11/6/26 From Dollar Cost Averaging to Holiday Lights at CALM

The Moneywise Radio Show and Podcast Friday, November 6th BE MONEYWISE. Moneywise Wealth Management I "The Moneywise Radio Show & Podcast" call: 661-847-1000 text in anytime: 661-396-1000 website: www. MoneywiseGuys.com https://www.moneywiseguys.com/ facebook: Moneywise_Wealth_Management https://www.facebook.com/moneywiseguys/ LinkedIn: Moneywise_Wealth_Management https://www.linkedin.com/company/moneywise-wealth-management-bakersfield/ Guest: Steve Sanders, CALM Foundation Holiday Lights at CALM: https://calmholidaylights.org/ The opinions voiced in this podcast are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. To determine which strategies or investments may be suitable for you, consult the appropriate qualified professional prior to making a decision. Steve Sanders, The CALM Foundation and Holiday Lights at CALM are not affiliated with nor endorsed by LPL Financial or Moneywise Wealth Management

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Live from the basement inside the historic Woolworths Building in downtown Bakersfield. Call or text in at 661-396-1000.

• 0:29Speaker 01

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

• 0:37Speaker 00

  Now, let's start the Money Wise Show.

• 0:41Speaker 02

  Hey, welcome to the Friday edition of the Money Wise Show. Live from the basement of the historic Woolworths Building downtown Bakersfield. For the next hour, you're here on News Talk 96.1 and 1230 AM, KERN. Kern Radio, streaming live at MoneyWiseGuys.com on the interwebs.

• 1:04Speaker 02

  Not AI, that's an actual dot com, that's. No AI there. We don't need to do a build out, right, Stephen? No data center for that. You can call or text into the show. We need to get a couple of really good questions that we're going to get to here in just a moment. Call or text into the show anytime, 24 hours a day, 661-396-1000. 661-396-1000. We are your hosts. I'm Justin Leland, here with.

• 1:29Speaker 03

  Debbie Lewis.

• 1:30Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 1:31Speaker 03

  Drowning in chords.

• 1:33Speaker 02

  What are you doing over there?

• 1:34Speaker 03

  Strangling myself over here. My cell phone's charging. I've got the mic, my laptop. It's too much.

• 1:40Speaker 02

  There's too much copper over there.

• 1:41Speaker 03

  Such as modern life.

• 1:43Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah. If you'd like to listen to this show or any of our other past programs, please subscribe to the Money Wise Podcast. Commercial free, because nobody likes to get those commercials. On all major podcast platforms like iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you get your true crime podcasts. Uh, just look up Money Wise. We're right next to it. Not because we're true crime.

• 2:04Speaker 03

  Yeah, but speaking of.

• 2:06Speaker 02

  Right.

• 2:06Speaker 03

  I was just mentioning, um, we, we've got an event coming up at the.

• 2:11Speaker 02

  I was looking at that.

• 2:12Speaker 03

  The notorious Bakersfield podcaster. I'm blanking on the gentleman's name. He was lovely.

• 2:17Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 2:17Speaker 00

  Peterson.

• 2:18Speaker 02

  Robert Peterson.

• 2:19Speaker 03

  That's coming up, right, Stephen?

• 2:20Speaker 02

  That's on Sunday.

• 2:22Speaker 00

  Is it this Sunday?

• 2:22Speaker 02

  It's on Sunday. I was looking at it and so.

• 2:25Speaker 00

  I'm still shocked it's November, so.

• 2:27Speaker 03

  Well, I know, it's confusing.

• 2:28Speaker 02

  Well, I, what I'm intrigued about is so the, the real podcast that they're, then they're, they're bringing in the individual that was the detective. That caught, um, uh, Richard Ramirez, right?

• 2:39Speaker 03

  The Night Stalker.

• 2:41Speaker 02

  The Night Stalker, yes. Now, my, like, I actually lived in the San Gabriel Valley when that was going on. I was like six years old and we lived in Arcadia at the time and my mom would like run through the house and make sure that every window and door was completely like. Shuttered and dead bolted and blocked off and. Cause people were freaking out because he was doing the stuff in like Pasadena, which was right down the street. It was wild, wild times. I remember that. That was like, what is, what are you doing? And she's like, don't open the door for anybody.

• 3:16Speaker 00

  Keep my baby safe.

• 3:17Speaker 02

  Yeah, don't, don't open the door for anybody. That kind of thing. So, yeah, I'm actually intrigued. Also, we have the symphony, uh, playing, uh, tomorrow. They've got a concert tomorrow.

• 3:28Speaker 03

  What's the theme tomorrow night?

• 3:29Speaker 02

  Oh, it's, uh, the music of light, uh, color, yeah, uh, music of color. And so it's actually, uh, I'm looking forward to that concert. I believe the BMO had something going on or something. There was like a exhibit or something.

• 3:41Speaker 03

  Oh, no, we have a special, uh, private collector's tour happening down in Los Angeles.

• 3:48Speaker 02

  Nice, that's right.

• 3:49Speaker 03

  A benefit.

• 3:49Speaker 00

  Yeah, I believe the Mortos event is this weekend.

• 3:53Speaker 03

  What's that?

• 3:53Speaker 02

  Oh, Dia de los Mortos.

• 3:55Speaker 03

  At Strandler.

• 3:56Speaker 02

  Yes, yes.

• 3:57Speaker 03

  Sunday, yep.

• 3:58Speaker 02

  Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. It's gonna be a full weekend. A lot of really cool, fun things to do.

• 4:02Speaker 03

  It cools off a little bit in this town and everybody packs it in.

• 4:06Speaker 02

  Packs it as much in as you can.

