4/9/26 Local Banks, Big Decisions & a Big Milestone for Kern Asian Chamber

The Moneywise Radio Show and Podcast Thursday, April 9th 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 Guests: Vivian Cao, President of the Kern Asian Chamber of Commerce & Jamila Ha, Secretary of the Kern Asian Chamber of Commerce and is with the KC District Attorneys office website: https://kernasianchamber.com/ facebook 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. The Kern County Asian Chamber of Commerce 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.

• 0:37Speaker 00

  Now, let's start the Money Wise Show.

• 0:40Speaker 01

  And welcome to the Money Wise Show. We are Money Wise and 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're your hosts. I'm Sharad Waite and...

• 1:06Speaker 02

  Frank Lee.

• 1:07Speaker 01

  Hey Frank!

• 1:07Speaker 02

  Hey Shar.

• 1:08Speaker 01

  Good seeing you, man. It's fun doing the show.

• 1:10Speaker 02

  Yeah, it is. This is a little bit of adjustment for me.

• 1:14Speaker 01

  I know.

• 1:14Speaker 02

  We moved from 2 to 3 and now it's noon to 1.

• 1:18Speaker 01

  Noon to 1?

• 1:19Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:19Speaker 01

  I love this spot. I was on Scott Cox Show this morning and JR's show yesterday afternoon. It's just a great family over at Kern Radio. Of course Ralph comes on, JR comes on after us, followed by Ralph. But for those who don't know or not familiar with us, Money Wise is a local wealth management firm. I started the company myself 23 years ago and that's also when we started doing the radio show here locally. And over time, after about doing the radio show from about 2003 and we started doing the podcast about, oh, maybe

• 2:01Speaker 01

  10 years after that. And so we've got almost 15 years of podcasts, which is essentially this is this show. Show with the commercial stripped out of it.

• 2:12Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:12Speaker 01

  Which is so if you miss any of this, you can always go back to wherever you stream your podcasts. We're on all of the platforms and you can catch any of these shows. But this is, this show's always been largely driven by our listeners and what they want to hear, what questions they have and hopefully what interests them. What do they, what are they into? And you have at your disposal for the next hour, a couple of financial advisors, licensed financial advisors. Frank, you're, you're a full-time advisor. I'm, I'm an advisor as well and have, have been doing that for over 20 years. And, and that's our, that's our primary business. But we have some listener questions.

• 2:56Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:56Speaker 01

  If anybody has any comments or questions, 661-396-1000. That's the number you can text and it goes right to our producer extraordinaire, Stephen Nicholas, and, and we'll get to it when we can get to it. But before we start, Frank, we've got, why don't we start with the listener questions we've got?

• 3:16Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, let's go. So we got them right here. First question, thank you guys, love the show and sorry Stephen for texting about where's the podcast been. Glad to hear you guys are back and rocking rolling. So thank you for the shout out there listener. So we'll move on to the next question. Next question is, hello, a friend sent me to your show in February and I am now able to listen live instead of the podcast on the drive home, which is perfect. I'm a local small business owner and I've seen a lot of local small business are trying to grow or just stay afloat. What would you tell a small business owner should have already, should have ready before walking into Mission Bank to ask for a loan?

• 4:00Speaker 01

  Good question. You know, I remember when we started Money Wise in 2003. There was a period of time there where we wanted to try to get a loan, get like some financing so that we could expand. Like we needed to buy a copier, for example. That was like a big purchase for us at the time. We, we had, we had just this tiny office and you know, we needed like a copier fax scanner, you know, thing and. And of course, we didn't want to put it on a credit card. So we're like, well, let's, let's just go, let's just go to a bank, you know? And so we walked into a couple of banks. It was an eye opening experience. I was very naive at that time. I was much younger than I am now.

• 4:45Speaker 01

  But I essentially learned that banks aren't there to just, you know, they're not, they're not there to just like lend money to anybody. They're, they really will just generally lend money to somebody who has some collateral. Banks won't give a business loan unless there's some collateral. So you might ask, well, what's collateral? Assets, assets that can be recovered from in case the loan goes sideways.

• 5:14Speaker 02

  Right. And in case you can't pay for it.

• 5:16Speaker 01

  Right. Yeah. Yeah. And, and so sometimes that means you're, the collateral you may have. So for example, I'll give my own personal example. At that time, well, we, the business didn't have any collateral. You know, it, it was, it was a new business that was renting an office when we had a couple of desks and we started to have income. So income was coming in, but, and, and that's a, that's a certain amount of security for a bank to lend is if they can see a business that has a history, a few years of, of regular income.

• 5:50Speaker 02

  Yeah. Cash flow.

• 5:50Speaker 01

  Cash flow.

• 5:51Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 5:51Speaker 01

  And, and then it's not just your gross cash flow, but they're going to be, they want to know, how are you cash flow? Are you positive cash flow? Are you negative cash flow? Well, here's the problem. Most small business owners are not positive cash flow. That's why they need the loan.

