2/10/26 The Local Art World with Rachel of the RAM Gallery

The Moneywise Radio Show and Podcast Tuesday, February 10th 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: Rachel McCullah Wainwright, Curator & Owner of RAM Gallery website: https://www.galleryram.com/ 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. Rachel McCullah Wainwright and her business 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.

• 0:05Speaker 01

  Call or text in at 661-396-1000.

• 0:09Speaker 02

  I need a dollar, dollar, dollar, that's what I need. Hey, hey. Well, I need a dollar, dollar, dollar, that's what I need. Hey, hey. Said I need a dollar, dollar, dollar, that's what I need. And if I share with you my story, would you share your dollar with me?

• 0:29Speaker 03

  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.

• 0:37Speaker 00

  Now, let's start the Money Wise Show.

• 0:41Speaker 04

  And welcome to the Money Wise Show. We are live from the basement 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. We're your hosts, I'm Sharad Waite and...

• 1:02Speaker 05

  I'm Dustin Weaver.

• 1:03Speaker 04

  Dustin Weaver, D-Dub. Always great being on the show with you.

• 1:07Speaker 05

  Always a good time, looking forward to today.

• 1:10Speaker 04

  Me too.

• 1:10Speaker 05

  Great show.

• 1:11Speaker 04

  Me too. We've got a couple of really good listener questions and let's start the show out there. Do you have it, you haven't pulled up?

• 1:17Speaker 05

  I do, yeah. The first one, it says, "I just found out my homeowner's insurance was canceled and I'm not sure what my next move should be. Any advice or someone I should reach out to?"

• 1:27Speaker 04

  I'm glad you're on the show today because you've got a nice, strong background. I'll call it a strong background at insurance and these types of issues. So I'm curious to hear your opinion. This is a very common incident where people are losing...

• 1:44Speaker 05

  It's becoming more common, yeah.

• 1:45Speaker 04

  So common. In fact, this just happened to me last week.

• 1:49Speaker 05

  Your insurance got canceled?

• 1:50Speaker 04

  My insurance got canceled. And get this, so it's, and it wasn't on, it wasn't for my, my primary home. It was for my cabin that I have up in the mountains. And I had gotten a tip from my insurance person that said, "Hey, make sure that the, that the, your mortgage company..." Pays that insurance premium because if it if it is if it lapses, they will not reinstate the they will not reinstate that policy. So you're gonna have to go again.

• 2:21Speaker 05

  No grace if you if you lapse.

• 2:22Speaker 04

  No grace. I don't know if that's the case with all insurance companies. My insurance, in particular for the cabin, I only have one option, and it's the fare plan. And that's because it's in the woods and it's a high fire risk. And so I have to go to the fare plan, which is the state sponsored insurance program.

• 2:43Speaker 05

  And when you say have to?

• 2:45Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 2:46Speaker 05

  I mean, you have to be insured, right?

• 2:48Speaker 04

  I don't have to be insured. I

• 2:50Speaker 05

  So that is an option. So you have two options.

• 2:51Speaker 04

  I could leave it. Yeah, I mean, it could roll the dice. And that that certainly could be the case. It has crossed my mind because like you, my homeowner's policy has over more than doubled in the last several years.

• 3:07Speaker 05

  I experienced that.

• 3:07Speaker 04

  So expensive.

• 3:09Speaker 05

  I didn't get canceled, but my premiums definitely went up.

• 3:11Speaker 04

  It's kind of another way to try to cancel it, I think. And it is in part because the state of California has been kicking the can down the road to deal with the insurance costs for everybody. They have not allowed private insurers to really charge what they need to be charging in an effort to try to keep the consumer within reason for the consumer. But I think it's all caught up now, especially with the fires and earthquakes and things that we have in California, that now companies started to leave the state, started to go out of business. And now the state is finally, you know, backing off on some of that, allowing rates to go up. We still have a long ways to go for this to be fixed. In the meantime,

• 3:54Speaker 04

  we're going to have this kind of scenario where like our listener, where their their policies are just being canceled. And so this is this is an unfortunate scenario for a lot of people. For in my case, I was able to my my mortgage company literally did did not send the payment. You know, I have an escrow. I set it up in purpose so that there would be an escrow account taken out from my mortgage payment every month, and then they'll make the payment every Six months or whatever it is, and they just didn't do it, which is smaddening to me. I was able to get it fixed on the day of, but I had to spend some time doing that.

• 4:32Speaker 05

  And this is for the fare plan even?

• 4:34Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's for the fare plan. Yeah.

• 4:35Speaker 05

  So when he said they won't renew it, and that's your only option, I mean, you'd really be out in the cold.

• 4:40Speaker 04

  Yeah, I'd be, yeah, I'd be toast. I mean, yeah, you're right. I would be. I, I would guess that I would, what would happen is I would have to rewrite the, they, fare would have to rewrite the policy. And my guess is that they wouldn't be fair.

• 4:52Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 4:52Speaker 04

  Pun intended.

• 4:54Speaker 05

  So what are people to do?

• 4:56Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 4:57Speaker 05

  What's your advice on this?

• 4:58Speaker 04

  I mean, you gotta shop around. That's, that's the thing. I'm, I'm assuming that our listener here is going to be able to get a new policy. And they may be surprised. There may be some better options than what they were used to. Homeowner's insurance is very similar. I, I see it very similar to auto insurance or other property and casualty type insurance where most people put it on cruise control. They set it and they forget it. And, and then you don't realize sometimes those premiums start to creep up and then you don't, you don't take the time to go shop out and around, which is why you see every auto insurance commercial out there that's talking about how much they're saving. Oh my gosh, I switched and look at how much I saved. Well,

• 5:43Speaker 04

  it's not necessarily because those insurance companies are better. It's just they're, they're trying to get you in. And once they get you in, people don't like to change their insurance.

• 5:50Speaker 05

  That's true.

• 5:51Speaker 04

  They just get used to it.

• 5:51Speaker 05

  They stay for a long time.

