1/15/25 Paying Off Credit Card Debt & Supporting Local Causes: Jennifer Henry of Links for Life

The Moneywise Radio Show and Podcast Wednesday, January 15th 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: Jennifer Henry, Executive Director at Links for Life website: https://linksforlife.org/

• 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 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.

• 0:40Speaker 00

  Now, let's start the Money Wise Show.

• 0:43Speaker 03

  Welcome to the Money Wise Show. We are live from the Garret Ellis padded radio room off Stockdale Highway 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, Sharad Waite and...

• 1:03Speaker 04

  Latroy Dinkins.

• 1:04Speaker 03

  Latroy, what's up?

• 1:05Speaker 04

  What's going on, man? I like the Garret Ellis padded radio room. It makes it sound like a tradition, like a, you know how they name football fields after coaches and stuff, like legendary.

• 1:15Speaker 03

  That's what it is. I mean, Garret is legend. He's the one that named this room. He's the one that brought up, wasn't it, right? There was a few years ago, we were on the show, and he was doing an intro, I think, and he kind of stumbled over his words, and he says, "Welcome to the padded..." Called it a "radio room." Padded radio room. A padded radio room, rather than a studio.

• 1:35Speaker 04

  Nice. I love it, too. I love that.

• 1:37Speaker 03

  Oh, we love, we love Garret. We talked about Garret a little bit yesterday. Welcome to the show, Latroy.

• 1:40Speaker 04

  Man, what's going on? It's been, it's been a minute.

• 1:42Speaker 03

  I know. I hate that we don't get to be on the show more often.

• 1:46Speaker 00

  Every other Wednesday.

• 1:47Speaker 04

  Yeah, every other Wednesday.

• 1:48Speaker 03

  Yeah, I think last Wednesday, though, I think you were out.

• 1:51Speaker 04

  No, I was here. I think I'm on every other Friday, every other Wednesday.

• 1:55Speaker 03

  It's every other Wednesday. Oh, yeah, that's it.

• 1:58Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's the rotation.

• 1:59Speaker 03

  Well, maybe we need...

• 2:00Speaker 00

  So, it's been two minutes, actually.

• 2:04Speaker 03

  We had so many great callers, or I guess they're messengers now, yesterday, listeners that sent us some messages.

• 2:11Speaker 04

  Some big questions.

• 2:12Speaker 03

  Yeah, big questions. I want to get right to these questions before we have our guest coming up. And the first question comes from a long time listener, DJ Michael Anthony, longtime listener and friend of the show, DJ Michael Anthony. He says, "Hi, Money Wise Guys, how's it been? This is Michael Anthony. Question, I know every three or four weeks our deficit just goes up $22 billion, and I know right now the United States is almost in debt $36.5 trillion. My question is, what happens to all the tax money that the government is receiving? It almost feels like we're not receiving any money. We're only paying out.

• 2:54Speaker 03

  Can you please clear what's going on to us listeners? And how much money does the United States government collect in taxes versus how much we owe? And why do we owe so much?" So, Latroy, can you answer this in one sentence or less?

• 3:10Speaker 04

  Right?

• 3:11Speaker 03

  It's a big question.

• 3:13Speaker 04

  Y'all should have saw my eyes almost pop out of my head. But I guarantee you that the taxes versus how much we owe is miniscule.

• 3:22Speaker 03

  It's miniscule, because what Michael has pointed out, it's not 36, well, I guess it's close to 36 trillion. We're about $33 trillion in national debt. That's a lot of money, because our annual budget for, at least the annual amount of money that we receive is about $5 trillion a year. From taxes. So, most of that is from individual tax returns, which is why Michael's probably asking this question. I'm spending this money, I'm giving the government my money, why does it feel like I'm just giving them money? And where is it all going?

• 4:04Speaker 03

  And so, the problem lies in the difference between a budget deficit and then our...

• 4:12Speaker 03

  Our debt because they're they're kind of two different things.

• 4:15Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 4:16Speaker 03

  The budget deficit is what's causing our debt because every year we're spending more money than we take in. That's the deficit. So we bring in, let's say, five trillion dollars, which is the estimate amount of money that we are expected to bring in as a country from taxes, a total revenue.

• 4:31Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 4:31Speaker 03

  In 2024, but our budgets continue to just go up and high, higher and higher. Our budget for 2024 is about 6.3 trillion. So, you know, about one and a half trillion dollars was budgeted into last year of money that our government didn't even have.

• 4:50Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 4:50Speaker 03

  That's a lot of money. One and a half trillion is a lot of money.

• 4:56Speaker 04

  Is some of that tax money, this me playing devil's advocate?

• 4:58Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah.

• 4:59Speaker 04

  Because this might be something that one of the listeners will ask, is that tax money going to these higher up officials?

• 5:04Speaker 03

  Yeah, well, I know they don't get paid that much.

• 5:07Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 5:08Speaker 03

  You're talking about politicians.

• 5:09Speaker 04

  Politicians.

• 5:09Speaker 03

  You know, where they're they're making money. What does the president make? It's like 300 grand?

• 5:14Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 5:14Speaker 03

  You know, I mean, it's a lot of money, but for somebody who's basically the one of the most powerful people in the world, that's not where they're making their money. They're making their money in speaking engagements, books.

• 5:23Speaker 04

  Exactly.

• 5:24Speaker 03

  And unfortunately, a lot of politicians are making money in the stock market.

• 5:29Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 5:29Speaker 03

  Because they have insider information and they're not held to the same standard that you and I are held to. It's insane. Like you, it's just, it's insane that our government officials can essentially pass laws that affect industries and then they can invest in that industry or not based off what they know they're how they're going to vote. That's stupid.

• 5:48Speaker 04

  Well, I'm glad you answered that because I get a lot of times, I always almost categorize it as like conspiracy theorists. You get people who say like, oh, our tax money is going to these higher up officials, politicians and things of that nature. But the truth of the matter is, like you just said, like, you know, presidents only make what 300,000, you know, and.

