Pod Insights The Moneywise Guys 4/28/26 Risk, Reward & a Side of Local History About this episode The Moneywise Radio Show and Podcast Tuesday, April 28th 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: Mike McCoy, Executive Director for the Kern County Museum website: https://kerncountymuseum.org/ phone: 661-437-3330 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. Mike McCoy & The Kern County Museum are not affiliated with nor endorsed by LPL Financial or Moneywise Wealth Management].
Transcript 0:00 Speaker 00 Live from the basement inside the historic Woolworths Building in downtown Bakersfield. Call or text in at 661-396-1000.
0:09 Speaker 01 I need a dollar, dollar, dollar, that's what I need. Hey, hey. Well, I need a dollar, dollar, dollar, that's what I need. Hey, hey. Said I need a dollar, dollar, dollar, that's what I need. And if I share with you my story, would you share your dollar with me? 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.
0:37 Speaker 00 Now, let's start the Money Wise Show.
0:40 Speaker 02 And 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?
1:05 Speaker 03 Sammy Abiyawi.
1:06 Speaker 02 Sammy Abiyawi. Happy Tuesday.
1:08 Speaker 03 Happy Tuesday to you, too.
1:10 Speaker 02 How are things at the lunch counter?
1:12 Speaker 03 Very good. Food is excellent. Stop by.
1:15 Speaker 02 I can smell it.
1:15 Speaker 03 Yeah, I had a bowl of chili before this, just so I can keep it light.
1:21 Speaker 02 That's how you're keeping it light, huh? There's a listener, did you see the listener comment about the?
1:27 Speaker 03 Oh, yeah. Can you answer this? Is it better to keep money in savings? Is that the one?
1:33 Speaker 02 The, the second one. Oh, wait. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's it. Oh, yeah, I was thinking it. Yeah, go ahead.
1:37 Speaker 03 Can you answer this? Is it better to keep money in savings right now with higher interest rates or still invested? Sorry if that's one of those topics you can talk about. Love the show, being back on Kern Radio. Didn't feel right about, without the Money Wise Show. Have a great weekend. P.S. My grandson thinks he is some crazy mad scientist as he had the diner at Chili and Fries inside the smash burger. And he wants the burger named the Stinky Burger.
2:07 Speaker 03 That's creative.
2:08 Speaker 02 I actually like that stinky burger.
2:10 Speaker 03 That's creative.
2:11 Speaker 02 Yeah.
2:11 Speaker 03 It's got some merit.
2:12 Speaker 02 Oh, yeah. It's like a chili burger with fries in it. I love that stinky burger.
2:17 Speaker 03 Yeah.
2:18 Speaker 02 That's great, great.
2:20 Speaker 03 That's one of the things I love about the luncheonette is the creativity of the clients. I mean, it's endless. Whatever we have on the menu, whatever add-ons we have on the menu, you can make it your own. And that's what makes us special. Plus, the fact that everything is fresh, made in-house.
2:33 Speaker 02 Scratch.
2:34 Speaker 03 Nothing is frozen.
2:35 Speaker 02 Yep. Yeah, that's for sure. I mean, it's great, great quality food, which I think sometimes there's a disconnect between, you know, the, the history of the Woolworth's lunch counter, which is viewed as this, you know, cheap fast food, like the original fast food. And, and yet, there's, you know, a lot of very fond memories that people have of it. And so they want to come have a, it's like, they want to have like a different experience, but they also want the old stuff, too. It's definitely a.
3:03 Speaker 03 You can have both. You can have the old feel of the building, the historic fact, but a great, great quality food.
3:10 Speaker 02 The listener message about asking whether or not money should be kept in savings right now while interest rates are higher, or still invest it. I think this is, this is a really good question.
3:22 Speaker 03 Yes.
3:23 Speaker 02 The way that I would answer this is that it's always appropriate to invest either for the long term, midterm, or short term. You're, you always, it's always the right time to invest for those periods of time. And so I think it's easy for us to get distracted right now because interest rates are a little bit higher and you may, it may distract people from their longer term goals or their midterm goals and, and thinking that they're getting the payoff by just keeping it in the bank with whatever the cash rates are, money market or CD rates or whatever those are. And I would just caution our listeners to remember that there
4:09 Speaker 02 that one of the most important principles of investing is the relationship between risk and reward. That is, the more reward that you want with your money, but think of this, the higher return or the higher higher interest that you're going to require for your money is going to involve you taking more risk. And that you can't escape those two things. So even though right now it may appear that you are taking on, you aren't taking on more risk and you're getting a higher interest rate. That is not true. You, you are getting a higher interest rate and it's not costing you, it is not an added necessary risk for that cash rate.
4:54 Speaker 02 But what you're giving up is that opportunity cost of where that money could go elsewhere. Where you would get in the long run, you would expect a higher return. And that is why when you talk about risk free investing, you're looking at treasuries generally, you're looking at US treasuries where it's, you can't default because the United States government has the ability to tax its citizens and always pay back that bond. And so that's what banks are setting their interest rates at. They're setting it at those guaranteed rates that they're getting with their portfolio on the back end, their portfolio of investments, which is largely treasuries.
5:38 Speaker 02 And so what the bank is offering you, we don't say it's risk free, but it's essentially that risk free rate minus the bank taking their cut. Which means when you have a higher risk free rate that you get on money, on cash, like money markets or CDs, you would expect an even higher rate on those other assets because those banks, those, those companies that you would invest in are also putting their cash in treasuries. And so they're managing their risk. Free also, but they're managing their growth, which they expect to get above and beyond what the risk free rate is or that cash rate is.