• 4:08Speaker 03

  Right now. You have no idea.

• 4:11Speaker 02

  The, the after Halloween, like, uh, letdown, uh, like.

• 4:14Speaker 03

  Something like that.

• 4:15Speaker 02

  Something, something. Anyhow, uh, we're going to get down to business here. We got some things going on in the markets. The Dow is, uh, down. We got a little bit of a mixed market. Uh, Dow is down about one tenth of a percent. S and P 500 about is up about seven tenths of a percent. And the NASDAQ bouncing back from a big sell off yesterday, bouncing back quite a bit, up about a one and a half percent so far today.

• 4:42Speaker 02

  And I think part of that, you know, big sell off, uh, in all of the markets yesterday had to do with, uh, you know, the AI. Conversation now that the, you know, the, the election is over and. The thought process that data centers and AI were going to be, uh, curtailed with this new Congress coming in. Obviously was, you know, scary to some investors. And so the NASDAQ obviously had that, that big sell off yesterday. It's bouncing back today.

• 5:09Speaker 03

  But one day is not the whole story, right?

• 5:11Speaker 02

  One day is not the whole story. It's never been the whole, the whole story.

• 5:14Speaker 03

  Especially around elections.

• 5:16Speaker 02

  Well, yeah, it's, you're going to have high volatility around elections because everybody's trying to figure out what the next two years are going to look like. Right? And so they're making their bets and they're going to hang on to those bets for a pretty, pretty long while. And the smart money is going to flow where the smart money flows. And so we have, um, what is his name? Hastit. Um, he is, uh. The National Economic Council Director says that he expects data center growth to continue as projected despite the Democrats midterm election landslide. Now, I don't necessarily disagree with this. However, what I do say is, you know, data centers are probably still going to be built. But they're going to have to go through the same level of environmental. Environmental reporting and studies and all this other stuff before they break ground.

• 6:01Speaker 02

  So not going to curtail it. There's, the data centers are still going to be built. It's just going to have to go through the same process, not this like, you know, uh, rubber stamp kind of a thing that things have been pushed through at this point. So, you know, the data centers and things like that, AI is still going to be here, still going to be moving forward. It's probably just going to be at a little bit of a pace where it, let's, let's, let's take our time a little bit. We don't need to be.

• 6:23Speaker 03

  As it should.

• 6:23Speaker 02

  As it should be, right? We don't need to be building, you know, data centers that are going to be, you know, sucking up all of the farmer's water.

• 6:30Speaker 03

  And rattling our walls.

• 6:32Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah. The sound of those things is insane. Um, but yeah, I mean, you know, maybe a bit of a, uh, more regulation. Around building them, but it doesn't mean that those regulations mean that the building is going to stop. Is the point. Um, so the markets are up, uh, mixed market, Dow's down a little bit, but the markets are basically up.

• 6:51Speaker 03

  Can I ask a question?

• 6:52Speaker 02

  No.

• 6:53Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 6:54Speaker 02

  Do it anyways.

• 6:55Speaker 03

  Show. I'm so happy to be here.

• 6:58Speaker 03

  No, I, it was, you know, um, reading a financial. Social media account that I follow and the guy's really big on budgeting. I, I forward you stuff all of the time.

• 7:09Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah.

• 7:10Speaker 03

  And you're like, yes, yes, absolutely not. Um, but there was a point that came up about the K, K economy that.

• 7:17Speaker 02

  Yes, kind of.

• 7:18Speaker 03

  The K shape recovery. Yeah, after specifically around elections. Can you kind of hit on that a little bit?

• 7:25Speaker 02

  Yeah. So, I mean, the K shape recovery, regardless of, of whether it's during an election, after an election, what that. Process really looks like. K shape really refers to, um. Those that are higher on the economic spectrum, socioeconomic spectrum tend to do better. And those that are lower on the socioeconomic ladder, uh, tend to do worse. So it looks like the letter K, if you're, if you're looking at both side by side. And, you know, when dealing with an election, as we're seeing in the markets right now, you see the stocks, you know, fluctuating wildly. But, you know, typically, and this is historical, if you look back after a midterm election.

• 8:08Speaker 02

  After the November 3rd election, 12 months from then, so looking at November 3rd of 2027. You know, historically, the S and P 500 is up about 16% over a 12 month period, right after a midterm. Regardless of who wins, who wins seats, who loses seats, whatever. Well, who does that benefit? People that own stocks. Who doesn't own stocks? The people on the low end of the socioeconomic ladder that are on the bottom of that K.

• 8:35Speaker 03

  And or.

• 8:36Speaker 02

  And or younger.

• 8:37Speaker 03

  Choose not to participate for whatever reason.

• 8:39Speaker 02

  Right. So people that have assets. I E. Stocks and things like that are going to probably benefit, right? Doesn't maybe look like it in the last two days, but over the long period of time, over a year, historically, that's going to be the case. Um, but people that choose not to or can't afford to have those types of assets.

• 9:00Speaker 03

  Right.

• 9:02Speaker 02

  Are by definition left behind.

• 9:04Speaker 03

  What about the theory? And I know we cannot give advice. We're not telling people what to do, but. This same conversation that I saw online was kind of, uh, stumbling through the conversation of, do you dump? A big amount of money into the market if you're, you are an investor and you can't afford to put more in like, or is it? Advantageous to space it out? Um, is there anything behind that or?

• 9:32Speaker 02

  So the, what you're talking about there is the difference between just putting in a lump sum of money into an investment.

• 9:39Speaker 03

  Say I have 30, 30,000 that I'm, I feel good that I can play with.

• 9:44Speaker 02

  Right, right. So.