• 6:06Speaker 03

  And senators and all that. I mean, they make, they're making good money, but they're not making a ton of money like that. They're they're getting power. I think that's where where what's happening. Hey, we're voting them in though. And we're voting in our politicians that consistently year after year vote in a budget that is higher than what. revenues that we receive it's tricky though because part of the problem part of the reason why the government is in deficit spending which is that the term we use for spending more money than you actually

• 6:33Speaker 04

  probably because California and I was just playing

• 6:35Speaker 03

  California helps and we're the best we're the best in the country by far the most economic powerhouse in the country but the problem is we have already committed to spend a vast majority of the revenues that the federal government receives because we have things like Medicare and social security and Medicaid and other mandatory programs that make up over about 60% of all spending almost 70% is mandatory spending that means it's stuff we've already committed to to pay

• 7:09Speaker 04

  so we're cutting checks that we can't cash

• 7:11Speaker 03

  we're no we can always cash them there that's the that's the problem the government can print money

• 7:17Speaker 04

  yeah

• 7:17Speaker 03

  so they're never going to run out of money even they can just run deficits without any consequences until there would be consequences nobody knows when that point would be so have you heard of the Buffett rule I can't remember what he calls it's the Buffett rule but essentially Warren Buffett has over the years touted his most important metric that he believes to keep track of whether the market is overpriced or underpriced have you heard this

• 7:46Speaker 04

  this probably has something to do with value

• 7:49Speaker 03

  absolutely it does what he does is you take all the value of all publicly traded companies

• 7:54Speaker 04

  yeah

• 7:54Speaker 03

  like the Wilshire 5000

• 7:55Speaker 04

  yeah

• 7:56Speaker 03

  and you you add up with the value the market capitalization so basically all of the publicly traded companies what's their value

• 8:02Speaker 04

  have you seen the nominal value of

• 8:04Speaker 03

  yeah

• 8:04Speaker 04

  all those businesses

• 8:05Speaker 03

  yeah

• 8:05Speaker 04

  and compare it to what's it's actually value

• 8:07Speaker 03

  and then you compare it to the GDP

• 8:09Speaker 04

  oh wow

• 8:10Speaker 03

  then you compare it to GDP and when you have the GDP which our GDP is right around 30 trillion United States GDP but if you look at the market capitalization

• 8:21Speaker 04

  versus the GDP

• 8:22Speaker 03

  versus GDP it's higher

• 8:23Speaker 04

  yeah

• 8:24Speaker 03

  it's higher which is not good that means I mean think about this logically how can the how can companies how can how how can all the companies Be worth more than what

• 8:34Speaker 04

  We producing.

• 8:35Speaker 03

  What we're producing, right? So that means we're overvalued potentially or we're overheated. And the mark, the, the, the touch point there is a hundred percent. When you have a, when you're over a hundred percent of your, of your, uh, the, the market value is over the GDP, then you've got an over, you've got a hot market, which is why we, where we're in now.

• 8:56Speaker 04

  Yeah, that's a lot of people are saying because I'm sure you heard this because the market has been uh, positive two years in a row, up 20% that they felt like we're going to have some sort of pullback. Like some, some, some correction, some crash, which corrections happen all the time. Corrections almost, they happen during a great year too. You know, we have corrections in a great year. We saw a big correction during COVID.

• 9:17Speaker 03

  That's right.

• 9:18Speaker 04

  Uh, 22 was unprecedented, but you know, we also had a little correction, uh, in 23.

• 9:23Speaker 03

  That's right.

• 9:23Speaker 04

  Produced, uh, some good results.

• 9:25Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 9:25Speaker 04

  So these corrections happen, but it's just all, you know, it's, it's the timing of the market, not, not us being investors trying to time the market, but you know, the market has some natural reactions. They pull back and, uh, yeah.

• 9:38Speaker 03

  So 70% of our spending is already mandatory spending. And then you look at the discretionary spending or, uh, yeah, discretionary spending, which makes up the, the remaining 30%, half of that is defense.

• 9:52Speaker 04

  And we need that.

• 9:53Speaker 03

  We do need it.

• 9:54Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 9:54Speaker 03

  I think, you know, to a certain extent, we need to have some defense. And then that leaves the, the remaining 15% for non-defense discretionary. But these sound discretionary, but you tell me what would happen if we got rid of our education, transportation, housing, all of those departments and authorities that are there. Uh, we, we would, we would have some chaos involved because they're heavily involved in funding schools.

• 10:18Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 10:19Speaker 03

  Universities, research programs, transportation projects, infrastructure projects. We, they're, they're, they're, they help grow the economy.

• 10:26Speaker 04

  Yeah, exactly. And I, I think, you know, just, there's a lot of speculations that, you know, I don't want to get too political, but. That's, Trump is going about it like, looking at it like a business, like, I just want to slap, you know, some businesses like private equity, it'll cut heads and pump up the revenues and pump up the profits. It's almost like the same thing with the education system. It's like, okay, let's, you know, do, do this, erode this, and, and maybe we get more back.

• 10:51Speaker 03

  Maybe like, like burn it down, rebuild it, and let's see if we have something better. You know, and I'll, I mean, I don't want to get too political too, but that we can't keep going down this road of deficit spending because ultimately, we will have a problem if we, if our debt just continues to grow. Here's the other problem, we're paying interest on all that debt. You and I, as American citizens, are paying interest on that debt, and that may, it's coming up on close to 10% of our budget is just net interest on debt. And this is because most of the debt that we, this is really ballooned over the last 10 years, when interest rates were almost nothing. Wait till interest rates pick up, and we're gonna, we could see a huge percentage of our budget, much more than the 8 to 10% that we're currently

• 11:33Speaker 03

  paying, go towards just interest. Well, that doesn't, that's our kids are paying that.

• 11:37Speaker 04

  That really shoes, that's a self-inflicted wound.

• 11:39Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's, it's, it's a, it's a really frustrating area, but hopefully that helps clarify a little bit for you where we're at. This has been a big discussion, the presidential debates, now it's a big discussion of the new president, um, um, um, that's coming, President Trump that's coming in. He's made it a focus.

• 11:57Speaker 04

  Gets in office there next week, right?

• 11:59Speaker 03

  Yeah, I think tonight is when Biden gives his farewell speech, or tomorrow night. So, yeah, it's happening. Yeah, next week.

• 12:07Speaker 04

  Uh, yeah, some stuff coming down the pipeline, man.

• 12:10Speaker 03

  Great question. Thank you, Michael Anthony, for that. We really appreciate it. Uh, let's go to our next question. Says, hello, Money Wise. Thank you for reading my text. I live in Wisconsin, and I recently enjoyed, let's see, I really enjoy listening to your podcast. I learned so much about Bakersfield's generosity. When listening to yesterday's episode, I enjoyed your endorsement of legit nonprofits like American Red Cross and United Way. I want to share something that I am sure you're aware of regarding donations that are tax deductible. My tax consultant does not allow GoFundMe contributions eligible for any itemized tax deductions.

