3/24/25 Golden Gleaners, Buffett's Bracket Bonanza, and Tariff Talks

The Moneywise Radio Show and Podcast Monday, March 24th 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: Scott Salters, Golden Empire Gleaners + Sr. Director with Cushman & Wakefield website: www.goldenempiregleaners.com/ www.cushmanwakefield.com/en

• 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

  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.

• 0:39Speaker 00

  Now, let's start the Money Wise Show.

• 0:42Speaker 03

  Welcome to the Money Wise Show. We are live from the Garo Ellis padded radio room off Stockdale Highway on ESPN Bakersfield at 12:30 a.m., 101.1 FM, and always streaming at MoneyWiseGuys.com. You can text into the show 24 hours a day at 661-396-1000. Today, we're your hosts. I'm Sharad Waite and...

• 1:03Speaker 00

  Sammy Abiyawi.

• 1:04Speaker 03

  Sammy Abiyawi. It's always great having the show with you today.

• 1:08Speaker 00

  Looking forward to it.

• 1:09Speaker 03

  I hate to say this, I don't say it very often, but I kinda, I kinda said it, I kinda called it a little bit, and in terms of the tariff talk, today's big headlines, we saw big moves upward in the markets today, and what's it from? The backtracking of tariff talk. Essentially, Trump coming out and softening his tone on tariffs. A direct quote from President Trump today, it says, quote, "Well, I may give a lot of countries breaks, but it's reciprocal. But we might not, we might be even nicer than that." Those words alone were enough to turn the markets into big gains today. Of course, we still have a ways to go to recoup all of the...

• 1:53Speaker 00

  Four weeks of...

• 1:53Speaker 04

  Losses.

• 1:54Speaker 03

  Four week of losses, right? But this is, I mean, in part, you, you, you've talked about it too. I think on this show like what, you know, this is everybody take a deep breath. There's a lot of politics involved here and ultimately at the end of the day, the markets are gonna figure it out.

• 2:13Speaker 04

  You always say this, it's not time in the market, it's time in the market.

• 2:17Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 2:18Speaker 04

  Right? And, and, and for, for a lot of investors, it's a long-term game. It's not, not a short-term game.

• 2:24Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's right. And, you know, cooler heads will prevail.

• 2:27Speaker 04

  That's correct. That's correct. Because ultimately, if we don't have cooler heads, a lot of, we're all gonna lose something.

• 2:35Speaker 03

  That's right. And every president, no matter what side of the political spectrum they're on, wants to leave a legacy of one of the legacies will be, how did the stock market do during your tenure?

• 2:47Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 2:48Speaker 03

  And that is something that couldn't go on for too long, being such, so, so disruptive. I hope that this sort of rhetoric continues because it will help calm markets quite a bit. And, and then we can maybe get back to some of the fundamental news that comes out, like earnings, like companies actually reporting what they're earning or not earning. That's, that's a little bit more of an indicator, I think, of what's actually going on in the markets. And then you have, we'll have this week, the big data coming in for the Fed, that the Fed uses the personal consumption index, which is their favored tool, the personal consumption expenditure index is the Fed's preferred inflation gauge.

• 3:29Speaker 03

  And that's what they're really looking at mostly right now in terms of what they're going to do with interest rates. And that would be really.

• 3:36Speaker 04

  Well, they kept them stable or they did not move them last week.

• 3:39Speaker 03

  That's right. Yeah, they gave, they gave a little bit more direction last week after their meeting on Wednesday in terms of, it's kind of the same thing that they always say, which is, we're going to keep things as they are. We're not going to change rates until things change.

• 3:53Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 3:53Speaker 03

  Until they get more data that supports a change, but they're keeping the eye on the employment market. That's the Fed's mandate is to, is to keep full employment and to keep. Inflation at 2%, yeah, under control. Like, that's all the Fed is trying to do here. So, that being said, Sam, we've got a few listener questions.

• 4:11Speaker 04

  Yes, we do.

• 4:12Speaker 03

  Let's go for it.

• 4:12Speaker 04

  I'll go with the first one. With all the tariff talk, how might the trade tension affect currency markets, particularly the US dollar? And what implications might this have for international investors? Daily Dan. Thanks, Daily Dan.

• 4:24Speaker 03

  Hey, Daily Dan. Appreciate the question. And as we were just talking, this is a timely question because today's markets, again, moving drastically based off of tariff talk, really. But what's interesting is it's a little complicated to talk about dollar and the strength of the dollar because it can be counterintuitive to think, well, of course, we want a strong dollar. And the problem, though, is it's not all great having such a super-strong currency.

• 4:56Speaker 04

  No, it's not.

• 4:57Speaker 03

  Because what you have is especially multinational corporations that are headquartered here in the United States that are exporting their stuff. All of a sudden, their consumers in other countries are like, well, it's too expensive.

• 5:10Speaker 04

  Too expensive. I cannot afford it.

• 5:11Speaker 03

  Right.

• 5:12Speaker 04

  I can't afford it. That means your exports will suffer.

• 5:14Speaker 03

  Yeah. And so if you have a lot of international buyers, then it's all of a sudden it can become a real problem. And so it's like everything. It's not as simple as, oh, you just want to have a strong dollar.

• 5:27Speaker 04

  Yeah, and you'll start eroding the reserves of foreign countries, the dollar reserves of foreign countries by doing so.

• 5:33Speaker 03

  Yeah, it can also incentivize these other countries to move away from, you know, using the US dollar as their...

• 5:44Speaker 04

  Base currency.

• 5:45Speaker 03

  Yeah, as their base currency or as their trade currency. You can see even China has done this where they're pushing for their yuan-based trade agreements rather than dollar-based trade agreements. And so a persistent, strong dollar can hurt, you know, that.