• 6:06Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 6:06Speaker 01

  You know, like that's why we needed the loan to get a copier.

• 6:09Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 6:10Speaker 01

  Because like we didn't have the money, you know, we have income coming in, but we got bills that we have to pay.

• 6:14Speaker 02

  It's like a catch 22. It's like, well, we need this to be profitable, but you won't lend it unless we are profitable.

• 6:21Speaker 01

  Exactly. And so then I know from our perspective, we'll show you how we're going to be profitable. Let me show you our business plan. And that's like old school thinking. You go to the old movies and the old TV shows, you know, you put on a suit and a tie and you walk in, you talk to the branch manager at the, at the bank and, and then, you know, this all, you know, that you show. them how earnest you are and they're like, son, I'm gonna give you that loan. Like, no, the bank is gonna wanna see that you have, you know, you know, you've got a business bank account. There's history. You've paid your taxes. Taxes are a big one that they're gonna to verify what you've actually done.

• 7:01Speaker 01

  You, the tax return is a, is a, is a wonderful way to do that because a business, that's the business's admittance to the world of that they're actually making money. And what you find is a lot of small business owners, especially if they're just starting out, it's cash, it's under the table. It's like, well, how much of this do I want to report? Cause like you're, you don't want to have to pay the taxes. And so you're, you know, you're doing a lot of cash deals and so it's not showing up on your tax return. Well, you go to a bank and they're like, well, how come your tax return says that you made a hundred thousand dollars last year? But you, you know, you're saying that you made $200,000 last year. Well, it's because, um, it was, um, um, um, you know,

• 7:45Speaker 01

  it's like, well, you gotta have like legit, legitimate.

• 7:48Speaker 02

  You, you kind of shoot yourself in the foot there by not reporting those taxes just for the sake of, you know, saving yourself on, on paying taxes, which, which we understand, but there are some benefits of it as well. If you're looking to grow your business and scale, like they're gonna, they're gonna see those reports.

• 8:06Speaker 01

  Yeah. But therein lies the most difficult aspect of starting a business and running it and getting it to a point where it's sustainable is your, your balance, it's a balancing act where you're gonna potentially have to borrow some money that you're going to invest in the business that you hope you're going to be able to pay back because of the, because of how you're allocating those, your capital. And that's, it sometimes involves just some guesswork or involves some, some faith in your process. But you, you, you know, it's very understandable that some people would just sort of cut, cut corners on that. But if you have, for our listener, if you've got a legitimate business, your positive cash flow, if you, especially if you have some

• 8:50Speaker 01

  Assets and and then that's what that's what the bank is going to want to see. Now, this this listener actually mentioned specifically Mission Bank, which I which is interesting because we're advocates of Mission Bank. It's no surprise. Mission Bank gave us the financing to buy this building. They financed along with the SBA in partnership with the SBA.

• 9:12Speaker 01

  It which is just fantastic. If you can get an SBA loan and it works out for you. That helps the bank lend money because the bank knows that they have this portion of the of the of the loan that's guaranteed by the Small Business Association. And so they're willing and incentivized to lend more to businesses that maybe aren't as established or maybe don't have a lot of collateral. So there are ways that the banks can help you, even if you don't feel like you're maybe in the best financial position. But Mission Bank in particular is great because it is local based. So if you're a local business, there is still in banking, uh, what do you call it, like a networking?

• 9:53Speaker 02

  There's like a community network of.

• 9:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, like.

• 9:57Speaker 02

  Something like that.

• 9:58Speaker 01

  There's there's like, you get collateral by just them, like if you if you've got a restaurant, for example, or you got like a landscaping business. And you're here in town, like maybe, you know, they'll know you.

• 10:11Speaker 02

  Oh, right, right.

• 10:12Speaker 01

  Kind of thing like it's like, well, you're no, you're actually, you know, you're actually a legitimate business and we know you and maybe, you know, you're the landscaper for, you know, some organization that they know and and so it's like they're still bad. At like the human aspect of lending.

• 10:29Speaker 02

  Gotcha.

• 10:29Speaker 01

  And they they have the Mission Bank empowers their managers to be able to make decisions at that manager level. So it cuts a lot of the red tape that you would see at some of the larger banks.

• 10:40Speaker 02

  It's not so corporate.

• 10:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, it's not so corporate.

• 10:43Speaker 02

  Gotcha.

• 10:43Speaker 01

  It's a little bit more like human.

• 10:45Speaker 02

  And I know I've I'm like new to a lot of like the banking world and everything and Sammy has been really great as far as like advising us and and teaching us the the the banking world in a sense when it comes to like SBA loans and I think that's we can. Really dive into a different topic here with Sammy as far as like the different types of SBA loans or seller finance and all that for these small business owners, which is, I think is great.