• 5:52Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 5:53Speaker 05

  Yeah, I've been a customer for many, many years with several companies. And I mean, we've changed out of change in circumstances, like, you know, adding a teenager, for example, one of the companies that we were with 19 years, they just said, you know, for the first three years, we are not competitive here. Meaning, thanks for the 18 years, but you're going to have to shop around. Like we, we won't take you. We won't take the 16 year old.

• 6:15Speaker 04

  Wow.

• 6:15Speaker 05

  And it's a big brand name. You'd recognize.

• 6:17Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 6:18Speaker 05

  You know, I won't mention them, but you can save 15% or more sometimes by switching to them. Right? So they did not like.

• 6:26Speaker 04

  Losing your business.

• 6:27Speaker 05

  Having a 16 year old.

• 6:28Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 6:29Speaker 05

  And so we shopped around and you know, we ended up at Costco of all places and Costco now has, you know, I think for a couple of years there, they did not have homeowners policies, but their agency there said that they're back insuring homes. And so we shopped, shopped around and were able to get both home and auto through Costco and we are very happy with that and have, have good premiums now.

• 6:54Speaker 04

  Yeah. Save some money.

• 6:55Speaker 05

  Oh, yeah.

• 6:56Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 6:56Speaker 05

  Yeah, definitely.

• 6:57Speaker 04

  Saved a big chunk.

• 6:57Speaker 05

  Mm hmm. Yeah, especially on the house.

• 6:59Speaker 00

  Costco not do.

• 7:01Speaker 05

  Right?

• 7:01Speaker 00

  On your way out, they even sell caskets. I mean.

• 7:05Speaker 04

  Cradle to grave.

• 7:07Speaker 00

  Went by there the other night and on our way out, the guy stopped us. Hey, if you've ever thought about buying your caskets? No, not really, but.

• 7:15Speaker 04

  Oh, really? There's like a human there was.

• 7:17Speaker 00

  Yes, there is. On your way out.

• 7:20Speaker 04

  What I wonder how they are, they're selling that. It's, is it like an insurance policy basically that they're selling you for the caskets? Cause you're not, you're like, you're not going to store your casket.

• 7:30Speaker 00

  They had everything. I was like, no, but maybe next time.

• 7:33Speaker 05

  I wonder if it's like a burial plot that you can, you know, you're prepaying.

• 7:36Speaker 04

  Oh, it's gotta be because I like, even if I wanted to.

• 7:39Speaker 05

  Store that.

• 7:39Speaker 04

  Yeah. Where are you going to store it? Like dad, what's in the garage?

• 7:44Speaker 00

  It's our caskets for later.

• 7:45Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 7:45Speaker 05

  Too funny.

• 7:46Speaker 04

  It's already creepy enough. If you got a plot, right now.

• 7:49Speaker 00

  It's a buy two, get one free type deal at Costco. We had to get them.

• 7:53Speaker 04

  I wonder, I'm, I'm again, now we're going off on a tangent, but I wonder if, if caskets are also going up exponentially as to, you know, plots, burial plots.

• 8:04Speaker 05

  What like, are they going up in price? Is that what you're saying?

• 8:07Speaker 04

  Yeah. Because you know, because there's a, there's a whole, we're talking about in insurance also, there's a whole, this whole cottage industry of selling prepaid funeral plans.

• 8:14Speaker 05

  Right.

• 8:15Speaker 04

  Which always kind of rubs me the wrong way. A little bit like I get what you're doing. You're trying to lock in today's prices to avoid having to pay for that, you know, down the road. It's just an insurance policy kind of thing. But.

• 8:26Speaker 05

  Yeah, I would imagine materials cost because for a while there, I know lumber was getting. Expensive, so if they're made out of wood, that, you know, that price could be going up because of that.

• 8:36Speaker 04

  I could see, you know, there being a benefit to buying a casket in an unemotional state. Isn't it like when you go to pick out the casket for your loved one, nobody wants to be cheap.

• 8:46Speaker 05

  Right.

• 8:47Speaker 04

  You know, everybody's, you know, you're going to go right to the fancy casket, you know, just because, you know, we love mom, you know.

• 8:53Speaker 05

  So pivoting back to this question, you know, I love your advice of shopping around. And there's a lot of different insurance company types out there. You know, there's what we call a captive agency where your agent you might know, like and trust for a long time. Start there, right? See if, because this policy's been canceled, do they have another option for you? But if they don't, you can shop around through like a broker, for example, has more than one company that they'll offer. You know, with some of these big brand names, they might be only able to offer you that one thing.

• 9:27Speaker 04

  Yeah, right.

• 9:28Speaker 05

  Yeah. You know what I mean?

• 9:29Speaker 04

  But it's not a bad place to start. Sometimes you do get better deals at the captive or I guess they're all captive. If you call them captive, right? Well, it's just the one, it's a, it's a, it's a, the company owns the, the office. And the agent can only sell a product from that, from that company.

• 9:48Speaker 05

  That's right.

• 9:49Speaker 04

  Sometimes that, that works out, but other times it works out to go to a broker that doesn't, is not constrained to just one company.

• 9:57Speaker 05

  At least you have options.

• 9:58Speaker 04

  Yeah. I like your Costco suggestion too. I mean, it doesn't hurt anybody to go get a quote. I actually just went online and saw it looked like it's pretty easy to go through Costco's site to get to your, get to the page where you, you can get a quote for your homeowners.

• 10:15Speaker 05

  We had a quote really quick and set up a phone call and dial it in within a short period of time. So it was nice.

• 10:21Speaker 04

  Yeah. Great advice. Great advice. Let's go to the next message.

• 10:24Speaker 05

  Going off of the question you answered for me yesterday regarding if we would run out of social security, could they make people pay more into social security so there is more? I really enjoy your show and maybe some show you can explain the social security dilemma. I'm sure you guys would know more than most about this because you have clients on social security.

