Pod Insights The Moneywise Guys 5/1/26 Money, Meaning & Giving: Markets, Buffett & Give Big Kern About this episode The Moneywise Radio Show and Podcast Friday, May 1st 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: Fatima "Teems" Tulfo, Interim CEO of the Kern Community Foundation websites: https://www.kernfoundation.org/ https://www.givebigkern.org/ The opinions voiced in this podcast are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. To determine which strategies or investments may be suitable for you, consult the appropriate qualified professional prior to making a decision. Teems Tulfo & The Kern Community Foundation are not affiliated with nor endorsed by LPL Financial or Moneywise Wealth Management].
Transcript 0:00 Speaker 00 Live from the basement inside the historic Woolworths Building in downtown Bakersfield. Call or text in at 661-396-1000.
0:09 Speaker 01 I need a dollar, dollar, dollar, that's what I need. Hey, hey, well, I need a dollar, dollar, dollar, that's what I need. Hey, hey, said I need a dollar, dollar, dollar, that's what I need. And if I share with you my story, would you share your dollar with me? Securities offered through LPL Financial, member FINRA, SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through LPL Financial. LPL Financial and MoneyWise Wealth Management are independently owned and operated.
0:37 Speaker 00 Now, let's start the MoneyWise Show.
0:41 Speaker 02 Hey, welcome to the Friday edition of the MoneyWise Show. Live from the basement of the historic Woolworths Building in downtown Bakersfield. For the next hour, you're on here with News Talk 96.1 and 1230 AM. KERN streaming as always, live at MoneyWiseGuys.com. You can listen to our past episodes on Spotify, Apple iTunes, I whatever. I'm not an Apple guy.
1:10 Speaker 03 All the different platforms.
1:11 Speaker 02 Yes, all the different platforms, all the platforms exist. And you can call or text into the show anytime, 24 hours a day. 661-396-1000, 661-396-1000. We did get a couple of questions here in the last 23 hours before we got back on the air. We'll get to those in just a moment, but we're going to do what we do. I'm your host, Justin Leland, here with.
1:35 Speaker 03 Frank Lee.
1:36 Speaker 02 Frank is joining us. Thanks for stepping in today.
1:38 Speaker 03 Yeah, of course, of course.
1:39 Speaker 02 Who wants to listen to Seth anyways?
1:41 Speaker 03 Yeah, no one wants to listen to Seth. I mean, I hear that guy's boring, you know, with his dad jokes and all that.
1:46 Speaker 02 Yeah, yeah. I mean, his dad jokes are, I mean, I got dad jokes.
1:50 Speaker 03 Yeah, yeah.
1:51 Speaker 02 I got dad jokes for days. His dad jokes are like wah wah. They're really.
1:58 Speaker 00 I think we need a battle.
1:59 Speaker 03 Yeah, I kind of want to see that battle now.
2:01 Speaker 00 I would, I would see that.
2:02 Speaker 02 Put, put me, me, Seth and KP.
2:07 Speaker 02 KP wins hands down.
2:08 Speaker 00 Properly.
2:09 Speaker 02 KP wins hands down.
2:12 Speaker 02 But yeah, it's, uh, yes. Sorry Seth, you know, he was supposed to be on the day. He's got a child that's a little under the weather. So we got the text message at like six o'clock this morning that we were gonna have to pivot. So Frank, thank you very much for joining us and stepping in on short notice. We're gonna get down to business, but we have a great show today. In the bottom half of the show, the bottom of the hour, we have Teams Tolfo, who is the interim CEO with the Kern Community Foundation. She'll be coming on and talking about a, uh, an event that's near and dear to my heart and then near and dear to our community's heart. Basically being put on by the Kern Community Foundation, which is Give Big Kern. So that's coming up next Tuesday. We're gonna talk about that.
2:56 Speaker 02 And so Teams will be joining us here in about a half an hour. But before we do that, we're gonna do what we do. We're gonna go over some numbers about an hour or so before the close of the markets. Frank, what's going on in the markets today, man?
3:10 Speaker 03 Yeah, I mean, big moves in the markets this week with all the earnings, uh, big tech week.
3:17 Speaker 02 Oh, yeah.
3:17 Speaker 03 The mag seven and everything, but as far as the markets outlook right now, Dow Jones about, uh, 17 basis points down. S and P 500 41 basis points up, NASDAQ 96 basis up.
3:32 Speaker 02 So a bit of a mixed market.
3:33 Speaker 03 Yeah, yeah. Russell 2K 33% basis points up. So mixed, mixed market, but overall green throughout.
3:42 Speaker 02 Yeah, mostly green. The Dow is down short, just a little tiny bit. But you know how we feel about the Dow, right, Stephen? We, how do we feel about the Dow? That's it. It's dumb.
3:53 Speaker 00 You know, when our show's getting younger, when these young'uns get in here and say Russell 2K.
3:58 Speaker 02 Russell 2K.
3:58 Speaker 00 I remember years and years, the Russell 2000.
4:01 Speaker 02 The Russell 2000.
4:02 Speaker 00 I like it. I like it. Russell 2K.
4:04 Speaker 02 The Russell 2K?
4:05 Speaker 00 Yeah.
4:06 Speaker 02 Yeah, we can see that Russell 2K and 4K now.
4:10 Speaker 03 We can, and it might be 8K soon. There's your dad joke.
4:15 Speaker 00 Let him, let him start.
