4/14/26 More Than Money: Debt Freedom & Donor Impact with JJ's Legacy

The Moneywise Radio Show and Podcast Tuesday, April 14th 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: Lori Malkin, Founder/Chairperson of JJ's Legacy website: https://www.jjslegacy.org/ 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. Lori Malkin & JJ's Legacy 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.

• 0:29Speaker 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.

• 0:37Speaker 00

  Now, let's start the Money Wise Show.

• 0:40Speaker 02

  Welcome to the Money Wise Show. We are live from the basement of the historic Woolworths Building in downtown Bakersfield. For the next hour, you are on News Talk 96.1 and 1230 AM KERN, streaming live 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...

• 1:03Speaker 03

  I'm Dustin Weaver.

• 1:04Speaker 02

  D-Dub.

• 1:05Speaker 03

  Yes, sir.

• 1:06Speaker 02

  Happy Tuesday. Great seeing you.

• 1:08Speaker 03

  It's good to be seen.

• 1:09Speaker 02

  We're gonna, we're gonna have a guest on here shortly, Lori Malkin. She is the co-founder or founder of JJ's Legacy. Talk about organ donation.

• 1:19Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:20Speaker 02

  We'll, we'll talk about the business of organ donation.

• 1:22Speaker 03

  Looking forward to that.

• 1:23Speaker 02

  Yeah. We got a couple of listener questions, though. Do you have them there, Dustin?

• 1:26Speaker 03

  I have the first one, yep.

• 1:28Speaker 02

  Let's go.

• 1:28Speaker 03

  So, someone sent in, "I made a mistake to hire one of those businesses that came out weekly to clean off the solar panels at our shop and they charge us $400 a month and they told us that it would be double what we brought in from our PG&E bill or saved on our PG&E bill. I didn't realize this was a scam, but I was able to get out of the contract for the low price of $2,500. I later learned that if we got up there and washed them once a year, we would have got about the same return."

• 1:55Speaker 02

  Yeah. Yeah, we talked about this yesterday on the show, yesterday or day before, about the benefits or whether or not it's worth the panels, cleaning your solar panels. You know, there's our businesses that go around and kind of promote this.

• 2:09Speaker 03

  I've seen the ads for it.

• 2:10Speaker 02

  I've been very, very skeptical of it and we were on the fly when we're talking about it on the show, on the previous show, but since then, I've actually done a little bit more research and sure enough, I don't want to call it a scam because it's, it's, I don't think it's... Quite that strong, but it's definitely iffy. It doesn't pencil out.

• 2:33Speaker 03

  Oversold a little bit.

• 2:34Speaker 02

  Oversold. Let me give an example. So studies show basically that you get, you can, you can lose product, you can lose about three to seven percent of your production from dust collecting on your, on your solar panels.

• 2:51Speaker 03

  Right.

• 2:51Speaker 02

  But they're, they cost anywhere between a hundred and $200 to come out and clean it. So in order for you to make, to recoup that cost for the cleaning, let's say that $200 for the cleaning, you, you're going to have to have a, like, it would have to be a massive system that most residential homes do not have that big of a system.

• 3:13Speaker 03

  Right.

• 3:14Speaker 02

  For it to, and if they did have that big of a system, it would cost way more than a hundred dollars or $200 to clean. And so if.

• 3:22Speaker 03

  Yeah. When you said three to seven, I'm over here doing the math. Okay. So if it costs you 200 bucks and you're saving, say 5%, like you said, that's a, that's a big number.

• 3:32Speaker 02

  Yeah, exactly. It's, so let's say you have, you're doing 10,000 kilowatt hours. And you, 5% of that would be 167 kilowatt hours. In California, average rate is about 33 cents a kilowatt hour. So you're talking about saving 50 bucks.

• 3:59Speaker 03

  And it costs you 200.

• 4:00Speaker 02

  And it costs you 200 bucks to clean it. Like, not worth it. But this is an interesting, like, psychological, like, consumer's psychological bias that we have where it's, I think, I would call it sunk cost fallacy, where you, you are paying for something because you, because you've already invested in it. You've already paid for it and so you are going to pay more in effort to try to save money for it. When really you, you, you're better off not, you're better off losing a little bit of money and letting that dust collect. Cause that actually saves you money because it would cost you more to clean it. Now, now maybe if somebody's cleaning it themselves, that's a different story.

• 4:43Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 4:43Speaker 02

  If your time is, is worth. You know, more than $200 an hour than maybe it's not worth your time to go up on your roof.

• 4:52Speaker 03

  You know, let's be honest, they they look a little better when they're clean.

• 4:54Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, but who's looking?

• 4:56Speaker 03

  Yeah. It's kind of hard not to.

• 4:59Speaker 02

  Steven's house, for example, he can't even get up to it because of how he's how he's backed up to his neighbor's house. He can't even get up to clean it unless he unless he goes into his neighbor's yard.

• 5:08Speaker 00

  My neighbor's backyard would be upset if I just ran my hose off the their backyard. So just how it's it, but you know, Google Map will probably it'll look better for Google Map for sure.

• 5:19Speaker 02

  Yeah, well, there you go.

• 5:21Speaker 00

  That don't even open that conversation.

• 5:23Speaker 02

  We get enough, I mean, we get enough rain, you know, that like you clean it up for most people. It's it's naturally going to kind of clean itself off, you know, enough.

