Or somebody that you love. And, and yes, it's a difficult topic to talk about, but could you imagine having somebody that you love that if they don't get a life-saving transplant? Or even just in life enhancement, like you mentioned about the, the being able to see and see the sunsets and all that stuff. I mean.

• 34:29Speaker 04

  Yeah, their awareness helps with that.

• 34:30Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 34:31Speaker 05

  That's what we're trying to do is that we're trying to build enough awareness because not only do we have the Got That Leadership Program in the high schools, we also have a financial grant program where we, our fundraisers fund these programs for the grant recipients. We call, we say they're patients that have had a transplant and we award them a financial check and also gas cards. So that's where a lot of our fundraising goes to is and, you know, and our community is so great to give. They really are. So then we're being able to be good stewards of that money we raise to give back to those. And this year we've given 33 post-transplant financial assistance.

• 35:15Speaker 05

  Well, it's $1,500 and then $300 for the gas card. So they get $1,800.

• 35:20Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 35:20Speaker 04

  And I know, I've been to some of your events before. Throughout the year, you do a couple of different events, don't you?

• 35:24Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 35:25Speaker 04

  Can you tell us about some of those?

• 35:26Speaker 05

  Well, Saturday, November 16th is our grilling and brewing. It's a big barbecue, competition-style barbecue. We have three teams coming into California that's going to cook the dinner.

• 35:36Speaker 04

  Mm-hmm.

• 35:36Speaker 05

  Brisket, ribs, chicken. And then this all goes to our Got the Dot Leadership Program, the students. In April, we have our celebration of life, and that's going to be 15 years. And that money we raise there goes to our grant programs to help support those waiting for a transplant and those that have had a transplant. So those are our two major programs.

• 35:58Speaker 03

  Excellent.

• 35:59Speaker 04

  Oh, sorry.

• 36:00Speaker 03

  Well, I was going to say, we need to take a quick break, real fast, and we're going to have just a little bit of time in our last segment. Hopefully, you can stick around with us and answer a couple more questions and talk a little bit more about it. So, thanks for sticking around.

• 36:11Speaker 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. That's 661-847-1000.

• 36:38Speaker 03

  Welcome back to the Money Wise Show. Again, we are so lucky to have Ms. Lori Malkin here, founder, chairperson of JJ's Legacy, sharing the story of Jeff and what that spilled into with JJ's Legacy and many, many years of educating and serving our community, helping young people getting their license know to get the DOT.

• 37:03Speaker 05

  That's right.

• 37:03Speaker 03

  And, yep, and talking about organ donation, and it is a tough topic, but to embrace the role that you've been given and to serve the community and to do so much hard work to hopefully have somebody else have a wonderful story. Unfortunately, have to come out of a tragedy, but to try to make the most of everybody's situations. It's just very, very inspiring, and so, thank you for all you do. I think we were talking about events before.

• 37:31Speaker 04

  Did you see the message that came in, too?

• 37:33Speaker 03

  Yeah, it says Lori is the best, JJ's Legacy is a very special nonprofit and thank you for passing along the info. How much are the tickets for the barbecue event and where did she say it was?

• 37:47Speaker 05

  Our barbecue event, the tickets are seventy-five dollars and it includes two drink tickets, alcohol or non-alcohol, and then the dinner. And our venue is at Leslie Knox, which is AIS and RBI facility out at the airport. It's in a big hangar out at the airport. On Flight Pathway, 19227 Flight Pathway. If you'd like tickets, you can go to jjslegacy.org and there's a big banner on our webpage, just click it and there you go, you can buy tickets.

• 38:16Speaker 03

  And there's gonna be some musical talent out there.

• 38:19Speaker 05

  Yeah, we have Joe Peters.

• 38:20Speaker 03

  Mr. Joe Peters. We have a funny story about Joe Peters. We got to play in a fundraiser golf tournament and he was out there. So I put on a Joe Peters song, was blasting it on my stereo, he was giggling. Yeah, I know that one. Yeah, he's like, I think I've heard that song before.

• 38:36Speaker 05

  And do you know Austin Machado? Have you heard of him? He's a country western singer. He's gonna be playing during the cocktail hour.

• 38:43Speaker 03

  Awesome, awesome.

• 38:44Speaker 05

  Our social hour.

• 38:45Speaker 03

  Great, great, awesome. You know, one of the things I was gonna ask you about a little bit is, can you share the story, like, are there more stories that are coming out of this where you're sharing stories like yours that are coming out of it? What are people's responses? Do some people like not wanna talk about it maybe because of, like you mentioned, perceived that, I don't know, like, what's the survivors' reactions to these stories?