• 10:45Speaker 04

  Well, today's your day. Today's the show. I want to go, I want to cover this. This is, this is an important subject.

• 10:50Speaker 05

  Yes, it is.

• 10:51Speaker 04

  And we talked about it briefly yesterday, but there's this misconception about social security and I think it's doing a lot of damage to, to Americans and their, and their psyche. Like you and I as financial advisors have met with many people that are close to retirement that don't pay attention to social security or their social security benefits at all because they're convinced that it's not going to be around.

• 11:17Speaker 05

  Yes, I have heard that.

• 11:18Speaker 04

  It's like, and we're talking about within less than 10 years.

• 11:21Speaker 05

  That's right.

• 11:21Speaker 04

  They're like, oh, it's, I'm not even counting that. All I have is my pension and my retirement account and that's it. And no, no social security. Well, what do you mean? No social security? Well, I mean, I paid into it, but that's a, it's bankrupt. It's not going to be any money on there. Well, no, there, there's, there's money in the social security account, in your social security account. So let me explain again how social security works. It's, is not a, it's not a personal savings account. It's a pay as you go program. That means current workers payroll taxes pay for today's retirees. And when payroll tax receipts exceed benefit payouts, the surplus is invested in US treasury

• 12:00Speaker 04

  bonds. So those bonds are called the social security trust funds. When payroll taxes fall short, the program redeems those bonds to make up the difference. That didn't happen. And when I say that, I mean, that shortfall where we didn't have enough money going in, where we had to pull from the, these bonds.

• 12:24Speaker 04

  To supplement the benefits that are going out didn't happen till about 2010. So just about 15 years ago.

• 12:32Speaker 05

  But yeah, before 2010, is it safe to say there was more money coming in?

• 12:36Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 12:37Speaker 05

  Then beneficiaries were pulling out.

• 12:39Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 12:39Speaker 05

  And so, think of this slush fund, if you will, of excess dollars that were stocked up and stockpiled.

• 12:46Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 12:46Speaker 05

  Earning interest, growing. That's what changed in 2010.

• 12:51Speaker 04

  That's right. That's exactly right. Now, all that, all that happened then in 2010 is it pivoted from, okay, we don't have, we, we have now money coming out of that savings account. Let's call it a save, like that, that account, that, that bond account, that, where all of that excess payroll tax money was going into for, you know, the 50 years previously, had built it up. And now, we actually have to pull from that, that account to supplement the, um, the benefits that are going out. That means that that account is starting to drop down. That account now is expected to run out of money if nothing changes in about 10 years.

• 13:36Speaker 05

  Right.

• 13:37Speaker 04

  So about 2035.

• 13:38Speaker 05

  Slush fund that'll run out. That doesn't mean that new dollars coming in stop.

• 13:42Speaker 04

  No.

• 13:43Speaker 05

  Right?

• 13:43Speaker 04

  All it means is that there is no more, there is no more, there's no more of those funds, those social security funds available to help supplement the benefits. Even at that, it doesn't necessarily mean that people are going to have to lose benefits because the government could still decide to just part, as part of their budget, they could just, you know, fund the social security benefits.

• 14:09Speaker 05

  Right.

• 14:10Speaker 04

  And of course, now that we have other problems with that happens because now we're adding on to the national debt. But it's something that certainly could happen. Politicians at that point in 10 years could go, okay, we know that there's not that slush fund. We don't have the social security slush fund anymore. But we still have revenues coming in from payroll tax because there's still people working and there's still people that are getting paid. And so, it, it estimates.

• 14:36Speaker 04

  Or that if we did nothing in 10 years, there would be about a 20 or 25% shortfall.

• 14:43Speaker 05

  That's what I've seen several times.

• 14:44Speaker 04

  Right? So that means if the government isn't willing to come in and help, you know, fund the social security program, worst case scenarios, we would see a drop in benefits of 20 to 25%. So, all of that being said, may sound terrible, but it's still, in my opinion, it's not doom and gloom. It's not like, you know, you're gonna get 75% of your benefits, you know, maybe that's gonna hurt, but you're still, that's still significant.

• 15:11Speaker 05

  And that, as you said, the key word there is worst case scenario, meaning if they said, "This is gonna fall on the backs of just those currently receiving benefits."

• 15:22Speaker 04

  Right.

• 15:22Speaker 05

  But the burden is not gonna, most likely, right? We don't know, but most likely, it's not gonna fall just on that one demographic.

• 15:30Speaker 04

  Right. Yeah. It's, it's going to, it's gonna have to be, that burden's gonna have to be carried among, my guess is, among lots of different people.

• 15:39Speaker 05

  And we have to remember, this program's been around 100 years, and they've made changes before. They've had to make changes because demographics have changed.

• 15:47Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 15:47Speaker 05

  You know, if we look at some of the why, so what happened in 2010? Well, if you think of, we've all heard the term baby boomers.

• 15:55Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 15:55Speaker 05

  Right? That's people born between 1946 and 1964. So if you can draw social security at age 62, as early as 62, that means that the first boomers were turning 62 in 2008, just a couple of years before.

• 16:12Speaker 04

  Right.

• 16:13Speaker 05

  So that makes sense that in 2010, all of a sudden, more money's going out.

• 16:17Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 16:17Speaker 05

  Because you have more people hitting retirement age, drawing that social security benefit.

• 16:21Speaker 04

  Right.

• 16:22Speaker 05

  So, should they have planned for this a little bit more ahead of time? Some could argue yes. But now that it's here, and we know that, hey, within the next 10 years, we have to make these changes. I mean, I have a feeling that Congress is just kicking the can down the road and saying, "Well, you know, there's going to be a new group of people coming in that are going to get credit for the decisions anyway."

• 16:43Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 16:44Speaker 05

  So knowing them, the decision will be kicked down the road, but it's, um, it's coming to a point where Congress that is going to be there is going to be the ones forced to make the decision.

• 16:55Speaker 04

  That's right.