• 5:33Speaker 03

  Yes, there are some lessons here, though, and first of all, thank you for sharing this kind of thing. Not everybody is open about this kind of thing, and there are some lessons here, right? What comes to mind is always get a second opinion, right? With any kind of maintenance or service contract, you know, shop around a little bit.

• 5:50Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 5:51Speaker 03

  That's one lesson here.

• 5:53Speaker 02

  And is we explained on the previous show about how somebody can do the math to determine whether or not just solar in general is right for them. This is pretty basic return on your investment calculation. How much money are you saving each month by having that solar? How much did the solar cost you? You divide those two numbers with each other, and that gives you the break even of how many months it's going to take for you to get that money back. So you can do the same thing with your cleaning because at most solar systems, mine including, it's an older system, but it tells you real time how much it's producing. So I have gone out there with my hose. I looked at it and I saw it was dusty. Then I spray it down while I'm looking on my app to determine how much is it really increasing?

• 6:38Speaker 02

  It's like, oh, this is nothing. I mean, you see a little increase for sure, but it's, you know, it's just real minor.

• 6:45Speaker 03

  You know, the other lesson here is cancellation terms.

• 6:48Speaker 02

  Oh, yes, yeah.

• 6:50Speaker 03

  Because this was a contract, this wasn't a one time kind of thing for this situation. You know, it was an ongoing contract. Cancellation terms have, are embedded in most contracts that you sign.

• 7:02Speaker 02

  Right.

• 7:03Speaker 03

  That is worth looking at to know ahead of time. It sounds like you, this person was able to negotiate a little bit, but.

• 7:11Speaker 02

  Still were on the hook. That's how I read it. They still had to pay $2,500 to get out of it and they were paying 400 bucks a month.

• 7:17Speaker 03

  Right.

• 7:18Speaker 02

  So, yeah, I mean, that's, I hate this, I hate when, when, when we're fleeced. I feel like we're being fleeced.

• 7:26Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 7:26Speaker 02

  You know, because, because we don't, um, either have the time to, to understand or do the math, or don't really even know what to ask. And so we take people at their word and so.

• 7:38Speaker 03

  I think that's where that second opinion comes in too.

• 7:40Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 7:40Speaker 03

  Second or even a third, you know? I know with like contracting work, just a lot of clients I've had over the years have found that shopping around, getting that second, third, fourth opinion, maybe.

• 7:51Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 7:52Speaker 03

  For some kind of construction.

• 7:55Speaker 02

  Right.

• 7:55Speaker 03

  Can really save a lot of money.

• 7:56Speaker 02

  Oh, huge.

• 7:57Speaker 03

  Especially if they know they're competing.

• 7:59Speaker 02

  Right.

• 7:59Speaker 03

  You know, tell them, hey, I'm going to get a few bids on this.

• 8:01Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, I'm looking for the best bid. That's right. It, it, it with solar, now that solar's kind of died down in California, rooftop residential solar, I'm not, not seeing it as much, but they're, the, the sales can be so aggressive. You know, salespeople are going to make five, seven grand each time they sell a solar. And so they'll tend to kind of overstate their proposals, you know? And, and usually where I've seen it is they overstate the future increases that PG&E is going to have.

• 8:32Speaker 03

  Oh, right.

• 8:32Speaker 02

  You know, and so they go, well, you know, for, to make the break even look even better. It's like, well, I know on today's rates, but you know how PG&E is and every year it goes up. And so like, if it goes up at this rate, uh, over the next 10 years, then you're, you know, your break even starts to look really good. And it's like, oh, that's kind of risky. Like it's not guaranteed that the rate's always going to go up. In fact, this year now, we're starting to see some rate cuts with PG&E. We're starting to see actually some of, some people in some tiers, the rate actually going down and, uh, or receiving rebates. So, uh, great question, great question from the listener.

• 9:10Speaker 02

  Go for the next one?

• 9:11Speaker 03

  So this one says, I'm getting close to retirement and wanted to ask you guys how I should be thinking about debt at this stage. Is it better to pay everything off or does some debt still make sense?

• 9:22Speaker 02

  I think that there is always a scenario where some debt would make sense. I'm always hesitant, unlike some of our competitors that believe all debt is all bad. You know, you avoid all debt at all costs. I don't subscribe to that line of thinking. I believe that there are responsible ways to manage debt. But there is some good debt that I believe is not good for some people. You know, like there's not like all not, all good debt is not good for everybody. Credit cards is a good example of that.

• 9:54Speaker 03

  Absolutely.

• 9:54Speaker 02

  You know, like I use credit cards. I love using credit cards, but I haven't paid a dime in interest. I don't pay any annual fees. It doesn't cost me anything and I get all the perks from, from using a credit card. So I love credit cards. It's really kind of a form of debt, even though I'm not really paying any interest because I'm paying them off immediately each month.

• 10:14Speaker 03

  Right.

• 10:15Speaker 02

  But it's kind of, kind of floating. I'm floating some cash there until it's paid off. That's to me is really good, but that's not good for everybody.

• 10:22Speaker 03

  Right.

• 10:23Speaker 02

  You stumble a couple of months and you're in trouble.

• 10:25Speaker 03

  Carrying it right and paying interest or minimum payments. That one, you know, that's always top of mind. No, you don't want to do that on credit cards. Cause I don't care how good the rate is, it's probably still not good being that it is a credit card.

• 10:37Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 10:38Speaker 03

  Right. A competitive rate in that world is still eight to 10% with most, most people having 22, 25.

• 10:44Speaker 02

  Right.

• 10:44Speaker 03

  29% interest.

• 10:46Speaker 02

  That's right. Yeah.

