4/8/26 Moneywise Returns: Avoiding Debt Traps & The Story of Kern Oil with Rickey Bird

The Moneywise Radio Show and Podcast Wednesday, April 8th 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: Rickey Bird Jr., Director, Actor, Writer & Producer websites: https://rickeybird.com/ https://kernoilmovie.com/ instagram 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. Rickey Bird and his business are not affiliated with nor endorsed by LPL Financial or Moneywise Wealth Management].

• 0:00Speaker 00

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

• 0:09Speaker 01

  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?

• 0:29Speaker 02

  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.

• 0:37Speaker 00

  Now, let's start the Money Wise Show.

• 0:41Speaker 03

  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. That's 661-396-1000. We are your hosts. I'm Sharad Waite and... Seth Perry, glad to be here. Yeah, great having you, Seth. This is a big day for us. Big time. Welcome to, all of us, to the new station. Uh, this is, this is, we're really kinda coming back home. We're not kinda coming back home. We're, we're, we're back on KERN.

• 1:24Speaker 03

  We have been, for those who maybe are not familiar with the Money Wise program, we've been on the air now for over 23 years. We have a, uh, a local, uh, wealth management firm that is located right downtown and right here in Bakersfield. And, uh, and we do this show for multiple reasons, but the primary reason for us doing this show is to communicate with our community on how to be wise with your money and how to understand and weed through the chatter that is out there with, when it comes to economic and financial principles.

• 2:10Speaker 03

  It's super important for us at Money Wise to take a like a very high level view of investments and financial planning and money management and economic principles and let those be our guide. We are not guided by headlines. We're not guided by politics. We're not guided by, you know, things that sort of come and go. We really try to take an apolitical view because whether you like it or not, that $20 bill in your pocket doesn't know if you are on the

• 2:54Speaker 03

  right side or the left side. A dollar is fungible and it's going to do what it's going to do. Or another soft way of saying that is business is business. It doesn't really care who you are. Not saying that morals and values don't matter. They certainly matter. But when it comes to money and it comes to how you manage your money and your investments, it's so important to take emotions out of it and to take an academic approach to these things. So that is our goal with this, which is why we always invite all of our listeners to call into the show. Send us a text. We have our own dedicated number, 661-396-1000. That means it can be

• 3:35Speaker 03

  24/7. You don't have to do it while we're live on the air. It's also important to know this. All of our shows are broadcast in podcast format as well. So if you miss this or any of our previous shows, you can find us on Spotify or Apple, wherever you listen to your podcasts. If you look up Money Wise Guys, you'll find our show there and you can go back 10 years plus. I think we have how many? Over 1,000 shows? Over 2,000. Over 2,000 shows already just on our Spotify or on our podcast streaming.

• 4:09Speaker 03

  But we've done over 4,000 shows since the beginning. Lots of-

• 4:13Speaker 00

  Wasn't the show, didn't it used to be two hours?

• 4:15Speaker 03

  Oh, it used to be three hours.

• 4:16Speaker 00

  Three hours?

• 4:16Speaker 03

  Three hours for a while.

• 4:17Speaker 00

  We've kind of tested it a little bit of everything. We started in the evenings, we did lunch hours, we've done multiple hours.

• 4:23Speaker 03

  Yep, and we've done, we were nationally syndicated for a while. And that voice you hear is Stephen Nicholas.

• 4:32Speaker 03

  He is our, our town's greatest producer, by far.

• 4:36Speaker 00

  By far.

• 4:37Speaker 03

  Hands down. I'm sorry for any other producers listening out there.

• 4:40Speaker 00

  A little biased, but yeah.

• 4:41Speaker 03

  There's other, other great producers out there, but Stephen, producer extraordinaire. Been, been here with Money Wise for over 10 years.

• 4:48Speaker 00

  Yep, and a big shout out to our buddy JR Flores, the program director over at Kern Radio, of welcoming us back to where we started over here on Kern Radio.

• 4:57Speaker 03

  Yeah, thanks JR. In fact, I'm going to be on JR's show at, just after the 2 o'clock hour today, so that JR is of course right after us. And following JR, we still have the Ralph Bailey Show, followed by the Scott Jennings Show at 6 o'clock, and of course, Scott Cox starting things out every day from 6 to 9. And what you just heard was the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show come on just before us. And we are the Money Wise Radio Show and Podcast. Again, I'm Sharad Waite here with Seth Perry. Seth, we were both, not both of us, but the, the world and the country in general was a little nervous yesterday. There was, President Trump had a deadline that was set for the war going on in Iran,

• 5:40Speaker 03

  which, you know, makes a lot of people really nervous. The markets were certainly very nervous.

• 5:44Speaker 04

  What was the phrase you used? The headline was the, what he said, and I quote, you know, basically destroy an entire civilization.

• 5:51Speaker 03

  Yeah, right.

• 5:51Speaker 04

  Very strong, very heavy wording at 5:00 PM. I remember checking at least every hour, a couple times an hour, checking the headlines, and then it, it just, all of the hype resulted in a two-week ceasefire.

• 6:02Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 6:02Speaker 04

  In which the market then, all, all the moves you're seeing right now are, are just, you know, the, the normal market hype moving the, the market around. It's not anything too fundamental.

• 6:14Speaker 03

  Right.

• 6:14Speaker 04

  And so it's, I know the S and P was up- 2.3% today, Dow Jones Industrial and NASDAQ both up around 2.5%.

• 6:24Speaker 03

  You know, it's so nice, now that we're on at 12, you know, before our show was, for the last few years, our show's been running from, from 2 to 3.

• 6:33Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 6:34Speaker 03

  And now we're on from 12 to 1, the markets are still open.

• 6:37Speaker 04

  We might get live news again, right?

• 6:39Speaker 03

  Totally, it's kind of nice to be able to, you know, kind of explain what's going on in the markets. And, but, but right after the announcement was made that there was a two-week ceasefire, you know, there's lots of investments that are traded 24/7, including oil.

