12/17/25 Purpose, Wellness, and Giving Back: Inside the Thrive & Purpose Foundation

The Moneywise Radio Show and Podcast Wednesday, December 17th BE MONEYWISE. Moneywise Wealth Management I "The Moneywise Radio Show & Podcast" call: 661-847-1000 text in anytime: 661-396-1000 website: www. MoneywiseGuys.com facebook: Moneywise_Wealth_Management LinkedIn: Moneywise_Wealth_Management Guest: Dr. Rasham Sandhu, Cardiologist website: https://cacvinst.com/ Thrive and Purpose Foundation: https://thriveandpurposefoundation.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. Dr. Rasham Sandhu and their company are not affiliated with nor endorsed by LPL Financial or Moneywise Wealth Management].

• 0:00Speaker 00

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

• 0:30Speaker 01

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

• 0:40Speaker 00

  Here is Money Wise.

• 0:42Speaker 02

  Money, money, money.

• 0:47Speaker 02

  Trying to do Gero, but there's only one Gero in the world.

• 0:51Speaker 03

  You almost had it. You almost had it.

• 0:53Speaker 02

  Almost, almost. Welcome to the Money Wise Show. We are live from the second floor of the historic Woolworths Building in downtown Bakersfield. For the next hour, you are on KGO Money Talk, 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. That's 661-396-1000. I am your host, Sammy Abiyaw. We're here with...

• 1:22Speaker 03

  Seth Perry. Glad to be here with you, Sammy. It's our first rodeo, I believe, right?

• 1:27Speaker 02

  This is the inaugural...

• 1:28Speaker 03

  Yes, a whole year.

• 1:29Speaker 02

  Your sure best show on radio.

• 1:33Speaker 03

  Get your sound bites ready, Stephen. Get them ready, man, for our commercials.

• 1:36Speaker 02

  That's right. And in production, in production, we have our senior producer, none than, other than Stephen. Stephen, the man.

• 1:45Speaker 02

  Stephen, Stephen owes me a hot dog at the Woolworths, guys, and I have yet to get paid. He did offer yesterday.

• 1:51Speaker 00

  It's been one day. It's been one day.

• 1:54Speaker 02

  Yeah. I'm just, I'm just a little bit bitter because I'm outside of the race in our fantasy football.

• 2:02Speaker 00

  I was gonna say, you wanna bring that up?

• 2:04Speaker 02

  I do because look,

• 2:05Speaker 03

  Let's talk about it.

• 2:06Speaker 02

  Even, even, even the Chiefs, even the Chiefs were taken out this year. So greatness sometimes, I mean, I'm still great. I mean, I won last year. But, but this year you guys, you guys took advantage of me.

• 2:20Speaker 03

  Being very busy.

• 2:22Speaker 02

  Yes, yes. Seth is very happy.

• 2:25Speaker 03

  Yeah, so far so good. It's just numbers, probabilities and lucky guessing, I guess. Some of it. It's so funny that my, the, the auto draft for Money Wise League did a lot better than my actual draft in my other league that I'm already out of. So anyway.

• 2:41Speaker 02

  The only reason I won last year is the auto draft.

• 2:44Speaker 00

  Watch out because Chris Pelster's team is on fire.

• 2:47Speaker 03

  I know, man. I got a tough match this weekend for sure. Tough match.

• 2:51Speaker 02

  Well, I'm rooting for you, Seth.

• 2:53Speaker 03

  Thank you, man. I appreciate it.

• 2:54Speaker 02

  Well, let's, let's dive into it, Seth. Market, how, how is the market looking today?

• 2:59Speaker 03

  The market got kicked in the shorts today. I don't want our listeners to panic, but the S and P is down about 1.2%. Dow Jones down about half a percent and the biggest kick went to NASDAQ, down about 2%. There's just a lot of, there's still a lot of issues with Oracle. I know one of the things I was reading up on earlier is, I believe it's Blue Owl. The largest investor for one of Oracle's mega facilities. Maybe it's out in Texas, but they backed out of a $10 billion funding for that project. And so there's just a lot of, a lot of stuff, a lot of noise, a lot of noise around the AI bubble and AI what's going on, but

• 3:41Speaker 03

  just ask our listeners to take a one month step back and the NASDAQ is dead even. Year to date, it's up 18%. So it's definitely not time to hit the panic button. This is, this is pretty normal for what's going on, but I don't think anyone truly knows, Sammy, what's going to happen with AI and, and, and everything. I will tell you this and then I'll be quiet. It's my reverb coffee, man. It's just flowing through my veins right now. But the biggest thing going on with AI is it's a complete landscape change from how everyone's always done business. And basically, it's going to take two to three to four years just to build the infrastructure, right? And so as an investor, I think there's some confidence

• 4:23Speaker 03

  there. You're going to see the volatility, but they're having to build out a completely new way of doing life, using AI, keeping these these processors cool and all the companies involved. So I'm not worried about it. It's just expect to see a lot of ups and downs on the roller coaster. What do you think, Sammy?