• 10:47Speaker 03

  Yeah, I agree with what you're saying.

• 10:49Speaker 02

  So that, you know, I would say at this stage, if you're close to retirement, really at any stage, consumer debt is not good. Cause your, your credit card debt or any kind of consumer loan is always going to be more expensive and generally not going to be worth it. So you shouldn't be buying those things until you can afford to just pay for it in cash. The exceptions, there's three exceptions, I believe for debt. That is your home, education and your car. It can be very difficult for most people to save up, even if it's $10,000. How do you save $10,000 up for a car if you don't have a car to get a job? You know, or to get back and forth between work and so.

• 11:28Speaker 03

  That's a good point. And with the mortgage, you know, a lot of us were able to refinance or lock in a low rate, three or four, or sometime in the 2% kind of range. Where you start comparing that to if you had the money invested instead of being, you know, having all that extra money go towards the mortgage or pay, try and pay that off. I say that, but then there's also the psychological side too, that I feel like regardless of the interest, sometimes it does, there's a weight off your shoulders, knowing that that house is paid for.

• 11:58Speaker 02

  Oh, for sure.

• 11:59Speaker 03

  I have seen that too.

• 11:59Speaker 02

  Yes, I, there's, there is, it's hard to quantify or put a dollar amount to the peace of mind that you get when you are debt free, because you do, you do pay a price for that. A mortgage is the perfect example. So if somebody has a mortgage that the rate, let's call it three and a half percent. So they have a very low mortgage rate. There is a financial argument oftentimes to not pay that off, because the opportunity cost is far, far greater. So if you've got, you owe $50,000 on your home and you're paying a 3% interest rate, you can put that, you have $50,000 in the bank. Okay, if you paid off your home, then you are saving that 3%. But what if you put that 50, 50,000 in a different investment that's getting more than 3%?

• 12:44Speaker 02

  Well then, okay, mathematically, you're going to do better. But then you would still need to discount your, what you call it, like your life satisfaction. Like just to be able to put your head down at night on that pillow, knowing that you don't owe anybody anything.

• 12:58Speaker 03

  There is some value there.

• 12:59Speaker 02

  That's a good, that's a good feeling.

• 13:00Speaker 03

  So here's another example of it depends.

• 13:03Speaker 02

  Yes, yeah, yeah. You gotta know your own, know yourself and know your own, your own ways. In fact, another listener here, Big Al, sent in a message. He goes, if someone here in Bakersfield feels like they're falling behind on credit cards or loans, what are the steps they should take before things get worse? The same thing, we're sort of talking about this. Things will get worse if you are, if you aren't able to pay off that debt each month. You, now things are getting worse. Your balance is either staying the same or growing. You've got an issue, you've got a problem. And so that's the time to, to attack it for, before it does get worse. There's really two ways of paying down debt. And this again, comes down to what you and I were just talking about. Talking about Dustin, your personality.

• 13:48Speaker 03

  Right.

• 13:48Speaker 02

  Whether snowball or avalanche. The snowball approach on debt is that you you go after the smallest debt first. They say you have three credit cards. You go after the credit card has the smallest balance. And you pay that off first. And the idea is it gains momentum. You get excited and psychologically you feel like you're gaining traction. Okay, I got that one now. Now I'm going to get the next card paid off. And that that works for some people. Other people.

• 14:15Speaker 03

  So on that, so in that it's less about the rate and more about the balance. Is that what you're saying?

• 14:19Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 14:20Speaker 03

  Start with the smallest balance.

• 14:22Speaker 02

  Right.

• 14:22Speaker 03

  Right. And if they're all credit cards, they're going to be high interest.

• 14:25Speaker 02

  That's right. Yeah. So go with the one with the smallest balance.

• 14:28Speaker 03

  And then the avalanche, how's that?

• 14:30Speaker 02

  Yeah, well, avalanche would be that you go after the most expensive debt. So it may not be the biggest balance, but it's where the interest is where you're paying the most interest. Where it's costing you the most. And that it will sometimes not be your smallest balance. It might be the largest balance. But you're you're trying to attack that because it's it's hurting you the most. So, you know, the non emotionally, the avalanche makes more sense. If you could, if you can look at this as not an emotional decision.

• 15:03Speaker 03

  Purely mathematical.

• 15:04Speaker 02

  Pure math and go with the avalanche method if you are more prone to some of the psychological benefits than the snowball. Both of them will get you out of debt.

• 15:14Speaker 03

  And that's the key. The important thing is to act early. Right? And not wait on these things. Do a triage of your debt. Separate the essentials. Look at mortgage and rent, car payment, utilities. Those are separate from things like the unsecured debt, like credit cards. If you have to choose what to pay, you're going to keep the roof over your head first, right?

• 15:32Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 15:33Speaker 03

  The other thing, you can call your lenders before you miss a payment. You know, if you find that you're even struggling to cover the the payments. A lot of people don't realize that credit card companies and loan servicers both have what they call a hardship program. Which could be temporarily a reduced interest rate. Sometimes they'll let you defer a payment or put you on a modified plan, they call it. But they're much more willing to work with you if you've called before you've defaulted, not after. Right? You're better off calling them ahead of time and saying, hey, can you work with me on this? Rather than, hey, I missed the last three payments. You know, they're not excited to help at that point.