• 6:55Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 6:56Speaker 03

  And, and it's a global commodity, and we saw futures prices all, all go into the positive. Not, not every futures price, and oil was one that dropped dramatically. Dropped at, at one point, it was down over 17%. So we're back down below $100 a barrel for oil. And

• 7:17Speaker 04

  Biggest one-day drop since 2020, I believe.

• 7:19Speaker 03

  Holy smoke.

• 7:20Speaker 04

  Big drop.

• 7:20Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's been six years we haven't seen a drop like this.

• 7:23Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 7:23Speaker 03

  Of course, we've seen big increases and that, the impact of the rising cost of oil has been seen across the board on almost everything that we buy. We're starting to see increases with groceries, of course, you know, groceries involve fuel and oil.

• 7:41Speaker 04

  They're wrapped in plastics, a lot of them.

• 7:43Speaker 03

  Plastic, yep. All of these things, transportation costs, all of these things are so deeply connected in our economy and the global economy, but our nation's economy as well. And that has been a nervous position that we've all been in. It, besides the fact that oil is going down, I think there's something else that's driving the markets up. As you mentioned, they're up about 2.5% the major indices. And that is, if there is, if there can be enough evidence that prices are going to come down, that gives some room for the Federal Reserve to lower their interest rates and make lending cheaper for all of us and for, and for the country.

• 8:27Speaker 03

  And so there's some of that that's built into the into the market moves today is this idea that, oh, okay, well, if inflation can get in control, which right now inflation is that inflation is being driven in large part by oil prices. So if oil prices drop and maybe inflation isn't going to be as a concern for the Federal Reserve, maybe they will cut rates this year. And so that's, you know, markets love that. Markets love to see if rates will come down because cheap money means, you know, longer economic prosperity.

• 9:00Speaker 04

  You've ridden the Colossus, right, at Magic Mountain? You know, I just think a lot of times the market and a lot of this news, it's, you know, we just saw that big first drop, you know, and Colossus. And I would expect, we can't predict the future, we don't know what's going to happen, but definitely would expect some more volatility in the weeks and months ahead as this continues to unwind and unravel. And like we tell our clients and we do with our own money is just stay the course, have a have a solid game plan in place, stay the course. And that's where we come in and help a lot as advisors is more of a, and on our show with some of these listener questions, we're like a, we're like a shock absorber.

• 9:33Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 9:34Speaker 04

  I always think of the Baja 500, those things flying across the desert and the suspension of wheels are flying, but the cab is perfectly smooth. And I like to think we are that for you guys, our listeners. So keep the questions coming. We've got some good ones today.

• 9:48Speaker 03

  Yeah, because when you have an investment strategy that is based in some fundamentals, then you should be comfortable to ignore some of the news and some of the noise that's out there. The problem is the average individual has a hard time determining whether or not they're on the right course. What is their plan? Are they, is it being monitored? What are the rules to monitoring their, their investment strategy? And that can be nerve wracking. Just, I mean, this is a shameless plug for using a financial advisor. And a financial advisor that has the same incentives of you, like a fee based advisor. And that is that they can be that, that shock absorber like you described. And then you, it doesn't mean that it gets ignored. It just means you've got everything set up as, as best

• 10:31Speaker 03

  you can. Now just, now just ride the roller coaster.

• 10:34Speaker 04

  Yep. And It's same as like a, maybe a family counselor or a gym, a trainer, you go to them for tune ups. And if you have an issue or a question, you ask them and that's their job. They're a coach. And that's what we do is, is remind folks, hey, this is, this is the plan we put together. This is pretty normal. Let's ride it out.

• 10:52Speaker 03

  Well, let's do this. Why don't we answer these listener questions before we go to a break? And again, 6613961000, that's the number. We're going to answer these questions. Please keep them coming our way. Seth, you got that first question?

• 11:06Speaker 04

  Yes, sir. So, "I live here in town and it feels like groceries, gas, and everything else just keep going up." Tell me about it. "I've started using my credit card just to get through the month. At what point does that become dangerous? And how do I know if I'm heading toward a real debt problem?" "I have to do what I have to do to feed my family, but it's scary times." Share it.

• 11:29Speaker 03

  Gosh, yeah, this is good discussion. Thank you for sending that message in. We're going off of what's in this question, which is if you have to use your credit card to get by, that's a red flag.

• 11:41Speaker 04

  Huge.

• 11:42Speaker 03

  Right there, right? Because that means you don't... I'm assuming that means you don't have the money to pay for it otherwise. So, you're borrowing your living expenses. You're borrowing money to pay for groceries and for utilities and things like that. That's a red flag.

• 12:00Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 12:00Speaker 03

  Because what will happen is that will continue to build up, and the average credit card interest rate is just over 20%, 25%. That means if you just have a $5,000 credit card balance, you're paying $1,000 at least in just interest. That you get no benefit from at all.

• 12:23Speaker 04

  Can't write it off on a credit card.

• 12:25Speaker 03

  Right. Can't write it off. And it just goes into that credit card and it pushes out how long it's going to take for you to pay it off. So, that's the first thing. Yes, that's the red flag. That means something needs to change because you're going down a dangerous path. Now, if you are carrying a balance month to month and it's growing, if you're only able to make those minimum payments on that card, or you don't know exactly how you're going to pay it off, or how long it will take you to pay it off... Those are the big red flags that I see when it comes to credit card.

• 13:01Speaker 04

  Can be 13 to 17 years, a thousand dollar credit card, it can take you, if you're only making the minimum payments, that's how they do it because they want you to feel good. Well, I made my minimum payment, but guys, you gotta look and watch the interest being charged back. So if you pay $200 minimum payment, but they're hitting you with 150 in interest, you're not doing a whole lot of damage. And that's, that's where it becomes a problem. That's, we're on the same page with what I was thinking when I read this question. And so you can ask yourself, is there a way I can generate more income? Is there any assets that can be sold? Call it what you will, a yard sale nowadays, you can do, you know, 300 to $3,000 just in a weekend yard sale, stuff laying around, not using.