• 5:59Speaker 04

  That's from the export standpoint. From an import standpoint, from an investment, foreign investments in the US, it will hurt as well because now the investors will have to pay extra. It will be more expensive for them to invest here in the US. And we are seeking that as a country. We are trying to bring manufacturing back. We're trying to bring other things that are happening overseas to the United States, and that definitely will hurt.

• 6:24Speaker 03

  Yeah, you know, you you mentioned that there's, you know, been a lot of news of companies now moving to the United States. A lot of this was already pre-planned even before President Trump took office.

• 6:35Speaker 04

  That's right.

• 6:36Speaker 03

  Like Apple's big investment was is is a good example of that. But today Hyundai announced a $5.8 billion investment into a steel mill here in the United States in Louisiana. I think it's the first steel mill in the US in a long time. I don't know when the last time.

• 6:52Speaker 04

  That's great.

• 6:52Speaker 03

  There's been a steel mill. That that is great. That's good stuff.

• 6:55Speaker 04

  Look, we we we this country has always been good at those heavy industries, steel being one of them.

• 7:00Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 7:00Speaker 04

  You know, that's why we have my team, the Steelers.

• 7:03Speaker 03

  Oh, that's your team, huh?

• 7:05Speaker 04

  Yeah. See, I snuck that one in. Steven?

• 7:07Speaker 00

  I hit the dump button. No one heard it. I'm just playing.

• 7:12Speaker 03

  Well, there you go. They hopefully covered that a little bit there for Dan.

• 7:15Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 7:16Speaker 03

  Appreciate the question. Let's move on to the next one.

• 7:19Speaker 04

  Good afternoon. What options do state residents have for reducing their tax burden if they are planning for retirement but want to stay in California? Very good question.

• 7:26Speaker 03

  I like this question, Sammy. Another way to ask this question is, you know, what what are some of the issues to not retiring in California? Because I think it's easy for people to go, oh, we have an income tax. We have high regulations. We've got a screwball governor. I'm out of this state. Well, you might be going into something else in another state besides income taxes.

• 7:51Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 7:52Speaker 03

  That's not favorable.

• 7:52Speaker 04

  Yes, real estate tax.

• 7:54Speaker 03

  Real estate tax is the biggest one. So in California, as progressive of a state we are, we passed Prop 13, how many, 30 years ago? I don't know how long ago. It was in the 70s or 80s that Prop 13 passed. That essentially limits tax increases on your property to 2% a year based off of your original purchase price. So that's huge, especially for retirees because.

• 8:17Speaker 04

  You're on fixed income.

• 8:18Speaker 03

  Yeah, you're on fixed income, so you know you're not going to have these big increases in property taxes. And how do you think states collect revenues if they don't have an income tax?

• 8:27Speaker 04

  That's true.

• 8:27Speaker 03

  Generally, what they're going to do is through property or sales tax. They'll have a higher property or sales tax because they can't get it from the real estate portion.

• 8:36Speaker 04

  And they're shutting down our oil production, so definitely not oil.

• 8:41Speaker 03

  That's right. So the other thing that California has going for it is the Prop 19. And I think we talked about this last week or the week before on this show. That allows homeowners that are older than 55 to transfer their property tax base to a new home anywhere in the state. They can do that three times.

• 8:59Speaker 04

  That's cool.

• 9:00Speaker 03

  So if you want to downsize, for example, without triggering a new tax basis, a higher property tax basis, that's huge.

• 9:08Speaker 04

  That's huge, yes.

• 9:09Speaker 03

  I don't know if any other states have that. I'm assuming that we're not the only state that has that. But that's a big advantage when it comes to homeownership in California.

• 9:19Speaker 04

  As far as people with that fixed income, is there any strategies, any things that they could do with their investments? And other things shared here in the state?

• 9:28Speaker 03

  So California, again, because we do have a state tax, that also brings the option to invest. If it's fitting for you, it's not for everybody, but is investing in municipal bonds, which are tax-free, not only federally, but also statewide. So you can participate, depending on your situation. It can be great for retirees that need a safer, more stable, tax-efficient income. You have California municipal bonds, you have municipal bond funds, you have muni ETFs. So it's a way you can diversify into a tax-free investment.

• 10:09Speaker 03

  Again, you got to be careful. This is not for everybody. We're not recommending anybody buy or sell any of these things. But just be aware that there are some ways, at least in the state of California, that you can reduce your tax liabilities. And all of the other things that I could think of in terms of the state of California and helping retirees.

• 10:34Speaker 03

  And their taxes are the same advice that we would give if no matter what state they lived in.

• 10:40Speaker 04

  That's true.

• 10:40Speaker 03

  You know, like you can you can you can harvest capital losses, that's how tax loss harvesting can be done in any any state. And or, you know, consider, you know, optimizing your the the timing of your social security. That is not not all states tax social security. California does fully tax our social security income. So, you know, there could be some some strategies there at least. When it's not as simple as just when you want, when you're going to retire or when you turn 66 or 67 as to when you start social security. So taking into

• 11:14Speaker 04

  There's some strategies there.

• 11:15Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 11:15Speaker 04

  Talk to a financial advisor about that.

• 11:18Speaker 03

  Yeah, you know, California does not have a state estate tax. Some other states do. So another example of you might be you might be, you know, hurting yourself. You might be helping yourself in some ways by leaving the state of California, but you could be hurting yourself in other ways. And a state estate tax is one of those examples where, you know, it's not just federal tax on your state when you die. But the state is going to have a tax on it. So you want to you want to be aware of those of those aspects before you move. And, you know, we're talking we're talking just financially. I've seen examples of people moving to another state and they're just like, I just miss.

