Pod Insights The Moneywise Guys 11/3/25 Credit-Building Moves, Art Heist & What's Next for EVs About this episode The Moneywise Radio Show and Podcast Monday, November 3rd 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 LinkedIn: Moneywise_Wealth_Management Guest: Carrie Blind, Entrepreneur & Hair Stylist instagram facebook
Transcript 0:00 Speaker 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.
0:10 Speaker 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?
0:30 Speaker 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.
0:40 Speaker 00 Here is Money Wise.
0:42 Speaker 03 And welcome to the Money Wise Show. We are live from the second floor of the historic Woolworths Building in downtown Bakersfield on ESPN Bakersfield, 1230 a.m., 101.1 FM, and always streaming at MoneyWiseGuys.com. You can call or text into the show 24 hours a day at 661-396-1000. Today, we're your hosts. I'm Sharad Waite and...
1:07 Speaker 04 Sammy Abiyawi.
1:08 Speaker 03 Hey Sammy.
1:09 Speaker 04 You guys hear me okay?
1:11 Speaker 03 I can hear you great, sound great.
1:13 Speaker 04 Yeah, I got a new look for the show today.
1:16 Speaker 03 I know, it's nice. Like, we're here on the sunny side of the building, on the, I guess this is the south side of the Woolworths Building, up on the second floor, and Sammy's sporting the sunglasses.
1:27 Speaker 04 Yeah, yeah, I want to be cool for a radio show.
1:30 Speaker 03 Yeah. Hey, Sam, we've got a couple really good listener questions. Want to remind our listeners, anytime you can send us any of your questions or comments, 661-396-1000, send them our way. And why don't we start with this first question, Sammy?
1:48 Speaker 04 Yeah. Good morning. I listen to your podcast, Single Mom, working at Mercy Hospital here in town, and I've got 8,000 spread across three credit cards with rates between 25% and 29%. With our cost of living going up, but wages staying flat, what's the most realistic first step I can make to start lowering these interest rates? These are the only cards I've ever had, and wasn't sure till I heard one of your shows last week that was possible. Thank you, and looking forward to going down at the diner with my twins.
2:20 Speaker 03 Oh, sweet. This is great, Sammy. This is right down your alley. I mean, you you lived and breathed interest rates and lending for, you know, most of your adult livelihood. Yeah. So you've got, I'm sure, some insights here.
2:34 Speaker 04 Yeah, definitely. First, 25%, 29% is just too high of an interest rate. I have my own feelings about that, those types of phrase. They almost should be criminal, but they're not. They're evil. But that being said, some people are, do get taken advantage of one reason or another because they had an emergency or they did not have savings or whatever, for whatever reason. $8,000 turns into a lot of money. So what can you do to, in hopes to lower this and eventually pay it off? First thing I always say is call the credit card company. If you do have a good credit history or credit payment history with the credit card companies that you have, call them and start with them first.
3:16 Speaker 04 Tell them, hey, I've been a good client. I'm paying on time. I need some type of break on this interest rate. Then hopefully they listen and they lower your rate. You don't stop there. What you also look, your step number two is look for a 0% type of credit card where you can transfer the balances from these high-interest credit cards into a 0% credit card. Now, what we have going for us here, we have some credit unions here locally that could help with that. There's Valley Strong, there's Safe One, there is, I can't remember, Alta One, I believe, Chevron. There's multiple credit unions that consumers can walk into and look for 0%
4:01 Speaker 04 credit card and transfer the balances over and in hopes to fix that that interest rate at zero for the next 12 to 18 months. Okay? And then you start paying that principal and tackle it until you pay it off. Again, don't stop. Once you pay those things off, do not stop. Do not close them under no circumstances. I do not suggest to you, you close those credit cards and cut them, cut them, but do not close them.
4:28 Speaker 03 Yeah, it sounds like don't use them. That's, that's commonly misunderstood. People will just close the account rather than just cut up the card or get rid of it, but don't close the account down.
4:37 Speaker 04 Yeah, you do not close the account because what it, what it shows, even if the, the card is not being utilized, is being reported on your credit report as satisfactory repayment, which boosts your credit score. Okay, so for the zero balance, I wanna take a look at your credit report. You're allowed to run one credit report for all the three credit report agencies once a year for free. Get that, see what you've got going there. If you have a credit score of, of, of six eighty, six ninety, I'm gonna, I'm gonna say you're definitely or probably, high probability, you're gonna qualify for a zero percent type of credit card somewhere else. And that's what you want to take advantage of.
5:18 Speaker 03 Yes, and you know, I, I, I did a little calculate myself. Here's the, you know, there's a lot of dirty little secrets when it comes to certain credit cards and the way that companies make their money. If, if you, if this credit card is twenty nine percent interest and you just make the minimum payments, how long, Sammy, I'll, I'll give you a guess. How long do you think it would take to pay off an eight thousand dollar balance?