• 16:55Speaker 05

  And so they're coming together with the ideas. They're, they're saying, okay, what are some of the ways to solve? So we've talked about this before. What are some of the other things that they can do other than cut the checks of those that are currently receiving?

• 17:08Speaker 04

  Yeah. So you, you, you only have really two options, well, three options. You're either going to raise more revenue, you're, you're going to reduce your benefits. The third option is a combination of those two things.

• 17:20Speaker 05

  So raise revenue.

• 17:21Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 17:21Speaker 05

  Let's talk about that.

• 17:22Speaker 04

  So right now, social security is funded from our payroll taxes. We pay 12.4%. That's, you know, half of that is paid by the employee. The other half is paid by the employer. So that's at 12.4%. If, that's where, right now, currently, that's where all the revenues are, are coming from. If we, if, if payroll taxes or social security tax was increased by 3.82%, that fixes, that fixes the issue for 75 years.

• 17:56Speaker 05

  Right.

• 17:56Speaker 04

  Which means it, it gives us a surplus for social security for another 75 years. So we can kick the can down the road for 75 years before we'd have to deal with it again.

• 18:06Speaker 05

  So if they made one change of increasing the percentage of our paycheck that goes in.

• 18:11Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 18:11Speaker 05

  That's one variable.

• 18:13Speaker 04

  That's one variable.

• 18:14Speaker 05

  That's also, it's not likely that they're going to do that.

• 18:17Speaker 04

  No.

• 18:17Speaker 05

  Where it'll be that one variable.

• 18:18Speaker 04

  No, that would be, it would be, that would be very expensive for, you know,

• 18:23Speaker 05

  Employees and employers.

• 18:24Speaker 04

  Employees, employers, you know, you're going from 12.4% up to over 15%.

• 18:28Speaker 05

  Right. Well, let's park there for a second.

• 18:30Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 18:31Speaker 05

  So that percentage is only up to a certain income. There's a threshold.

• 18:35Speaker 04

  There, there is a threshold. Yeah.

• 18:37Speaker 05

  So you probably have that.

• 18:38Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 18:39Speaker 05

  And on the order of 170, 175,000, somewhere around there.

• 18:42Speaker 04

  That's right. So that's, that's one way that this could easily be fixed is.

• 18:48Speaker 04

  Is just increase that threshold and you don't have to increase it all the way, but increase it somewhat and increasing how much, what, what money is taxed at social security benefits alone, that would be a huge benefit to, to the program. So a lot of people are not aware of this, that social, that your social security tax is limited up to that hundred and it's called 175,000. After you make 175,000 dollars, you no longer have to contribute to social security.

• 19:21Speaker 05

  Right.

• 19:22Speaker 04

  Nor does your employer.

• 19:23Speaker 05

  So that's another variable. They can increase that, that amount.

• 19:26Speaker 04

  That's it. Increase the amount. They could even do like a donut hole type scenario where, okay, we're only going to do it up to 175,000 and then you don't pay any social security until your income gets above, let's say 400,000.

• 19:39Speaker 05

  Right.

• 19:39Speaker 04

  And then you, then you're back on the social security tax train and you gotta pay that.

• 19:45Speaker 05

  Yep.

• 19:45Speaker 04

  If you did a combination of all of these, so I did a little research and this doesn't sound like, terribly outrageous to me, but you could solve, completely solve the social security shortfall by doing a combination of either, either increasing that amount just slightly. You can increase the amount of income that is required to pay social security tax. You can also change the way that the benefit pays out because right now it is, it's, it's, it's linked to the consumer price index. If it was linked to the, to the chained consumer price index, which doesn't give you quite as much

• 20:28Speaker 04

  of a cost of living adjustment each year, that those two things alone

• 20:35Speaker 04

  would, would increase the, would, would balance the social security trust fund.

• 20:40Speaker 05

  Right.

• 20:40Speaker 04

  You also have the idea of increasing the age, the retirement age. And this, like, it's hard to argue against this because we're all living longer.

• 20:49Speaker 05

  Yep.

• 20:50Speaker 04

  And, and their ages haven't been raised in forever. And so it's really not fair to everybody to continue to pay at such a, at such a, a young age, which is now young. And, and so increasing the age by just a couple of years would, would give you more than enough surplus to, to fix the social security problem.

• 21:15Speaker 04

  So another option is you could just do eliminate the taxable maximum and then have chained consumer price index. That also solves it.

• 21:27Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 21:27Speaker 04

  So you don't, then you don't have to talk about any, you know, raising the age at all. Like it's okay, fine. We're not going to raise the benefit age at all. We're just going to change the way we're calculating the cost of living adjustment. And then we're just going to keep the social security tax on all incomes, you know, at all things. That gives us, that gives us a 4% increase, which remember, we only need about 3.82.

• 21:51Speaker 05

  Right.

• 21:52Speaker 04

  Additional payroll tax to cover our, our social security.

• 21:55Speaker 05

  You know, while we're talking about age, initially, the benefit was paid out at 65. But do you know what life expectancy was back then?

• 22:02Speaker 04

  Like 65?

• 22:03Speaker 05

  60 to 62. So it was, that's why they call it old age and survivors.

• 22:09Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 22:09Speaker 05

  It was meant for folks that were old age and survivors, right?

• 22:14Speaker 04

  Right.

• 22:14Speaker 05

  At the time.

• 22:15Speaker 04

  Well, now it's turned into a, it's turned into a different program. It's now, it's like, I can't, I'm always shocked at the numbers, but maybe you remember the percentage of Americans that rely solely off of their social security.

• 22:27Speaker 05

  Oh yeah. I don't have the stat in front of me, but it definitely.

• 22:30Speaker 04

  It's a high number. Yeah. I want to say it's at least 50, you know, or close to 50% of seniors rely solely on their social security retirement benefit. And that's it. You know, so you know, now, now we've created a, an entitlement program that you can't just, you know, you can't just turn it off.

• 22:48Speaker 05

  It's not going away overnight. That's for sure.

