3/31/26 Borrowing, Budgeting & Building the Future with Bakersfield College

The Moneywise Radio Show and Podcast Tuesday, March 31st BE MONEYWISE. Moneywise Wealth Management I "The Moneywise Radio Show & Podcast" call: 661-847-1000 text in anytime: 661-396-1000 website: www. MoneywiseGuys.com facebook: Moneywise_Wealth_Management LinkedIn: Moneywise_Wealth_Management Guest: Dr. Stacy Pfluger, Interim President at Bakersfield College website: https://www.bakersfieldcollege.edu/ The opinions voiced in this podcast are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. To determine which strategies or investments may be suitable for you, consult the appropriate qualified professional prior to making a decision. Dr. Stacey Pfluger and Bakersfield College are not affiliated with nor endorsed by LPL Financial or Moneywise Wealth Management].

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Live from the basement inside the historic Woolworths Building in downtown Bakersfield. Call or text in at 661-396-1000.

• 0:09Speaker 01

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

• 0:17Speaker 00

  Now, let's start the MoneyWise Show.

• 0:20Speaker 02

  And welcome to the MoneyWise Show. We are live from the basement of the historic Woolworths Building in downtown Bakersfield. For the next hour, you're on KGO Money Talk, 1230 a.m., 101.1 FM, and always streaming at MoneyWiseGuys.com. You can call or text into the show 24 hours a day at 661-396-1000. We are your hosts. I'm Sharad Waite and? Frank Lee. And we also have with us, just sitting on the sidelines. Yes, we do. MoneyWise intern, Akemi. Welcome to the show. Thank you. Yeah.

• 0:55Speaker 02

  We've got a few things to cover before our guest coming up later in the show is a guest that we're excited about. It's Dr. Stacy Fluger. She is the current intern president at Bakersfield College. If you're not familiar with Bakersfield College, shame on you. It's an amazing institution. I'm a graduate alumni of Bakersfield College. Go Renegades. I have a lot of great memories up there. So, we're going to ask Dr. Fluger about her experience up there at Bakersfield College. So, we're looking forward to that. Before we get to the interview, though, Frank, we've got a couple of great listener questions. I don't know if you have a chance to pull that up yet.

• 1:40Speaker 02

  Do you have that? Yes, I have it. So, let's start with the first message. Yeah. I heard you guys mentioned that if I was to take a loan for my 401K, that would need to be paid back.

• 2:10Speaker 03

  Within four to five years, how much is added on for taking it out early? If I took out 5K and can pay it back within a year, but wondering how much I would have to pay back on that 5K? Also, I can pay it back monthly, or does it need to be paid one time full? I appreciate the info. Daughter's getting married in October and trying to weigh taking from my 401K versus a loan. Well, first off, congratulations to your daughter. Yeah, yeah. Marriage is a huge step. And with that, obviously comes a lot of expenses. But I think if I were to give any advice on that, I think it would be hard, right? It's situational. Obviously, don't take out a loan that you can't pay back.

• 2:55Speaker 03

  But let's dive into that question of this for a second.

• 2:58Speaker 02

  The payment part of it is the IRS requires that at least quarterly payments are made on a 401K loan.

• 3:07Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah. I wasn't sure if they had a monthly option. I always thought they did, but you don't have to pay it all back at once. You can if you want to. You save yourself more on interest.

• 3:19Speaker 02

  Correct.

• 3:21Speaker 03

  Just for that. So if that is the case, then yeah, try to pay it back as quickly as possible. And I do know that there is a five-year limit payback, right?

• 3:32Speaker 02

  Yeah, you can't go beyond five years. Now, there are some exceptions if you're a first home buyer. You can actually extend that out beyond five years. But most plans will require when a loan is taken, that the loan is paid off through your payroll deduction. So if you're paid monthly, you're going to be making a monthly payment towards that loan.

• 3:54Speaker 03

  Right.

• 3:54Speaker 02

  And it's going to be taken right out of your paycheck. But the IRS, in terms of the IRS, that it needs to be done at least quarterly. That means if you miss a payment and you miss that quarterly payment, now the IRS is going to say, okay, well, whatever is remaining is now all taxable to you. It's consider it as if you made a withdrawal from that 401K.

• 4:18Speaker 03

  Right, which is even More of a hit along with depending on if you're before the the age of withdrawal.

• 4:25Speaker 02

  Fifty five.

• 4:26Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 4:27Speaker 02

  Yeah, fifty five for 401k.

• 4:28Speaker 03

  And then you can also be taken a 10% penalty.

• 4:32Speaker 02

  Correct. Yeah. So you have a 10% early withdrawal penalty and then you have to pay the taxes on that.

• 4:37Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 4:37Speaker 02

  As if it were income and that's just for missing that quarterly payment.

• 4:42Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 4:42Speaker 02

  So if you're if you're, I like the idea. If you do make a loan, just have it automatically paid back through your paycheck. But also pay it back as soon as you can because it's true that the interest that you're paying is just paying yourself. So you're paying yourself that interest. However, there's this double taxation thing.

• 4:59Speaker 03

  Right.

• 5:00Speaker 02

  Cause you're paying it back with money that you've already paid taxes on and it's going back into an account that now is going to require you to eventually pull it out and pay taxes on it again.

• 5:09Speaker 03

  Yeah. And so Justin and I actually touched base on the 401k in in detail last Friday. And so I think this is where the question is coming from. Yeah.

• 5:18Speaker 02

  Oh, nice.

• 5:19Speaker 03

  So you're right. Yes, exactly. If you're taking out a 401k loan, it might seem as if you're just paying yourself forward. But in reality, there's, there's multiple folds of why it's advised against it. First one that you touched on is that, yes, you're paying back the 401k with after tax loan, after tax money.

• 5:40Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 5:40Speaker 03

  So it's, it's not the, just the pre-tax contributions you've made, but now that you're, you're being paid. But then the interest is also accruing on that loan and then you're having to pay it back with after tax. So the amount, Justin gave a good example. If you're in the 22, 24% tax bracket, you're paying that amount on that tax bracket for your pay. And then you're having to pay the interest on the loan. So inadvertently you're paying over almost maybe 30% on, on just that loan itself. So people don't really.

• 6:15Speaker 02

  Thirty percent, it would be 30% in tax impact.