5:42 Speaker 04 Fifteen years?
5:43 Speaker 03 Thirty-two years.
5:44 Speaker 04 Oh, wow.
5:45 Speaker 03 Thirty-two years, which is insane.
5:48 Speaker 04 Yes.
5:48 Speaker 03 Like, it, it, and you end up paying, oh, roughly three times
5:54 Speaker 04 Yep.
5:54 Speaker 03 what your original balance is. So you're gonna pay, you know, twenty, over twenty thousand dollars in interest, and it'll take you thirty-two years to pay off. And so
6:04 Speaker 04 The best bet for me is if you have a good repayment history and you, hopefully you have a good credit score in the six eighty or, or, or at least low seven hundreds, you qualify for the zero percent credit card, uh, uh, somewhere else. If that's not the case, I still encourage you to walk into one of these consumer, uh, uh, and, and
6:23 Speaker 03 Credit unions.
6:25 Speaker 04 and do a consolidated type of loan. You, you, you're gonna go down from twenty-nine percent to potentially ten to maybe twelve percent.
6:33 Speaker 03 Right.
6:33 Speaker 04 That that's that cuts your interest rate in more than half.
6:37 Speaker 03 It's huge.
6:38 Speaker 04 And then you start and then you start your repayment with the highest
6:44 Speaker 04 credit or interest rate if if if you have if for some reason you are not able to to get that ten or twelve percent and credit cards don't want to work with you. Your other option is start with your highest interest rate credit card. Start tackling that as much as possible while maintaining the minimum payments for the others.
7:04 Speaker 03 Yes.
7:05 Speaker 04 So you can maximize your paycheck, basically. If you want to boost and I mean emotional boost, let's say you have three credit cards with the two largest is six thousand and the other one a thousand and you have or fifteen hundred and one with just five hundred. Tackle the small one first and just get rid of it. What I mean by get rid of it is pay it off, but do not close that account. I want to reiterate that you do not want to close that account because it eventually is going to boost your your credit score in the long run by having that credit card that's not utilized. But it shows as satisfactory repayment on your credit report.
7:43 Speaker 03 You know, there there's some there's some silver linings here from our listener that has eight thousand dollars in credit card debt. The US average household credit card debt is close to eleven thousand this year. So that means the average household is is is carrying quite a bit more than what our listener is here with eight thousand dollars. So that's that's the good news. The bad news is the average interest rate right now nationally for a credit card is about twenty one percent. This is the other dirty little secret about credit cards is they get you in with the zero percent interest or low interest because they know that most people are going to carry that balance fast the first year and then they can go up to twenty nine percent. Then what are you going to do?
8:28 Speaker 03 You know, you're you're sort of stuck there. You got the handcuffs with the with the credit card company. So I I I'd like that the first step is to lower that interest rate because once you lower that interest rate, you can start making more principal payments or at least more of your payment can go towards. The principle rather than
8:43 Speaker 04 That's correct.
8:44 Speaker 03 The the bare minimum or that you can last thirty years before you pay that thing off. But then also that it we have to remind people that you you you lose if you carry a credit card balance, even if it's a zero interest rate, I see, I still think that you're playing with fire. You want to avoid carrying a balance on a credit card. If you can get by with, you can still use a credit card. We're all for using credit cards if you can be disciplined because you do get added protections. You get fraud protection, you get extended warranties, you get cash back. You get bonus points, you get all these other benefits by using a credit card.
9:27 Speaker 03 So what you can do is if you don't carry a balance, if you're able to pay that credit card off every month. Now you're really winning the game. Now you're beating the credit card company at their own at their own game. And but but don't give up, this is there's, I know there's, it's a fixed income. I know that it, you know, being a single mom, it's got to be incredibly challenging to try to make ends meet. But find some ways to make ends meet without going to that credit card. And that will, you know, hopefully keep you out of trouble going into the future.
10:01 Speaker 04 Yeah, I agree with you and and definitely we have resources here locally. We had a credit union leaders on our show multiple times. And and I stress credit unions just because they are retail or consumer oriented types of banks. Okay, we're we're with the community in mind. That's why I'm encouraging this this this person to seek help at a credit union level, not a commercial bank, not Wells Fargo, not Chase, not not saying anything against those banks. I'm just saying the credit union tend to have very good solutions for situations like these.
10:36 Speaker 03 Nice. Good stuff, Sammy. We're going to take our first break of the day. When we come back, we're going to be joined by our guest, Carrie Blind. She is part of Art Heist, has started that, also a local business owner. We're going to talk to Carrie when we come back from the break. Don't go anywhere.
10:50 Speaker 00 Management firm with sixty plus years of collective experience. Our financial advisors are here to help you, Kern County. Together, let's be smart, be safe, be money wise.
