5/13/26 Inside The Basement Venue: Music, Events & Community in Downtown Bakersfield

The Moneywise Radio Show and Podcast Wednesday, May 13th 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 https://www.moneywiseguys.com/ facebook: Moneywise_Wealth_Management https://www.facebook.com/moneywiseguys/ LinkedIn: Moneywise_Wealth_Management https://www.linkedin.com/company/moneywise-wealth-management-bakersfield/ Guest: Augie Petaja, General Manager of The Basement at Woolworth's instagram https://www.instagram.com/thebasementatwoolworths/ website https://www.historicwoolworths.com/the-basement 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. Augie Petaja & The Basement 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.

• 0:05Speaker 01

  Call or text in at 661-396-1000.

• 0:09Speaker 02

  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 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.

• 0:37Speaker 00

  Now, let's start the Money Wise Show.

• 0:41Speaker 03

  And welcome to the Money Wise Show. We are live from the basement of the historic Woolworths Building in downtown Bakersfield. For the next hour, you are on News Talk 96.1 and 1230 AM KERN, streaming live at MoneyWiseGuys.com. You can call or text into the show 24 hours a day at 661-396-1000. We are your hosts. I'm Sharad Waite and?

• 1:05Speaker 04

  I'm back. Emmy's back.

• 1:07Speaker 03

  And Emmy's back. Emmy, Memzy. Uh, great having you here.

• 1:12Speaker 04

  I know, it's always fun.

• 1:13Speaker 03

  Thanks for joining. We're going to have a great guest coming up at the bottom of the hour.

• 1:18Speaker 04

  I'm excited.

• 1:19Speaker 03

  Augie Pintaha is the?

• 1:21Speaker 04

  Pintaha, yeah.

• 1:22Speaker 03

  Is the guest. He's going to come on talking about the basement. If you don't know about the basement, then tune in.

• 1:28Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:28Speaker 03

  We're going to talk about it. Uh, in the meantime, we've got a few great listener questions and comments.

• 1:33Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 1:33Speaker 03

  Again, want to remind everybody, this is the lifeblood of our show, is getting interactions and feedback, positive and negative. Throw it our way, 661-396-1000. You can text or call that number, uh, but let's get going.

• 1:46Speaker 04

  Let's get going. All right, first message, with all this talk about electric cars and California pushing green energy, do you think this Iran conflict is making people realize the U.S. still needs domestic oil production? Could places like Kern County end up becoming more important again for energy security? Thank you, guys.

• 2:04Speaker 03

  Great question. Love it. We've had a lot of questions regarding oil and gas and energy. On Monday, we had Chad Hathaway, our very own Chad was on the show.

• 2:14Speaker 04

  He knows lots about that stuff.

• 2:15Speaker 03

  Does a ton, independent oil producer here in town. And so he's, you know, and he's been an advocate for years. He's, he's ridden out the ups and downs here in the state. And so, you know, we've learned a lot from him. But this is a good, a good opportunity, I think, for people to understand some of the nuances that are surround California's energy.

• 2:33Speaker 04

  Right.

• 2:34Speaker 03

  Needs and production. There, this, this question asks, you know, us as a nation, if this, you know, brings us to any awareness as a nation. If, as to our independence or dependence on other countries like Iran. And the, the answer to that is like we, and Sammy and I talked about this the other day. And that is you, the, the United States is already producing more oil and gas than anybody else in the world. We are, we are the, the largest producer of oil and gas. And so we already are leading the charge.

• 3:10Speaker 04

  Do you think people know that in the zeitgeist of culturally, do you think people know that?

• 3:15Speaker 03

  No, no, you guys, you still hear this, you know, this drill, baby, drill term, which is, is, is really annoying for oil producers. Cause they're like, what are you talking about?

• 3:23Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 3:24Speaker 03

  Like, we, we can drilling is not the problem, like in supply is not the problem. The supply, the, the problems are regulation and transportation and in, and in California, those problems are, are elevated. Because we are in an energy island. The state cannot, California itself cannot produce enough oil and gas to sustain itself. We have to import. There's just, there's just no, that we don't have the resources to be able to do that on our own. We're a huge economy that require a lot of power. So the California cannot do that. We have to import it. We had, and there are no real pipelines that come over from the east.

• 4:04Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 4:04Speaker 03

  There, there's.

• 4:05Speaker 04

  The east of our, of our country.

• 4:06Speaker 03

  Country.

• 4:07Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 4:07Speaker 03

  And so California is, is in a, a different set of problems than the overall country. Now, the overall country can be a.

• 4:20Speaker 03

  Let's call it a net exporter, but that's the country as a whole. If you just look at Kern County and then California, it's a whole other set of problems and energy insecurity that we're dealing with here in California. And to kind of put that into perspective, because I know a lot of people right now are looking at the gas pump and they're looking at the prices.

• 4:41Speaker 04

  It's a big topic.

• 4:42Speaker 03

  We just heard on the news here on Kern Radio, $6.15 is the average gas of gasoline in California, and that's the highest in the nation. And a lot of the blame for the high gas prices go into the high refining costs. It's not just the commodity, it's not just the oil. The oil itself only makes up about half of the cost of the gallon of gasoline. The other half goes into the, the costs are taxes, not just, the federal tax is minimal, 18 cents a gallon or 15 cents a gallon, that's nothing.

• 5:25Speaker 03

  It's the state taxes that are nearly a dollar.

• 5:29Speaker 04

  That's what's killing us.

• 5:30Speaker 03

  That's what's killing us. I mean, that right there is over a dollar a gallon, just in taxes. And then you have other fees, and then you have the refining costs.

• 5:40Speaker 04

  That's what I was gonna say, this is what Chad talks about quite a bit, right?

• 5:42Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 5:43Speaker 04

  These other costs.