• 13:39Speaker 03

  So. Yeah. What may be though Seth, when I've seen in these situations is you're just plugging certain holes in the boat, but you're not fixing the fundamental problem.

• 13:47Speaker 04

  Which is spending, right?

• 13:48Speaker 03

  Spending. That's almost always what it is. It's.

• 13:51Speaker 04

  Are you eating out? Is this, if you say you need this money every month, are you eating out multiple times a week? Cause that is a killer.

• 13:58Speaker 03

  You've got, this is where you have to, you have to self-reflect on where your spending is. You have to, you have to reevaluate it, which is going to feel very painful at first. So there's this, this is interesting phenomenon with individual investors and, or anybody when it comes to money. If you are, if you get a windfall reward, like a lottery or an inheritance, there is a period on average of about six months that you have this sort of euphoria because now you have all this money and you, you can buy what you want, or you're not stressed about it, but it only lasts about six months. And then you, and then you go back to your baseline

• 14:38Speaker 03

  stress level or level happiness. The same is true when it's difficult, you know, like when you, when you have to cut your resources, when you have to reduce your spending, or you have to work more to increase your income, it's not going to be comfortable for a period of time. It's going to take you a few months, up to six months on average, before it just becomes part of your new life. And you can get to that period, it's difficult. It's like starting a. Diet or a workout process, you've got to just really hunker down in that beginning phase, set up the parameters for yourself so that you're, you can control that spending

• 15:19Speaker 03

  or increase your income. Those are the only two things you can do. Otherwise, if you ignore it, you're heading down a path that's going to lead to bankruptcy or, or continued financial stress. So just don't bury your head in the sand.

• 15:32Speaker 04

  Yeah, huge part is the, is we know what to do, but it's the behavior part. 80% of it is the behavior. And that's where you just want to stay disciplined.

• 15:42Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah. Great question. Hang in there. There are resources for you. There's a lot of resources, free resources for you online, whether it's through your financial advisor or through your bank. There, there's a lot. Investopedia is a great resource. Lots of good ways that you can get a budget and, and crawl out of that hole. But hopefully our listeners caught that in time. Let's go to the next message, Seth.

• 16:08Speaker 04

  Let's do it. Question number two, message number two. Oh man, there's all kinds of new ones. Let's just read this update here. This one just hit the, welcome back MoneyWise guys. I remember when you guys did the night show with Gero and the other guys. That's awesome. Very cool.

• 16:23Speaker 03

  Very cool. Yeah, thank you.

• 16:25Speaker 04

  Get one more in here. So is it true that you don't need perfect credit for a hard money loan? And what actually matters most to lenders? Thank you, guys.

• 16:32Speaker 03

  Yeah, great question. A hard money loan does not always depend, your credit score is not always the most important thing, which is why people go with hard money loans.

• 16:42Speaker 04

  It's why it's called a hard money loan. It's backed by a hard asset.

• 16:45Speaker 03

  That's right. That's exactly right. It's backed, so the person that's giving the loan, the hard money loan, is more interested in how they're going to get paid back. What's protecting them? Hard money loans are generally used for like real estate purchases.

• 16:58Speaker 04

  Flipping houses. They need money quickly.

• 17:00Speaker 03

  Yeah. So what matters more to them than your credit score is your loan to debt ratio. Or your, the amount of equity that is in that home that you're buying, because they'll be put on as, as the first trustee.

• 17:13Speaker 04

  Yeah, they'll be a lien holder on, should something happen.

• 17:16Speaker 03

  Should something happen, they know. That they're going to recover the bulk of their money because there's a certain amount of equity already built into that property.

• 17:21Speaker 04

  Interest rates, are the interest rates low or high?

• 17:24Speaker 03

  Higher, right?

• 17:25Speaker 04

  They're short, they could be seven days, some of these hard money loans, or six months. You know, they're pretty short loans typically.

• 17:31Speaker 03

  The shorter the loan, the, the, the, the lower the interest rate, gen- generally speaking, because there's a little less risk. You know, you know, you're going to get your money back in a certain period of time. But the hard money loans run anywhere between 10, 15% can be even higher than that. Whereas if you were getting a traditional loan, you know, that's, that's a different ballgame. You know, 30 year mortgages are, you know, 6% roughly.

• 17:55Speaker 04

  So in theory, if you have wrecked credit, you obviously want to be trying to improve it. But if you own a home and you're trying to make some moves, but if you have wrecked credit and you're trying to find a hard money loan, that's almost a red flag in of itself.

• 18:06Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 18:07Speaker 04

  Just think through every decision, do your homework, no matter what.

• 18:10Speaker 03

  And same thing, what we were just saying about the credit cards, you need to know what your exit strategy is. And that's where the risk comes in. Nothing wrong with a hard money loan unless you keep that loan forever and now you're paying the higher interest rate for no reason. But sometimes it makes sense to pay a higher interest rate because you've got this great asset that you know you can flip, or you know it's going to be valuable, or you can put work into it. You got, you have to have a plan, just know what you're doing. Yeah, good. Last question there Seth?

• 18:33Speaker 04

  Let's do it. Might be too late, oh, it moved on me there, one second. All right, here it is. Might be too late, but was wondering if battery systems make more sense nowadays financially? And practically than rooftop solar alone? Trying to be ahead of the curve LOL. So basically asking, hey, what are your thoughts nowadays with having a battery system? Along with your solar system?

• 18:57Speaker 03

  Yeah, this is, this is a great subject. I love talking about solar. I'm a big fan of solar. I've had it, uh, my personal home, Seth, you have a newer home, I've had it for, for many, many years. California though, has made some big changes. Just a couple of years ago, they changed how the net metering happens. It went from net, net metering 2.0 to 3.0. That took place, uh, before last year. And the problem with that is, is essentially it lowered the amount of money that you get for overproduction from your panels. You essentially don't make much money if you overproduce. So what happens to that extra electricity that's over, being overproduced on your house? Just going in, back into the grid and you're not getting jack for it.