• 39:11Speaker 05

  I, a lot of survivors don't like to talk about their transplant. Because they feel like, oh, I was sick. And they don't wanna share that they were sick and then they needed a transplant. But the most of them that we come in contact with, you know, were very successful. They love to share their story. We also, the fourth Saturday of every month, we have a workshop at our office, we have a big warehouse office. And recipients and their families come and they do a workshop. And it's where they can share their stories with individuals and know how they feel because... Somebody died for them to live.

• 39:47Speaker 03

  Mm-hmm.

• 39:47Speaker 05

  And that's one of the hardest things for them to cope with sometimes. So we have workshops and everybody shares their story and

• 39:54Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 39:54Speaker 05

  We painted pumpkins last, in October for Halloween and, and it's just really a great thing. We usually have about 12 individuals that come and that's one of our things. We have a social worker that, uh, works at JJ's Legacy and she's created all this community outreach and runs all of our financial grant programs.

• 40:12Speaker 04

  Yeah, people are actually able to hear some of those stories and they've shared at the gala.

• 40:16Speaker 05

  Yes, they have.

• 40:18Speaker 04

  Remind us which month that's in?

• 40:19Speaker 05

  It's in April.

• 40:20Speaker 04

  April, okay.

• 40:21Speaker 03

  Yeah, cause I was wondering that there's, there's been a little bit of like social media like, uh, that is, that's kind of blown up and gone viral that, that have to do with these, the stories of, I think one of them was a wedding and, and I don't know if it was the mom that passed away, so she wasn't able to be at the wedding, but then the person that was the recipient was sitting in the crowd. And then there's the other one where the gentleman was sitting there and he's very passionate about his story that he knew the name of the guy that had, you know, donated whatever and then here he was, he was sitting next to him on his birthday and like, so some of those things are like, it's funny that that, that can be a big catalyst.

• 40:54Speaker 05

  It is.

• 40:55Speaker 03

  There needs to be education behind it.

• 40:56Speaker 05

  There needs to be more about those. There's a big one right now that just was on ESPN last Saturday, or two Saturdays ago, uh, from Georgia. Is that, uh, Gal and her father loved the Georgia Bulldogs, went to every game, um, her whole year of high school. Sadly, she passed away in a car accident at 22 or 23 and she, they donated all of their organs and then it went to a gentleman, the double lung transplant went to a gentleman in, um, Florida that loved the Gators and they had an opportunity to meet. But once he had those new lungs, he loved Georgia.

• 41:27Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah.

• 41:28Speaker 05

  He loved the Bulldogs.

• 41:29Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 41:30Speaker 05

  And so they've become very good family friends and

• 41:32Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 41:32Speaker 05

  There's a lot of wonderful stories, how organ donation helps those to live.

• 41:37Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 41:38Speaker 05

  In so many different ways, you know, a father

• 41:40Speaker 04

  Great impact.

• 41:40Speaker 05

  Yeah, a father can walk a daughter down the aisle. A mother can see a granddaughter, grandson being born, so, big impact, yes, you're right.

• 41:47Speaker 03

  Yeah. So like I, like we've mentioned, there's lots of ways to get involved, to learn more, just to be, uh, supportive of Of this, understanding that some of this education with the Get the Dot program that's going on in high schools, yeah?

• 42:00Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 42:00Speaker 03

  They're going out to high schools, yeah?

• 42:02Speaker 05

  We also are in high schools and we're also, we have our own club that meet with us academically, academically, August to May.

• 42:11Speaker 03

  Awesome. Awesome. Well, we really do appreciate you, Lori, what you've done in our community for a long time. I'm sure you've made a huge impact and you made a tough decision that's blossomed into something really special. So, really appreciate you coming on.

• 42:24Speaker 05

  Thank you.

• 42:25Speaker 03

  Sharing with our listeners, sharing with their story. And so, if you don't have anything going on Saturday night, get out to the 9th Annual Grilling and Brewing. Some good music's gonna be out there. That's out at the AIS facilities out there at the airport.

• 42:40Speaker 04

  Hey, if you have something, cancel it and go anyway.

• 42:43Speaker 03

  Yeah, there you go. There you go. Thanks again for joining us.

• 42:46Speaker 05

  Thank you. I'll be back.

• 42:48Speaker 03

  All right. Well, thank you, listeners, for making Money Wise what it is. Spread the news, spread the love, listen to the podcast, share it if you can, get the word out there to try to change lives. So, most importantly, be smart, be safe, be money wise.

• 43:06Speaker 02

  Securities offered through SCF Securities, Inc., member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through SCF Investment Advisors, Inc. SCF Securities, Inc. and Money Wise Wealth Management are independently owned and operated.