Pod Insights The Moneywise Guys 2/14/25 Getting Down to Business with March Consulting About this episode The Moneywise Radio Show and Podcast Friday, February 14th BE MONEYWISE. Moneywise Wealth Management I "The Moneywise Guys" podcast call: 661-847-1000 text in anytime: 661-396-1000 website: www. MoneywiseGuys.com facebook: Moneywise_Wealth_Management instagram: MoneywiseWealthManagement Guest: Kat Clowes, Founder/CEO of March Consulting website: https://mymarchconsulting.com/
Transcript 0:00 Speaker 00 From the padded radio room off Stockdale Highway, here is Money Wise. Call or text in at 661-396-1000.
0:09 Speaker 01 I need a dollar, dollar, dollar, that's what I need. Hey, hey. Well, I need a dollar, dollar, dollar, that's what I need. Hey, hey. Said I need a dollar, dollar, dollar, that's what I need. And if I share with you my story, would you share your dollar with me?
0:29 Speaker 02 Securities offered through SEF Securities, Inc., member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through SEF Investment Advisors, Inc. SEF Securities, Inc. and Money Wise Wealth Management are independently owned and operated.
0:40 Speaker 00 Now, let's start the Money Wise Show.
0:43 Speaker 03 Welcome, welcome, welcome to the Money Wise Show. We're live from the Garo Ellis padded radio room off Stockdale Highway on ESPN Radio Bakersfield, 1230 AM, 101.1 FM.
0:56 Speaker 00 Happy Valentine's Day, Justin.
0:58 Speaker 03 Happy Valentine's Day, Steve Z.
1:01 Speaker 00 I've got something for you.
1:02 Speaker 03 Does anybody still listen to AM radio?
1:04 Speaker 00 Uh, I do sometimes when the FM is not as strong.
1:08 Speaker 03 Hmm.
1:09 Speaker 00 But very rare.
1:12 Speaker 03 But we're also streaming at MoneyWiseGuys.com.
1:14 Speaker 00 And it's also on FM, so that's where I listen to my sports.
1:17 Speaker 03 101.1 FM.
1:18 Speaker 04 He's leaving me out here on the Valentine's Day.
1:21 Speaker 00 Oh, yes.
1:21 Speaker 03 Happy Valentine's Day.
1:23 Speaker 04 Happy Valentine's Day.
1:25 Speaker 00 I'm looking in Justin's eyes, so I didn't see you.
1:29 Speaker 03 Those beautiful hazels.
1:32 Speaker 00 Well, you, uh, you didn't get to pick out the music today, so you're gonna love what I have for you.
1:37 Speaker 03 Yes, I'm sure. I'm sure of it. Some bro country coming my way, huh?
1:43 Speaker 00 No, no, but it'll be definitely, uh, some heartwarming music, I promise.
1:50 Speaker 03 Oh, boy. You can text in the show anytime, 24 hours a day, 661-396-1000, 661-396-1000. Today, we are your hosts. I'm Justin Leland here with?
2:02 Speaker 04 Dustin Weaver.
2:03 Speaker 03 It's the Ustin Show.
2:05 Speaker 04 Yet again.
2:06 Speaker 03 Yet again.
2:06 Speaker 04 Here we are.
2:07 Speaker 00 I'm gonna make some shirts out of that. I'm just saying. I had some guests say they appreciated being with the Ustin's. I said, okay, it's kicking in.
2:16 Speaker 03 It's kicking in.
2:18 Speaker 04 Well, it's good to be here.
2:20 Speaker 03 If you'd like to listen to the show on any of our past programs, please subscribe to the Money Wise Guys podcast. Commercial free, because nobody likes commercials. On all the platforms, iTunes, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, whatever. Wherever, all the things.
2:39 Speaker 03 We have a great show for you today. We have Kat Klaus, great friend of the show, March Consulting.
2:46 Speaker 03 You have a child or a grandchild or a nephew, a niece. Or just a next door neighbor that you want to send to college, you probably want to listen to the the second and third segments of the show.
3:02 Speaker 04 Certainly looking forward to it. My daughter actually went through her program. We can bring that up when she's here.
3:06 Speaker 03 Yeah, she's awesome. She, you know, she sends kids to school with some scholarships that are just. How did you find that school with that scholarship with that endowment?
3:19 Speaker 04 Right.
3:20 Speaker 03 She finds.
3:21 Speaker 04 It's what they focus on.
3:22 Speaker 03 They find nuggets everywhere. So stay tuned for Kat Klaus at in the next segment. But we're going to do what we do, what we do best. Dustin, what do we do with the numbers today? A bit of a mixed market.
3:37 Speaker 04 A little bit mixed. Yeah. The, uh, let's start with the positive. The NASDAQ was up 0.41. So the NASDAQ is.
3:43 Speaker 03 The techies.
3:44 Speaker 04 More tech, right? Technology. And then we've got S and P down a little bit, down 0.01% or.
3:50 Speaker 03 Basically flat.
3:51 Speaker 04 Right.
3:51 Speaker 03 Flatlined.
3:56 Speaker 04 It's almost what the chart looks like.
4:00 Speaker 03 And then the Dow is down a little bit as well, right? Yeah. And there he goes. Yeah. A little late on the pickup there.
4:09 Speaker 04 Yeah, I know. It's Friday.
4:11 Speaker 03 Yeah, Friday's a little sleepy over there.