• 19:42Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 19:42Speaker 03

  And before, like when you and I got our solar. Our, our overproduction currently, we get paid for that. In fact, I'm on net metering one, so I get the

• 19:52Speaker 04

  You probably get even more.

• 19:53Speaker 03

  I get the full pop, you know, the 35 cents or 40 cents a kilowatt hour, I get that. You know, the same amount of money that PG&E is selling the power to me, I can sell it back to them. That's a steal because I'm not even paying for the maintenance of the, of the grid. You know, I'm getting the full retail price. In that metering two, you got a reduction of that price of what you get back to you.

• 20:16Speaker 04

  They say it's about a one to one retail rate. So what you produce over, you get paid back for. And so it's a pretty, it's pretty much a wash with the NIM two.

• 20:24Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 20:24Speaker 04

  The NIM three.

• 20:25Speaker 03

  NIM three, it's almost nothing. And so what that, that has done in California, did this on purpose is they said, if you're going to overproduce, well, then you're just going to have to have a way to store it yourself.

• 20:35Speaker 04

  Where's this, is this ultimately coming from, obviously we want alternative energy, but is it the loss in revenue maybe from?

• 20:42Speaker 03

  It's, it's multiple things. It's multiple things. California right now overproduces from solar energy during those peak hours. They export it out to other, and sell it to other states and other areas. Cause there's, you know, that's the problem with solar. It's, it's just, it's during a very finite period of time. And so nobody really benefits

• 21:02Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 21:02Speaker 03

  From that overproduction. And so how would an individual benefit from that overproduction? It's by them being able to store it themselves.

• 21:08Speaker 04

  With a battery, that's the question. But a batteries, you know, I, I called my brother in law, actually. He was in the industry and, and going rates nowadays, anywhere from seven to 18,000 is kind of the going rate for a battery.

• 21:20Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah.

• 21:22Speaker 04

  But what you do is you store what's overproduced and then they use it at night. It makes a ton of sense, but I don't know, you know, if I was going to buy a battery today that I'd want to spend that much.

• 21:30Speaker 03

  Well, that's just wild.

• 21:31Speaker 04

  And they only last 10 years.

• 21:32Speaker 03

  Yeah, well, I think the batteries could, that's what they're saying about batteries with cars too. But I think they're finding that actually will last longer than that. The problem is that now your return on your investment is being pushed out. If you've got another, let's say another $10,000 or $12,000 into your solar cost. Well, even if you save a thousand dollars a month or a thousand dollars a year from that, it's going to take you 10 to 12 years just to pay off that battery. Like you and I know from the investment world, like the, you want your money back in three, five years.

• 22:01Speaker 04

  A lot of people live in their houses for 10 or 12 years these days. A lot of people have lived in every, you know, five, six, seven years.

• 22:07Speaker 03

  And, and that's the thing.

• 22:08Speaker 04

  Great question.

• 22:08Speaker 03

  Don't get solar unless you know you're going to be in that house for 10 years plus. Cause otherwise, I mean, maybe there's some.

• 22:16Speaker 03

  Moral reason to buy solar, but I mean, it's got to make financial sense.

• 22:20Speaker 04

  Hundred percent.

• 22:21Speaker 03

  You know, like.

• 22:22Speaker 04

  And then you go to sell your house and if you're, if you're under a lease, you go to sell the house.

• 22:25Speaker 03

  Right.

• 22:26Speaker 04

  And you're, you know, I've heard of stories there too, where it can hold up a real estate deal.

• 22:30Speaker 03

  Yeah, like a power purchase agreement. Uh, that's another thing that you want to be very careful about and you, I believe you can get batteries under a power purchase agreement, but, uh, but the, the real, the real issue though, is how much is that solar system, including the battery costing you? Let's say it's $30,000. How much money are you going to save on an annual basis, based off of that solar? Say it's a, let's say it's $2,000. Okay. Well, it's going to take you 15 years.

• 23:01Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 23:02Speaker 03

  You can do the math. You're saving $2,000 a year. It costs you $30,000? Okay. Does that make sense?

• 23:09Speaker 04

  I think the bigger debate here is do you wash or do you not wash your solar panels? There's a lot of, a lot of hot debates out there in my mind. I, you know, let's wash this thing off every few days, but I don't want to break them either. So.

• 23:21Speaker 03

  We're fortunate. We're going to have some, I rarely wash mine, but fortunately we got some rain coming.

• 23:24Speaker 04

  Rain coming, it's going to take care of it for us.

• 23:25Speaker 03

  Yeah. Well, we're going to take a quick break. We come back, really excited to be joined by our guest. He is a actor and director, Ricky Byrd is his name. Just recently premiered a movie at the Fox. So we're going to be joined by Ricky Byrd. We want to thank all of our listeners for tuning into us. Remind you that, uh, we are a podcast as well. You can find us wherever you stream your podcasts. We're going to take a real quick break and we'll be right back.

• 24:01Speaker 03

  Welcome back. You're listening to the Money Wise Guys. Thank you so much for tuning in. Great to be back on Kern Radio. Uh, I've been part of the America General Media family for 20, 23 plus years. Uh, but we're getting some great messages, uh, great message here from a listener. It says, uh, what's up, Money Wise Guys? What's up MoneyWise guys? So happy to have you guys back here. Sorry, I've been listening to your show many, many years back when you guys were on the current station. First time I heard you guys, I was in debt over $45,000 and my credit score was under 500. I've learned so much from your show that day, from that today.

• 24:44Speaker 03

  I'm so proud to say that I am no longer in debt and my credit score is 852. I love you guys. You're amazing and you teach so well. Much love, Michael Anthony, DJ Michael Anthony, a longtime listener and fan. Thank you, Michael Anthony.

• 25:01Speaker 04

  That's awesome. Thanks.