• 11:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 11:12Speaker 02

  Yeah, there's a lot of resource out there as well. And I think you're right, Mission Bank would be a good resource to tap into.

• 11:20Speaker 01

  Yeah. Sammy's a great resource too. So for our listener, Sammy Abiyawi is our Chief Operating Officer at Money Wise. Actually came, used to spend over a decade at Mission Bank in his previous life. And so has a ton of, and before then was at a different bank. So he has a lot of experience in business banking and financing especially. So if you've got something specific that you're just looking for, you don't want to talk to a bank, but you're just looking for some financial advice. Sammy Abiyawi in our office is a great resource for that. You can call Money Wise and, or go to our website. You can contact us through MoneyWiseGuys.com. All right, we're going to take our first break of the day.

• 12:02Speaker 01

  When we come back, we're excited to be joined by our guest, the President and Secretary for the Asian Chamber of Commerce. They've got some activities coming on, plus a lot going on at the Asian Chamber of Commerce. We're Money Wise. Don't go anywhere.

• 12:18Speaker 01

  Welcome to the Money Wise Show. Thanks for tuning in. We're your hosts today. I'm Sharad here with Frank. We're joined by our today's guests, Vivian and Jamila. This is the President and the Secretary for the current Asian Chamber of Commerce. Welcome to the show, ladies.

• 12:33Speaker 03

  Thank you for having us.

• 12:34Speaker 01

  You've been on before and we've talked to you, I think we talked to you just before the Asian Chamber was even formed.

• 12:41Speaker 04

  Yes, actually several times.

• 12:43Speaker 01

  Okay, nice. So I think it's been exactly almost a year since we first did it together.

• 12:49Speaker 04

  Actually, we're almost celebrating our second anniversary, our second birthday. And you guys have been with us through the entire journey. And so we're just so, so grateful for that.

• 12:57Speaker 01

  Oh, that's great. That's great. It doesn't feel like it's been two years, but two years for an organization like a chamber is a while. I mean, there's been a lot, and you two have been involved from the beginning.

• 13:09Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 13:10Speaker 03

  So much has happened and the other day I was talking to Vivian about just the growth of our chamber and I said, we're going to be three this year and she goes, no, we're going to be two. And so that's just how much we've done and it just feels like we've been doing it forever.

• 13:24Speaker 04

  Right.

• 13:25Speaker 01

  So what's it been like? How has it been? Has it been as gone as smoothly as you had hoped or?

• 13:30Speaker 04

  You know, excellent question. Let's back up a little bit just for the folks who don't know exactly, you know, where we came from and how long we kind of been around and why we kind of started the chamber at all. So the chamber really exists to advocate, to connect and to uplift the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander and Desi-American communities, the businesses. And we really want to build bridges across Kern County. And I think that it was a very pivotal moment when we all kind of came together. Jamila and I, as luck would have it, are both transplants from Orange County. And upon coming here, we just realized that there, I wouldn't say a gap necessarily, but there was definitely a missing representation. And we're talking about, forgive me for being a little shallow, we're talking about food and we're talking about a little bit of,

• 14:15Speaker 04

  you know, the celebrations that we would have down south or even up north. And so we got together with some of our friends and as luck would have it, a lot of our board members are very established members of our community with their respective industries, within their respective industries and they represent a myriad of different cultures within the Asian American communities. And we've just been so lucky to have grown so fast. There were a number of chambers that started in 2024 when we started and we have just been, and I mean this with so much humility, we have been so embraced by the community. Everyone from the other chambers, specifically the Greater Baker Chamber as well as Hispanic Chamber,

• 14:58Speaker 04

  has really just opened up their arms and allowed us to sit with them at many of these really important conversations.

• 15:03Speaker 01

  I can speak to that because I'm on the board of the Greater Chamber of Commerce. And in our meetings, the other chambers comes up regularly.

• 15:13Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 15:13Speaker 01

  How can we support each other? How can we work together? How can, how can we get, get things going? And I know for like our listeners and myself included, it can be sometimes overwhelming or confusing why we have so many chambers. We have Hispanic Chamber, we have the Asian Chamber, the Veterans Chamber, we have all these different chambers. And so maybe speak to that, like, why, why, why do we need an Asian chamber?

• 15:38Speaker 04

  Absolutely. I think, I think that it's a very, it doesn't have to be political, but it could be, right? But the reality is, the stronger that each and every one of our communities are, the stronger we are as Kern County. And I, I feel like specifically for me and some of the friends that I've talked to, especially the board members, it's about finding identity and about finding like a mentorship of someone who gets the struggles and the journeys that we've been through. Finding someone who, you know, for us, it's all about honoring the legacies of our forefathers, right? Whether you're Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, et cetera, really embracing how we got to Kern County and then how we've advanced the county,

• 16:22Speaker 04

  both culturally and then economically, and then what we do with where we are now and how we build that for our, our future generations, right? We were very, very blessed to have in the invitation this past week at CSUB where they had a, an API, a PETA, a PETA Heritage Day, which was an Asian Pacific Islander, Dasi American Heritage introductory day at CSUB. And we saw so many students that didn't know that there were members of the community that like, looked like them, that understood where they came from, especially the ones that are international students. And so it's just building that gap and bridging that gap. And we all work together. And so it's, you know, just because you're part of the

• 17:06Speaker 04

  Asian chamber doesn't mean, and you don't have to be Asian to be a part of the chamber. Let me just start there, but.

• 17:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, I was gonna say, do you have to have your Asian, Asian card?

• 17:13Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 17:14Speaker 01

  Sorry, Sharon.

• 17:14Speaker 03

  You don't have, you don't have any particular percentage.

• 17:17Speaker 01

  Well, how do you know I'm not Asian?

• 17:18Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 17:19Speaker 01

  Asian is so.

• 17:20Speaker 04

  A little, a little.

• 17:20Speaker 01

  Well, here's the other thing. I think this came up last time you were on the show. I brought it up. I was like, Asia is so.

• 17:27Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 17:27Speaker 01

  Big and diverse, like way more like I think the shallow like myself, I think you used to people just think of maybe China or Japan.

• 17:37Speaker 04

  Right.

• 17:37Speaker 01

  And it's like there is Asia is so diverse.

• 17:40Speaker 04

  And I think the beauty of it, the misconception is that Kern County has like more of one or two demographics. The reality is, oh my gosh, look at the growing food scene and look at all of the people who, you know, we have so many cultural celebrations and the Kern Asian Chamber wants to serve as a platform for all of these major organizations, the Sikh Women's Club, the Chinese Women's Club, et cetera, et cetera, to have a platform to share with a grander community. And we do that with the support of the other chambers, community members, the electeds, they've all been so supportive.

• 18:08Speaker 01

  How is, I bet you just have a huge Kazakhstani following there.

• 18:13Speaker 04

  I don't know, huge, and I don't know Kazakhstani, but we have been very lucky that every single one of our events has been sold out, whether it's our mixers, our workshops, our gala, we have a Lunar New Year gala, which you guys have always been very supportive of. We love you guys. But it's just been very, very wonderful and I think people are really open to learning more about the different cultures and so we're happy to step in and fill that gap.

• 18:37Speaker 01

  Do you have any idea the demographics in Kern County roughly?

• 18:41Speaker 04

  Yes, fun fact, so I heard, I learned last night that there are about 35,000 Sikh Americans, but overall, that's the only number I have like at the top of my head. But with that said, Kern County is made of 4% Asians, but within that 4% is every ethnicity. So again, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laos.

• 19:03Speaker 01

  Pacific Islander.

• 19:04Speaker 04

  Pacific Islander, Native Hawaiian, all of these different ethnicities with their own cultures and histories all fall under Asian American and so it's been pretty awesome.

• 19:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, and there's, there's, we'll talk about this when we come back from the break, but the disproportionate contribution to our economic foundations, not just in Bakersfield, but any major city you go to, you've, you can find that much of the infrastructure was built on the backbones of Asian American.

• 19:31Speaker 04

  Absolutely.

• 19:31Speaker 01

  And, and so, and then as you mentioned before, just the economic powerhouse that that is still exists. We're going to take a quick break. We come back, we're Money Wise, don't go anywhere.

• 19:51Speaker 01

  Thanks for tuning into Money Wise. I'm Sharon, your host today along with Frank. We're joined right now by our guests from the Asian Chamber of Commerce, Vivian and Jamila, the President and Secretary of the current Asian Chamber of Commerce. This is a new chamber, it's been two years. Still new. Going on three. Still young. Still young and new. So we just left talking about just the, I guess, well, I want to talk about the economic impact of Asian Americans in Kern County or across the state.

• 20:20Speaker 04

  Yeah, in Kern County, I don't have the exact numbers. I am working with both the city, the county, and then Richard with Kern EDC to pull up those numbers. But I will say that statewide impact, each year, the Asian American communities contribute more than $181 billion of revenue to the state.

• 20:39Speaker 01

  It's a billion with a B.

• 20:40Speaker 04

  Billion with a B, right. Just in case, nine zeros, right. But with that said, there are over 722,000 AAPI-owned businesses. And we've had the honor of actually facilitating several grand openings here in Kern County within the last few weeks, actually.

• 20:54Speaker 01

  Of Asian-owned businesses.

• 20:55Speaker 04

  Of Asian-owned businesses. And we're talking like oil duff and, you know, just, I wouldn't say random areas, but it's everywhere. So we're really growing and we're happy to celebrate that. But in addition to owning these businesses, the Asian American-owned businesses employ more than 910,000 Californians. And so you're looking at just under a million people. And you look at if we're just, what, 6% of the population?

• 21:17Speaker 01

  Right.

• 21:18Speaker 04

  Here in Kern County, only 4% of the population. That proportion is really exceptional. And we're really proud of our colleagues and our friends. And we just want to provide a platform to celebrate that, right? And to share that with, you know, when we're looking at Asian trade and all these different things, that Kern County should be the nexus of all that. We have enough people, we have enough leaders and businesses, and honestly, that platform to have these larger conversations and bring those businesses here, which is the overall goal. And that's where the collaborations with, you know, whether it's the Hispanic Chamber, the Baker Chamber, the county, the city, whoever it may be, like, we're really providing these platforms to have these conversations. With with you know stats right we have the people to warrant these conversations and we

• 22:02Speaker 04

  definitely have the demographic that like embraces it so it's been wonderful.

• 22:05Speaker 01

  Yeah, you you mentioned you both came from Orange County.

• 22:08Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 22:08Speaker 01

  And then you came here. It's so cool that you come here and I love people that come here with little fresh not little, come here with fresh eyes.

• 22:15Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 22:16Speaker 01

  And they say, what, what, there's not a, there's not a chamber for what's going on? Let's do it. Let's start one.

• 22:25Speaker 04

  Absolutely. I mean, you look, this is really what happened. So I was pregnant in 2021 when I first moved here. And I really craved like dumplings and I cried a little bit. And then after that, it was the Lunar New Year celebration, which in Orange County lasts for up to a month. And you're looking at like tens of thousands of people that pour into, you know, the markets and the businesses over the weekend.

• 22:45Speaker 03

  So many options for events to go to.

• 22:47Speaker 04

  And we didn't have a huge list of events to go to. And and I think that was part of it, right? It's not just about what we see, it's about expanding what's possible. And first and foremost, I came here for the sushi. I moved to Bakersfield for the sushi and the.

• 23:04Speaker 01

  That's what we're known for.

• 23:05Speaker 04

  Yep. Fresh from Linkming and the weather. No, but I mean, you'll never find a greater community who just embraces, you know, everything from diversity to honestly, the uniqueness of every single person that lives here. And we support each other. And that's the only way that we've been able to grow so much in the past two years. Yeah, I'm going to defer to Jamila, who really has been spearheading a lot of the growth in terms of events, visibility. You know, all of us kind of do different things on the chamber, whether it's advocacy and networking and whatever else. But she's really the spear header of events. And so I'm going to push to her if you, yeah.

• 23:43Speaker 01

  Yeah. What do you think you got going on?

• 23:44Speaker 03

  We, this year, we wanted to really embrace the Asian businesses, Asian owned businesses, but also local businesses that might not necessarily be owned by the Asian community. But one thing through, you know, prepping for a NAPI or Asian American Native Hawaiian Celebration Month, which is coming up in May, one thing that I've really learned and gained some perspective is how much small businesses want to help us grow the Asian owned businesses.

• 24:19Speaker 03

  I'll give you an example. We have some really, really cool collaborations and ideas with Sweet Fix Creamery. They are not Asian owned, but they want to help the community so much. And so I've learned so much from working with them that, you know, there are so many businesses that really want to support the Asian owned businesses, support the Asian cuisines, support anything that we are, you know, trying to grow and support the economy for the county and for the greater good of the county. Um, and so we have really worked to partner with a lot of small businesses, whether that be Asian owned or not. We've got, um, you know, a combination for the month of May that includes some educational aspects,

• 25:00Speaker 03

  some panels, public safety forum, but we also really want the community to embrace the fun parts about, you know, the Asian culture and, uh, the cuisine. So we're doing some dumpling making. We're partnering with the Poke Express and a, a local wine shop, Wind Me Up Off Coffee. We're hosting dumpling making. We're doing some community paint night and that's with, uh, Corks and Strokes. Um, Maui Pho is another local Asian restaurant that we all know and love.

• 25:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 25:31Speaker 03

  Exactly. They're going to be donating some food. We're going to want our guests to try, you know, some of those staples that Maui Pho has. And we're still continuing to partner with so many different businesses and just organizations that really just want to help us spread the word and support us in all of these different aspects that we want to share with for the month of May.

• 25:52Speaker 01

  You answered my question about where you can find dumplings.

• 25:55Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 25:56Speaker 01

  Dumpling workshop.

• 25:57Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 25:58Speaker 01

  We had a listener, uh, message here. It says, hey, MoneyWise guys had no idea the Asian community had started a chamber. That's incredible. Please share their website or contact info when you get a chance. Stephen could probably put it in our podcast liner.

• 26:12Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 26:12Speaker 01

  But you can also share maybe how people can find out about this stuff.

• 26:16Speaker 04

  So we're on all the social media platforms at Current Asian Chamber. Um, and then we have our website, which is currentasianchamber.com. Pretty simple.

• 26:22Speaker 03

  And if you want to check out, yes, if you want to check out any of our events, um, if you go to our website. On KoreanAsianChamber.com, there's RSVP links, flyers, all of the information can be found on the website for RSVPing or purchasing any tickets.

• 26:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, fantastic. Before we let you go, just, now my mind's on dumplings. It is lunchtime, but June barbecue.

• 26:45Speaker 04

  Yes. They've been so good.

• 26:47Speaker 01

  So great, right? It's great to see him go from a truck to an in-house restaurant down here downtown, down the street from us here. Is there anywhere else that you could find? That's the only place I know where you can find dumplings.

• 27:01Speaker 04

  Malifa also has Shalhoub's.

• 27:02Speaker 01

  Oh, do they?

• 27:03Speaker 04

  And if you don't know what Shalhoub's are, those are the soup dumplings.

• 27:05Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 27:06Speaker 04

  There's a myriad of other places. And we're actually, Fun Fats, we're actually starting to compile a directory. And so let's say you're craving Korean food.

• 27:13Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 27:14Speaker 04

  Give us a year. Give us a year and we'll be like, okay.

• 27:16Speaker 03

  That's one of our long-term goals.

• 27:18Speaker 01

  So cool.

• 27:19Speaker 03

  There's also another vendor that's starting out. It's Happy Dumplings.

• 27:23Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 27:24Speaker 03

  They're at the Hagan Oaks Food Market.

• 27:26Speaker 01

  Oh, nice.

• 27:27Speaker 03

  So they're starting out. They have an Instagram, I believe, and I saw their menu and it looks delicious.

• 27:31Speaker 01

  Gosh, it's, they're just so good. Yeah, I'm hungry right now, but there's, again, it comes back to the diversity of Asian-Americans and it's not just, I mean, the food is incredibly diverse, but so same with the different backgrounds and what they bring to this community. So I want to thank you guys so much again for coming on the show. It's really, really appreciated. Keep up the good work and what you're doing to improve our community. Thank you again for coming on. It's Vivian and Jamila with the Asian Chamber, Korean Asian Chamber of Commerce. We're going to take a quick break and we'll be right back.

• 28:22Speaker 01

  Welcome back. We're MoneyWise. We're your hosts today, for the day. I'm Sharad Waite. That's Frank Lee. Sitting on the sideline, Zachamy, our MoneyWise intern.

• 28:32Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah. And soon to join us on future radio shows?

• 28:36Speaker 01

  Yeah, let's see.

• 28:38Speaker 02

  At least for the next month or two.

• 28:40Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 28:41Speaker 02

  Right?

• 28:42Speaker 01

  Yeah. That was great. It was great having Vivian and Jamila on.

• 28:45Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 28:46Speaker 01

  What's most inspiring to me is to see people, locals, people that are from here.

• 28:54Speaker 01

  Do are doing things certainly, but boy, when you see somebody that comes into town and goes, wait, you don't have a, you don't have a whatever, call it whatever, you don't have a dumpling shop. Well, go, I'm gonna go make one then, you know, I just love that. It's like the American dream. It's just the definition of the American dream.

• 29:12Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, it is. And it's, it definitely speaks to them as far as like that, that connection. Cause I mean, for a lot of us, we are first generation immigrants and, and we sort of need that connection, bridging the gap and saying like, hey, like, we're here to support you guys no matter where we're from. Either, you know, you're Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Filipino, whatever it is. It's like, we're here now, let's, let's, let's make those connections and support each other.

• 29:38Speaker 01

  Yeah. You brought up something I think we've talked about on the show before. And every time I talk about it, I don't have at my fingertips, this, the, the, the source. And so I'm always hesitant to talk about it, but there is academic evidence to show that first generation immigrants. So the children of immigrants have, are disproportionately contributing to the national economy. Meaning above, they're, they're, they're hitting above their weight class.

• 30:07Speaker 02

  Oh, yes, yes, yes.

• 30:08Speaker 01

  In terms of the, the other, the rest of the population and it, which kind of makes sense. Like there is oftentimes when a, when a, a family or, or a person makes a sacrifice or leaves their home country and then, and, and gives up, you know, their connection to their family, their community and goes and starts a new and a new country where sometimes they don't even know the language. There's a, a hidden, unspoken expectation on their kids. Where it's like, I went through this.

• 30:45Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 30:45Speaker 01

  I did all of this to get here and to get this job and to buy this house. And now to pay for your college or pay for your schooling, you can't fail. I'm not saying they say that, but there's almost like an unwritten rule.

• 30:58Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 30:58Speaker 01

  That is a kind of understood, you know?

• 31:01Speaker 02

  We've, we've endured so much in, in this. Transition to where like you you need to do better than us we've like our our parents that brought us here on You know, whatever they can, they're they're moving to a whole new country where they don't speak the language and they're getting by with Whatever jobs they can and supporting their children for that further education.

• 31:26Speaker 01

  Right.

• 31:26Speaker 02

  It's fueling that motivation and dedication to do better. It's like, hey, we brought you here for a reason.