6:21 Speaker 02 So like, I think people just get this false impression when we're in a little bit higher interest rate for a period of time. They're like, okay, I'm doing fine because it's in the bank. Like, well, no, you're not the bank. You're just getting barely above inflation. If that.
6:33 Speaker 03 Yes, yes. And to your point, you know,
6:38 Speaker 03 not risk free per se, when you put the cash in the bank.
6:46 Speaker 03 But you're losing that potential opportunity of earning even more. Now, to me, I would this gentleman or this person is saying grandson, I don't assume that they are in retirement age. I always look at it from an age perspective as well. What age group are you in today? And how much risk do you want to take based on the age group you're in? Are you near retirement? Are you in retirement? Are you way in your retirement where you don't want any risk? You just want the income from a secured source. So you can just maintain a certain lifestyle and take care of your grandkids for vacations or whatever. So understanding what the person is age wise. Also determine
7:31 Speaker 03 what type of risk am I going to take with this cash? Do I want to do some type of cash at the bank? A little bit of equity. What's that balance? Look like?
7:41 Speaker 02 Yes, and yeah, most people have a pretty defined financial goal in mind, and it's usually just to be able to pay the bills. And then if you're lucky, it's to be able to pay your bills and then have money left over in the case of an emergency or a major health event or something that is unexpected. That's usually it for 99% of us. That's what you're, that's what you're trying to accomplish. And so that's why for most people, as they get closer to retirement, it's much more important that they pay attention to how their investments are, are, are being made. Because they don't have the time to make up those losses.
8:22 Speaker 03 Correct.
8:22 Speaker 02 If somebody who's saved enough. Or has excess savings, well, they're not so much concerned about what their long-term bucket's going to do. They can invest much more aggressively in that longer term because they've got their midterm and their short-term needs already taken care of. This is like sort of that, there's a rich mentality. There's a mentality that rich people have where they are able to not focus on some of these short-term distractions and they're able to go into the markets. They're able to put a lot of money directly into the markets because they already have their house settlement. They've got their,
9:02 Speaker 02 you know, their housing taken care of. They're not drowning in debt. They have a good stream of income coming or a consistent stream of income coming in. And so they don't, they don't, you know, they're not concerned about some of the short-term fluctuations. They can see these buckets of money very clearly, whereas most people are like, I've got one bucket. I've got this one bucket and it's got to last me the next 30 years.
9:26 Speaker 03 And we talked a little bit about it yesterday with Steve and Frank, Stephen and Frank. I mean, that bucket is shrinking right now, shared for the majority of the American people because of the high cost of living, including gas. I mean, that bucket, that savings bucket, we always, you know, push and preach 50, 30, 20. Well, I don't know if you've been into the grocery store lately, but it's, I mean, tomatoes at $2.79.
9:57 Speaker 02 Yeah.
9:58 Speaker 03 I mean, it's, it's, it's real.
10:00 Speaker 02 Right. And then your gas, you know, for your car and all of these things. And coming back to our listener question, I think this is why, this is the danger of just having, if your long-term money is just sitting in the bank, you may be just barely keeping up with inflation, even though it looks like it's, you know, you're getting, let's say it's 4% or 3% in that cash. Well, okay, you see your money growing, but the, the purchasing power of that dollar is diminishing. And so you have to take on, you have to take on a little bit more risk if you want to go and exceed the Impacts of inflation. You have to be able to take that risk and it needs to be calculated. And obviously, we recommend you working with an investment advisor.
10:44 Speaker 02 It can be fee based so that they're not just trying to sell you something. And make sure that you are allocating your wealth or your investments in a way that's going to give you the highest probability of success down the road.
10:59 Speaker 03 Yeah.
10:59 Speaker 02 Good question.
11:00 Speaker 03 Very good question.
11:01 Speaker 02 It's good that that last question there too, before we take a break.
11:05 Speaker 03 What else should we be doing now to feel more secure later? Especially for some of us that will be relying on social security.
11:14 Speaker 02 Gosh, yeah, this is a similar discussion that we're just having about managing your assets in a way that gives you that as much sense of security as possible. It's a difficult position to be in if you are like the majority of Americans that rely heavily on their social security benefits or retirement benefits. Then you have to sort of do some extra work to provide that assurance that you need, that financial assurance that you may need. And social security is just going to be a baseline. It's, you know, it can't be something that is expected to cover all of your, all of your expenses.
11:55 Speaker 02 For most people, it's around 30 or 40% of your income. Your social security income is going to, is expected to cover 30 or 40% of your, of your expenses in retirement. And so that means you only have a few other options that you can, especially if you're getting close to retirement.
12:13 Speaker 03 Correct.
12:13 Speaker 02 The biggest one that I would recommend for people is don't, don't think of retirement in maybe the, the, the traditional or.
12:26 Speaker 02 Make believe way of where you just get to a certain time. You get to age 65, you have your retirement party and then you're just you're spending the whole rest of the time on the golf course or at the beach drinking Mai Tais. Like that is not how most people retire. And in fact, it's usually not a very healthy way for people to retire is completely disengaging from being involved in meaningful activities. So most people, what I would recommend they do it instead of saying, well, you can't retire. You're just going to have to work for the rest of your life. No, don't think about it that way. Think about maybe you're not doing what you're currently doing with this job. Cause that can also, you can pay a price being stuck in a job you hate.