• 11:59Speaker 03

  I just miss the West Coast, you know, they moved to Tennessee or they moved to Texas. And then all of a sudden they're like, you know, it just it's just it's a different feel. It's just culturally, it's different and

• 12:09Speaker 04

  Especially after living here for, you know, 34 all your life sometimes and you just back and leave.

• 12:13Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 12:14Speaker 04

  So what I heard from some friends that moved to Texas was a culture shock for them. So they did not come back to California, but they they moved to Idaho.

• 12:23Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 12:25Speaker 04

  A lot of people from Bakersfield moved to Idaho.

• 12:26Speaker 03

  So many. I have some family in Idaho and they complain about it.

• 12:30Speaker 04

  They do.

• 12:31Speaker 03

  Yeah, like people, everybody's coming to Idaho from California. Idaho has its own problems. California, every state has its own problems. It's really a personal decision on what's important to you and what you value. I think what I like about looking at it financially is do a comparison for your own individual tax situation, your own financial situation. Go beyond just the price of gasoline, the price of housing, the price of insurance, which generally California is pretty high.

• 13:01Speaker 04

  Yeah, do a holistic approach to your retirement planning or your move is what I'm hearing you say.

• 13:06Speaker 03

  That's right. That's right. We've got another question, right?

• 13:08Speaker 04

  Yes, we do. This one is about egg prices. Egg prices go down a bit, then gas goes up a bit more. Here comes the summer prices. I heard on a different podcast that car prices and regular work on vehicles are going to be on the rise by June 1st. Wondered if that's something we should expect. Thanks, guys, and big shout out to Chris and Dustin, new listener, but big fan.

• 13:30Speaker 03

  Oh, nice. We'll pass that accolade on to Chris and Dustin. So let's talk about this. Now, first of all, I didn't find anything in my search about specifically June 1st, that there's something special about June 1st. What does always happen is California switches over to its summer blend. Refiners for transportation fuels have to have different additives and it's a different manufacturing process. So when there's this switch over, it increases the price of gasoline generally. It's just one aspect of the price of gasoline. It doesn't always increase the... For example, the price of gasoline might be going down already and you just see a little bump, you know, because of the summer blend.

• 14:12Speaker 03

  But you generally do see a rise in price in gasoline, which for a lot of people, that's a big cost. In terms of other aspects to a car, we're still seeing incredibly elevated prices for used cars. That's because there's still some disruption in the supply chain for automobiles.

• 14:34Speaker 03

  It's really crazy that it's like this is

• 14:37Speaker 04

  Yeah, we definitely should have somebody either from from our local dealership come here and talk about that and see what some of the challenges I'm gonna

• 14:44Speaker 03

  That'd be great. You know somebody?

• 14:46Speaker 04

  I'm gonna call out on Ali Douglas from

• 14:48Speaker 00

  I knew you were gonna say that. I was just gonna say he's been on my list to

• 14:52Speaker 04

  Ali, if you're listening to me, I want you on the show so we can answer some of the listeners' questions.

• 14:56Speaker 03

  Who's he with?

• 14:57Speaker 04

  He's with Motor City Lexus. He's the manager there.

• 15:00Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah. Have we had him on the show before?

• 15:02Speaker 04

  I don't think so.

• 15:02Speaker 03

  No, that'd be great. We used to have a Ford communications, like a corporate communications guy. He was really good that would come on and talk about you know, cars in general, but also Ford and which is great, which we have a great local Ford dealership as well.

• 15:17Speaker 04

  We do, we do.

• 15:19Speaker 03

  But, you know, looking into in terms of other costs that will be going up this summer, it's it's no surprise to anybody that there is a shortage in skilled mechanics. That there's been a year's trend of there not being enough mechanics, especially as these cars be basically become computers on wheels. So it requires specialized training and it's unfortunate because

• 15:42Speaker 04

  These guys make six figures.

• 15:44Speaker 03

  Yeah, they do really well.

• 15:45Speaker 04

  Especially if you're a diesel mechanic.

• 15:47Speaker 03

  Oh.

• 15:48Speaker 04

  Those are they're making a couple hundred thousand dollars, like the good ones.

• 15:51Speaker 03

  Yeah, and it's well earned. It's well deserved. It's moved into a different. It's not like what I I think a lot of people think of as a mechanic, you know, where you're just constantly, you know, filled with, you know, covered in grease and under the car and it's like, no, this is this is very technical. It's very technical now.

• 16:10Speaker 04

  You're working on a big computer and it's got a bunch of components and you're figuring it out. It's not a, I mean, I think it's well earned.

• 16:19Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 16:19Speaker 04

  I think the shortage is something this country needs to tackle, not just in this field, but others.

• 16:24Speaker 03

  Yeah, I know we have a great program, the high schools that participate in ROC and what's the other, what's the other place out there that's CTEC?

• 16:37Speaker 03

  So much more geared towards those vocational occupations that are, you know, like this type of thing, like mechanics, but there's definitely a higher and a growing higher labor costs when it comes to auto shops. And of course, we have, still have fairly elevated interest rates, so that's not helping with the cost of cars. And then there's more and more part shortage. So again, these supply chain issues have never, have not fully normalized. And now if you add on top of it, some of the tariff uncertainties, all of these, and then insurance, which is always kind of an iffy thing in California.

• 17:20Speaker 04

  In California especially, yes.

• 17:21Speaker 03

  It's just like, it's, yeah, there's, everything's going up. But I mean, you know, that's just, that's just par for the course now.

• 17:28Speaker 04

  That's true.

• 17:29Speaker 03

  Great questions, man.

• 17:30Speaker 04

  Yes, very, very good questions, yes.