• 5:44Speaker 03

  Yeah, the other costs, refining and transportation costs. And in the state of California, that is especially true because the state has been putting their foot on the throat of oil and gas for a decade plus. And that has scared off investors, it has scared off companies, it has made it impossible for entrepreneurship to come into the refining business, and they continue to shut down. We're down to eight or nine refineries, or will be eight or nine refineries in the whole state, down from 12 just a few years ago. So our capacity to refine our own special California blend, which again is a

• 6:30Speaker 03

  Other problem, I see that there are some benefits to having our own blend of fuel, but that also adds on all of these costs. So keep in mind, though, that the listener's question is how bad, I read into this, how bad can it get? And there are some estimates out there trying to determine how bad this can get in California. The California does purchase and import a ton of refined product.

• 7:00Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 7:01Speaker 03

  So the, right now, the, um, the expectation is that if the conflict in Iran continues on, and the more than 20 million barrels of oil a day that are being stopped at the Strait of Hormuz,

• 7:24Speaker 03

  then if that continues on, we could see crude oil climb by another 40 to 80 dollars a barrel, is what some people are saying.

• 7:34Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 7:34Speaker 03

  And each 40 dollar increase in the cost of oil translates into about a dollar a gallon at the pump.

• 7:43Speaker 04

  Wow.

• 7:44Speaker 03

  So.

• 7:44Speaker 04

  That's significant.

• 7:45Speaker 03

  That's significant. And it's another, so if this, if this continues to drag on.

• 7:50Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 7:50Speaker 03

  And this, this goes on for much longer, then, um, then we're going to have to pay higher prices for the crude oil. And then we are also, California imports a lot of its refined gasoline, and those, the, the storage capacity that we have is starting to run out of what California is holding and what it has imported in the form of refined fuel. And so when that runs out, then we could potentially see another increase in the price of, of gasoline. So we could be hit with a double whammy of increased prices,

• 8:34Speaker 03

  both on the refining side and on the, on the commodity crude oil side itself.

• 8:40Speaker 04

  The listener asks at the end, could places like Kern County end up becoming more important again for energy security? But it sounds like that's not even relevant, really, considering all of these things you're talking about.

• 8:51Speaker 03

  Right. Yeah. It's relevant in that, yes, it does help. I mean, right now Kern County is the leader in California and is the only county in California that is being issued permits to explore and have oil and gas extraction.

• 9:06Speaker 04

  So it is currently important, but TBD on if it, you know, the future, what that looks like.

• 9:14Speaker 03

  Yeah. And, and, and again, kind of looking into the future, California can confidently forecast gasoline and crude oil shipments coming in through about mid-June. So from about, so about, let's call it six weeks. And the supply looks stable through that window, according to experts.

• 9:33Speaker 04

  Through the next six weeks.

• 9:34Speaker 03

  Through the next six weeks. But after that, oil and gas could cost significantly more to obtain. California is currently going through the process of, of bidding against the rest of the world for gasoline and crude oil and trying to pull shipments away from other countries like Asia, where Asia is dependent a lot on the Middle East. And of course, the Middle East is getting held up right now.

• 10:01Speaker 04

  Can you imagine these meetings, these pitch meetings?

• 10:04Speaker 03

  Yeah. And then the bidding wars that are happening. And that bidding war can come at a cost, you know, consumers are just going to pay it at the pump. But the other interesting fact about gasoline is that experts have found that when it reaches about $5.50 a gallon, that's a point where psychologically, consumers sort of start to pull back and change their behaviors.

• 10:26Speaker 04

  Oh, really?

• 10:27Speaker 03

  Yeah. And it's just...

• 10:29Speaker 04

  Interesting.

• 10:29Speaker 03

  You know, they start to ride share, carpool, public transportation, pull back on their miles. And so there is sort of this psychological...

• 10:38Speaker 04

  Like a threshold.

• 10:39Speaker 03

  Yeah. Like a threshold of, you know, what people will, how they'll behave.

• 10:45Speaker 04

  So we've reached that threshold, so?

• 10:47Speaker 03

  Yep. Yeah, we're there. We're there and that's happening. Yeah, so hang in there.

• 10:52Speaker 04

  Have to see where that shows up in other places, you know, in the economy or in all of these other ways.

• 10:56Speaker 03

  Well, that's the problem with the with the gases that if this continues on economists call it a sticky, a sticky inflation where it it's not like the prices just go back down as quickly as they went up. When you have a supply chain that is very complex, a transportation system that is very complex. When their costs all go up and then you just have this one piece of the puzzle, oil go down. It doesn't go down at the rate that we would hope. So that inflation and that cost that is being passed on to all of the consumers sticks.

• 11:35Speaker 04

  That's the sticky component.

• 11:36Speaker 03

  That's the sticky part of it.

• 11:37Speaker 04

  Why doesn't it come down as fast? Just because it's so complex?

• 11:40Speaker 03

  Yeah, and it's like-

• 11:40Speaker 04

  It takes a while. It's like trying to slow down a train.

• 11:43Speaker 03

  Right.

• 11:44Speaker 04

  Takes a while.

• 11:44Speaker 03

  And when you have a company, let's say a company that is producing some oil product or fuel product. Well, you know, their their costs are up. They've been experiencing costs now since however long this war has been going on, a few months. And they have to adjust and now they're buying and they have supplies and contracts that they're buying in at that price.

• 12:06Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 12:07Speaker 03

  And people that they're paying for that at that elevated price. And then when it's all being triggered by initially by the cost of crude oil.

• 12:17Speaker 04

  Right.

• 12:18Speaker 03

  Well, crude oil is just one piece of that puzzle, but then companies are very slow to go cut their prices back down.

• 12:25Speaker 04

  Sure.

• 12:26Speaker 03

  And-

• 12:27Speaker 04

  Trying to recoup their costs and play it safe and all that kind of stuff. Oh, interesting.