• 22:50Speaker 04

  No, and like these solutions aren't, don't sound terrible to me, you know, either, either a combination of increasing the amount of income that is, that is still required to pay into social security, or changing the consumer price index calculation, or increasing the age, a combination of those three is more than enough to fix the problem.

• 23:13Speaker 05

  Well, and there's another one I'm thinking of, and what that is, is similar to what they did with Medicare. So there's a special tax after your investment income reaches a certain level.

• 23:24Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 23:25Speaker 05

  Right. Don't quote me on it, but I think it's around 250,000.

• 23:28Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 23:28Speaker 05

  So it's a pretty big number where you pay 3.8% tax on the interest and that goes into Medicare fund.

• 23:35Speaker 04

  Mm hmm.

• 23:35Speaker 05

  So similar to that donut strategy you talked about, it's targeting folks that have, you know, a higher income. I know that. That group would probably be upset about that, but it is one of the variables and they have already done that for Medicare. They're saying, hey, if you have a high investment income from your portfolio, you're going to pay a small amount to help subsidize. So the point is, we've talked about at least four different options here and it's most likely going to be some combination. But we won't know for a few years because it's something they're still working on.

• 24:06Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's like, it's, I said this yesterday, it's the, it's the political third rail that nobody wants to touch because it's, you know, somebody's going to have to take a hit somewhere. And you're dealing with the voting population, the older population, the ones that are actually out there.

• 24:20Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 24:20Speaker 04

  Voting and have, you know, a say.

• 24:24Speaker 05

  So I have a practical, practical kind of question here to piggyback on this. If you're a retiree or going to be retiree soon, and this is something you are nervous about, hopefully this helps quell some of that, those nerves. But if it doesn't, what's the conservative approach? The one that says, okay, plan for the worst. Would you say that would be plan for that 20 to 25% reduction?

• 24:48Speaker 04

  Yeah. And that's the worst case.

• 24:50Speaker 05

  Look at your budget.

• 24:51Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 24:51Speaker 05

  You know, look at what your social security benefit is. And if you had to take a, you know, 20 to 25% cut from there, again, that's worst case.

• 25:01Speaker 04

  Yeah, that's the worst case.

• 25:03Speaker 05

  And it's not going to be, not there altogether. So don't plan for it to be zero.

• 25:07Speaker 04

  Right. Don't plan for it to be zero. I think that does so much damage because if we have enough people that are thinking that it's worthless, that it's, there's no, there's no point in saving it. There's no way to save social security, then politicians are going to latch on to that. They're like, yeah, you're right. There's nothing we can do. And oh, well.

• 25:23Speaker 05

  Right.

• 25:24Speaker 04

  And it's like, well, that's, that's unfortunate. But i- if that happens, like you said, that's a 20, 25% reduction in benefits and that's going to be catastrophic for a lot of people. But it, you know, if you've got some time now, you can maybe plan for that worst case scenario. I still, I'm still holding out hope that we're going to, we'll figure it out. There'll be some, there'll be some Congress that will come in that will be able to, to iron this out and, and get us where we need to be. You know, I'm right there. On the cusp too. I'm 50, turned 50 last year. And so, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm starting to get within striking distance of social security where I'm like starting to think, okay, well,

• 26:03Speaker 04

  now what's going to happen to me? You know, how is this going to, how is this going to impact me with my social security?

• 26:10Speaker 05

  Absolutely.

• 26:11Speaker 04

  It's gonna, you know, it's gonna have to be, I'm at that age where it will have to be resolved before I would get something. Whereas somebody who is already receiving social security now, you got 10 years, roughly before, you know, we could see it and likely another scenario is that we don't touch people who are already receiving benefits, but we just reduce the benefits of new people that are coming on board. And so they're the ones that are impacted, not the people that are already receiving benefits. That seems like a safer step rather than just doing an across the board 25% reduction. And so all social security benefits, like you're going to have people starving. You know, literally going to have people that can't pay their heating bill.

• 26:53Speaker 05

  Definitely. Yeah, that's a big, big cut. If you're on a, we've heard the term on a fixed income, right? People say that. I'm on a fixed income. They're a lot of times referring to social security.

• 27:04Speaker 05

  It's often not just a pension. You know, social security is a big part of everybody's, a lot of people's plan.

• 27:09Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 27:09Speaker 05

  What a great question. I'm so glad we were able to chop it up on this one today.

• 27:13Speaker 04

  Me too, me too. So thank you, listener, for that question and that follow-up question. We really appreciate you listening and we appreciate all of our listeners sending in questions or comments our way. Keep them coming. We're Money Wise. I'm Sharad and that's Dustin. We'll be right back.

• 27:27Speaker 00

  Are you nearing retirement and currently working with a financial advisor? Are you not sure if you're invested appropriately? Call our offices at 661-847-1000 to sit down with a Money Wise financial advisor for a no obligation assessment.

• 27:46Speaker 04

  Welcome back to Money Wise. We're your hosts today. I'm Sharad Waite here with Dustin Weaver. We're joined by our guest right now, Rachel Wainwright. She's co-owner and director of The RAM Gallery. RAM Gallery is a contemporary art gallery in the heart of Old Town Kern, right here in Bakersfield. Rachel, welcome back to the program.

• 28:02Speaker 05

  Welcome, welcome.

• 28:02Speaker 06

  I'm so happy to be back.

• 28:04Speaker 04

  I'm so excited to have you here. When I heard you were on the program, I got excited because you do a lot of things. You've been involved in the community for many years. For years and years, you were a curator at the Bakersfield Museum of Art. But most recently, when we moved into the Woolworths Building, you helped us with our corporate art collection upstairs with Money Wise, which I have loved. Every day I come into work, I get to walk down the hallway and just see these beautiful art pieces. Many of them have deep, local connections, the artists do, and you're responsible for that.

• 28:43Speaker 04

  So I'm glad you're here. Let's talk about RAM. Talk to us about what's going on right now.