11:12 Speaker 03 Welcome back to Money Wise Show. We're your hosts today. I'm Sharad Waite, joined by Sammy Abiawi. We have our guest here with us today, Carrie Blind of Art Heist, also a local business owner. Carrie, welcome to the show.
11:25 Speaker 05 Thank you so much. Thanks for having me today.
11:27 Speaker 03 Hey, are you responsible for our beautiful new big building getting tagged and other buildings downtown getting tagged? What's going on?
11:36 Speaker 05 I am. It was kind of part of our guerrilla marketing concept for Art Heist, where we just wanted to make sure that certain art forms were really, I guess, brought attention to. And we had some amazing business owners who were willing to allow us to spray paint their windows by a professional graffiti artist. So it was exciting.
11:55 Speaker 03 We love it. Actually, the piece that's on our building, I think, is amazing.
11:59 Speaker 05 It's gorgeous.
12:00 Speaker 03 Yeah, really talented artists. So, so explain what's going on, what the art heist is. This is the second year?
12:08 Speaker 05 Yeah, this is the second year. First year, we partnered with the DBA and we brought over 30 locations. And this year, it's me, I'm flying solo, and we brought on an additional 15. So we're looking at about 45 locations. We had a couple of businesses go out of business, unfortunately, in the downtown area. But we were able to get a huge response this year. I'm very excited.
12:30 Speaker 03 Yeah. So what is it? Why, what are you doing?
12:33 Speaker 05 So, I mean, the concept really came from the fact that I had an art show, Off the Rails had an art show, and Jerry's Pizza had an art show, all within two weeks of one another. And I was like, why are we not utilizing each other's audiences in a better way? And so, so what I did was, I thought, well, why don't we do an art walk? And then that just bloomed into this huge, you know, let's do it as an art heist, and let's make sure that all art forms are represented. And what it is, is these artists are taking over local businesses for one night only. So these artists have partnered with the businesses to create something that's specific to their branding, which worked out phenomenally.
13:15 Speaker 03 Yeah, I love the idea. What a great concept. You have so many artists in town. You have a lot of great local businesses, especially downtown, that are promoting our art scene. And so you just, how did you, I think you brought this up last year and I asked you this question because you're a business owner. Maybe explain what your primary business is. And then how do you find time to run a business and then run like this whole other program?
13:45 Speaker 05 I don't know the answer to that question. I ask that to myself all the time. So as a business, I'm actually, I'm a stylist. So I do both hair and wardrobe and personal styling, which is kind of fun because I just brought that on about two years ago. But there was something really magical about moving into the Haberfeld Building. And all of a sudden, I felt like people were listening to ideas that I had. And I guess I never realized that there was, that those things could come to fruition. You know, you have these ideas, you know, throw them out to people and then they just die. This one really stuck. And I benefit nothing from art heist. So I don't get foot traffic. Foot traffic doesn't do anything for me. I've been a hairstylist for 18 years.
14:30 Speaker 05 So it's, my clientele is pretty set. But I can appreciate the fact that art really, we don't really have a huge art scene here. And we have a lot of different camps and a lot of different associations and organizations, but they rarely work together for one big project. And so I just wanted to make sure that when everybody showed up for my first art show, Arts Association, Arts Council, Johnny Ramos, you know, all the big dogs showed up to Caesar's art show, I went, wait a second. Why are we not all coming together like this more often? And so, I mean, once you have a dream like that and once you have a vision like that, well, you guys, you guys know, you can't let it go.
15:15 Speaker 05 It's like, it doesn't matter how much it taxes you. It doesn't matter how much you have to give to it to make it bloom. It just lives inside your heart and you're like, okay, let's just, let's go with it.
15:24 Speaker 03 That's pretty, that's pretty noble of you to do something like this.
15:29 Speaker 05 No, don't say that, no.
15:30 Speaker 03 Well, I mean, you're running a business and like, like you said, I don't know what, what ancillary benefits you get. It's not even, they're not even coming to your, your place in the Haberfeld.
15:41 Speaker 05 Yeah, but it's, it's the heart, you know, it's the heart that lives within it. And if I can make something work that's going to benefit so many other people, I mean, we're featuring over 120 artists this year. So, I mean, if, if I can get exposure to them, if, if I can get people to understand that downtown is a walkable neighborhood and overcome some propaganda there, um, if I can get more foot traffic to these local businesses, why would I not, you know?
16:09 Speaker 03 I, I love that you're fighting against that, that, that story of downtown being dangerous and downtown being, you know, hard to, hard to get around, not safe to walk around. And that's just, I, I mean, this is something that we're, we're very passionate at Money Wise here. We moved our, we moved our business from the Southwest to downtown. We've been here now three weeks. We're in our third week, uh, here moving in.
16:35 Speaker 05 Congratulations.