4:16 Speaker 03 We have some news though, but President Trump has directed the economic team to kind of look and formulate some plans for some reciprocal tariffs on pretty much any and every country that imposes tariffs on US imports. So that's kind of what's going on through the economy and through the stock market right now is that we're kind of trying to figure out what that's going to do. The, you know, the PPI, which the producer price report came in and eased kind of the inflation concerns because earlier in the week, what was it Wednesday? We got the CPI number, which showed a 3% inflation, which was the first time we got
4:58 Speaker 03 above 3% in like the last, what, four months or so? Which kind of sparked some fears that maybe inflation was kind of.
5:08 Speaker 04 Rearing its ugly head again?
5:10 Speaker 03 Bingo, right? But the PPI number, the producer price report, that is the number that is maybe a bit more telling about where inflation is truly going. And that's the number that the Fed pays a little bit more attention to than the CPI. And that report actually kind of eased some of the inflation concerns that we've been having over the past couple of days.
5:37 Speaker 04 Shows that it's going to be a little softer.
5:39 Speaker 03 A little bit softer. So, you know, but then we have the news that, you know, we're going to be implementing some of these tariffs. Now, these tariffs are not going to be implemented immediately. That's the, that's the, the good part about this is that we're going to have a few weeks of the economic team looking at all of these tariffs that are being imposed on US goods around the world. And there's obviously going to be some negotiations going on. Hey, you know, you're imposing a 6% tariff on this and a 12% tariff on that. And well, guess what?
6:15 Speaker 03 Bring them down or take them to zero or else.
6:17 Speaker 04 Right.
6:17 Speaker 03 Kind of.
6:17 Speaker 04 So these reciprocal tariffs, was that a step back from the previous percentages we saw?
6:22 Speaker 03 I think that was, this is in addition to, because that's, this is literally every country. He's saying literally, it doesn't, it's not Canada, Mexico, China, every country.
6:34 Speaker 04 Whoever has a tariff, I'm going to match it on this end.
6:36 Speaker 03 Bingo. Right. And so, yeah, so that's a little bit of a little, a little bit ambiguous. And so there's a little bit of Wall Street kind of saying, oh, let's kind of.
6:50 Speaker 04 Wait and see.
6:51 Speaker 03 Wait and see what's going to happen.
6:53 Speaker 04 Flush out, right?
6:53 Speaker 03 What's going to happen over the next two, three weeks and which countries play ball, which ones don't? And yeah, that's going to be kind of the thing for, to pay attention to over the next couple of weeks. You know, each year we wind up having kind of a, a different theme for the year. I think this year's theme is going to be tariffs. Right? In, in 2022, the word of the year was what? Steve Z? Transitory? The Fed was saying, oh, inflation, it's transitory. It'll be, it'll be down again. Right? And 23, it was, uh, what was it? It was the, uh, the magnificent seven, right?
7:36 Speaker 03 So, I mean, this year it's going to, I think it's going to be tariffs. I mean, we're only what, six weeks into the year? And I think that that's the, we've said tariffs every single day on the show. And I think that's going to be the theme for the year.
7:47 Speaker 04 You know, tariffs make me think of taxes. We got, actually got a good question about.
7:50 Speaker 03 Yeah.
7:51 Speaker 04 Taxes and identity theft. Let me read it to you.
7:52 Speaker 03 Here we go.
7:53 Speaker 04 It says, how does tax related identity theft impact credit scores and financial security? And what long-term recovery strategies should victims follow? Thank you guys. Have a great weekend.
8:03 Speaker 03 Great question. Great question. Now, tax related identity theft, uh, for people that don't know is when you file your tax return, like through a TurboTax or one of the free e-filing kind of platforms. If that gets hacked or something like that and somebody steals your social security number and all your information.
8:29 Speaker 03 That.
8:31 Speaker 03 That person can then go out and open up credit cards and things like that in your name because they have all your, at that point, they have all your information.
8:39 Speaker 04 You know, the other thing I heard was sometimes they could even file a return and try and get the deposit that their own account.
8:44 Speaker 03 That is true as well. Yeah, that's, yeah. Go ahead, file for me. Go ahead and, oh, pay my, pay my taxes for me, please.
8:52 Speaker 04 Pay the bill.
8:53 Speaker 03 Pay the bill for me, too. Go ahead. So that is, that is one of the most, that is the, one of the quickest growing forms of identity theft is through this tax-related identity theft. One of the easiest ways to thwart that is literally to basically shut down your, your social security number.
9:22 Speaker 04 Yeah, put a credit freeze.
9:23 Speaker 03 Put a credit freeze, right? Shut it down. So nobody can open any credit in your name without basically, you know, unfreezing your social security number.
9:32 Speaker 04 Right. I've seen a credit freeze and sometimes they use the term fraud alert.
9:36 Speaker 03 Yeah.
9:37 Speaker 04 But Experian, Equifax, TransUnion, you could do it with all three.
9:40 Speaker 03 You, you call all three of them and say, nobody's opening any credit under this credit card or this social security number until you hear from me.
9:49 Speaker 04 Cam alert.
9:50 Speaker 03 Cam alert.
9:52 Speaker 04 Was that Carol?
9:53 Speaker 03 That would be Stevie. Yeah.
9:59 Speaker 03 So it doesn't have, it doesn't have a direct effect on credit scores or financial security, but quite frankly, it, once they start opening up accounts in your name, that's when it's going to hurt.
10:10 Speaker 04 Certainly.
10:10 Speaker 03 Right?
10:11 Speaker 04 So the credit freeze and the fraud alert, you could also go to the Federal Trade Commission, identitytheft.gov, fill out a report so that they're aware. And then the IRS also has an identity theft affidavit that you could fill out. There's a form number 14039. But talk to your tax advisor, obviously. Anytime you're getting tax-related advice, definitely want that CPA, accountant, enrolled agent, somebody that is familiar with these things.