13:08 Speaker 02 Or that is causing stress or is not meaningful to you. That's also not a good position to be in because now your life expectancy is going to drop. And what's the point of saving if you're going to die soon after anyways? So you need to address that, but think of retirement more as an evolution is the next phase in your, in your life where maybe you're doing things, you're, you're earning money in different ways. So to help supplement your social security. There's so many, now that we're in the gig economy, you can actually be involved in some of those things, even in your retirement years, whether it's with, you know, ride sharing programs or, or, or hobbies or, or things that you can have it, that can provide a side gig revenue, income for you.
13:53 Speaker 03 Yeah, or sometimes a lot of people go on a part-time, you know, especially if you're retiring, we had a question yesterday from an Oriole person. That experience is very, very valuable. So you can utilize it either on a consulting basis or a part-time job. But I agree with you, if you do disconnect, I've seen it with my own mom and dad, especially my mom. My dad kept being involved and doing construction and projects and he's very sharp. My mom like declined substantially and very, very fast because she just disconnect, she was a teacher for almost 40 years.
14:28 Speaker 02 Right.
14:29 Speaker 03 All of a sudden the noise of the classroom and all the interaction with other teachers, parents just. Gone and stayed home and then I could see it.
14:39 Speaker 02 Yeah.
14:39 Speaker 03 She was even younger than my dad.
14:40 Speaker 02 Right. Yeah. And it's, I don't know if this is the case with your mom, but oftentimes you just, your identity, your self-identity is, is put into that job and then, and even if you don't like it, it's still, that's what you're doing. And then when that stops, it's a crisis. It's an emotional crisis oftentimes and we can easily just sort of retreat. And so, you know, staying busy and keep yourself occupied during retirement. Why not just make a few bucks while you're at it? You know, even that means maybe you're babysitting or you're, you know, but finding your passion projects that can generate a little bit of income. It doesn't have to be a lot and that's the nice thing about that.
15:17 Speaker 03 Correct.
15:18 Speaker 02 You're trying to supplement your income.
15:19 Speaker 03 And it keeps you engaged.
15:20 Speaker 02 Yeah, keeps you engaged. That's the biggest thing. Keeps you involved in something that's meaningful, that's something outside of yourself. And that's where I think the most, the most benefit that people can get to protect themselves from an uncertain future. There's only so much we can do and I sympathize with our listener who's, you know, concerned about the, you know, the long-term security. Good luck with that and thanks for sending in that comment and that question. Keep them coming our way, 661-396-1000. That's the number that you can call or text anytime. We'll be happy to answer your questions. We're going to take our first break and we come back really excited to be joined by our guest, Mike McCoy. He is the Executive Director for the Kern County Museum.
16:01 Speaker 02 We're going to talk to him about a potential upcoming Honky Tonk Event Center and much more. We're Money Wise. Don't go anywhere.
16:12 Speaker 02 Thanks for tuning in. We're Money Wise. I'm Sharon here with Sammy. We're your hosts today. We're joined right now by our guest, longtime friend, Mike McCoy, Executive Director for the Kern County Museum. Mike, welcome back to the show. You've been on the show.
16:24 Speaker 04 Yeah, I have, but not in the basement of Woolworths. Oh my goodness.
16:29 Speaker 02 Well, welcome to the basement. It's been really fun. We really love it down here.
16:34 Speaker 04 Beautiful.
16:35 Speaker 02 Speaking of beautiful, Kern County Museum, what a treasure, what a gem that we have here in town. This has been around, it was built, finished in 1945, the museum was.
16:48 Speaker 04 Yeah, it's 80 years.
16:50 Speaker 02 80 years.
16:51 Speaker 04 Yeah.
16:52 Speaker 02 And you've been the director for how long?
16:54 Speaker 04 Well, I was there 80 years. No, that's what my board thinks. No, I was gonna be temporary till they found somebody younger and taller, and that was nine years ago. I still haven't gotten my parole papers, but I love it.
17:08 Speaker 02 You must love it.
17:09 Speaker 04 I love going to work. I don't have to wear a tie. I have a golf cart. And I got 70 old buildings to play with.
17:16 Speaker 02 Unbelievable.
17:17 Speaker 04 It's fun.
17:18 Speaker 02 Yeah, it's fun to just go. I love it. Every time I'm at the museum, it seems like there's a, especially the last five or 10 years, all kinds of really cool things happening, like the Neon Center, the Neon Park, Neon Garden.
17:34 Speaker 04 Yeah, 60 projects in my nine years.
17:38 Speaker 02 Whoa.
17:39 Speaker 04 You know, some of them are significant. The transportation was a million dollars. So these aren't just little, you know, painted projects, paint, scrape and paint. We've done some major new exhibits. So we're really, we have a lot of good energy out there.
17:54 Speaker 02 Yeah. What do you attribute that to?
17:57 Speaker 04 Um, I think it was kind of a sleeping giant. And it's kind of like how many times that I walked by Woolworths and not look at it.
18:05 Speaker 02 Yeah.
18:05 Speaker 04 And now it's a crown jewel at downtown. And I think that place, 16 acres, 800 trees, 70 buildings, and nobody knew it was there.
18:14 Speaker 02 Yeah.
18:14 Speaker 04 And then we started just getting some community investment, some interest.