16:35 Speaker 03 Yeah, we, and we are loving it. Like, we have some challenges, no doubt, but Sammy, wouldn't you say that for the most part, our, our clientele, our, our employees are happy?
16:47 Speaker 04 I was gonna say some, a lot of things, but then Carrie lost me at here.
16:52 Speaker 05 I'm sorry.
16:55 Speaker 03 You could, you could still do some style, Alanya Sammy.
16:58 Speaker 04 Yeah, definitely, yeah.
16:58 Speaker 05 Calm, calm, besides.
17:00 Speaker 04 It's just, it's just admirable, truly. I mean, being here and downtown, I, I worked downtown when I was at, at Mission and I always loved it. And then now I'm, I'm back at it, the fact that you can walk to, eat at multiple places and, and also at night, by the way, a lot of people are. They say, well, it's not safe at night. It is. We have plenty of lights now, electricity and lights all throughout. Now, the money was just came back and the world was now occupied. There are multiple buildings being worked on in the downtown area. And just bring in awareness like you're doing, Carrie, is what's admirable. Because a lot of people now are aware, there's a lot of stuff happening downtown. And that's what we need to do more of.
17:42 Speaker 04 The fact that you're a partner up with other people that are passionate about downtown and the community is really, really cool. And we thank you for making us part of it.
17:52 Speaker 05 Oh, well, absolutely. And I mean, I think what's unique about this is that we don't, I don't charge the businesses to be involved. And we don't charge the artists to be involved. It really is more about community building. You know, we have one gigantic group message in Instagram that, you know, just to get to know one another. We have a luncheon that's being donated by Adventure Awaits Coffee that's going to happen the day of the event. So it kind of sets the tone, you know, it's, it's just really about coming together as a community. Because it's a different energy down here. And I'm sure you guys understand that just by being in the new building. It, it, it makes you want to create. It makes you want to give. You see this, you see the spots and you're like, okay, I'm going to give there.
18:34 Speaker 03 So let's talk about the Art Heist Act, the event that's coming up. When, when is it coming up? And if people are interested in getting involved, how can they learn more about it?
18:44 Speaker 05 So it is November 7th from six to 10, which is on Friday. Um, what I've been saying is you go from six to eight o'clock with the kids because it is a family friendly event. And then you drop them off with grandma and you come back from eight to 10 and you have an adult good time, you know? We've got several 21 and over spots, you know, Ally Katz involved this year, which was really exciting. And who they're paired up with, that artist had never had an art show before. So that pairing is really cool. You know, we've got live graffiti that's going to go on. Um, getting involved, it, it really, if you tapped into any of the locations that are involved, you've seen the Art Heist posters, reels, stories, you know?
19:28 Speaker 05 We try to put it out on social media. That seems to be the best way to market things nowadays. And everyone has their own individual flyer. Um, we will be dropping the map. I mean, they can follow me. I'm at, I'm at Wild and styled on, uh, on Instagram and I'm Carrie blind on Facebook. I put everything out there, uh, but we drop our map on Tuesday and then we'll have a digital map. People will be able to access, uh, physical maps the night of at one of the locations. So, um, yes, that's about, about how we, how we do it.
20:02 Speaker 03 Oh, awesome. So here in a couple, I guess tomorrow, um, people can find out more about where the map is, where the, where the businesses are. If, if anybody's following downtown businesses, it sounds like there's a bunch of them that are involved in this. So just pay attention to that. That's awesome. So great. Really, really cool project and, um, it's, it's a, it's a good sign that you're doing it a second year in a row. Cause I know there's a ton of work that's gone into it.
20:31 Speaker 05 It's a lot of management, but it's definitely worth it.
20:34 Speaker 03 Yeah. I, I'd love, you know, the arts and promoting the arts and promoting downtown. This does both of those things. Um, Carrie, thank you so much for taking the time. Come on our show and thanks for what you do for this city and for downtown. We really appreciate it.
20:47 Speaker 05 Absolutely. Thank you so much, guys.
20:49 Speaker 03 Take care, Carrie. All right. We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we have another listener question asking a question about electric vehicles and the depreciation of said vehicles. We're going to cover that plus much more when we come back. We're money wise. Don't go anywhere.
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21:19 Speaker 03 Welcome back to the Money Wise Show. We're your hosts today. I'm Sharad Waite. Joining me is Sammy Abiawi. Getting down to business here today. We've got a few listener questions and comments. Sammy, let's go to this question about electric vehicles. Do you have it there?
21:34 Speaker 04 Three years ago, I swore I would never buy an EV, but then fell in love with my Tesla. Now my wife and I both have one and wouldn't want any other car until this weekend. I drove my son's Silverado EV and now I want to trade my Tesla. But they didn't even offer me half of what I paid. What has happened to the value of Tesla in a town of high gas prices?