10:39 Speaker 03 Correct. Correct.
10:43 Speaker 03 You have another one there. This one's interesting. Um, Happy Valentine's Day.
10:48 Speaker 00 Here's a fun discussion starter and helpful for me. How do you see, uh, financial planning evolving, especially with the new digital tools and AI driven financial management? That is a good one.
11:03 Speaker 03 That is a tough one. Uh, so.
11:07 Speaker 03 I don't know. How do you see it, Dustin? How do you see?
11:09 Speaker 04 Oh, you're gonna throw me on that one.
11:10 Speaker 03 Yeah. I want to hear what you say first before I throw my, my two cents in there.
11:15 Speaker 04 As it sits today, it's definitely not a good financial advisor. I've been trying lots and lots of questions. And let me tell you, it gets a lot of them wrong.
11:22 Speaker 03 Yeah.
11:23 Speaker 04 And there are so many different facets, as you know, to a financial plan that there's a lot of variables. So I'm not saying it can't get there. It can't be a tool. I'm not saying it can't become a tool that might be helpful in some ways. Certainly with math calculations.
11:37 Speaker 03 Yeah.
11:38 Speaker 04 You know, it can help, but a, a personal financial plan is just that. It's very personal. That's the key word, word, right? There's so many variables that it's just not gonna be good with or be able to ask.
11:51 Speaker 03 I will, so I will say this is that I have actually tested, and so the thing with chat GPT or any of these open AI kind of, uh, you know, these are large language models, right? And they're good for web searches and, um, you know, language type things. I've put in some pretty complex formulas and, and math that it needs to figure out. Uh, it, it's wrong. It can't figure out percentages. It can't figure like it's, it has a hard time with relatively rudimentary like, you know, algebra two type stuff.
12:31 Speaker 03 Right? So it has a lot to do to catch up. Um, so I wouldn't really trust it much with numbers at this point. Um, but.
12:43 Speaker 03 We, you know, I've gone to a couple of conferences in the last year and we've, we have had these breakout sessions where we've talked about AI. And how it can, how, how financial firms like MoneyWise can use, can use AI in a productive way.
13:01 Speaker 04 Oh, certainly.
13:03 Speaker 03 For certain aspects of their business.
13:06 Speaker 04 Like note taking?
13:07 Speaker 03 Note taking or certain processes that they do, that they're not financially, you know, based, but. Yeah, certain things that can be done that, that speed up certain processes.
13:22 Speaker 03 That's fine. I think all businesses are doing that.
13:26 Speaker 04 Certainly.
13:27 Speaker 03 And that is going to be something that drives efficiency and allows businesses to be more nimble and quicker and faster. In providing services to their customers. That's what I see going forward. I don't see. The, the financial planning industry going away because of AI.
13:49 Speaker 04 Well, no, and I mean, we heard this 10 years ago when the first robo advisor was coming on the scene and they. They said, oh, we're going to take all your financial advisor jobs here in the next five years. And that didn't happen. People want personalized individual service.
14:03 Speaker 03 Y2K was a bust. Yep.
14:08 Speaker 03 So yeah, yeah, it's just, you know, I don't think that, yeah, technology is great, but it has its limitations, like Dustin said. So that's kind of where we're at with that. But hey, we're going to take a break right now. When we come back. The one, the only, the great Cat Klaus from March Consulting.
14:29 Speaker 00 Are you an employee with a company sponsored retirement plan? Do you fully understand how you're invested and whether or not you are maximizing your retirement plan's options? For more information on a free assessment, contact MoneyWise's 401k specialist, Justin Leland at 661-847-1000.
15:03 Speaker 03 See, I can do Motown. I can do this.
15:05 Speaker 00 That's a Valentine's Day song, for sure.
15:08 Speaker 03 This isn't too bad.
15:11 Speaker 00 I can make it worse if you want.
15:12 Speaker 03 No, please don't.
15:15 Speaker 00 But our guest Kat just gave me a good idea, so I'm gonna change it up before the show's over.
15:19 Speaker 03 Okay.
15:20 Speaker 00 All right.
15:21 Speaker 03 All right.
15:24 Speaker 03 Welcome back to the Money Wise Show.
15:27 Speaker 04 And welcome, Kat.
15:28 Speaker 03 Welcome, Kat.
15:29 Speaker 05 Thanks for having me.
15:30 Speaker 03 We did get a question that came in during the break here real quick. Why does the IRS want to know if I bought cryptocurrency?
15:38 Speaker 04 Because they want to know if you sold cryptocurrency, right?
15:41 Speaker 03 Yes, exactly. They need to know. They need to know if you made a profit because they got to get theirs.
15:46 Speaker 04 That's right.
15:47 Speaker 03 It's called capital gains. They want to know.
15:50 Speaker 04 It is taxed as an asset, a capital asset, though. So just like real estate, or if you buy a stock.
15:55 Speaker 03 Yeah.
15:55 Speaker 04 It's not taxed as a currency, which has a higher rate.
15:58 Speaker 03 Yeah, it is taxed. It's a security. It's taxed. So you do have to pay the capital gains tax on the growth of that. So.
16:06 Speaker 04 That's right.
16:06 Speaker 03 Yes.
16:08 Speaker 03 Hi, Kat.
16:09 Speaker 05 Hi.
16:09 Speaker 03 How are you?
16:10 Speaker 05 I'm good. A lot of changes in education, but.