• 6:19Speaker 03

  And yes.

• 6:20Speaker 02

  It's not like a 30% interest rate.

• 6:22Speaker 03

  No, no, no, no, no.

• 6:23Speaker 02

  The tax, the taxable impact is 30%, which might turn out to reduce your actual.

• 6:32Speaker 02

  Return on that money a little bit by 30% or whatever, but it's not. Right, not a direct.

• 6:36Speaker 03

  And the second part of it is that whatever amount that you're taking out, you are hindering any potential compounding effect on that because you've taken out.

• 6:46Speaker 02

  Taken out of the market.

• 6:47Speaker 03

  Yes, you're taking it out of the market.

• 6:49Speaker 02

  Yeah, yep, exactly. So it's definitely, and I mentioned this in yesterday's show, that it's a, it should be a last resort.

• 6:57Speaker 03

  Oh, yes.

• 6:58Speaker 02

  You know, because you also are not in control of a job change sometimes. And if you lose your job, now it becomes all payable upfront. And if you don't have the money for it, okay, well, guess what? It's all going to be taxable and you have that 10% early withdrawal penalty.

• 7:13Speaker 03

  Right, right.

• 7:14Speaker 02

  So you definitely want to be careful about it.

• 7:16Speaker 03

  Exactly.

• 7:17Speaker 02

  I think it's smart to pay it off as soon as you can. There's no problem with paying it off early, so if you can do that, that's good.

• 7:22Speaker 03

  And in this question, sorry, like if you had to choose over the 401k versus a personal loan, I would have, you know, taken the route of the personal loan just because of the fact that the 401k, you're losing out so much more on it than just a loan itself.

• 7:38Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, and you can do the math, you know, asking how much it will cost. If you pull out $5,000 and it's paid off within five years, interest rate generally on 401k loans is prime plus one.

• 7:51Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 7:52Speaker 02

  So like today it would be five and a half or 6%.

• 7:56Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah.

• 7:57Speaker 02

  I'm assuming prime is like four and a half right now. I don't know what prime's at.

• 8:00Speaker 03

  It could be actually.

• 8:01Speaker 02

  But let's say it's around four, then you're going to add another, so you're paying five or 6%. You're going to pay that interest, amortized over five years. And so, you know, you could do the math, it's not.

• 8:11Speaker 03

  Yeah, prime rate right now is at 6.75. So you're looking at about.

• 8:14Speaker 02

  Prime is 6.75?

• 8:15Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 8:16Speaker 02

  Man, I was way off.

• 8:17Speaker 03

  So, yeah.

• 8:18Speaker 02

  So used to it being so low.

• 8:19Speaker 03

  Right, imagine that and then adding that 1% on top.

• 8:23Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 8:23Speaker 03

  So seven, almost 8%.

• 8:24Speaker 02

  Almost 8%, you're going to, you're going to be paying on that. So, good question, good luck with your daughter's wedding. It's a good sign that you only need about $5,000.

• 8:33Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah.

• 8:33Speaker 02

  $50,000.

• 8:34Speaker 03

  Oh, my gosh.

• 8:35Speaker 02

  Which is very common.

• 8:36Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, so Akme, if you plan on getting married in the future, my advice is elope.

• 8:41Speaker 02

  Hello.

• 8:42Speaker 03

  Hello.

• 8:42Speaker 02

  There's a, we talked about on the show several interesting studies that correlate the amount of money that you spend for a wedding increases the probability of divorce.

• 8:52Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah.

• 8:53Speaker 02

  I say correlation is not causation.

• 8:56Speaker 03

  No, no.

• 8:56Speaker 02

  It's super important to know that. But there is a correlation between expensive weddings and divorce.

• 9:01Speaker 03

  Lavish, yeah.

• 9:02Speaker 02

  Yeah, lavish weddings and divorce. So you can kind of reverse that and go, well, then if you have a really cheap wedding, it should increase your odds of sticking together.

• 9:09Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, right? Let's, let's start to beat the system there.

• 9:12Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 9:13Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 9:13Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 9:13Speaker 03

  Save yourself some money. I remember back when Jackie and I were getting ready for our wedding and it was just like the venue alone was just so much.

• 9:20Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah.

• 9:21Speaker 03

  Oh, my gosh.

• 9:22Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 9:22Speaker 03

  I told her, I was like, babe, I'm, I'm okay with eloping right now.

• 9:25Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 9:26Speaker 03

  Cause this, this was during the time where like I was laid off too. And so it's like, I was stressed out.

• 9:31Speaker 02

  Oh, my gosh.

• 9:32Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 9:32Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 9:33Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 9:33Speaker 02

  Good time, good time to choose to get married.

• 9:35Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 9:35Speaker 02

  Right when you're in between jobs.

• 9:37Speaker 03

  Exactly, exactly. So I, I've been there, guys. I've, I've been through the struggle. Like I was, we were planning the wedding, the venue and everything. And a few days after I got the notice from the CEO, I was like, hey, we have to, we have to let you go, you know?

• 9:49Speaker 02

  Oh, man.

• 9:50Speaker 03

  So it was, dude, it was, it was a rough time.

• 9:52Speaker 02

  It was rough.

• 9:53Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 9:53Speaker 02

  How was your wedding, though?

• 9:55Speaker 03

  It was fun.

• 9:58Speaker 03

  Jackie listens to the show. So it was fun, babe. Yeah, it was fun. I loved it.

• 10:02Speaker 02

  Yeah, it was fantastic then. We have another question here from a listener. You want to read that, Frank?

• 10:07Speaker 03

  Yep, let's do it. I may be way off, but I'm trying to find more info on the budget rules, 60, 20, 20, or I may have the numbers wrong, but can you guys give the break, breakdown of the rule on a show so that I can share with my students? I'm a teacher at Independent Studies and I would like to use this budget rule to teach the next generation.

• 10:24Speaker 02

  Awesome. I, I love this. I love this budget rule. Um, you're, the numbers are off a little, unless there's a budget rule I don't know about.

• 10:31Speaker 03

  The one that I'm familiar with is the 50, 30, 20.