21:56 Speaker 03 I love this question because what this listener is describing in terms of the challenges that electric vehicles are facing. He's describing the problem with these electric vehicles, which is they continue to improve and get better. And there continues to be a perception that they are degrading faster than they really are. And so what you have, first of all, is you definitely are, if you buy an electric vehicle, as of today, electric vehicles depreciate much quicker than internal combustion engine cars. And in fact, in some cases, it's dramatic.
22:41 Speaker 03 There are some studies that show that an electric vehicle loses value at about 27 cents a mile versus an internal combustion engine car is about 11 cents a mile. So we're talking about, at least according to this study, almost three times the rate. That means some EVs are losing 50 to 60% of their value in three to five years. On the list are certain models. It turns out the Tesla Model Y, for example, and the Model S, for whatever reason, this year have had greater than normal depreciation numbers.
23:25 Speaker 04 But they also changed the pricing of brand new vehicles of those two models.
23:28 Speaker 03 Right.
23:29 Speaker 04 Not long ago. So a lot of people, and that angered a lot of buyers too, that... Got basically blindsided by that.
23:39 Speaker 03 Yeah, it this is I have a I have a real issue with like new cars and buying new cars because the the average consumer gets gets taken advantage of a little bit and in that the cars are generally sold not for the overall price that you're paying for it. Instead, they're sold based off of your payment that you're making, your monthly payment. And that's what that's what gets people hooked because they think, oh, well, it's you know, it's only $500 a month that, you know, I can I can manage that. And then what's happening is they're paying a lot more for that vehicle or they're, you know, they're going to to long term finance and they're going out past
24:23 Speaker 03 five years, sometimes seven, eight, nine years. They're they're going into the terms of the of the loan of the car. And then you have the problem with some people refinancing that car. And so we are at a near all record highs where people are actually underwater in the equity and equity in their car.
24:43 Speaker 04 It's I think it's a systematic problem. We've talked earlier about credit cards and how sometimes we go and use credit cards. I mean, for people that use it for emergencies, I understand. And sometimes we get taken advantage of. But sometimes we use it because we want to buy luxury things that we cannot afford. And the credit card is just there available. Same thing with the cars shared. What you're describing is the sales strategy. And I know my sales car salesman friends that I have are not going to be happy with what I'm about to say. But there's a thing called the four square. Car sales 101. The first thing they teach you is the four squares. You walk in, what's the first question you ask? It is not how much you can how much what's your budget?
25:26 Speaker 04 No, it's what's your desired monthly payment?
25:31 Speaker 04 Once you say that, you're hooked. Once you say it's 500 bucks, oh, great. I got the car for you.
25:37 Speaker 03 Right.
25:38 Speaker 04 And the car is valued at maybe, even a used car valued at five, sometimes 10,000, $15,000 more than what it's supposed to be, or what the person paid for it at auction, or what the dealership paid for it as a trade-in. They retail it for you based on a imaginary Kelley Blue Book value. And then they put you on that square, square number one. What's your monthly, desired monthly payment? And they just go backwards until they fit you into whatever dream car you have.
26:13 Speaker 03 Right.
26:14 Speaker 04 Now you're stuck for seven to nine years, depending on whatever you decide to buy.
26:19 Speaker 03 And here's the problem with that, Sammy, is if you are being sold just off of that monthly payment, that first square and the sales tactic. What, there's so many other levers that they can pull to make it, make that work. The interest rate.
26:34 Speaker 04 That's correct.
26:34 Speaker 03 Term on the loan, residual value. So this is what our listeners complaining about. Whoa, I lost half the value of this car in just a couple of years. What's going on? Most people don't make their buying decision off of the resale value. You've got to know what that resale value. Now, if you're leasing a car, that resale value is baked into it. I mean, that's one of the benefits of leasing is that they've got to tell you what that residual value is at the end of your term. If you only, you know, if you keep it with a certain mileage, here's what they're going to guarantee that they're going to buy that car back from you. Whereas if you're, if you're financing a car, you're just sort of, you have to go off of,
27:19 Speaker 03 you have to go off of other industry reports to determine what that resale value will be of that car. And if you're buying an EV, you have the true resale value, but then you have the public's opinion on what that resale value would be. And it turns out that the batteries are much more dependable and last much longer than, than most people realize. But the consumer doesn't think that. They think, oh, it's an electric vehicle. It's three years old. It's got, you know, 30,000 miles on it. That battery is going to be worn out. When it turns out that battery has likely in the high 90 percentile still effectiveness.
27:58 Speaker 04 So. There's a couple of things going on with this listener. First thing is the Tesla itself. The Tesla value became soft about a year ago when Musk and them decided to decrease the sale price of brand new Teslas. Twenty thousand, thirty thousand, depending on whatever model you're buying. That's strike number one. Strike number two, EVs in general are softer, but Teslas are softer more, uh, most than than others. Even at the auction, you know, I buy my cars from auctions. I do not buy brand new cars. And Teslas are soft at the auction level. That's what he's facing. My advice to this person is, don't get a trade in value, go to, what's the?