18:20 Speaker 04 And I've got forty, fifty thousand kids a year on school trips, a hundred thousand visitors off the street from, you know, forty, fifty foreign countries. So it's just a really cool space, but I think people know about it now.
18:35 Speaker 02 Yeah, yeah, it seems that, and there's so many events, wonderful events that are there. Like some of the signature events I'm guessing would be.
18:47 Speaker 04 We're the largest wedding venue in the county. I was about to say. At least one wedding a week. Everybody's been to a wedding out there. And now I'm the prom king, finally, for all these years.
18:58 Speaker 02 Nice.
18:58 Speaker 04 I got, I got BHS Saturday night, but we have all the proms, the formals for the twenty-two high schools in town. Family, I mean, high school reunions.
19:11 Speaker 02 Yes.
19:11 Speaker 04 I had my high school reunion out there a couple of years ago, and it's a great space for that.
19:17 Speaker 02 Yes, yeah. One, one thing, though, that is, I think, has been a challenge, at least I'm going off of the article in The Californian about the new potential Honky Tonk.
19:29 Speaker 04 Yeah.
19:29 Speaker 02 Event center there is, is a big space for air-conditioned indoor event space.
19:34 Speaker 04 I really don't have a large air-conditioned indoor space. So most of my stuff's outside. I do have four indoor venues, but they only, the assembly's only like fifty people. So if I do this, Sam's Place Honky Tonk, I could put a couple hundred people in a building with air conditioning.
19:55 Speaker 02 Yeah.
19:55 Speaker 04 And a really cool bar. I've got the penny bar from McKittrick.
20:00 Speaker 02 I've seen it.
20:01 Speaker 04 Oh, that's nice.
20:02 Speaker 02 Is it not on, is it not on display now?
20:04 Speaker 04 No, no, in fact, my maintenance guys, we have over ten thousand pennies, because I pulled all the walls out. So when they're cleaning up the end day, there's always a couple of pennies laying on the floor.
20:15 Speaker 02 Yeah.
20:16 Speaker 04 That's amazing. Got over a million pennies, ten thousand dollars worth. So, because we got all the walls out, the bar, so we're going to reassemble that inside the Honky Tonk.
20:26 Speaker 02 Oh, that's great. Yeah, it's such, I've seen that bar. Super cool. According to Wikipedia, that the museum holds over a million artifacts.
20:35 Speaker 04 At least. I think most of them are in my office some most days.
20:41 Speaker 04 I finally got it cleaned out the other day, but yeah, we have, we have over 450,000 photographs.
20:48 Speaker 02 Oh, my gosh.
20:49 Speaker 04 And we're working on digitizing those. So, um, yeah, we have a warehouse the size of a large supermarket, floor to ceiling that nobody gets to go in. But I can take you guys in there sometimes if you want to come by.
21:04 Speaker 02 I'd love to see it.
21:05 Speaker 04 It's Granny's, Granny's attic, but it is floor to ceiling with antiques.
21:10 Speaker 02 I'd love to see it. And I've got, I've got a few more questions for you. We're going to take a quick break right now. We come back, I want to ask you a few more things about the museum, what's going on there at the Kern County Museum. Again, we're joined by Mike McCoy. He's the executive, executive director for the Kern County Museum. We're your hosts today. That's Sammy Abbey Alley. I am Sharad Waite. We're going to take a quick break right now. We come back, we're going to talk to Mike a little bit more. Of course, send us your comments or questions. 661-396-1000 is the number you can call or text. 661-396-1000. We'll be right back.
21:56 Speaker 02 Thanks for tuning into Money Wise. I'm Sharad here with Sammy.
22:00 Speaker 02 We're fortunate to be joined right now by Mike McCoy, executive director for the Kern County Museum, but also just there, just a citizen of Bakersfield.
22:10 Speaker 03 Just a fun dude to be around.
22:11 Speaker 02 Yeah. You from here, Mike?
22:12 Speaker 04 I'm from a little resort city north here called Oildale.
22:16 Speaker 02 I've heard of Oildale.
22:18 Speaker 04 It's really cool.
22:18 Speaker 03 Very resorty, very resorty.
22:20 Speaker 04 I, I go back and get my hair cut there every Friday. So I, I, that, you know.
22:24 Speaker 02 Back to your roots in Oildale?
22:26 Speaker 04 From Texas. I was born in Texas.
22:28 Speaker 02 Uh huh. Raised here.
22:29 Speaker 04 Yeah. Yep.
22:30 Speaker 02 Uh, and, oh, you work in Oildale?
22:32 Speaker 04 Yeah.
22:33 Speaker 02 And yes, the museum's considered Oildale, right?
22:36 Speaker 04 My childhood home's less than a mile from where I work. So.
22:39 Speaker 02 Oh, wow.
22:40 Speaker 03 I get, I get donuts from across the street from you.
22:42 Speaker 04 It's good.
22:42 Speaker 03 Foster donuts.
22:43 Speaker 04 He's a nice guy.
22:43 Speaker 03 Yes, he is.
22:44 Speaker 00 The time I go out there, I stop at Carla's. Oh, boy.
22:48 Speaker 02 So Mike, the museum, it recently had, I guess now it's been a few years, but the, this is a project I think you were also involved in was bringing Merle Haggard's
23:00 Speaker 04 Childhood home.
23:01 Speaker 02 Childhood home there to the museum.