• 12:49Speaker 04

  Smart tax consultant.

• 12:50Speaker 03

  Yeah, right. Therefore, since I, since, uh, since someone who I know is filing for their income tax returns with itemized deductions, I do not use GoFundMe for my large donations. I use GoFundMe for local family and friends who I know personally. Again, thank you for sharing great content about the Biggsville community, businesses and charities, praying for the firefighters and victims in your beautiful area of California. Sincerely, California Dreamin' in Wisconsin.

• 13:17Speaker 04

  She said California, or he, she said California Dreamin', that's, hey.

• 13:20Speaker 03

  That's cool, right?

• 13:21Speaker 04

  That's cool. You, I'm a fan of that movie. I watch it all the time because I was right, me and my wife love to go to that Pismo beach right there where they shot the movie.

• 13:27Speaker 03

  Nice, California Dreamin'. That's awesome. It was cool. We have fans in Wisconsin. Also a beautiful state.

• 13:34Speaker 04

  Yes. Cheeseheads.

• 13:36Speaker 03

  Cheeseheads, that's right. Wisconsin is, is amazing. So, yeah, thank you for that, listener. And this is really interesting and good for our listeners to know. It can be easy to think that you're contributing to GoFundMe, you think it's a charity, or you think it's a fundraiser. That doesn't necessarily make it tax deductible. Why, Latroy?

• 13:56Speaker 04

  Uh, well, because, I mean, it's, it's looked at as, um, like you're making a contribution to like an individual.

• 14:04Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's almost like, it's just you're doing a gift if you're just.

• 14:06Speaker 04

  Yeah. Now, if it's a 501(c)(3), that's a whole different, that's actually a qualified charitable contribution if you, you know, donating money to a 501(c)(3). But anytime, you know, GoFundMe campaigns typically benefit individuals and lack the structural oversight of like a registered charity, like American Red Cross that you brought up and all kinds of other institutions.

• 14:27Speaker 03

  That's the key there. If you're going to make a donation through GoFundMe, it doesn't mean that it's not tax deductible, but does not guaranteed to be tax deductible. So you want to make sure that the donations that you do make through GoFundMe, if you want a tax deduction, they have to be a charity of 501(c)(3) or a legitimate. Charity where you can then receive or be eligible for that charitable tax deduction. The problem, though, comes to Latroy is the change in the tax code that took place a few years ago made the increase in the standard deduction, which eliminated a lot of people's ability to get a tax deduction, itemize a tax deduction for a charitable contribution.

• 15:11Speaker 03

  But if you're in that point where you have enough itemization, you can go above and beyond whatever your standard deduction is, then it's good to make sure that you get all that benefit, that tax benefit for making that charitable contribution.

• 15:29Speaker 04

  Man, these questions are hot, man.

• 15:30Speaker 03

  Super hot. I mean, this is awesome. We've got another question here, but we're going to first take a break and then when we come back, going to answer this question about medical bills and debt credit scores. Plus, we're going to have a guest coming up from Links for Life, another charity, a true 501(c)(3) charity, a local one that focuses on breast cancer awareness here in Kern County, or Money Wise. We're going to take a quick break.

• 15:53Speaker 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 401(k) plans are customized to you and your company's needs. 661-847-1000. That's 661-847-1000.

• 16:20Speaker 03

  Welcome back to the Money Wise Show. I'm Sherrod Waite here with Latroy Deakins, taking your calls, questions, comments, messages, 661-396-1000. All right, Latroy, here's another message here from a listener. It says, can you break down the new CFPB rule regarding medical debt on credit scores and how it will work if or when and will it help reprieve some of us that have medical debt impacting credit now?

• 16:43Speaker 04

  Hey, those acronyms just, you know, I'm such a football junkie. I've seen college football playoffs. Oh, yeah. I tell over here wagon, like, oh.

• 16:52Speaker 03

  College football playoff, CFPB. Yeah, that's right. So the CFPB is an organization that was set up. It's the consumer finance.

• 17:04Speaker 03

  Protection.

• 17:05Speaker 04

  Bureau.

• 17:06Speaker 03

  Really messing it up. bureaus in there. There's a few different words in there. But essentially, what it is, is the the, it's the government's ability, it's the government program that was set up to monitor retail finance and banking and, you know,

• 17:29Speaker 03

  what's kind of the rules that are set up around

• 17:34Speaker 03

  mortgages, car loans, credits, things like that. That's the CFPB, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

• 17:43Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 17:43Speaker 03

  And they finalized a rule that prohibits credit reporting agencies from including medical debt

• 17:50Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 17:50Speaker 03

  in credit reports. It also bars lenders from considering medical information when evaluating borrowers. And this is, this change is pretty dramatic. It's expected to remove about almost $50 billion in medical bills from credit reports of about 15 million Americans.

• 18:09Speaker 04

  That's very, that's very impactful because just having, I don't care if it's $15 of debt, $10, if it shows up and it just sits there, what, what gets you at like, a good credit score is having a clean, a clean credit history. And if anything's showing up like, you know, like a medical bill, it damages the credit score.

• 18:28Speaker 03

  That's right. Which is ridiculous because medical debt, like, medical, a medical emergency does not see money, it doesn't see race, religion, nationality. It, it, like, in many cases, there's really not a whole lot you could do about it. It's genetic. You have these emergencies that come up. It just seems awfully unfair.

• 18:49Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 18:50Speaker 03

  For

• 18:51Speaker 04

  Because it's, it's kind of like discriminatory. If one person is super sick, got like some sort of like lupus or some sort of autoimmune disease and another person's healthy.

• 18:59Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 19:00Speaker 04

  Then their credit score is going to be governed by a whole bunch of medical bills because there's a lot, a lot of medical emergencies and emergency room visits that you have to do and, and that shows upon your credit score. That's, you know, yeah, I'm glad they, I'm glad they changed this rule.

• 19:13Speaker 03

  Yeah, for individuals that are currently burdened by medical debt affecting their credit scores, this rule offers a significant relief. It takes a little bit of time for it to be implemented. There's a 60-day rule for it to take effect, which we're in right now. We are expected for that to end in March, or coming up in March. We're not quite in that 60-day period. We're getting very close. But soon it will be fully implemented. And individuals that are burdened by medical debt and has this maybe has affected their credit score, the CFPB is estimating that removing the debt from credit scores could boost credit scores by an average of 20 points.