28:41 Speaker 04 CarMax, go to CarMax and get a true appraisal of your car. See what they give you for it before you go back and try to trade that in. I found it and I sold five or six different cars to CarMax personally. I find it a lot better than most dealership when it comes to getting you of, what, close to what a good appraisal could be or should be.
29:05 Speaker 03 You have a situation where electric vehicles are about fifteen percent on average, cost fifteen percent more than a, than a combustion engine vehicle. But on the back end, electric vehicles average about ten percent less, so they're cheaper on the used market. The average electric vehicle is about twenty eight thousand versus the average internal combustion engine vehicle used is thirty one thousand. So there's an opportunity, I would say, I mean, you're always better off buying a vehicle used. Because you, because you can get, you can get through that brunt of that depreciation that happens right when the car is driven off the lot.
29:49 Speaker 03 And then you get that, that, that normal depreciation. You can take advantage of that over the first three years. And, and because electric vehicles depreciate even more, that means you can get an even better deal on a used EV versus a used internal combustion.
30:06 Speaker 04 And in my opinion, you can, you can negotiate better.
30:09 Speaker 03 Yes.
30:09 Speaker 04 You do not, you, you, I mean, they're not gonna lose money, but brand new cars have an MSRP. Right? And very seldom they go below that. That's kind of like what the dealership needs to get in order for them to to make money, which is another rabbit hole I don't want to go go into. But with a used car, you have the ability to negotiate a lot harder than with a brand new car. There's no excuse there for, oh, no, that's what the manufacturer is asking us to sell the car for. And you know what? With a used car, you can negotiate a lot harder. Ask you for 50, offer whatever you can afford, based on your research.
30:47 Speaker 03 Yeah. And you can buy from private parties.
30:49 Speaker 04 That's correct.
30:50 Speaker 03 You know, you can really get a deal there because you take our listener, for example, that if they're going to turn their car in, they're going to, they're looking at a 50% depreciation, whereas if you sold it to a private party, maybe you could get a little bit more. And that person, you, everybody gets a better deal. But a hesitancy I know with some people buying from a private party is the financing, which people need to know, you can still finance a used vehicle. You can still go into a credit union and say, look, I'm looking at this used car and get prequalified. It's a very simple transaction to go through a credit union.
31:23 Speaker 04 That's true. And the credit union has the ability to have their own appraisal done, either through a Kelley Blue Book or whatever system they use, as long as they have a VIN number.
31:31 Speaker 03 Yeah. Another message here, Sammy, you can help us with this. It says, I've had nothing but positive experiences with CarMax. Where do you get auction cars? Where would somebody, you know, Sammy, where they would buy a car from auction?
31:46 Speaker 04 Well, I'm lucky. I have two brother-in-law.
31:50 Speaker 03 You know a guy.
31:52 Speaker 04 I know a guy. I happen to know a guy.
31:54 Speaker 00 We need to get a shirt that says that for Sammy.
31:58 Speaker 04 Emily made that one for me already. He's got us. I know a guy.
32:02 Speaker 00 I need one because I know a guy that knows a guy.
32:05 Speaker 03 Right?
32:06 Speaker 04 But seriously, I'm lucky that I have two brothers-in-law that are both auctioneers and they go to the auction and I just give them exactly what I want, the color and everything. And I'm just patient until they find me exactly what I want and I just finance it. To your point, Sherrod, you can take that car and go to a credit union and finance it. And it's still finance a financeable car. Now with going back to just that question that that the listener had earlier. I don't know if you've been into one of these Silverado EVs or GMC EVs, but they are beasts. If you think the driving of the Tesla EV is nice, man, Sherrod, I'm telling you, I drove one. One, my friend has a GMC EV. It's amazing.
32:47 Speaker 03 Yeah, I don't I don't doubt it and they're so fast.
32:52 Speaker 04 Oh, my God.
32:53 Speaker 03 It's a huge car that has so much power.
32:56 Speaker 04 Yeah, that's why I get. Yeah, that's I'm sorry, but that's how I get the cars from the auction. Now you can go to the DMV and apply for a wholesale license. You can if if there's there's certain qualifications, I don't have that, but you can get your wholesale license and you can attend any type of auction throughout California. And most of these auctions now are online. You don't even have need to drive to the inland empire or anywhere. You can just check your inventory online and bid online even.
33:28 Speaker 03 Some of these cars like the Silverado have not been out long enough that there's a lot of used vehicles yet for that model. But for those who are patient and that can wait, you know, that's the that's an Achilles heel for a lot of consumers is that, you know, this idea of just getting a new car quick and, you know, walking into it with the idea, oh, maybe well, maybe I'll buy. I mean, that you're their best customer if that's the case, because.