• 31:32Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 31:33Speaker 02

  We're not doing this for our own glory. We're here to help you.

• 31:36Speaker 01

  Right.

• 31:36Speaker 02

  And and through a lot of that struggle, you you do see see that and I I can't find the the researcher study, but yes, we did talk about this how First, the the children of like first generation immigrants.

• 31:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 31:51Speaker 02

  Tend to contribute significantly to the US economy because they are

• 32:00Speaker 02

  Going into studies or furthering their education where they are getting these higher paying jobs.

• 32:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 32:06Speaker 02

  And so you are seeing some form of direct correlation in that.

• 32:10Speaker 01

  It it's it's a reminder of how this country was formed on We were all immigrants when the country was just starting out.

• 32:20Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 32:20Speaker 01

  Everybody was leaving their home country to Try to improve on their family and their future family's life and there were sacrifices that were made. People died. I mean, I had some of my my great great grandparents immigrated not for well, they immigrated from the from Europe to to escape religious prosecution. But then they then they immigrated from the East Coast to to the the Mountain West to also to escape religious prosecution In in the early 1800s or mid 1800s. And and so there was a there was this uprooting and and going over my grandmother was it was a Dust Bowl okie.

• 33:00Speaker 01

  It was was forced with her parents to to to leave Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl and to try to find a place To to better their family and they landed in California here in Kern County. And and so. Those, the children of those people are carrying the weight of their parents' burdens, almost like, like you know what mom and grandma suffered to, to, so that I could be here at this point with my, my new pair of shoes and, and my, my education. I don't want to let that down.

• 33:32Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 33:33Speaker 01

  You know, like, I've gotta make my life better than what their life was. And it's just a major, major economic driver.

• 33:41Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 33:41Speaker 01

  For, for the country.

• 33:43Speaker 02

  Yeah. I, I think they're saying that immigrants and, and childrens of immigrants hold nearly about 20% of like purchasing power in the US economy.

• 33:51Speaker 01

  Holy smoke.

• 33:52Speaker 02

  So that's, yeah, yeah.

• 33:53Speaker 01

  20% of the economy.

• 33:54Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah. When you, when you think about it, that's, that's, that's not a drop in the bucket. That's a huge portion.

• 33:59Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 33:59Speaker 02

  It's almost a quarter.

• 34:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 34:01Speaker 02

  So, uh, yes, it, it does make an impact. And going back to what you're saying, yeah, we don't want to bring shame to our families.

• 34:06Speaker 01

  Which I feel bad for.

• 34:08Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah. It's like, we, we've seen the struggles of our, of our parents and we want to do right by them and succeed, you know, to help them. So it, it does make an impact. And I, I think, you know, what the chamber is doing is, is they're doing a great job of it. And, uh, hopefully in the future I can join back in and, you know,

• 34:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 34:27Speaker 02

  help the cause.

• 34:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. Good on you for, you know, at least being a, a part of it. And, um, let's shift gears a little bit. We'll, we can talk a little bit more about the economy.

• 34:37Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 34:37Speaker 01

  Today, you know, we're looking at the markets right now, which are about to close in about eight minutes. The stock market will close. The S and P 500 is at 45 points. It's about six tenths of a percent. Uh, continuing on the gains from yesterday, which is about two and a half percent yesterday.

• 34:54Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 34:54Speaker 01

  So about 3% since the ceasefire.

• 34:56Speaker 02

  Yeah, there was a, there was a sharp gain after, after that, uh, news dropped.

• 35:00Speaker 01

  This morning.

• 35:01Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 35:01Speaker 01

  About, uh, Netanyahu and Israel, um, going into peace talks with Hezbollah and, and, um, uh, so that's, uh, that's significant right now in the markets where they're looking for any signs of the ceasefire falling apart.

• 35:16Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 35:16Speaker 01

  And so the fact that Israel's like, no, we're, we'll, we'll, we'll talk to, um, We'll talk to these people and maybe there'll be a ceasefire there.

• 35:28Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 35:28Speaker 01

  But yeah, and then even oil, oil was rebounding a little bit today. Yesterday, we saw the biggest drop in oil since 2020. I think it'd been almost five years since we'd seen that big of a drop in oil prices and global oil prices. But today, they kind of seem to be leveling right around a hundred bucks a barrel.

• 35:46Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah. And then, I mean, we'll just have to wait and see what comes out of the ceasefire for, you know, for that. But there's also other news in terms of like, I know we were just talking about it off the air, cryptocurrency. I know that was a big one.

• 36:04Speaker 01

  Satoshi Nakamoto.

• 36:06Speaker 02

  Nakamoto. I'm pretty interested to see like if they are close to it, because it's been decades since this, I don't want to say like witch hunt or something, but it's been decades since that they've been trying to hone in on the real owner of Satoshi Nakamoto.