• 19:54Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 19:55Speaker 03

  I'm surprised. That seems kind of low, doesn't it, Latroy? Like, in your experience in like credit, you know, seeing credit scores go up and down?

• 20:02Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 20:03Speaker 03

  I don't know.

• 20:04Speaker 04

  They fluctuate around that amount?

• 20:05Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 20:06Speaker 04

  But, yeah, for something to be completely wiped off your credit report, you're right, that's kind of low for it just to go up 20 points.

• 20:12Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 20:13Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 20:14Speaker 03

  I mean, we're looking at averages, so the laws of averages can

• 20:18Speaker 04

  Kind of skew it a little bit.

• 20:19Speaker 03

  Skew it, yeah, for sure. And so, there you go. Great, great question. You know, there's a headline in today's news about the FTC suing John Deere, an American landmark. John Deere is a

• 20:36Speaker 04

  I used to have a John Deere.

• 20:37Speaker 03

  Did you?

• 20:38Speaker 04

  Lawnmower, yeah.

• 20:39Speaker 03

  Oh, a lawnmower? No, I thought you had a tractor. I was like, well, you farmer. Government suing John Deere, and they're suing John Deere because they're saying they were not allowing farmers to make their own repairs. Essentially, John Deere was requiring the dealership to make the requires and not allowing others or outside third parties to make those.

• 21:00Speaker 04

  So let me guess, they probably put some sort of mechanism in them where the just normal person don't have the tools to fix whatever it is.

• 21:08Speaker 03

  Something like that, yeah.

• 21:09Speaker 04

  You know, cars do that too, right?

• 21:11Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 21:12Speaker 04

  I had a Buick, I had a Buick Lacrosse that, you know, I was like, how the hell, what kind of spaceship tool is this? Like, yeah.

• 21:18Speaker 03

  Always a dealership had it?

• 21:21Speaker 04

  Yeah, I'm like, this is

• 21:22Speaker 03

  That's crazy. You were doing your own repair or trying to?

• 21:25Speaker 04

  Trying to.

• 21:26Speaker 03

  This is part of a movement, the right to repair movement that has been going on for a while. I'm a big fan, big fan of this and a lot of it comes down to the argument about cell phones. It used to be that you could, or computers, your laptops, you know, you had, there's an advantage to the person being able to repair it themselves or take it to a cheaper, you know, third-party vendor than, than, you know, the manufacturer.

• 21:49Speaker 04

  Apple won't take it back if they find out that you went to a third-party to get your phone repaired. Guess what? If you tried to trade in that phone.

• 21:56Speaker 03

  Is that still the case?

• 21:57Speaker 04

  That is still the case because it just happened to my wife.

• 21:59Speaker 03

  Just recently?

• 22:00Speaker 04

  Recently.

• 22:00Speaker 03

  Because that is something that is in contention and part of this right to repair rules and laws that are, that are coming about. I mean, the government's trying to crack down on John Deere and saying, you can't do that because now you're making money off of selling the tractor. Now you're going to make money off of repairing it.

• 22:15Speaker 04

  It's almost kind of like a Fractal Monopoly or whatever.

• 22:18Speaker 03

  It's a racket.

• 22:19Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 22:19Speaker 03

  It's a racket. Yeah, that's exactly what it is. Uh, okay, college football playoffs now, Latroy, or at least, uh, your Rams.

• 22:27Speaker 04

  It's a national championship game against Notre Dame.

• 22:30Speaker 03

  Coming up on.

• 22:30Speaker 04

  And Ohio State. And I gotta give, I hate to do, but I gotta give Mr. Leland a shout out because he was on the show. What'd he say, uh, Steven? He said that Notre Dame was gonna, uh, get to that level. Yeah, but they haven't won it.

• 22:41Speaker 03

  Justin called this?

• 22:41Speaker 04

  He called it, yeah.

• 22:42Speaker 03

  Well, how long ago? It wasn't like last week?

• 22:44Speaker 04

  This was right at the beginning of the college football playoffs.

• 22:46Speaker 03

  Dang. Well, good for him.

• 22:48Speaker 04

  Yep, and then we got the, uh, lucky.

• 22:52Speaker 00

  How about them Packers though, huh?

• 22:54Speaker 04

  Hey, hey, they lost to some Eagles, right?

• 22:58Speaker 00

  I was just gonna start the show with, congratulations, you know, the Rams.

• 23:03Speaker 04

  That's right. Where my cake at?

• 23:04Speaker 00

  Were hitting this all season, but they are getting hot at the right time, so.

• 23:08Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 23:09Speaker 00

  I only know, uh, one, maybe two Rams fans in my, in my whole life, so Latroy's one of the biggest ones.

• 23:15Speaker 04

  And we got a new Philadelphia Eagles fan in here too, and that's Desi Claffey.

• 23:20Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah?

• 23:20Speaker 04

  Yeah, she's an Eagles fan.

• 23:22Speaker 03

  Why is she an Eagles fan?

• 23:23Speaker 04

  Her husband, yep.

• 23:24Speaker 03

  Oh, he's an Eagles fan?

• 23:26Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 23:26Speaker 00

  I are too.

• 23:27Speaker 03

  Oh, that's cool. That's cool. Did you tell her about the tickets?

• 23:30Speaker 04

  Oh, you know, I didn't. I didn't. I did not tell her.

• 23:33Speaker 03

  See if they want to take a quick trip?

• 23:34Speaker 04

  I know. I will. I will.

• 23:35Speaker 03

  Seriously?

• 23:36Speaker 04

  Seriously, yeah.

• 23:37Speaker 03

  How fun would that be?

• 23:37Speaker 04

  It will be fun, yeah.

• 23:39Speaker 03

  Well, congratulations, yeah, to your Rams.

• 23:41Speaker 04

  Yeah. Amen to that.

• 23:42Speaker 03

  It's, it's, when are the, when is the championship? Is it Saturday or Sunday?

• 23:46Speaker 04

  Well, we got the semi, the finals is, uh, is Sunday. And then we got, um, on the opposite side of the grid, you got the Chiefs and the Houston Texans. And Mahomes, Magic Mahomes in the postseason, you know, he's about to do his thing. I know Steven don't like to hear that, but.