16:13 Speaker 03 No. I thought that.
16:16 Speaker 05 A lot going on.
16:16 Speaker 03 I thought education was completely stagnant and there's nothing that changes.
16:21 Speaker 05 If I could just have one boring admissions year, I'd be so happy. So happy. It's been a constant change for five years going.
16:30 Speaker 03 So what's the latest on the FAFSA fiasco?
16:35 Speaker 05 It has calmed down.
16:36 Speaker 03 Okay.
16:37 Speaker 05 So last year was a bit of a dumpster fire. There was a lot of navigating glitches and things not going through and things not connecting properly. Colleges.
16:47 Speaker 03 Before we get to that, tell us what happened and why it was such a dumpster fire in the first place, and then we'll get to why it's fixed.
16:55 Speaker 05 So the FAFSA, which stands for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, updated last year. And of course, probably the system they were running this on was 1992 DOS.
17:09 Speaker 03 Right.
17:09 Speaker 05 Right? And so they wanted to update it. There was an update to the calculations that they made. Unfortunately, there were some unfortunate updates, like if you have two kids in college.
17:23 Speaker 05 It used to be that what the government said you could quote unquote pay for college would be split in half if you had two students.
17:31 Speaker 03 Is it not now?
17:32 Speaker 05 It is not like that anymore.
17:34 Speaker 03 Such good news for those of us with a second kid.
17:36 Speaker 05 Uh huh. That was probably my least favorite update that Congress made. But they completely and utterly updated the application to quote unquote simplify it. I don't necessarily think that it's more simple. And when they updated it, they were by law, they had to open it by December 31st. They did a soft launch that was a disaster on the 31st.
18:03 Speaker 03 Oh, boy.
18:04 Speaker 05 And it pushed everything back. Colleges didn't get applications until April, May, and had to push back.
18:13 Speaker 03 Admissions.
18:14 Speaker 05 Your intent to enroll deadline and all these other things. A lot of families got a lot of surprises on the updates to their financial aid packages for kids that are in college. And then just getting your application submitted was mostly the dumpster fire. It was very challenging. Not my favorite.
18:34 Speaker 03 Well, I mean, it's just it. One government issue, throwing a pebble into the lake, and all of a sudden the ripple effect of all of the one decision causes a ripple effect for hundreds of thousands of students.
18:49 Speaker 05 It was, they didn't give us any training on it until the week it opened.
18:54 Speaker 03 Yeah.
18:54 Speaker 05 Because they didn't really know what was gonna happen. It was, it was interesting.
18:58 Speaker 03 Yeah.
18:59 Speaker 05 Well, everybody got through it.
19:00 Speaker 03 Got through it. So now it's, it's calmer now.
19:03 Speaker 05 Mm hmm.
19:04 Speaker 03 Okay, so what's the next dumpster fire that's headed down the, the path, the primrose path of education?
19:08 Speaker 05 Ooh, well, uh, we're not quite sure what department student loans and federal grants are gonna run to if the Department of Education's eliminated. The CSU system just announced a huge budget, uh, cut to their systems on top of announcing a couple of weeks ago that they were fully embracing AI without, uh, from my understanding, faculty input on that.
19:38 Speaker 05 The UCs are looking at the same short in the budget. And amongst all of this, of course, we had the Supreme Court update for not considering certain aspects of a student in the admissions process, which wasn't happening for the CSU or UC system and hasn't since 1996.
19:58 Speaker 03 Yeah.
19:59 Speaker 05 The UC system's now getting sued by a group that claims that they are using a student's race in the consideration. It's just, it's been, there's a lot of things going on.
20:13 Speaker 04 You used the word interesting.
20:14 Speaker 05 It keeps me on my toes, I tell you, I tell you what. And, and that's just on top of regular admissions updates and, you know, Texas A&M announced that they're going to be accepting less students the next couple of years because they need to build more housing. UT Austin, record-breaking applications. They are also cutting the amount of students they're accepting, particularly out of state. A lot of people don't know that for some of these bigger flagships, if you are an out-of-state applicant, they're only accepting 20% of those applicants. So you're competing against everybody else.
20:51 Speaker 04 Wow.
20:52 Speaker 05 USC just announced yesterday, record-breaking applications. It's, it seems like-
20:58 Speaker 03 What is USC now per, per year? Is it 100,000 now per, like?
21:01 Speaker 05 They're at 92,000 a year.
21:05 Speaker 03 Yeah, I was figuring, when are they going to click over the six figures?
21:08 Speaker 04 I'm impressed you knew that off the top of your head. It's pretty good.
21:11 Speaker 05 Cause it's such a crazy number.
21:13 Speaker 03 Yeah.
21:14 Speaker 05 Like, how?
21:14 Speaker 03 How is that possible?
21:16 Speaker 05 Vanderbilt's 98,000.
21:18 Speaker 04 Wow.
21:19 Speaker 05 And if you look at any of the Ivy Leagues, they're in competition to see who's going to break 100.
21:24 Speaker 04 Wow.
21:24 Speaker 03 Yeah.
21:25 Speaker 05 It's crazy.
21:27 Speaker 03 It's nuts. Absolutely nuts.
21:28 Speaker 04 And that's just undergrad.
21:29 Speaker 05 And that's only undergrad.
21:30 Speaker 04 Wow.
21:31 Speaker 03 Can you imagine paying near, you know, $400,000 for a four-year degree? And that's just for the tuition, not including books and room and board?
21:39 Speaker 05 Oh, it does include.
21:40 Speaker 03 Oh, okay, okay. So at least that's.