• 25:02Speaker 03

  Yeah, congratulations. Way to go. We were just talking about with another listener about, you know, how to get out of debt and avoid that kind of stuff.

• 25:10Speaker 04

  850 is cooking, man. I think the max on one of them is 900. So you're, you're

• 25:13Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 25:14Speaker 04

  You're getting a pretty good rate when you borrow money.

• 25:16Speaker 03

  That's about as good as you can get right there. Well, we're going to go to our guest right now, right here in studio. You're joined right now by Ricky Byrd Jr. He is a director, writer, actor, and producer. Welcome to the show Ricky.

• 25:28Speaker 05

  Hey, thanks for having me.

• 25:29Speaker 03

  You're like the Justin Timberlake, the local Justin Timberlake of movies.

• 25:34Speaker 05

  Yeah, I can't dance or sing.

• 25:37Speaker 04

  Did you date Britney Spears?

• 25:38Speaker 05

  I wish.

• 25:40Speaker 03

  So Ricky, I saw a few months ago, I saw your poster for the recent film that you did called Kern Oil, right? It's called Kern Oil. I had a premiere at the Fox about this or for this movie. Why don't you talk, talk about it? What's, what's the latest movie you've done?

• 25:57Speaker 05

  So basically I work in the oil fields and then I do independent film. I started my film company about a little over 20 years ago. So I've done a lot of independent films and then in 2022, my dad, he committed suicide. So because he couldn't find any work in the oil fields. So when I was talking to my girlfriend, now wife then, you know, she didn't understand why he couldn't just find another job. And, you know, I, I realized that there's a lot of people outside of the oil field, oil field industry that don't understand the Impact that a lot of these over regulations cause, especially to our community. So usually I'm doing horror movies with zombies and chainsaws and stuff like that.

• 26:41Speaker 05

  But I figured I would talk my filmmaking buddies from LA and Fresno area and Visalia to come together to make a documentary about this. And it's a weird experience because usually I'm on the rig and then I shoot movies. So it's like a really different, you know, they're different.

• 27:02Speaker 03

  Set of skills there.

• 27:04Speaker 05

  Well, yeah, and it's just like different people, different, like a whole different vibe, you know, on a film set versus on a rig. Yeah. So, you know, usually those two worlds are never blended together in my career, you know. So, so anyway, I started shooting this. We got teamed up with the Kern Community Foundation. Were able to fall under a nonprofit status, so that really helped out. And then we were able to raise enough money. I shoot things very cheap. I actually wrote a book called Cheap Movie Tricks.

• 27:32Speaker 03

  Nice.

• 27:33Speaker 05

  So my, my skill set is very much doing a lot with a little bit of money. So I got all my buddies together. We started doing some interviews, got a little traction. And then, you know, we, it took us about two years to do this one. So it was a lot of, you know, blood, sweat and tears. But honestly, I'm really happy with how it came out. It's not like a piece, like a, I wouldn't say it's like pro oil or pro anything, saying oil's good or bad, it's just pro people. And so I interview people that work out in the field, to, you know, CEOs of companies, to politicians, to, you know, everything. So we, I think we did about 50 interviews.

• 28:14Speaker 03

  Wow.

• 28:14Speaker 05

  Yeah, and then just getting footages on, or footage on the rig and stuff like that was, was difficult because, you know, it's, there's a lot of safety stuff. But because I work in the oil industry and I'm a third generation, a lot of these people I know, so, you know, and it is one big family. So I think people, when they found out I was doing it, were kind of hesitant. But once they started seeing the trailers and stuff like that, they, they wanted to be a part of it.

• 28:40Speaker 03

  Yeah, you mentioned you're, you're used to doing. Horror movies or more drama type, type films, but the situation that California has been in for oil and, and gas producers has been like a horror movie. It's been like, it's been like this, from my opinion, over the last 10 years, it's been like this slow death where there's like, there's just no way out. There's that, that producers have here and it's been choking them until just recently, when, when, when Kern County was given the only go ahead for us to, you know, oversee our own permitting process.

• 29:19Speaker 04

  Right.

• 29:19Speaker 03

  Uh, it's, it's like, finally, there's a little bit of, of air.

• 29:23Speaker 04

  A little bit.

• 29:24Speaker 03

  To breathe from these people, but I, I, I think you're, you're exactly right. That our community, while we're an oil and ag community, that I think very few people really understand how difficult it is for people that are in the industry that are already dealing with the ups and downs of, of a commodity price.

• 29:41Speaker 04

  Right.

• 29:42Speaker 03

  And so there's always been a history for, since the, I'm sure you cover this in the movie, but there's been a history of layoffs and rehires and layoffs and rehires. Like you gotta be, even if you're super skilled, you're always moving around to different companies or your company's being bought out.

• 29:59Speaker 04

  Right.

• 29:59Speaker 03

  And merged and then you're laid off and there's, and then oil prices drop down and then you're furloughed and.

• 30:05Speaker 04

  Right.

• 30:06Speaker 03

  It's just, it's.

• 30:06Speaker 04

  Super competitive too. I remember, uh, I got, I was with Halliburton and was in the oil industry and got laid off in 2016. And I want to say 2012, 2013, there were 80 to 90 drilling rigs in California at the time, like drilling new wells, drilling rigs.

• 30:21Speaker 03

  Right.

• 30:22Speaker 04

  Then it just, everything just started going away and it happened pretty quickly.

• 30:25Speaker 03

  Oh, totally. Yeah. And, and you're right, it's been about the last 10 years and, and the, the hard part, and we talk about this in the documentary is, uh, price, the price, you know, going up and down, you know, is, is manageable. It's still, you still have like, you know, layoffs, things like that, you know, you have to combine forces, um, you know, diversify things like that in the industry. But it, it's really tough when you have overregulation because those come out of nowhere and they come like.

• 30:52Speaker 05

  Quickly. So a lot of companies that, you know, we have, you know, I have one person there that has a back, uh, back truck company. They're like the giant trucks that suck fluid out. Um, California passed a, uh, regulatory issue just on the engines that they had. So they have trucks that are like

• 31:06Speaker 03

  Emission stuff. Oh, yeah.

• 31:09Speaker 05

  So two-year-old trucks that they're having to scrap and then buy new trucks. And it's like, you know, and then, and then all the other things on top of that. So, you know, it just, it's not only, and I, I think a lot of other businesses feel this overregulation. It's not just the oil industry. But I, I, you know, again, it's, it's, it's really affecting us here locally, you know, our economy, you know, um, we, I, we also talk about tax revenue that oil, oil companies pay, and that's significantly less than it has been in the past. So, what happens to us living in the community is we have to pay for that gap. And it's, it's just unfortunate that we have so much oil here, hundreds of years worth of oil right under our feet. And we're shipping it from Saudi Arabia and, you know,

• 31:52Speaker 04

  Venezuela.

• 31:53Speaker 05

  Venezuela.

• 31:54Speaker 04

  Where they have the worst, where they have the worst regulations.

• 31:57Speaker 05

  Totally.

• 31:58Speaker 03

  And we're the tightest regulated in the world, you know, the, the cleanest and most highly regulated

• 32:04Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 32:04Speaker 03

  in the world, industry in the world. And yet we're importing it from those who don't have any regulations and and horrible human rights records.

• 32:14Speaker 05

  Well, and the big one too, where we get a lot of our oil is Ecuador, where the, the rainforest is at. So they're just cutting down the rainforest to give us oil that we could just get right here. So, you know, I think once people see the documentary and kind of, you know, feel, you know, I, I had a lot of people that weren't pro-oil that came from LA and stuff to come see that, that I've worked with in the past that have were, you know, came to see the documentary at the premiere and they were, you know, they, they, they were like, it opened my eyes, you know, it really, it really, um, taught me something about the oil industry I had no idea about.

• 32:48Speaker 03

  It shows, it shows the human side and the human casualties to, to working in that industry. I have friends who are in the industry and they talk about, especially here in California and outside of Bakersfield. Where if they say that they're in oil, they get, they get, basically they get mocked.

• 33:08Speaker 05

  Oh, yeah.

• 33:08Speaker 03

  You know, and they get, they, they're looked at like, oh, you, you, okay, so you hate the planet.

• 33:13Speaker 05

  Like you.

• 33:14Speaker 03

  And you hate my children. You're killing my children and my babies.

• 33:17Speaker 05

  Oil in the ocean and you kick puppies and kitties. I mean, I remember that. I remember that.

• 33:21Speaker 03

  Yeah. Oh, you've experienced that too. I'm sure. And this is, you know, it's gotten even worse over the last 10 years. And, and, and, you know, none of that, these people I know, I've never met anybody who's in oil that's like, doesn't like genuinely doesn't care about the planet. Like they all definitely care about the planet.

• 33:38Speaker 05

  Right.

• 33:39Speaker 03

  It's not, it's easy to, for the industry to get demonized. I think we're, we're hopefully as tragic as what's going on in the Strait of Hormuz and, and with Iran. Hopefully it wakes people up to how important this commodity is.

• 33:54Speaker 05

  Yeah, totally. Yeah. And I think the, the big issue too, is people don't realize how much oil is in their lives. And at the beginning of the film, we put that without oil, we wouldn't be able to make this film and you wouldn't be able to view it.

• 34:08Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 34:08Speaker 05

  Because, you know, all the cameras are all petroleum based, cell phones, you know, the screen, the projector projecting the film. In California alone, just our refi, what we're refining here is 1.8 million barrels a day. So we do a, a kind of a mock up in the documentary where that would fill the Rose Bowl in Pasadena up every single day full of oil.

• 34:33Speaker 03

  Wow.

• 34:33Speaker 05

  So you kind of get that visual.

• 34:34Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 34:35Speaker 05

  That's a lot of oil. And that's just what we're using in our cars and refining. It's not, you know, glasses, shoes, clothes, all these other things that petroleum's in. So I think when people start realizing, and you know, the same thing I, I'd point out there is a lot of the oil found in Kern County was based on seep. So oil, oil is one of the only things that you pull out of the ground that is not allowed to touch the ground, if you think about it. And it's a natural resource, you know, it's not really a fossil fuel. It's a natural resource. And I think, you know, the, you know, if we stop drilling, we're going to see a lot of that stuff seep to the surface, especially like around our, our oceans. And beaches, you know, because it naturally comes from the ground with pressure.

• 35:17Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 35:17Speaker 04

  Like over in Carpinteria, we were just joking about it when we were camping. You know, a lot of people will be walking around, they get the little tar balls on their feet. Oh, those oil companies like, no, that's just.

• 35:27Speaker 03

  Natural. Yeah. And actually not maybe harvesting some of that does create that.

• 35:34Speaker 05

  Right.

• 35:34Speaker 03

  Onshore, you know?

• 35:36Speaker 05

  Yeah, well, if they stop drilling, that pressure is going to push more of that onto the beach. And I think it's, you know, look at the La Brea tar pits, you know, I did a lot of drilling in Brea. You know, why do the tar pits not exist anymore? Because we, you know, we're sucking all the oil out of that area. So I think that, you know, I don't agree, I don't think that oil is the end all be all. I think there's other alternatives for different things, you know, that we could use, make, you know, make different plastics and stuff like that. But at the end of the day, we use oil and it creates energy and we use that energy.

• 36:10Speaker 04

  We need it for this phase of humanity. We can't just get rid of it overnight and.

• 36:15Speaker 05

  I don't think it'll ever be, you know, we're, we're, we're making things that use less oil, use less fuel. And I think that's kind of where we need to be thinking is how we can use less of it. But honestly, it's here, we're using it, our lives, I mean, even people that protest against oil, use petroleum products to.

• 36:34Speaker 04

  To drive their car to get there. And they're wearing rubber based shoes.

• 36:37Speaker 03

  That's been a regulatory problem is that the, they're not addressing the consumption. They're addressing the, um, the production side of things. It's like, well, you're just, people are still consuming, people are still consuming oil and they're still burning it. And like, that's not going down. Yeah, population's going up. And so now you're just hurting the production side.

• 36:57Speaker 05

  Right.

• 36:57Speaker 03

  So finally, I think Sacramento has woken up to the idea, especially losing some of these refineries. Where it's like, oh, we're in a potential scenario, we're going to have eight, $10 a gallon, a gallon gas. And that's a repressive tax, it's a regressive tax. It hurts the people who can, can least afford it, it hurts them the most.

• 37:16Speaker 05

  Totally.

• 37:17Speaker 03

  And so I think the writing was sort of on the wall, they're like, we got to, Sacramento's like, we got to back off here.

• 37:22Speaker 05

  And it's great that we're in a position Kern County where we can get some of these passes. And but we've gone 10 years where there's very little investments been put into it. It's so much capital goes into doing, it's just a, just drilling a well itself.

• 37:39Speaker 04

  And training people when you let them go, that was the biggest thing is when we would have a big round of layoffs and then some new work picks up. You can't just hire someone in off the street. It's very specialized work and they need very specialized training. It's crazy. Now, I don't know that I'll take credit for this because I know you've thought of it, but are you going to do a sequel of sorts in which you, I have a lot of friends and, and clients in agriculture and with what we see with water, I know it's kind of different, but there's also, I mean, just, I remember being little and there's just, there's, that's why we had dense tulip fog. There's so much more moisture and farming and, and they're, they're being heard a lot by regulations too. Is there a thought of maybe pivoting into that direction?

• 38:17Speaker 05

  I talked to a few people. I'm actually going to be speaking with some far, uh, some kind of farming group about this documentary. I'm open to it, you know, I think that documentaries like this, um, you know, are, are important to educate the public. I think that's kind of where, you know, people are getting their information, um, you know, so I think, I mean, I'd be totally open to it, you know?

• 38:39Speaker 03

  Again, we're joined by Ricky Burr Jr. He's director, writer, actor and producer. Most recent movie, which was premiered at the Fox Theaters Kern Oil. Ricky, you mentioned your, your full, your full-time gig is on, is in the fields.

• 38:54Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 38:54Speaker 03

  And, um, and so filmmaking is, is a passion, I guess, I'm guessing, like a side, side gig?

• 39:01Speaker 05

  Yeah. So, um, I've went, I've done a lot of like commercials and, you know, things like that, but I just went back into the oil fields. Cause I, you know, on my schedule, I work seven days and I'm off seven days. So then I will shoot different things on my days off. Recently I actually got laid off in January from a company I was working for. I was doing business development for them. So I was kind of off the rigs, um, which gave me a little bit more freedom, but obviously I was working like, you know, all the time. So I didn't have a lot of time. So we were shooting this on the weekend. So now I have like seven days off where I can, you know, um, shoot, shoot projects and stuff like that. So. Yeah, that's kind of part of the reason that film took two years. I mean, it was hard getting

• 39:44Speaker 05

  a lot of people to interview and say things on camera because you know, a lot of times they don't know what I'm gonna do and you know, they see me, I'm just another guy on the rig and they're like, "Oh, you're gonna shoot a documentary? What?" You know, so. But I think now I do drilling fluids, I'm a mudman out there. So again, it just gives me that, like I work half the year. So the other half of the year, I'm, you know, developing scripts, working with other filmmakers, you know, and just trying to create because I do love movies. I'm a very, you know, I love movies and I also don't like when I have to work, you know, I'd rather have a job, like a day job, than that's where I, you know, that's where the work comes in and then I can go and film and I'm not stressed out about not, you know, paying this bill or whatever, you know.

• 40:28Speaker 03

  Yeah, I was looking at your website, you had a quote, a Walt Disney quote on your website, something to the effect of, you know, "We don't make movies to make money, we make money to make movies."

• 40:38Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 40:39Speaker 03

  To make more movies, that's why we're making money.

• 40:41Speaker 05

  Yeah, that's my philosophy, even with this film, you know, I put in my own money. We went through the Kern Community Foundation and then I, you know.

• 40:50Speaker 03

  For grants, like grant money from?

• 40:52Speaker 05

  Basically, we just kind of ran through them as a nonprofit. So when people donated, they were able to get that tax deduction.

• 40:59Speaker 03

  Oh, nice. That's great.

• 41:00Speaker 05

  Yeah, because it's tough to go in this industry where everything's, you know, you know, pretty bare and they're all broke, you know. I don't know how much I can say, but there's another documentary that's in the works, that's very expensive and they were really impressed on how we were able to shoot a full film for less than it cost them to shoot one day.

• 41:18Speaker 03

  Wow.

• 41:18Speaker 05

  So that's usually, you know, my whole spiel is I take the money, they call it a blue collar artist, if you will, but I, you know, I'll do everything, every aspect. So, you know, we edit, we do the producing, we do the call sheets, all that stuff where, you know, it would take like 10 or 20 people, we're kind of consolidating that to a few people.

• 41:42Speaker 03

  How has it been, how did you get started in making movies?

• 41:48Speaker 05

  I had kids really young and so I had my son when I was 17 and then I, so I liked to act, but I couldn't just fully get into acting. So I actually, so I had to get on a rig very early, you know, to kind of, you know, have the income, you know, to support my son. And so I started acting at church and then I got, I auditioned for a film and these guys were shooting, it was like 2001 and they were shooting some kind of sci-fi movie and it was just two dudes and a camera. And this was before YouTube and all that. And I was like, man, this is really easy. So I talked to my buddy and I

• 42:31Speaker 05

  asked those guys, can I borrow your camera? And so we just self-taught ourselves. We, you know, beg, steal and borrow and we tried to shoot our own movie, which was complete garbage. And then we learned a lot from it though, you know, and then, you know, just kind of started going through the motions and, you know, ended up shooting, trying to shoot another film. And then we got a script picked up and then we started shooting scripts and then, yeah, figured out kind of the game, the independent film game, you know, and then, you know, the hardest part is, you know, raising the funds to shoot the thing. So we, you know, it's, it takes a lot to be an independent filmmaker. You have to be your own publicist, your own, you know, producer, raise your own money, things like that. But I, now that I have a slate of films

• 43:15Speaker 05

  behind me, it's a lot easier for me to get people on board because I finished the product, you know, the project.