• 17:32Speaker 03

  Uh, let's take a break. Sam, we come back, we're going to be joined by our guests. Let's do that.

• 17:35Speaker 04

  That's right.

• 17:36Speaker 03

  We're Money Wise. We'll be right back.

• 17:37Speaker 00

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

• 17:54Speaker 03

  Welcome to the Money Wise Show. We're your hosts today. I'm Sherrod. That's Sammy Awie Awie. We're joined right now by our guest, Scott Salters. He is currently serving as the Chairman of the Board for the Golden Empire Gleaners. Also, his full-time gig is commercial real estate with Cushman Wakefield. He's a director there at Cushman Wakefield. Welcome to the show, Scott.

• 18:15Speaker 05

  Good afternoon, guys.

• 18:16Speaker 03

  Good having you here. Let's start out with Gleaners. I might be not alone here in thinking that Gleaners are, are they the ones that just wear the funny hats in the parades?

• 18:28Speaker 05

  Yeah, that's exactly it.

• 18:29Speaker 03

  Perfect. That's it. That's enough said. There you go. That's our guest. Tell us, tell us about Gleaners. What is it?

• 18:34Speaker 05

  Yeah. So actually, we just celebrated our 40th anniversary. So Gleaners has been a part of Bakersfield for quite some time now. And we're going through an exciting phase of growth.

• 18:46Speaker 05

  The, we've been located down on the Garcia Circle, many of you might be familiar, right on the curve there as you head over to dignity kind of corridor. And, you know, we, we, a local food pantry, we serve hundreds of families every day, um, millions of pounds of food per year, and we do it on a really efficient budget. And we're really proud of the work we do and the, the people we have there alongside of us.

• 19:08Speaker 03

  So that is the primary mission then of the Gleaners is, is it food insecurity?

• 19:13Speaker 05

  Absolutely, yes. Yeah, so what we do is it's really kind of unique. The concept Gleaning, um, comes from going out into the fields, taking the harvest that wasn't used by the farmers, sold off, and then taking it back to the sheds and distributing it to, you know, initially the widows, orphans. And, um, the concept comes from Bible years ago, but it was actually a Bible study back in the eighties, a group of couples who said, hey, we want to start this here in Kern County. Um, and that legacy is still going on strong today. And now we go to a more, majority of the grocery stores, you know, you see bread that still has a couple of days left on the shelf life, but you know, Vons can't sell it any longer. We'll go in, pick that up, and we get it out to those families in a timely matter, the

• 19:54Speaker 05

  very next day, and it's, you know, in their kitchens and out to, to those lunches and feeding families. So it's, it's a really cool program that just kind of operates, you know, kind of pretty quietly and discreetly around town, but really impacts a lot of families.

• 20:08Speaker 04

  So you said efficiently, on, on a budget, what's, what's, what's your current budget on an annual basis now?

• 20:14Speaker 05

  So, actually, our budget, kind of our fundraising gap goal is always to kind of raise about approximately $200,000, and that gets us to the point where we can maintain operations and grow, because as many know, the need for food is increasing, so our demand is exponentially going up year over year. And along with everything, our fuel costs, the money goes towards, you know, fixing our trucks, paying for the gas, as our delivery drivers do around town. But our drivers themselves are all volunteers, um, our staff each and every day in there, putting, putting together the boxes, they're all volunteer-based. Um, and we really only have four staff, and only a few of those are full-time.

• 20:53Speaker 04

  Oh, wow.

• 20:54Speaker 05

  So it's really an efficient volunteer-based organization.

• 20:58Speaker 03

  Wow. That's really cool. Yeah, so founded in 1983, you said?

• 21:01Speaker 05

  Correct.

• 21:02Speaker 03

  They're so, I'm so impressed. We're all involved here at MoneyWise in one way or form with a nonprofit, whether it's on a board or just volunteering. And those nonprofits that are in town that have been around for decades are so impressive because you just, it's like this generational passover to other, you know, younger generation to carry the torch and things like this. What, so how does the, you mentioned that it survives off of grants or not grants, just donations, pure donations?

• 21:34Speaker 05

  Donations. There is, we do get funding from our agencies. And so that comes in where we get some purchase per pound of food essentially, but majority of our funding, it comes from that. And then also just private donors. So we don't, we're not government funded. We don't have any grants coming from the state or the federal agencies. It's all money from local Kern County families and businesses that really keep us, our doors open each and every day.

• 22:00Speaker 03

  And we're joined by Scott Salters. He's our guest here. He is the president or chairman of the board at the local Golden Empire Gleaners. Have you seen or what, what difference have you seen in the needs of the, of the community, the food needs in the community in the last few years?

• 22:17Speaker 05

  Yeah, I mean, COVID, it definitely exponentially increased the kind of demand that we saw for food coming from families. And then coming out of that, we've just seen, you know, prices everywhere is I'm sure you guys talk about every day on the show, increasing how those affect, you know, everyday families. And, you know, from being able to buy, you know, a carton of eggs, you know, is going up, a gallon of milk, cheese, your meats. And so what we're able to do is really provide dense, I mean, come by the warehouse anytime and you'll see just how nutrient dense and just great these boxes are that these families get. And it just makes such a difference being able to have, know that there's a few meals being taken care of that week. And it just relieves this burden for our families.

• 23:00Speaker 05

  But we've seen that, definitely the increase in prices. We've seen a couple of changes to our kind of a local economy here with jobs with oil ag-related industries kind of shifting. So we've really seen, you know, especially here in Bakersfield, kind of some increases in our demand. But thankfully, we've got a really great director, Debbie Powers, who's really stepped up and just taken over the reins and been able to come into this spot and serve our community well and really has kept us, kept us afloat and kept us now in this place where we feel like we're growing and we're able to serve our community stronger and better than ever. And we're excited about where we're at.