23:03 Speaker 04 Yeah, it was a little box car converted home. It was over in river, on the riverside of Oildale, Beardsley, that area. I think it was on Sequoia Street. And they picked it up, moved it, and then restored it. That was Cynthia Lake was the brains and money behind that. She's the lady that just did the Nile Theater. Great, great benefactor to our city.
23:25 Speaker 02 Yes.
23:26 Speaker 04 And our big push this week's our neon signs. Cause we're having a celebration Friday night.
23:32 Speaker 02 Yeah. So the celebrations get lit. It's on May 1st.
23:35 Speaker 04 Yep.
23:36 Speaker 02 This is not a cannabis convention though.
23:40 Speaker 04 No, no. In fact, that's funny. Cause the guy, the board member that thought of the name is also a minister. Barry Zoller, he's been on TV here. Barry's best looking man in Kern County, no offense.
23:53 Speaker 02 Yeah.
23:54 Speaker 04 But anyway, that was his idea. So we teased him. Cause he is really a man of God.
24:00 Speaker 02 Straight lace.
24:01 Speaker 04 And he's the guy that came up with the get lit moniker.
24:03 Speaker 02 Sounds like it.
24:04 Speaker 04 We have 40 vintage signs, all from Kern County. And five years ago, we had eight. So we've really got, and we added, we added two new ones. One from up the street, Globblone, Magnus Family, that's up, it's lit. And then Electro Power, it was a sign that was over in East Bakersfield. And so that sign's up. So we got two new signs. And we got five more in the workshop that we're working on.
24:34 Speaker 02 Is one of those the trout sign?
24:35 Speaker 04 The trout sign's done. It's gorgeous. It's lit. It's over by our Bakersfield.
24:40 Speaker 02 Oh, nice. It's up then.
24:41 Speaker 04 Roosters, Honky Tonk paid for that. Shout out to Roosters.
24:45 Speaker 02 Yeah.
24:46 Speaker 04 And David Brest and Russell Johnson. They just gave me some big money, got that done. It's up. It's beautiful.
24:53 Speaker 02 Oh, wow. And that was quite a story too. You had, you basically took the Hang up there.
24:59 Speaker 04 I took a henchman, two handguns and 10,000 in cash and a duffel bag and we came home the next day with the sign. Same day. So that was a story. Yeah.
25:09 Speaker 02 Yeah, the trout sign, which was, you know, had disappeared and it was, you know, a mystery for a few years. And then there was all kinds of rumors that were popping up about where it went.
25:19 Speaker 04 I made two trips up looking for it. We knew it was in Tuolumne County. And I used to have a farm there. I was school superintendent there.
25:26 Speaker 02 No kidding.
25:26 Speaker 04 So I knew that. So right where we found the sign was three miles from my farm that I had.
25:31 Speaker 02 Oh, wow.
25:32 Speaker 04 And they said it was in standoff Algier, Algierine Road. I knew exactly where the sign was.
25:37 Speaker 02 Oh, you were the right.
25:38 Speaker 04 There's only three houses.
25:39 Speaker 02 You're the right man for that job.
25:40 Speaker 04 I was. Isn't that funny?
25:42 Speaker 02 Yeah.
25:42 Speaker 04 It really is.
25:43 Speaker 02 Yeah, how that's come around.
25:44 Speaker 04 It's the middle of nowhere. And I knew, I knew the middle of nowhere.
25:47 Speaker 02 You were the superintendent, you were, so you were in school?
25:49 Speaker 04 Yeah. Yeah, I was a school super for 10 years. I had 40 years in education. Loved every minute of it. They finally carried me kicking and screaming out of the superintendent's office, but it was, I loved it. I liked working with kids.
26:03 Speaker 02 Oh, well, as a superintendent, you're kind of working with parents and adults a lot, aren't you?
26:08 Speaker 04 And I did, when I got older, I felt like I was a parent all over again, but this time to teachers and, and community members. But did a lot of good work in that, very fulfilling. I built a lot of buildings. So then they put me out at the museum and started all over again. Now we, I had 60 old buildings I fixed up, so.
26:28 Speaker 02 60?
26:28 Speaker 04 Yeah, it's been fun. Yeah.
26:30 Speaker 02 Holy smokes.
26:31 Speaker 04 If I couldn't fix something, I, I painted it, so.
26:33 Speaker 03 You've got to be passionate to do this, man.
26:35 Speaker 02 Oh, yeah.
26:36 Speaker 04 Well, it's fun.
26:38 Speaker 02 Yeah, you, you clearly enjoy it. You're, you also serve on the historic, the city's historic commission.
26:43 Speaker 04 I do. I'm a commissioner for historic preservation, or as I call it, hysterical preservation. And that is a great group. Shout out to Stephen Montgomery, a community treasurer. Great, great architectural historian and Steven's one of my favorite humans.
27:02 Speaker 02 Yes, yeah, he is incredible. We consulted with Steven when we bought this building. And he educated us right away on what the, what the design is, what the history is, what the, what the history of the design is. Incredible resource.
27:17 Speaker 04 Steven and I are the only two guys in Kern County that thinks we should not tear down the old train depot.
27:23 Speaker 02 Oh, you're not the only ones.
27:25 Speaker 04 God, I feel like that sometimes, you know, I, I do have the wonderful Andre Gonzalez and Mayor Go and Manpreet Kaur. There are some community folks on council and board of supervisors that understand that. But, and there's a lot of people just saying, knock it down and put a parking lot in.