• 9:47Speaker 02

  Essentially, the better option because of, you know, it's not timing of the market. It's time in the market is the way we look at it. The more time you have that money working for you and in the market, the better off you're going to be. So mathematically, the better option is to just put the lump sum in and have it invested and just let it rip. However, for people that are, you know, maybe they don't have that $30,000 right then and there, and they want to intersperse and do things like, like your 401k, when you're putting money in, it's every paycheck, right? You're putting in a little bit at a time. What you're, what you're accomplishing there is what's known as dollar cost averaging. So as the stock market fluctuates, you might be buying more shares at a lower price now than you would be buying in the future.

• 10:31Speaker 02

  If the stock market goes up, you're buying fewer shares because you're putting in the same amount of money.

• 10:35Speaker 03

  Right.

• 10:36Speaker 02

  But then if the market does fall, you're buying more shares at a lower cost. So you're, you're averaging out the cost of the shares that you're buying. And so a long period of doing that and, and dollar cost averaging can be a very beneficial way to invest. But ideally, and most often you're going to see that most often putting that lump sum in at one time and having that money compound over time, rather than doing the dollar cost averaging, is probably the most beneficial way to do it.

• 11:07Speaker 03

  If you can.

• 11:07Speaker 02

  If you can. If you have the assets to be able to do it and you have that 30 or $50,000 that you just want to throw into the market, the earlier you get it in there, the better. Right? Because the, the, the compound growth, the S and P grows at about 9.7% per year on average over a 10 year period, or actually over the past 50 years, it's been about 9%. So, um, yeah, so the earlier you get it in there, the, the earlier it gets to compounding. So that's really the number there. But we did get a couple of questions that popped in, actually, and we do have a guest today. We're burying the lead. But our good friend, Steve Sanders from Calm Zoo is going to be coming in. We're going to be talking about Calm and the, the, the lights, the holiday lights that are coming up at the end of the month.

• 11:51Speaker 02

  So we'll be talking to him in a quick moment, but we, actually, let's get to the, let's get to the questions after our conversation with Steve. How about that? We'll, we'll leave you on the edge of your seat because we got some fantastic questions regarding trusts. We got fantastic questions regarding Trump accounts. We got lots of good questions that came in. So we're going to go ahead and get to those after our conversation with Steve Sanders after this break.

• 12:26Speaker 02

  Welcome back.

• 12:29Speaker 02

  Catching up with Steve in the, uh, in the break there.

• 12:35Speaker 02

  Steve Sanders, Secretary and Treasurer of the Calm Foundation.

• 12:40Speaker 02

  Great organization, does a lot of good work in the community, but also does such wonderful things with the holiday lights coming up. So you're here to talk about holiday lights. How are you doing? Thank you for joining us.

• 12:49Speaker 04

  Wonderful. It's great to be back on the Money Wise Show. Thank you for having me.

• 12:52Speaker 02

  All right. Anytime. You, you always have a seat there anytime you want.

• 12:55Speaker 04

  Thank you.

• 12:55Speaker 02

  Right? So there's, there's always that. So tell us, I mean, obviously it's getting time. Holiday Lights is right around the corner. When do we open? When does everything, when do the doors open and, uh?

• 13:07Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 13:07Speaker 02

  How do people get tickets?

• 13:08Speaker 04

  So it's funny, people that think about Christmas in December, but I've been thinking about it since June. And so we've been planning, yeah. And they started setting, setting up the lights in August, Josh and his team. So to answer your question, we opened the Saturday after Thanksgiving, which is the 28th.

• 13:26Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 13:27Speaker 04

  We will go every night until January 2nd, except Christmas. Basically 5:30 to 9:30 every night. People can get tickets at calmholidaylights.org. We kept prices the same. Everybody else is raising their prices, but we want it to be an affordable thing for families. So we kept prices the same and, uh, uh, it's just, you know, wonderful. It's going to be another wonderful year. It's our 24th year.

• 13:51Speaker 02

  Wow. 24th year. And so is, is Teen Challenge still doing the, the food?

• 13:55Speaker 04

  They are. They have been our-

• 13:56Speaker 02

  Hot corn and all that stuff?

• 13:57Speaker 04

  Yep. They've been our partner agency since the beginning. Kern County Teen Challenge, they help me in the parking lot. They do all the concessions. They're selling Christmas trees again this year. Uh, and so not only does it, is it an investment in Calm, but also Teen Challenge.

• 14:13Speaker 02

  Yeah. And I just, uh, you know, it's when you get that big old one yard bag of kettle corn and you're still eating it like a week later.

• 14:21Speaker 04

  Yours lasts a week? Wow, that's pretty good.

• 14:24Speaker 02

  You know, it's, it's a lot of, it's a lot of butter.

• 14:27Speaker 04

  So, yeah, and their hot chocolate's amazing.

• 14:29Speaker 02

  Chocolate's great. Coffee's good.

• 14:31Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's just a wonderful family event.

• 14:33Speaker 02

  Yeah. I, you know, I was, we were talking about it kind of off air before you came on and, you know, I've always, uh, my family, we, we go out there and Brandon has a great time. Everybody, everybody has a good time. But recently, last few years, we've had my wife, my in-laws and her grandmother actually coming up. And she's, she's in her 80s and doesn't get around very well. But like seeing her and seeing some of these other people like walking around the, the grounds and like their eyes absolutely light up. And it's like, they're, they're little kids again, right? I mean, and so, I mean, the little kids-

• 15:07Speaker 03

  We all are. It's not just 85 year olds.

• 15:09Speaker 02

  Right. The, the little kids are little kids because that's, you know, but it's, it is such a magical, um, event. And walking around the grounds, yeah, walking around the grounds. It's beautiful.