• 28:50Speaker 06

  Yeah, so we opened RAM, it'll be three years ago in March. I can't believe how quickly time is flying. But, you know, we actually took over the building about five years ago. It was just a big, open warehouse. It's a 7,500 square foot building in the heart of Old Town Kern. It's on Kentucky Street. Just a complete blank canvas whenever we took it over. Our business partner is an artist from Los Angeles who saw an opportunity with Bakersfield real estate prices and saw the space as potential for art storage. He has some different buildings throughout Los Angeles, mostly in Venice and Santa Monica, now in Long Beach.

• 29:32Speaker 06

  He's most recently bought a building, but thought, you know, what if I start to try to develop some spaces here in Bakersfield? And he was an artist that I have worked with throughout my time at the Bakersfield Museum of Art, Charles Arnoldi is his name. And so when he approached me saying, you know, I need about half of this for art storage. I think we could do something with that, but what if we build out the rest as a top-of-the-line contemporary art space? And he gave me about one day to decide if that was a great idea. And, you know, in hindsight, I'm really glad that I was just brave enough to say yes in that conversation because it was something that I had toyed with. I knew after working in the public sphere in the arts in Kern County that there was...

• 30:14Speaker 06

  So much potential. I was seeing so much growth. I'd been at the Bakersfield Museum of Art for a whole decade, but there was no real strong opportunities for commerce here in the arts in Bakersfield. And in order for us, you know, a lot of the people that are so passionate about making sure that Bakersfield is a creative community, for the visual arts, you have to have places that really can sell art, that can support artists' careers. And if you don't have that, what is the, what is going to cause artists to stay and live here?

• 30:45Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 30:45Speaker 06

  And continue to work here and make art about this place that is actually in, in serving them.

• 30:51Speaker 04

  Yeah, you have to have a place to showcase in a way, in a, in a business way that you, of these artists and, and their product. And there, you know, Bakersfield, like you said, you were the museum of art, which has a, it's one of our longest running nonprofits.

• 31:06Speaker 06

  Seventy years this year.

• 31:07Speaker 04

  Seventy years. Incredible. It's our, it's our only accredited art museum that we have here in town. And there's other nonprofit groups, but there was no, this is, as far as I'm concerned, this is the only business, you know, for-profit studio, you know, gallery here.

• 31:27Speaker 06

  You know, there, there are some other great institutions that are supporting the arts. You know, you've got the Arts Council of Kern, you've got the Art Association. But what I wanted to do when I opened RAM was develop a space that looked like when you walk into it, you could be walking into any city that is a major art capital. And, you know, we've got just over 3,000 square feet of gallery space. We've got 18 to 20 foot ceilings, depending on what gallery you're in, and skylights. It's, it's a beautiful gallery space. And artists want to show their work there, and it highlights work beautifully. And when we opened, we really, you know, there were some, a lot of question marks, like, is this place even going to make sense? Is it going to make sense in Old Town Kern?

• 32:09Speaker 06

  Is it going, are we going to have a community that supports us? Are artists going to want to show their work in this capacity in Bakersfield? And, and I can confidently say now, after three years, all of those things, all of my fears have been eliminated.

• 32:23Speaker 04

  Wow.

• 32:24Speaker 06

  And we're really excited about the future.

• 32:26Speaker 04

  I have a question. Is, is RAM an acronym?

• 32:28Speaker 06

  It is my initials, yes.

• 32:30Speaker 04

  Oh, there you go.

• 32:31Speaker 06

  It, it wasn't all in vain. I mean, a lot of galleries do, are named after the dealer as a way to brand theirself. But I also liked the idea of using RAM because of the neighborhood that Ram Existan is its historic identity connected to the Basque community and sheep herders, so it was able to be a placemaker as well.

• 32:51Speaker 04

  Love it. And it is absolutely gorgeous. It's you really you get a great vibe when you walk into into the gallery. What surprised you? So what you know, once you opened up, you know, your doors, was there anything that surprised you about the art scene here?

• 33:08Speaker 06

  I think the biggest surprise, and it continues to reign true, is that when we opened, I thought the events, the space would exist to serve and to contribute to the creative class here. It would become a part of the fixture, but that wouldn't necessarily equate to sales. I thought my collector base would be a network that I had built from, you know, curating shows at the Bakersfield Museum of Art. I thought I was going to have to really be working with collectors outside of Bakersfield. I didn't know if that existed here. And now I would well over 90% of our collectors are all Bakersfield based. And so that was a huge surprise. I and you know, it's also really exciting is, you know, there are a lot of

• 33:53Speaker 06

  young collectors, 40s and 50s are where we're mostly selling our art to. So for me, that's really exciting. You know, lots of years with these people that are beginning to grow collections and become passionate about supporting artists and filling their homes with pieces of art that they really are excited by.

• 34:12Speaker 04

  What's been the challenge that you maybe didn't expect?

• 34:15Speaker 06

  Running a space that large. You know, at the museum, we have an amazing team, and it's just me and my husband, who we were a great counter to each other. He has a background in engineering and construction. And so he's able to make everything happen. But it's it's the just the logistics of managing a space that large. And

• 34:39Speaker 06

  You know, and the whole business side of it is all brand new to me. I was, you know, I'd studied art history. I'd done a lot of research and putting together exhibitions and everything else is brand new. So there was a little bit of a learning curve, to say the least.

• 34:53Speaker 04

  Yeah, it, I've admired what you've done because I've viewed, I mean, there's always a struggle in arts and, and business and there, it's a rare breed where you can be successful in both.

• 35:12Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 35:13Speaker 04

  And maybe you've seen this with artists where they're just, they're just brilliant with what they're, with what they can put out and with their talent, but there's no sort of business acumen or professionalism or sort of on the professional side of things. Have you experienced that? Or how do you, like, for example, if you have an artist that's like, well, they've got a great product, but they're just like unreliable and, you know, you know, like quintessential artists where it's just like you can't like pin them down.