• 36:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, the Bitcoin founder, basically. Whoever this Satoshi Nakamoto is, and it's not confirmed whether it's a real person or not, or it's just a pseudonym or who this person is, but they're sitting on a million Bitcoin, which doing the math is 70 to 80 billion dollars. This anonymous person, so essentially you have this billionaire, multi-multi-billionaire, they'd be in the top 20 in the world, wealthiest people in the world, that's completely anonymous.

• 36:54Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 36:55Speaker 01

  Or unknown. For those who don't know Satoshi Nakamoto, yesterday there was a New York Times

• 37:02Speaker 01

  article about research that had gone into trying to determine who this person is, analyzing writing style, old emails and forum posts, and looking at the timing of the activity and disappearances of the different, of the pool of a couple hundred people that could be Satoshi Nakamoto. And came down to this potential candidate, Adam Back is his name. He's an English cryptographer. Of course, he's coming out and saying, it's not me, it's absolutely not me. But that's exactly what Satoshi Nakamoto would say.

• 37:36Speaker 02

  That's funny. Yeah. I mean, for someone who has founded cryptocurrency Bitcoin, there's probably a reason why they want to stay hidden.

• 37:47Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 37:48Speaker 02

  You know, and not be known for the creation of Bitcoin itself. Whatever that reason may be, but you know, we can, we can only speculate. But yeah, to not want to be known and to be hidden, it's like, there's got to be a huge reason why.

• 38:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 38:06Speaker 02

  Right?

• 38:06Speaker 01

  Yeah. And even with that kind of, so it's 5% that this person owns. The founder or the creator of Bitcoin Satoshi Nakamoto owns 5% of all the Bitcoin that's out there. That's that, let's call it 80 billion. The total value of Bitcoin is about two and a half trillion, which may sound like a lot, folks, but it's, it's not a, it's not a very large percentage of the global equity market. If you look at the global stock market of close to 100 trillion,

• 38:39Speaker 01

  Bitcoin is just like eh, like crypto in general is just like eh, okay. It's like another little minor asset class, you know, that's in there. But because it is still, there is so much that is shrouded in mystery. It doesn't help it get into the mainstream. As hard as the crypto bros are trying, it's still not mainstream. Even with the perception that Wall Street has given that this is a, this is a legitimate, they're trying to legitimize this. You know, just money wise stance is that, is that this is a speculative, it's a purely speculative investment. There's no backing to this currency.

• 39:22Speaker 01

  It's, it's, it is, which makes it highly speculative, doesn't pay dividend. It's still in a largely unregulated territory. And so it should be treated as such.

• 39:35Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 39:37Speaker 02

  Do you know the OC actor Ben McKenzie?

• 39:41Speaker 01

  OC?

• 39:42Speaker 02

  Orange County?

• 39:44Speaker 01

  Oh, no.

• 39:45Speaker 02

  That's like back in the day.

• 39:46Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 39:46Speaker 02

  Well, he was one of the main actors, but did you know he's actually an economist?

• 39:50Speaker 01

  Uh-uh.

• 39:51Speaker 02

  Yeah. So, he's written a book about his viewpoints on cryptocurrency and why it's... He frames it as the biggest fraud in US.

• 40:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 40:02Speaker 02

  Because of that.

• 40:03Speaker 01

  That's like Jamie Dimon from the CEO of JP Morgan said the same thing. What Warren Buffett has said the same thing. They call it rat poison squared.

• 40:12Speaker 02

  So, it's... Yeah, and it's been interesting.

• 40:16Speaker 02

  But like, because he wrote that book and saying, basically, repeating what we're saying. It's like, there's no... There's nothing backing the cryptocurrency. So, at any point, if someone decides to sell it all, it just sells all. There's no safety net. There's nothing.

• 40:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, like if this person, Satoshi, cashes in his... The 5% stake that he's got in Bitcoin, that could impact.

• 40:42Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

• 40:44Speaker 01

  I love the technology, and that's where the confusion lies. It's like, there's a one... Yeah, the ledger, like this self-containing, self-regulating ledger is game changer.

• 40:54Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 40:54Speaker 01

  Like, yes, bring that. We can eliminate the middleman in so much of our financial transactions. Like, it doesn't make sense that banks shut down on the weekend. Why is that? You know? And so, I see some benefits in stripping out some of the human side of these transactions and making it more efficient and cheaper for us to do commerce.

• 41:16Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, exactly.

• 41:17Speaker 01

  But we are just in a lot of uncharted territory there. Hey, tomorrow's a great show. Nicholas Ortiz, the Senior Vice President of The Tone Ranch, will be joining us tomorrow on the Money Wise Show. Host Justin and Debbie will be live tomorrow at noon, so you're not going to want to miss that show. If you do miss it, don't worry. You can listen to this show or any of our past programs by subscribing to the Money Wise Podcast. It's commercial-free on all major podcast platforms like iTunes, Apple, and Spotify. And remember this: be smart, be safe, and always be money wise.