• 4:40Speaker 02

  I would agree with you as far as just three to four years, maybe five, and maybe sooner, depending on when technology typically changes, it changes fast. And in the case of AI, because the whole world is behind it, I think it's going to be a little bit faster than, you know, let's say when we started EVs or EVs were new, it took a little bit of time to adopt for adoption, not AI. And I think the reason there is because the impact it has on whatever industry you're in, if you're not using it, you're going to fall behind, in my opinion. That's probably why I'm confident, or I feel that it will be

• 5:21Speaker 02

  faster to adopt and also keep, keep, keep growing, in my opinion.

• 5:27Speaker 03

  Yeah, I think the, oh, go ahead, Steve.

• 5:29Speaker 02

  No, I was gonna say, I was gonna say, is it a bubble? Is it not a bubble? I think if I had that ability to recognize that, I'd be a billionaire. I just don't know what we don't know. And but I do know this, if you're not using AI, you're going to fall behind, in my opinion.

• 5:46Speaker 03

  Absolutely, absolutely, 100%. And one of the biggest issues with AI is it requires such an insane amount of power.

• 5:55Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 5:55Speaker 03

  And I was listening to from from our own LPL Financial, the CEO was on and he had one of their chief economists on and they were talking things over and the biggest bottleneck in this building out this infrastructure is power.

• 6:08Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 6:08Speaker 03

  They just don't have enough. They can't get enough power to these machines. And then the second thing was cooling, which is

• 6:14Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 6:15Speaker 03

  It's crazy. I mean, they build these mega warehouses full of processing units and it's very expensive to get them cool. I mean, you just lean down by the, just put your hand behind your TV and it's barely doing any processing and it's putting out a bunch of heat. And so it's going to be interesting to see. But like we always say, you know, I wouldn't try to pick and choose these AI companies or these IPOs just being invested in a well balanced portfolio. You're partaking in in AI, whether you realize it or not.

• 6:44Speaker 02

  That's correct. I agree with you there. I do agree with you there. We have a couple of questions. I don't know if you want to jump into that, Seth.

• 6:51Speaker 03

  Let's do it.

• 6:52Speaker 02

  And the first one, I think definitely geared up for you. For someone like myself, that's five, six years away from retirement, what should we be reviewing in our portfolio before the end of the year? That's a very good question.

• 7:05Speaker 03

  That's a wonderful question. To be honest, as far as an end of year portfolio evaluation, you know, you could be looking at sneaking in some Roth conversions. A lot of advisors, a lot of YouTube channels talk a lot about Roth conversions, but to be honest, they're not done that often because usually it might not pencil out. It's usually, in my own experience, not the best. It's not super common, but that is on that is on the table. If you can work with your payroll, if it's not too late, if you've got, if there's any way you can make some extra contributions toward the the end year, we'll definitely look at doing that before the end of the year. But when you when you drill down into this

• 7:49Speaker 03

  question, it's for someone like myself, five to six years away from retirement, what should we be reviewing in our overall portfolio, regardless of the year end? So I think a lot of people start to make the mistake of worrying about running out of their money when they hit the quote unquote finish line at retirement.

• 8:07Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 8:08Speaker 03

  But retirement is not the finish line. When you pass on from this earth, that's the finish line. And so you want to make sure that you're not panicking, you're not getting too conservative with your portfolio, because once you reach the finish line, if you shifted all the cash. You're not going to be able to even keep up with inflation and all your hard work over 10, 20, 40 years could erode away very quickly, right? The biggest thing you can do, and this isn't just a plug for what we do as advisors at MoneyWise, but you really do need to start working with a professional. You need to sit down across the table from an advisor that you trust. Referral, find one by asking around, you know, if you don't have an advisor, call us here at MoneyWise.

• 8:52Speaker 03

  But there's so much to this industry and we live it every day and it is challenging to keep up with everything that's going on. So for the do it yourself investor, if you've, if you've done a great job, you've, you've built up your portfolio, maybe you've taken on a lot of risk and it's paid off for you. You have a lot more that you need to take into consideration now because the ultimate goal is giving as little as possible to the US government. And there's so many different tax strategies around how to do this, distribution strategies. And then, you know, building out your portfolio, most people, they just have it in a few different funds. Now you need to start looking at something like a buckets approach where you have a, a big pile of cash set aside for maybe two years worth of expenses. So that you can weather a storm like a 2008.

• 9:38Speaker 03

  And I actually ran some numbers. Do I have time to share something here, Sammy?

• 9:42Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 9:43Speaker 03

  So if you had a typical 60-40 portfolio, if you're, you're entering into retirement, you have a, actually you're, you're five to six years before retirement. You have a 60-40 portfolio. If you don't know what that means, that means 60% of your investments are in stocks. 40% are in bonds, which tend to be a little safer, right? What would happen if 2008 happened next year? What would happen to a million dollar portfolio? And the point I want to make here is stay, you have to stay the course. You can't panic.

• 10:17Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 10:17Speaker 03

  So in 2008, a million dollars would have dropped down in a 60-40 portfolio. Again, this is, you know, hypothetical averages.

• 10:25Speaker 02

  Yes, yeah.

• 10:25Speaker 03

  It would have dropped to 800 grand. So right off the top, you know, your huge nest egg drops 20% down to 800,000. What you don't want to do is panic and get out of the market because what you're going to miss out on is what then happened over the next few years. Again, not a predictor of what's happened in the future. We're just looking at historical data. So your portfolio drops to 800K. In 2009, the market in a 6040 went up 18%. So now you're back up to 944,000. You're almost back to even. 2010, up another 11%. 2011 is a pretty flat year. Then 2012, another solid year. So now in 2012, you've built your portfolio up to about $1.2 million.