• 35:47Speaker 06

  Yeah, I mean, I don't want to stereotype artists because so many people do that for us all, but I, I think that that's really what my role is, you know. I, I sometimes describe myself, you know, now that I'm an art dealer as almost when you think of a manager to a musician. I am, you know, making sure that they are hitting the deadlines, that I am getting their work photographed, that I am making sure that every object has a price point associated with it, that things are getting delivered to collectors when they need to be. So I am really the one that becomes responsible for that. But, you know, there definitely is a lot of checking in that has to happen.

• 36:28Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 36:28Speaker 05

  Is it more common that you would find an artist or that an artist would find you?

• 36:32Speaker 06

  It's a great question. I, I, it happens all sorts of ways. Typically, I approach an artist that I want to show. I, and, and it's, you know, whenever I have, I love to have groups of students come into the gallery and often get asked, you know, how do you start to show your work at a gallery? And, and I think the best advice that I can give is just be really present in your community. The artists that are new to me and in the RAMS program are artists that have, were showing up to all of our events. They are on our mailing list. They are coming to every opening. They are asking questions at Artist

• 37:12Speaker 06

  Talks, and they become part of, you know, the, the cultural makeup of RAM, and so they are part of my world. And, but it really is a mutual, mutually beneficial, beneficial relationship, and also a relationship that we both have to be really excited about, because I, I, my whole, you know, intention is to make sure that their work is well-respected and put in the right collection.

• 37:37Speaker 05

  There's a lot of passion around this. One of the things you said was an Artist Talk. For those of us that aren't familiar, what's an Artist Talk, and where does one find that?

• 37:45Speaker 06

  Yeah, so every, we have between four and six new exhibitions a year at RAM, and you can check our website or follow us on Instagram. Everything is galleryram.com. And we have an opening for every show, and then either between, at the last half of the run of the exhibit, we invite the artists. Usually, it's a Saturday morning, and we have the artists come in and they do a walkthrough. So you get to really hear the artists speak about the work, the process, the intention, the why. Often, it'll become a little bit more conversational. Sometimes I even do, we have a sit-down where I interview them, depending on what the work, what, you know, lends itself best to the body of work. But it's a great, we, we, great attendance at these things. We usually get between 50 and

• 38:29Speaker 06

  100 people at the Artist Talks. Our openings are really fun. They're usually in the evenings on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday afternoons, depending on the calendars, and between 100 and 300 people at those events. And it's usually some sort of music and some drinks, and a really fun celebration.

• 38:46Speaker 05

  That's really neat. You mentioned events. Do you have any events coming up that you'd like to share with the audience?

• 38:52Speaker 06

  Right now, we are getting ready for Jesse Sugarman's Artist Talk. His show opened Just a few weeks ago, and his artist talk is March the, let me just look at that calendar. It's the first Saturday in March, I believe. Is it March 6th or 7th? And that will be at 10:30. So our door, we have, and we bring in reverb coffee and have some donuts usually, and it's a really nice morning at Ram.

• 39:20Speaker 04

  Yeah, that's great. Again, we're joined by Rachel Wainwright. She is co-owner and director of the Ram Gallery. Rachel, what's a mistake people make when they think about buying art?

• 39:34Speaker 06

  That's a really loaded question, Sherrod.

• 39:37Speaker 04

  I know. I struggle with that. I'm asking because I struggle with this too. It's like, you know, you want to buy something that's quality and you're not going to find that at Target.

• 39:48Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 39:48Speaker 04

  Or, you know, Bed Bath & Beyond. And so like, when you're, when you're going, at least I don't think you can. I mean, you can, but it's like a different kind of art. You're looking for something that's a little more unique, I guess. Unique is the word that came to mind for me. Which is not something everybody just can go buy. I think that's kind of what makes, partly what makes it special, but.

• 40:09Speaker 06

  I think it's really important to, if you are interested in having a collection that is significant, and that can mean thousands of different things to different collectors. But for me, it's what do you connect with? You know, it's not about necessarily decorating your home. It's not about matching your walls or your sofa. It can be all of those things. But really, what is the most satisfying and fulfilling for me is whenever I am able to connect a collector with an artist. And their stories, something in the middle of that relationship between the collector and the artist, there's a story that there's a connective

• 40:51Speaker 06

  thread, that then I know that that collector, many dinners from now, many decades from now, there's a story that they could, that they can tell in their house when they have people over.

• 41:01Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 41:01Speaker 06

  And, you know, and what they're doing is allowing that artist to continue to make work when they purchase that. So if you believe in an artist... If you believe in what they're doing, if you're excited that artists can do still make important work, then it's really important to support artists.

• 41:19Speaker 04

  Do you have any examples of that where you took a chance on an artist before anyone else really do about them or believed in them?

• 41:30Speaker 06

  Well, I think a great example is Ally Vaughn, who has a solo show at the Bakersfield Museum of Art right now. She was in my inaugural show at RAM. I did a solo show of hers about a year ago. She was born in Bakersfield. She went up and studied art at Stanford. But I actually met her when she was about 16. She had submitted to be a part of the artworks program at the Bakersfield Museum of Art. And I just instantly was drawn to her work and her work ethic and have maintained a really strong connection with her. And whenever I was dreaming up RAM and that kind of two-year period of whenever we took over the building and ended up opening our doors,

• 42:11Speaker 06

  it was this, that was the, I just knew Ally was an artist that I was going to, that I was going to be, that was going to be a part of our program. And it's been amazing to really nurture her career from a completely emerging artist to now she's having museum shows. She's shown her work throughout the US and her career is just going to continue to grow.

• 42:34Speaker 04

  Yeah, I love her work. It's really, really great. Talk about now corporate collections and just your thoughts and ideas about the benefits of a corporate art collection.