• 12:31Speaker 03

  Part of the bonus, though, and of having high inflation is the fact that retirees. I'm taking a little right turn here.

• 12:41Speaker 04

  Yeah, we're going on a detour.

• 12:42Speaker 03

  A detour. But I bring this up because inflation is definitely bad. Like, it's hurting all of us. But it especially hurts those who are on fixed income, like social security income.

• 12:51Speaker 04

  Of course.

• 12:51Speaker 03

  Social Security calculates every year how much they're going to increase their payments, their pension amounts to people. And that happens- Based off of the third quarter's consumer price index data, they compare the this year's consumer price index to last year's in the in the third quarter. And if there's an increase, then it will go up. And so far, because of our high inflation, the new data is showing that the broad consumer price index rose 3.8% over the last 12 months, which means if that continues, we could have about a 3.8% increase in the payments for social security for those retirees, which

• 13:36Speaker 03

  the average retiree would see an increase from that of about $80 a month.

• 13:43Speaker 04

  I see. That's the increase.

• 13:45Speaker 03

  That's the increase.

• 13:46Speaker 04

  On average.

• 13:47Speaker 03

  Yeah, on average for social security payments. Again, we won't know until until later in the year. But social security benefits benefits have lost about 13% of their buying power in the last 10 years.

• 13:57Speaker 04

  Wow.

• 13:58Speaker 03

  That's due to inflation. And the that would require almost a 16% increase in the payments per month for the average beneficiary to be able to catch up, which is about $300 a month. So another way to put that is the average social security recipient, retirement recipient is is even though we've had cost of living adjustments and increases, their purchasing power is about $300 a month less than it was 10 years ago.

• 14:28Speaker 04

  Wow.

• 14:29Speaker 03

  Even though they're getting a higher dollar amount, what they can actually buy with that dollar amount still lacks about $300 a month. It's just not keeping up with with all of the costs of living and so on. There you have it.

• 14:42Speaker 04

  Okay. Wow.

• 14:44Speaker 03

  Next comment?

• 14:45Speaker 04

  All right. Yeah. Okay. Finally took my parents to the diner and wow, felt like I took a time travel machine. Food was tasty. We shared stories of what we remember when my grandparents took us throughout our childhood. My grandma actually worked at the diner. Building is a gem, but my question is, have you seen anything creepy since purchasing the building? Grandma? And Grandma used to always tell us stories about things moving on their own and a mirror in the bathroom that broke on its own when she worked there. Ooh. Well, I mean, I have one story and it's, you know, speculation, of course. But we've had this building for four years now, almost four years.

• 15:27Speaker 03

  Almost five.

• 15:29Speaker 04

  I haven't, okay, so I haven't, I haven't seen anything or experienced anything myself. But I will say, we have had a long road with the new elevator that we've put in the building and it has a mind of its own and it has stumped a lot of people from the bottom all the way to the top, international engineers in the elevator team on what is going on. And so we like to joke that there's a ghost that is coming into play there.

• 15:59Speaker 03

  Like the elevator's possessed, it's a possessed elevator.

• 16:01Speaker 04

  Maybe, maybe.

• 16:02Speaker 03

  I have heard so many stories like this, like our listener asking about the haunted Woolworths mirror. There, you know, you and I, again, over the years, especially when, before we, before we remodeled the building, it was, there was so much, there was so much material, old, original materials in here and it was, it was primarily empty, you know, we were preparing for demo, we were preparing for all of the remodel.

• 16:29Speaker 04

  Definitely like creepy vibes.

• 16:30Speaker 03

  Super creepy vibes.

• 16:31Speaker 04

  Especially if you came at night.

• 16:33Speaker 03

  And we have all, we all know people who had to come here by themselves and grab something upstairs or down in the basement and get out and they're just like, they hear doors shutting, they hear footsteps and they, I, we even had our neighbor who worked here in the building in the nineties, at the lunch counter in the nineties and would have to close down the restaurant and was, eventually just couldn't do it. They were so terrified because of closing up at the, by themselves that it was just too, too scary, which, which I love. You know, I'm not a big, I'm not a-

• 17:09Speaker 04

  Believer in ghosts.

• 17:10Speaker 03

  I'm not a big believer in ghosts, paranormal, you know, stuff. I dig it and I love, I like the, the, the fun, you know.

• 17:18Speaker 04

  It's a subculture too, you know, a lot, a lot of people are really into those kinds of things.

• 17:22Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 17:24Speaker 04

  All right, you want to move on to the last message here?

• 17:26Speaker 03

  Yeah, let's do it.

• 17:26Speaker 04

  Okay. I have a 401k and have had it for around 10 to 12 years. But I finally took a look at the account and I don't see any matches from my employer. Do they not have to match? I'm 51 years old and was thinking about cashing it out, but wanted to ask if I took out 25k, how much of a penalty will I have to pay?

• 17:44Speaker 03

  Good question. We don't have enough information here to know exactly how much it would cost you to pull out of your 401k, because think of this. Your 401k is all money, primarily it's money that has not been taxed yet. Now, I know some people are contributing to their Roth 401k, which means you've paid taxes on it, but you're just deferring the... and it's growing tax-free. That is not what I'm talking about. And I'm assuming that this person has been contributing over these years to a traditional 401k. That means you have not paid taxes on it. That means when you pull the money out, you pay taxes as if it is ordinary income.

• 18:21Speaker 04

  Right.

• 18:21Speaker 03

  So that's very different than paying taxes on an investment that had gains, like capital gains. Or that's a totally different thing. This is taxes that you have to pay as if you were getting a paycheck. So think about that. Think like when you got your first paycheck and how much money came out because of taxes it had to pay.

• 18:40Speaker 04

  Always a big shock.