33:58 Speaker 04 That's exactly right. I mean, I when I when Mary Ann signed for BMW, the salesman said, told me, man, this is the easiest sell ever because as soon as she sat down, she was like, I love this car, babe. This is what I want. And he looked at it, looked back at me. I was sitting in the back and he was like, I got you. I just got you.
34:18 Speaker 03 I mean, do you, I mean, don't, I mean, some people are disciplined enough to just walk out of a dealership, but I mean, do your homework beforehand and, you know, check the, check the used market and, and, you know, go in knowing what your numbers are and what you're willing to do. Also, if you're buying new, just know you're, you're going to overpay. And
34:41 Speaker 04 I think, I think we always give the example or the, the advice about houses, about people, can I buy now? Should I wait? You buy when you can afford to buy, based on your monthly budget, on your income, that's when you buy the car and be honest with yourself in budgeting. A lot of people like, well, it's just a hundred dollars. I'll squeeze myself here and I'll just afford a $700 payment versus 500. But imagine that $200 now is 200 extra for the next seven years.
35:15 Speaker 03 Right.
35:16 Speaker 04 That's when people sometimes forget. It's the seven years of $200 extra, sometimes 300, sometimes even more.
35:22 Speaker 03 Right. So we're talking about, you know, 20, over $2,000 a year in extra expenses.
35:31 Speaker 04 Yes. Yeah. That you, that you can avoid by just being very disciplined and do your homework before you go to the dealership. And when you do your homework, I can assure you're going to walk out happy. That's just, just, just what happens.
35:44 Speaker 03 Good stuff. We're going to take our final break of the day. We come back, lots more to talk about. We're Money Wise. Don't go anywhere.
35:48 Speaker 00 If you're a business owner who provides a retirement plan for your employees, contact Money Wise Wealth Management to see if you're maximizing your options and minimizing your liabilities. Money Wise 401k plans are customized to you and your company's needs. 661-847-1000.
36:13 Speaker 03 Thanks for tuning in. We're the Money Wise Show. We're your hosts today. I'm Sherid Wait. Here with Sammy Abiawi. Sam, I got a question for you. What do all of these brands have in common? So I'm going to name off a few of these brands. Band-Aids, Johnson Baby Line, Neutrogena, Aveeno, Listerine, Tylenol, Zyrtec. Any idea? You gotta unmute yourself. Any idea what all of these brands have in common?
36:46 Speaker 04 Owned by Johnsons and Johnsons?
36:48 Speaker 03 Yes, close, close enough. I'll give you the prize. Johnson & Johnson actually spun off a division of its consumer health products. This was just two or three years ago, and they created a new company called Kenview, K E N V U E. And these consumer products, the ones that I just mentioned, basically formed this new company. These are brands that have deep roots in American culture. I mean, there's like, every household has a few of these. Band-Aids, you know, lotion, baby powder.
37:28 Speaker 04 Listerine.
37:29 Speaker 03 Tylenol, like, all of these things. I don't know if you saw it today, but there's been, there's been an uptick in mergers and acquisitions on the, on the public level. And today, it was announced that Kimberly Clark is buying out, or going to attempt to buy out, Kenview, which used to be part of this Johnson & Johnson company. Now, Kimberly Clark is another company that a lot of people are going to recognize, because they own brands like Kleenex, Scott brand, paper towels and toilet paper, Continental toilet paper, the Huggies diaper brand, pull-ups, and then Kotex wipes and cleaning products, like Kim
38:08 Speaker 03 wipes. They also own, you know, the, a huge market of toilet paper dispensers for businesses, like professional.
38:19 Speaker 03 Dispensing products like we have here in this building, that's Kimberly-Clark. So this deal that was announced today is a nearly $49 billion mega deal. What's fascinating about this is that Tylenol has been in the news lately because of the White House's fraudulent, unfounded claims about linking autism to Tylenol. You know, this is, this is something that obviously is a nightmare PR situation for a company that, you know, that, that sells these products. But again, I think, you know, at the end of the day, Wall Street has some pretty smart people.
39:01 Speaker 03 I think they, they recognize that the facts are going to prevail in the, in the, the claims of Tylenol being linked to, to autism. And they're, they're happy going forward with this, with this merger. This is, you know, they were so much so that Kimberly-Clark was willing to pay a premium. When they have these big deals like this and, you know, you have one publicly traded company buying out another publicly traded company, they have to set a price on what they're going to buy their shares at. And then they just kind of cross their fingers in hopes that things work out. It turns out that this is a good example of where a product was great. This is good for the, for the Kenview, the company that's selling Tylenol and these other products.