4:16 Speaker 02 Hey, let him cook, let him cook. All right. Thanks Frank. So yeah, the market's basically today, mixed market, but for the most part, basically up. If we're really being honest. You know, so the S and P 500 up, NASDAQ up. You know, yesterday we got news that the, uh, the, um, uh, the economy is growing at a, a better than 2% annual pace. While that's good because it's up from what it was before. It was like 0.5% in the previous quarter. But you know, first quarter numbers coming in that GDP was growing at about 2% year over year. That's actually not a bad little place to be.
4:55 Speaker 02 Not where we want to be, like we want, want growth to be at or above 3% annualized.
5:04 Speaker 02 Cause then at that point, if we're getting GDP growth of 3%, then job growth is there, wage growth is there. All of these different metrics kind of flow into each other when you have a GDP that's growing in excess of about 3%. We've been, you know, here kind of hovering lower and we're getting around the 2% mark, which is not bad. This means that the economy is still growing. We're not in a recession and the economy is not, you know, stalling or anything like that. But it does put a little bit of pressure that we want to make sure that the, the economy is continuing to grow. Most of that number, let's be honest, most of that 2% number was pre this Iran conflict.
5:44 Speaker 02 Right? So now in essence though, we also have to remember that war unfortunately is profitable. So if you were looking at it from that standpoint, you know, uh, the defensive stocks, um, you know, Lockheed Martin and all those other, you know, stocks, Northrop.
6:00 Speaker 03 Boeing.
6:00 Speaker 02 Yeah, those are all in, in positive territory, obviously after this, this, you know, incursion. But the rest of the economy might not be feeling so hot in the, in the near term. So we'll see what it looks like when, if this, uh, if this conflict continues on any, for any length of time. What that does to GDP growth. But yeah, the GDP growth number that we got, most of that was attributable to numbers that were prior to the Iran conflict. So that we'll, we'll need to look at what happens in the July numbers for, for June, for the second quarter to kind of tell us what the, what the effect has been over that time. So anyhow.
6:39 Speaker 02 Frank, do you partake at all in any form of like prediction markets? Or say sports betting or anything like that?
6:50 Speaker 03 No, I don't, I don't know why. I, I just never really got into that. It just, it never.
6:56 Speaker 02 I know you pay attention to it, but you've never actually placed a bet.
6:59 Speaker 03 Yeah, I've never placed a bet.
7:00 Speaker 02 Okay. Steven, same question. Do you get into the prediction markets and, and place any bets?
7:06 Speaker 00 A little bit here, but not, not enough to say I'm, I'm a regular.
7:12 Speaker 02 Okay. So I'll, I'll leave you out of this comment then.
7:17 Speaker 00 Okay. I'm nervous, but yeah.
7:20 Speaker 02 Warren Buffett has come out and he explains that sports betting in simple terms is a tax on stupidity. But that's, that's his quote, not mine. Don't get, stay on that side of the glass there.
7:31 Speaker 00 I agree.
7:32 Speaker 02 Yeah. Um, and he has a point and we're gonna, we're, I want to go into this in a little detail because the, the point is that he makes is very, very valid. Now, this is based on the prediction markets like Kalshi and you know, whatever the, what's the other one?
7:47 Speaker 03 Polymarket.
7:48 Speaker 02 Polymarket. Um, there's a couple of these different places and then you have all of the gaming ones that, uh, you know, FanDuel and all the other.
7:56 Speaker 00 DraftKings.
7:56 Speaker 02 DraftKings, all of that kind of stuff, right? And you can make bets on the outcome of certain events. Um, and if you're, you know, uh, an army sergeant who's knows when an attack in Iran is going to happen and can make a quick, you know, 400 grand. Um, yeah, don't do that.
8:15 Speaker 03 Yeah.
8:15 Speaker 02 Uh, that, that's not okay.
8:17 Speaker 03 Was it, was it the Iran?
8:18 Speaker 02 It was, it was some kind of Iran or was it, um, it was some other, we were going into Venezuela.
8:24 Speaker 03 Yeah, yeah. The special forces guy. Yeah. Oh my God, that was.
8:27 Speaker 00 Yeah. Have you made bets on it?
8:28 Speaker 03 He made, he made a bet on it.
8:29 Speaker 02 So he's, he's in, he knows that he's getting deployed.
8:33 Speaker 03 Yeah.
8:33 Speaker 02 So he goes on to Polymarket. I think he went on to Polymarket or was it Kalshi? He went on one of those.
8:38 Speaker 03 Yeah.
8:38 Speaker 02 He placed a bet for like, I want to say it was like 15 or $30,000, right? He placed $30,000 knowing full well that he was going to cash in, right? That's not a bet. That's a, I'm cashing in.
8:51 Speaker 03 Yeah.
8:51 Speaker 02 And so then he's deployed, all of a sudden he ticks off the, the win.
8:56 Speaker 03 Yep.
8:57 Speaker 02 Right?
8:57 Speaker 03 Yep.
8:58 Speaker 02 Promptly pockets like 400 grand.
9:01 Speaker 02 And gets arrested and is now facing a court martial and jail time and all of the above.
9:07 Speaker 03 That's what we call insider trading.
9:12 Speaker 03 It's like, oh, this is going down.
9:14 Speaker 00 It was like a guy at the Super Bowl this last year. They they have silly bets that they make, these prop bets.
9:19 Speaker 02 Oh, yeah. It's like, who's gonna, who's gonna, not even the who's gonna kick the first touchdown or, or, you know, get the first touchdown. It's who's gonna pick up the, uh, the, the T.
9:30 Speaker 00 They do the color of the Gatorade. They do all these, but they had a bet this year that was the over or under on how long the Star Spangled Banner was. This guy, this guy lived in Valencia. He knew that they were, uh, doing warmups the day before. So he sat in the parking lot and timed it. And then made the bet. And they.