• 43:21Speaker 03

  Yeah. You got a portfolio. Yeah. You can actually put something out. Got a listener message here directed to you. It says, I've seen one of his movies in the past, which was the zombie one. LOL. I wondered how much does it normally take to do one of these full films? Can't be cheap.

• 43:37Speaker 05

  Yeah. It's, so they're probably referring to Naked Zombie Girl.

• 43:41Speaker 03

  Great name.

• 43:42Speaker 04

  We definitely saw the, the name of that on the site and said, well, we'll just, you know, curious what that's about, but I'm not gonna, not gonna investigate.

• 43:49Speaker 05

  It's funny, when I do something in my book, I say that there's a quote, that it's like a feminist quote, that's like, well behaved women rarely make history. Well, I take that in my book and I spin it's well behaved films rarely make history. But this is a movie where she's never actually naked. So it's a whole big joke, but when I shot the film, People thought I was gonna be having this naked lady.

• 44:11Speaker 03

  Like a zombie porn?

• 44:13Speaker 05

  Yeah, so they basically were like, I don't want anything to do with this. And that was the same thing what's funny is with this oil documentary that some of the people that I reached out were like, "No, I don't want anything to do with the oil, blah, blah, blah."

• 44:24Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 44:24Speaker 05

  So I'm usually rattling someone's cage, you know, quite often. But for Naked Zombie Girl, the original, we shot for only $4,000, but that was a real big stretch. The second one we shot, it cost about, I think it was $11,000.

• 44:39Speaker 03

  Wow, and it's a full feature?

• 44:41Speaker 05

  No, these are short films. So the first one, it premiered at Scream Fest, so it was at the Chinese theater.

• 44:48Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 44:48Speaker 05

  And then it blew up all over. I mean, it's translated in three different languages. There's not a lot of dialogue in it, but it's basically like a grindhouse film.

• 44:56Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 44:57Speaker 05

  But the idea is, I don't know if you guys have ever seen Home Improvement?

• 45:01Speaker 03

  Yeah, the old sitcom?

• 45:02Speaker 05

  Yeah, the sitcom. So you know how the neighbor, you never see his nose?

• 45:05Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 45:06Speaker 05

  Yeah, so I said, "That's how we're gonna shoot this to where we don't ever see any of the important parts, you know, of the nudity."

• 45:14Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 45:14Speaker 05

  Right? So everything's a big tease, really. But, you know, like unknowingly, I wasn't trying to do this, but feminists in the UK got really big on it, and they were like, "Man, it's not a sexualized naked girl." So they, you know, I mean, I sold so many copies of that film, and it's only 12 minutes. So, you know, it was pretty awesome.

• 45:34Speaker 03

  That's really, really cool. Well, we want to thank you so much for coming on the show.

• 45:39Speaker 04

  I gotta know, though, your personal, what's your favorite movie that you've done? And then what's your favorite movie of all time? Just real quick.

• 45:46Speaker 05

  My favorite movie that I've done is The Lackey. All shot here, premiered here. It's available on Amazon. It's called The Lackey, shot in Sandrine's, all that stuff.

• 45:55Speaker 03

  Oh, cool.

• 45:56Speaker 05

  And then I think my, I don't have a favorite movie of all time, but I love, I'll watch a lot of Empire Strikes Back. That's a top one, for sure.

• 46:07Speaker 04

  Very cool.

• 46:08Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah. Very nice, very nice. Well, we appreciate you coming on the Money Wise Show.

• 46:12Speaker 05

  No problem.

• 46:13Speaker 03

  Good stuff. If anybody just wants to know more information, rickeybird.com, or... You've got an IMDb. People can find you out there. Again, Ricky Byrd Jr., thank you so much for joining the show.

• 46:24Speaker 05

  Yeah, thanks for having me.

• 46:25Speaker 03

  I want to thank all of our listeners for welcoming us back to Kern Radio. Really excited to be here. Want to remind everybody that we are also, all of these shows are done in podcast format. So if you'd like to listen to this, or any of our past programs, go ahead and subscribe to Money Wise Podcast. It's commercial-free and on all major podcast platforms like iTunes, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Also, you can catch myself, Sherrod, later this afternoon. I will be on JR's show at just after 2 o'clock. And again, I will be on First Look with Scott Cox tomorrow morning at 7:30. Looking forward to giving Scott a hard time.

• 47:10Speaker 04

  You've got to rest your cords tonight, man. You need to ice those vocal cords tonight.

• 47:15Speaker 03

  I've got other powers I can use on Scott. So I'm really looking forward to being on those shows. So stay tuned for those. And then, you know, hang in there, right Seth? Hang in there.

• 47:28Speaker 04

  Stay the course, friends. Stay the course.

• 47:30Speaker 03

  That's right. Just stay the course. Ignore the chatter. Hopefully you've got a good plan in place.

• 47:35Speaker 04

  Keep sending great questions. Those are awesome questions.

• 47:37Speaker 03

  Oh, my gosh. A good reminder, 661-396-1000. That is the number that goes directly to our producer here, Steven. He will wake up at 3 o'clock in the morning and answer that text. No, don't do that. Don't do that, Steven. No, we'll take your comments and questions 24 hours. So please send them our way, 661-396-1000. Again, go to MoneyWiseGuys.com. You can find out more about us. And in the meantime, remember these three things. Be smart, be safe, and always be money wise.