• 42:48Speaker 06

  Yeah, you know, I think for me, that's been a really fulfilling facet of what we do at RAM. You know, it's really exciting to put a beautiful painting into a collector's home. But when a business approaches you and you're able to actually have a conversation about what a corporate art collection can do. It's, it gives me so much excitement because I can look at what the business, what their mission, what the mission is of a business and then fight, put together a group of work that just enforces that. And what it does is provides those business owners an opportunity as they have a client walk in their building. And if there is anybody that comments on a piece of art, it's just another

• 43:33Speaker 06

  opportunity for you to talk about how your business is continually enforcing and doing everything you say it's going to do. And you know, there's been a few businesses here in Bakersfield that, you know, have really strongly claimed publicly, we do everything locally. We, you know, everything that we hire out is going to be from Bakersfield. And then I would go in to their offices and it was again, that Target or Home Goods art.

• 44:02Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 44:02Speaker 06

  And what an opportunity to have that be again enforced. And for me, you know, it's working with these artists, we work with a combination of local, regional, mostly California artists, but definitely always having local artists on our calendar. It's not another opportunity for me to place these artists in great collections where I know that this work is going to be celebrated and cherished and, and seen, which is, you know, the most important thing.

• 44:28Speaker 04

  Yeah. And you, you know, we work with you, mostly Emily is working with you with our Woolworths, Money Wise collection that we have up on the second floor of the building. And you were, you were really great to work with because we, we have a very limited budget and it, it would a luxury, you know, to be able to have some, some quality art in the, in our, in our space up there. And, but I think, Dustin, like what's your experience?

• 45:02Speaker 05

  I love it. And you're touching on something I wanted to ask actually, because for somebody that's new to art collections or thinking about it, you know, you think of the exposure that you've had through movies or maybe a headline, some piece fetches millions of dollars, for example. Some people might think, oh, art is outside of my reach, or I might not be able to get it. But I have a feeling that's not the case. And especially with a local gallery. So can you speak to that a little bit? Like,

• 45:32Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 45:32Speaker 05

  Do different

• 45:34Speaker 06

  As far as

• 45:34Speaker 05

  Levels of wealth, have access and that kind of thing?

• 45:37Speaker 06

  Yeah, you know, I, I

• 45:40Speaker 06

  The work that, when we're working with a corporation or a business and putting together a collection, we, you give us a budget and we will work within those parameters, you know, being very honest about what that will look like depending on your budget. And at RAM, similarly with private collectors, you know, you tell me what kind of money you'd like to spend. And really, at the gallery, in our storage, you know, I have work, you know, is in the low hundreds to thousands and thousands of dollars. And, and we, I really want to be able to continue to serve collectors at all different budgets. And think that that's really important. And for me, some of the most exciting thing is when you

• 46:23Speaker 06

  sell somebody their first piece of art and they look at it as like, this is the beginning of a collection. And you know, if that's a hundred and fifty dollar drawing, or that's a five thousand dollar painting, you know, I, I want to be able to do that for any, any of those collectors.

• 46:39Speaker 04

  I think you've done a great job with that of not being too exclusive.

• 46:43Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 46:43Speaker 04

  Because I've, I've attended, I don't remember what you call them, but where you have, it's, at least a couple of times a year, you'll have where the art, there's lots of artists that are, that are set up at like temporary.

• 46:54Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 46:54Speaker 04

  In there. And you can, some of the artists are sketching right there for you. Some would just have, you know, little, smaller pieces that you can buy, but you, you make it very accessible.

• 47:04Speaker 06

  And you're, you're mentioning an event that I am really proud of and always excited to host. We do it every December, usually the first week of the month. And it's our art market. And it's really kind of a free for all. We actually don't profit from that event. We open our space up for young, old artists of any level to come and sell their work for a day at RAM. And it's another one of those great ways for artists who are wondering, how can I show my art at a gallery? That's a great, I always look at it like, here, I get to do 50 studio visits today. I get to see, you know, who's working in Bakersfield, who's excited to show their work, who is selling right now in this, in this space. And, but art market, I'm, we're actually talking about maybe doing it twice a year because it is.

• 47:49Speaker 06

  Such a beloved event.

• 47:50Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's fantastic. Again, we're joined by Rachel Wainwright with Ram Galleries. Jared here with Dustin. Sorry about that technical problem. We had what appears to be Just a little power outage. A power outage of some kind. It's back. We're here with Rachel Wainwright. She is the owner and director there at Ram Gallery. Rachel, I'll just read this message real quick. We only got a minute, but it says, "Where is her new place located? Please put her website with the podcast. I'll get it when I get off work." What a great guest. I'm an artist and it's amazing how much support artists get from this town. It's about time. Thank you for all your hard work.

• 48:26Speaker 06

  Oh.

• 48:26Speaker 04

  So there you are, Rachel.

• 48:27Speaker 06

  Again, it's galleryram.com and at galleryram on Instagram and 614 Kentucky Street.

• 48:34Speaker 04

  On Kentucky Street.

• 48:35Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 48:35Speaker 04

  It's really a cool area.

• 48:37Speaker 06

  And we're, we have open hours Thursday through Saturday, 10 to 4.

• 48:41Speaker 04

  Fantastic. It's, I'd highly recommend anybody to go by and check it out or get in touch and, and check out the Instagram page, check out the website, galleryram.com. You can find out more about it. It's, I'm a big supporter of the arts here. We're trying to do it here with Woolworths, you know, with music and, and performance, but we need, we need the visual arts too. It's a huge part of this community. So thank you, Rachel, for what you do.

• 49:07Speaker 06

  Thank you for all your support.

• 49:09Speaker 04

  Yeah, I really appreciate it. Want to remind our listeners that if you missed this or any of our previous podcasts, you can find us wherever you stream your podcasts, whether that's Spotify, iTunes, Apple, you name it, you can find us there. We will be back tomorrow, so don't miss that. Don't miss it. Actually tomorrow, I think we got a best of.

• 49:32Speaker 04

  Oh boy. We'll talk about that on Thursday. In the meantime, want to remind our listeners of these three things. Be smart, be safe, and always be money wise.

• 49:45Speaker 03

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