• 16:08Speaker 02

  Yes, that's good advice. Very good advice. They, you know, we've talked about the 50, 30, 20 rule too, which is, you know, 50% of your money, of your income should go towards things you have to have. 30% goes towards things that you want to have, and that leaves the 20% to pay yourself back in the form of paying off debt or for savings, long-term savings. So those are, those are good rules of thumb for anybody who's looking to try to figure out a way to get back on track. You can start there. You might need to modify that 50, 30, 20 rules slightly, depending on where you're at. But you, at some point, we all as consumers have to put our, put a limit for ourselves some way, somehow.

• 16:49Speaker 03

  Right.

• 16:49Speaker 02

  And so figure out what works best for you. We're going to take a break now. We're going to be joined after the commercials, we're going to be joined by our guest, Lori Malkin. She is the founder of JJ's Legacy. We're going to talk organ donorship. We're Money Wise. Don't go anywhere.

• 17:09Speaker 02

  Welcome back to Money Wise. Thanks for tuning in today. We're your hosts. I'm Sharad Waite here with Dustin Weaver.

• 17:14Speaker 03

  Yes, sir.

• 17:14Speaker 02

  We're joined by our, with our guest right now, Lori Malkin. She is founder, chairperson of JJ's Legacy. Welcome to the show, Lori.

• 17:21Speaker 03

  Yes, welcome.

• 17:22Speaker 04

  Yes, thank you. This is great to be here.

• 17:24Speaker 02

  It seems like we, you can turn your knob up, see the little silver dial? Yeah, there you go. Can you hear me better now?

• 17:29Speaker 04

  I can hear you.

• 17:30Speaker 02

  Yeah, you can adjust that any way you want. It seems like we've had you on the show before, but maybe it's just because we participated in JJ's Legacy. But is this your first time to the show?

• 17:39Speaker 04

  No, I've been on the show many a times.

• 17:40Speaker 02

  Okay. Okay, perfect. Just hasn't been with us.

• 17:43Speaker 04

  This is, right, this is my first time being in this location.

• 17:47Speaker 02

  Ah, well, welcome. Welcome to the Woolworths basement.

• 17:49Speaker 04

  I know, I love it. Thank you. It's nostalgic.

• 17:51Speaker 02

  Yeah, we love it too. It's been, been really great. So tell us about JJ's Legacy.

• 17:57Speaker 04

  Well, JJ's Legacy, we're a nonprofit right here in Kern County, and all the funds that we raise stay right here in the Kern County. To support those that have had a life-saving transplant, organ transplant, corneas or tissues. And we just really share the awareness and the education is our biggest component. What does it mean to be a registered donor? And so it's very important to share with the community our education.

• 18:24Speaker 02

  Yeah, there's organ donorship has a lot of misconceptions. I don't know much about it at all. I'm an organ donor. I've always been an organ donor. So I'm all for it, very much pro organ donors. But I'm guessing there are people who are not.

• 18:41Speaker 04

  No, you're right. There are people who are not. So we educate a lot of the, our biggest group, we have a Gotham High School Leadership Program. Where we have students that we educate. It's a year-long program and they stay with us from August to April. And at the end of the year, they give a presentation. And what have they learned and how have they been advocates for organ and tissue donation within their peers to peers?

• 19:07Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 19:07Speaker 04

  And then they get scholarships at the end of their year.

• 19:10Speaker 02

  Oh, wow. Is this all through JJ's legacy?

• 19:12Speaker 04

  It's all JJ's legacy, yeah.

• 19:14Speaker 02

  How long has it been in existence? You founded it.

• 19:16Speaker 04

  I founded it. We started the program in 2013. And we went to the high schools every day during lunch and just gathered students and gave them pizza and Pepsi.

• 19:29Speaker 03

  They show up for that.

• 19:31Speaker 04

  They do. And then COVID came.

• 19:33Speaker 02

  Ah.

• 19:34Speaker 04

  And so we decided, let's try to work with Kern Regional Occupational Center. We had a captive audience and then from there, we formed our own leadership program, which is, it's a club. And we have 36 students in it and they go through interview processes. And then they, they're really great because they're our advocates and they can go peers to peers, you know?

• 19:55Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 19:56Speaker 03

  Is that one freshman through senior or is it a certain age demographic?

• 19:59Speaker 04

  It's a sophomore, junior and senior.

• 20:01Speaker 03

  There you go.

• 20:02Speaker 02

  So there's no age limit to organ donorship?

• 20:06Speaker 04

  There is no age limit. However, if you're 13, you can register yourself with parents' consent if anything happened to you between 13 and 18. But we like to educate parents because unfortunately there are young ones that do pass away. Drowning accidents, bicycle accidents, if they're not wearing helmets because you become brain dead. And so, we like to educate our community, parents of all age, grandparents, and we just had an incident about a year ago of a gentleman that was 74, and he had a perfect liver and kidney, and he could be a donor.

• 20:44Speaker 02

  Wow, very nice.

• 20:45Speaker 04

  It's really no age, and especially for tissue.

• 20:49Speaker 02

  So, when did you actually start the nonprofit? Was that also in 2013?

• 20:54Speaker 04

  No, well, my son passed away March 1, 2009, and so I would say probably in 2010, we did a family memorial golf tournament and gathering for friends and family. And it was so great that we just continued. So I'd say maybe 2011 is when we became a nonprofit and had our own federal tax ID number.

• 21:18Speaker 02

  Oh, wow. Oh, that's cool. So you went a couple of years after your son's passing, and I know the golf tournament is coming up. We'll have a break here, but when we come back, I want to hear a little bit more about kind of how you made it through that loss of your son, and then, obviously, it's propelled a lot of advocacy in this area for now...