9:53 Speaker 02 And he wins.
9:54 Speaker 00 And that's why, I mean, when you make these huge bets, they investigate and sure enough, they had them on tape with a stopwatch.
10:01 Speaker 02 But isn't that, that's not insider at that point. That's like.
10:04 Speaker 00 Kinda. I mean, it's kinda genius.
10:06 Speaker 02 It is kinda genius. I mean, nobody told him. It's not like he was ordered.
10:10 Speaker 00 But they did find out he worked for the stadium, so you can't make bets on it.
10:14 Speaker 02 Yeah. Okay. Gotcha. Like if he works at Gillette Stadium and he's trying to figure.
10:17 Speaker 00 These big bets, it's like, one, it's a crazy bet to take and two, when you go that big.
10:23 Speaker 03 Right. Again, to, to your point and to actually Warren's point is that there is records.
10:29 Speaker 02 Yeah.
10:29 Speaker 03 And what I mean by track records. So if, yeah, if someone sees that you made a huge win on one singular bet, it's like, okay, that's.
10:37 Speaker 02 And you've never bet before in your life and all of a sudden it's like.
10:39 Speaker 03 It's like, yeah.
10:40 Speaker 02 Yeah.
10:40 Speaker 00 The new subscriber just started, wins big, signs out.
10:45 Speaker 03 Yeah. It's a red flag there.
10:46 Speaker 02 Now, here's the one thing I do want to say about the sports betting side of things, because there is legitimate sports betting, you know, you're not gaming the system, so to speak. But back in the day, prior to DraftKings, prior to FanDuel, all of these different, you know, sites. If you were gonna make a bet on a sports game, who did you go to? You didn't do it online. You went to Vegas, you went to a legit, either a legitimate sports book, or you had a bookie. And it was totally illegal. It was off book and, you know, you'd place your bets.
11:21 Speaker 02 The advent of these gaming sites where states are now able to start taxing the revenue from that, right? Because now it's, hey, you know, we're legalizing sports betting. So in these states, you can do it. And so they do it. Now the states are making tax revenue off of it. So who's benefiting more from the sports betting? The guy who's making the bet and losing? Or the state of Indiana or whatever? Right? So the states, sports betting alone, in 2025, just sports betting, raised $2.9 billion in tax revenue for states that
12:05 Speaker 02 have legalized it. Think about that for a minute. So every time you hear a commercial and it says, you know, please gamble responsibly, or no, what they're saying is, please lose responsibly because we need the tax revenue. They're not in it, these sports betting sites are not in it to pay you a lot of money. They're there to make them money. And then the state is like, looking the other way because they know they're getting all of this revenue for taxes.
12:33 Speaker 00 Yeah, they get their cut.
12:34 Speaker 03 And so they are getting their cut.
12:36 Speaker 02 And so Warren's point is to say, hey, that's, that's taking advantage of people who don't know better. Because the rich don't bet on sports. Their bets are much bigger. But it's not on sports and it's usually not a bet. They, and he's looking at it's like, it actually reduces my tax liability. Because if the state's making this much extra money off of sports betting, $3 billion or so in a single year, that means that I don't have to necessarily pay as much. And so they're not looking at the right places. It's a regressive tax.
13:15 Speaker 02 Right.
13:15 Speaker 00 So even if you win this big money.
13:18 Speaker 02 Yeah, you get taxed.
13:18 Speaker 00 Still paying taxes.
13:19 Speaker 02 Right. Even if you win, any bet that you place, there's going to be a tax that's associated with it. And the state of whoever is going to benefit and.
13:28 Speaker 00 So my question is, why are certain states legal, but certain aren't like California?
13:35 Speaker 02 California is not.
13:35 Speaker 00 They don't allow sports betting, which is silly to me, but.
13:39 Speaker 02 Is it though?
13:41 Speaker 00 Kind of. I mean, what with the way you're talking about with the, the state can collect all this.
13:46 Speaker 02 Tax revenue.
13:47 Speaker 00 Tax money and.
13:48 Speaker 02 Well, it's, I mean, we can go back to the age old question of Kern County and not taxing weed.
13:53 Speaker 00 Right. Yeah.
13:54 Speaker 02 Right. And in all of that. So it's, you know.
13:57 Speaker 03 Plus California has a GDP of what?
13:59 Speaker 02 It's the fourth largest economy in the world or whatever.
14:01 Speaker 03 Yeah. And so that, that portion of the sports gambling, although it can help, it's not like.
14:06 Speaker 02 It's not going to close any gaps.
14:07 Speaker 03 Exactly.
14:08 Speaker 02 Maybe it will. I mean, there's enough people in California that would probably even bet.
14:12 Speaker 03 Oh, yeah. Yeah. True. True enough. We don't know the numbers, but if it does, then it could be, you know, a debatable topic.
14:18 Speaker 02 Yeah. I just, I look at it in the terms of like, you know, if you're, if you're an ultra wealthy individual and you don't make these bets, you're not paying that tax. But if you're dumb and you love the Rams and you place a bet that they're going to beat the Seattle Seahawks and you lose.
14:33 Speaker 00 Right. I mean, we, we had the lottery.
14:35 Speaker 02 Right. But I mean, well, that's affected. That's another one where the lottery is, I'm sorry to say, but it's a tax on the poor. Because you're, you're, you're, you're taxing people for the, um, the idea. Right. Because what, what are you doing with that lottery ticket? You, you're buying a lottery ticket, but in your mind, you're, you already won in your head.
14:58 Speaker 00 You're already planning it out.