• 15:20Speaker 04

  I love it. And one of my favorite things, I've been around for a while. So I've, uh, been able to see people that came to Holiday Lights, maybe as kids or teenagers. And now they're bringing their kids-

• 15:30Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 15:31Speaker 04

  To share the tradition. We've had several weddings out there and proposals. And so just to see people, uh, you know, Holiday Lights, it's not just an event. It means something to people. It's a tradition.

• 15:42Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 15:44Speaker 04

  As Debbie said, it's, it's a, a family event, so you can be safe out there. And it's just, I love it.

• 15:50Speaker 03

  And we all deserve to tap into our inner eternal child.

• 15:54Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 15:55Speaker 04

  We have to do that to keep young.

• 15:57Speaker 02

  Yeah. And I also like, you know, it's because it is Bakersfield, there's no snow. But the fake snow, you get the little bubbles and the things, you know, okay.

• 16:03Speaker 04

  I think we have three snow machines this year. It might be a blizzard.

• 16:06Speaker 02

  Might be a blizzard in Bakersfield.

• 16:09Speaker 03

  How many people does it take to not just plan this, coordinate with all of the vendors, but like bodies on the ground every day from the end of November through January?

• 16:21Speaker 04

  Yeah. So we have some staff there, you know, five or six staff, but it's all volunteers. So I probably have 40, 30 to 40 volunteers every night. Then probably another 10 volunteers in the train that show up every night. Last year we had AmeriCorps, which is a program through the superintendent of schools. Those young professionals came, we probably had 20 of those folks. They came multiple nights. So I always tell people for a company, it's a great way if you want to have a great team building.

• 16:53Speaker 04

  Organize a night, uh, come out with several volunteers, have fun together, uh, enjoy the lights. So it takes quite a-

• 17:00Speaker 02

  You know, Rotary Clubs will go out there and have meetings and, you know, their little Christmas get togethers and do that kind of thing. And it's, it's a really just a great event.

• 17:08Speaker 04

  Yeah, it really is. And also what I love to remind people of is Josh Barnett and his company, Lightasmic, that do the lights. Josh is a kid that grew up in Bakersfield, uh, started doing animated lights before anybody when he was, you know, probably 15 years old. And now it's his company and he employs 20 people full time. He has 14 shows across the country now.

• 17:32Speaker 02

  And he started here.

• 17:33Speaker 04

  Yeah, he started, he still lives in Bakersfield. He travels a lot, but his wife, Vicki, and their team, Calm's their baby. So I told him he can never move out of Kern County.

• 17:42Speaker 02

  He's not allowed to.

• 17:42Speaker 04

  No. But, you know, it's great to see a local success story and somebody that has a passion for something, follows their dream and-

• 17:49Speaker 02

  And he does this all over the country.

• 17:51Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's amazing.

• 17:52Speaker 02

  Really good. It is just such great fun and beautiful. And I always love going out to Calm and, you know, you, you don't get to see the animals as much.

• 18:00Speaker 04

  Not as much. They're sleeping or, you know, hiding from the crowds.

• 18:04Speaker 02

  Hibernating and leaving people alone.

• 18:05Speaker 04

  Yeah, but you will see some and, uh, you know, we'll have over the course of the 37 nights. Last year we had over 65,000 people come through.

• 18:14Speaker 02

  That is huge. What is the projections maybe for this year? I mean, because I know you, you keep projections each year and obviously COVID was weird because you couldn't get out of the car. So we did the little drive through thing.

• 18:24Speaker 03

  I loved that year.

• 18:25Speaker 02

  That was actually really fun.

• 18:26Speaker 03

  The soundtrack playing in the car.

• 18:28Speaker 04

  Exactly.

• 18:29Speaker 03

  Had the dogs rolling with the family.

• 18:32Speaker 04

  The baby, the dog, the cat.

• 18:33Speaker 02

  Threw the kids in the back of the truck and let them just sit out back.

• 18:36Speaker 04

  I saw all kinds of animals during the drive through, you know, cats and lizards and snakes and everybody riding in the car together. It was great. Yeah. So, um, sorry.

• 18:48Speaker 02

  Are you expecting a growth?

• 18:49Speaker 04

  Yeah. Yeah. We always try to grow each year. I'm a little worried about rain this year in El Nino, uh, because no, people in Bakersfield don't like to go out when it's rainy.

• 18:58Speaker 02

  Oh, please.

• 18:59Speaker 03

  But they like to drive like maniacs.

• 19:03Speaker 02

  And Brown Mountain Road is probably going to be one of those great roads to drive on in the rain.

• 19:07Speaker 04

  But I'm hoping it'll, I'm hoping it'll grow. Every year seems to grow a little bit and, um, you know, we just continue to add new things and, uh, try to make it exciting. We're doing for the third year in a row, our New Year's Eve Extravaganza-

• 19:20Speaker 02

  Oh, really?

• 19:20Speaker 04

  With Mentoburu. One of my favorite bands, Matt Munoz and the group. So we have a big ball that we will drop at nine o'clock, uh, East Coast time, you know, midnight, East Coast time. And, uh, what's awesome about that is a concert, a normal Mentoburu concert. We have apple cider for the kids and it's, there's not many places you can go on New Year's Eve with your whole family.

• 19:43Speaker 02

  Right, where it's not alcohol driven.

• 19:45Speaker 04

  Exactly. And so, uh-

• 19:47Speaker 03

  My first thought was, can I bring in a tequila flask?

• 19:52Speaker 04

  Well, that, all those Starbucks cups, trust me. It's not all coffee. But, uh- It's just a great place and it's fun to see the kids be able to celebrate New Year's Eve with their parents and then you're home in your recliner by 9:30.

• 20:05Speaker 02

  Yeah, bingo. Cause that's, yeah, I just, I always tell the kids, it's like, oh yeah, it's midnight.

• 20:11Speaker 04

  Exactly.

• 20:11Speaker 02

  It's 8:30 at night and it's like, oh, Happy New Year.

• 20:14Speaker 04

  But then they can, then they can start telling time and.

• 20:17Speaker 02

  Right. And then it becomes a problem. But yeah, no, it's, it's a great event. Um, you know, are all the sponsors basically figured out at this point? Are you still have room for some more sponsors?

• 20:28Speaker 04

  I still have room a little bit.

• 20:29Speaker 02

  You always want to take more money.

• 20:30Speaker 04

  Yeah. I mean, I'll never say no. We're, we're doing our signage soon, but thankfully this is sponsored again by Adventist Health. They're our premier sponsor this year and then a lot of companies like Money Wise and others that support us and make it happen.

• 20:44Speaker 02

  Yeah. So it's an awesome trip. And so I know Media Nights coming up and those types of things. It's kind of those first, first guys to get through the, the line and everything else.

• 20:55Speaker 03

  What about any elements of surprise this year?

• 20:58Speaker 04

  Well, there'll be a few, some new displays. So I'll let you see those on your own. We are for the second year doing character nights. So you know, Santa goes home after Christmas and then we'll have different character nights, K-pop night and superhero night. But that's a chance for the kids to dress up, have some fun and.

• 21:16Speaker 02

  And Santa's still there. Santa's always there, always there.

• 21:20Speaker 04

  All the way up until Christmas. Then he gets a vacation.

• 21:22Speaker 02

  Then he gets a vacation. Well, not really a vacation day. He's working pretty hard.

• 21:25Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 21:26Speaker 02

  Uh, we're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back with Steve Sanders and Calm.

• 21:46Speaker 02

  Some SRV to take you into the weekend.

• 21:50Speaker 02

  Got a lot of Stevie Ray Vaughan.

• 21:55Speaker 02

  We're back. Welcome to the Money Wise Show. You're with your host, Justin Leland and Debbie Lewis, joined by Steve Sanders from Calm, Calm Foundation. Uh, during the break, we got a quick message that popped in. Debbie, you got that there?

• 22:08Speaker 03

  Yeah. Oh, I didn't think about the big storms that are supposed to be hitting us this year. I hope it happens after Christmas. We'd love to go out and see the lights and the hot chocolate is the best when it's chilly.

• 22:19Speaker 02

  It is.

• 22:20Speaker 04

  It's so true. I always tell people, I don't, I, we, I know we need rain.

• 22:24Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 22:24Speaker 04

  And it's important, but it has to rain starting January 3rd.

• 22:28Speaker 02

  And I think typically with El Nino, it's going to be out, it's usually winter and that's after December, right? So hopefully we don't run into a deluge before then. I think the, the Calm gods will clear the skies for, for at least 38 days.

• 22:45Speaker 04

  I talk to them a lot. So thank you.

• 22:47Speaker 03

  That's what started in July.

• 22:49Speaker 04

  Exactly. That's right.

• 22:50Speaker 03

  Listen guys. All right.

• 22:52Speaker 02

  All right. This is what we need. Um, so anyhow, what's going on with Calm? Obviously we have the, the lights. And I also know that Calm is in the process of expanding, doing a large expansion to be a more, you know, uh, you know, larger zoo, more exhibits, more of this, that. How does Calm Foundation and the Holiday Lights kind of play into that?

• 23:14Speaker 04

  Sure.

• 23:15Speaker 02

  That aspect?

• 23:16Speaker 04

  So the Calm Foundation basically exists to fund the master plan and the capital improvements out at Calm.

• 23:22Speaker 02

  Right.

• 23:23Speaker 04

  So Superintendent of Schools is, operates Calm. So the operation of that falls under us, but all the expansion and the work to add new exhibits is the Calm Foundation. Holiday Lights is our biggest fundraiser that benefits, as I mentioned, Calm and then Teen Challenge. And, uh, three or four, about three years ago, we did a master plan, uh, because, uh, there's so much potential out there. We're on 14 acres. We have a potential to grow another 40 acres kind of towards the soccer park.

• 23:53Speaker 02

  Yes. Yeah.

• 23:53Speaker 04

  And so we engaged one of the top zoo designers in the world, uh, to envision what could this be like? And so we have a vision for really creating the best zoo in the nation dedicated to educating people about native plants, California native plants and animals.

• 24:11Speaker 03

  I didn't know that. That is exciting.

• 24:13Speaker 04

  And that's how Calm, that's really our mission. It was founded by.

• 24:16Speaker 02

  It's the California Living Museum. It's basically, literally California animals.

• 24:20Speaker 04

  And Mike Hopkins, who was a Foothill High teacher who started Calm, he traveled all over the world and he said, everybody celebrates giraffes and elephants at zoos, but nobody's celebrating this amazing wildlife we have right here in, uh, California.

• 24:34Speaker 02

  Right.

• 24:35Speaker 04

  So that was the origins of Calm and the start and, uh, we're going to remain true to that. And, um, so much of Calm is about obviously a great family experience, but more importantly, educating our kids about what's right in their own backyard.

• 24:51Speaker 02

  Right.

• 24:51Speaker 04

  I have a grant with the State Parks Department to help get, uh, kids from mainly East Bakersfield out to explore nature. So Wind Wolves and Yosemite and Calm. And a lot of these kids have not been even to see the Kern River.

• 25:07Speaker 02

  Like outside.

• 25:07Speaker 04

  10, you know, Hard Park and, and you know, it's just, you get busy in your own neighborhood and doing your own thing, but trying to make sure kids understand, we're in this amazing Victorian ecosystem, ecosystem. And, uh, it's important that kids learn about that.

• 25:22Speaker 02

  So you're telling me there's never going to be penguins?

• 25:25Speaker 04

  Uh, probably not. I don't, something tells me penguins don't like the June weather.

• 25:30Speaker 02

  June weather, polar bears, not, not, probably not.

• 25:32Speaker 04

  Probably not cold enough.

• 25:33Speaker 02

  Okay. Okay. So literally California animals, coyotes, you know, uh, mountain lions, bears.

• 25:42Speaker 04

  People don't realize grizzly bears were once right here. Bison, uh, wolves were native to California. So the master plan calls for all those animals to come back. Uh, again, all around education and, uh, teaching kids what's out there.

• 25:56Speaker 02

  That's awesome. Hey, thank you so much for joining us today. Uh, you know, everybody that's listening, go get your tickets. Again, the, the website is.

• 26:04Speaker 04

  CalmHolidayLights.org.

• 26:06Speaker 02

  There it is. We will make sure that the, uh, the link is on the website for the podcast notes. Um, definitely go get your tickets. Take your kids out there. Good, innocent fun for the whole family. Um, and get pictures of them sitting on Santa's lap.

• 26:19Speaker 04

  That's right.

• 26:20Speaker 02

  You know, uh, you know, do that whole thing.

• 26:22Speaker 04

  Exactly.

• 26:22Speaker 02

  We will be right back.

• 26:24Speaker 04

  Thank you so much.

• 26:31Speaker 02

  Hey, welcome back to the Friday edition of the Money Wise program. I'm your host, Justin Leland, here with Debbie Lewis, taking you in to the weekend, our final segment of the day. I want to thank Steve Sanders from Calm Foundation coming in here, talking about all things Calm and, uh, the Living Museum, the zoo, um, and the Holiday Lights coming up.

• 26:53Speaker 03

  He's great.

• 26:54Speaker 02

  I really like Steve.

• 26:55Speaker 03

  You introduced me to him a few years ago and I just kind of see flashes of him out in the community.

• 27:02Speaker 02

  He's awesome.

• 27:02Speaker 03

  I would love to talk with him more.

• 27:05Speaker 02

  He's just a genuinely just good dude and, um, a lot of fun to go have a beer with and, uh, smoke a cigar in Nicaragua.

• 27:13Speaker 03

  I could do that.

• 27:14Speaker 02

  He's just a good dude. Um, so we had a couple of questions and, uh, we, we teased it at the beginning of the show, but we have a couple of really good questions that I want to kind of get into. So go for it.

• 27:25Speaker 03

  Okay. Um, hey guys, long time listener of the show out here in Taft. And I hear you guys say all of the time that we need three to six months of expenses saved for emergencies. And with everything so pricey, should we be saving that much before putting it in? Putting it in our 401k because I'm thinking of pulling back for a while until things get a little easier. You can do that, right? Ha, ha, ha, ha.

• 27:48Speaker 02

  Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you can do that. Um, the, the, the rule of thumb is obviously you want to have three to six months worth of expenses. Like your normal living expenses, not what you make. So if you make $4,000 a month, you're not saving six times $4,000 a month. If your bills are $3,500 a month, right? So what are your bills? Your, your minimum lifestyle? Like if I turned off and didn't have to buy, you know, uh, food or like if everything was at bare minimum, not going out to eat and we eat at home, kind of a thing. Figure out what your budget is and multiply that by three to six times. So if your monthly budget of all of these things is $3,000,

• 28:29Speaker 02

  then you should probably have about anywhere from $20,000 to $40,000 or so in liquid savings. So the question however is, can I do both? Can I, can I, can I save this money and still put money into my 401k? And if things are tight, which one do I kind of choose between the two? And the easy answer to that is yes, you can choose between the two. I would still say you want to put money in your 401k. You don't want to stop. And here's the reason why. You're getting free money from your employer if they offer a match. So if you're getting a match, let's say you're putting in say eight or 10% of your pay into your 401k.

• 29:10Speaker 02

  But the company match is only up to 4%. Okay. Well, if you want to draw that back, get to the point where you're putting in the minimum necessary to get that free money. Right? So if the match is 4% and you have to put in 4% to get that 4% match, at least put that in. Cause you're getting that free money. Whatever's left over, then you can put that into your emergency savings. I would still say if if that is absolutely out of the question, you cannot afford to put money into the 401k for whatever reason, obviously, your emergency savings is more important. You want to make sure that you do that. But if given the opportunity and you have that option, you're going to want to get that free money when you can, when you've got a chance to get it. I like free money. I like free money. Well, when somebody's giving you free money, what do you say? Thank you.

• 29:56Speaker 03

  Thank you.

• 29:57Speaker 02

  Thank you. Great question, though. We had another one.

• 29:59Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've got a two-year-old grandson and I'm wondering how these Trump accounts actually work. Are they something grandparents can contribute to? And how are they different from 529 college savings plans? Would it be safer to go with the 529 or one of these new accounts?

• 30:17Speaker 02

  Ooh, great question. So here's the bottom line. Here's the bottom line. Yes, grandparents can contribute to a Trump account. But in this particular question, the way you're asking it, I would say for your grandson, though, a 529 that you own is probably the better choice. Especially if the family lives in California. I would say this, the question kind of presupposes, you said the word safer. Safer isn't really the right way to compare them, because both of them are invested in stocks, bonds, mutual funds. And so safer is a relative term, and it's not necessarily the type of account, it's how it's invested.

• 30:56Speaker 02

  So that let's, let's start there. But the real differences between the Trump accounts and a 529 is control. Who controls the money? Who controls the investments? What are the tax benefits of using that account? And how, and that's where the difference lies. So how the Trump accounts work, it's basically like a traditional IRA for your child that's under the age of 18. There's a bunch of special rules about it. Parents, grandparents, or other individuals can contribute to it. And the total contributions cannot exceed $5,000 a year. This is the biggest, the first big difference. You can only put in $5,000 a year into that Trump account.

• 31:37Speaker 03

  Per child.

• 31:38Speaker 02

  Per child. Per, and each child has a different account. It's not like a multiple, it's one account per child. Here's the difference. 529 accounts, you can put in up to the, the, the gift tax maximum. What is it, $19,000 this year? There's your first big change.

• 31:54Speaker 03

  There's no cap.

• 31:55Speaker 02

  There's no base, I mean, there is a cap, but it's like, you know,

• 31:58Speaker 03

  Or yearly?

• 31:59Speaker 02

  From a, from a perspective of cap versus, you know, versus the Trump account of $5,000, a 529, you know, you can fund that with, you know, up to five times the gift tax exclusion. So you could put upwards of $100,000 in there in that first year. So big difference between those two. Secondly, the Trump account, your contributions are not deductible. It's not like a traditional IRA where you can deduct your contributions. It goes in after tax and you're paying taxes on that $5,000. Not only the initial contribution, you're not able to deduct that from your taxes. So you're paying taxes on that $5,000 that you just put in. And then all of the growth is then taxed and could be potentially penalized if

• 32:43Speaker 02

  they take it out prior to the age of 59 and a half, and all of the other things that go with that. The 529, however, basically, if you're using that for education purposes, whether it's a technical school, a graduate school, pre undergrad, you can use it for K through 12, if you want to send your grandsons, or, you know, they want to go to private school, GARSS, or something like, it could pay for that. And the, the earnings that grow on that, if you're using it for educational expenses, completely tax-free.

• 33:14Speaker 03

  But it has to be for education. There's no flexibility around that, correct?

• 33:19Speaker 02

  There, the IRS has, has relaxed the rules as to what constitutes education. So education could mean, I had to buy a laptop for my kid to go to, to college, right? Yeah, you're not able to use it for like room and board and those types of things, but you're using it for tuition, you're using it for books, you're using it for, hey, I need a tablet, I need a, you know, educational materials or whatever, I need that new laptop or whatever, that MacBook Pro or Air Pro or whatever.

• 33:49Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 33:49Speaker 02

  You can use it for that and it's, and it's tax-free, right? Now, the reason why I would say from, from a grandparents' perspective, you probably want to go the 529 route, because again, the, the parents are the ones that are going to be the ones that typically are going to want to open that, that Trump account. You also mentioned that this grandson is two years old, meaning that person was probably born in 2024, which means you don't get the free money. Trump accounts come with them. If you, if the child was born in 25 or, or future, then there's $1,000 for you that the government puts in for you. So that would be the, you know, if he was just born, he was like one year old, and you wanted to get that free $1,000, then maybe you open up that account for that purpose, but I would still

• 34:34Speaker 02

  go ahead and open that 529.

• 34:35Speaker 03

  So what happens if the grandson, in this case, decides, I don't want to go to school? Then what happens with the 529?

• 34:43Speaker 02

  This is the beauty part. If you have a grandchild that's like, look, I'm not really into college, I'm not going to do the tech school, I'm just going to go into the workforce immediately. As the grandparent, you're the owner of that 529, and the child is quote unquote, the beneficiary. You can change the beneficiary to a different grandchild who would probably go to, or a nephew.

• 35:04Speaker 03

  But what if, okay, let's assume there are no other

• 35:07Speaker 02

  Other children.

• 35:08Speaker 03

  Children in this person's life.

• 35:10Speaker 02

  Then up to $35,000 of that 529 can be converted into a Roth IRA for that child who decided not to go to college. It's a head start on their retirement. Now, if you have $100,000 in your 529, that means there's still $65,000 that's unaccounted for. There are some rules and prohibitions, you know, prohibitions on that and tax benefits, you know, tax penalties and things like that.

• 35:36Speaker 03

  What is it, like 10%?

• 35:37Speaker 02

  Yeah, the 10%, like pre, you know, early retirement, kind of same kind of penalties you get from an IRA. But the fact that you're able to take $35,000 of it and convert that over to a Roth IRA for that beneficiary is a great option. So hopefully that answers the questions. I'm not against the Trump accounts, but you just have to be very careful about kind of the way the rules are set up, and who's going to benefit, and, and who the owner of that account is, and who's going to be the beneficiary. And there's, there's some weird rules around it. So just be, just be careful. I would, I would rather go 529 in this case than, than the Trump account.

• 36:12Speaker 03

  Gotcha. I'm ready for the next one?

• 36:15Speaker 02

  Hit me.

• 36:15Speaker 03

  All right. We had a trust drawn up about five years ago, but someone recently mentioned that a trust has to be funded to work. What does that even mean? How do we know if everything is set up correctly? Also, I may be too late, and if so, or yeah, if so, can you share the attorney that you had on the show recently? And maybe they can help out. Thank you. And this is Dan.

• 36:38Speaker 02

  I believe, I believe that was Kyle Jones, right? Yeah, he was on yesterday. He was on yesterday. So 833-1090, 1090, 833-1090 at the law offices of Kyle Jones. So to, to get to the answer of what does a funding mean? So it simply means that you put the assets into the name of the trust. That's it. So you wrote the trust, so you have the trust set up, and the document is there saying, hey, all of my assets are going to go to these people, and this is how it's set up, and guardianship for the kids is all set up and everything. But you failed to, say, put your home into the name of the trust. That's, you, you have an unfunded trust.

• 37:19Speaker 03

  Meaning the, the documents for the house need to specify

• 37:24Speaker 02

  That the trust owns the house. The, the name of the trust. Yeah. Yeah.

• 37:30Speaker 03

  So and so trust.

• 37:33Speaker 02

  Right. So then whatever the name of your trust is, you need to go down to the recorder's office and make sure that you, and I think it's like $90 to $100 or something like that to, to do a title transfer. So basically, you need to go in and make sure that your house is named into the name of the trust.

• 37:48Speaker 03

  On the title of the house. Okay.

• 37:50Speaker 02

  So that

• 37:50Speaker 03

  I get confused by this, too. Does that like, or is it the reverse where, okay?

• 37:55Speaker 02

  So, you know, if, if, so Debbie, if you were to go out and buy a house and you name, you bought it as, under the name of Debbie Lewis, that's fine, you can hold it that way.

• 38:06Speaker 03

  As an individual, not as a trust.

• 38:08Speaker 02

  Right. You could buy it that way. But once you go out and get a trust document created for you, that's where you would want to then rename the property into the name of the trust.

• 38:18Speaker 03

  So is that an easy amendment?

• 38:20Speaker 02

  Typically, the trust will already have that written in there, and the lawyer, the attorney, should give you all of the letters and everything you need to send in to make sure that those things are done. So you want to name, you know, your, you know, checking and savings accounts, maybe a brokerage account, those types of things you want to put into the name of the trust, or at least have the trust named as the beneficiary of those accounts. You do not.

• 38:47Speaker 03

  Car title?

• 38:48Speaker 02

  Car, because cars you change enough to where maybe it's not super beneficial to go that route.

• 38:55Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 38:55Speaker 02

  But like large, you know, if you have real estate and properties and, you know, rentals, and you, let's say you have an LLC, you probably want to have the shares of the LLC owned by the trust, or

• 39:04Speaker 03

  What about your 401k?

• 39:06Speaker 02

  Absolutely not.

• 39:07Speaker 03

  Why not?

• 39:08Speaker 02

  That is a tax time bomb. So 401k is different because it is what's known as a qualified account. It's a tax qualified account through the IRS. So your IRA, your 401k, unless there's very specific circumstances that warrant this, and I'm, I'm speaking very, like, maybe 1% of the time, this makes sense. 99% of the time, you do not want to name the trust as a beneficiary of your 401k, your IRA, or any other retirement account. The reason for that is that when you take income from a 401k or an IRA, that's considered income

• 39:51Speaker 02

  to you, and it's taxable at the time you take that distribution, right? It is, in, in the case of this, you pass away, that 401k goes into the trust, the entire 401k is considered income at that moment. And there's one tax bracket for trusts. There's not this, this weird kind of, oh, 10% here, 12% there, 17%, it's 40%. So imagine you have a million-dollar 401k, and you have the trust named as the beneficiary mistakenly, your beneficiaries are going to get only $600,000, because the trust will have been taxed on that 400, that that million dollars, to the point where $400,000 goes to Uncle Sam before you even receive

• 40:33Speaker 02

  those funds. So it's better to name an individual as the beneficiary of those accounts, because then that person then has the choice to distribute those assets how they see fit and pay the taxes according to how they would need to pay those taxes, rather than a one-size-fits-all.

• 40:50Speaker 03

  Okay. What about if there are two, like, the beneficiary, say, passes away as well?

• 40:58Speaker 02

  So then you want to make sure that you have contingent.

• 41:01Speaker 03

  Of in, you know.

• 41:03Speaker 02

  Incapacity.

• 41:04Speaker 03

  Yeah, so that starts to get complicated.

• 41:07Speaker 02

  Yeah, so in most cases with an IRA or something like that, a 401k, you're already going to have named beneficiaries. Typically, you're going to have named, you know, children. Ideally, ideally, you need to have beneficiaries named. That primary beneficiary, if that primary beneficiary predeceases you, one, if there's enough time, you should have already renamed another primary beneficiary. Otherwise, if you haven't and you've named that beneficiary properly, and that person predeceases you, you would want to make sure you have contingent beneficiaries beyond that primary beneficiary. So in the event that, you know, Debbie's my beneficiary on my 401k and Debbie passes away before I do,

• 41:49Speaker 02

  I would have contingent beneficiaries of all of the other people that I want to donate that money to or give that money to, whether it be charity or other people or whatever. But you want to name beneficiaries. This question popped in just now and it said, can I have more than one trust? Absolutely. I know of many people that have a revocable trust, which is their, their personal family trust. And then they might have multiple different irrevocable trusts, where it's like a charitable remainder trust or a spousal trust or some other format. You can have multiple trusts. Just make sure that you've got them all dialed in properly and you're talking to your estate attorney to make sure that you're doing the proper things, because that can get really messy.

• 42:30Speaker 03

  Keep them up to date.

• 42:31Speaker 02

  Keep them up to date.

• 42:32Speaker 03

  Every couple of years, right? You want to look at those, have them amended if needed.

• 42:36Speaker 02

  I actually look at my trust annually right around the first of the year.

• 42:39Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 42:39Speaker 02

  It's, it's a good time. I'm not, I'm not at work, you know, for that last week of the year. And I'll break it open and say, is there anything I need to change?

• 42:45Speaker 03

  Hmm, nothing says relaxing holidays like let's pull out the old trust.

• 42:51Speaker 02

  Uh, maybe you do it this weekend. Be smart, be safe, be money wise. We'll see you next week.