• 10:34Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 10:34Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 10:35Speaker 02

  Yeah, 50, 30, 20, that's probably what they're talking about. Cause that's the one we've talked about a lot on this show. It's really easy to understand and I think it's a great rule of thumb. 50% of your money goes towards things that you have to have. 30% of your money, monthly money, goes towards things that you want to have. And that leaves 20% to pay debt and retirement. So that's a, that's an easy way to, um, to sort of start a budget or start a household budget. I think what gets tricky is when somebody goes, well, do I have to have this or is this a, is this a want? Streaming services, I think is a good example of that. Is that a, is that a must have or is that a, is that a want?

• 11:15Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 11:16Speaker 02

  Some people will say, well, I've got to because otherwise what am I going to do? It's like, well, you do have to make a choice here because you only have limited money. So you, you may have to cut out things that you might think are necessary, but

• 11:28Speaker 02

  things that you have to have would be your housing, your utilities.

• 11:33Speaker 03

  Yep, yep.

• 11:34Speaker 02

  Transportation.

• 11:35Speaker 03

  Yeah. Basic.

• 11:38Speaker 02

  Insurance, yeah.

• 11:39Speaker 03

  Basic things to survive.

• 11:41Speaker 02

  Survive, yeah.

• 11:42Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah.

• 11:42Speaker 02

  And should all, you know, when you look at your, your mortgage, most mortgage loans are given based off of a 30% of your income going towards the mortgage payment. So there's 30% already. That only leaves 20% for your must haves. Like, uh, that would leave, you know, for insurance, transportation. It just can be tight for a lot of people. And then you, you know, the, the 30% for things that you want, I, I think that's a very good, uh, benchmark.

• 12:15Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 12:16Speaker 02

  And you can fit a lot in there, things that you want have. And then I also like the fact that the, the remaining 20% can go towards debt or retirement.

• 12:25Speaker 03

  Debt or savings, yeah.

• 12:27Speaker 02

  Debt or savings.

• 12:27Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 12:28Speaker 02

  Cause like paying off debt is really like shoring up your savings. You're, you're eliminating that interest rate.

• 12:36Speaker 02

  Or if you don't have that bad debt that needs to, that needs to be paid off, then it's going towards future, your future self.

• 12:43Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 12:43Speaker 02

  Like your 401K or your, uh, just your savings account.

• 12:47Speaker 03

  I, I think you, you touched on a good point right there is, is the bad debt. Because I think for the most part, people are still not familiar with the concept of good debt versus bad debt. For example, the mortgage. Student loans, just depending on interest rates and everything. But those are good debts that you have because you have equity in the house that you have. And then the student loan is if you're working in a career where you have the loan, like for example, physicians, nurses, physical therapists, whatever it is, engineers, you're working towards repaying that off.

• 13:22Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 13:23Speaker 03

  Versus bad debt, which is the personal loan, credit cards, those have the higher interest rates, like you want to pay that down as much as possible.

• 13:29Speaker 02

  Right.

• 13:30Speaker 03

  And you don't want to get in the habit where all debt is bad, you just want to pay it back. So that way, that 20% goes all to debt and nothing is going to savings.

• 13:38Speaker 02

  Right.

• 13:38Speaker 03

  So then now you have to, yeah, you're now having to play catch up with that.

• 13:43Speaker 02

  Yeah. Talk right into the mic, get real close to it.

• 13:46Speaker 04

  There you go. For some loans, especially student loans, aren't they tax deductible as well? Or are they?

• 13:53Speaker 02

  Uh, no, no, it's not tax deductible.

• 14:00Speaker 02

  There are education costs that can be offset and can be deducted, but not student loan debt or interest.

• 14:09Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 14:10Speaker 02

  Yeah. Student loans are tricky because, like you said, Frank, sometimes people get loans with schools that don't really, aren't really providing a benefit. You know, like you're not, you're not putting you towards a career, they're not increasing your ability to make money. And now you've got all this debt and it's very, very difficult to get rid of student loan debt, despite all the headlines that we've seen over the last several years about student loans just going away. And I know when Biden was in office, there was a lot of misunderstandings about what was going to happen to student loans because there were a lot of deferments with COVID. And, and yet, you know, people are stuck with these loans and it can be, it's one of

• 14:52Speaker 02

  the biggest driving factors for the younger generation not being able to afford a home. Because they've got, because they have got this debt that is calculated into their, into their monthly budget that doesn't allow them to.

• 15:07Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 15:08Speaker 02

  Get a mortgage.

• 15:08Speaker 03

  Or we're even seeing it with future generations. The college admission rates are even down at its lowest right now because people aren't going to college because it costs so much.

• 15:18Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 15:18Speaker 03

  And you're going to be left with all this debt. It's like, why? When you can barely pay it off when you get a new job.

• 15:24Speaker 02

  Well, that's a perfect segue into our guest, intern president of Bakersfield College. Very affordable college. Very affordable. There's a lot of good things going on over there. So we're going to take a break right now. When we come back, we're going to be joined by Dr. Stacy Fluger. She is the Bakersfield College intern president. We're Money Wise, we'll be right back.

• 15:43Speaker 00

  If you're a business owner who provides a retirement plan for your employees, contact Money Wise Wealth Management to see if you're maximizing your options and minimizing your liabilities. Money Wise 401K plans are customized to you and your company's needs. 661-847-1000.

• 16:08Speaker 02

  Welcome back, we're Money Wise. I'm Sherid Wait. I'm here with Frank Lee. We're your hosts. Also joining us, Akemi, our intern, Money Wise intern. Welcome, Akemi. We're now going to introduce and excited to have our guest for the day, Dr. Stacy Fluger. She is the Bakersfield College intern president. Dr. Fluger, welcome to the show.

• 16:29Speaker 05

  Thank you for having me.

• 16:30Speaker 02

  Yeah. I love that your name has a silent P.

• 16:34Speaker 05

  Right. It confuses the world, but yes.

• 16:36Speaker 02

  It confuses the most of the world. Some of us here in the States are familiar with this, this kind of spelling. But, Dr. Fluger, how are things at Bakersfield College?

• 16:48Speaker 05

  You know, it's just a really fun time. We actually even had an event for parenting students today on campus. In fact, they're probably still out there having kind of a picnic with bringing their kids up to campus. And so that's great.

• 17:01Speaker 02

  Oh, nice.

• 17:02Speaker 05

  We're heading straight toward commencement in about six weeks.

• 17:05Speaker 02

  Holy cow.

• 17:06Speaker 05

  It's going to go fast from here on, for sure.