27:45 Speaker 02 Ah, that's, hopefully that doesn't happen. Where does it stand? Do you know where it stands right now?
27:50 Speaker 04 The city's working on trying to do something. They have a lease through June. Um, but I think after that, you know, I don't know. Um, I like our city council, even the people that aren't for the preservation of the depot. They've got their reasons and they're very intelligent people. But I'm a preservationist.
28:10 Speaker 02 Why? Why, why, why preserve?
28:13 Speaker 04 Uh, well, one of my, you know, I have all these memories, but I remember getting on a train every summer to go visit my grandmother in Texas at the Santa Fe Station. Beautiful old Spanish station behind Bakersfield High. And if you drive there today, it's a parking lot. They tore that beautiful Santa Fe Station down. Had a Harvey's Restaurant in there. And they, it is a parking lot behind the hospital now. And that, that's awful.
28:42 Speaker 02 Yeah.
28:42 Speaker 04 So you only get one shot at this stuff and you need to preserve.
28:47 Speaker 02 Yeah, it's, I, I mean, I've come to appreciate it a lot with the Woolworths building and understanding the, just talking to so many people that came here and came here when they were a child or their grandparents brought them here to this building. And the memories that it brings up and the connection that it brings up to Bakersfield and brings up to downtown. It's just, you can't escape it, right Sam? You see this every day.
29:09 Speaker 03 No, I, I, I meet people upstairs now that I'm spending a little bit more time at the luncheonette. I had a couple from Chicago and the gentleman that was visiting from Chicago worked at Woolworths since the age of 15th. And he grew to become a manager and eventually a guy that was opening Woolworths stores.
29:25 Speaker 02 Yeah, yeah.
29:26 Speaker 03 And up until they, they closed and he moved to Foot Locker.
29:30 Speaker 02 Yeah.
29:31 Speaker 03 Corporation. And he came in for work in Bakersfield and parking guard. They were talking and he said, I used to work at the Woolworths. And I'm like, oh yeah, they just reopened one here in Bakersfield. I gotta come and see this.
29:44 Speaker 02 Yeah, yeah.
29:44 Speaker 03 And I see the gentleman sitting in the dining room and he's wa- watching me going back and forth. And finally he stopped by. He's like, is everything okay? Is the food okay? I was like, oh yeah, this just brings so many memories and I just wanted to talk to one of the owners.
29:57 Speaker 02 Yeah.
29:57 Speaker 03 And I sat with him, took a couple of pictures. That's, and we have multiple of these stories. Once a week where you get something like this.
30:04 Speaker 02 Yeah.
30:04 Speaker 03 And it's amazing.
30:05 Speaker 04 The one I like, my mom was around the corner, didn't feel well, stomach upset, came down here in 1954. Got a milkshake and a cheese sandwich, went back to work, the phone rang at her desk at the Hall of Records. Found out she was pregnant with me.
30:21 Speaker 04 But she came to Woolworths and had a little something to eat because she had morning sickness. Soldered her stomach, went back, the phone rang on her desk and it was the doctor saying, you're pregnant. And she turned to Barbara Fields that was sitting there and said, Barbara, I'm pregnant. That was in 1954. Barbara's still alive and she and I are still friends.
30:38 Speaker 02 Oh my gosh.
30:39 Speaker 04 She lives in Rosewood now. She's in her 90s, but that is history and that's, that's a Woolworths story.
30:45 Speaker 03 Yep.
30:45 Speaker 02 Yeah. My parents also came to Woolworths when my mom was pregnant with me and they would do their shopping. And they would eat at the lunch counter. And so I like to say that I've got a little bit of that.
30:57 Speaker 04 Oh yeah.
30:57 Speaker 02 Woolworth DNA in me, you know, at least if the cheeseburger.
31:00 Speaker 03 We had this 90 year old lady who just moved to Bakersfield to stay with her son, but she came from Louisiana. And she was one of those first African Americans that had to sit.
31:12 Speaker 04 At the counter.
31:13 Speaker 03 At the counter. She she told us stories about how she used to go through the back door. Back, back in the day, and now she's coming through the front door and all that. And she, I took some pictures, had to talk to her. We have a couple of our employees that are African American. I went back there, got them to talk to her. This is just amazing stuff.
31:31 Speaker 02 Yeah, yeah, but it's, you know, it comes back to why we, why we need to preserve the buildings and the spaces that we've had here, especially having experienced the, the city experiencing the earthquake in nineteen fifty-two, which like devastated and we lost so many of our buildings. Uh, and so, and, and those buildings weren't just like eye candy. They were memories of people. They were, they were, they were representations of experiences that people had here in the city. And architecture and architecture design shapes culture and shapes society because it, it, it changes the way that we move through space in, in our town. So you just, you have to preserve it. I'm so glad that there's people like you out there doing that.
32:17 Speaker 04 Well, I, you know, I have epic fights with people and I won't tell you who they are because I like them, that do not believe that historic buildings have any value. I mean, they just don't, they think it's stupid. I remember, because I'm trying to preserve a Buddhist church right now, nineteen twelve. And I said, it tells the story of the Japanese in Kern County. And this guy was talking to us, said, no, it doesn't. You know, and it's like, okay, that's just a different mindset.
32:43 Speaker 02 Yeah, yeah.
32:45 Speaker 04 And, uh, but it does. And so that's just, Steve Montgomery and I sometimes feel like, you know, we're, uh, you know, prophets crying in the wilderness, you know?