• 18:41Speaker 03

  It's a big shock. And so that happens a lot of times when people are thinking about how much they need to pull from their 401k. So let's take this example of 25,000. If you pull out 25,000 from your 401k, by the way, everybody is limited to no more than $50,000 in their 401k or a percentage. And so you're limited on how much... well, actually, you're not limited on how much you can pull out. You're limited on how much you can borrow.

• 19:04Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 19:05Speaker 03

  And sometimes that makes more sense for somebody to borrow from their 401k than just withdraw it, because you don't pay taxes on the money that you're borrowing as long as you pay it back and don't miss those payments. But if you just pull the money out, you're going to have to pay taxes and whatever... Tax bracket that you are in, let's say you pay 15% overall effective tax rate. Well, it's going to cost you 15% on top of whatever you pull out.

• 19:31Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 19:31Speaker 03

  And if you are, if you are under the age of 55.

• 19:40Speaker 04

  Which this person is.

• 19:41Speaker 03

  This person is, you're going to have to tack on an additional 10% penalty. Early withdrawal penalty that the IRS mandates. So again, back to this example, it costs 25% potentially.

• 19:53Speaker 04

  Potentially.

• 19:54Speaker 03

  If you're in the 15% tax bracket plus the 10% penalty, it's a 25% charge to withdraw $25,000. Does that mean I'm doing rough math, but you have to pull out, you know, almost $35,000 to, to, to net $25,000? It's terrible. It's like a payday loan or like a credit card type interest. And so it is generally advised against that. You want to look to potentially borrowing, but you got to weigh those two costs.

• 20:24Speaker 04

  Yeah, there's a lot of factors.

• 20:26Speaker 03

  The factor, the fact of borrowing can be dangerous because if you don't pay that back, or if you get laid off and you, or you lose that job and you cannot pay back that loan, it becomes taxable all at once.

• 20:44Speaker 04

  All at once, like the whole loan.

• 20:46Speaker 03

  Whole loan or whatever's remaining.

• 20:48Speaker 04

  Whatever's remaining.

• 20:49Speaker 03

  Whatever you haven't paid back. Plus that early withdrawal penalty, it's devastating.

• 20:54Speaker 04

  Ah.

• 20:54Speaker 03

  So it's, you know, there's risks either way. Ideally, you don't want to be pulling from your 401k. You want to have a separate account that you've been contributing to.

• 21:03Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 21:03Speaker 03

  That can be for your emergency or your, your, your long-term savings.

• 21:07Speaker 04

  Well, what about the fact that they were asking about not seeing any matches from their employer?

• 21:13Speaker 03

  An employer does not have to match.

• 21:15Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 21:15Speaker 03

  It's not a requirement for an employer to match. If an employer is matching, then it's required.

• 21:23Speaker 03

  Does that make sense? So if an employer is giving a match, they can't just give a match to, you know, one employee and not the other.

• 21:30Speaker 04

  It's required for everyone.

• 21:31Speaker 03

  It's required for everybody, for the company. So that's why a lot of companies go, well, then we just won't do the match.

• 21:36Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 21:37Speaker 03

  It can be very expensive. I get that. It's a, it's a cost to the company and so not every company matches.

• 21:43Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 21:43Speaker 03

  And it's, that is a reason why we have talked about so much on this show, how important it is to contribute. If your company is matching.

• 21:52Speaker 04

  Right.

• 21:52Speaker 03

  At least contribute that match because it's free money.

• 21:55Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 21:55Speaker 03

  It's free money for you. It's not free for your employer, but it's free money for you. So take advantage of that and, and.

• 22:03Speaker 04

  Absolutely.

• 22:04Speaker 03

  Get that perk. But the, there is not a mandate by the state or by, by federal government to give that match. A lot of companies offer that match as a way to retain talent or to attract talent.

• 22:19Speaker 04

  Correct, yeah, correct.

• 22:20Speaker 03

  And there's also something called a vesting schedule with that match, which helps them keep good employees where they say, we're going to match dollar for dollar up to a certain percentage that you put in. But you have to be here for, you know, four years or five years and then it's all yours.

• 22:36Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 22:36Speaker 03

  But if you leave before then, then you, you have to forfeit some of that match that the company gave you.

• 22:41Speaker 04

  Sure.

• 22:42Speaker 03

  So that's kind of something that some companies do.

• 22:44Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 22:44Speaker 03

  So to our listener.

• 22:46Speaker 04

  Might want to check in.

• 22:47Speaker 03

  You might want to check in.

• 22:48Speaker 04

  Sounds like maybe they don't.

• 22:50Speaker 03

  It sounds like maybe they don't. If they don't have it, then they don't have it. But it, that would be, it should be an easy call, you know, to your HR payroll department and find out or, you know, ask a coworker or.

• 23:01Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 23:02Speaker 03

  Because it wouldn't surprise me, 401ks, especially with, if this is a small business, small businesses, 401ks, the vast majority of them that we see come across our office are a mess.

• 23:14Speaker 04

  Right.

• 23:14Speaker 03

  They haven't been updated. They have high, super high fees that the business doesn't know they're paying.

• 23:22Speaker 04

  Oh, wow.

• 23:22Speaker 03

  There, there, there's hidden fees.

• 23:24Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 23:24Speaker 03

  Basically.

• 23:25Speaker 04

  So what should this person do?

• 23:27Speaker 03

  They should ask their employer, go to their HR, go to their payroll department and ask them or ask a coworker, find out if there's a match, if there's a match, because it's possible, I was saying that there was an error, you know, that they just haven't been matching when they should, and if they should have been matching it, then he's entitled to that.

• 23:41Speaker 04

  Yeah, and it also sounds though like they are looking to take out some money, maybe cashing it out, maybe looking to get, get some funds coming their way. So maybe they should reach out and talk to a financial advisor or somebody who could walk them through the best practices to do that, instead of just pulling it right out of their 401k.