• 17:08Speaker 02

  Commencement, speaking of commencement, this would be the over 126.

• 17:18Speaker 02

  126th class. Let's say it started in 19, Bakersfield College started in 1913. And we are now in, do the math for me. 113 graduating class.

• 17:32Speaker 05

  Right. I think it's 112th and I don't know where the extra year went. Maybe it took a couple of years to get the first class through.

• 17:39Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Interesting. There's a lot of really interesting facts about Bakersfield College. I was, of course, familiar that it used to be part of Bakersfield High School. It used to be, Bakersfield High School used to be Bakersfield College, essentially. And that's where I graduated. I graduated also from Bakersfield High School and for Bakersfield College. And so it is one of the oldest and potentially the oldest continuously running community college in the country. And there are how many students today? Approximately.

• 18:11Speaker 05

  Somewhere around 45,000 fall and spring combined.

• 18:14Speaker 02

  Forty-five thousand? Get that. Forty-five thousand students. It's just unbelievable, but there's more, a lot of people don't know, there's more than one campus.

• 18:24Speaker 05

  We have, we have a number of campuses. So we have Delano, that's our longest running satellite campus. We also have BC Southwest, which is actually on the CSUB campus. We have the Wile Institute downtown, and then we just opened Arvin a little over a year ago.

• 18:40Speaker 02

  Yeah, so there's six different, six campuses in total.

• 18:44Speaker 05

  Plus a lot of other places where we serve in different ways. So, yes, we're, we're well and truly busy.

• 18:50Speaker 02

  And BC is one of the few California community colleges that offers a bachelor's degree.

• 18:58Speaker 05

  We offer two now.

• 18:59Speaker 02

  Two bachelor's degrees.

• 19:01Speaker 05

  Trying to get a third, but we're working on it.

• 19:03Speaker 02

  Talk about those. Talk about the programs.

• 19:06Speaker 05

  So the first bachelor's degree we got approved for is Industrial Automation, and that program is doing really well. We've got some partnerships with Boeing. Students are doing all kinds of robotics and generally.

• 19:20Speaker 05

  A manufacturing type lens, but they they've got all kinds of cool things in that lab. It's continuing to grow. We've got both an associate degree and a bachelor's, but our newest is the Research Laboratory Technology Program, and we've recently launched a couple of partnerships with medical programs that are pathways from B C into medical school.

• 19:40Speaker 02

  Wow.

• 19:41Speaker 05

  So yeah, lots of good opportunities in both of those.

• 19:44Speaker 02

  Those are both amazing programs that are very future looking.

• 19:49Speaker 05

  Absolutely.

• 19:50Speaker 02

  And and there's a lot of concern. I'm sure you hear it all the time from students. I hear it from my kids. I have one son that's still in college, who also went to B C and then transferred out. And he and they they talk about the concern about A I, eliminating their future or their future job potentials. But both of those degrees have some longevity in them.

• 20:14Speaker 05

  Absolutely. And I think that's part of the value of community colleges, because we do have generally more of a technical focus. We also have transfer and all of those traditional pathways. But in the technical fields, there are some things that you're just not able, at least at this point, to completely replace with A I. And I do think it's it's a different kind of a skill set that you leave with. And we've literally been having conversations this week about how we need to make sure that students leave with that critical thinking skill set, because no matter what happens in technology, there's there's still some decision making that's going to have to be done by people at some point.

• 20:54Speaker 02

  Don't get me started on critical thinking. We have a huge need for the critical instruction on critical thinking. We're not taught that. I mean, you go to college, you can there's some course that can kind of teach you that. But in high school, I don't know of anything that even touches on critical thinking, and yet so important.

• 21:13Speaker 03

  Yeah, I feel like they try to, but especially with the boom in A I, it has just severely, catastrophically deteriorated in the sense of young students being able to just.

• 21:28Speaker 02

  Think in general.

• 21:31Speaker 05

  Even before that, I, my personal opinion, when education, for whatever reason, went to standardized tests back decades ago, I think we started teaching people how to take tests. And that's not exactly the same as teaching people how to think. So now, how do you kind of reverse that trend and still recognize that those tests aren't going away?

• 21:52Speaker 02

  Right.

• 21:52Speaker 05

  So it's, it makes it more of a challenge. But I do think it's, it's an important skill set that is best learned from the beginning on, right? It's something you can develop throughout your life. And when we miss out on that, and let's be honest, COVID didn't help, it, it makes things a challenge.

• 22:08Speaker 02

  Yeah. Talk about the affordability of Bakersfield College. You know, colleges obviously get a bad rap because of the debt that people incur. But Bakersfield College, in my opinion, has got some things going for it. Financially speaking.

• 22:28Speaker 05

  Absolutely. So where tuition is $46 per unit. So it's much different than what you see at any kind of a public or private for your institution. The research laboratory technology program, the number I saw, I guess that was last week, my days are running together, less than $11,000 for that bachelor's degree.

• 22:50Speaker 02

  Wow. 11,000, less than 11,000?

• 22:53Speaker 05

  It's 10,000 and some change, yeah.

• 22:55Speaker 02

  And what is the, is there, are you seeing a demand for those students that are, are exiting that program? Like, are there recruiting?

• 23:03Speaker 05

  We're starting to. It's very new. So we had our first graduates last year. And, and now, as we're developing more pathways for the students, once they finish that degree, we're starting to see more and more interest. So yeah, I've, I have high hopes for it.

• 23:17Speaker 02

  Yeah. It seems like there's a, there, where are the people coming that are going to fix the robots, or repair the robots and maintain them?

• 23:25Speaker 05

  I mean, some of that is industrial automation.

• 23:27Speaker 02

  I know.

• 23:28Speaker 05

  Leave it or not.

• 23:28Speaker 02

  I know. That's why I'm saying, like, this is a great, great career to go into. You mean the robots can fix themselves? Not yet. Not yet.

• 23:34Speaker 05

  I mean, at some point, maybe.

• 23:35Speaker 02

  Yeah, right? Definitely there's robots that fix robots. But then there's going to have to be somebody who fixes the robot that fixes robots. Yeah. You know, and so it's like you just, there's a lot of job security there. I get that there's a lot of job losses. If you're, if you're a factory worker, I would be very nervous. You know, if you're a driver, a professional driver, I'd be nervous. There's certainly areas there, but that, but if you can transition into something that is going to be long lasting, that there's, there is ways to do that.