21:42 Speaker 05 That's everything.
21:42 Speaker 03 That's covered.
21:43 Speaker 05 Right.
21:44 Speaker 04 Closer to worth it, I guess. Right? Maybe?
21:47 Speaker 03 Maybe.
21:48 Speaker 05 Just buy a house or an education.
21:49 Speaker 03 Oh, maybe I could flip burgers and put myself through school. Not.
21:53 Speaker 04 Okay, so you work in education. Are you buying a network at that level? Is that what it is? You're buying a network of folks that are gonna help you get a better job is the idea?
22:00 Speaker 05 That is the myth out there. And I know that there's a whole bunch of UT Austin grads right now and A&M grads that are clutching the steering wheel as they're listening like, no, that's, that is what we, what we're buying. To some degree, yes. But really, you need to look at the fit of the school for the student because that's what you want. You want to make sure that the program is everything that you want it to be, that the environment is somewhere your student can grow.
22:32 Speaker 03 The culture.
22:33 Speaker 05 The culture. I, I went to the number one soccer school in the world and I went to one soccer game. That didn't mean anything to me, but everything else was a great fit.
22:43 Speaker 04 As a soccer player, that hurts.
22:45 Speaker 05 Sorry.
22:46 Speaker 03 Hurt gets you right here, huh?
22:47 Speaker 04 It does.
22:48 Speaker 03 Right in the middle of the heart.
22:49 Speaker 05 They have great.
22:49 Speaker 04 No, but it makes sense what you're saying.
22:50 Speaker 05 Santa Clara. It was, it was good.
22:53 Speaker 03 So, um, it's just, it's amazing to me just how quickly some of these things change when it comes to, um, just the education and, and
23:05 Speaker 03 the, the cost of education, not just here locally, but just around the country. And to hear from, here, here we're talking about the Department of Education and how funding is gonna be, uh, either changed, not either, either eliminated or drastically changed. I'm gonna, I'm gonna ask you, when we come back from the break, what is that gonna look like? Or what are you gonna, what are you seeing? Or what is the fears that you have about what exactly college is going to look like? What is university gonna look like if, you know, um, student loans, subsidized loans, those types of things are gonna be?
23:49 Speaker 03 A thing of the past and now they're privatized. Like, what is that gonna look like if, if that's gonna be the new norm when we come back?
23:56 Speaker 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 MoneyWise financial advisor for a no obligation assessment.
24:22 Speaker 03 Welcome back.
24:28 Speaker 03 It's like my prom.
24:30 Speaker 05 We got to go see Weezer, my husband and I.
24:32 Speaker 03 Yeah.
24:33 Speaker 05 In October of this year, this past year. It was amazing.
24:36 Speaker 03 Oh, wow. Good concert?
24:38 Speaker 05 In concert.
24:39 Speaker 03 Yeah.
24:39 Speaker 05 With the, uh, uh, oh, there's two other bands and I'm not gonna remember the name because I'm on the radio.
24:47 Speaker 05 But it was in San Francisco.
24:49 Speaker 03 Uh huh.
24:50 Speaker 05 It was the most amazing concert. My 14-year-old self was so happy to see River up there singing his heart out.
24:57 Speaker 03 Nice.
24:58 Speaker 05 They still jam.
24:59 Speaker 03 Did they?
24:59 Speaker 05 It was great.
25:00 Speaker 03 Sounded good.
25:01 Speaker 05 It was one of the best concerts I've ever been to.
25:02 Speaker 03 Oh, wow. It's great. Nice.
25:03 Speaker 00 Is it Fall Out Boy?
25:05 Speaker 05 No, it was, uh, they sing, um...
25:09 Speaker 00 For a little while. I've always wanted to see Weezer. Oh, right on. That'd been cool.
25:13 Speaker 05 Like the Red Hot Lips or something like that?
25:15 Speaker 03 Yeah, Flaming Lips?
25:16 Speaker 05 Flaming Lips. Thank you.
25:18 Speaker 00 See, we got it.
25:19 Speaker 05 Yeah.
25:20 Speaker 00 Good one, Justin.
25:20 Speaker 03 Yeah.
25:21 Speaker 00 Teamwork.
25:22 Speaker 03 Good pull. Right. Well, okay. Um, so we know with the, the, the new administration, one of the things that is being, uh, discussed is the Department of Education. Um, whether we keep it, whether we mothball it, whether we drastically reduce it, change it, there's obviously something that's going to happen within the Department of Education. We don't fully know what that's gonna hap- what's gonna happen yet. There's been talk of, hey, an executive order and we're just gonna mothball it or, or whatever. Um, but what happens in...
26:07 Speaker 03 In the case of the Department of Education ceasing to exist, like to walk us through what that looks like in terms of not just, we're talking not, not K through 12, right? But for, for college admissions, student loan processing, subsidized loans, unsubsidized loans, what does this mean for, you know, cost of college for John Q taxpayer?
26:41 Speaker 05 So there's a lot of speculation and we don't really know what's going to happen yet, but there's a couple of things that could happen. Right now, we've seen tuition increase for families because of cutbacks in state funding and that's been happening since the 1960s. A lot of people will assume that you can still work a burger flipping job over the summer to pay for the whole year of college because that's how it was in the 50s and 60s.
27:11 Speaker 03 You can't do that anymore.
27:12 Speaker 05 You can't do that anymore.
27:14 Speaker 03 Yeah.
27:15 Speaker 05 It's hard to even getting close to that. And so student loans have filled that gap for a large amount of families as have Pell Grants, federal Pell Grants. Those don't cover as much as we wish they would. Here in California, we also have Cal Grants that help students out as well. Again, does not cover as much as I wish they would.