14:59 Speaker 02 You've already planned out what you're going to do with that money and how you're going to spend it and all, you know, the, the, the nice cars and the house and all the other stuff you're going to do with it. So it's a tax on, on, you know, the, the mindset of, hey, I'm going to win this money. And when you don't, you continue to do it. So it's just a tax, again, it's a tax on the stupid or the tax on, you know, it's just, it's, it's not. Beneficial to do that and the wealthy don't play those games. Like I said, they gamble in much bigger arenas.
15:30 Speaker 00 Yeah, I mean, there was a, what was the basketball player just a couple of weeks ago got popped because they, he was doing gambling, but it was more of the poker tables.
15:39 Speaker 02 Right.
15:40 Speaker 00 And he was ripping them off because they had see-through tables.
15:42 Speaker 02 Oh, yeah.
15:43 Speaker 00 And, and they were going gambling big and now he's lost his job, the coaches.
15:47 Speaker 02 Lost everything.
15:48 Speaker 00 Couple of players and I mean, a lot of, I think the NCAA got it right because the, the younger kids do, they gamble, they, they are hooked on DraftKings, they're hooked on these types of things. But with the NCAA, if you're on a scholarship, you have an $800 limit.
16:03 Speaker 02 Right.
16:03 Speaker 00 And they track everything you do.
16:05 Speaker 02 Every dime.
16:05 Speaker 00 And the number one rule is you can't bet on your sport and you can't bet on the team you play with.
16:11 Speaker 02 Or on yourself or anything, yeah. And yeah, and then you look at the things like what happened in Major League Baseball with the pitcher that was, you know, oh, the, the stupid, like you said, the stupid bets of like the color of the Gatorade. No, they were betting on, is the first pitch of the inning going to be a strike or a ball?
16:25 Speaker 00 Yeah, it's gotten so crazy.
16:26 Speaker 02 He'd make the bet and he'd be like, it's going to be a ball because he knew, because I'm going to throw it over the guy's head. And he would make that bet. And so then they caught on to this thing happening because it happened like a dozen times. It was not, it was not a one-time thing. And finally he got caught and now he's suspended and, you know, probably not going to be playing in the league for much longer.
16:44 Speaker 00 Yeah, ever.
16:45 Speaker 02 Yeah.
16:46 Speaker 00 It's insane. But yeah, my, back to my question. I mean, if California can have the lottery and they can have all these other things, that we can have casinos. We have certain bars that you can have horse racing.
16:57 Speaker 02 Right.
16:57 Speaker 00 But for some reason, we just can't have sports gambling.
17:01 Speaker 02 This is why we can't have nice things.
17:02 Speaker 00 I don't get it.
17:03 Speaker 02 Yeah, I, it is kind of this weird kind of, you know, some things are legal, some things are not. Some states it's great, some, some states it's not.
17:11 Speaker 00 I get it.
17:12 Speaker 02 I, I don't know. I mean, maybe they're leaving tax revenue on the, on the sidelines, but yeah.
17:17 Speaker 03 Maybe new governor will take a look at this.
17:19 Speaker 02 Yeah, maybe. I don't know. Don't know. But yeah, I, I kind of agree with Warren Buffett though, because it's, it is one of those things where it's like, this tax revenue is regressive. It's, it's somebody else is paying for it. You know, is what it is. We are going to take a very quick break and we're going to come back and we're going to talk about a little bit about 401Ks and aging Americans when we come back.
17:47 Speaker 02 Welcome back to the show.
17:50 Speaker 02 Money Wise here.
17:53 Speaker 02 I'm your host, Justin, here with Frank.
17:59 Speaker 02 So, you know, many, many media reports list things like market volatility, rising costs like inflation.
18:08 Speaker 02 And, you know, all of those things as being risks to your retirement savings. But a new study came out by LIMRA, which finds that age-related cognitive decline can also jeopardize retirement security. The report was named, and if you want to look it up, the report is, quote, "Decision risk and the desirability of protected income." Okay, that's the name of the, of the report. And it shows how cognitive decline can lead to decision-making risk, where retirees make choices that can threaten their savings, including, you know, missing payments or accidental fraud. I mean, we've seen this in our own practice where people get, you know,
18:54 Speaker 02 fraudsters are out there, right? And, and as people age, you know, cognitive decline kind of takes hold, and it becomes a lot easier for people to make mistakes and believe that, hey, their grandson is being held in a prison in Tijuana, right? And they don't have grandchildren, right? That, that kind of a thing. And it just, it, it does kind of rear its ugly head. So the study then shows, um, close to 30%, 30% of adults over the age of 65
19:28 Speaker 02 have experienced a drop in cognitive capacity. One of the first skills to diminish. Is financial management and financial acumen.
19:37 Speaker 03 Yep.
19:37 Speaker 02 Is one of the first things that starts to diminish over the age of 65. An estimated 15% of adults over the age of 65 live with Alzheimer's disease or with related conditions such as vascular or frontal temporal dementia, while another 15% live with mild cognitive impairment, a condition that shows cognitive decline and cognitive capacity, but does not meet the clinical threshold for like dementia or Alzheimer's.
20:06 Speaker 02 So this is a good place to kind of talk about the, the need for older, our older community to really trust good advisors to be able to help them make those financial decisions for them. Cause here's the thing, most, you know, and when you make these decisions, the, um, a lot of the decision-making processes are decisions that are made out of either fear or greed, which we're all susceptible to. All of us are susceptible to fear or greed.
20:47 Speaker 02 But a person that's experiencing some kind of cognitive decline, the, um, the barriers to making that decision are almost dropped.