• 23:57Speaker 03

  Yeah, or if they themselves can do the math, you know, right, get a piece of paper out and write on one side what the cost would be to pull out the money. So if you just pulled it out, so you have to look at your taxes, what it's going to cost you in taxes and penalties, and then you compare that to the other side of the sheet that is borrowing and what, you know, sort of like a pros and cons list. How much, how much would it cost me to borrow this money?

• 24:25Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 24:25Speaker 03

  And, and, you know, weigh those risks and then determine, and then go forward. The other option is to find money from somewhere else, because it could be that it's cheaper.

• 24:34Speaker 04

  That's what I was, yeah, where I was going with that. There could be other options out there besides looking at your 401k only.

• 24:40Speaker 03

  Yeah, I mean, ideally, people are not using their 401k as a piggy bank. You're using that as your long-term retirement, your long-term savings. So try to, try to avoid that if you can. All right, we'll take a quick break. We come back, we're going to be joined by Augie the Great. Can't wait to talk to him about the basement. We're MoneyWise. Don't go anywhere.

• 25:07Speaker 03

  Welcome back to MoneyWise. Thanks for tuning in. We're your hosts today. I'm Sherrod, here with Emily. Decided right now to be joined by our guest, Augie Petaja. He is General Manager of the Basement at the Historic Woolworths. Augie, welcome to the show.

• 25:22Speaker 04

  Are we pronouncing your name right? Please correct.

• 25:25Speaker 05

  I will definitely accept Pataha. Pataia, I guess, is what I generally tell people.

• 25:30Speaker 03

  Pataia is what you say, is how you say it?

• 25:33Speaker 04

  I like it.

• 25:34Speaker 03

  It's funny, I never call you, I never even say your last name. We see each other every single day.

• 25:38Speaker 04

  And have for so long.

• 25:39Speaker 03

  And I was like, what is Augie's last name?

• 25:42Speaker 05

  Yeah, well, I like to go by Augie, one name, like Cher.

• 25:46Speaker 04

  Yeah, it fits, or Augie the Great, as Sherrod said.

• 25:49Speaker 03

  The artist.

• 25:50Speaker 05

  Yeah, I'll accept any brevity.

• 25:53Speaker 03

  Well, we'll call you Augie, General Manager Extraordinaire. We've been wanting to have you on the show for so long. You've been running around the basement, all floors of the building for now.

• 26:06Speaker 04

  I mean, many, many months since we opened.

• 26:08Speaker 03

  Many months since last year.

• 26:09Speaker 05

  Yeah, I haven't stopped running. Well, I'm not running now, maybe on the spot a little bit.

• 26:15Speaker 03

  Yeah, we thought about doing this interview with just on.

• 26:18Speaker 04

  With one of those little handheld microphones, we could just follow and run around after him. Yeah, yeah.

• 26:24Speaker 03

  So Augie, maybe tell us, tell us a little about yourself. Like, how did you get involved in?

• 26:29Speaker 04

  Event production, yeah.

• 26:32Speaker 05

  I started out as a musician in my teen years. I really thought that I was gonna be a rock star and that was the plan. But some health issues and stage fright took me out of the game. And I thought, I still want to be around. So I went and studied audio engineering and music production in Toronto, Canada, where I'm from. And then kind of floated around doing different things here and there, but found myself back in production when I moved to State College, Pennsylvania in 2014.

• 27:08Speaker 03

  Uh huh. So you've stayed in the, you've stayed in the same sort of realm.

• 27:15Speaker 04

  Universe.

• 27:15Speaker 03

  Universe of music, theater, art. I'm curious, though, I know you and I've talked a little bit about this, but for our listeners, there's oftentimes, especially younger people who are trying to find their career path, they have some, they have a passion. And let's say in this case, it's music. But what they think, how they think that's going to turn into an actual career and how our actual career actually evolves are almost always totally different. Like, you don't, like, you didn't know that stage fright was going to be a thing until you, like, were doing it.

• 27:53Speaker 05

  Yeah, yeah. And I also studied production with the idea of thinking that I was going to be a recording engineer. And I just really kind of found myself in live with a passion for live event production.

• 28:05Speaker 03

  And so how has it been? Because you also have a family. I mean, you have a family now, but and young kids.

• 28:10Speaker 05

  Yeah, two girls, three and eight.

• 28:12Speaker 03

  Yeah, very young.

• 28:14Speaker 04

  So adorable.

• 28:15Speaker 03

  So that's a lot of time. And, and so how have you navigated those?

• 28:21Speaker 04

  Those two worlds, right?

• 28:22Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 28:22Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 28:23Speaker 03

  And, and also like the, the turns in your career path?

• 28:28Speaker 05

  Well, so early on with my eight year old, when she was first born, my partner Tiffany was doing her PhD at Penn State, actually got a little bit of a teaching release in that time. So I didn't really take much time off work in that time. At that time, I was probably balancing six different gigs.

• 28:49Speaker 05

  Just between people that I was audio contracting with. I had a basically full-time position on Penn State campus at the Center for Performing Arts. And I was, I guess, in demand with a couple of bands in town and then trying to also do the recording thing on the side. So I, yeah, I, I lost a little bit of time with my eight-year-old in the early, early years, but that was kind of by design, knowing that eventually I was going to be switching visas. I'm a Canadian citizen. When Tiffany finished her PhD and we kind of got into a new career for her. And she, so she stayed in academia, but left being a student for

• 29:34Speaker 05

  now being a professor. And I knew in that time I was going to have to take some time away. So I really wanted to get it while I could.

• 29:42Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 29:43Speaker 05

  And then I was a stay-at-home parent renovating the house when we moved to Bakersfield for the, for the first two years. And then I got back into production at the Crystal Palace. I thought

• 29:54Speaker 04

  Right.

• 29:54Speaker 05

  I would take a part-time production job. Just something to kind of get me out of the house and.