27:40 Speaker 03 Yeah.
27:40 Speaker 04 And those last two, those are income qualified type plans?
27:43 Speaker 05 Those are income qualified, so there are, there's a certain ceiling that you can, you know, make.
27:50 Speaker 03 Thresholds that you have to meet.
27:51 Speaker 05 And it's family specific.
27:53 Speaker 03 Yeah.
27:54 Speaker 05 So I imagine that if federal student loans, I don't believe that they're going to go away, I would speculate that they would be privatized. And the private student loan market is in my eyes, a little bit of the wild, wild west.
28:13 Speaker 03 A little bit of a wolf's den.
28:15 Speaker 05 They can charge whatever interest. There were variable interest rates, student loans from, from private agencies at one time. I don't see those as much. But when you're starting out in life, and I did this because I had to cover the gap and I even got scholarships for my grades. And we were more strategic about that, not as strategic as I would have liked, which is why I do what I do now. But I had to fill that gap in 2002 with student loans. And I'm still paying those off and they were federal loans at a lower interest rate.
28:54 Speaker 03 Right.
28:54 Speaker 05 So I anticipate that those would go privatized. And there could be no limit to what you borrow. But then also those interest rates are going to be nine, 10, 12%.
29:06 Speaker 03 Or higher.
29:07 Speaker 04 It's gonna be higher. They could be variable at a time when, since you took those loans back in 02. I mean, the rate of inflation in the college world is what, 5% or 6%?
29:18 Speaker 03 If not more.
29:18 Speaker 05 Oh, it's not to call out Santa Clara University, my alma mater, loved it there. When I went there, I remember distinctly it was $34,000 a year to go there. And I remember that because we were $1,000 more than Stanford and that made me angry.
29:36 Speaker 04 Wow.
29:37 Speaker 05 How, how is that? They have a 600 acre campus. So that was for everything that's your room and board and everything else.
29:43 Speaker 03 34,000.
29:44 Speaker 05 34,000. I was able to save more money because I lived off campus and I worked three on campus jobs during the year. So now Santa Clara is at about $80,000 a year.
29:58 Speaker 04 Yeah.
29:59 Speaker 03 A little more than double.
30:00 Speaker 05 A little more than double. When I started helping families in 2010, most schools were around the 20 to 30,000 dollar mark. Now it's a huge difference. If you're looking at Texas A&M, you're looking as an out of state student at about $64,000 a year. Even if you're looking at UCLA, you're looking at $42,000 a year.
30:31 Speaker 05 And so that rate of tuition inflation has drastically changed. There's been a lot of talk about whether that is legitimate, whether because of student loans and the availability of grants, if they just raise their their prices. I do think it has a lot to do with the building that they did on campus in the early 2000s. And, you know, they're paying all that off. But I don't know what the answer is, and I don't think it's going to get any better.
31:03 Speaker 03 Right, right. And, you know, the taking away some of the funding, though, is also going to be something that's going to, like you said, with the with the funding from state institutions being reduced, that the the funding still needs to be there. The school needs to run. And so if you're cutting the funding from state funding, they've got to get that money from somewhere to be able to run the institution. It's going to be coming from the tuition.
31:30 Speaker 05 Right.
31:31 Speaker 03 Right. So if we cut more funding, where who's going to be paying for it? It's going to be the student, you know, by definition, right? So.
31:41 Speaker 04 We got a comment with a follow up question that's appropriate here. It says, wow, my child is in second grade. And this is already scaring me. Around what grade do you usually start planning with high school kids or parents of the children?
31:53 Speaker 05 Seventh grade is ideal. And I know that there's a lot of people like, seventh grade? Oh, my gosh.
31:58 Speaker 03 That's so soon.
31:59 Speaker 05 It's so soon. I have a seventh grader. And I'm not saying that you should start talking about the college list and writing your essays and things like that. Seventh grade is ideal because the classes that you take in high school can make a bigger difference on the programs that you qualify for and the schools you qualify for. So if you're looking at UT Austin as an engineering major, there is a calculus readiness requirement you have to pass before even applying. So you need to be in the highest math class possible.
32:36 Speaker 03 In seventh and eighth grade.
32:38 Speaker 05 In seventh and eighth grade so that you can at least start out with geometry freshman year of high school. So math is very important. And I've seen that students that have more of an idea of what they want to pursue as they start high school are far more successful in being strategic with their time and their summers and their classes. Now, I tell students, I want you to plan the next 84 years of your life right now, right? But as an example, with my daughter, she's going to be 13 next month. We've been talking about college costs and how grades are a direct correlation with scholarships that are going to be available,
33:20 Speaker 05 honors college programs, specialty programs that will provide those full and half tuition scholarships. And now we are fixing those time management issues, that there's no late work, things like that, that I would say since the pandemic, the schools, they'll allow late work. They'll allow you to turn everything in the day before the quarter and get full credit, which is not serving them well. Now, I'm not going to blame the schools because they've gotten a lot of parent pushback for that.
33:49 Speaker 03 Certainly.
33:49 Speaker 05 In terms of, why don't you just let Johnny turn this in late? I don't understand.
33:54 Speaker 03 Yeah.
33:55 Speaker 05 But building those skills up in junior high, so that when they get to high school, they're earning the best grades possible. We're looking at different career fields now, not to determine what she wants to be right now and then follow that, but trying things out. So.
34:14 Speaker 03 So, for those that are listening right now that have a child, grandchild, nephew, niece, that are listening to this and recognize the, just the, the knowledge that is coming out of Kat's face.
34:32 Speaker 03 Right now, she is an amazing resource, right? It's it, this is, she's not using the laptop that she's like, this is numbers coming straight off the top of her head. I'm not kidding you. If you have a loved one or a child or somebody that you're looking at as far as trying to get some knowledge on what to do about getting your kids through school, getting them into the right college or the college that you want to get them to. Kat, tell them how to get in touch with you. Tell them what March Consulting does for students. And when is the ideal time to to get them to to get in touch with you?
35:09 Speaker 05 So they can call our office at 661-747-4514. They can also schedule a free consultation through our website at mymarchconsulting.com. They can email us, [email protected] . We have a lot of free content on all the social medias. So any social media that you use, except TikTok. I haven't broken TikTok yet. Sorry, guys. And I'm not a big Snapchat chatter, but everything else.
35:41 Speaker 05 Ideally, junior high to start talking about what students like, don't like, and exposing them to career paths.
35:49 Speaker 03 Right.
35:50 Speaker 05 High school, our junior class right now is already writing admissions essays. They are finalizing their college lists. We are planning out what scholarship programs they're going to be applying for at the schools. And we're really strategic with finding schools that are going to give students money. And it's not the same 50 schools that everybody else is applying to. If they do want to go to a Cal Poly or a UCLA, part of what makes us unique is we teach students this process. How are you being evaluated? How do you answer those essay questions? What activities do you need to spend your time on that are going to make a bigger difference?
36:31 Speaker 03 That brag sheet.
36:33 Speaker 05 It's that brag sheet.
36:34 Speaker 03 Yeah.
36:34 Speaker 05 You don't have to be in 17.25 activities. You don't have to be in a sport all four years. And please, please, don't let your student do 25 different half hour, random community service events because quote unquote, you have to have community service for college.
36:52 Speaker 03 Right.
36:53 Speaker 05 Do one thing deeper that they're actually passionate about. Uh, and it's hard to say that anybody 17 has a passion because they're 17 years old, but something that they're interested in. Right?
37:04 Speaker 04 Well, my daughter went through the program. We're very grateful for it. Got great feedback from her as well. Uh, but I didn't ask you, where'd the name come from? March Consulting?
37:13 Speaker 05 So March is usually when acceptance letters come out for all the schools. It's also a forward motion. You can't, I mean, I guess you could march without a plan, but you wouldn't want to, you know, any, any military marching has a plan.
37:27 Speaker 03 You don't really march backwards.
37:28 Speaker 05 You don't march backwards. Yeah. You march forward.
37:33 Speaker 05 And I'm a big fan of the color green. It was my competition colors when I, when I rode horses and March is a green month.
37:40 Speaker 04 Well, there you go. There you go.
37:42 Speaker 03 Well, there we go. Uh, we're going to get all that information onto the notes for the podcast, right, Steve Z?
37:48 Speaker 00 Yes.
37:49 Speaker 03 Yeah, absolutely. Kat Klaus from March Consulting. Thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you for all of the great information. And, uh, like I said, if you have a student that's, uh, ready to go to college or getting ready to start looking for college, you need to go to, to March Consulting. Uh, seriously, you gotta go. Um, we'll be right back.
38:08 Speaker 00 Don't forget, Money Wise is more than a radio show. We're an independently owned local wealth management firm with 60 plus years of collective experience. Our financial advisors are here to help you, Kern County. Together, let's be smart, be safe, be money wise.
38:39 Speaker 03 Welcome back.
38:45 Speaker 03 The Red Hot Chili Peppers did it better.
38:47 Speaker 04 No. Can't be better than the original.
38:52 Speaker 04 But you're lucky that Kat brought up Weezer because I had some Shania Twain ready for you.
39:00 Speaker 00 You don't like Shania?
39:01 Speaker 03 Nope, can't do it.
39:04 Speaker 03 That or the, uh, what is it?
39:07 Speaker 00 Yeah, I wasn't lying. I had it ready.
39:09 Speaker 03 You had it ready.
39:12 Speaker 03 That or the Forrester sisters or any of that kind of stuff. Can't do it. Can't do it.
39:19 Speaker 03 All right. Hey, we got a message came in. Um, given that running an entertainment venue is quite different from typical city operations, what specific measures would the city take to ensure the Crystal Palace maintains its quality of entertainment programming and historical significance while under municipal management?
39:38 Speaker 04 Not it.
39:39 Speaker 03 Not it.
39:41 Speaker 00 They must have, uh, went back and listened to our conversation with Andre Gonzalez a couple of days ago.
39:46 Speaker 03 Yeah. Was he, he was on what Tuesday?
39:48 Speaker 00 Yeah.
39:49 Speaker 03 Yeah.
39:49 Speaker 00 And he had brought up that he wasn't for it.
39:53 Speaker 00 But there was discussion that they were talking about.
39:56 Speaker 03 Yeah. And I know that
40:00 Speaker 03 the city is not in the restaurant business. Let's put it that way.
40:03 Speaker 00 Exactly what he said.
40:04 Speaker 04 Yeah.
40:04 Speaker 03 Right? And
40:08 Speaker 03 the city honestly shouldn't really be in the entertainment business either.
40:16 Speaker 03 So I don't know if this really fits the bill. I don't know. We'll see what the city council does, but not it.
40:23 Speaker 00 Something that Mechanics Bank changed their name again?
40:26 Speaker 03 Yeah, they're going to change it to dignity, dignity, health, uh,
40:28 Speaker 00 Okay. So this is what number three or four?