21:01 Speaker 03 Yeah.
21:02 Speaker 02 You know, somebody who isn't experiencing that kind of same decline would look at the fear and the greed and be like, you know what? That's being greedy. That's being fearful. Maybe I'm in the right place. I'm just going to stick where I'm at.
21:13 Speaker 03 Yeah.
21:14 Speaker 02 Whereas the other individual might make a decision that is very, very detrimental to their future income, either by being too conservative or too aggressive.
21:24 Speaker 03 Yeah.
21:24 Speaker 02 You can be both. And so we just want to make sure that if you're in a, if you're over the age of 65 and you need additional help with making those decisions, talk to a financial advisor.
21:35 Speaker 03 Yep.
21:36 Speaker 02 We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we have Teams Tolfo from Kern Community Foundation, joining us to talk about Give Big Kern. We'll be right back.
22:01 Speaker 02 Isn't this the song that they were forced to like change the lyrics on David Letterman?
22:09 Speaker 02 Back in the day, the censors were like, no, you can't say that.
22:13 Speaker 00 Frank's like, who's Letterman?
22:14 Speaker 02 Who's Letterman?
22:16 Speaker 03 Hey, Red Hot Chili Peppers, man.
22:17 Speaker 02 At least he knows that.
22:18 Speaker 03 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
22:21 Speaker 02 Welcome back to the Money Wise Show. I'm Justin Leland here with Frank Lee, taking you into the weekend. T minus 26 minutes.
22:30 Speaker 04 Almost there.
22:31 Speaker 02 We're almost there.
22:32 Speaker 00 Almost.
22:32 Speaker 02 Almost there.
22:35 Speaker 02 We are joined by a good friend, um, good friend of the show, good friend of mine, uh, Teams Tolfo, who is the interim CEO at the Kern Community Foundation, uh, joining us right now. Teams, thank you for joining us.
22:48 Speaker 04 Thanks for having me.
22:48 Speaker 02 That's great to see you in the studio. Um, there's a small event, really tiny, tiny event that's happening next week. Would you mind telling us about it?
23:01 Speaker 04 I'm not sure if you've heard of it, but it's called Give Big Kern.
23:04 Speaker 02 It's, yeah.
23:05 Speaker 03 Wait, it's a small event?
23:06 Speaker 02 It's a small event, but it's big. It's big's in the name.
23:08 Speaker 04 Yeah. So Give Big Kern, it happens every year. It's the first Tuesday in May.
23:14 Speaker 02 Yes.
23:15 Speaker 04 And it's basically the offset of, um, Giving Tuesday, but more of a countywide.
23:21 Speaker 02 Yes. So there's Giving Tuesday, and that's usually, uh, what, December?
23:26 Speaker 04 It's December now. Before, it used to be November.
23:28 Speaker 02 Yeah, it was like after Thanksgiving kind of a thing or whatever. But yeah, it's more like late in November, early December. And so we've always wanted to kind of look at it from a standpoint of, hey, halfway through the year or like six months after that, maybe we should do something that's countywide.
23:43 Speaker 04 Yeah.
23:43 Speaker 02 So how does the Kern Community Foundation fit into this Giving Day?
23:48 Speaker 04 So we are the host and we are, we provide platform for the nonprofits. We provide the training, materials, all that to help them succeed in fundraising.
23:59 Speaker 02 Yes. And so, you know, this has been going on now for how many years? This is?
24:04 Speaker 04 10.
24:05 Speaker 02 This is the 10th year?
24:05 Speaker 04 Year.
24:06 Speaker 02 My goodness, how time flies. This is the 10th year that we've been doing Give Big Kern. And so... Essentially, though, you know, like you said, Kern Community Foundation is the host. Kern Community Foundation doesn't make any money off of this day unless there's donations that go directly to Kern Community Foundation.
24:28 Speaker 02 But there's, how many nonprofits are not signed up at this point?
24:32 Speaker 04 Right now, it's our largest ever and we're over 145 nonprofits.
24:37 Speaker 02 Wow, so 150 or so nonprofits in our community are linked up through this website with the Kern Community Foundation.
24:48 Speaker 02 Donations are live now.
24:49 Speaker 04 Yeah.
24:49 Speaker 02 People can actually go into the website now and actually donate, but the big, the big moment is, is Give Big Kern, which is next Tuesday.
24:59 Speaker 02 And these organizations are going to be getting, you know, donations from all of us as, as community members.
25:07 Speaker 02 Tell me a little bit about, you know, past years and what are the goals for this year?
25:12 Speaker 04 So last year, we raised, oh, I say we, but the nonprofits raised one, over 1.7 million dollars. Yeah.
25:19 Speaker 02 Holy cow, that was, okay, so I know when we first started doing Give Big Kern, it was like, okay, 300,000, 500,000, 600,000, we were kind of in that range. 1.7 million dollars.
25:32 Speaker 04 Yeah.
25:32 Speaker 02 In a single day, given to Kern County nonprofits for whatever organization that goes to.
25:40 Speaker 04 Yeah, so whatever they raise goes directly to their bank account.
25:44 Speaker 02 To their operations.
25:45 Speaker 04 It's unrestricted funds.
25:47 Speaker 02 Oh, okay, so, so it's unrestricted funds, so it's, it's also one of those things where it's not like, hey, this is earmarked for XYZ's nonprofit, they're going to build this thing and it has to be used for that. This is unrestricted funds that the nonprofit can use basically for whatever's needed for that nonprofit.
26:02 Speaker 04 Yep.
26:03 Speaker 02 That's amazing. That is really amazing. So, teams, how long have you been with the Kern Community Foundation?