• 11:10Speaker 03

  Again, had you panicked, that could have cost you $400,000 over a six-year period. And again, that's where we, that's where we come in as advisors and we're your financial we educate you about these cycles. Obviously, we're going to do whatever is comfortable with your risk tolerance. You really want to lean on a pro. Anything to add to that, Sammy?

• 11:33Speaker 02

  Yeah, I was just gonna say, if you were, if, to me, life events is you buying a house, first time buying a house. A bigger life event, in my opinion, is retirement. And, and, and I think what you're describing is there are avenues for people to take so they're not, they don't have to do it on their own. They don't have to do it alone. There is help. And, and again, I agree with you. This is not just a plug for, for MoneyWise, but truly, truly, that life event needs coaching, needs help. So find yourself someone that can coach, hold your hand, train, whatever you want to say, just help you get to that, that,

• 12:15Speaker 02

  that next phase of your, of your life. And I agree with you. It is not the end. Retirement is not the end. It's the start of another phase of your life in hopes, in hopes that It's what you've worked really hard towards, you know, maybe some vacation with your grandkids, maybe buying that RV, maybe just going on vacations, whatever that lifestyle you've been working super hard for. Hopefully you work with someone that can get you there and help you get there.

• 12:42Speaker 03

  That's a great point. And then a couple of things come to mind when you're talking, Sammy, is it extends beyond your life. If you want to do some what we call legacy planning, you want to pass some money on down to the generations, that's another area where, you know, we're partner with a lot of wonderful estate planning attorneys in town and we can point you in the right direction. Cause it's not just about getting to the the finish line when you when you are laid to rest, but if you're wanting to make sure your family pays as little taxes as possible. You're wanting to pass things on.

• 13:13Speaker 02

  Charities, for instance, that's options that are available to you.

• 13:17Speaker 03

  Yeah. The favorite parts of my job is giving my clients permission to spend their money. I know it might sound funny coming from an advisor, but it's true. A lot of people, they work so hard and they don't have the confidence to to start to do some some giving while they're alive. They want to leave this nest egg behind, but no, you should start giving now. Establish some college accounts for your for your grandkids. Pay a house off for for your son or daughter. There's a lot of really neat things we can do.

• 13:44Speaker 02

  I agree. We have one more question before before we go on on break and bring back Dr. Sandu. I'm not sure if I'm asking the right people, but I've been a long time listener and figured out you could push me in the right direction. First question is, does the diner cater events? And if so, does it have to be low on location or can it be picked up? Number two, will the diner ever be on FoodX or Uber Eats? I don't live in downtown area, but would love to be able to order the food for delivery if possible. God bless.

• 14:23Speaker 02

  Definitely, we are working on getting on some type of a platform. Hopefully, by the first of the year, we ironed out all the kinks as far as online ordering, the speed with which we can get the food out of the kitchen, keeping the quality, of course. Just the packaging itself, so the fries are not sweaty when they get to your house. Those are all details we're trying to work out right now, but stay tuned. We have two platforms that management is eventually gonna choose from, but we'll definitely look into our social media for updates on that. The goal is, hopefully, first of the year, we're on some type of a platform for delivery.

• 15:08Speaker 02

  Yes, we do have catering, and it can be onsite or picked up. Again, that's something that's in the works. By 1-1-2026, we will have the catering menu ready, and we'll definitely publish that on our website, social media. Definitely very much appreciate the involvement of the community and the fact that people are looking at additional things that we can provide out of the building. So, thank you very much for this question and comment.

• 15:40Speaker 03

  How about the basement, Sammy? Do you have any update, or maybe after the break, we can give kind of an update there?

• 15:46Speaker 02

  Yeah, a quick update is the basement is basically ready and done. However, we are waiting for the elevator to be finished. Unfortunately, there are multiple levels of inspections that need to get done, so the state inspector is not available until the 29th. That's not something we have control of. He's gonna come out, hopefully, in the 29th. We feel good about our elevator and the fact that we're gonna pass that inspection. And right as soon as we get his okay, we'll move into local inspections with the fire department, the city, and the county. And we're hoping that in the first two weeks of January, we'll be up and running.

• 16:31Speaker 02

  The basement is an amazing venue, it's gonna be an amazing venue. It can hold events from corporate events to concerts to comedy shows. So, it's a great addition to downtown and Bakersfield in general.

• 16:45Speaker 03

  Awesome. Come on.

• 16:49Speaker 02

  We'll take our first break. Stephen, when we come back, we'll introduce Dr. Sandhu and talk a little bit about wellness at year end as well as Thrive and Purpose Foundation. We'll be right back.

• 16:58Speaker 00

  Have you been putting off your finances? Seize the day. Call the Money Wise office at 661-847-1000 or email [email protected] for more information.

• 17:13Speaker 02

  Welcome to the Money Wise Show. Sammy Abiyawi with Seth Ferry. And we're joined here with the doctor, a very good friend of the show, a very good friend of Money Wise, a very good friend of mine, Dr. Rasham Sandhu, CEO. And today I'll give you this, Doc. You're the CEO of Thrive and Purpose. That's what we want to talk about. But you're also the CEO of your medical practice, a thriving medical practice here in town. And we're very, very happy to have you with us today, Doc. Welcome.