• 23:41Speaker 03

  Go ahead, Sam.

• 23:42Speaker 04

  I was just gonna ask, you said fuel costs and volunteers and drivers. So is this a delivery system that you have where people can come in and pick up the boxes?

• 23:52Speaker 05

  So all the boxes you come in and pick up and they, there's two different ways to get them. We can do them kind of at an extremely low cost if you just want to come in and buy a box, or we work with local agencies, school districts, churches, you name it, nonprofits, open door network, and we work alongside them and we can get the mill subsidized through our agencies. Or you can come in and volunteer and you can work in the warehouse one day and you get that, your box you can take home for free with you just by being there to volunteer a few hours.

• 24:21Speaker 03

  Oh, nice.

• 24:22Speaker 05

  Our trucks that you see driving around town and our volunteer delivery drivers, those trucks are going around to the Viartas, to Costco, to the grocery stores, Sprouts, picking up those.

• 24:34Speaker 04

  Ah, okay.

• 24:34Speaker 05

  Those, you know, there's products that have just a little bit left time on their, their shelf life. And we get them and we spin them right back out and get them out that next morning to those families. And then, you know, now they're, instead of that bread going to waste, instead of that milk going down the drain, that's stuff that now families can enjoy. And, you know, it's really a great way that we're minimizing waste too. And it's, it's, so those are the trucks and fuel costs you're driving around. But I mean, you know, you, everything that all our other clients and customers around town are facing, insurance costs, you know, the, definitely the fuel costs, Cadillac converter here or there goes missing, you know, AC unit issues on the warehouse. But like I said, we're fortunate to be in Kern County where we just have so many people that are willing to step

• 25:19Speaker 05

  up to the plate and, you know, help us, help us be able to reach families and put some food on the table.

• 25:24Speaker 03

  So what, there, there are, there is another major food bank in town through Cap K. How, how does Cap K. and, and the Gleaners work together?

• 25:34Speaker 05

  We really are partners essentially, so we, we serve the same demographics. The Gleaners, like I said, gets out over 2 million pounds of food a year and we're such a well-known staple in the community that people just know, you know, you need some food, go to the Gleaners. And so we're really a great arm for actually, a mechanism for getting the food to the families. And, but yeah, the, our friends over at Cap K. are, you know, we call them friends because they're partnered with us and come alongside us and we all kind of help to serve the same mission and get food to families.

• 26:05Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's great. Lastly, I know, Gleaners, are, are they involved? Talk about a fundraiser, what, what, what do they have coming up?

• 26:14Speaker 05

  Yeah, so like I said, we just had, just probably two weeks ago, we had our gathering table 40th anniversary gala. And, but typically we have, we have a golf tournament coming up this fall and then in October, November, we'll release the dates here, I think coming up in April or May. We have our Rhythm and Roots Annual Festival and it's a really fun event, kind of western themed. We've had some barbecue, some live auctions, some dancing and some fun music. And all the money from that goes, like I said, straight back into our warehouse, into our trucks, into getting that food right back out to the families, so.

• 26:49Speaker 03

  Is there also a collaboration with Channel 17?

• 26:52Speaker 05

  We do, yeah, last week we actually just had our, at the Compassion Corner. We had our food drive. We do some work alongside with Kern County Cares is another one of our big fundraisers, where the county, Kern, all their different departments have, it's around Christmas time holidays, they'll kind of make trees out of the canned goods and food and stack it up. And that one brings in a lot of our, our shelf stable foods and then they also do fundraiser. And then we have Oil Can Do It, which it was, kind of usually been with Era, Chevron, and the previous oil field companies, they come and kind of have this fun, kind of competitive, but good spirited opportunity to raise canned goods and food as well as funds for the Gleaners. So those are, we have kind of smaller events like that around town and we're always looking for fun,

• 27:37Speaker 05

  creative ways to get the community involved as well as raise food and, and funds for the Gleaners.

• 27:43Speaker 03

  Well Scott, go ahead.

• 27:44Speaker 04

  No, we have a listener question. I was gonna read it. I missed the beginning, but what organization does your guest work with? How can one sign up to volunteer or can one donate canned foods?

• 27:56Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 27:56Speaker 05

  Yeah, absolutely. So I'm the chairman of the board for the Golden Empire Gleaners. You can visit our website. I should probably have it memorized.

• 28:05Speaker 05

  But a quick Google search will lead you there. And then our warehouse, Monday through Friday, we're open till 2:00 PM and you can stop by anytime. More than welcome. We love to do tours and show off the work we're doing.

• 28:19Speaker 03

  The website is goldenempiregleaners.com, right? Does that sound right?

• 28:24Speaker 05

  That's right.

• 28:25Speaker 03

  And located on 30th Street, right by Garcia Circle. Scott, thank you so much for coming on the show. I know your day job is at Cushman Wakefield. You're involved in commercial real estate, which we would like to have you come back.

• 28:39Speaker 04

  Come back for that.

• 28:40Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's super fascinating. We're always interested in what's going on in commercial real estate, but thanks for all what you do here for our community and being involved in this and just volunteering your time to come on the show and...

• 28:53Speaker 04

  Talk about the Gleaners.

• 28:54Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 28:54Speaker 05

  I appreciate you guys for having me and Sammy for reaching out.

• 28:57Speaker 04

  Of course.

• 28:58Speaker 05

  It's always good to see you.

• 28:58Speaker 04

  Yeah, same here.

• 29:00Speaker 03

  All right, we're Money Wise. We're gonna take another break. We'll be right back.

• 29:02Speaker 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. That's 661-847-1000.