26:09 Speaker 04 Four years now.
26:10 Speaker 02 Four years. Four years in the interim CEO.
26:13 Speaker 04 Yeah, it flies by too.
26:15 Speaker 02 It does.
26:18 Speaker 02 You know, it's.
26:21 Speaker 02 It is a labor of love, I think, with the the foundation to put on an event like this.
26:29 Speaker 02 Using their platform, using their
26:34 Speaker 02 their, I guess you could say their soapbox and using that platform to be able to do such great work in the community, not just for for themselves, but for all of the community and all of the nonprofits. So, you know, how how does somebody at this point get involved and actually start, you know, looking at the website and donating funds? How can they do that?
26:57 Speaker 04 So anyone could go to our website, which is www.givebigkern.org. And if you click on the search button on the top, you'll see all the different nonprofits that are participating. All of them have been legit, verified, making sure, fully vetted, you know, IRS, franchise, tax board compliant. And so if you don't know a nonprofit, you could actually search by causes or something that you're really passionate about and just really learn about the different nonprofits that we have there. Cause they tell their story. They have the different programs.
27:30 Speaker 03 I'm actually going through the list right now.
27:31 Speaker 02 Yeah. So is any of the nonprofits are, you know, can't say which nonprofits, but are there any causes that like, you know, snag you right now? Like where you're looking at it like, oh, animals or, you know, children's or medical or, you know, all of these different organizations, right?
27:53 Speaker 03 I will say, one of the goals for Jackie, my wife, is to have something for pets.
28:00 Speaker 02 Oh, yeah.
28:00 Speaker 03 So I'm pretty sure there's something.
28:02 Speaker 02 Animal related.
28:03 Speaker 03 Animal related.
28:04 Speaker 02 Animal rescue.
28:05 Speaker 03 Yeah, yeah.
28:06 Speaker 04 There's a lot and there's even new ones. And if you want to look at nonprofits that support animals in a rural area, you have that too.
28:13 Speaker 02 Right.
28:14 Speaker 04 Yeah.
28:14 Speaker 02 And so this is all just not just nonprofits here in Bakersfield. We're talking all throughout the county. So there's Ridgecrest to Taft to Maricopa to, you know, Delano. There's all these different nonprofits all throughout the community and all through the county.
28:30 Speaker 03 I I do have a question. As a nonprofit, I I heard about GuideStar. What does that really mean as as for a nonprofit?
28:42 Speaker 04 So GuideStar is basically this platform with Candid that pulls all of the tax information, all the 990s, just to make sure that they are compliant. And they have different levels on there. So it starts off bronze, silver, gold, and platinum. The more information you have on there, the higher rating you'll be. So it's the more transparent you are, the higher.
29:05 Speaker 02 The higher your rating.
29:06 Speaker 04 Yeah.
29:07 Speaker 02 It's almost like a morning star for stocks and mutual funds, right? You know, GuideStar winds up being the same for for the nonprofits. And I think one of the things that they look at certain ratios, right? If you if I'm, correct me if I'm wrong, teams, but GuideStar will look at ratios of like how much of the funds that are donated to that organization actually go to the work that they're speaking of rather than to say salaries, administration, all these other things. And so that becomes part of the ranking is, you know, if you're giving a dollar and only 80 cents of it is going to the and 20% is going to administration, do you really want the money going there? Or is there a similar organization where 95% of the money goes to the the cause versus?
29:49 Speaker 03 Yeah. So in in order for a nonprofit to be listed on Kern Community Foundation, do they have to have that GuideStar?
29:56 Speaker 04 Yes.
29:56 Speaker 03 Okay.
29:57 Speaker 04 Yeah.
29:57 Speaker 02 So they have to go through the process. And then once they're on the website, they're on the Give Big Kern website. They're then able to then receive those funds.
30:05 Speaker 03 Interesting.
30:06 Speaker 02 So.
30:07 Speaker 03 Learning something new.
30:07 Speaker 02 You know, it's going to be a great. So the the kickoff is Tuesday.
30:12 Speaker 04 Yes.
30:12 Speaker 02 At.
30:13 Speaker 04 Bright and early.
30:14 Speaker 02 Bright and early at 6 a.m.
30:18 Speaker 02 At the at where?
30:19 Speaker 04 At the historic Liberty Belt downtown.
30:22 Speaker 02 Yes, okay. So 6 a.m. That's the kickoff at the Liberty Bell. And then we'll have a watch party later on. But basically, what is it? Day of, day of Cinco de Mayo. Give Big Kern is on Tuesday, May 5th. All day. In fact, you can actually start donating now if you can get on there and actually look at it. See what organizations float your boat and start donating money now. You can also donate not just money, but you can donate what?
30:50 Speaker 04 Time.
30:51 Speaker 02 Yeah, you can volunteer hours.
30:52 Speaker 03 That's one.
30:53 Speaker 04 Yeah.
30:53 Speaker 02 Yeah. If you're not a wealthy individual and you don't want to give the money, you can always give your time. And I'm telling you right now, nonprofits actually probably prefer that in many cases, too.
31:01 Speaker 04 Yeah.
31:02 Speaker 03 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
31:02 Speaker 02 Right? Hey, get some sweat equity in there, right? So, um, teams, thank you so much for joining us today. Give Big Kern is on Tuesday. We're going to make sure that all of the links and everything are on the podcast notes so people can get there and do that. Is there anything else you wanted to join and tell us about?
31:21 Speaker 04 No, I just want to say thanks for having me. This is really fun and I'll do this again next time.