• 17:45Speaker 04

  Thank you. Thank you, Sam. Appreciate you having me.

• 17:48Speaker 02

  We want to start with talking about the foundation that you've created and started. What is it, about a year and a half ago?

• 17:56Speaker 04

  Yeah, I believe so. Yeah, about a year and a half. Yes.

• 17:58Speaker 02

  So Thrive and Purpose is a local foundation in Bakersfield that got started by Dr. Sandhu and some board members, including myself. What inspired you to start the foundation, Doc?

• 18:11Speaker 04

  So Sam, I've been here in this community for about 15 years. And of course, this has become home. And seeing thousands of patients over these 15 years and the pattern that kind of kept sticking out was, yes, our poor need help and there is a fair number of government programs, which is good. The people with means and money don't need help. And it's our middle class, which is

• 18:39Speaker 04

  Like have worked hard all their life. And then like you retire or you're close to retiring or you get sick and have to retire. And suddenly you have two or three chronic medical medical conditions. And now your monthly medical bill is like five hundred, seven hundred. It's like absurd. And then they're having to make difficult choices on, okay, we cut down on food or we cut down on this or that. And the years that were supposed to be good after all those hard years of working su- suddenly turned terrible. And it just like breaks your heart to think that way. So thi- this is just an effort to help that bridge that gap where we can

• 19:19Speaker 04

  in terms of medications or medical supplies or just which.

• 19:25Speaker 02

  Transportation, I think you.

• 19:27Speaker 04

  Exactly, transportation costs, I mean, gas is expensive. So the the goal is to provide help, be helpful where we can. Because I I think part of being a doctor, we associate with, okay, people come sick, you treat them. But I think if you go back to how medicine used to be, the doctor kind of tries to help you in living a healthy, wholesome life, not just provide medicine.

• 19:54Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 19:56Speaker 02

  Yes, uh, it's not about just coming in for a shot. It's what happens before the shot.

• 20:01Speaker 04

  Exactly.

• 20:01Speaker 02

  What type of lifestyle, what type of needs you might have, or we can help you. Or sometimes it's just coaching the the people because of lack of knowledge. Lifestyle might be the the the best for them. So I do agree with you. Uh, as far as just, uh, uh, I mean, I know you've talked about this this part of the middle class. In our in our business, we see a lot of people on fixed income. They're nearing retirement and they start not panicking. Uh, Seth was talking about this right before the break. They're gonna be on fixed income. Do you see, do you see that at the foundational level? The need for, for such people that are having to come in and make choices? And what does the foundation do for them?

• 20:46Speaker 04

  So we see a fair number of these people and there, there is, I mean, the sad part is you see them everywhere. And these are people who are like your neighbors who have worked hard all their life. And it's some coach, it's some realtor who retired, it's like a former cop. And you never think that, I mean, if you, unless you know the story, you wouldn't guess it. And they, like, three medical conditions, okay? You got diabetes, you have like irregular heartbeat, AFib, and you need a blood thinner, and those are not cheap. And most insurances leave like a part hanging for you. So it's, it doesn't remain a choice at that point.

• 21:31Speaker 04

  So, yes, to answer your question, yes, you see them every day. There is a big community out there that needs help. And what we have tried to do is, we, we had to be honest with ourselves, how we want to help everyone, how much we can. And we started out with one disease, then added on two, and re- most recently, we expanded it to very, very blanket, almost everything. And the, the goal is, we, we want to get to you, to help you, whether you, if you need help with the medications. There is a grant that we can provide. It may not cover everything, but we'll come up with help where we can.

• 22:12Speaker 04

  We'll provide, if the medical transportation costs become an issue, we'll provide help with that. And my favorite part, which is still in process, and that we are going to hopefully build this year, is two things. One is the pharmacy. Part where we liaison directly with the pharmacies to. Because a lot of times, one pharmacy may charge you a lot, but the other one may put in the extra work to try to get something approved. So we want to reward those pharmacies that will actually put in the work to help our patients. Get the medications for less. And if that's where we need to chip in our dollars that we provide for grant, we'll go a little further for them.

• 22:52Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 22:53Speaker 04

  And the second part of it is the healthcare navigation, which I believe will be the most challenging part to build, but at the same time, most rewarding. Because loneliness is an epidemic here. And these, a lot of people, once they are sick, they are not in medicine. I mean, you're educated. I'm a doctor. We have a question. You go online, you do your research or you ask a friend. And me being a doctor, I'll know, okay, maybe we should do this, maybe we should do that critically appraised things. But for a lot of our population, that information is not readily available. You can go online and find as many things to scare you as there are to help you. And that's where some of our retired healthcare force or the ones who are willing to donate some time.

• 23:38Speaker 04

  They can come in and like maybe be that help. To navigate this complex healthcare that we have, help hold their hand and walk them through it. Some of these older people, it becomes very challenging.

• 23:51Speaker 02

  Yes. Yes. Seth, any, any, anything?

• 23:56Speaker 03

  Yeah, it, it, it makes me think of uh something I was listening to. I'm not sure if you, do you know Adrian Gonzalez? Not sure if you know him. He moved up north. Um but, but one of the things they're seeing is, you know. Doctors will prescribe these prescriptions and assume that the patient is taking them and they might not even be taking them. That's, that's a problem, but. Uh, related to what you're talking about, it's.