• 30:03Speaker 05

  Kind of get my chops back up and I've always appreciated the music of Buck Owens and Merle Haggard. But I didn't know about the Bakersfield sound. I didn't know that Buck and Merle were from Bakersfield before moving here.

• 30:16Speaker 04

  Oh, wow. I didn't realize that.

• 30:17Speaker 05

  Hey, you're moving to Nashville West and I'm like, what are you talking about? And I still didn't really understand it, but I got into the world at the Palace and I really started to see.

• 30:27Speaker 04

  Oh, I get it.

• 30:28Speaker 05

  Okay. And then everywhere I go, I seem to fall into a situation with way more talent than you expect to find.

• 30:39Speaker 04

  Yeah, exactly.

• 30:40Speaker 05

  One real surprise. Bakersfield is a small city and I've encountered way more talent than I ever really thought I would.

• 30:48Speaker 03

  Oh, interesting. Yeah, that's another question I have for you. You know, coming from Canada, Philadelphia and Bakersfield. What sort of perception you had of Bakersfield or California, maybe in general, then what has actually been the reality?

• 31:08Speaker 05

  Uh, yeah, I mean.

• 31:10Speaker 04

  Heavy hitting questions right now.

• 31:12Speaker 05

  Yeah, yeah. I mean, I was really excited to move to California and I'm still thrilled to be here.

• 31:20Speaker 03

  Why?

• 31:20Speaker 05

  I mean, my entire life, I was obsessed with surf culture, sun, palm trees, beach, that whole thing. Skateboarding, yeah. In my adult life, I've taken up surfing and so I'm just kind of, yeah, I feel like I fit right in here. And what I didn't know was when I first started telling people that I was moving to Bakersfield, they would be like, well, I'm sorry to hear that. I don't know. There's no part of me that is sorry to live in Bakersfield.

• 31:50Speaker 04

  Oh, I love it.

• 31:52Speaker 05

  You know, I absolutely love it here. Think it's just a, it's a great spot to be in the state where, you know, like it's affordable. It's the, I'm a first time home buyer here in Bakersfield and that feels great to, you know, own something in the state of California, which most people tell you is impossible.

• 32:11Speaker 03

  Right.

• 32:12Speaker 05

  But I feel like this is, you know, the beginning for me. This is my meal ticket.

• 32:16Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 32:17Speaker 05

  And kind of like my beginning of something bigger.

• 32:21Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 32:21Speaker 05

  And Bakersfield's great, but it's also so close to so many other amazing things in the state. You know, you can be

• 32:28Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 32:28Speaker 05

  in one of the best wine regions in the world in two hours.

• 32:32Speaker 03

  Right.

• 32:32Speaker 05

  Paso.

• 32:33Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 32:33Speaker 05

  It's a great place to be. So many great wineries there.

• 32:36Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 32:38Speaker 05

  Be able to get to the beach or Los Angeles or, you know, even we're four hours away from Santa Cruz.

• 32:44Speaker 03

  Mm hmm.

• 32:44Speaker 05

  Which is a great place to be.

• 32:46Speaker 03

  Yeah. Four hours from Vegas and just

• 32:49Speaker 04

  Couple hours from the mountains.

• 32:51Speaker 03

  Yeah. Right.

• 32:52Speaker 04

  Eastern Sierras. Yeah.

• 32:53Speaker 05

  Yeah. I always wanted a piece of the West Coast and I'm

• 32:56Speaker 03

  Now you got it.

• 32:57Speaker 05

  Yeah. Out here and in California, in Bakersfield particularly.

• 33:02Speaker 03

  Again, we're joined by Augie. He's the general manager of The Basement at Woolworths, talking about this. It's a new venture. This is a new venture for all of us.

• 33:10Speaker 04

  Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. We've got this venue in The Basement, Augie, that we took a big swing to provide a lot of things for a lot of people. So, what, what in your opinion, you know, and you're in, in charge of it all. So, thank you for being here. What, what makes this venue different from other places in town?

• 33:33Speaker 05

  Well, I think one thing is our PA system. We have a state of the art PA system. It's an L Acoustics PA system. Audio nerds out there, I'm sure you know what that means. Everybody else just Imagine high fidelity, great depth, and just a wide dynamic range, which means quietest to loudest. You can still pick out all of the details and it's really, really brilliant. But it's a beautiful room. It's in a historic building. I've always felt really strongly about historic buildings. I was a production manager at a small theater in Pennsylvania for a while.

• 34:14Speaker 05

  That was an old Warner Brothers music, or sorry, movie theater from the 30s. And I just love historic buildings.

• 34:23Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 34:25Speaker 05

  They have, I don't know if it's ghosts. It's the spirits. But there's, there's something, there's an energy there that is, it's, there's a certain je ne sais quoi.

• 34:35Speaker 03

  Yeah, I agree. Yeah, something about the time that the materials have had to sort of settle and sink in and are irreplaceable. Like our flooring that we have in the basement is the same flooring that's on the first floor. That beautiful terrasso flooring and, you know, the columns and the exposed concrete. It's like, you, you could, we could not recreate this today. We could, I mean, it would be so expensive to, you know, to put terrasso flooring in or to do steel reinforced concrete, you know, walls.

• 35:12Speaker 04

  Exactly.

• 35:13Speaker 03

  Just couldn't do it. And yet here it is and here we are using it.

• 35:17Speaker 05

  Yeah, yeah. And there's just the, everything that this building has seen in every iteration it's been through is really, it sparks the imagination.

• 35:28Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 35:28Speaker 05

  And I love that.

• 35:29Speaker 04

  Really feel it, I think. So Augie, we have a lot of opportunities, like I said, for, you know, entertainment, cultural programming of all sorts, as well as, you know, private, nonprofit, corporate events downstairs. There's a lot going on. Why, why in your opinion, do you think spaces like this matter for a downtown community?