• 29:31Speaker 03

  Welcome back. We're Money Wise. Your hosts, Jared Waite here with Sammy Abiyawi. Sammy, I don't know if you know this, but Warren Buffett for years has been, he's a fan of odds and sports and loves math. And he has had for years, I don't know how many years it's been going on, but he has a March Madness bracket. Is it 10 years?

• 29:55Speaker 00

  At least 10.

• 29:56Speaker 03

  Which is, the deal is, he'll give...

• 30:00Speaker 03

  He offers a million dollars a year for life. You get a million dollars a year for the rest of your life to anybody who can perfectly predict the Sweet Sixteen. Meaning that's just the first 48 games. If you can get that, then you get a million dollars a year for life. You know how many times it's been won?

• 30:19Speaker 04

  Zero.

• 30:20Speaker 03

  None.

• 30:21Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 30:21Speaker 03

  Nobody's ever gotten that far.

• 30:22Speaker 04

  I was just, I'm, I'm, I've been following Marsh Madness for about 10, 15 years now. That never happened.

• 30:27Speaker 03

  Never happens. Which is so, I, I love, what I like about this bet is that it sounds like it's doable.

• 30:35Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 30:36Speaker 03

  Cause it's like, well, I mean, it's not that, you know, it would be that hard to predict those, you know, those first 48 games.

• 30:42Speaker 04

  That's the beauty of Marsh Madness.

• 30:45Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 30:45Speaker 04

  You cannot predict anything.

• 30:47Speaker 03

  Right.

• 30:47Speaker 04

  The big trees fall fast, too.

• 30:50Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's, yeah, that's right. It can happen.

• 30:53Speaker 04

  Mm-hmm.

• 30:53Speaker 03

  Uh, he's upped it before, in 2014, Buffett teamed up with Quicken Loans and he offered the general public, cause usually this is just with, within Berkshire Hathaway employees.

• 31:05Speaker 04

  Uh-huh.

• 31:05Speaker 03

  And he opened it up to the general public, a billion dollars for a perfect bracket. Which, you know, nobody's ever gotten a perfect bracket. Like a full bracket, but a billion dollars.

• 31:17Speaker 04

  A billion dollars.

• 31:18Speaker 03

  A billion with a B, giving away a billion dollars.

• 31:21Speaker 04

  That would be nice.

• 31:22Speaker 03

  I think this is super fascinating.

• 31:24Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 31:24Speaker 03

  The odds of winning the bracket, the chances of getting a, actually, the chances of getting a perfect bracket is one in 9.2 quintillion.

• 31:39Speaker 03

  I don't even know how much a quintillion is.

• 31:42Speaker 04

  I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't even pronounce that word.

• 31:44Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's five, the fifth.

• 31:49Speaker 04

  Yeah, that's why I can't pronounce it.

• 31:52Speaker 03

  Quintillion.

• 31:54Speaker 03

  It is unbelievable.

• 31:56Speaker 04

  That is crazy.

• 31:57Speaker 03

  Yeah, I just love this challenge. It's, uh, it's something that, uh, I'd like to see somebody win sometime.

• 32:06Speaker 04

  But did he change the rules a little bit? Or is he making it a little bit more attainable now this year?

• 32:10Speaker 03

  No, I don't think so. Has it changed? I haven't seen anything about it changing this year other than that it's, it's still the million dollars for life for Berkshire Hathaway employees.

• 32:19Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 32:20Speaker 03

  It would be cool.

• 32:23Speaker 04

  Mr. Buffett.

• 32:23Speaker 03

  Yeah, Mr. Buffett knows, knows what he's doing.

• 32:26Speaker 04

  Relaxed the rules a little bit.

• 32:27Speaker 03

  Yeah, uh, it's always interesting to see some of Warren Buffett's companies that are part of Berkshire Hathaway, kind of part of this conglomerate Geico, Dairy Queen, BNSF, the railway, railroad company.

• 32:40Speaker 04

  He's, he's been holding on to some cash too, Jared.

• 32:43Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah.

• 32:43Speaker 04

  It's like about a month and a half ago, I read somewhere, we had like 330 some billion dollars of just cash.

• 32:48Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah.

• 32:49Speaker 04

  So that, that's kind of like, a lot of people were start, were talking about that. Hey, why is he hoarding the cash?

• 32:56Speaker 03

  I know, that, that always bothers me because that it's easily manipulated to go, well, see, he's, Warren Buffett is predicting a recession or he's predicting a big pullback in the markets. And Warren Buffett is done not trying to time the markets. What he's trying to time is where a deal is that he can buy, like a specific deal. He wants to, he wants to, you know, he's ready to put down a, write a hundred billion dollar check for some company.

• 33:18Speaker 04

  And you can look back in the history of Berkshire Hathaway and what he's done. He, whenever he collects cash, he's definitely waiting for that deal. And whenever, you know, and he's done it before.

• 33:29Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 33:29Speaker 04

  Where he can, where he'll jump on something and he'll just pay cash or a lot, put a lot of cash into the transaction and acquire a certain business or a certain company.

• 33:39Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's, it's called keeping your powder dry.

• 33:42Speaker 04

  That's right.

• 33:42Speaker 03

  And if, if you look at it in comparison, like the amount of cash that he has in comparison to his overall portfolio, I don't know that it's really out of whack from where he is, what he's done historically. It's just Berkshire Hathaway itself has gotten so big. The conglomerate is so massive now that now you're just dealing with hundreds of billions of dollars. Whereas before it was just tens of billions of dollars. And that, that's how all of these big companies have, have, have prospered. Warren Buffett, Buffett just has his, his.

• 34:10Speaker 00

  So he, he did give away a million dollars, right?

• 34:15Speaker 00

  So he changed his rules.

• 34:17Speaker 04

  That's what I was thinking, yes.