• 21:46Speaker 04

  16 years.

• 21:47Speaker 02

  16 years. Yeah, it's unbelievable. And it's just such a great example of Kern County's grassroots efforts to...

• 21:58Speaker 04

  The community is incredible.

• 21:59Speaker 02

  It's so amazing. And JJ's Legacy is just one of those wonderful examples. Again, we're joined by Lori Malkin from JJ's Legacy. We're MoneyWise. We'll be back.

• 22:13Speaker 02

  Thanks for tuning in to Money Wise. We're your hosts. I'm Sharad here with Dustin, joined by our guest Lori Malkin. She's founder, chairperson of JJ's Legacy, a very well-run and wonderful nonprofit here in town. Lori, there is your, you have your annual golf tournament that you started just in 2009, 2010. It's coming up here soon. Is it sold out?

• 22:41Speaker 04

  Yes, our golf, our golf is sold out. We're very blessed and fortunate that everyone loves to come to the golf and gala. We sell out usually around January or February, but the gala is still open. We have a few seats left and it's Thursday, the 23rd, next Thursday night at Stockdale Country Club. And so it's always great. You'll, when you come to our events, we always honor those that have had a life-saving transplant. This shirt's a little girl, 11 years old. She had a heart transplant when she was one. And so 10 years later, it's her story and we're bringing her family, that was her donor family. Christie lost her son Carter when he was two in a drowning

• 23:23Speaker 04

  accident. And so we're bringing her in to, from Arizona to meet each other.

• 23:29Speaker 02

  Oh, that's neat. For the families to meet each other?

• 23:32Speaker 04

  For the families to meet each other and for them to meet Emma.

• 23:34Speaker 02

  Oh, my gosh.

• 23:35Speaker 04

  Yeah, so that's going to be pretty powerful.

• 23:36Speaker 02

  So their son's heart is in her.

• 23:38Speaker 04

  Yeah, and she's doing phenomenal and she's 10 years old now.

• 23:41Speaker 02

  Wow, it's so cool like to think about that organ growing inside another body.

• 23:47Speaker 04

  Isn't it?

• 23:47Speaker 02

  It's so amazing.

• 23:49Speaker 04

  It's just so, but it's, sometimes it's hard to comprehend it.

• 23:53Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 23:53Speaker 04

  But anyway, so.

• 23:55Speaker 02

  It's hard, it's actually hard to comprehend. I was just looking at the, the numbers for donors and the lack of donors that we have across the nation. There's over 100,000 people on the waiting list.

• 24:06Speaker 04

  Yes, there is.

• 24:07Speaker 02

  About, about every nine minutes, somebody's added to that list, which means it's growing. We, we don't have anywhere close to enough donors.

• 24:16Speaker 04

  We do not. And here in Kern County, we have over 450 people waiting for the life-saving transplant.

• 24:22Speaker 02

  Just here in Kern County, four hundred and fifty, for a life-saving transplant.

• 24:26Speaker 04

  Yes, and about three hundred of them were kidneys, a few hearts, and then, well, three hundred and seventy are kidneys, a couple of hearts, lungs, pancreas, livers. But yes, it's, it is a, a big need in our community, and also in the whole United States. When you take a football stadium that holds a hundred thousand people, that's how many people are waiting for their call.

• 24:47Speaker 02

  Unbelievable. And, and so what, what do you hear is, as the biggest myths of, of organ donation?

• 24:56Speaker 04

  The biggest myth of organ donation is not being educated, is one of them. And the next one is, is that they're afraid that they wouldn't save your life. If you were in an emergency room, if you're in a trauma, that if they go, oh, she has a pink dot on her driver's license, they're not going to save you. Well, that really is the biggest myth, because they wouldn't even know you're a donor. The first thing the doctors are going to do is always save you. And the only way they had ever know if you were an organ donor, registered, is that after you did pass away in a way to be an organ donor, then they would contact One Legacy, who's our organ procurement operation here in Kern County. So they don't even know.

• 25:34Speaker 02

  Is there just, is that kind of like, like, like our blood donation, like Hauchin, like there, there's basically, each community has a

• 25:43Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 25:44Speaker 02

  A, a, an organization that's in charge of the organ?

• 25:47Speaker 04

  Yes, and One Legacy is in Kern County, but they're also in the LA Basin as well.

• 25:52Speaker 02

  I see.

• 25:53Speaker 04

  So there's two hundred and forty-eight organ procurement operations in the United States.

• 25:57Speaker 02

  Oh.

• 25:58Speaker 04

  Yeah, but, um, um, One Legacy is who's here in Kern County. And they, and they're the ones that recover the organs. And then the transport comes from the hospital in LA, or the transplant hospital, wherever the organ's going to go. Yeah. So it's, it's, you know, we didn't know anything in two thousand and nine. I'd always been a registered donor. I just said yes. But my son Jeff was not registered. And that's where my passion came from, is to really Educate the community and be able to support financially those that have had a life-saving transplant. So that's our other program, too, is that we give financial assistance to those that have had a transplant to help them travel to their hospitals in LA-based

• 26:41Speaker 04

  or wherever it may be. And so that's, our funds come from the community. They're 99% from the community that supports JJ's legacy.

• 26:51Speaker 03

  Yeah. So go back to 2009 again.

• 26:54Speaker 04

  Uh huh.

• 26:55Speaker 03

  How many, how many people were impacted by, by that decision? You said Jeff was not...