• 35:53Speaker 05

  I mean economically, independent venues do so much for local economies. When we're bringing in, when we're putting on an event, we're paying staff that are way more likely to spend their money here than anywhere else. When we put on cultural events, that money stays here in Bakersfield as opposed to doing like a Live Nation type event. I don't know, am I allowed to call out like large?

• 36:21Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 36:21Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 36:22Speaker 03

  Call out Live Nation, babe. We've talked about them with all the, and Ticketmaster, you know, like all the, you know, garbage.

• 36:28Speaker 05

  Yeah, they've been playing some dirty pool.

• 36:30Speaker 03

  Dirty, dirty, yeah.

• 36:33Speaker 05

  I, yeah, I don't want to call out a giant and get on their radar and then they'll hate us for life. But at the same time, I mean, what we do here just kind of does a lot more for local communities. If you're coming to a local show, you're more likely to eat at a local restaurant. You're more likely, if you're coming from out of town, to stay at a local hotel. We have beautiful boutique hotel down the street from us.

• 36:58Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 36:59Speaker 05

  There's just so much for what it can do economically for downtown. And then just in terms of the beautification of our downtown, we have so many amazing historical buildings here and it's just nice to see them. Instead of face the wrecking ball, get a facelift. That's a really, really amazing thing. It preserves who we are and where we've come from. And I'm using the term "we" because I insert myself into every community that I live in. I feel like it's very important to call your present place home, no matter where you're from.

• 37:36Speaker 04

  Yeah, that's, I totally agree with that.

• 37:40Speaker 03

  Okay, I don't want to go too much off of this, but because we have you here, somebody who's, you know, in the industry and has some experience and time in this. We've talked about the Ticketmaster, Live Nation lawsuit that has been ongoing and recently sort of settled. And there were some, the way that I kind of read it, there's some positives and negatives. It's a good, it's a good step in the direction of. Taking down the monopoly power that Live Nation and Ticketmaster has essentially been unfairly pressuring exclusivity agreements with artists and venues and even threatening retaliation if

• 38:20Speaker 03

  they used rival ticketing companies. Fans have been hit with massive service fees and inflated prices. So how do you feel about the state of like ticket purchasing and maybe how the basement handles it?

• 38:39Speaker 05

  Yeah, well, I think there's a couple of issues when you're running a venue. One of the biggest ones is the aftermarket ticket sales. And that's, we haven't really engaged that for the basement yet, but one simple way to deal with it is to make sure that the IDs match the name.

• 39:01Speaker 03

  The ticket holder.

• 39:02Speaker 05

  Yeah, the ticket holder's name. Otherwise, yeah, going back to the Ticketmaster and Live Nation thing, one of the most egregious aspects of that was how they were driving, well, first off, they weren't capping ticket purchases for people that were then going and putting tickets on the resale market. And so they were double dipping on the fees. And there's just so many ways in which that's problematic. And it also just makes those events unaffordable for people that want to patronize the arts. And that's a problem for the economy in the arts.

• 39:44Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 39:44Speaker 05

  Because then people are, they're forced to face the decision of, am I going to go to this one big concert a year? Or can I continue to go to several events a year?

• 39:58Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 39:59Speaker 05

  When you look at some of these things, you're buying a resale ticket, then you're dealing with the parking add-on and this and that. And by the time you get through with it and say you're going to a concert out of town, you're now sometimes a thousand dollars out of pocket. I mean, look at it, it was cheaper for people to go see Taylor Swift in Paris.

• 40:21Speaker 04

  Right.

• 40:22Speaker 05

  Than to see her domestically. And that is a problem for the industry. You know, it would be nice to keep that money domestic. You know, so it's all about having a venue and kind of putting on events is great to generate just, yeah, good or contribute to our local economies.

• 40:49Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 40:49Speaker 05

  And it's really unfortunate to see that money go to places where it's not going to stay in communities. And it's also unfortunate to see when people can't afford to stay and see concerts domestic and they have to go out of the country to do so. It's, it's really quite unbelievable.

• 41:07Speaker 04

  That's, that's wild. That's wild. Okay. So as far as cultural programming goes, Augie, like what does good programming look like to a venue like us? How do we decide what fits in the basement and what doesn't?

• 41:20Speaker 05

  Well, that's a really great question. I think we're still figuring that out a lot. And part of it is just engaging the public, putting on events and seeing what people react to. And I think now we've had this thing where people in the community are taking interest in putting on their own events here.

• 41:39Speaker 04

  Sure.

• 41:40Speaker 05

  That's going to give us a good opportunity to kind of see what people are really interested in. And it's, it's really about doing your research and knowing your community.

• 41:52Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 41:53Speaker 05

  And so.

• 41:55Speaker 04

  Yeah, you're right. We are still figuring it out, but one thing I know that we've all talked about here is,

• 42:02Speaker 04

  having a diversity of music, a diversity of communities, a diversity of offerings in the basement.

• 42:09Speaker 05

  Oh yeah, definitely. I stand by the statement and the idea that pluralism is very, very important. I think one of the greatest things about having a venue is just watching people come together. You know, people are not on their phones. They're not isolated from each other. They are forced to share a space with people and there's a certain vulnerability to it. And I think it's really magical to bring people together.

• 42:41Speaker 05

  From all walks of life, or, you know, also to just, maybe not always all walks of life, but to also put on events to cater to different walks of life and different opinions, thoughts, feelings, and cultures, for that matter.

• 42:56Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's a collective experience, which you don't get a lot of those in the world anymore, where we're all engaged together and experiencing this thing all at once.

• 43:06Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 43:07Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 43:08Speaker 05

  Shared experiences is really something.