• 34:18Speaker 00

  So for the first time, Warren Buffett paid off a million dollars. And I believe it was to a Berkshire employee. And they had changed the rules that if you got thirty of the thirty-two right, that he would pay you the million dollars.

• 34:35Speaker 03

  Oh.

• 34:35Speaker 00

  And someone did that yesterday.

• 34:37Speaker 03

  Oh, wow.

• 34:38Speaker 00

  So somebody got thirty of thirty-two, which is difficult, even with our own Michelle, who's been kicking our butt in our March Madness brackets the last few years. But the story I read was that he finally got to pay somebody.

• 34:54Speaker 04

  Well, good for that somebody.

• 34:56Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 34:56Speaker 04

  Is this a million dollar?

• 34:58Speaker 00

  Just a flat million dollars. And what I read is the person had somebody help him fill out the bracket, and he actually split the payout with him.

• 35:07Speaker 04

  Good for them.

• 35:09Speaker 03

  Wow, that is impressive. So but it's of the thirty, the first thirty-two games?

• 35:14Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 35:15Speaker 03

  Yeah, so I wonder if it changed.

• 35:16Speaker 00

  Thirty of thirty-two. So if you had thirty of thirty-two, right?

• 35:19Speaker 03

  Oh, I see.

• 35:19Speaker 00

  Which is, you're counting all these upsets and like the big trees falling. There was, I believe, five or six in the first week of March Madness that I don't believe anybody had.

• 35:32Speaker 04

  No, you're right. Steven says here that somebody won it, and they're splitting the million dollars.

• 35:38Speaker 03

  Hot dang.

• 35:39Speaker 00

  But he had to change the rules.

• 35:40Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 35:40Speaker 00

  Obviously, it wasn't a perfect bracket.

• 35:42Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 35:42Speaker 00

  But it was damn near close.

• 35:44Speaker 03

  I, is it, I wonder if it's, if it's just a million dollars, but it's not a million dollars for life, a year for life.

• 35:50Speaker 00

  And that was a listener texting and thought that that was what the winner was. But I believe it was just a flat million dollars, not a million dollars every year. But still.

• 36:01Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 36:01Speaker 00

  I mean, half of that.

• 36:02Speaker 03

  I was looking up Berkshire Hathaway's total market capitalization. So that's, that's the, you know, total value of the outstanding shares of the company added up is 1.1 trillion. And it has, as of December 31 of 2024, Hathaway's cash and cash equivalents totaled 334 billion.

• 36:24Speaker 03

  Billion dollars. So it's roughly 30% of its total market capitalization is in cash or cash equivalents. It is. That is more than it was, much more than it was in, at the end of 2023, when they had $167 billion. So they've almost doubled the amount of cash that they have. So what's he gonna buy? You could buy a lot with that, right?

• 36:46Speaker 04

  Great question. I wonder if he's got it in a money market account, Jared.

• 36:48Speaker 03

  Yeah, I wonder. Well, most of it, I think, is in treasure. A lot of it is in treasuries. It looks like about, well, at least 167 billion is in cash in short-term treasury holdings. Because he wants to keep it liquid.

• 37:04Speaker 04

  Yeah, liquid.

• 37:05Speaker 03

  And so, and it's been...

• 37:06Speaker 04

  That powder is very dry.

• 37:08Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's benefited him too, in terms of having, where you have short-term rates right now. With the inverted yield curve, you still, you have short-term rates paying higher or very close to long-term rates. And yet now you have the liquidity too.

• 37:23Speaker 04

  That's right.

• 37:23Speaker 03

  And so Warren Buffett is just so smart, dude.

• 37:26Speaker 04

  Great, great balance sheet management.

• 37:28Speaker 03

  Oh, he's, he's just brilliant. He's so smart. And how old is he now?

• 37:33Speaker 04

  94?

• 37:34Speaker 03

  He's, he's in his 90s, that's for sure.

• 37:36Speaker 04

  94. I think his, his partner died at 95, I believe.

• 37:41Speaker 03

  Uh, let's see, he is, his partner Charlie Munger?

• 37:45Speaker 04

  Uh huh.

• 37:46Speaker 03

  Yeah, uh, he's 94.

• 37:48Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 37:48Speaker 03

  His birthday was back in March. That's right, as we talked about Warren Buffett on his birthday. All right, we're gonna take our final break of the day. We'll be right back. We're Money Wise.

• 37:56Speaker 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.

• 38:10Speaker 03

  Thanks for tuning in. We're Money Wise. I'm Jared. That's Sammy. Sammy, there was a what?

• 38:17Speaker 04

  No, I was gonna say, yes, sir.

• 38:18Speaker 03

  Oh. There was a recent Financial Times article that came out last week called, and the title of his passive investing wins again. This is really fascinating. It backs up what we've said for many years here at Money Wise, which is, you know, be cautious of active investment, active management of investments. So what this study taught, what it analyzed was taking information according to S and P Global Ratings, and this is year end of 2024. It found that passive index funds outperformed approximately two thirds of actively managed funds. And this is a trend that's been consistent for nearly 20 years,

• 39:03Speaker 03

  where about 90% of active funds have lagged behind low-cost index funds. And this underperformance spans across various markets and asset classes, including developed and emerging markets, bonds, and most of the stock categories, such as small cap. So, you know, there's always an uproar by the active managers and they've always got some, you know,

• 39:31Speaker 04

  Something to say about it.

• 39:31Speaker 03

  Something to say about it. But the truth of the matter is, is that this is held up true that, you know, for the large majority of investors, index investing is a fantastic way to go. It helps, it helps reduce costs and it, you're not always going to hit a hole in one, but you, nobody hits a hole in one every time. And this gives you much greater odds of reaching whatever your specific investment goal is. This is, you know, you might hear this and you think, well, you don't, what do you need a financial advisor for if I can just invest in an index fund? Well, that's because we're just talking about one investment.