• 24:20Speaker 03

  If they're too embarrassed to ask for help. You know, a lot of people, they're just embarrassed or shy. And how do you help overcome that? And how do you get the word out there about your program?

• 24:35Speaker 04

  So we've been trying a couple of different things. So we have placed flyers in a lot of primary care offices where you can scan the barcode and get on the application. The application is very objective and very confidential. So if you fill in the application, one of our people will get in contact with you. And if you need help, like to fill out that application, we'll even help you with that. And then there is a very objective scoring system that we have. You meet that cutoff, which means by our definition, you do need help. And it is kind of, it does allow for significant variations on either side. But it's, we wanted to keep it very objective. So it's not like I'm favoring someone who I like or not like.

• 25:18Speaker 04

  The system is very objective when it comes to board approval. You meet the score, the application is approved. And then, I mean, we'll go with as many as we can help. I mean, one part of it is how much funds do we have? How many can we help? We'll help as many as we can. And then if we need to work on it, we'll work more and try to get to the others that we haven't gotten to. But it's, I mean, I'll start with one.

• 25:42Speaker 03

  Yeah, I looked at your application online. Like you said, it's very simple, very straightforward. I do have to share that I watched one of your videos on there about, I don't know that I should, well, the names Maria and Bradley, they're on your website. So, but that's a very touching video. And I think hearing it too, from that perspective, it was, it was very touching. And I don't know if you can speak to them. I believe they may have been your first recipients.

• 26:09Speaker 04

  No, they weren't the first recipients, but it just so happened that we were going to do our event for Thrive on Purpose to introduce it to the world. We had already started work, but this was just our introduction to the community. And we were shooting some patients and, I mean, Bradley got sick. And, I mean, again, same story. He's been gainfully employed, working hard all his life. He did the right things. And then life hits you hard like this and medical care is not cheap. And so we were recording him in the hospital.

• 26:41Speaker 04

  Unbestone to us, I mean, he continued getting sick and the day after video was shot, he died. And it just, I mean, it it just shows you, I mean, this is not the guy you would think who would need help. And thi- this is a lot of our population because frankly, I mean, when you can't work, the funds go down the drain with healthcare very quick.

• 27:04Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 27:04Speaker 04

  Everything is just ungodly expensive.

• 27:07Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 27:07Speaker 04

  And these are nice people. They are your neighbors. I mean, it's just heartbreaking that those choices have to be made in today's day and age here.

• 27:17Speaker 02

  In order for us to have a foundation, in order for us to help people, we definitely need the means for that. And in this case, it's our funds. We need funds to fund the foundation, these grants and these great people that live in our community but are in need. I want to talk to you, Doctor, after the break, after we come back, I want to talk to you about avenues, how we can put the name of the foundation out there, how we can get people to to help from your perspective. When we're back.

• 27:44Speaker 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 six six one eight four seven one thousand. That's six six one eight four seven one thousand.

• 28:09Speaker 02

  Welcome back to the Money Wise Show. I'm Sami Abiyawi with Seth Perry, here with Dr. Sandhu, CEO of Thrive and Purpose Foundation. We have a listener question. Can you share the website again? Would love to read more about about it. So it's thriveandpurposefoundation.org. And Stephen will definitely will eventually put it on the podcast notes. So you can have that available to you. Thank you for the comment. Keep those coming. Dr. Sandhu, this community is a very given community, in my experience. How can we get people to go to the website and donate, get involved with the foundation?

• 28:54Speaker 04

  So it's we are a young foundation, Sam, so we will take all the help that we can get. Um, on the website, you can click on the contribute tab or donate. And I mean, we'll take small, big, medium, whatever anyone can help with. Uh, what I want people to know is this is a one hundred percent to the needy. Give away there. It's a zero overhead foundation. All the overhead is borne by us. So what you give, one hundred percent goes to people who need.

• 29:30Speaker 02

  Okay. Um, and and and on the website, uh, you can do both. You can apply for the grant. And you also can donate and the donations are single payment, monthly subscriptions, yearly subscription. Um, and and are there, are you planning on any events or big events where people can uh, attend, let's say, a gala or or or some type of um, a dinner where they can buy a plate or a table and donate that way?

• 30:01Speaker 04

  So this year, we are hoping uh, around springtime and we'll make that public to have a pickleball tournament for Thriving Purpose. To bring people together, kind of have uh, informals gathering. People can have fun. There'll be other things around that event also. And uh, it's having fun together, raising some money that we can use to help the needy. And then towards the later part of the year, possibly another event coming up. And we'll make those plans public. Also, I want to find out, point out, whatever you donate is tax deductible. Of course, it's the five oh, five oh one C foundation. So that is tax deductible on that.

• 30:43Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's great. The foundation, I I I am a little bit biased towards the foundation because I am a board member. But I'm also a a board member that started the foundation with Dr. Sandu. Uh, when we talked about this, I don't know, five years ago, we both got very, very passionate about. The need, I have elderly parents and I'm blessed in fact that I have people like Doctor Sanju in my life that can help and support me whenever I'm in need, but others don't have that. So this is a great avenue for people that wanna get involved and help. And the website is one avenue.