• 24:01Speaker 00

  Anybody but the Bills. I'll, I'll take it though.

• 24:03Speaker 04

  I, I want Lamar to beat the Bills next week. I really do. I really do. So I'm excited about these games. And it's gonna be played in the Arctic weather, cold weather, you know? It gives the other team the advantage, almost.

• 24:16Speaker 03

  You know, the Bills have a quarterback who is from the San Joaquin Valley. Fireball. He's from Fireball, isn't, isn't, um?

• 24:24Speaker 04

  I thought he was from Wyoming.

• 24:26Speaker 00

  That's where he went to college. I think he's from California.

• 24:29Speaker 03

  He's from California. He's from Fireball. Like, right up, right up, right up the road, up, right up the 99, Central Valley.

• 24:34Speaker 04

  Oh, wow.

• 24:35Speaker 03

  Uh, I don't know. He went to school at Wyoming.

• 24:37Speaker 04

  Yeah, he went to Wyoming.

• 24:38Speaker 03

  Which is why Gero's a huge fan of Josh Allen.

• 24:42Speaker 00

  Yeah, he went to Reedley High School.

• 24:43Speaker 03

  Reedley, Reedley.

• 24:44Speaker 00

  Oh.

• 24:45Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 24:45Speaker 04

  Okay, that's up north.

• 24:46Speaker 03

  Yeah, up north. But you still want him to lose?

• 24:49Speaker 04

  I still do. It don't change my mind.

• 24:51Speaker 00

  Oh, yes.

• 24:52Speaker 03

  That doesn't matter.

• 24:53Speaker 00

  I love Detroit.

• 24:53Speaker 04

  Uh, you know, I gotta support my guy over here, you know, even though the Dolphins beat us in the regular season. We was hurt, though. We had a lot of players hurt.

• 25:00Speaker 00

  Yeah, we're all hurt.

• 25:02Speaker 04

  Started out there.

• 25:02Speaker 00

  We're all hurt.

• 25:03Speaker 04

  We all celebrated as a, as a firm.

• 25:04Speaker 00

  But I will. I will root on the Rams.

• 25:07Speaker 04

  I appreciate that.

• 25:08Speaker 03

  I will root on the Rams too.

• 25:09Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 25:10Speaker 03

  Yeah. I do find that, you know, I like sports. I don't have like a specific team or players that I fall, follow or anything. But if I have friends who are really passionate about it, then I'm, I get, I get excited. Like, I'll watch the Dolphins games and the Rams.

• 25:23Speaker 00

  When is the college championship, though?

• 25:25Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's what I was wondering. I don't think it can't be Sunday because it's NFL.

• 25:27Speaker 04

  It's on Monday. And here's the thing. Here's my complaint to, I hope you guys are listening to this. Why are they doing the games at 4:30?

• 25:35Speaker 03

  Why is wrong with that?

• 25:36Speaker 04

  Like, it should be 5:30.

• 25:38Speaker 03

  Oh.

• 25:38Speaker 04

  Everybody's still at work. People still at work. People get off.

• 25:40Speaker 03

  Not on the East Coast?

• 25:42Speaker 00

  It's a holiday on Monday.

• 25:43Speaker 04

  Is it? Oh. Well, no, but even the playoff games were at 4:30.

• 25:46Speaker 00

  Yeah, I didn't like that either.

• 25:46Speaker 04

  I didn't like that.

• 25:47Speaker 00

  One of them bumped our show, too. I was like, 1:30? Why is the playoff game at 1:30?

• 25:51Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's crazy.

• 25:52Speaker 03

  That is crazy.

• 25:53Speaker 04

  They need to change that format.

• 25:54Speaker 03

  They need to change that format.

• 25:55Speaker 00

  It would help out with that NIL money.

• 25:57Speaker 03

  We get spoiled in the West Coast because sometimes the games are like, start at 7 or 8, which means they don't end until midnight or 1.

• 26:04Speaker 00

  Yeah, there was a buddy in New York that was saying, "I hate, I hate California, man."

• 26:08Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 26:08Speaker 00

  "We get games start at 8, 8:30."

• 26:11Speaker 03

  Uh huh.

• 26:11Speaker 00

  I'm like, "Hey."

• 26:12Speaker 03

  I'd rather have games start at 4 than start at 8.

• 26:15Speaker 04

  Yeah, on the West Coast. I mean, East Coast, right?

• 26:17Speaker 03

  East Coast. Yeah, that's, that's terrible. All right, we're gonna take a break and then come back to our guest, Jennifer Henry. She is the Executive Director for Links for Life. Speaking of great local charities, this is a, just a landmark legend of a nonprofit, do a lot of great work here in Bakersfield, in the area. So we're gonna join Jennifer Henry right after this break. Don't go anywhere.

• 26:39Speaker 00

  After your finances, seize the day. Call the Money Wise office at 661-847-1000, or email [email protected] for more information.

• 26:58Speaker 03

  Welcome to the Money Wise Show. Appreciate you tuning in. We're gonna join our guest right now, Jennifer Henry. She's the Executive Director for Links for Life, and, uh, and is here in the studio with us. Good afternoon, Jennifer.

• 27:13Speaker 05

  Good afternoon. Thank you for having me.

• 27:15Speaker 03

  Thanks for being here. You know, I was preparing for the show and, and looking into Links for Life. Uh, I'm sad to say, somebody who's born and raised here in Bakersfield, I thought Links for Life was a national or international organization. This is a good old fashioned, local nonprofit.

• 27:32Speaker 05

  Absolutely. Yeah, pull up your bootstraps and get to work, and that's what 100 women, professional women, wanted to do.

• 27:38Speaker 03

  Unbelievable. Started here in Bakersfield in 2005. Uh, Founder Sharon Woods was the previous Executive Director. You have, you then stepped in a few years after that. Last 19, almost 20 years, has been acting as the Executive Director for Links for Life.

• 27:56Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 27:56Speaker 03

  So what is Links for Life? And, and, um, please tell me it has to do with hot dogs.

• 28:02Speaker 05

  Um, let me think. No.

• 28:04Speaker 03

  Damn.

• 28:05Speaker 05

  No.

• 28:05Speaker 03

  Steven, our producer's a big fan of hot dogs. Another theme of the show is Costco hot dogs.

• 28:11Speaker 05

  Yeah, no, thank you.

• 28:14Speaker 03

  Hot dogs aren't the link for life. There's another link for life.

• 28:18Speaker 05

  Yeah, we started, as you said, 32 years ago by 10 businesswomen who wanted to give back. They were actually golfers, Lynx Golf Course. So we started with our golf tournament. And so we help breast cancer survivors. We help women to become diagnosed with breast cancer. We help with screenings. We pay for mammograms, ultrasounds, and needle biopsies for women who are underinsured or not insured. We've actually just recently partnered with Wonderful and a lot of other local funders. And we're bringing in mobile mammography units to the outlining areas. It's a 3D mobile unit.

• 28:54Speaker 03

  And they can do it on the job site?

• 28:55Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 28:56Speaker 03

  They can get their mammograms right on the job site? That's amazing.

• 28:58Speaker 05

  Yes. They don't take insurance, so we actually have to pay. So every time we bring the mobile unit in, it costs us between 65 or 85 to $10,000 for staffing and bringing the mobile unit up from LA.

• 29:11Speaker 03

  Wow. And what kind of, how many people can get?

• 29:15Speaker 05

  30.

• 29:15Speaker 03

  30 people? That's unbelievable.

• 29:18Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 29:18Speaker 03

  Now, now we're talking about a deal. We're money-wise. $6,000, $8,000.

• 29:22Speaker 05

  And they could donate and underwrite it and have a write-off.

• 29:24Speaker 03

  Oh, that's another great thing. So, obviously, it's a nonprofit. So you rely, how do you get your funding for this?

• 29:31Speaker 05

  We, through, we have four fundraisers a year. We have philanthropic donors who donate every year. And we, and, you know, partners and events and people who see what we do or who have gone through our services and they donate. They do our walk. We had over 700 participate in our walk.

• 29:50Speaker 03

  I've, I've seen, I don't know if I've been participated in a walk, but I've seen it. It's advertised always really well and, you know, the pictures and things that are online from it. It seems like an amazing support. Plus, there are, is Lynx for Life involved in the ribbons that go, that go up each year?

• 30:06Speaker 05

  The pink ribbons? Oh, yes. We put them up and we take them down. We actually have a wonderful gentleman, Dwayne, who, in honor of his mother... Takes them down every year.

• 30:13Speaker 03

  No way. One volunteer that sort of takes that upon himself. I love them. They're always on Truxton, right? And of course, is that so part of the mission being just to bring awareness to

• 30:25Speaker 05

  Education.

• 30:26Speaker 03

  So to educate us a little bit. There were a couple of dudes here. We don't have breasts,

• 30:30Speaker 05

  Uh, hold on.

• 30:31Speaker 03

  Oh, that's true. You're right.

• 30:33Speaker 05

  You can get breast cancer.

• 30:34Speaker 03

  You're right. I do know. I have a friend who had breast cancer, a male.

• 30:37Speaker 05

  Yes. One in a thousand men can be diagnosed with breast cancer.

• 30:41Speaker 03

  Which is, that's not insignificant. That's still a pretty good chunk of the population, us men. But primarily, this is a female.

• 30:50Speaker 05

  Correct. One in eight.

• 30:51Speaker 03

  One in eight?

• 30:52Speaker 05

  One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer.

• 30:55Speaker 03

  And out of those, out of those one in eight, which is an astonishing number, I'm still trying to wrap my head around that.

• 31:02Speaker 05

  Four hundred approximately in Kern County will be diagnosed.

• 31:06Speaker 03

  Four hundred?

• 31:06Speaker 05

  And then we'll lose approximately ninety every year. Not of the same, but yes.

• 31:11Speaker 03

  Almost a quarter then of those that are diagnosed don't make it?

• 31:15Speaker 05

  In a lifetime. So you're not talking the same ninety.

• 31:20Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 31:20Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 31:21Speaker 03

  Okay, so that's a, that's a, I could see now, boy, the urgency to bring some attention to this. How, how has breast cancer evolved? How, how has, I imagine part of the mission is to fund research, maybe?

• 31:37Speaker 05

  We don't fund research. Actually, we partner with the American Cancer Society. They're the second largest of, second largest of research funding after the government. So we let them do their thing. We do direct services to patients in Kern County. So we actually have four support groups. We have our newly diagnosed that meets the third Tuesday of the month on Zoom. So if they're not feeling well, they can roll on, turn on their laptop and be part of the support group. And they have mentors who are going through it. We have our survivor group, which meets the first Tuesday of the month, and that was our first support group. There are over thirty women in that group.

• 32:14Speaker 03

  Wow.

• 32:14Speaker 05

  And now it's more of a, they do education, they do support, they do life together. We have our Grupo de Esperanza for our Spanish speaking support. Our group and that's also on Zoom and then we have our strong links hangout for husbands and partners. They get to hang out with each other at Imbibe.

• 32:29Speaker 03

  Ah, that's where I have seen them at Imbibe. Um, Bob Meadows is, has been part of that group.

• 32:35Speaker 05

  He facilitates it. Yes, he does.

• 32:37Speaker 03

  Yeah, he's a, he's a great advocate for that. I think his wife had breast cancer.

• 32:40Speaker 05

  Yes, she did.

• 32:41Speaker 03

  And, uh, Bob Meadows is a good friend of the show, uh, community advocate.

• 32:46Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 32:46Speaker 03

  So what, how has, um, where were we at in terms of the state of breast cancer? Are we, are we making progress towards better treatments?

• 32:57Speaker 05

  Yes, there are better treatments and if you get in early, if you're diagnosed stage zero or one, 99% survival rate. But as the later stages, the less likely you are to survive. So our goal, one of our goals is to get people in early. Let's get them in and get them, get them diagnosed. So we take the units out to where there's no, there are no radiology centers.

• 33:19Speaker 03

  Nice.

• 33:20Speaker 05

  Arvin and Lamont.

• 33:21Speaker 04

  And that was my next question was like, as far as early detections with the mobile services you guys have, have, have any, what's the, what's the stats on that? Have you guys got any early detections?

• 33:32Speaker 05

  Okay. So we got a grant.

• 33:33Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 33:34Speaker 05

  And so, you know, we don't do much without funding or anything without funding. And, um, we went out to Lost Hills and we screened 33 women in four hours. And we diagnosed a woman with breast cancer and we were able to help her get in and get screened to get treated because we gave the diagnosis. And then the state of California has a breast cancer treatment fund that will pay for treatment.

• 33:54Speaker 04

  Wow.

• 33:55Speaker 05

  So we are the, the, we fill the gaps.

• 33:58Speaker 04

  The conduit.

• 33:59Speaker 05

  Mm-hmm. We are the conduit.

• 34:00Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 34:01Speaker 05

  To have, let people have moms and lives because they are the last ones to go in and be treated, the last ones to take care of themselves.

• 34:08Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 34:09Speaker 05

  We take care of you.

• 34:10Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 34:11Speaker 05

  And sometimes you are whining when you're sick.

• 34:14Speaker 03

  Yeah. Well, again, you're talking to a couple of guys here.

• 34:18Speaker 00

  Yeah, my wife says the same thing.

• 34:19Speaker 03

  We're wimps. We are such wimps and I've sometimes, this probably isn't fair, gonna, my armchair medical advice here, but the, you know, men suffer, our primary cancer battle, natural is prostate, right? Like, if you live long enough, you're gonna have prostate cancer. You just, 90, if you live to be 90, I think you have at least a 90% chance of having.

• 34:46Speaker 05

  One in two.

• 34:47Speaker 03

  One in two. It's like, whoa, okay, so live long enough, you're gonna get it. How about for women and breast cancer? Do you happen to know that?

• 34:54Speaker 05

  Well, it's one in eight.

• 34:56Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah.

• 34:56Speaker 05

  So.

• 34:58Speaker 03

  But as you get older, I guess it gets increases.

• 35:01Speaker 05

  Correct, but we've seen an increase in women under 40 being diagnosed, 40 being diagnosed. It's one in 250. So it used to be one in over 400. So I think we're seeing that because women are more self-advocates, because they know about breast cancer more. They're gonna go in and they're gonna fight and say, no, there's something wrong and the doctors are listening to them.

• 35:20Speaker 04

  I got a question. You know, when people are dealing with cancers, you know, normally they have to like, kinda shave their heads and.

• 35:27Speaker 05

  Not always.

• 35:28Speaker 04

  Not always, not always, but do you guys?

• 35:31Speaker 05

  We have a wig boutique.

• 35:32Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 35:32Speaker 03

  Oh.

• 35:33Speaker 05

  We have a wig boutique for any woman faced in hair loss due to cancer treatment. So they call the office, they set an appointment, and we'll take 20 minutes to two hours and they receive two free wigs.

• 35:44Speaker 04

  Nice.

• 35:44Speaker 03

  Holy cow. I had a sister who battled cancer last year and she, she lives in Utah or lived in Utah. And there was a similar program there, which was a lifesaver for her because the wigs are super expensive.

• 35:57Speaker 05

  Right.

• 35:57Speaker 03

  They were super expensive.

• 35:58Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 35:59Speaker 03

  So that's a, that's an amazing service.

• 36:01Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 36:02Speaker 03

  So, again, Links for Life, is there?

• 36:07Speaker 03

  This is such a neat sort of grassroots built up nonprofit. Are other communities, how did this start and do other communities have a similar nonprofit?

• 36:19Speaker 05

  We do have one in Kings County and they pay for mammograms and ultrasounds, needle biopsies and they have a wig boutique. That's our branch. But some people do, some people don't. One of our board, our past board president, her sister was in Louisiana and was diagnosed with breast cancer during the pandemic and luckily she was able to fly back and work remotely and help her sister. There were no services back there. She came to our support group online. So Kern County takes care of itself and you can't, I don't think Links would have grown anyplace else or someplace else that, you know, there's one degree of separation here. I'm sure I know somebody you know, I know somebody you, you know, and it's all about networking and supporting each other.

• 37:03Speaker 03

  Yeah. And before Links for Life, you were working for the

• 37:09Speaker 05

  American Cancer Society. I did.

• 37:12Speaker 03

  That's right. So that's a perfect combination. Are you still linked to the Cancer Society?

• 37:16Speaker 05

  Absolutely. Yes. I still talk with Donna. She's still there. I still have volunteers who coordinate the survivor lap at Relay for Life. I was part of Relay when we were the number one in the nation and number one in the world, you know, netting over a million dollars. So yeah, I've, my kids have grown up around it. Every, you know, it's been part of my life. And I was, I had an on-campus high school club that was called Wings for Life and we were, we taught breast self-exam and PE classes in high school.

• 37:45Speaker 03

  Oh, wow. You did in high school?

• 37:47Speaker 05

  I did. I did.

• 37:48Speaker 03

  What brought, what was your, what brought you into that?

• 37:51Speaker 05

  It was just a fun club to be involved in and we did that. We did the summer send-off for them to go to Ronald McDonald camp. We hosted the Christmas party for the cancer kids. Now the Kern County Cancer Foundation hosts that club and hosts that, that Christmas for them. So I don't know why. My mom was a nurse. My dad was a golf pro. So here we go. I run a nonprofit that had the major event, our signature event's a golf tournament. You never know where you're going to end up.

• 38:18Speaker 03

  As executive director, what's the biggest challenge that you find in, in, in running the organization or making sure that the organization continues to thrive?

• 38:27Speaker 05

  I think it's adapting. It's looking at the community, seeing what they need and providing it and finding the funding. Because, you know, we have our operations, we have our reserve, we have our endowment. But our endowment, we really want at 8.75 million. You guys can help.

• 38:44Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 38:44Speaker 05

  You know, your donor advice funds, you can help suggest it stays here.

• 38:50Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 38:50Speaker 05

  But that would help underwrite our operations. If we had 4% of that that underwrite our operations, every dollar and cent would go right back into programs and services.

• 38:59Speaker 03

  So you're working to build up that endowment?

• 39:00Speaker 05

  We would love to build that, but you know, our operations come first.

• 39:03Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 39:04Speaker 05

  And you know, surviving a real estate bust back in 08 and then a pandemic, you know, you just always have to be hustling.

• 39:12Speaker 03

  Always. I imagine you rely heavily on the community, on grants.

• 39:16Speaker 05

  Absolutely.

• 39:17Speaker 03

  The, um, go ahead.

• 39:19Speaker 04

  We've got a question here. Well, not even a question, it's a statement. It says Costco hot dogs are great.

• 39:25Speaker 04

  And it also says Links for Life is a blessing to this town. Please leave their info on the podcast.

• 39:30Speaker 03

  Yeah. So how can, how can people find out more and even participate with Links for Life?

• 39:35Speaker 05

  Well, they can go on our website, linksforlife.org. They can email us at [email protected]. Call 661-322-5601. We'll come out like businesses. If you want a work site wellness, we can come out and do education. We can, we can qualify for your wellness programs. So you know, your HR needs to do wellness. Well, here we are. We can come educate. We can have nurses come out, survivors come out, staff.

• 40:01Speaker 03

  Wow. And what can people do? What can, what can citizens do to, to help? How can we help?

• 40:07Speaker 05

  You can participate in our events. So coming up in February, we have our Love Links luncheon, which is at the Crystal Palace. And we have two speakers. We have the CEO, Jay Tanzi, from the Hispanic Chamber, who's coming as a caregiver. He's going to talk. And then we have the CEO. CEO of the Foundation for Medical Care. She's coming to talk as a survivor.

• 40:32Speaker 03

  Nice.

• 40:32Speaker 05

  And so you can learn a little bit. There's a little raffle and it's fun. Golf tournament is April 7th at Seven Oaks Country Club. It's our thirty-two, thirty-second annual golf tournament.

• 40:41Speaker 03

  Wow.

• 40:42Speaker 05

  You can purchase a team. Goal is thirty-six teams. So we have two on every hole. It's at Seven Oaks Country Club. It's a pro-am. It's the most distinguished tournament in Kern County. It's the oldest tournament in Kern County.

• 40:58Speaker 03

  That is, that's a great moniker right there because there's a lot of golf tournaments. It's a very popular fundraiser, but Link, I didn't realize the Links for Life was from the Links from golf courts.

• 41:08Speaker 05

  Right.

• 41:09Speaker 03

  Like the golf fundraiser, like this is where you started?

• 41:11Speaker 05

  It is, because they, all the women play golf.

• 41:13Speaker 03

  Oh, cool.

• 41:15Speaker 05

  So, yeah, our scholarship fund was started, somebody gave Sharon a donation to start our scholarship fund. So we actually give three scholarships to children's who parents or guardians who have been diagnosed with breast cancer.

• 41:25Speaker 03

  Like, education scholarship?

• 41:26Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 41:26Speaker 03

  Nice.

• 41:27Speaker 05

  So, a college, in college. So we work with Kern Community Foundation. They actually have thirty scholarships there. One application. There's a box on that there that says, is your parent or guardian of breast, had been diagnosed with breast cancer? Check. So it gets reviewed and then we get them to our office. And then we review them and we give out three fifteen-hundred-dollar scholarships in Valley Strong underwrites our scholarship fund.

• 41:50Speaker 03

  Awesome. Oh, that's awesome.

• 41:52Speaker 04

  And obviously the walk that you said.

• 41:54Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 41:54Speaker 04

  You guys do is obviously during Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October?

• 41:58Speaker 05

  First Saturday in October. Park at River Walk. It's the fourth this year. Coming up this year, yep. It's the fourth. And then our hot pink celebration will be at, we're scheduled for Luigi's and it will be on the twenty-fourth. And last year we sold out a month ahead.

• 42:11Speaker 03

  Oh, that's great. That's great. It's so, it's so great that our community is so giving. I, I'm a huge, I, you know, I participate in nonprofits. I'm on the board of a few nonprofits and, and money-wise, we've been supporting nonprofits for twenty years. The nonprofits that are local, that are grassroots, grown and continue to, to, to function, especially

• 42:36Speaker 03

  If you can make it past five or 10 years as a nonprofit, man, it's like it's almost harder than the private sector world because you're just relying on volunteers and good-hearted people and people that just really genuinely care.

• 42:48Speaker 05

  Absolutely.

• 42:48Speaker 03

  This is an amazing program. Thank you so much for coming on the show.

• 42:51Speaker 05

  Oh, absolutely. Thank you for having me.

• 42:53Speaker 03

  Go check out Links for Life. It's linksforlife.org and you can find out more about upcoming activities where you can support and learn more or educate yourself on breast cancer awareness. Want to thank our guests so much. Jennifer Henry, Executive Director there for Links for Life for coming on the show. We're going to take our final break of the day and we'll be right back.

• 43:15Speaker 00

  Money Wise Wealth Management is the only locally owned independent firm that uses a comprehensive wealth, tax, and estate approach, working closely with a highly trusted CPA and attorney. For information on how Money Wise can help you invest and plan for your future, call 661-847-1000.

• 43:40Speaker 03

  Welcome to the Money Wise Show. Appreciate those listeners who participated. We have a message here we're going to get to before we finish up. And this is regarding a topic we had yesterday. It says, "To go off of the end of your show yesterday, it was great timing. I have four credit cards equalling around $30,000 in loans, three Chase cards around $20,000 and $10,000 on a Citibank card. I sold some personal items and would have about $20,000 to pay off debt and was wondering if it'd be better to pay off the Chase card so I'm not paying $700 a month in payments and use that towards the Citi one, or is it best to pay off a little bit of all of them instead of paying them off completely?" Troy has a great radio voice. Thank you.

• 44:24Speaker 04

  Appreciate that.

• 44:25Speaker 03

  Yeah, Troy, nice radio voice. This is good. We talked about yesterday the two different strategies of paying down debt. You have the avalanche and the snowball.

• 44:33Speaker 04

  Just the avalanche example I hear.

• 44:35Speaker 03

  This would be like the avalanche example, I think, which is paying the debt that's the most expensive, assuming that that $700 a month debt is the most expensive, the highest interest rate, the biggest pain. Pay that one first.

• 44:47Speaker 04

  Transfer the other.

• 44:48Speaker 03

  And then, yeah.

• 44:49Speaker 04

  That was transfer.

• 44:50Speaker 03

  Or you could, yeah, consider a balance transfer. That could be another thing. Now, if snowball debt is your thing and you think that you might be deterred from, from like continuing your debt payoff schedule, then yeah, maybe consider the, the snowball where you're, you know, you're, you're starting with the smallest debt first. I don't know, I can think of a scenario where you would pay all of them a little bit, unless they were all equally costing you the same, which probably isn't the case.

• 45:19Speaker 04

  High interest.

• 45:20Speaker 03

  You could, you can do kind of a simple spreadsheet, lay down your three different credit cards, what you're paying each month in, in interest debt and tackle the biggest one first. All right, want to thank all of our listeners. We'll be back tomorrow. Remember these three things, be smart, be safe and always be money wise.

• 45:37Speaker 02

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