• 40:15Speaker 03

  We're talking about just a single investment of, you know, whether it's, you know, equity or fixed income, or we're talking about a single portfolio. Whereas us as financial advisors are usually dealing with much more than that for a client. It's, it's, you know, monitoring the investments on an ongoing basis to make sure that they match and are, continue to align with your own personal situation, your tax situation, estate. All of those things that are, that do need to be individualized. And you also have a newer sort of invention, I'd call it, in our, in our world of factor-based

• 40:57Speaker 03

  investing, which is a way that a lot of people can, can, can buy into indexes and sort of filter out certain parts of the index that may be aligned with you politically or- Religiously. Religiously. There's also ways that you can index or sort of have index investing where it's much more tax efficient than the traditional mutual funds. And mutual funds inherently can be very tax inefficient. This is really important for money that is not part of a retirement account where, you know, you're not worried about the ongoing taxation

• 41:40Speaker 03

  of it because it's all staying within a retirement account. So it's sort of protected from the tax implications. But mutual funds outside of those retirement accounts can sometimes be very, very tax inefficient because you're pulled in, even if it's following an index, say it's following the S and P 500, you're, you're still, you're pulled in with a lot of other investors that are, that are fully just passively following the index. Whereas, you know, there are ways now that investors, individual investors can have representative index that is where you're buying and, and, and, and, and holding and then a certain

• 42:19Speaker 03

  percentage of an index enough to represent the underlying index with a minimal tracking error. And now you can have the benefits of tax loss harvesting, ongoing tax loss harvesting or integration of outside investments. Maybe you have, you're already holding Pepsi, for example. Well, then you can have inside your index where you exclude Pepsi or Coke because you're sort of already represented in that sector. I see. And so there's, there's some really neat, you know, ways to still- Bring that a financial advisor or investment advisor representative can can can bring some real benefit to.

• 42:58Speaker 04

  Create a balanced approach for whatever your goal is.

• 43:01Speaker 03

  Yeah, what does what you definitely want to be aware of when you when you look at these studies of active funds versus low cost index funds is that you you can only control certain things within your investment portfolio and fees are a big part of that. You can control for fees, you can generally control a lot of the taxes. And what you can't control is the ups and downs of the market, the performance. That that is where the active investors have always struggled because very few active fund managers consistently outperform the markets.

• 43:45Speaker 03

  So if they're not consistently outperforming the markets, well, then why don't you just invest directly into the market if it's possible?

• 43:51Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 43:51Speaker 03

  And it's not, it's not always, you know, possible to direct, you know, directly invest. Not everybody can directly invest, say, in the S and P 500 because you'd have to buy approximately 500 different stocks. It would, it would cost too much money and then, you know, you have, you have to be able to manage that. So I wanted to bring that up. I think that's a, an important study.

• 44:11Speaker 04

  Yeah, very good. We have, I don't know if we have time for one last question that just came.

• 44:16Speaker 03

  Let's try.

• 44:16Speaker 04

  I'm sure this is the stupidest question, but how do tariffs differ from other types of trade barriers?

• 44:23Speaker 03

  You know, what other, what other trade barriers? I mean, I guess there are, you know, trade barriers in the form of embargoes and just, you know, flat out, you know, a tariff is a way to to decentivize consumers from buying, you know, certain products, foreign products. Or or is a way to incentivize local products to be bought and sold. But, you know, there's a lot of these just, just flat out, you can't trade, you know, you can't, there's certain countries that are just on the list. You can't buy or sell from and, you know, you can't be associated with it. Russia is a good example right now. They're under so many sanctions. That, you know, so you're not going to be, good luck trying to buy a Russian product.

• 45:08Speaker 04

  Yeah. Unless it's, I mean, it's a necessity, like they, they still export. I'm like, I was reading the other day that Morocco has exported wheat from Russia because of the shortage they've had.

• 45:19Speaker 03

  That Morocco has had?

• 45:20Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 45:21Speaker 03

  And so they had to import it from Russia?

• 45:22Speaker 04

  Mm-hmm.

• 45:23Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 45:23Speaker 04

  The biggest exporter of wheat in the world is Ukraine.

• 45:26Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 45:26Speaker 04

  And because of the war, they had to go to Russia and import some.

• 45:30Speaker 03

  Jeez, what a mess.

• 45:31Speaker 04

  Well, some of these things are allowed, I guess.

• 45:33Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 45:34Speaker 04

  Still.

• 45:35Speaker 03

  There was a, uh, there was a, there was a, a recent study also that came out about the under, the under counted popular global population. It's really fascinating. It was in, uh, nature, uh, dot com or the journal of nature.

• 45:49Speaker 04

  Are we, are we understating or overstating?

• 45:51Speaker 03

  Understating.

• 45:52Speaker 04

  The rural, the rural.

• 45:54Speaker 03

  Yeah. And estimates are, you know, up to 50, 60% of rural populations not being counted because there's not being caught in any sort of census.

• 46:02Speaker 04

  It's a lot of resources that are not allocated.

• 46:04Speaker 03

  Could be up to 80 million people across the globe. It's a pretty large amount of people. Well, there you go, Sammy. We did it. We covered it.

• 46:12Speaker 04

  We did.

• 46:13Speaker 03

  If anybody missed this or any other show, wherever you listen to and stream your podcasts, you will find us there, whether it's iTunes, Apple or Spotify. You can find us there commercial free. Also, as we leave today's show, remember these three things. Be smart, be safe, and always be money wise.

• 46:35Speaker 02

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