31:26 Speaker 02 Absolutely, yes. Look forward to it. Teams, thank you so much for joining us. We're going to be right back.
31:41 Speaker 02 All right, welcome back.
31:44 Speaker 02 Some 46 and 2 before we go into the weekend. Some tool.
31:51 Speaker 02 Got a message here says, "Nice pull. Haven't heard that Tom Petty song in a long time." That was a deep cut. That's, that's my deep cut.
32:01 Speaker 02 Let me some Tom Petty from time to time.
32:05 Speaker 02 So we had a couple of questions that cop came in. We did get a chance to, and thank you so much to teams for joining us from the Kern Community Foundation. Everybody listening, please go out there and take a look at the givebigkern.org website. Find the organization or organizations that float your boat and give generously. It's a, it's a big day for us as a community to donate to those organizations that maybe don't get a lot of airtime. And we have so many great organizations in our community. They all need our help and it's up to us to help fund them. So definitely do that.
32:46 Speaker 02 So yeah, we got another message. We have so many great nonprofits in town. I wish I could donate to all of them. Yeah, me too. Right? And volunteers, by all means, you can go onto that same website, givebigkern.org and you can donate, donate your time.
33:01 Speaker 03 Yeah, and it varies depending on what it is that they need.
33:04 Speaker 02 Yeah, every organization needs something different.
33:06 Speaker 03 Yeah, yeah, it'd be, you know, helping out with the shelter or organizing clothes or
33:12 Speaker 02 Right.
33:12 Speaker 03 reorganizing something.
33:13 Speaker 02 So we had a couple of questions. I want to go ahead and take time to answer those questions that came in over the past 23 and a half hours, last segment before we go into the weekend. So hit me with the questions there, Frank. What do we got?
33:28 Speaker 03 Yeah, I'll start with the first one. Glad to hear you guys back on Kern. How is Gero?
33:34 Speaker 02 Funny enough, Gero was here actually yesterday.
33:37 Speaker 03 Oh, yeah, that's right.
33:37 Speaker 02 We had an event down here in the basement. And so a lot of his former clients and, you know, other, other friends, close family members and such, all came in and had a good time. He's doing fine. He's doing fantastic. You know, communication is still going to be a problem, but he's still the same Gero.
33:56 Speaker 03 Yeah.
33:57 Speaker 02 Right? You see him and the love in his eyes, the love in his heart, you can, you can feel it.
34:01 Speaker 03 Yeah. Every time I seen him yesterday when I ran into him.
34:05 Speaker 02 Yeah.
34:06 Speaker 03 He's seen me and recognized me from, from previous times.
34:09 Speaker 02 Oh, yeah.
34:10 Speaker 03 You know, always had just a big smile and wave hi and everything.
34:13 Speaker 02 Yeah, he's just, he's, he's a light. He is a, he is a wonderful, wonderful human.
34:18 Speaker 03 Yeah. All right. Next question.
34:21 Speaker 02 Yeah.
34:21 Speaker 03 With home prices and interest rates where they are, does it still make sense to try and buy here in town? Or should people just keep renting now? Big Ed.
34:31 Speaker 02 So this is a double edged sword. Home prices and interest rates are always going to be a concern when dealing with buying a house. However,
34:42 Speaker 02 if you're planning on living in a, in a location for 10 years or more.
34:50 Speaker 02 It almost always makes more sense to buy that home. Right? Because you know that your mortgage payment is going to be the same. Right? You know, it varies very, very slightly if, if your taxes, you know, property taxes go up or, you know, other things like that, but it's marginal, right? If you're paying $2,000 a month for a mortgage, you know, 10 years from now, you're going to be paying 200, you know, $2,013 a month for mortgage. So it's not a, you're going to see the mortgage basically being the same. Rent, however, you know, unless you have a landlord that's going to leave rent the same and is not going to move it,
35:33 Speaker 02 that rent's going to jump by 5% a year or more, right? So you're constantly going to be trying to play catch up with what the rent prices are going to be.
35:45 Speaker 02 Now, if you're looking at Kern County, if you're talking about affordability, there's no place in California more affordable than right here.
35:53 Speaker 03 Yeah. Average rent price in California, you're looking at 2,600 on average. In Bakersfield, Kern County, it's right around 14, 15.
36:05 Speaker 02 Yeah.
36:06 Speaker 03 Yeah, maybe, yeah, maybe a little lower.
36:08 Speaker 02 Yeah, affordability wise. Now, as far as mortgages are concerned, yeah, you can buy a decent house in Kern County. I think the median house price is what 400,000, 390, something like that?
36:18 Speaker 03 Yeah.
36:21 Speaker 02 Even with the, even with the higher interest rate, you can, you can get a decent mortgage. It's not going to be, it's not going to be a killer mortgage.
36:27 Speaker 03 Yeah.
36:29 Speaker 02 More than maybe a rent, but again, going back to what I talked about before, you know what your cost is going to be for the next 10, 15 years.
36:36 Speaker 03 Yeah. And, and I think to also consider is the amount of income that you're bringing in.
36:41 Speaker 02 Will change. It will go up and those types of things. And so, you know, I'm a big believer in buying over renting, but you know, if you're going to be in a location and this is a quick stopover and you're going to be leaving in the next three to five years, maybe renting is the better option, right? But. You know, I'm always going to lean towards the sides of buying. It's just, you know, fiscally, uh, fiscally responsible in most cases to do. Uh, what's the last question we got there?
37:08 Speaker 03 So, last question is, uh, my property taxes and insurance keep going up and it feels like the state are pushing some of us out. Yeeks. How do you plan for those kinds of increases when you are on a fixed income? Great question.