• 27:00Speaker 04

  He was not a registered owner, a registered donor, didn't have, you know, the registration. His dad and I said yes when we were approached, but he saved five lives through organ donations.

• 27:10Speaker 03

  Wow.

• 27:11Speaker 04

  Two corneas. Now they can see sunrises and sunsets, and over 50 people enhanced by tissue.

• 27:18Speaker 02

  I mean, I'm just, not ever having experienced the loss of a child, but imagining that there has to be some, um, what's the, like, it has to be, it has to be some positive feelings towards knowing that, that your son is still having an impact on, on the planet.

• 27:41Speaker 04

  Absolutely. No, he, he is. He's still living.

• 27:44Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 27:45Speaker 04

  You know, and it gives you, as a donor family, I always tell individuals that don't want to do it, or if they've been approached, or they had the opportunity, is that if, if we can educate you more, and then you'll know that you have this purpose, number one, you have something to hold on to, and that your loved one gave a gift of life to somebody else that can have a, a life as well.

• 28:08Speaker 03

  Well, one of the things that stood out from what you just said, we think of the, the big things, the big organs, right? It's usually, organs is what we think of, but you said 50 people were impacted by tissues as well.

• 28:19Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 28:20Speaker 03

  I mean, that, that's a lot of people.

• 28:21Speaker 04

  It's a lot of people. And now, through science and different medical procedures, there's over 75 that can be enhanced through tissue donations. Every, every burn victim has a tissue graft, a skin graft, every, um, there's valves, there's heart valves, there's ligaments, there are ACLs, your bones, your, it's endless. Even if you had to have an implant in your tooth, it comes from a deceased donor's...

• 28:49Speaker 02

  Yeah, right. They use, yeah, they use a lot of that for grafting. That was gonna be my next question for you is scientifically, I know there's gotta be some research into figuring out a way to address this problem. You know, I'm thinking of like lab-grown organs. I know we were ways away, but I know a lot of efforts are going into figuring out a way to to sort of solve this enormous problem that we have, the lack of of organs and tissues. Is there any progress that's being made in that area?

• 29:25Speaker 04

  You know, I'm really not familiar with that area at all. I know that I hear little bits and pieces from the One Legacy team. I've been on their advisory board, but I don't know exactly where they are. I know that they've been working on stem cell transplants with those that have a deceased organ or that they can have the kidney and stem cells to be able to give the living person, you know, the transplant, there's stem cells and then organ to help through anti-rejections and different drugs.

• 29:58Speaker 02

  Yeah, there's also been recently, it was, I guess, later last year, there was the gentleman who had the, it's not a pig heart, but it's a, it's a heart that's with a genetically modified, it's a genetically modified pig that that can grow, because pigs are very close to us, to humans genetically, but it can, it can develop that heart in a way that prevents some of that rejection. And the gentleman lived a couple of months, I want to say, last year. So like, you know, there's some progress being made, but the low-hanging fruit is just getting more donors registered.

• 30:38Speaker 04

  More donors registered, just because it's one in 3,000. It's very unique to even be brain-dead and to be an organ donor. So it's very unique, and that's where a lot of my passion came from, too, that I knew that, you know, Jeff was taken in such a unique way that I guess God needed a good man up in heaven too. So he took Jeff with him and, and he knew I would do something about it just to continue to educate our community. And we've, we have moved the needle in Donate Life California. Here in Kern County, we've done a tremendous job. So thank you to our community for registering.

• 31:14Speaker 02

  Yeah. How, how do people register?

• 31:17Speaker 04

  Well, you can go to jjslegacy.org. And there's a big pink donor sign. You just hit that and it'll take you to Donate Life California to register. And also if you go to the DMV as a first time driver, that's where our high school and our college group comes in. We're working now with educating the college students. Just as, just as many as the high school students, because for, you know, they're not getting their driver's license a lot in high school. They're waiting till college years. So we're

• 31:45Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 31:45Speaker 04

  educating the college students as well.

• 31:48Speaker 02

  But, you know, when I first registered to be a donor, I was, you know, young. And when I, maybe when I got my driver's license and it used to be a little pink sticker that you stuck on your driver's license. And it bugged me because it would get knocked off. And then, and then I'm like, well, how are they going to know that I'm a donor? And now it's, now it's just permanently on, you know, your, on my driver's license. So like, they know that. But like, how, how do they know? How do they know in the hospital?

• 32:16Speaker 04

  They don't until, if you are progressing towards brain death, they will call in one legacy and assess you. And then if that does happen, then they will, there's a doc, two different doctors. There's a team that will come in and assess the situation. And then once they know for sure this person could be an organ donor, then they check the California registry.

• 32:38Speaker 02

  I see.

• 32:39Speaker 04

  So it's quite a process before that even happens. And that's, those are the myths we try to dispel.

• 32:44Speaker 02

  Yeah. Yeah. I think I can see there being a lot of misconceptions about the timing of it, that there's, it's incredibly regulated. It's, they're incredibly careful. The medical establishment, the last thing they wanted to, I mean, their whole goal is to reduce harm and to save a life, you know, so. But it sure is comforting to know.

• 33:05Speaker 03

  Know that there can be, um, there can be ways to, um, if life cannot be preserved, that at least portions of that life can be preserved.

• 33:15Speaker 04

  Yeah. And you know, the individuals that receive an organ transplant, they are so grateful. That, you know, that it's, it's incredible. And those that have given, you know, for myself, my son, it's, it's something that I hold on to every day, knowing that he has saved somebody's life and helped them. The little gal that has this kidney, she was nineteen and she'd been on dialysis since she was fourteen. So she missed all of junior high, all of her high school. She didn't make long lasting friends like we make in high school and junior high. Wasn't able to go to a football game, dances or anything. And then she, she says, I have a perfect kidney now. Yeah. So her name's Jackie. And then the gentleman that got my son's heart, his name's Carl. I did get to meet him.

• 34:01Speaker 04

  So it's just, it's just really quite a journey. Um, and being here today with you is that this is my grief. This is who I get to share my story with and all of your people listening in on the podcast.

• 34:15Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 34:16Speaker 04

  You know, it just really helps me move forward every single day.

• 34:20Speaker 03

  Ah, so I had a question. There's the donation when we're not here anymore, but living donation is a thing too. What?

• 34:27Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 34:28Speaker 03

  I, I know the list is much, much shorter. Uh, kidney comes to mind.

• 34:32Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 34:32Speaker 03

  What are, do you know of other things that could be donated other than a, a kidney while still living?

• 34:37Speaker 04

  There's part of a liver and part of a lung.

• 34:41Speaker 04

  That you can, um, have living donation.

• 34:43Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 34:44Speaker 04

  Yeah. As far as an organ, you have eight organs, six that can be donated. Um, I mean, well, eight can be donated, but you have two lungs, two kidneys. Um, one of the biggest thing is a living kidney donation. It's been, um, UCLA, USC, all of the major hospitals have those programs. There's if you wanted to give a kidney to one of your loved ones and you were not a match, but you said, I'm going to give my kidney anyway, and you qualify, then it's called a chain. So maybe somebody else that's going to be giving a kidney that you don't. Even know an altruistic donor, then that might be the match of your loved ones. And so that's really a great, it's called the chain.

• 35:24Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 35:24Speaker 04

  So it just kind of goes around and.

• 35:26Speaker 03

  I hadn't heard of that before. I remember attending one of your events a few years ago, there was a young man that happened to be a match for, I want to say it was a cousin. And when his cousin didn't have a match and was desperately needing a kidney, he stood up and said, oh, let me see if I'm a match. And it turns out he was.

• 35:44Speaker 04

  Yep. You never know who you're going to run into, but you know, there's a lot of wonderful nonprofits in Kern County and a lot of great causes that our community supports. So we're very fortunate to have such a unique community here in Kern County. And because everyone is so important. So I just feel really blessed to have such a great

• 36:06Speaker 04

  community that believes in what we're doing and believes in supporting the transplant community and supporting the students and really giving the education that you need to know to be able to save a life.

• 36:19Speaker 02

  Yeah. Well, we're lucky to have you, Lori, in this community. Thank you for, for what you're doing here. And we have a message from a listener that says, hi Lori. She is such a gem and thank you for having her on. So I echo those sentiments. Thank you, Lori, for taking the time.

• 36:35Speaker 03

  Thank you.

• 36:36Speaker 02

  To come on our show, educate our listeners about organ donation. If anybody's interested in supporting Lori and JJ's Legacy, you can go to jj'slegacy.org. There is still room available for the gala, which is coming up on April 23rd. And so.

• 36:55Speaker 04

  I also wanted to say, we're small but mighty. We have three employees at JJ's Legacy, but we always need volunteers.

• 37:03Speaker 02

  Nice.

• 37:04Speaker 04

  You know, and April is National Volunteer Month.

• 37:06Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 37:06Speaker 04

  And JJ's Legacy would not be where we are today if we didn't have our volunteers. And so thank you to all of those that give of themselves to, to come help us.

• 37:14Speaker 02

  Very nice. Very nice.

• 37:16Speaker 03

  Wonderful. Yes. Thank you so much.

• 37:17Speaker 02

  Yeah. Thank you, Lori. We're Money Wise. We're going to take a break. We'll be back.

• 37:25Speaker 02

  Thanks for tuning into MoneyWise. That's Dustin Booging Down.

• 37:28Speaker 03

  Yes, sir.

• 37:29Speaker 02

  I'm Sharad.

• 37:29Speaker 03

  Good music.

• 37:30Speaker 02

  This has been, are you, are you, do you have a certain genre of music you like Dustin?

• 37:35Speaker 03

  I like it all.

• 37:35Speaker 02

  You like it all?

• 37:36Speaker 03

  I like it all. I know, boring.

• 37:40Speaker 02

  No, that's not boring. Not boring at all. Listener question. You want to go up for it?

• 37:46Speaker 03

  Oh, sure. Somebody sent in, says, "I have heard that we have hard water here in town, so I've talked to companies that do the cleaning and they always say it is so bad for the panels to just hose them off with that hard water. I'm not sure what we are supposed to use to wash the panels, but 5 to 10% could help. My real question is, like you said, the panels are older. How long do panels usually last before we need to replace them?"

• 38:10Speaker 02

  Yeah, good question. You know, there, I think there is some misunderstandings about these, these panels. A lot of people think that they degrade much quicker than they actually have proven to be. Typical lifespan is 25 to 30 years, and many of them are still producing well past 30 years.

• 38:29Speaker 03

  Yeah, because it's not, it's not like a hard stop, right? They don't just stop working all of a sudden. It's more of a slowdown, isn't it?

• 38:34Speaker 02

  That's right. Yeah, even after 25 years, you're still expected to have between 80 and 90% of their original output. A lot of the panels have 25-year warranties on them, so like, almost like timing is not an issue. So typical degradation rate, 0.25 to half a percent a year. So, you know, you know, consider that. The other, the other thing to consider is if, if you are going to go up there, if you are going to, I say go up there, if you're going to go up on your roof and clean your panels, there are some cheap ways. Even though we do have hard water here in the valley, the water is pretty hard. Is it hard at your place? Do you have a softener?

• 39:14Speaker 03

  I don't have a softener.

• 39:15Speaker 02

  We don't either. But our water's fairly hard. It's not so much the water that it causes, the hard water that causes it. It's leaving the water on the panels and letting them dry that causes it. So a cheap way is to still use your normal hose water, but squeegee, just squeegee it off. That can help so it doesn't build up as much over time that the calcium or the... You know.

• 39:38Speaker 03

  Minerals.

• 39:39Speaker 02

  Minerals or whatever. Um, and so, you know, there, there are some cheap ways to, for, you know, for somebody to, to clean their own panels. Just, uh, it's hard to find a financial, uh, reason. To do it.

• 39:56Speaker 02

  There is a.

• 39:57Speaker 03

  I just think of the safety of getting on the roof. I worry about that part.

• 40:00Speaker 02

  Uh, yeah.

• 40:01Speaker 03

  You know?

• 40:02Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 40:02Speaker 03

  For the average person that doesn't know where to step on the shingles. How do you do it safely?

• 40:07Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 40:08Speaker 00

  But it's like myself, you probably want to stay off the roof.

• 40:10Speaker 02

  That's right. Yeah, that's true. I, I got so used to going up on the roof for Christmas lights. Like putting up Christmas lights. We haven't put up Christmas lights now in a few years. Thank goodness. Cause it's so sketchy. It was always scary going up there. Um, but, uh, I did kind of get used to going up on the rooftop then. Uh, there, are you gonna say something Dustin?

• 40:32Speaker 03

  I was gonna joke about ladders and how that's a thing too.

• 40:38Speaker 03

  Don't necessarily have to get on the roof for that part. Anyway, that's right.

• 40:42Speaker 02

  Uh, there is a, a huge IPO that is, that is about to, uh, take place. Initial public offering. That's what an IPO is. That's when essentially that, that the simple, the simple way to describe what an IPO is, is when a company wants to go public, that means they want to offer their shares out to the investment public to buy their stock. There is that initial time period of when they are made public. It's called an IPO. Used to, it seems like IPOs have like died down.

• 41:16Speaker 03

  You don't, you know, I feel like it was a hot, um, phrase there.

• 41:21Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 41:21Speaker 03

  Hot, you know, oh, I want to buy some hot IPO.

• 41:25Speaker 02

  Right.

• 41:26Speaker 03

  You know, I think a lot of the, the tech bubble that we saw in the, you know, the early 2000s, 2000, 2001. There was a lot of small tech companies going IPO and it was a hot topic at that time.

• 41:38Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 41:38Speaker 03

  Cause it. Yeah, it's kind of died down a little bit.

• 41:40Speaker 02

  It has died down and I'm grateful because there was a period of time there where every IPO somebody was interested in. And we would have clients that say, how can? I get in on this, how can I get in on that? And there are extreme risks involved with buying an IPO. It's it's pretty complicated, you know, the whole process of how a company becomes public. But it's very regulated and you have to go through this, you know, lots of these hoops that you have to jump through. And and but for on an investment side, the average investor usually is is excluded from being able to be participate in that initial offering. Because they they have to initially offer those shares at a set price to some people right in the beginning.

• 42:23Speaker 02

  You know, usually usually have your insiders and and and the owners and maybe the key employees that get this. But then you have the investment banks that are involved in this and are sort of taking ex shouldering some of that risk. Buying essentially prepaying for that inventory of that new stock that's going to come out. And then by the time it hits the market, it's now it's it's it's in the market's hands. And that's when people will go in on it. And that's when they'll usually get in trouble. Because they'll say, you know, IPO, the the the initial offering goes out, it was supposed to come out, it was priced at $40. It hits the market and it's immediately $80.

• 43:05Speaker 02

  And people, whoa, if I I could have doubled my money if I got in, it's like, well, no, you couldn't have gotten in.

• 43:11Speaker 03

  Right.

• 43:11Speaker 02

  Even if you got in, it's like, well, hold tight, because those are usually restricted shares.

• 43:16Speaker 03

  Well, I'm holding tight. The suspense is killing me. You said a huge one's coming.

• 43:19Speaker 02

  SpaceX.

• 43:20Speaker 03

  SpaceX.

• 43:21Speaker 02

  SpaceX, this could this could be, it's supposed to be this summer sometime, of course, they're going through the process of doing it. And SpaceX is expected to raise between 50 and 75 billion dollars. Puts the company valued at 1.5 to 2 trillion dollars. So it puts it in the top five companies in valuation in the world.

• 43:41Speaker 03

  In short order or in a short timeframe, right?

• 43:43Speaker 02

  Yes. And it's, you know, it's two or three times bigger than the last IPO, which was Saudi Aramco. Which is the Saudi oil company that was the world's largest IPO. They raised 29 billion dollars when they went public and this could raise. Two to three times that. There's so much more there because of what makes up SpaceX value. Right. That, you know, maybe we can talk about. Oh, I'll have to talk about that. I love, you know, talking about, especially now with all the space stuff. Oh, yeah. That's going on. It's really interesting. Well, if you missed this show or any of our past shows, go wherever you stream your podcasts or you can find us there and download this show commercial free. Remember, be smart, be safe, and always be money wise.

• 44:21Speaker 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.