39:46 Speaker 03 But their share price from Clark's side went down. So it's a, it's a case where you have shareholders being much more happy about the, the, the, the purchasing company, the company that's being purchased rather than the purchasing company itself. It's, it, you know, more consolidation in the, in, in American manufacturing and products. You know, pretty soon we're just going to, feels like we're just going to have one or two companies that make everything that we, everything that we use.
40:15 Speaker 04 Yeah. Johnson & Johnson was one of the first companies I applied to after I finished college.
40:20 Speaker 03 Oh, yeah?
40:21 Speaker 04 Yeah, because they have operations all, all around the world.
40:26 Speaker 04 And and they have operations in Africa, Latin America, Asia, Europe, and getting an MBA where when you get an MBA, the dream is to work for an international company and showcase whatever you learned in school.
40:41 Speaker 03 Ah, yeah.
40:43 Speaker 04 But then banking came came calling and I became a sexy banker.
40:48 Speaker 03 You never looked back.
40:50 Speaker 04 Never looked back. Hey, I was I was gonna ask you, I don't know if you you read this, but I think Stephen put it out there for us. Is the thousand dollar coffee in Dubai?
41:01 Speaker 03 Oh, yeah. What is that? What's the deal with that?
41:04 Speaker 04 It's it's Julius Coffee is a shop in Dubai, and they're selling the cup of coffee for nine hundred eighty dollars, the equivalent of three thousand six hundred Emirati D N R.
41:19 Speaker 04 Nine hundred eighty dollars a cup, shared. This is some very, very rare coffee grown in Panama, I believe. Uh, they paid six hundred thousand dollars for two hundred kilograms of beans. And and now they're selling the the cups for nine hundred eighty dollars. Can you imagine somebody paying a thousand dollars for a cup of coffee?
41:40 Speaker 03 That's insane.
41:40 Speaker 04 I mean, that doesn't surprise me. Stephen also talked to me about a toilet made of hundred percent gold. So I guess if you want to drink this cup of coffee, you should you should be owning one of those hundred percent gold.
41:53 Speaker 03 Toilets.
41:54 Speaker 04 Yes.
41:56 Speaker 03 Yeah.
41:56 Speaker 04 They go hand in hand.
41:58 Speaker 03 Yeah.
41:58 Speaker 04 No pun intended there.
41:59 Speaker 03 Literally flushing your money down the toilet.
42:02 Speaker 04 Literally. Nine hundred eighty dollars a cup of coffee in Dubai. Extravagant, for sure. I think that's what Dubai is known for. It was just very interesting for me that, I mean, what's what type of business model? They have not heard of Reverb. Definitely have not heard of Reverb, these people.
42:16 Speaker 03 That's right. Yeah, try out Reverb is definitely less than a.
42:20 Speaker 04 A lot less than that.
42:21 Speaker 03 Less than that.
42:22 Speaker 04 Very good cup of joe.
42:23 Speaker 03 There is, yeah, there is a global problem with with coffee. The there were some droughts and irregular weather in Brazil, which Brazil provides about forty percent of the world's coffee supply. So when you have a disruption like a drought and bad weather, now you see this impact which kind of trickles down across the world in terms of how much coffee is costing everybody. But that's ridiculous. I mean.
42:55 Speaker 03 I don't know. I don't know. It seems you just have to have stupid money to be able to
43:00 Speaker 04 Very, very stupid money.
43:01 Speaker 03 Buy something like that, which I guess they have in Dubai.
43:05 Speaker 04 Yeah, I have. I've never been to Dubai. I want to go see, just like pass by this coffee shop. Just took a sniff. Maybe it's free.
43:14 Speaker 03 Yeah.
43:15 Speaker 04 I'm stealing. I'm stealing that sniff, you know?
43:18 Speaker 03 Just the smell. Just the smell of it is worth the money.
43:21 Speaker 04 Yeah. Now, I've been to really nice coffee shops in Europe, in Morocco, but not nothing. Like the Basha, Basha Coffee in Morocco, a hundred plus year old establishment. And you can still get a $6 cup of coffee.
43:34 Speaker 03 That's what I'm talking about.
43:35 Speaker 04 With a dressed up server and all traditions and all that. Nothing extravagant like this.
43:42 Speaker 03 How about that Moroccan tea, though? That's another, that's another thing that's.
43:46 Speaker 04 Oh, that's extravagant as well, but I get to get to make that at home for free.
43:53 Speaker 03 Well, I want to thank all our listeners for tuning in to today's show. If you missed this or any of our previous shows, you can find us commercial free on all major podcast platforms like iTunes, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. So go check us out. You can find us at moneywiseguys.com. There you can find out more about what we do and who we are, as well as past episodes. Of course, we'll be back tomorrow with our guests and topics. Keep our, keep the questions coming our way and remember these three things. Be smart, be safe, and always be money.
44:28 Speaker 04 Be money wise.
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