• 24:08Speaker 02

  Dr. Fluger, you got your bachelor's degree from the University of Notre Dame.

• 24:15Speaker 05

  I actually got my master's at Notre Dame.

• 24:16Speaker 02

  Oh, your master's, you're right.

• 24:17Speaker 05

  Bachelor's from Angelo State University, which you've probably never heard of.

• 24:20Speaker 02

  No.

• 24:21Speaker 05

  It's a small public university in San Angelo, Texas.

• 24:24Speaker 02

  Ah, well, you're, you got your master's degree in biology at Notre Dame. Is that correct?

• 24:34Speaker 05

  That is correct.

• 24:35Speaker 02

  Notre Dame, that is small community college and?

• 24:37Speaker 05

  Not, not exactly.

• 24:40Speaker 05

  Although it's not as large as you think it is.

• 24:41Speaker 02

  I've, I've heard it's not as large, but I've heard the campus is also beautiful.

• 24:45Speaker 05

  Absolutely.

• 24:46Speaker 02

  Very storied, sports programs there, but you, so you studied biology. Did you, at that time where you are, has your goal been to be a president of a university? Or when did that happen? When you're like, you know what? Let's, let's do that.

• 25:06Speaker 05

  So that's, that's a whole journey in and of itself, but I started out teaching biology back in 2008. And after teaching for a while, I knew I was at least going to want to go into some level of administration. So I started working on my doctorate, which I got through Texas Tech University.

• 25:25Speaker 05

  But I taught for eight years. I was a dean for the last, say, six months of that graduate program. You don't realize the difference in the workload until you make that transition. And so I was also very thankful at that point that most of the work was while I was faculty, because it is hard to have a full-time job and go to school full-time. And that's, again, a lot of what our students are doing as well. So as I just got more involved, for a lot of years, I never thought I would want to be at an upper level in administration. But while I was in my doctorate program, one of our visiting professors said, you know, the higher you go in an organization, the more you see what you want to fix, so the higher you go. And I think that's, he's right.

• 26:05Speaker 05

  So it's one of those things that, the more I get involved, the more I hope I can at least influence some of the direction of the college, because we're certainly not broken by any stretch. We've got a lot of good things going on. But also, if you don't stay current, you start not being relevant. And that's, that's always a scary place to be. You can't be complacent. You've got to stay innovative and you've got to keep changing as the times change. And so it's a good time to be in education.

• 26:35Speaker 02

  I'd love that answer. The fact that you can make a difference, essentially, is what I heard.

• 26:40Speaker 05

  Exactly.

• 26:41Speaker 02

  If you're, if you're in charge, then you can make a difference. And the more you're in charge, the more difference you can make. And, and, and I can imagine the challenges that are, are faced at Bakersfield College with the size of the student body, over 40,000 students and faculty. What's the faculty size approximately?

• 26:59Speaker 05

  Oh, I'm not even going to try.

• 27:00Speaker 02

  Hundreds. It's hundreds.

• 27:02Speaker 05

  Yes, especially if you add, add in adjunct faculty, it is, it is hundreds. And so it is, you know, change is always difficult, but then when you have, the larger the organization, in some ways, the more difficult change is, because you're trying to make sure everybody understands the same thing at the same time. And that's easier said than done.

• 27:21Speaker 02

  Very difficult.

• 27:22Speaker 05

  It is.

• 27:23Speaker 02

  Very, very challenging. I can only imagine. And so when you, you know, how, how long have you been the interim president?

• 27:32Speaker 05

  Since June, so about nine months.

• 27:34Speaker 02

  Oh, so when did they take the interim title off? How long, is this for a set period of time?

• 27:40Speaker 05

  So the, the search is ongoing right now. And from what I understand, the chancellor's plan is to have that answer to the May board meeting, so.

• 27:49Speaker 02

  Oh, coming up.

• 27:50Speaker 05

  Coming up, so a couple of months.

• 27:52Speaker 02

  Couple of months.

• 27:52Speaker 05

  They should, should be able to have an answer.

• 27:54Speaker 02

  And are you in that running as well? Or are you seeking the full-time position? Or are you just like, I'm okay, just interim?

• 28:01Speaker 05

  So I have applied, but I will also say that, you know, the, the process works. And so I don't want it to turn into anything about me. It's about the college and whoever the right leader is going forward.

• 28:11Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 28:13Speaker 02

  And if you could, you know, coming back to your, your comment about, you know, being in charge and being able to make a difference. Where do you see the biggest challenges are currently at Bakersfield College?

• 28:28Speaker 05

  So one of our, one of our biggest challenges is always going to be making sure that we are supporting all of our satellite locations. Because it is a lot and we've tried to make sure all of the services we have on the main campus are available there, but they're not always there. Every day, they're not always there in exactly the same format. So that, that's one of the challenges. We know our students have a lot of needs, so anything to support student basic needs.

• 28:57Speaker 05

  And making, lowering barriers as much as possible is always something that we're, we're focused on. And then right now, we're also in the midst of hiring about 50 faculty members. So we're, we're expanding, right?

• 29:09Speaker 02

  If you're just hiring 50, then we, maybe there's thousands of faculty.

• 29:13Speaker 03

  Nine hundreds.

• 29:14Speaker 02

  So there's basically 50 open positions right now at the, at the college. I mean, it's just a huge, a big employer and they're great jobs. I think they're great jobs.

• 29:24Speaker 05

  I agree.

• 29:25Speaker 02

  The, I remember when I was at Bakersfield College, I had a really good advisor, academic advisor. He was great. I can't remember his name, but he was fantastic because I was, I was already married. I was, we were, I had a kid on the way with my wife. And so I was just, you know, this young kid that was just like wanting to get through college as quickly as possible. And this advisor was just very helpful in helping me get my schedules and get my path, you know, forward. But he also would sprinkle in there like, you know, this is a really pretty good job, you know, like working for a community college. And laid out like all the benefits of working for, for a community college. It got me thinking. I mean, I never, I didn't go into it.

• 30:08Speaker 03

  Plus you get all the, the vacations that you would. As a student, right?

• 30:11Speaker 02

  Great, yeah, yeah, you get.