• 43:10Speaker 03

  Yeah, and I also wonder if there's, we're going to reach a point of pushback from social media, like, artificial intelligence, and sort of that, the word escaped me, but essentially, there's going to be a pushback from just receiving everything virtually versus being able to actually go to a live performance, like, you know, where that becomes more of a valued art form, you know, it's not just, you're not just putting it into your AI and coming up with a song and blah, blah, blah, like, you actually, who, who of these artists can actually perform, like, their music?

• 43:51Speaker 05

  Yeah, well, I, I don't know if I'm totally on topic with this reply, but I, I find that the younger generations are really, really starting to gravitate towards experiences and sharing space and time together. We had an event here last month with a young demographic, I think it was like 16 to 28 was the age range that we saw in here. And it was really unusual to see a three-hour event go by and very few people were watching it through their phone.

• 44:26Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 44:27Speaker 05

  I'm not criticizing people that want to go to a concert and, you know, record parts of it, but when you pay what you're paying for tickets, it's unbelievable that you're not just immersing yourself in the experience.

• 44:43Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 44:44Speaker 05

  But I saw these.

• 44:45Speaker 04

  Yeah, absolutely.

• 44:46Speaker 05

  These people at this event, they really engaged.

• 44:51Speaker 05

  The, the event and each other, they, they got all dressed up. It was a spring soiree.

• 44:56Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 44:57Speaker 05

  Was the title. And yeah, it was a great theme and they, they got all dressed up. It was really, really something to see them embrace the experience. And I just, I would love to see more people gravitate towards that. I'm in a, in a whole thing in my middle age now of trying to get a, get off of my phone as much as possible, embrace life with my kids. And then also when I get the chance to get out of the running a venue side of things and actually just kind of get into being a patron.

• 45:32Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 45:32Speaker 05

  Just really immerse in it as well and just enjoy the experience, you know, it's great to unplug for a little bit.

• 45:38Speaker 04

  Yeah, absolutely. Well, listen, we've only got about five minutes left, so I want to, I want to get to what else we can do in the basement, which is it's not just a, a place for cultural programming, but it's a place that people can utilize and, and rent out. So do you want to talk a little bit about what, what, what that looks like? What, what can happen?

• 45:56Speaker 05

  Yeah, well, I mean, it's a, it's a great multi-use space. We've seen some, uh, some, uh, corporate, uh, informational dinners kind of happen. We've had some inquiries about birthdays, so we can do birthdays, weddings, uh, celebrations of life. I mean, uh, the sky's the limit on what kind of event we can put on here. It's a great space. We can seat probably about a hundred and twenty people for a seated dinner. Uh, we can do like a cocktail hour for two hundred plus. And if you wanted to rent it and put on a concert, we could probably do about

• 46:39Speaker 05

  three fifty standings. So, I mean, there's so many different things we can do here. And we have a brilliant chef, great catering team. And I think people really need to. Step in and embrace that aspect. Dinner parties, we're hoping to do some wine tastings and just different things like that here as well. And we can do that in the private or public sphere. So if you'd like to come in and check out the basement, you can check out our Instagram. It's the basement at Woolworths.

• 47:12Speaker 05

  You can also go to the historic Woolworths website. You can find us there. Just go to the dropdown menu and find basement. And if you Google search us, you can also find our prekindle ticketing page as well.

• 47:24Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 47:25Speaker 05

  So there's lots of ways to find us. And if you see me, a long haired bearded guy walking around on the street.

• 47:31Speaker 04

  Running.

• 47:31Speaker 05

  Accost me, yeah, accost me. I will stop and chat with anybody.

• 47:36Speaker 03

  We've had a couple of listener questions while we've been talking, asking about upcoming acts. Or is there anything that you're, you maybe even personally are excited about?

• 47:44Speaker 05

  I mean, I'm excited about the month of June. We have some really cool things coming up. There's a few things that haven't been confirmed, but I'm gonna just kind of tip my hand because I have a great feeling about them.

• 47:54Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 47:56Speaker 05

  We're looking at a DJ night early in June.

• 47:59Speaker 03

  Great.

• 47:59Speaker 05

  Called House Blend. It's.

• 48:02Speaker 04

  A DJ collective, right?

• 48:03Speaker 05

  Yes, DJ Collective will be, yeah, occupying the basement for a night. And that's going to be a great night of just house music and dancing. Then Lucky Star Studios is likely to come back mid month.

• 48:20Speaker 04

  Those who did the Spring Soiree.

• 48:21Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 48:21Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 48:21Speaker 05

  With their, with their annual Pride Fest. And then local musician Andy Marcus on, what is it?

• 48:30Speaker 04

  Nineteenth.

• 48:30Speaker 05

  Yeah, Friday, June 19th. That's going to be a great one. Andy is a really, really just engaging individual. He's so sweet. He's like a little fireball of energy. And I mean, I can't wait to see his show. It's really going to be something else. And then we have the Sunnyside Drag Brunch, the Alagon Social Club.

• 48:49Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 48:50Speaker 05

  Will be here.

• 48:51Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 48:51Speaker 04

  Yeah, we're gonna have a drag brunch, yeah, on Sunday. It's gonna be so fun. Well, thanks, Augie. Thanks for coming in.

• 48:56Speaker 05

  Thank you so much for having me.

• 48:57Speaker 03

  Thank you. Thanks for finally making this happen. Let. Letting this happen, Augie, we adore you, we love you, we're so glad you're here and you're part of this team.

• 49:07Speaker 05

  Hey, I'm so glad you guys brought me on.

• 49:09Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's fantastic. Anybody who's interested in finding out more about the event space, the venue down in the basement of the Woolworths, you can find us on Instagram, just Google the Woolworths Building, you'll find us there on the website. And as we leave, remember these three things, be smart, be safe, and always be money wise.

• 49:27Speaker 02

  Securities offered through LPL Financial, member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through LPL Financial. LPL Financial and Money Wise Wealth Management are independently owned and operated.