32:54 Speaker 02 Yes.
32:55 Speaker 04 John the Baptist, because it's just, a lot of people don't see the value and.
33:00 Speaker 03 There's, there's, there's value. Um.
33:02 Speaker 04 Thank you, Sammy.
33:03 Speaker 03 You asked me where I'm from. I'm, I'm, I'm from Morocco. There, you go to Faz and there are buildings that are fourteen hundred year old.
33:10 Speaker 04 At least, yeah.
33:12 Speaker 03 You, you, you eat in it. You, you sit down, you take pictures in fourteen.
33:17 Speaker 02 Hundreds.
33:18 Speaker 04 I know.
33:18 Speaker 02 This it's it's and for us not to have something like that here in Kern County is is should be mind bong.
33:25 Speaker 04 I got my hair cut in Qatar in a barber shop that was 16th century barber shop.
33:31 Speaker 02 Wow.
33:31 Speaker 04 Egyptian barber shop.
33:33 Speaker 02 Yeah.
33:33 Speaker 04 1500 they've been cut here in that building, you know?
33:36 Speaker 02 Yeah, super cool. A couple of listener questions here while you while we have you, Mike. It says, we had our wedding out at the museum. Do they have the trout sign out there?
33:45 Speaker 04 Yeah.
33:45 Speaker 02 If you missed it, yeah, we did. Mike Mike was part of that recovery group, that reconnaissance group, and it's lit up out there at the at the museum, kind of along the same lines. Another listener says, I've never been out to the sign garden. I really want to see the older signs lit up. Is there a certain time of the year where we can go out and see it?
34:05 Speaker 04 I tell them to call me. I'll make an arrangement because I love showing off that collection. Thanks to the Beatty family, B A T E Y, they gave me a big check. So now I flip one switch and 45 signs come on.
34:19 Speaker 02 Oh, cool.
34:19 Speaker 04 The old days, you had to turn them on individually.
34:22 Speaker 02 Yeah.
34:22 Speaker 04 But they gave me a a big chunk of money. So I redid that entire, all the electrical, poured another patio. So we're now up to 40 signs. We just added two this last week.
34:34 Speaker 02 Super cool. I mean, I think some way that some ways that people can go see it is if they want to go participate and and support the museum, go to the Get Lit.
34:42 Speaker 04 Friday night, 6:30 margaritas, beer, soft drinks, tacos, and it's the weather. We we always plan nice weather.
34:51 Speaker 02 Mm hmm. Yeah.
34:53 Speaker 04 Yeah, but it's outdoors and everything will be lit and shout out to CNN Signs, Jared Webb. They've been working over there two weeks to make sure everything actually lights up.
35:03 Speaker 02 Very cool.
35:04 Speaker 04 Some of these signs are 75 years old, so.
35:07 Speaker 02 And this is this isn't even just really to support the museum.
35:10 Speaker 04 Yeah, support the museum. And we only have like four events a year we sponsor, but we have two, three events a week, Bakersfield Marathon, you know, Village Fest in the fall. So this is our one of our signature events.
35:25 Speaker 02 Yeah, we'll keep up the good work there. Mike, thank you so much for coming on the show. If anybody wants to find out more information about the museum, if you just Google the Kern County Museum, you can learn more about about it there. Get Lit activity coming up this Friday, May 1st. Support the museum. It's a wonderful thing. We're Money Wise. We're going to take a quick break and we'll be right back.
35:53 Speaker 02 Thanks for tuning into Money Wise. That's Sammy and I'm Sharad. We're your hosts today. Thanks to Mike McCoy from the Kern County Museum. So many cool things going on out there. Every time I'm out there, I realize how much I love it. Not just the Neon Plaza, but I'm losing.
36:06 Speaker 03 The trout sign is the one that gets me every time because at one time when I was a lender in way, way past life, I almost lent money on that on that bar.
36:14 Speaker 02 On the trout's bar.
36:15 Speaker 03 I did a site inspection, I remember, and I went there about 10 a.m. with my white shirt. I was a young banker. Red.
36:22 Speaker 02 Yeah.
36:23 Speaker 03 Trump tie at that time.
36:24 Speaker 02 Yeah. Power tie.
36:26 Speaker 03 Yeah, power tie. I walked in and they thought I was a cop. And everybody sitting at the bar at 10 a.m. looked back and I remember that look vividly. It was not a good look. It was like, get out of here. We don't want you here, cop.
36:40 Speaker 02 Probably thought you were ABC or something.
36:42 Speaker 03 Ah, yeah, yeah.
36:43 Speaker 02 Oh geez. Yeah, it's it's it's a lot, lot, lot of great things out there. The Lori Brock Museum also, we didn't even talk to Mike about that. But I mean, it's such a such a landmark.
36:54 Speaker 03 Good space. Yeah.
36:55 Speaker 00 I like the old, the gas deals that they have, the old school ones. I got to go out to the Get Lit event last year. Greatest time. And I went way back seeing the old signs that I grew up seeing and driving by. It's really a treat.
37:10 Speaker 03 They do a good job. The event itself is a good is a good event too. So if you have a chance to to go or buy tickets and support, support it, do do that.