37:23 Speaker 02 Yeah, I feel you. Um.
37:27 Speaker 02 Insurance is probably the biggest bugaboo out there right now. Um, cause the insurance rates do keep going up and up and up and up and there it seems like no, no end in sight.
37:40 Speaker 02 Property taxes seemingly, you know, every time that there's a, you know, Kern County and Bakersfield have never met a bond measure. They don't, they don't vote for and like, and so those taxes kind of increase your, your property taxes as well. And so, yes, I feel you now with being on a fixed income adds another wrinkle into this. And there are things that you can do. So, and this pain is felt throughout California, not just here in Bakersfield, but everywhere, right? Now, there are a couple of things that you can do.
38:18 Speaker 02 Um, for property tax relief, the state of California, state controllers, um, property tax postponement program.
38:28 Speaker 02 This is a state program that allows for seniors, uh, individuals that are blind or those with a disability to defer current year property taxes on their principal residence. It can't be done for, you know, rentals or anything like that. It's your principal residence. If you meet certain criteria and guidelines, including at least 40% equity in the home, annual household income of, you know, less than say $56,000, you know, taxes don't go away, but they're secured by a lien on the property and must be repaid when the home is either sold or transferred. It can provide a critical kind of help for somebody who literally can't afford to make it.
39:13 Speaker 02 Now, again, it's income driven, it's means tested, right? But that's one option for people that are like, hey, my income is below a certain level. Hey, can I tack this on to the back of my loan or whatever? This lean process can happen.
39:30 Speaker 02 Prop 19 is a law that we passed back in, what was it, 2020, I think it was? So the base year transfer, if you're over the age of 55, Proposition 19 allows for people over the age of 55, or who are severely disabled at any age, to transfer the taxable value of their primary residence to a replacement residence anywhere in the state. So, i.e., let's say you have a property tax here in Kern County. You bought the house back in the 70s. You're still living it and your property taxes are like 600 bucks a year. You know, they're miniscule, right? Well, if you were to downsize that home and, under normal circumstances,
40:13 Speaker 02 move into another home and sell your home for whatever the cost is and move into it and downsize the home, but the value of the home is higher than what it was when you bought that house in the 70s, right? What is your property tax going to be on that property that's now a $500,000 property? Probably $5,000 or $6,000. Well, under Prop 19, if done properly, you can transfer your $600, you know, property tax number to that other property.
40:40 Speaker 03 Oh, I see.
40:41 Speaker 02 Right? So you're not having an increase, but you have to be over the age of 55. You have to go through these certain hoops to do it, but you can do it.
40:50 Speaker 02 And also double check and make sure that your home, if it's a primary residence, that you go to the Kern County Assessor's Office and make sure that you list your property as, and it's registered as a primary residence. Okay? What that does is it reduces your tax, your assessed value on your property by $7,000. And maybe it doesn't seem like a lot. But it's going to save a little bit of money on your taxes if you make sure that it's listed as a primary residence. Okay. Insurance is going to be a harder one. You're going to have to shop around and find something that fits your needs.
41:34 Speaker 02 The California fare plan is the California, you know, insurer of last resort. So if your insurance is through USAA and they're going to drop you or Allstate or whoever and it's going to drop you, you know, the insurer of last resort is the California fare plan. And, you know, it's not going to be cheap, but it's also, and it's not great, great insurance, but at least it keeps you insured and keeps the house properly insured. That's a, that's a difficult one, but I do feel for those individuals who are in a situation where, hey, I'm on a fixed income.
42:13 Speaker 02 You know? And my COLA adjustment. So these COLA adjustments are almost a joke to a certain degree. So without getting into too much detail, my wife gets a pension. And her pension, she gets a COLA adjustment and her COLA adjustment is 3%. Well, the cost of living is more than 3% over the last three years.
42:37 Speaker 03 Yep.
42:38 Speaker 02 But she gets, she's capped at 3%.
42:39 Speaker 03 Yep.
42:40 Speaker 02 So we've actually gone backwards on her income because she showed me yesterday, she took her calculator and it's like, my COLA adjustment was less than $90 a month. And I'm like, girl, go get yourself some highlights, you know, like, spend it, spend it, baby. And it's like 90 bucks.
43:00 Speaker 03 Yeah.
43:01 Speaker 02 Our, the, the cost of our grocery bill has gone up a heck of a lot more than 90 bucks.
43:06 Speaker 03 Yeah.
43:07 Speaker 02 Right? So the COLA adjustments are kind of like, uh, so I feel you. If you're on a fixed income.
43:13 Speaker 03 Yeah.
43:13 Speaker 02 I get it. I get it. It's tough. But there are avenues, there's ways to do it.
43:20 Speaker 02 Check with the county, check with some of these offerings to be able to maybe lower or, you know, help with the property tax side. Uh, cause that's the easiest way is you can go through the state or the county to be able to help with the, the property tax. Insurance is a completely different ball of wax, you know? But I, I feel for people that are on that fixed income having to, having to make those decisions.
43:43 Speaker 03 Yeah. And, and these are some extreme decisions, but definitely something to talk over, especially with a financial advisor. Make sure you're going through the right notions and everything like that.
43:54 Speaker 02 Thank you to teams for joining us. Thank you Frank for joining me on short notice. Uh, have a wonderful weekend. It looks like it'll be a little warm out there. Be smart, be safe, be money wise. See you next week.
Previous 4/29/26 Hard Money Loans + Checklist When Selling Your Business with Patrick Collins Next 5/6/26 Taxes, Trump IRAs & Creative Lending in Today's Housing Market Page updated November 6, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated
