3/13/25 Getting Down to Business with Bakersfield ARC

The Moneywise Radio Show and Podcast Thursday, March 13th 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 Guests: Shawn Kennemer, President of Bakersfield Arc & Erika Dixon, Sr. Vice President of Development website: www.bakersfieldarc.org/ phone: (661) 834-2272 facebook YouTube instagram

• 0:00Speaker 00

  From the padded radio room off Stockdale Highway, here is Money Wise. Call or text in at 661-396-1000.

• 0:09Speaker 01

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• 0:29Speaker 02

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• 0:39Speaker 00

  Now, let's start the Money Wise Show.

• 0:42Speaker 03

  Let's, let's get this show on the road, huh? What do you say? How's everybody out there doing in Bakersfield with all this rain? We get it about once a year, so I think we've met our quota and we can go ahead and shut that part of the year and move on.

• 0:59Speaker 04

  Bring on the heat.

• 1:00Speaker 03

  Right? Yep, and it'll be 110 degrees in four or five days.

• 1:04Speaker 04

  Yeah, right.

• 1:05Speaker 03

  There you go.

• 1:06Speaker 04

  Way to set the tone for a show, KP.

• 1:07Speaker 03

  Yeah, yes. Welcome to the Money Wise Show. We are live from the Garret Ellis padded radio room off Stockdale Highway on ESPN, Bakersfield, 1230. I'm your host today, Chris Pelster.

• 1:18Speaker 04

  And I am Seth Perry, the guy sitting right across the desk from him.

• 1:23Speaker 03

  There you go. There you go. You guys can't see that out there in radio land, but yeah, hopefully you're joining us live. And if not, you're listening on the old podcast platforms. You can tune into iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, anywhere you like your podcasts. It's a little bit shorter and we also will try to link all the information that we share today or anything that we talk about. We are going to have some wonderful guests today from Bakersfield ARC, going to come on and share a little bit about their program, a longstanding nonprofit organization that's been providing essential job training, employment, support services in Kern County since 1949. So, most people know what that is.

• 2:04Speaker 03

  They've kind of gone through some rebanding and changes and really, really excited to get the update. And, and I actually, uh, kinda started this conversation with a wonderful community servant, Mr. Perry. Uh, we're all friends with, uh, with, with him. He's a marine here in town and, uh, worked in, uh, politics for a little bit and has transitioned now because of some of the change in, in his world and the political world. Some of you guys know that backstory. Um, but, uh, uh, cause he worked in Kevin McCarthy's office. I don't want to sound like I'm like some shady thing, but anyways, he, uh, he's over there. So I've actually talked to him and he was like, we need to get on and talk about Bakersfield ARC and he's really, really excited about his

• 2:45Speaker 03

  new endeavors, um, helping, uh, some of those folks in our community. So, uh, but before we, uh, you know, kinda get towards that, we do have a couple of questions that came in that we can jump on, but I do want to go over the markets a little bit. Um, you know, last week I was joking, I came on and I said, take a deep breath, um, you know, one day at a time and all that stuff. And, uh, you know, we, we are in correction territory. We are, the markets have gone down 10 from a high. Um, a little bit of perspective, we are down about 6% on the year. So 10% from the high, down about 6% on the year, which means it climbed before it started coming back. Obviously the markets are reacting a little bit to some of the concerns

• 3:27Speaker 03

  and it's not just political and tariff talk. Um, you know, there was an ADP report that came out. For those of you who don't know what ADP, ADP reports is like jobs data, jobs numbers, you know, cause it's not just political. It's not just who's in the White House, which most people think has a much bigger reaction or, or reality of the markets and the economy. Um, it boils back down to are people getting jobs or people losing jobs or people filing for unemployment? How is our economy doing? What does spending look like? Is spending on nothing but credit cards? That can be a bad thing. That's a sign of trouble to come. Not maybe right now or for a while, but eventually those credit cards get maxed out and you just

• 4:12Speaker 03

  have payments to make or default. And so those are some of the things that are the actual economic data that folks are looking at right now, uh, amid also trying to. Dive through all this tariff talk. I mean tariffs are being talked about more than anything. And, um, you know, I mean, just about every country I think has been maybe called out by now. Uh huh. Yeah. So, uh, we did want to talk about the positives of tariffs because it seems to be doom and gloom. Uh, a little bit, uh, but, uh, but it's, it's not necessarily all bad, but just to kind of give you a rounded perspective of it. Um, you know, some people just don't like how it's kind of being talked about or thrown around, but there's all kinds of things to think about with tariffs. I think one time we talked about the history of tariffs.

• 4:57Speaker 03

  Cause a lot of times like we've never necessarily lived through a major tariff war or anything like that. But for a long time, it was the sole source of income as a country. And most people don't even realize that. So, um, I was going to say, like I, like I said, year to date. Um, the market's down about, uh, six percent, just a little over six percent. When I say the markets, I'm specifically talking about the S and P 500 right now. So the 500 largest companies. Um, it was down about 1.4% today on the year. It's down about six. Um, if we just, just take a step back. In the last year, it's still up seven. So, you know, gives you a little bit of perspective that we're still, you know, just eating into some of the growth that we saw coming out of that big rampage out of 2022.

• 5:43Speaker 03

  When we first saw, uh, inflation numbers higher, um, and we saw interest rates get impacted as the feds tried to, uh, slow things down. So they slowed things down. And, uh, the market has been kind of on an upward trajectory since then. We take a step back even further, the stock market since 2000, uh, and, uh, 20. Uh, so like at the tail end of COVID and actually right now, we'd probably be in the middle of COVID when, when we're looking back five years. Uh, the stock market of the S and P 500 is up almost a hundred and four percent still. With a little bit of a slide. So I don't ever, you know, our, our feelings and our emotions are real and I don't discount that for anybody.

• 6:24Speaker 03

  Um, we always try to just take a, a, uh, uh, an academic approach to looking at things. We try to be money wise. We've been saying for a while. That you should probably, you know, look over your account so that you know how much stock exposure you have. Make sure you're okay with that level of stock exposure. I mean, we even have stress tests we can run on our accounts and look over things with our clients if they want to. Just to get a good idea on on what things might look like if there is a 10%.

• 6:50Speaker 04

  We could do a whole show on that, honestly. I mean, maybe that's something we can we can peg down about some of the new sophisticated planning software we're using. It allows us to go in and change all kinds of variables. What if there is a 30% market crash the year you retire, you know, and it can it crunches all those numbers unless it basically gives you a percentage of success based upon that. It's pretty cool.

• 7:10Speaker 03

  Yep. And the one thing to remember is that a 10% sell off of the market is always, you know, scary. Especially when it's kind of in the middle of some of the political things that are going on from the White House and as far as tariffs. But like today, the ADP report came out, so the jobs report came out and it was drastically lower than what they kind of anticipated. Or spoke about last year. Let's see, here it is right here. So they only added 77,000 jobs in February. So was far below the estimates in 148,000 was the estimate. I mean, so half of that, right? So, you know, that's kind of an eye opener where you go, man, we were anticipating 148,000 and we only got 77,000.

• 7:55Speaker 03

  January was actually a pretty good number. It was revised to 186, 186,000 jobs added in January. But then that drastic drop is probably more so the talk than tariffs and different things. But, you know, the jobs report doesn't necessarily pull as many clicks as tariff talk.

• 8:14Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's not as it's not as exciting to look at for sure. So the mainstream media is not going to pick up on it as much. And I'm curious to see what's going to happen when, you know, there's a lot of government layoffs. So that's going to have a lagging effect, right? But then with the tariffs, you know, doing a little research on the benefits, it's mainly to bring jobs back to the US. That's a big driver behind it to get our own supply chain flowing over here in the US. And then therefore to create some jobs. So it's just again, going to take a wait and see attitude. Chris, to your point, the crash, the market crash of 2008, if you had to guess,

• 8:55Speaker 04

  what is the market up since then? Since 2008, what has the S and P 500 returned?

• 9:02Speaker 03

  Still over a thousand, I don't know.

• 9:04Speaker 04

  715%, 715%. Now, it took a couple of years plus to get back on track right after that happening, but for the average investor out there to keep in mind, really bad things can and will happen, but just stay, stay in the game.

• 9:20Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 9:20Speaker 04

  Don't go out.

• 9:21Speaker 03

  And so many times, you know, what I hate to see is, is if you're invested appropriately for your age and your situation, you're not planning on selling a large portion of your account like overnight or in the next week or two. I really, really hate to see people get so wound up in what's going on in the market because, you know, sometimes, you know, your account might be down 3%, you know, and the market's down 10 in a very, so you've actually done very, very well. And that's probably, you know, because of how you're invested. You're invested appropriately. You wanted some protections if the market comes down. And, you know, very often I see people then they'll still fall into the, well, my account's down and, you know, the sky is falling and then making major changes at

• 10:03Speaker 03

  the absolute wrong times. Sometimes when you're invested conservative right now is where your account comes alive because when there is fear and panic in the markets, that's when those conservative investments gets much more attractive and much more money flowing into the bonds and different things. And so you want to stick with your strategy and let it play out. The one thing I was going to say is, is this was the smallest increase in jobs since July. A lot of the job losses were in trade, transportation and utilities, about 33,000 jobs there. Education and health was 28,000 jobs. IT was about 14,000 jobs. Where we did see some gains though was leisure and hospitality, professional business services, financial activities and construction was about 26,000 and manufacturing was about

• 10:46Speaker 03

  18,000 jobs. So, larger firms added, you know, most of the jobs. It looked like it slowed down a little bit for what would be considered small businesses. So, just a lot to look at there. One of the things I was going to say was, About the market pullbacks, where is it at? Sorry, let me get to my notes here.

• 11:08Speaker 04

  While you're looking at that, I'm gonna grab a question off of the chat here, a question that got sent in. Might be out of, might be out from left field, but I've been hearing about California's state tax rebate programs. Could you explain which rebates are available this year and who qualifies for them? Thank you so much and have a great day.

• 11:29Speaker 04

  I don't see anything new and radical. They're still doing some, some for high efficiency energy. They're doing some rebates there, but I don't see anything new or exciting.

• 11:40Speaker 03

  Yeah, well, I don't know if they're wanting to go over all California rebates that are available. There is the child earned income tax credit. It's called CAL EITC. So who qualifies for that? It can receive up to $3,644 for the 2024 tax year. Earned income has to be between or under basically $31,950. So there's some different things there. You have to have lived in California for more than half the year. There's also a young child tax credit. You can get up to $1,117 criteria is, is you basically have to meet the same criteria of the CAL EITC. So this would technically be a part of your return that would come back to you for your child.

• 12:24Speaker 03

  If you met the same criteria as the last credit I talked about. There's child independent care credits that are available. So I don't know if you want to, you know, there's still even the California vehicle rebate project, the CVRP, you know, and that has to do with the zero emissions car. So there's

• 12:41Speaker 04

  Still doing solar? Is that completely gone?

• 12:43Speaker 03

  Um, maybe there's the High Efficiency Electric Home Rebate Act, HEE HRA. I'm not sure if that one is, has to do with solar. But there is some restrictions there on income, income restrictions. I mean, most all of those are going to always come back to, to income. So hopefully that answers your question. You know, always if you have a good tax professional, you're going to be looking at these situations. You're going to be looking at your income levels. A good tax professional should be telling you what credits you you get and qualify for and get you those.

• 13:16Speaker 04

  Can I make a point to that? You you mentioned tax professional. Something popped in my mind. I used to do my own taxes and man, I thought I was something. You know, I'd get the software and crunch the numbers and I felt important. I had my packet of receipts, this, that and the other. And then I had a professional do do my taxes, Mr. Ryan Alexander, Hawking, Denton, Palmquist, great guy. And he did my taxes and he said, hey buddy, we're going to amend the previous three years returns because you left a lot of money on the table. And what it is, is a lot of those softwares are so conservative because they don't want to get anyone audited. They don't want to get deemed. So they err way too much on the side of caution and we were able to get a few grand back, something like that.

• 13:55Speaker 04

  But he's done my taxes ever since and just listeners know you get what you pay for with your taxes. Yes, you can maybe a couple hundred bucks online, a hundred bucks. But if you invest in just a little bit more money than that, there's a very high probability you're going to get a lot more money back on your return.

• 14:11Speaker 03

  There you go. Before we go to break and have our wonderful guest join us, tell us about Bakersfield ARC. I did want to throw out this real quick. A 10% drop in the S and P 500 is known as a correction. 20% is considered bear or, you know, that type of a territory, but right now we're at 10. This does occur every one to two years. Since 1950, the S and P 500 has had a 10% correction every 19 months. Since 1980, it occurs actually about every one and a half years. So they're actually getting a little bit closer together. Which I have told people, a lot of that's because of robo trading and some of these algorithms that make the drops a little bit more aggressive, but then they also make the recovery more aggressive. So if you think you're going to time the market,

• 14:53Speaker 03

  you think you're going to jump out and jump in, it's getting more and more difficult to do because like I said, it used to be 19 months. It's actually closed down to about every year and a half. So just remember that this is a normal part of market cycles and what the market's doing. Tried to give you a little perspective on where we've been even over the last five years. We're still up over 100%. So I know it feels. You know, like a big deal and if you're close to retirement or you're thinking about things, it's very important to you. All of our clients, all their money is very important to them. We're trying to navigate through these with strategies and appropriate investment mix that lines up with their risk level. So, you know, and that is proven to be the best way, the most efficient way to just navigate through this and to hold your investments,

• 15:36Speaker 03

  unless there's major, major red flags or things in your account that you need to get rid of, which can be the reality. But if that's the case, maybe you needed a second opinion. Maybe you need to talk to a financial advisor. If you have one, talk to him or her. If you don't, call 847-1000. Talk to Money Wise. You know, get a free little overview and go over things to make sure that you are in the right spot and that there's no glaring red flags. But ultimately, this is what we're all doing. If you're trying to set your money aside, grow it, make it last a long time, even if you're retired, you know, very small portions of your account will only be impacted by that because if you're just needing a little bit of income. But like I said, the one big thing is if you're going to sell a bunch of your investments in a short period of time, that's where you have to think much

• 16:18Speaker 03

  more about time horizon and whether or not you should hold a bunch of stocks because of your short time horizon. So, sorry to go on a tangent there, but I do care about all you guys and our investments and we want everybody to be Money Wise. So, stick with your strategy. Don't make irrational decisions. Make sure you understand your plan and where you're headed and stick around. Be right back.

• 16:37Speaker 00

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

• 16:58Speaker 03

  Welcome back to Money Wise. The Money Wise hosts are Chris and Seth today and we are very excited. We are joined by Sean Kinimer, President of Bakersfield ARC, and Erika Dixon, Senior Vice President of Development and very, very excited to get an update. I think most people in the community have been involved or been touched by your guys' organization and the great people that you guys serve. So, just for somebody who's maybe from out of town or has not heard of it, can you just give a little bit of a breakdown of what Bakersfield ARC is and the population you serve?

• 17:31Speaker 05

  Sure. Yeah, we are a full-service agency for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. We really pride ourselves on being

• 17:42Speaker 05

  What each individual needs, so and trying to make their success in the community happen. So we've been around since nineteen forty-nine, so seven, we had just had our seventy-fifth year.

• 17:57Speaker 05

  And so, yeah, we really, our whole mission is to help people live the life of their own choosing. And so is that employment services, is it day program, is it job skills development? Is it so independent living? So it's everything that we do.

• 18:13Speaker 03

  So I have a quick question. It seems like every community would have something like this, or like it would just be a no-brainer. But is, is your organization unique? Or the size of it is unique? Or there's a lots, a lot of different smaller ones in other communities? Tell me a little bit about how we compare, how your guys' organization compares to other communities.

• 18:32Speaker 05

  Yeah, that we have several even here in Bakersfield that do some of the same stuff that we do. We do it uniquely different. But all, all throughout the United States, there are other ARCs, A R Cs, we're kind of associated with. We're all individual agencies. But up and down the state, there, there are about twenty different ARCs in the state. And so they do things differently. They may have jobs, job services and maybe not a day program. But we all do things a little bit differently. But we try to focus on anything we can do to be a part of someone's life.

• 19:08Speaker 03

  Yeah, so just for a little bit of a reference, so people can know the size of your organization. Roughly how many employees and how many people do you serve?

• 19:16Speaker 05

  So we have, so we have about a hundred employees that, that, that work with our individuals daily. We serve anywhere between three hundred and three hundred and fifty people a day. A hundred and eighty of those are in job support services. So they, most of those have jobs with us. So they're, they're actually our employees as well. They're, they're on the disabled side of the employees. And then the other.

• 19:45Speaker 05

  And then we have a hundred or so in in our day program every day. So we are 100% in the community.

• 19:51Speaker 03

  Yeah. Yeah, I have thoroughly enjoyed. I believe it's it seems like you guys have gotten very active on social media and sharing the adventures that a lot of the folks that you guys serve are going on. So yes, there's job training and yes, there's all that stuff. But also, it just seems like you guys have opened up a whole new world for a lot of those folks as far as activities. Who's in charge of that? Or how does that add into what you guys do?

• 20:17Speaker 05

  The social media, that would be Erika Dixon over here. That's her team. I'm very noneducated on that. That's not my fun.

• 20:25Speaker 03

  I mean, I've noticed the last couple of years because that's what's funny is I've noticed I myself was a special education teacher in the current high school district before I became a financial advisor. So I've even seen some of my kids that I worked with in education like become adults and you always kind of wonder about where they go and how they do. I worked with, you know, severely disabled folks and some of those are who are in your program. And so like, I just loved, actually, I know a few of them and I don't necessarily want to say their name on the air. I don't know if we're allowed to, but like I've seen them like they're at the beach and they're doing these different things. And I'm like, that is so amazing. Yes. Yeah, like I'm so excited to see them them having these opportunities. I've seen around town. I know they're involved in the basketball

• 21:05Speaker 03

  league and these different things. So was that already part of Bakersfield ARC and you're just now highlighting more on social media? Or has there been some expansion in some of those services?

• 21:15Speaker 05

  So that's been around for a while. We've done done some of those services. We're now broadcasting and showing what we're doing, trying to get more people connected with this. So our ultimate goal. So when I came in and to I took over January of 2020 from the agency.

• 21:32Speaker 03

  Great year. Perfect two months. Everybody stay in your house and.

• 21:39Speaker 04

  So it was your fault.

• 21:41Speaker 05

  So so when we when I came in, I'd already had about an eight year plan. This is the transition we need to go. But so as we start rolling out of the COVID experience. With the leadership team and we had, we had several meetings where, hey, what does the future look like and what, what is our ultimate mission and vision for the future has? And I started with the utopic vision for Baker's So Dark. We have to be an agency that has been so successful in getting our individuals in the community and the community is supporting them that we put ourselves out of, out of a job. It's never going to happen, but that has to be our ultimate goal. We have done such a great job in the community and the

• 22:22Speaker 05

  community has taken responsible for the individuals that are essential, essentially part of this community. And so part of that comes with, how do we showcase that? And so, so that is all Erica and her team. I, like I said, they've taken me some social media trainings and I'm like, you, you guys.

• 22:40Speaker 03

  Yeah. Well, cause that's, you, you guys have an effort, what you were saying to be fully community based. And that's kind of like what you're talking about.

• 22:48Speaker 05

  We are a hundred percent community based. So if you knew Baker's So Dark, so we were known as Bark for years. So we, we, we did the name change because we had to get away from the recycling trash part of everything. So we had a 24 acre campus over on Union Avenue. And so coming out of COVID, we said, how do we do this differently? It's like, okay, the recycling business was downhill. If you know anything about the China stopped taking material. And so literally three months after COVID, we paid all of the clients and employees to stay home from the recycling portion, portion of it, talking with the CFO and we're losing less money by paying people to stay home and not running material.

• 23:31Speaker 03

  You guys hiring?

• 23:35Speaker 05

  Yeah. So we're always hiring.

• 23:36Speaker 03

  So that's all shut down now.

• 23:38Speaker 05

  So yeah, so we, we sold that campus and so we are a hundred percent community based. So not a single person ever comes to our facility. So if they are in our, in our work program. Um, we so they're in a group employment, they're picked up at home, they're they go to their job, they work their six, seven, eight hours, they go home. Um, in our day program, that's small group, our, our, our staff takes a vehicle, picks up six individuals. They go into the community, they may meet with another staff member and six other individuals. They do things in the community and then they go home like for six, seven, eight hours. Nowhere, never come to a site, never secluded anymore.

• 24:18Speaker 03

  That's incredible.

• 24:19Speaker 05

  Part of the community, we're gonna be a part of the community.

• 24:20Speaker 04

  That's one of the

• 24:21Speaker 02

  Oh, sorry.

• 24:21Speaker 04

  Go ahead, go ahead.

• 24:22Speaker 02

  A R C advocacy, respect, community. We're really trying to get the individuals out into the community, show the value that they bring to employers and to the community at large. And again, inviting the community in to see who we are and what we do and be a part of, part of all of that.

• 24:38Speaker 05

  Love it.

• 24:38Speaker 04

  That's awesome. I was gonna say, you know, having had a background in education, it always, it kind of, it tugged at my heartstrings. You know, they're, they're, you know, just having a difficult time. There are a lot of them having it, but, uh, we toured in 2016, part of Leadership Bakersfield. We toured that facility and getting to see, uh, the folks in there working and smiles on their faces, telling us what they're doing and, I mean, they're working, they're putting in work and, and learning all kinds of skills that, how else would they have done this?

• 25:04Speaker 05

  Well, yeah, and we, we partner with many, many great, uh, community businesses, um, to get people. So, I mean, we, we have some really, um, with SAMCOs, um, they, they have been really great with individuals. So we do some internship programs, so for, I believe it's a thousand hours in a year. Um, the individual is paid, um, so we get the income, we pay the individual to work.

• 25:29Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 25:30Speaker 05

  And hopefully they, they do such a good job with their coaching or whatever that they get hired on with, uh, for that job. SAMCO has been amazing, been a great supporter with our, our individuals.

• 25:41Speaker 02

  Countryside market.

• 25:42Speaker 05

  Countryside market. So we're, we're, I mean, we're always looking for other businesses that we can partner with. We have great employees, so we have people that wanna be at work.

• 25:51Speaker 03

  And then you were mentioning that, uh, that this has led also into you guys doing kind of your own business side of things. And, and so that's kind of a Direction you guys are moving. So let's take a quick break. And when we come back, we are going to talk with Sean Kinmer, uh, Kinimer, President of Bakersfield ARC and Erika Dixon, the Senior Vice President of Development. We're going to talk about some of the exciting things you guys have around the corner. Stick around.

• 26:13Speaker 00

  Are you curious to learn more about how you can be money wise? Check out the money wise website at moneywiseguys.com to get more info about what we do.

• 26:26Speaker 03

  Welcome back. Uh, this is the Money Wise Show. Of course, over a break, I start talking about Gero like the folks in the room don't know Gero. Uh, fellow Rotarians, uh, there you go. So, so Sean knows Gero. So we're in the Gero Ellis padded radio room. So thinking about you, Gero, hope you're doing good. Um, and, uh, so when we went into the break, we were talking a little bit about, and we've, we've said that this has kind of been a common theme for different industries and different organizations, nonprofit organizations in our community, because of some of the changing dynamics of some different factors, everybody's had to kind of pivot or do things a little bit differently. Like you mentioned, recycling and how that world has changed, uh, in the, in the

• 27:07Speaker 03

  recent past. Um, so you guys have pivoted to a new project that I think Erica is going to talk a little bit about. What's it called? And what are you guys looking to do?

• 27:16Speaker 02

  So, um, we purchased what used to be J E H Ranch is now Riverfront Manor. We're out, um, across from Hart Park, right on the river. It is, um, a full wedding venue, event site. Um, it's 13 acres. We have big plans for the property, um, opportunity for nutrition, education space, opportunity for hospitality, dining, hospitality, farming, um, Airbnb events. It's a opportunity for us to advance the mission, uh, with the money earned on the property by the events, and also an opportunity for employment for all of our individuals. So.

• 27:56Speaker 03

  And so this is the ranch is like Round Mountain Road.

• 27:59Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 28:00Speaker 03

  And it's like, I think a few years ago, the Kern, Kern County Economic Summit was out there or whatever.

• 28:05Speaker 02

  Yes, it has been out there.

• 28:06Speaker 03

  I think I've been out there a couple of times. It's beautiful. Beautiful location, kind of a country western vibe as you walk through to the little grass area.

• 28:13Speaker 02

  There's the saloon and the barn. Yes, yes.

• 28:16Speaker 03

  Yeah, I can see that being a wonderful location for all kinds of events and lots of opportunities for you guys as the clientele to to get job trainings and job opportunities for for all kinds of things. So, so that's amazing. Where did that kind of get born out of or how did that develop?

• 28:31Speaker 02

  Well, we really wanted to work on an edible garden or a nutrition program for the individuals. And so it's been a long time coming. We've had some conversations with some generous people in the community. And one thing has led to another that we ended up taking on this property and we thought what a great way to one, put our money where our mouth is, open up a property that we've invested in. We're not just asking the community to invest in. We're also in a place that can be a business opportunity for us to advance the mission as funding out of the state becomes more and more volatile. We want to make sure that we're securing our future and the futures of the individuals that we serve.

• 29:12Speaker 02

  And it just became an opportunity to do a lot of things there, provide new programming, provide fundraising opportunities, provide income opportunities and and most importantly, employment opportunities for the individuals we serve.

• 29:26Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 29:26Speaker 04

  It's literally right on the river, right?

• 29:28Speaker 02

  It's right on the river.

• 29:29Speaker 04

  Very beautiful. Yeah, very nice.

• 29:30Speaker 03

  So it can still get very hot down there though, by the way.

• 29:33Speaker 02

  Yes, it can.

• 29:33Speaker 03

  We have found out a couple of times. I was gonna ask, you know, since we're money wise and stuff, you know, can you talk just a little bit about kind of the funding structure? How much is donations or is there government grants and different things that you guys get? And then you also, obviously, talented folks are working or like you said, internships. So you are having revenue from that. What's kind of the breakdown that you would explain to folks?

• 29:56Speaker 05

  Well, all of the services we provide were fee for service from the state of California. So the state of California has what's called the Lannerman Act. And so we have 21 different regional centers. Ours here is the Kern Regional Center to help develop programs like ours. So, um, so for all this, the, the job development, the job training, so we get funded on the fee for service for that. So, right now, our, our current budget's about ninety-five percent funded that way. The contractuals for the jobs with the individuals, whether group with the state, so if you're going up the grapevine, we run, uh, we've had that contract for the rest stop up there for fifteen years, sixteen years.

• 30:37Speaker 03

  Oh, wow.

• 30:39Speaker 05

  So, yeah, that's, um, so that provides a little administrative overhead, but the majority of that pays for the, the clients to have the jobs for those. So, yeah, so we're, the riverfront manner, that's the way for us to open up and try to get that.

• 30:53Speaker 03

  Diversify a little bit, yeah.

• 30:54Speaker 05

  Try to, for the, the hard times, like California, we're facing some major budget, as we have been for a few years, and so the, as cost of doing business goes up, everybody, employment costs, I have that, insurance costs for my staff. I've got to figure out how, how I can do stuff differently.

• 31:11Speaker 04

  Erica, you mentioned the Airbnb, uh, and I'm on the site checking things out, I mean, this is an incredibly cool venue, so, but, but by Airbnb, is it that people literally get the keys and they have this entire place, or is there staff, can you tell us more about that?

• 31:25Speaker 02

  So, you can come and rent it as an Airbnb, there's a beautiful resort style pool you saw, you can have a bonfire by the river. The saloon, if there's some of those other things that you want to use, of course, that would come with, you know, staff and, and, and more of a conversation, one-on-one, depending on what you wanted to use the property for, but, um, it's great for a family to come out, spend some time on the Kern River, enjoy Bakersfield, and all of the unique things that Bakersfield has to offer.

• 31:52Speaker 04

  I was thinking of, you know, wedding pictures right there by the river, it's a good spot.

• 31:55Speaker 02

  Oh, we do love that.

• 31:56Speaker 03

  Seth, if you hadn't got kicked off Airbnb's site for, for what you do in people's houses.

• 32:03Speaker 02

  Okay, so don't answer your call.

• 32:06Speaker 03

  Don't rent to this guy.

• 32:09Speaker 02

  Yeah, I think I saw your picture.

• 32:10Speaker 04

  You can only create so many new accounts before they catch on to you, you know?

• 32:14Speaker 03

  Yeah. So, uh, thanks for getting through some of the numbers. That's kind of the, I mean, it's a very important part, but not necessarily the most exciting. One of the most exciting parts is like success stories. So can you share maybe a story that sticks out in your guys' mind or one of the clients or something that you've seen that, that just really, uh, makes you kind of like sums up why you love what you do?

• 32:35Speaker 02

  Well, I, I'm going to come from a personal point of view at this, at this moment, but there are several, several, several, um, success stories that we have. We put a lot of them on our website and you should definitely send your viewers there to check that out because there, we have some beautiful people that are so excited about what they do and the opportunities that they have to make friends and to make their own money and to, um, live up to their grandparents who've said have a good work ethic. And now being in these opportunities gives them a chance to do all of those things. And so, uh, plenty of success stories there. I myself have two sons on the autistic spectrum, one of which was a client at Bakersfield Arc, went through the Taylor Day program.

• 33:19Speaker 02

  He wanted to go away to college, went through the, uh, Taylor Day program. They taught him what he needed to do to get his applications together and his, um, the funding through the state for, for scholarships and, and, uh, all of that financial aid. And, uh, he is graduating with his bachelor's degree in May.

• 33:39Speaker 04

  That's awesome.

• 33:40Speaker 02

  From the Laguna College of Art and Design.

• 33:42Speaker 03

  Excellent.

• 33:42Speaker 02

  And we're super excited about that.

• 33:44Speaker 03

  That's great.

• 33:44Speaker 02

  To me, that's, we're really excited. It's a big success.

• 33:47Speaker 04

  Pardon my ignorance, but I was unaware of, so there's some state grants or something for?

• 33:53Speaker 02

  Well, this is just your, your standard, um, the, the funding for the, for schools, you know? Just go through all financial aid. Thank you.

• 34:01Speaker 04

  Gotcha.

• 34:01Speaker 02

  Yes. Go through financial. They taught him how to do all the applications for financial aid.

• 34:05Speaker 04

  Got it.

• 34:06Speaker 02

  Do his, uh, application for the school. It took him a little bit to get in, couple of rounds, but he made it and he's four years in now and we're graduating with a bachelor's then.

• 34:16Speaker 05

  I'll share a quick story. We have an individual that, um, and it's something I heard a couple of weeks ago. And it was an individual, um, about, somebody asked him why he wanted a job and...

• 34:29Speaker 05

  He said, well, I was kind of raised, lived with my grand, my grandparents and my grandfather always said that you're not a man until you have a job. Hmm. You, you know, men have jobs. Yeah. They support their families. And he got the, he, we helped him get, obtain employment. He's doing very successful and his grandfather passed away. Oh, really? And it's, and, and it is his, it's like, my, my grandfather got to see that I'm a man. Yeah.

• 34:56Speaker 04

  Oh, wow.

• 34:56Speaker 05

  I have a job. And so it's about the community, right? Yeah. So that, that is where, how do we connect with the community? There are people in our community that spend some time with, with us. Come, I mean.

• 35:07Speaker 04

  We had someone from the community. This is a question that came in. Oh, there's three H's. Oh, so that's what happens to the name Bark. This organization has done so much for the community. What are the biggest needs or challenges right now that we can help with?

• 35:21Speaker 02

  Hmm, great question.

• 35:23Speaker 05

  Support, so looking for employment opportunities for our individuals. Let us come talk to you. We'll find the right person that's going to be the right fit. Support our fundraisers. So we have, we have our golf tournament coming up every October. Yep. Um, we have, um, we're going to do something different than a gala night this year. We're going to do some more intimate stuff. So, um, supporting that. Um, donations, we have, we have a group called the Architects. Um, that, that it's a monthly, or you can do a monthly giving to us. So everything counts. So if you can do $50 a month, that helps us. Like, and, and it can just be a reoccurring. So, I mean, um, a lot of, a lot of organizations do that.

• 36:06Speaker 05

  There, there are some funds for us, for essential needs funds. So individuals that, if you want to donate so that if someone doesn't have money for, say, food one day, some of our individuals that live independently may not have enough resources. We can, we, we can draw on that fund for them. Um, that's a set aside fund. Um, you know, we, we bought some adaptive equipment for individuals from that fund. We've done some different stuff. So it, it's, it's really the donation side of it. Um, the coming out, supporting our events. If you have, if you have, if you have items for a golf tournament that you want to donate to us for prizes, that helps everything, everything.

• 36:44Speaker 03

  Baskets, different things.

• 36:45Speaker 05

  Reach, I would say, I would say, reach out to Erica, reach out to our, through our website.

• 36:49Speaker 03

  Yep. Yeah. And so website is bakersfield arc.org. So you can go check out there and find out some information there, contact information, see what's going on. I have golfed a couple of times in the tournament. It's a wonderful time. So if that's what you're into, get out there and support. If you're not into it, maybe you could, like I said, you could put together a basket that could be raffled off or a ticket, uh, you know, item for the raffle. Um, the one thing I was going to ask is, is when you say, are there certain types of jobs or certain industries or something that, um, you know, cause I'm sitting here already thinking about like our office or what could we do? Or, you know, and we actually have a wonderful student from Kern High School District, doing an internship right now. And so we're, we're looking for ways to get involved with our community and we've

• 37:31Speaker 03

  loved that. That kind of was born out of having, uh, uh, Brian Miller from, um, Kern, the Kern, uh, the Kern High School District, training and facilities that they have for students. And so what are some industries that like, there is some really great opportunities that you have, you can put some, a lot of folks into.

• 37:48Speaker 05

  The sky's the limit. So if you're looking for a receptionist, we, we have people that can do the receptions, answer phones, take, take numbers, transfer peoples, um, give us a call. So it's all about the individual.

• 37:59Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 38:01Speaker 05

  So, um, in pretty much our individuals can do anything.

• 38:04Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 38:05Speaker 05

  So, I mean, connect with us. We have a great job developer that will come out, meet with you, talk to you about what kind of job or position you're looking for. And we guarantee we put the right person. So we get, so we, we have the knowledge that we get one chance not to mess this up. So we're not going to put somebody out here that we know is going to fail.

• 38:24Speaker 03

  Right.

• 38:24Speaker 05

  So it may take a little bit to identify the right person. It may take a little bit to identify the right person and get them the skills so that they. Don't come in just blind.

• 38:32Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 38:34Speaker 05

  Um, but yeah, I mean, you would be amazed at, I mean, we, we, we live by our own creed. So individuals, you would never know, um, that our, our clients of ours that, that we serve are doing jobs for us at, and they are, they're employees.

• 38:52Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 38:52Speaker 05

  So, I mean,

• 38:53Speaker 03

  And they're doing a great job.

• 38:54Speaker 05

  So, so it can be janitorial, it can be anything.

• 38:56Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 38:57Speaker 05

  So just, just give us a call. We'll, we'll help, we'll help you find the right person for the right job.

• 39:02Speaker 03

  There you go. Anything else pressing that you need to tell our listeners about Bakersfield ARC?

• 39:07Speaker 05

  You know, we are just excited to be a part of this community. We're excited to be in the community all the time. And so we're really looking forward to the future and where we're going. And, um, anything you guys can do to help.

• 39:19Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 39:20Speaker 05

  Just, just give us a call. Let us connect with you. So.

• 39:23Speaker 03

  There you go. Again, that's Sean Kinimer, President of Bakersfield ARC, and Erika Dixon, uh, Senior Vice President of Development. Thank you so much for joining us today and teaching our listeners about what's going on. Hopefully we all can get out there and get involved. Uh, so thanks for joining us. Stick around. We have one more segment.

• 39:38Speaker 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 plans options? For more information on a free assessment, contact MoneyWise's 401k Specialist, Justin Leland at 661-847-1000.

• 39:58Speaker 03

  Welcome to the last segment. This is the Money Wise Show. Uh, I'm telling you what, man, uh, I'm so thankful for my time. I spent in education, uh, with some wonderful, uh, community members, um, great families, uh, students, um, in special education programs. Uh, I worked, you know, different classrooms and stuff, but I was joking, uh, uh, with them that, uh, I'm watching them now on social media, like surfing with goats and playing basketball. And, uh, they are living a wonderful life. And so glad to see them out there in the community doing great things. And they all love working, most of them, like they, they're excited about it and, uh, and they just absolutely love it. So, uh, thanks again for what you're doing there at Bakersfield ARC. And if you

• 40:41Speaker 03

  Can get involved in any way, shape or form. If it's not monetary, then just maybe some time. And those types of things. If you have a business, maybe you can find a spot for a wonderfully talented community member to come in and and work at your business for you. So I did want to go get into this last question. It kind of gets into the economics a little bit and some of the market stuff that's been going on. So the second question came in said, what is a soft landing? I keep hearing that. We can expect one in 2025, but not sure what that means for my savings. Well, we've talked a little bit about market correction, 10% bear market territory, 20%.

• 41:22Speaker 03

  Soft landing is talking about a gradual economic slowdown without triggering a recession. So, you know, the feds might jump in right now and lower interest rates. If they lower interest rates, economic data or economic activity might pick up a little bit. We mentioned earlier that it's the jobs data and the ADP jobs report. Maybe even more so than the tariffs. You know, that that are actually impacting the markets right now because if people don't have jobs, people don't have money. If people don't have money, people don't spend money. And I can hear the words of Mr. Gero Ellis. What is economy? The basic explanation is people spending money, whether it be governments, businesses or individuals, economy is people spending money.

• 42:06Speaker 03

  And when the jobs report comes out 50% less than what was anticipated. It's no bueno. And and that's obviously not a great sign. Hopefully it's just a temporary thing, but you know, then obviously people will be waiting to come out and see what happens in March. Plus, for all I know, which this does happen before the ADP report comes out. It was 77,000. They could come out and what do they call it? When they fix it, they Re, I forget what they call it. It's not, I'm pulling a blank right now, but they come out revise, the revision. So they could come out and revise it and say, oh, it was actually 115,000. And so it's not as bad. It's still not as good as they wanted it, but it's not as bad as it looks.

• 42:48Speaker 03

  So anyways, uh, what was your, I did want to go over a little bit. We talked about the 10% correction is, is a market correction. 20% is bear market territory. But when, when we say recession, can you just educate listeners a little bit on what the difference between a recession and a depression is?

• 43:05Speaker 04

  Yeah. So often, you know, bear market, market correction, recession, depression, these, these terms all get intertwined. You, you cover the other two. Great. A recession is when you have two quarters of GDP gross domestic product. In a nutshell, that's what our country is producing, right? And when that goes down, unemployment goes up, consumer spending goes down. Those are the flags that, that mark you're in a recession. Again, that's two consecutive quarters. Now a depression is, is much more broad. And it's basically when these things just continue to happen. It's when it's sustained, the GDP goes down for a long time, high end persistent unemployment,

• 43:45Speaker 04

  deflation or severe inflation, uh, which we flirted with some, we did have severe inflation, but all the other indicators were good. That's what got us through that. There's been 14 depressions since the Great Depression. Um, yeah.

• 43:58Speaker 03

  Yeah. So long way around to answer the question of what a soft landing is. Okay. So like I said, it's actually a gradual economic slowdown instead of a major like hard stop. Typically it's when the Federal Reserve has successfully raised interest rates to control inflation. So everybody think back to 2022, went out of nowhere, inflation went through the roof. Feds jumped in there and raised interest rates to slow things down. There's a lot of, uh, you know, uh, all of a sudden economic experts that come out and say they didn't do a good job. They did too much. They didn't do enough. Um, but that's what you're hoping for is that they raised interest rates enough to control inflation. Now, yes, things are starting to slow down a little bit,

• 44:41Speaker 03

  but we actually can now lower interest rates and it helps the economy.

• 44:44Speaker 04

  Yes. Quick shout out to Corey. Let us know it's snowing in Tehachapi. That's all. Love the show. Be money wise. So shout back out to you, Corey. It is raining in Bakersfield.

• 44:55Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah. Thanks for rubbing it in. Snow is cooler than rain, Corey. No, thanks for that update and thanks for making Money Wise what it is, you listeners out there. We really do want you to be money wise. Our clients, we want to be money wise and be successful. But everybody in our community, the more money wise we all are, the better off our whole entire community is, the more generous we can be towards wonderful organizations like Bakersfield Arc and so many great folks that we've had on this show that share what they're doing to serve everyone in our community. So, uh, so yeah, have a great day. Uh, hopefully it won't rain too much more on us today. Be smart, be safe, be money wise.

• 45:30Speaker 06

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