37:19 Speaker 02 Lot going on in the markets today. Today is actually the first day of a two-day meeting that the Federal Reserve is having to discuss and release their information on where interest rates are going to go. There's not a lot of expectation for interest rates to change. They're likely going to keep them up at their elevated level that they're at right now because we've got a few things working against us. One is the war happening in Iran and the standoff in the Strait of Hormuz. That's certainly impacting that as well as the Fed's mandate to keep prices down low. They're struggling with not just
38:01 Speaker 02 the oil and gas prices, but just prices in general not coming down. And that doesn't give the Fed any reason to lower rates. In fact, their concern now is that rates might go up, not necessarily from this meeting, but investors would like to see money get cheaper. And then today, we're seeing a major market sort of pull back or at least take a pause off of some of the rhetoric that's coming out of Iran. There was also news today about the United Arab Emirates dropping out of OPEC. Did you hear about this, Sammy?
38:33 Speaker 03 No, I did not.
38:34 Speaker 02 I think it was just announced this morning. And you know, this is, it just continues to, the global oil markets are just being completely reshuffled.
38:44 Speaker 03 Yes.
38:44 Speaker 02 And read, read, readjusted.
38:47 Speaker 03 Yes. That's big news if Emirates or UAE pulls out of OPEC.
38:53 Speaker 02 Yeah, because they're big, big players, obviously.
38:56 Speaker 03 Yeah. I mean, what makes OPEC work, work is the fact that there are multiple countries involved. So if now Venezuela is out because US is in control of the oil there, UAE gets out, that just leaves you with a couple more countries.
39:11 Speaker 02 Right. There's, I had to look up the list of countries because I was, you always lose track. There's 12 countries if you count the United Arab Emirates. And you know, the big ones being Venezuela, Iran, Iraq.
39:25 Speaker 02 Algeria, your old neighbors over there, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia. These are, you know, these are big players. Obviously, the total combined, the OPEC controls roughly half of the global oil supply. But with its loss of the United Arab Emirates, and of course, the United States not being a part of that, and the United States being the global leader in oil and gas production, then the, you know, OPEC continues to lose its influence. And there's also the issue with Iran causing the disruptions with its
40:10 Speaker 02 other members within OPEC. You know, they're lobbing missiles over to Saudi Arabia. It's like, you're just, you're messing with, you're messing with your neighbors.
40:21 Speaker 03 It's a mess. There's a friend of ours just came back from Jordan, and some of the news there, it's like the damage done to economies in the Middle East, US bases and assets are a lot, little bit more than what we see here in our media.
40:41 Speaker 02 Right.
40:42 Speaker 03 Being reported, which just is, this is a bigger problem than what we are seeing, it seems like. So the result or resolving it might take a little bit more time. So these high prices of gas at the pump here for us as Americans, I don't think it's just gonna disappear within the next month or so.
41:02 Speaker 02 No, no.
41:03 Speaker 03 This is here to stay for a period of time.
41:06 Speaker 02 Yeah.
41:06 Speaker 03 Because this is a mess, really.
41:09 Speaker 02 Yeah, it's hard for, I think, Americans to wrap their head around the global markets. We're so used to being able to control our own destiny as Americans and being able to manufacture, even though we do manufacture our own, so much of our own stuff, including oil and gas, it doesn't, we're not immune to the global markets.
41:30 Speaker 03 No.
41:30 Speaker 02 And especially for oil and gas.
41:32 Speaker 03 Yeah.
41:32 Speaker 02 And especially for California.
41:34 Speaker 03 Correct.
41:35 Speaker 02 Where we aren't able to produce enough for our our own needs.
41:38 Speaker 03 Definitely. The good news about about this and and about California itself in Kern County is that there are some oil, hopefully it's coming back, maybe not to the same level that it was 10 years ago, 15 years ago, but the number of drilling rigs is up, the number of permits approved is up. You know, so it's great news for us. Yes, Berry left the state, but it got absorbed by CRC. And CRC now is the largest producer and and from from just not a permit, but also just production itself in the state of California. And they see that as as as an asset because they also see the opportunity with potentially Chevron
42:19 Speaker 03 closing a lot of their offices and laying off people and moving a lot of their activity out of the state. So they see an opportunity in remaining California with the closure of these two.
42:31 Speaker 02 Refineries.
42:33 Speaker 03 So hopefully that's that's changing to the better for us as Californians.
42:38 Speaker 02 Yeah, and hopefully we haven't done too much damage already because those things take forever to fix, even just, you know, increasing our number of oil rigs and drilling rigs out there. And that's just part of it. Like, these things take years and years to, these projects take years to to to to get off the ground and then the incredibly expensive.
42:59 Speaker 03 Very capital heavy, yes.
43:01 Speaker 02 So capital heavy that like the companies need to have some assurance that there's going to be some stability in the markets and especially in California where they've just been burned for so long.
43:09 Speaker 03 Yes.
43:10 Speaker 02 It's, you know, it's it's going to be interesting. It's a busy week again on on Wall Street. There are a lot of the tech companies, the magnificent seven are are reporting their earnings.
43:20 Speaker 03 Tomorrow?
43:21 Speaker 02 Tomorrow and throughout the week. And and so, you know, markets could continue to be a little volatile here, even though we're we're approaching near all time highs in the markets. Doesn't mean that we won't have some volatility here soon, especially with earnings season and some of the continued global drama that's going on. Well, I want to thank our listeners, all of those who may have missed today's show. If you'd like to listen to this or any of our past programs, go subscribe to the Money Wise Podcast. It's commercial free on all major podcast platforms like iTunes, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. And of course, remember these three things: be smart, be safe, and always be money wise.
44:02 Speaker 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.
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