• 30:13Speaker 05

  Faculty, do you?

• 30:14Speaker 02

  Yeah, you get like banking holidays and it's pretty sweet.

• 30:19Speaker 03

  So I wanted to ask real quick, I'm not a renegade, but I'm a CUCB runner. So no hate there.

• 30:27Speaker 05

  Well, we'll take it.

• 30:27Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you, do you see a growing demand, obviously, as since you guys opened those two new

• 30:38Speaker 03

  education departments in industrial and research laboratories? How, how is the, the healthcare industry played a role in your guys' courses and everything that you guys set for them? Cause I know there's been a lot of push in the recent years as far as getting

• 31:02Speaker 03

  more medical students to, to come to Bakersfield residence and all that. Has BC been a frontier in that sense?

• 31:10Speaker 05

  Absolutely. So we're, we're at kind of the early stages of their educational journey. But we are, that's part of the reason why we're, we're finding ways to develop these pathways for students who want to become medical professionals. Because ideally, we want them to come back to Kern County, maybe stay in Kern County. Because that's, we, we know that there's such a shortage of medical providers across the board. It is a huge need. And so, yes, we are, we are partnering as much as we can to build those pathways and help students see themselves on those tracks.

• 31:43Speaker 03

  Yeah. So follow up question is, um, cause my wife's a physical therapist and I know there is a huge demand for PTs, OTs, SPs, speech pathologists. Is that something that Bakersfield College is also recognizing as an opportunity or?

• 32:02Speaker 05

  Potentially. So, so it's, again, this research laboratory tech degree is relatively new. We already have lots of pathways that you can, you can start as a biology major or, or pick a number of other majors and still go down the paths to any of those professional programs. What I'm hoping to see is more opportunities for our research laboratory graduates to be able to go directly from a bachelor's degree at BC into those programs. And so what we have now, we have a partnership we just announced with Western University of Health Sciences, and that takes them from BC into a master's degree of medical science. And from there, they can apply to the doctor of osteopathy, or podiatry, or they've got

• 32:45Speaker 05

  about 10 different professional programs there. So there's certainly opportunities already there, but I'm, I'm a person who believes the best thing we can do is provide students with opportunities, because none of those universities have enough seats to have everybody, right? So the more pathways we provide, then the, the better the students can find the one that makes the most sense for them.

• 33:05Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah.

• 33:06Speaker 05

  And we also have a physical therapy assistant program.

• 33:08Speaker 03

  Yes, yes. I, I did have a couple of friends that, that graduated from their last year.

• 33:13Speaker 02

  Yeah. Which is great, because it gets them, like you said, it just, it, it starts the path. You're getting them going in that direction. And then from there, I love these partnerships. When, when I was at Bakersfield College, it was, I think it was fairly new. The relationship that Bakersfield College had with the UCs and CSUs in the state, which is like phenomenal. But basically, you're, you're guaranteed into a UC or a CSU program if you graduate from Bakersfield College. Is that still the case?

• 33:44Speaker 05

  Right. Well, at, at least if you take the right coursework. But we do, we do have shared general education curriculum that is recognized by both. So yes, it, it does make transfer a whole lot easier than it was once upon a time.

• 33:56Speaker 02

  Huge. Yeah, I know. It's a big, big saver. We have a couple of listener questions that just came in. So I'll read these and you can give your comments. It says, "I'm also a renegade for life. Graduated in 1988. It's so nice to see how the campus has grown and kept up with the times." I agree. And I think I saw, I talked to you about this when I saw you. It was- There's so many cool new buildings. I hardly recognize the campus because there's and there's construction going on.

• 34:22Speaker 05

  Definitely.

• 34:23Speaker 02

  Still.

• 34:23Speaker 05

  And and more planned. So yes, we still have several years of construction ahead of us. Measure J was really, really supportive of the work at BC.

• 34:33Speaker 02

  Yeah. Can you explain that? Explain Measure J?

• 34:35Speaker 05

  Sure. So Measure J was a bond that was passed, I think, in 2018. And so it has allowed us to build the new science and engineering building. We've built the Veterans Resource Center. We redesigned our welcome center to be more of a one stop shop for students with financial aid, admissions and records. We've built the new Renegade Athletic Complex. We're about to start in about a year, construction on a new soccer field complex.

• 35:03Speaker 05

  All kinds of things going on.

• 35:05Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's really cool. Another message here from a listener. It says, following up, how many of the 40,000 are online? Or is that all in person students? Speaking of financial side, what is the average cost for a BC student compared to the average community college? This is from Rob.

• 35:23Speaker 05

  Okay, so the average cost in California, all community colleges have the same level of tuition. So that's it just depends on where you are and which is your your closest college.

• 35:34Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 35:34Speaker 05

  As far as the enrollment, otherwise, I'm thinking because I just saw these numbers a couple of days ago. We've got about 23 to 25% of our students who are only online. We've got about 34% who are only face to face. Most of our students take a combination. And that number also includes our early college students that are still enrolled in high school as well. So that's they're not all on campus at Panorama for sure. But it does. It does include a lot of different populations.

• 36:07Speaker 02

  Yeah, including there are, you know, you wouldn't be surprised that in the hundred-plus years that Bakersfield College has been existence, it has a lot of famous people that have graduated from the, from it.

• 36:20Speaker 03

  Oh, really?

• 36:21Speaker 02

  I don't know if anybody here is a Star Trek fan. You a Star Trek fan by chance?

• 36:26Speaker 05

  A little bit.

• 36:27Speaker 02

  You are a little bit.

• 36:28Speaker 05

  I'm not a diehard, but I'll sign up for that.

• 36:31Speaker 02

  Well, you got to go back to the 90s TV version of Star Trek: Voyager. Commander Chakotay. Commander Chakotay is his stage name, but this actor is Robert Beltran from Bakersfield. Went to Bakersfield College.

• 36:46Speaker 03

  Nerd alert.

• 36:48Speaker 02

  I have to say, I did have to look it up. I did have to look up his picture to go, okay, yeah, yeah, no, I know this guy. I know this guy. But then there's obviously lots of other, lots of other politicians and, yeah.

• 37:02Speaker 03

  That guy, you know that guy? I know that guy.

• 37:08Speaker 02

  But there is, there should be a lot of pride, you know, in the, in the college. It's just a lot of, lot of good people, a lot of good people graduated from there. Akemi had a question. You remember your question?

• 37:20Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah. Well, can I ask too?

• 37:23Speaker 02

  Yeah, go, go for it.

• 37:25Speaker 04

  Can you talk a little bit more about the high school program in which people like kids from eighth grade or freshman year all the way through senior, they earn their associate's degree?

• 37:36Speaker 05

  They can, yes.

• 37:37Speaker 04

  My friend graduated with two associate's degree while she was in high school and now she goes to the CLA.

• 37:42Speaker 05

  Exactly. And so then you transfer and you only have two years left for a bachelor's degree. It's a great opportunity to, to enroll in dual enrollment in early college. It is. And we've got partnerships with high schools all over the service area.

• 37:55Speaker 03

  Has, has that been new? Cause I don't remember this.

• 37:58Speaker 02

  It wasn't when I was there. I think it's fairly new.

• 38:01Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 38:02Speaker 02

  Ten years, maybe?

• 38:03Speaker 05

  Maybe a little bit longer than that, but yeah, it's relatively new. And then not every high school, of course, jumped on.

• 38:09Speaker 03

  Right, right.

• 38:10Speaker 05

  Immediately, but yeah, we've got some really strong high school partnerships to make early college available. And it is really making a difference for those students who take advantage of it.

• 38:18Speaker 04

  I liked my BC classes.

• 38:21Speaker 05

  Wonderful.

• 38:22Speaker 04

  Also, how has the concept of community college changed throughout time?

• 38:28Speaker 05

  So when community colleges first really started expanding, which was largely in the 1960s when they became kind of a nationwide phenomenon. The goal was access. It was about making sure that higher education was available to more people and particularly underrepresented populations. Over time, that focus has shifted, not that we don't focus on access, because we certainly do, but access alone just isn't enough. So 25 years ago or so, it really shifted toward, well, what we really need is completion, because we don't want you to just come in the door and walk right back out next semester. We want you to stay and we want you to finish a degree. And now we're actually in kind of the midst of another shift where really what we want is you to be able to get out with a living wage job

• 39:12Speaker 05

  or transfer and get into a bachelor's degree pathway. So it's, it's turning into more of a what happens once they leave? And are they really prepared for that next step?

• 39:21Speaker 04

  So what type of resources does the community college, especially BC, offer that you don't usually get at UCs or CSU's?

• 39:29Speaker 05

  So part of the difference is class sizes at community colleges are typically smaller. Faculty, because of that, are typically more available. But also you find a lot more supports for students as a whole, whether that's affinity groups for students can find that sense of belonging and get involved. It could be, again, basic need support. It, it's a wide range of offices. We have, we have a very large population of student services staff on campus that are there literally just to support whomever, whichever demographic they're serving at the time. And it's, it's a lot. And I'm not saying universities don't do that,

• 40:10Speaker 05

  but community colleges are really focused on trying to level the playing field as much as possible and give students the best opportunity we can to get through that associate degree.

• 40:20Speaker 02

  Yeah, there's also a fundamental difference in community colleges versus some of the larger universities, research universities, is that there's not like research going on at Bakersfield College. They're focused on instruction, right?

• 40:32Speaker 05

  Primarily. There's, there's a few that are involved in research. And even that, though, is probably more geared toward getting students involved in research and giving them some opportunities to grow and develop. But yes, it's, it's not the typical. University where to get tenure, they have to do research and they have to publish and all of that. Our tenure process is really, are you teaching and are you having good outcomes in your classes?

• 40:56Speaker 02

  Yeah, which can can provide an environment where you have more. I'm just, I'll just say it. My, my opinion is you can, you can have teachers that are more vested in the instruction process rather than them just trying to get tenure.

• 41:13Speaker 05

  Exactly. Because at the end of the day, we are a teaching institution. That's why we exist.

• 41:17Speaker 02

  Yeah. Lastly, this is my, my last question. Frank and Akimi may have one more question for you, but if you could go back to, to your 18 year old self and give it advice, what would you, what would you tell yourself?

• 41:33Speaker 05

  So I think one, one of my personal challenges is I can overthink and overanalyze. And I know I changed my major. Most people do. I think it's just to like be okay with that. We don't have to have all of the answers right now. We just have to keep moving forward and things develop kind of naturally. And, you know, gone are the days where you graduate from high school or college, you get a job and that's the last job you're going to get. Very few people have that. Generally speaking, there's a lot of life changes that happen and, you know, that it's okay. It's okay to, to have life throw you a curve ball and say, well, gee, maybe that's not something I've thought about, but maybe it fits after all.

• 42:14Speaker 02

  Yeah. Like you don't have to have it all figured out. You're not going to have it all figured out. You don't have, very few students would go right into college and stick with that major or stick with the career that they want, even if they get that in their degree. There's, especially today, it seems like most people don't even going into that, what they got their degree in.

• 42:35Speaker 05

  Yeah. Correct. Yeah. There's a lot of change.

• 42:37Speaker 03

  Yeah. I think it's, it's very reassuring for, for someone like you to say something like that because I'm in that boat. I remember this advice that was given to me from one of my teachers in high school is that college is going to be the most expensive place you go to to figure out what you want to do. And it's so right. It's so correct. Because.

• 42:59Speaker 03

  For me, myself, and I've shared this on the air a couple of times, is that I went to CSAB for, in nursing.

• 43:04Speaker 05

  Oh, awesome.

• 43:05Speaker 03

  Yeah. But throughout my years, throughout time, I've, I've changed industry. This is my third industry. So it was healthcare, tech, and then now finance.

• 43:16Speaker 05

  Absolutely.

• 43:17Speaker 03

  So I, I, I think, you know, I, I relate to everything that you've mentioned here, and I think it is okay not knowing what you want to do when you go in. And I think Bakersfield College is being more open about that. It was, it seems like they're being more open. That's why there are these programs that they're offering. It's like, hey, this is the roadmap. Here's the structure. We can help you, but it's okay not to know where you want to start.

• 43:41Speaker 05

  Correct, correct. And it, look, you start somewhere and,

• 43:45Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 43:46Speaker 05

  And so if it changes, it changes. But we also have a number of, of opportunities for high school and middle school kids to come up to campus and get involved and try things out. Because the more you can kind of experiment and play with, especially in the STEM fields, that can be life-changing because it may not be something that you've inherently thought that you, as an individual, could or should be pursuing.

• 44:08Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah. And I kind of wish I got that exposure too. Yeah. Because I don't know where I would have been if I, if I would have known, if I did some shadowing for, for nursing or things like that, if I'd be in this, this position. But yeah, I think that's, I think that's great. How, how, how many of that partnership has expanded over the last couple of years? Because I know you mentioned some high schools are in that program.

• 44:33Speaker 05

  I can say, we just had a conference this last weekend, sponsored by Mesa, just bringing students in, talking about STEM. They apparently alternate STEM in general, one year, and then next year's more of a pre-health concept. That has just, that was its 10th anniversary. So that one's been going on for a while. We have introduced a girl's engineering, which was last month. I'm not sure how long it's been going on. But then Kern Community College District is starting.

• 45:01Speaker 05

  A college discovery academy this summer. So Bakersfield College is going to be the first pilot. And that's geared more toward grades four through eight, I believe.

• 45:09Speaker 02

  Oh, nice.

• 45:10Speaker 05

  So, so trying to really build that college-going mentality, because if you don't believe you are college material, it's really hard to get you to do what you need to do to get on that track.

• 45:19Speaker 02

  Yeah. And what I like about that is you get these fourth through eighth graders that are starting to think about college. So by the time they go into high school, they're like, okay, let's get into the dual enrollment program.

• 45:28Speaker 05

  Absolutely.

• 45:29Speaker 02

  Let's get these AAs out of the way.

• 45:31Speaker 05

  Get it started.

• 45:32Speaker 02

  Get it started.

• 45:33Speaker 03

  That's so crazy.

• 45:34Speaker 02

  I know. I would have, I would have loved to have that when I was in college. I probably would have put up a fight, but if I had parents that were like, no, go do this, I probably would have done it.

• 45:42Speaker 03

  I was terrified of college.

• 45:43Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 45:43Speaker 03

  I was one of that. Like, I didn't see myself going to college, to be honest with you.

• 45:47Speaker 02

  It was too intimidating.

• 45:48Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah. Yeah. You know, especially for someone like me, like foreign and not knowing exactly. My parents don't know everything. And so I had to figure things out. And I was like, I don't know if I want to do college.

• 45:59Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 46:00Speaker 03

  So it's scary. But now that there's these exposures at an earlier stage to show them it's like, hey, this is possible. This is what you can do. I think it's reassuring and encouraging.

• 46:11Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 46:12Speaker 05

  Absolutely.

• 46:12Speaker 03

  To see that.

• 46:13Speaker 02

  Yeah. Well, thank you so much for coming on the show, taking the time. I know you're busy.

• 46:17Speaker 05

  Thank you for the invitation.

• 46:18Speaker 02

  Oh, it's just fantastic having you here. We wish you the best of luck and best of luck up there at Bakersfield College. Again, this is Dr. Stacy Fluger. She is the Bakersfield College interim president. She's our guest today. We're Money Wise. We're going to take a quick break.

• 46:32Speaker 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.

• 47:00Speaker 02

  Kung Fu Kenny, welcome back. We're Money Wise. I'm Jared here with Frank Nakami.

• 47:08Speaker 02

  Thanks to Dr. Fluger. Very interesting conversation. Good stuff happening at Pecosville College. Also, good things happening in today's market. Last day of the month, Frank. Last day of the month. This is always, there's always some conspiracy theories behind not just the last day of the month, but the last day of a quarter. Why? Because performance reports for investments will be, will be tagged to the, how the markets have ended today. The Dow soars more than 1,000 points. The S and P 500 up almost 3%, 184 points. It still puts the S and P 500 year to date down about 4%.

• 47:49Speaker 02

  But today's almost 3% did some damage.

• 47:54Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, it brought it back.

• 47:57Speaker 02

  It brought it back closer to, you know, more manageable quarterly loss.

• 48:01Speaker 03

  Right. And I think NASDAQ is the only one that's still in correction territory.

• 48:06Speaker 02

  Ah.

• 48:07Speaker 03

  Is that correct? I think so. Cause I mean,

• 48:08Speaker 02

  You're probably right.

• 48:09Speaker 03

  Yeah, because NASDAQ, that's heavily allocated with tech stocks. It's, they've been, we've been talking about it for quite some time, how overvalued they are. So it makes sense that they're, they're still in that correction territory. But yeah, it's going to be interesting to see with earnings reports and, and everything like that with Q1 of 2026 ending.

• 48:33Speaker 02

  Yeah, it is going to be fascinating. There's a lot of economic data that's coming out that, that, you know, could make people a little nervous. But the US consumer confidence is actually up. The US consumer confidence number came in better than expected.

• 48:50Speaker 03

  Interesting.

• 48:51Speaker 02

  And which is surprising. It was for March. It's very, very surprising, considering all the stuff that we have going on in the world.

• 48:58Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 48:59Speaker 02

  But we're still at, you know, historic lows in terms of, of consumer confidence. But At least it's it came in better. The labor market also is having some struggles. There's a much tighter US labor market. You know, it wasn't until just May of last year that we had gone almost five years where there were more job openings than there were unemployed people. Meaning we had more jobs available than we had people that could fill them.

• 49:32Speaker 03

  Right.

• 49:32Speaker 02

  And since then, we've seen the job openings, you know, come down from their peak in February of 2022. It up nearly 12 million job openings to what it is today, where there's about just under 7 million job openings out there. So, you know, labor market getting worse, but consumer confidence up.

• 49:53Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 49:54Speaker 02

  Fortunately, today we saw big moves in the markets. Uh, this is based off of the hope that the Iran war.

• 50:01Speaker 03

  Yeah, the conflict.

• 50:02Speaker 02

  Conflict might be coming to a, might be coming to a, a, a close. At least that's the, that's the hope anyway.

• 50:10Speaker 03

  Yeah, but we'll, we'll keep our eyes on that.

• 50:12Speaker 02

  Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, great. Well, great. Want to thank all of our listeners for tuning in. If you have missed this show or would like to hear any of our past programs, go ahead and subscribe to the Money Wise Podcast, commercial free, on all major podcast formats like iTunes and Spotify. And remember these three things, be smart, be safe, and always be money wise.

• 50:34Speaker 01

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