• 31:19Speaker 02

  Is there a vol- you can, can you volunteer with?

• 31:23Speaker 04

  Yes, we are building the volunteer portal and I do believe towards the second quarter of this year. Hopefully, we will have some part of that going live. The complexity of the volunteer portal, you would think that would be the simplest one. But the complexity in today's day and age of building a volunteer portal where we, you, we need to make sure we don't expose our elderly, vulnerable population to someone who can take advantage of them. And most people are good, we have good, helpful people coming for us, but there are all kinds of actors and we just want to be able to protect them better. So that's what's taking a minute, but we hope in, in, by, in second quarter, we will be able to

• 32:04Speaker 04

  uh come up with some avenues where you can volunteer your time also to help.

• 32:11Speaker 02

  Great, great. Um, before we actually get sick and need this medication, I think there is ways for us to prevent certain diseases, doctor. I think what I would like to talk to you about next is especially year end. Bunch of food, bunch of chocolates coming to your office and all the goodies and you keep on eating that. What, what are some of the things that we should be looking out for doing at year end from a wellness standpoint?

• 32:45Speaker 04

  I think, I mean traditionally, you know, the commonest thing is new year starts and you do all sorts of health resolutions. And by the thirteenth of the month, no one is keeping any of them up. So a year end, I believe is a good time to reflect, assess where we are on healthcare, we, we like to put money in our future, right? That's what Money Wise does. You bring money in, we invest in your future, so in your older years, you can actually take that out and live well. I believe the body works the same way. You invest in it in terms of health, muscle mass. The more you have, the easier you're going to get up in your senior years and do the things that you love to do. If you like playing with your grandkids, playing with your pets.

• 33:29Speaker 04

  You're not gonna be able to do that if you don't have enough strength in your legs. And that's, that's very common, actually commoner than you think it is.

• 33:38Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 33:38Speaker 04

  So that's certainly one part of it. Of course, the food that we ate, like any car, you put good fuel, you're going to run it well, the engine will go a long way. And like getting rid of processed foods. Uh, of course, sugar and refined and processed carbs are a big problem. By same token, processed meats. Meat is otherwise good, clean, organic meat. And not exposed to chemicals because I mean, when we eat an animal, you eat everything that the animal ate. So that's one way to think about it. If the animal was fed on a diet that's poor and pro-inflammatory to the animal. We are eating all that in a concentrated form.

• 34:22Speaker 04

  So which is why when I talk to my patients, a lot of times we'll go through, yes, clean chicken, fish, turkey. Um, wild salmon or wild, wild caught fish. And then, of course, if you go with beef and some of the other stuff, I'm not totally opposed to red meat. But I would go with grass-fed beef, not corn-fed or. Uh, farm-fed beef, that's a different animal if you think of it.

• 34:50Speaker 03

  That's true.

• 34:51Speaker 04

  Uh.

• 34:51Speaker 03

  Is there any um preventative testing or anything, any new type of testing, new technology? Uh, I was thinking of the cal- uh, calcium score. I've had a calcium score done, I don't even know what it means exactly. My doctor just said, yeah, you're okay for now, but anything new on the horizon that, that you can share with the listeners?

• 35:09Speaker 04

  So there is, I mean, calcium score is of course one of them. And if it's zero, it has a very good predictive value that you're likely okay in terms of anatomic blockages in the heart. But the disease starts at a metabolic level to start with, which means how your body's operating system is. That's where the disease starts before it manifests and the blockages and whatnot. So there are se- several blood tests that you can do, like people would talk about, okay, check fasting blood glucose or whatnot, check cholesterol. Those are age old tests, but by the time your A one C, which is a measure of diabetes or pre-diabetes, by the time that goes up, you've been at it for a few years already. So in that regard, their tests like HOMA IR, which actually may detect it a lot sooner.

• 35:54Speaker 04

  Fasting insulin check in the morning, they may detect that you're on your way to insulin resistance. And if you don't do anything about it in three to five years, you may be pre-diabetic and then subsequently diabetes. So when you see that coming, there is that much more of an opportunity to turn it around and fix it before you actually run into that problem. Then the hormonal testing in the world around us on this hormones is changing for the longest time after women's health initiative, like 20 years, we thought, okay, hormones are bad supplementation is bad. But now the whole paradigm is being reassessed and it may be a time if you feel like for males, the testosterone supplementation for some patients, it may be reasonable.

• 36:36Speaker 04

  For women, supplementation of hormones, a post-menopausal for some, it may be reasonable. But even before that, like if you're in the stress laden world that we live in tired and wired situation.

• 36:49Speaker 02

  Hmm.

• 36:50Speaker 04

  And the chronic stress that kind of wrecks havoc on your body. Pretty much increases the risk of all diseases, including diabetes, heart disease, dementia, you name it.

• 36:59Speaker 02

  Inflammation, increased inflammation risk.

• 37:02Speaker 03

  What's your take on caffeine? This is, this is a big deal in my life.

• 37:06Speaker 02

  Don't ruin the day, Seth. Who invited this guy?

• 37:10Speaker 03

  I'm getting, I'm, I'm just getting all my questions.

• 37:13Speaker 04

  Sam, let me answer. I'm gonna help you here.

• 37:15Speaker 02

  Uh, okay, great. Answer, answer, Dr. Sandu, answer.

• 37:19Speaker 04

  Yes, I'm gonna help you here. So there is really no data that shows that coffee is bad for health. That's okay. It's what you do with coffee, which means if you mix it with a sugar syrup and then drink it, then that's where the problem starts. But coffee in moderation is not bad. Now, if you look at totally from wellness standpoint.

• 37:44Speaker 04

  In the morning, we don't really need coffee. We are more in the habit of drinking coffee in the morning. What coffee does is as we wake up, there is a chemical in the brain that starts building up. It's called adenosine. That's what gives your brain the sensation that you're getting tired. From the moment you wake up, there's a buildup that starts. And by afternoon, there's a significant buildup. And then by evening, there's more, and that's when you start getting sleepy. So what coffee does is blocks that. So in the morning, you woke up fresh. You don't really need it. I mean, a lot of wellness literature would tell you in the morning, hydration is the key, not caffeine. You'll feel fresh with a lot of hydration. And then as the day goes on, you start getting tired. Yes, it'll help you.

• 38:25Speaker 04

  The second part of it is, the caffeine part is energy drinks. That universally may not be a good thing to use on a daily basis.

• 38:32Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 38:32Speaker 04

  Uh, the dehydrated caffeine that's used in that, along with some of the other stuff that goes with that, is not the best thing for your body. It's the rise and the crash. And of course, a lot of them have a tremendous amount of sugar. That's not good. So that's a different question altogether. But coffee by itself, in its good form, now it's age old, it works, and nothing against it.

• 38:52Speaker 03

  Excellent. Thank you. We did have a listener, uh.

• 38:55Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 38:56Speaker 03

  Said, we will donate, and what a great project. Keep it up. Thank you.

• 39:00Speaker 04

  Thank you. Thank you. We appreciate you. Thank you so much.

• 39:03Speaker 02

  We have a, uh, uh, another question. This one might be related to insurance. My father had his leg amputated and is dealing with a lot of health issues. The specialists that he has used for years. And right when we thought he was doing better, two of the three doctors told us they will no longer be available to see him with the changes into Medicare coming in. The, the new year. I just wanted to hear from another doctor if they are seeing other problems with insurance changes coming. Thank you. And Kern County really has wonderful doctors, but it's getting so hard to afford them with the state and healthcare.

• 39:38Speaker 04

  Unfortunately, Sam, that's true, and there is no easy answer on that. So just looking at purely from a financial standpoint, medicine is the only business where regulations go up and reimbursements go down every year. And for a private enterprise, it becomes difficult. So I do understand sometimes when the doctors have to make those hard choices, and believe me, most doctors do not want to. They don't want to drop patients. We actually are equally invested with our patients. And I mean, the idea of Thrive and Purpose started with a patient story that I used to see. So there is a relationship there. So it's not easy, and sometimes these are just difficult choices that some medical practices will have to make, and we do see that.

• 40:23Speaker 04

  Sometimes patients have to make hard choices because it just becomes unsustainable to afford a certain insurance, and they have to change doctors, go to a different plan. And it's unfortunate, but that's the world we live in. And I hope as we build into a more robust foundation where we actually have a navigation arm, where our navigators will be able to help people at least get through some of these hurdles with information that only a medical person can provide properly relating to the local healthcare scene. So that's another reason that we need to get that up and running.

• 40:59Speaker 02

  Yes, yes. I have this another question, and this one Stephen is asking for a friend. How about ice cream? Does that have a lot of bad effects on the hard doctor? Stephen is asking for a friend, not for him.

• 41:13Speaker 04

  I know for sure Stephen would not ask for him. He doesn't eat ice cream.

• 41:20Speaker 04

  But ice cream, okay, in moderation, look, we all live, and there are things that give you happiness in that moment.

• 41:29Speaker 02

  I know you're one of them, doctor. I know you're gonna take this Stephen's side. I know you like sweets. Doctor Sanju and I travel to Morocco together.

• 41:37Speaker 04

  Yes, and we all like sweets, right?

• 41:39Speaker 02

  Oh, my, my. Yeah.

• 41:42Speaker 04

  It's one of those things where, okay, I'm gonna give you a little two cents on this, the sweet. So sugar, especially in its processed form, mixed with fat, generally not very good.

• 41:55Speaker 04

  If you eat small amount of ice cream, it gives you happiness. There is some benefit to it for health. Because health is not just absence of disease, it's a wholesome state of being. So I get it. It's only when you eat a lot of it every day. Yes, it's a problem. The second part of it is. Any sugar or carbs or food that we eat in the later part of the day. So your insulin sensitivity keeps dropping throughout the day. It's highest in the morning. It goes down as the day goes on and by evening it's the least. It also drops more if you don't get proper sleep and you would notice when you haven't had a proper sleep. You're more likely to indulge in overeating the next day. There is a lot of data to that effect, actually.

• 42:37Speaker 04

  So if you must eat sweets, perhaps late at night at nine, ten o'clock, watching TV is not a great idea to do it. A little earlier in the day, if you eat a little sweet and then go for a walk, you have mitigated some of the bad effect that may have from it. And that's still okay. But it's, where do we strike the balance? I mean, we're not here to demonize everything, make it impossible to live.

• 43:03Speaker 02

  Yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm very big on managing stress, doctor. And during the holiday season, people tend to get stressed. Either because of spending, overeating, year-end stuff. How can someone cope with stress without medication? What are some of the things that people could do?

• 43:24Speaker 04

  So, stress unfortunately has become um part of the life that we live. And there's a word that's commonly gets thrown about, stress management. I absolutely despise that word. There is nothing to manage here. Stress is not an asset. We're not gonna manage. Money Wise manages money, not stress, okay? So, I, I believe the, the things that I can share, some of the tools that I have used, I have lived in that world also. And meditation is a big part, the breath work, the meditation. Those things do work. In fact, last week I was away for a week at a meditation retreat for a week.

• 44:04Speaker 04

  And it does bring you back refreshed, recharged, and that's not something you do at a retreat and then kind of that's gone. It is, becomes a part of your day every day. The second part of it is, it may sound very obvious, but sleep.

• 44:19Speaker 04

  A big part of it, quality, six to seven hours minimum sleep. Is very important to refresh because that's the time your brain gets cleaned. Six, seven, I know I can't go a day in my house without I have kids.

• 44:36Speaker 03

  You set him up there, you teed him up, Steve.

• 44:40Speaker 04

  And then, uh, the third part is exercise, that's an excellent stress buster. Especially high intensity training. Really burns off a lot of that nervous energy and the chemicals that secreted and get secreted in the body, the compounds, the endorphins and whatnot, they work. To actually alleviate some of that stress. So, quality food, a lot of carbs and sugars will actually make you more anxious. So quality wholesome food with whole carbs, not refined processed carbs, um, like. Woods as are grown on the earth will actually help you with that.

• 45:18Speaker 03

  Hmm.

• 45:19Speaker 04

  So these are some of the things that I've used the list by no means as exhaustive and complete, but it's like the low hanging fruit that I would share here.

• 45:27Speaker 03

  What's your take on like GLP one, trisepotides, um, I'll, I'll be full, fully transparent, so I'm, I'm taking a trisepotide right now. And I'm down about thirteen pounds. It basically just doesn't make me hungry. My wife, she's in the medical industry. She blessed it that, hey, it's okay for short term. Wha- what are your thoughts on this?

• 45:48Speaker 04

  Um, in the right patients, it's good. If, if someone is having a lot of trouble losing weight and. Significant weight and I'm talking about like BMI of thirty two, thirty four, thirty five. Where I have a problem with this is people who want to lose ten or fifteen pounds and just want to be thinner than where they are. I think you are not going the right way there because what happens when you starve? You don't just lose fat, you lose fat and muscle in equal proportion. So these medicines without concomitant dietary education plus.

• 46:30Speaker 04

  Exercise, weight training that should go with it because muscle is your currency. You save muscle today to live a healthier life when you retire. So if you lose too much muscle with this without, because you're doing it willingly without the diet that you should eat with it, without the weight training that should do with it, then the loss of muscle actually will offset some of the gains that you'll get from it. And on top of that, if you lose muscle, your metabolism metabolism will slow down. Sorry, that was a tongue twister. And then the metabolism will slow down at that point. And once you go off it, you'll actually gain double the amount in that shorter time.

• 47:13Speaker 04

  So I think in the right patients with the right education, these are great tools. But it's not for everyone. It's not for a vast majority who just want to lose ten pounds to look younger. That's not gonna work well.

• 47:26Speaker 02

  Gotcha. Um, we we sit a lot in our industry. We have, I mean, we do have standing desks, but we we we move from time to time. But for the most part, we're sitting down. I've been I've been watching some of these influencers talking about the second heart in the body and that's standing up and just doing uh working your calves. Is that is that is that a myth or is that something?

• 47:47Speaker 04

  No, that is correct. There's actually a study on solus pushups, which is solus is the muscle that you feel in your calf. It's one of the big muscles and pushes the blood up. So there's actually data that you do a certain amount of solus pushups a day, even when sitting with your like raising the heel and putting it down, raising the heel, which is the act of walking or whatnot. And that actually in improves your insulin sensitivity and your overall cardiovascral health.

• 48:10Speaker 02

  Interesting.

• 48:10Speaker 04

  Yes, there is some benefit to it. We are built to move. That's just what it is. We're cheating the move with solus pushup, but we are built to walk and move. That's how humans evolved. We weren't meant to just sit all day. So I mean, I think for us, the the desk riders for all day, it's basically we have to find time and you may just want to do like twenty pushups or twenty setups every hour and get get your blood moving. And if you do that every hour, by the end of the day, it takes literally five minutes. And end of the day, you have done a hundred forty setups or pushups, or a combination, some combination of both.

• 48:47Speaker 02

  That's great. I can go for another hour with Dr. Sandhu. Thank you so much for being here today. Great conversation about drive and purpose. Please donate, go to the website if you have that ability. Thanks for the conversation about managing stress, health. We really, really appreciate it. Thank you so much.

• 49:04Speaker 03

  That was fantastic.

• 49:05Speaker 04

  Thank you. Thanks for having me.

• 49:07Speaker 00

  I appreciate it, Dr. Sandhu. And join us tomorrow. We'll be back live Thursday and Friday from 2 to 3 right here on the Money Wise Show. Be smart, be safe, be money wise.

• 49:26Speaker 01

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