40:31 Speaker 03 Yeah.
40:32 Speaker 04 Well, maybe that, are they just leasing it for a period of time? Is that what it is?
40:35 Speaker 03 Well, it's just the naming rights, right? It's just like the Staples Center became crypto.com because Staples ran out of money.
40:40 Speaker 00 Yeah, like the Superdome was just the Superdome.
40:44 Speaker 03 Yeah.
40:44 Speaker 00 And now that the Super Bowl, was it?
40:46 Speaker 03 The Lexus?
40:47 Speaker 00 Caesars?
40:48 Speaker 03 Yeah. Yeah.
40:50 Speaker 00 Got to get a little money. But yeah, I remember when it was, uh, first coming out was with the Centennial Garden.
40:56 Speaker 03 Yeah. Centennial Garden and it, and it was Roble Bank.
40:59 Speaker 00 And then it was Roble Bank.
41:00 Speaker 03 And then it was Mechanics Bank and now it's going to be dignity health.
41:03 Speaker 00 Okay.
41:04 Speaker 03 Right?
41:05 Speaker 04 All right.
41:06 Speaker 03 All right.
41:07 Speaker 04 Well, maybe Mechanics can go over to Crystal Palace and make it the Mechanics.
41:12 Speaker 00 And get a mechanic bowl.
41:14 Speaker 03 Yeah.
41:15 Speaker 00 There you go.
41:15 Speaker 03 There you go.
41:16 Speaker 00 Now you're thinking.
41:16 Speaker 03 Now we're, they're, they're thinking with our thinking caps.
41:21 Speaker 03 So we got a couple of minutes left and one of the things that the administration's looking at doing is realizing, hey, interest rates are pretty high, right? And especially high when we're talking about trying to go out and buy a home. Interest rates right now, if we'd look, you know, call Alan Maderos right now, he'd probably be saying, we're looking at what, six and three quarters or seven, somewhere in there? Six and a half to seven?
41:48 Speaker 04 He'll be here Wednesday.
41:49 Speaker 03 He'll be here Wednesday? But they've been, you know, hovering in that 7% range, six and a half and up. And that's kind of keeping home sales kind of stagnant, right? Not, not necessarily stopping home sales, but not necessarily helping them either. Right? So the administration's trying to figure out a way to help to, in their way, help to try to reduce the mortgage rates. Well, the mortgage rate is really very closely tied to the 10-year treasury, the 10-year bond.
42:29 Speaker 03 And right now, the 10-year bond is trading at what, 4.4, 4.5? And so it basically winds up being about two points higher than that, two to three points higher than that.
42:39 Speaker 04 Yeah, a lot of people ask about the Fed. It's less.
42:42 Speaker 03 It's less tied to the federal funds rate than it is to the 10-year bond.
42:45 Speaker 04 Yep.
42:47 Speaker 03 And a lot of things go into the 10-year bond yield. It's, it's usually two real things. It's like, what is, what does the investor think is going to happen with inflation over the next 10 years? And what do they think the US growth potential is going to be over the next 10 years? And you kind of take both of those in, in concert with each other and that kind of becomes your, your 10-year bond yield. So the administration's looking at this and saying, hey, wait, how do we, how do we try to influence the 10-year bond yield to get it lower so that we can get the, they're not, they're not going to artificially go and it's like, oh, we're going to, we're going to lower the interest rates. But.
43:24 Speaker 03 Three things that they're going to try and do. Okay, we're trying to see about looking at, you know, supplementary leverage ratio, which is basically revising a regulation that requires large banks to hold additional capital. So by easing that requirement, banks would have more cap, more capacity to hold treasuries and thereby increasing the demand. And if you increase the demand in buying treasury, you lower the yields, right? So that's one way to do it. The second is the secretary of treasury, Treasury Secretary, Scott Besant, the 333 Plan, 3% GDP growth, 3%, the budget deficit being 3% of GDP,
44:08 Speaker 03 and increasing oil production by 3 million barrels a day. So by doing that, they're seeking to stimulate non-inflationary growth and reduce energy costs, which would, if we lower energy costs, potentially could lower long-term interest rates. Okay, so that helps too.
44:26 Speaker 04 So we're watching the 10-year.
44:28 Speaker 03 Yeah.
44:29 Speaker 04 Hoping that comes down.
44:30 Speaker 03 Yeah.
44:31 Speaker 04 Because that could help mortgage rates.
44:32 Speaker 03 Right. And so a couple of these things that they're trying to do is if they can lower those, that 10-year bond yield down a little bit, then we might start seeing that mortgage rate come down. And if we see the mortgage rate come down, you're going to see more houses being sold. So that's really kind of what they're trying to do. Hey, not necessarily bad economic policy.
44:51 Speaker 04 Well, let's see how it plays out.
44:53 Speaker 03 See how it plays out.
44:54 Speaker 04 Yep.
44:55 Speaker 03 We'll see where that goes. Hey, we are off on Monday. It's a holiday. So we'll really be back on Tuesday.
45:01 Speaker 04 All right.
45:02 Speaker 03 With a wonderful show. We'll see you then. And when we come, we'll be back, but Tuesday, that's right. Thanks for being in my ear, Steve Z. Be smart, be safe, be money wise. We'll see you Tuesday.
Previous 2/13/25 Getting Down to Business with Sherri Horn-Bunk of Taft College Foundation Next 2/18/25 From Crypto Tax Compliance to Carbon Capture: A Full Energy Discussion with Chad Hathaway Page updated November 7, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated
