5/27/25 From House Payments to Helping Kids: Mortgage Advice & Boys & Girls Club Impact

The Moneywise Radio Show and Podcast Tuesday, May 27th BE MONEYWISE. Moneywise Wealth Management I "The Moneywise Guys" podcast call: 661-847-1000 text in anytime: 661-396-1000 website: www. MoneywiseGuys.com facebook: Moneywise_Wealth_Manageme instagram: MoneywiseWealthManagement Guest: Zane Smith, Executive Director at the Boys + Girls Club of Kern County website: www.bgckc.org/

• 0:00Speaker 00

  From the Garo Ellis padded radio room off Stockdale Highway, here is Money Wise. Call or text into the show 24/7 at 396-1000.

• 0:39Speaker 00

  Here is Money Wise. Money, money, money, money.

• 0:43Speaker 01

  Welcome to the Money Wise Show. We are live from the Garo Ellis padded radio room off Stockdale Highway on ESPN Bakersfield, 1230 AM, 101.1 FM, and always streaming at MoneyWiseGuys.com. You can call or text into the show 24 hours a day at 661-396-1000. Today, we're your hosts. I'm Sherrod Waite and...

• 1:03Speaker 02

  Sammy Abiyawie.

• 1:04Speaker 01

  Hey Sammy.

• 1:05Speaker 02

  What's going on Sherrod?

• 1:06Speaker 01

  Happy long weekend.

• 1:08Speaker 02

  Yes, it was a long weekend. Enjoyed it a lot.

• 1:11Speaker 01

  It was. It was nice. You know, the heat's coming this upcoming weekend, but last weekend was pretty nice.

• 1:17Speaker 02

  It was very nice. I barbecued. I was not sweating. I was very relaxing. It was very, very nice.

• 1:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was great. Great weekend. Now, we're starting off this week strong. I think we should start the show off by reading our listener messages.

• 1:32Speaker 02

  Sure, I'll start with the first one.

• 1:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:33Speaker 02

  "My brother would like to retire in two years when he turns 68. But if he were to stay on the job, part-time and hold off and retire at 72, would moving to part-time hurt his Social Security or will it not affect it?" Very good question.

• 1:48Speaker 01

  Yeah, I love this question because I have to, you know, sometimes refresh my memory about how Social Security works. So, one interesting thing to note is that Social Security retirement benefits are based off of your highest 35 years of earnings. They'll adjust it for inflation and then they use these, a formula to average out those years. They plug... They plug it in and then that's what your benefit is. So it's off of your 35 highest years. So assuming that your brother has been working for 35 years, I don't see a way of how this is gonna hurt him. You know, taking a pay cut the last few years and working part-time.

• 2:26Speaker 02

  That's correct.

• 2:27Speaker 01

  The only way it could hurt him is if he didn't have all those 35 years. And so now it's plugging in some of those non-service years, which could then bring the average down. But I mean, we're talking about three years out of the 32 or whatever. So, you know, we're talking about it would reduce it from, you know, slightly.

• 2:46Speaker 02

  Slightly. Not that if he did not work the 35 years. But if he had the 35 years under his belt, it really doesn't matter is what I'm hearing.

• 2:54Speaker 01

  That's what I think. You know, I was trying to think if there could be other ways that it could impact. And I don't think so. The, you know, there are a couple of things to consider though. And some people don't remember this. And that is you can delay your social security to get that higher benefit past your full retirement age. So full retirement age depends on what year you were born. It's either, you know, 66 years old or 68 years old. But you can only delay it. Everybody can only delay or defer social security the max up to age 70. And each year that you defer, meaning you don't take your social security, it goes up about 8%.

• 3:37Speaker 01

  So that means if your full retirement age is 68 and you don't take it, you wait until 70, then you're talking about a 16% increase over your lifetime of monthly payments. So it's a pretty significant if you can.

• 3:54Speaker 02

  16% on a fixed income person, that's a significant amount. I would say.

• 4:00Speaker 01

  Yes. I tell you what's problem and what's hard for people to calculate is they have to live beyond their life expectancy to be able to benefit from that. Meaning, because they're giving up two years of receiving that income.

• 4:14Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 4:15Speaker 01

  Even if it is a smaller income from social security, they're still giving up that money. So to make up that money, you have to live beyond your life expectancy, say 78, 79 years old. And that's where people are like, I don't know. They're looking at their family. They're looking at their siblings and their parents. How long did my grandma and grandpa live? And how long do I think I'll live? And a lot of people are like, I don't think I'm going to live beyond, beyond that. So I'm going to take my social security as early as possible, which that's fine. You know, it's just a decision that you, that you can make and nothing wrong with that. You might be right. It's a little bit like life insurance and you're trying to guess on when you think you're going to die. And all that, but you, you still need to apply for Medicare.

• 4:59Speaker 01

  You can, you actually get in trouble and you get penalized if you don't apply for Medicare when you're 65. Even if you aren't taking your social security, still go in and sign up for your Medicare benefits. And make sure that you don't miss that deadline. I've, I've had a few people over the years that have done that. They were like, well, I didn't know I needed to do it 65 and now you get penalized. And it's, I think it's a lifetime penalty.

• 5:22Speaker 02

  Oh.

• 5:23Speaker 01

  It's like a, you know, a lifetime penalty on the char, on your Medicare, on how much Medicare costs you. You know, that comes out of your social security check. So, so that's important to, to remember.

• 5:34Speaker 02

  Always remember that. 65 years old, Medicare.

• 5:36Speaker 01

  Yep, that's right. That's really important. That's a great question though.

• 5:40Speaker 02

  Very good question. We have a second question.

• 5:42Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:42Speaker 02

  Good afternoon, guys. I was wondering with interest rates still pretty high compared to a few years back. Are there any smart ways folks here in Bakersfield can lower their monthly mortgage payment when buying a home? Prayers for Gero and his family. Well, thank you for that and thank you for the great question.

• 5:57Speaker 01

  I'm excited to get your input on this, Sammy, because this is, this is so much in your wheelhouse. You, you, you, you lived and worked on, in commercial lending, commercial banking, which, you know, lives and dies on interest rates, basically.

• 6:12Speaker 02

  Yeah. I mean, the, the bank survives on interest rate, interest income. That's, that's interest income, net interest margins. That's the biggest revenue driver of, of a bank.

• 6:26Speaker 02

  Unless you're a well-balanced bank, at which time you will have a good fee income.

• 6:31Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:32Speaker 02

  Okay, generated through checking accounts, savings accounts, and things like that.

• 6:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:36Speaker 02

  But that's a very good question. And, and he specifically is asking, this, this listener is asking about lowering the mortgage payment when buying.

• 6:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:44Speaker 02

  A home. So, so you have a couple of things you could do. If you have been a saving money, now you can put that money to work.

• 6:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:54Speaker 02

  Especially in a high interest rate environment like we have today.

• 6:57Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 6:58Speaker 02

  If you have your money in a savings account or a checking account earning you zero percent, or in a savings account earning you two percent, now you can put that money to work on your mortgage earning almost seven percent.

• 7:10Speaker 01

  Right, right.

• 7:11Speaker 02

  So.

• 7:12Speaker 01

  Cause you're saving that much.

• 7:13Speaker 02

  So even if your payment is, uh, uh, if your down payment is twenty percent,

• 7:20Speaker 02

  don't hold yourself to that if you have extra savings.

• 7:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:22Speaker 02

  Cause you're saving money on the interest on the long term.

• 7:25Speaker 01

  Right.

• 7:26Speaker 02

  Right? So if you've been saving, put a larger down payment.

• 7:31Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:31Speaker 02

  Okay. Now, more than twenty percent also helps you with the mortgage insurance.

• 7:35Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 7:36Speaker 02

  So anything above twenty percent, now you'll, you'll, you'll avoid paying mortgage insurance. That's a cost of about a hundred to three hundred dollars a month.

• 7:46Speaker 01

  Right.

• 7:46Speaker 02

  At times. So you can avoid, avoid that.

• 7:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:49Speaker 02

  Third, look at some of the state, some of the state programs that we have in, especially in the state of California, where if you're a first time home buyer, the state can support you and help you with your down payment. Granted, you stay in that house for seven years. And when, and when, and or if you sell the house, that twenty percent goes back with no interest back to the state. You can keep all the equity built up.

• 8:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 8:17Speaker 02

  That, that, that you have.

• 8:22Speaker 02

  One of the things that I do personally is, once a year, twice a year sometimes, I'll send an extra principal payment if I have an existing mortgage. That way, the bank recalculates the interest. Now, your interest expense is a lot lower. You're speeding up the process of paying off that note. That's if you have that extra cash, deploy it.

• 8:47Speaker 01

  Yes, that's a, that's a, that's a good advice. Cause a lot of, one of the benefits of buying a house is that you're locked in for, let's say, thirty years.

• 8:56Speaker 02

  Correct.

• 8:56Speaker 01

  So, you're, you're, you generally, when you buy your first home, you're generally still early in your career. So, you haven't peaked in your, in your earnings. Anticipation is you'll continue to earn more. And that's why people usually move on. They get, you know, they have a starter home.

• 9:12Speaker 02

  Correct.

• 9:13Speaker 01

  You know, it's just, you know, you're gonna be there for five, ten years or whatever. And then you move on. So, I think that's, that's important to recognize that even though it might seem like they're high interest rates now, there are opportunities as your income goes up.

• 9:26Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 9:26Speaker 01

  Your, your, your payment doesn't go up. So, that's the beauties is you lock in your payment and...

• 9:32Speaker 02

  Yes, and some, some, some, some people were able to, look, you can also, if, if you have an existing mortgage and you started with a fifteen or twenty year mortgage, but now things change or cash flow changed or life changed, you can go back to the bank and say, hey, you know what? Can I extend the loan and go back to a thirty, regular thirty years? Now, that's gonna reduce your monthly payments, gonna increase your interest payment over the life of the loan, but your monthly payment is gonna get reduced.

• 10:02Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:03Speaker 02

  At the beginning of you buying a house or getting a mortgage, you can buy back, buy down on, on, on, on the note or the mortgage. So, you can pay an extra point or two points and you can reduce your interest from the get-go.

• 10:16Speaker 01

  Yeah, another, another benefit of having cash in the bank.

• 10:19Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 10:19Speaker 01

  You can do that, buy down your interest rate.

• 10:20Speaker 02

  That's correct. And also, you, you just have to make sure that you're staying in that house five to seven years. Okay? That was for, for the people that are staying for at least seven years in, in, in their house.

• 10:32Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:33Speaker 02

  Now, don't be afraid of, I'm gonna go there, I'm gonna, this might seem taboo. This is what got a lot of people in trouble, that's adjustable mortgage.

• 10:40Speaker 01

  Yeah, I was gonna ask your opinion on that.

• 10:42Speaker 02

  So, right now, in this rate environment, okay? I would not be against getting an ARM. Why? Because I can lock in an interest rate. At least I know it's a fixed interest rate.

• 10:54Speaker 01

  Right.

• 10:54Speaker 02

  But I'm hoping there's no prepaying penalty, by the way, on a mortgage. So if interest rates change between now and the next couple of years, if the Fed reduces the rates, you can take advantage of that, go back to the bank and refinance. One can argue, well, Sammy, five and thirty, you don't have prepaying penalty on neither, either of them. That's true. So if you're a little bit of a risk taker, I would say take an ARM because the ARM is going to be less than the seven percent that you can, you'll get today.

• 11:24Speaker 01

  Yeah, especially if you know you're going to only be in the home for five, seven years or ten years. Well, then get an adjustable rate mortgage that is locked in for that period of time and then you you benefit from having that lower rate for that period of time and then you're, you're going to sell and move anyway.

• 11:41Speaker 02

  That's correct.

• 11:42Speaker 01

  Or possibly.

• 11:43Speaker 02

  Looking at the appreciation values right now in the neck, the last five to maybe ten years, homes have been appreciated, appreciating, and I think they're going to continue to appreciate because we still have a lot of shortage of inventory.

• 11:54Speaker 01

  Right, right.

• 11:55Speaker 02

  So you're gonna, first, if you're a first time home buyer, if you're a buyer and you're moving into a house, you're, hopefully you're walking in with some equity from the get go. Right?

• 12:04Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 12:05Speaker 02

  Especially if you built the house or you waited six months for the builder to build the house for you. So take advantage of that as well. Take, buy down the notes if you have cash at the bank. Put, put a larger down payment, especially if you know that, hey, I'm going to be in this house for, for, for some time because you're basically paying yourself.

• 12:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 12:26Speaker 02

  Instead of the bank.

• 12:27Speaker 01

  Well, you, you mentioned you're waiting for the builder. That's another piece of advice is that home builders oftentimes can package their homes with some incentives on the financing side. So they do both. They'll do the financing and they'll sell you the house.

• 12:43Speaker 02

  Now, here's the beautiful thing, especially in the state of California. You can, you can say, hey, I'm going to buy this house and they ask you for a deposit. You know? You you you you write a check for let's say five thousand dollars and then the house is completed. Interest rates go through the roof. You can go and ask for that deposit back in the state of California. A lot of the time, the law will side with the consumer versus the builder.

• 13:08Speaker 01

  Yeah, right.

• 13:10Speaker 02

  That's unfortunate unfortunate for the builder.

• 13:12Speaker 01

  Yeah, right.

• 13:13Speaker 02

  So that's that's that's another way for you to hedge your risk.

• 13:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:19Speaker 02

  Especially if you're building the house through a builder.

• 13:21Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, that's good. That's good. Also, you know, you want to remember that a lot of this is negotiable. So, you know, you negotiate with your bank, negotiate with other mortgage lenders and.

• 13:35Speaker 02

  Do your research.

• 13:35Speaker 01

  Do research on it. Yeah, you you often find that, you know, credit unions, banks, online lenders, mortgage brokers, they all have different rates. And so it's definitely.

• 13:46Speaker 02

  And fees.

• 13:47Speaker 01

  And fees, yeah. So you you you gotta have create like a spreadsheet, basically, you know. Here's here's the here's your four, five lenders and, you know, a quarter point, a quarter percent on this can mean the difference of tens of thousands of dollars.

• 14:00Speaker 02

  Yeah. By the way, I I I really like what you just said, sir, because this is for ninety percent of Americans. This is the largest purchase we're gonna make in our lifetime.

• 14:08Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 14:09Speaker 02

  So take the time and do your research.

• 14:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, for sure. It's just well worth it. Think of it as like a job. This is your side job, like you're gonna really figure this out.

• 14:17Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 14:18Speaker 01

  Be organized with the spreadsheet. Well, I was gonna ask you what's your opinion, because some lenders offer forty year mortgages. What what's your opinion on that?

• 14:26Speaker 02

  I'll take it.

• 14:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:27Speaker 02

  If I'm starting, if I'm this is my first time, my first home, I'll take it.

• 14:31Speaker 01

  I I I haven't read the statistics in a long time, but I'm guessing a lo- a high percentage of people either refinance or multiple times in that thirty year period, or however long they're in their home. They either refinance or they move.

• 14:45Speaker 02

  So you look, when you take the forty year mortgage or you refinance and you keep refinancing, do it for the right reasons. If you're refinancing to buy toys, I'm against that. If you're gonna refinance, pull the equity out and go buy yourself a boat. Um, uh, because, because that value of the boat, frankly, as soon as you put it in the water.

• 15:05Speaker 01

  It's coming down.

• 15:07Speaker 02

  Thirty percent of it. Now, like the seventy percent of that value is gone.

• 15:10Speaker 01

  Right.

• 15:11Speaker 02

  So, but if you're gonna be, if you're gonna refinance, your kids are going to college. And you says, I'm gonna invest in my kids. I'm hundred percent supportive of that.

• 15:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 15:19Speaker 02

  But when you, a lot of people got in trouble because they refinanced, put themselves on a longer term. And then they go buy junk.

• 15:28Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 15:29Speaker 02

  That's the ones that get in trouble.

• 15:31Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 15:32Speaker 02

  Cause that, life does happen.

• 15:34Speaker 01

  Yep. And, and then they're using their, they're using their equity as a piggy bank. This is what got the great recession, you know, was people in troubles. They were buying jet skis with equity in their home. I just looked up the statistics, twenty to thirty percent of homeowners refinance every three to five years. That's pretty high, right? I mean, that's, I wonder how many boats are being bought like that?

• 15:56Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 15:57Speaker 01

  You know?

• 15:57Speaker 02

  Now, I, I like boats and RVs and, and, and just lifestyle.

• 16:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 16:02Speaker 02

  And, and, and, and, yeah.

• 16:04Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 16:04Speaker 02

  I'm again, that's something I, I do not recommend. For the right reason, yes, go ahead. Even have an equity line and, and ready for things that, that, that might come up.

• 16:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 16:16Speaker 02

  But not for a boat.

• 16:17Speaker 01

  No.

• 16:17Speaker 02

  Or even for a car.

• 16:19Speaker 01

  Right.

• 16:19Speaker 02

  Dream car and stuff, no.

• 16:21Speaker 01

  What, what happens and you're kind of, a lot of people are forced into this is they have, you know, too much debt. They have like credit card debts, or they have mounting consumer debts, maybe it's from cars or boats or whatever. And then they use their home equity to refinance, or they refinance their house, pull out cash to pay off those debts. And then, you know, it basically is refinanced into a thirty year term or whatever their new, their new loan is. And I'm like, okay, well, that's better than carrying all that bad debt. But I think what happens oftentimes, they don't change their, their habits.

• 16:56Speaker 02

  Addiction.

• 16:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 16:57Speaker 02

  It's an addiction.

• 16:59Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 16:59Speaker 02

  To buying junk.

• 17:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 17:00Speaker 02

  And spending money on things that we don't need.

• 17:03Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 17:03Speaker 02

  And you can actually just, I, I encourage people, go to a Goodwill store.

• 17:08Speaker 01

  Yeah. Yeah.

• 17:09Speaker 02

  And see how much junk is in there.

• 17:11Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 17:11Speaker 02

  People spend two, $300 on and now you can buy it for 10 bucks.

• 17:14Speaker 01

  Right. And still in the box. Yeah, I know. I know. I buy stuff there all the time.

• 17:19Speaker 02

  It's, it's, it's, it's our addiction to buying and buying and buying. And that's, I mean, that we, we can get involved in that conversation and how the whole society doesn't save. And that's how we get into this. We buy stuff we don't need.

• 17:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 17:31Speaker 02

  But going back to the mortgage, use your, use, there's ways for you to reuse your, your, your mortgage payment, especially if you're buying a house through the things we talked about. But also, also always be careful when you refinance and refinance for the right reasons.

• 17:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 17:46Speaker 02

  Either you're reducing your rate or you're shortening the life of the loan so you can reduce your interest payment.

• 17:51Speaker 01

  Yeah. Good stuff. Thank you, Sammy. We're going to take a quick break right now. We will be right back after this short break on ESPN Bakersfield, 1230 AM, 101.1 FM.

• 18:01Speaker 00

  Money Wise Wealth Management is the only locally owned independent firm that uses a comprehensive wealth tax and estate approach, working closely with a highly trusted CPA and attorney. For information on how Money Wise can help you invest and plan for your future, call 661-847-1000. That's 661-847-1000.

• 18:30Speaker 01

  Welcome back. We're Money Wise. That's Sammy on the vocals.

• 18:35Speaker 02

  Sean Paul. Thanks, Stephen. College days.

• 18:40Speaker 01

  Call or text into the show 24 hours or right now, 661-396-1000. Thanks for the messages and comments. You know, Sammy, got a little pet peeve of mine is when we have a local, the local television journalists oftentimes will put out articles. They're essentially just like, um,

• 19:00Speaker 01

  Regurgitating.

• 19:02Speaker 02

  Pleasureizing?

• 19:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, kind of. They're kind of hacks. There are a lot of hacks. Let's put it that way.

• 19:07Speaker 00

  The poo poo surveys?

• 19:09Speaker 01

  Yeah. And oftentimes what happens is this gets circulated on social media and online. It was like, oh yeah, look at Bakersfield. It's the worst. You know, because usually they're sharing, you know, we made the top list of worst places to live, you know, worst air, worst whatever.

• 19:23Speaker 00

  That are written out in Fresno or something.

• 19:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 19:25Speaker 00

  Next week it'll be, well, the top of a good list.

• 19:29Speaker 01

  Yeah. And of course, the good lists don't make the play as much as the bad lists. And usually these local journalists, I don't want to call them journalists, local reporters. I'm not talking about the print media. Print is different. Like California, they actually do a little bit more research. But in the TV, it's just like, what is this? They're just like, you're just regurgitating some weird study. So recently, just last week, there's an article that came out, California Exodus. It says, Bakersfield among top cities. People are leaving. It's like so vague. Top cities in what? And where? And how?

• 20:07Speaker 02

  Leaving?

• 20:08Speaker 01

  Yeah, leaving.

• 20:09Speaker 02

  Leaving, leaving what? Leaving Bakersfield?

• 20:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 20:11Speaker 02

  I challenge that.

• 20:12Speaker 01

  I know. And so I looked at this, reading the articles, there's a recent report by Pods, lists Bakersfield, you know, Pods is, it's that they drop their moving containers. So, okay, that's a source, right? It's a, you know, it's a private company that does this service that moves people. Okay, they've got some data.

• 20:32Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 20:33Speaker 01

  So they're basically, their whole article is just for this one report by Pods, listing Bakersfield as the 19th on the top, on the list of top 20 cities where people are moving from. With six other California cities also included, including Fresno, which was at number 17. So, meaning we're better than Fresno, according to this report by.

• 20:55Speaker 02

  So people are leaving Bakersfield?

• 20:57Speaker 01

  According to pods.

• 20:58Speaker 02

  Did the reporter, you know, couldn't he just drive around and see how much construction we've got going for new houses for people coming into Bakersfield?

• 21:06Speaker 01

  Well, yeah, and it just recently, there was a report on our increase in our population, which, you know, last year, we increased population pretty decently in terms of California. It was, we gained about, oh, looks like almost 4,000 new residents last year. It was a 1.2% increase. It's one of the highest increases in California. And we're one of the largest cities in California.

• 21:35Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's, that's what makes this country great, though. Like, we literally, like, people around the world talk about the United States and how vast it is, and people from state to state, they can move. That's what makes this union great.

• 21:48Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 21:48Speaker 02

  Is we can move. I can pack tomorrow and go to Virginia if I want to.

• 21:52Speaker 01

  You could.

• 21:52Speaker 02

  Or go to Montana and be, or where's that Yellowstone show?

• 21:58Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 21:58Speaker 02

  Be a cowboy.

• 21:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, you go to Wyoming, or wherever. Yeah, heck, yeah.

• 22:02Speaker 02

  That's, that's, like, people keep moving, and it's not gonna stop.

• 22:06Speaker 01

  No. And you're right. And people are gonna move, like, I can see there's been, there has been, there's legitimate reason for people to leave California. California has, not so much Bakersfield, but other parts of California are very expensive. I don't know how you'd ever live in LA or the Bay Area.

• 22:22Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 22:22Speaker 01

  So I can see where you're just like, I'm done with this.

• 22:24Speaker 02

  I've seen friends living in very small places.

• 22:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 22:28Speaker 02

  And with traffic, and so I'm like, yeah, that I understand. Like, why, why are you doing this to yourself?

• 22:32Speaker 01

  Right.

• 22:33Speaker 02

  Oh, it's close to the beach. Oh, okay.

• 22:35Speaker 01

  Yeah. Well, I'd rather drive an extra hour and have a yard.

• 22:39Speaker 02

  Yeah, I'm with you. It's frustrating. I didn't even read the article, and I'm getting frustrated.

• 22:43Speaker 01

  Yeah. Well, I'm, you know, we're very pro Bakersfield. Between 2010 and 20, the 10 years between 2010 and 2020, Bakersfield's population increased about 71,000 people. So about a 21% growth rate. It was one of the highest percentage increases in the state of California. It put us at now the ninth largest city in the state. In terms of population, we're right in between We're right in between Oakland and Anaheim in terms of population. Oakland is number eight, Anaheim is number 10, and Bakersfield is number nine, right there. And now, that's as of last year, so that's not counting, you know, this year's increase.

• 23:25Speaker 01

  Oakland has 443,000, we have 420,000. So we're very close coming up on overtaking Oakland and soon Long Beach, which has 450,000. So, you know, we're a good sized city. But it doesn't have that feel, which is so nice. You can know people here.

• 23:44Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 23:45Speaker 01

  You can run into people at the grocery store.

• 23:47Speaker 02

  That's correct, yes.

• 23:48Speaker 01

  Wherever. And so it's a nice thing, and we're still growing. And we're still expected to grow, I think in part because we're more affordable. There are people that are moving here from other places.

• 23:59Speaker 02

  And we could be a little bit further in our growth if we had some policies that are pro-oil.

• 24:08Speaker 01

  Yes, yeah, I wonder when that's going to turn. That tide is going to have to turn at some point.

• 24:15Speaker 01

  I'll just keep repeating it, it's when gas gets up to $10 a gallon.

• 24:18Speaker 02

  I think if, when, and if and when Newsom announces his 2028 run.

• 24:24Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:25Speaker 02

  Our oil policies will change because now he's going to want to show the rest of the nation that he is open minded. That's my guess. I'm not a politician, this is not a political show, that's just my hunch.

• 24:37Speaker 01

  Well, we are going to now take a break and prepare for our guest who's coming up. Really excited to have Zane Smith on. He's the executive director at the Boys and Girls Club of Kern County. We've got so much to talk to Zane about. You're not going to want to miss it. We're Money Wise, we'll be right back.

• 24:54Speaker 00

  Are you curious to learn more about how you can be money wise? Check out the Money Wise website at MoneyWiseGuys.com to get more info about what we do and how we can help.

• 25:13Speaker 01

  Welcome back from the Money Wise Show. I'm your host today, Shared Weight, along with Sammy Abiyawi. Happy birthday, Andre 2000.

• 25:23Speaker 01

  Turned 50 today.

• 25:24Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah?

• 25:25Speaker 01

  Outcast.

• 25:26Speaker 02

  I don't know how that feels, though.

• 25:29Speaker 01

  I'll let you know in a couple of months, Sammy. We're joined right now by our guest, Zane Smith. Zane is the Executive Director of the Boys and Girls Club here in Kern County. Zane, welcome to the show.

• 25:41Speaker 03

  Thank you.

• 25:42Speaker 01

  Again, welcome back.

• 25:43Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 25:44Speaker 01

  So much to talk about here. You know, we have been, um, we've known about the Boys and Girls Club for a while, but here recently, we're working on a project, The Woolworths Project, and we're bringing back the luncheonette. And you and all of the folks there at the Boys and Girls Club have been amazing to work with in your, in the commercial kitchen that you have in one of your locations. So, we're, we're kind of partners. You're gonna, you're gonna be, the Boys and Girls Club are gonna have an imprint on the food.

• 26:18Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 26:18Speaker 01

  That's served at the, uh, at the luncheonette. We're proud. We're proud of that.

• 26:23Speaker 03

  Well, no, and we're glad to create that opportunity. We love Richard and what he does, and we believe in you guys.

• 26:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 26:29Speaker 03

  You know, it's all about partnership, and we are blessed by our community. And so, why wouldn't we share our kitchen, with something that's gonna benefit all of us? We can't wait for the Woolworths Building to be reimagining.

• 26:40Speaker 01

  Oh, we can't, we can't wait either. It's gonna be, it's gonna be great. Why don't you tell us first, just kind of explain what the Boys and Girls Club is, or what the mission is?

• 26:49Speaker 03

  Well, it's a labor of love. I can tell you, um, the Boys and Girls-

• 26:52Speaker 01

  Nonprofits are all like that.

• 26:54Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's all about youth services for school-aged kids. So, we go from as young as four years old all the way to 18 years old. And the service delivery model is after-school programs, and then also summer day camps, or, or intercessions, as the schools call them. So, we're busy during spring break, we're busy during, during the winter breaks and all of that. And so, we're delivering educational enrichment, life-changing programs.

• 27:17Speaker 01

  Yeah. So, who is it geared towards?

• 27:20Speaker 03

  Everybody.

• 27:20Speaker 01

  Uh-huh.

• 27:21Speaker 03

  Everybody. So ninety-two percent of our membership comes absolutely free. There is no charge. There are no fees. We gotta get the paperwork filled out so we can reduce our liability exposure, but we just gotta get kids signed up. The other eight percent represent more of the affluent families that are involved in Boys and Girls Clubs. And so we accept everybody and we happily accept the dollars from the more affluent to cover the cost of their children. And we raise the dollars to support the kids that can't afford to come otherwise.

• 27:48Speaker 01

  Yeah. So I'm just curious, how many kids in Kern County?

• 27:53Speaker 03

  So we're seeing about eight thousand on a daily basis. That's our core group. Those are kids who come every day to Boys and Girls Club, accessing our programs. There's usually about fourteen thousand annually because we also do ancillary programs. So there's things that we're doing in the community that we're not counting heads, but we're participating, we're supporting collaborative partnerships. There's sporting events, there's field trips, there's all kinds of other things where kids don't have to be a club member, but we're serving them, including our meals program because we're also serving dinner every night. So

• 28:23Speaker 01

  Oh, wow.

• 28:24Speaker 03

  We're going out into parks, the David Head Center, a special place over in Arvin. It's like a community center, some of our clubhouses, but we're going into the neighborhoods and feeding kids dinner. The schools do a dynamic job of breakfast and lunch. And so we found dinner was where the most food insecurity was. And so that's what we're challenged to do. We serve about two thousand suppers every night. And they call them suppers. I love the old

• 28:47Speaker 01

  Yeah, I like that supper.

• 28:48Speaker 03

  For having supper with the kids. And it's an hour of breaking bread with our kids. So we do food and then we also do some activities with them as well. But they don't have to be a club member. Like I said, you know, we serve them all, so.

• 29:00Speaker 01

  And how many locations, Dane?

• 29:01Speaker 03

  There are seventy-one locations, soon to be seventy-two. I'm not allowed to tell you what the next

• 29:06Speaker 01

  It's not out yet, huh?

• 29:08Speaker 03

  And we breached LA. You know where Gorman is?

• 29:10Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 29:11Speaker 03

  So Gorman is LA County.

• 29:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 29:13Speaker 03

  Normally, Boys and Girls Clubs are regional, so we're Kern County and ask special permission to go to Gorman.

• 29:17Speaker 01

  Because it's kind of right on the border there.

• 29:19Speaker 03

  Yep. And if you sit in the parking lot over at McDonald's and through Rock West, you'd hit one of my kids. So don't do that. They're over there. They're at Gorman School, right across the street.

• 29:26Speaker 01

  Yeah. What are these facilities like? There's seventy-two or will be. What?

• 29:30Speaker 03

  So it's majority is school-based. So we have eleven school district partners. That doesn't include schools that we transport to or pick kids up from and bring them to our traditional clubhouses. So we've got sixty-eight after-school programs going all the way up to Kernville, McFarland, Tehachapi, and then we have our traditional clubhouses as well.

• 29:50Speaker 01

  Man, this is incredible. I didn't realize it was that big.

• 29:54Speaker 02

  Well, right before we started the show, off the, off the, what do you call, off air, you told us, um, how many staff members do you have and some of the statistics?

• 30:06Speaker 03

  Yeah, we're in a, we're a large employer base. We have over 800 employees.

• 30:10Speaker 01

  Holy smokes.

• 30:11Speaker 03

  Background vetted, completely trained, uh, youth development professionals, um, got a, got a lot of full-time employees just out there working with the kids and making sure that they have the very best of programs that we can provide.

• 30:25Speaker 02

  You must be one of the largest in the nation?

• 30:27Speaker 03

  We're, we're fortunate. I'm going to go ahead and brag because if you ask our director of ops, we're the largest in the universe. But actually, so Kern County, of course, we're Kern County wide. We're the largest in California as far as the number of sites and the number of kids that we host daily.

• 30:40Speaker 01

  Oh, wow.

• 30:40Speaker 03

  And then we're third largest of the nation and that's constantly in debate because, you know, I don't know. We, we do everyday numbers, so it's, it's hard to check those stats, but we're told third largest in the nation.

• 30:51Speaker 01

  Well, I'm guessing the only other places that might be that big would be like, you know, New York, maybe?

• 30:57Speaker 03

  Yeah, some major metropolitan cities. Yeah, yeah. Where was Laverne and Shirley? Where, where did they, that show take place?

• 31:03Speaker 01

  Milwaukee?

• 31:04Speaker 03

  Yeah, Milwaukee, Milwaukee has some big ones and then Boston as well.

• 31:08Speaker 01

  Oh, wow.

• 31:09Speaker 03

  Boston has some massive amounts of clubs, so.

• 31:11Speaker 01

  The history is, is interesting. I, I just did a real brief search on the history. Started in 1860 in Connecticut. Uh, three women who just wanted to provide a place for their kids, their street boys to do something.

• 31:24Speaker 03

  You named it. Yeah. So you had the, the rough kids on the street. You had these ladies that, uh, served high tea and invited them in for etiquette lessons and to clean them up and to teach them some skills. And it just continued to expand. And then around the 1980s, we started realizing that the brothers were bringing the sisters to the club, but we weren't doing, doing them justice. So then Boys and Girls of America changed it to Boys and Girls of America. It had just been Boys Clubs of America.

• 31:50Speaker 01

  I see, I see. Yeah. So just in the 1990s when that changed.

• 31:54Speaker 03

  Yeah, we finally got modern, man, and recognized that we had a wide bandwidth and some really wonderful children that, that were being served. We just needed to make sure we were, we're focused on that, so.

• 32:04Speaker 02

  You, you, you put one of the best, if not the best, um, events here in Bakersfield to your fundraiser, your annual fundraiser. When, when is that happening? And can you tell us a little bit more about that?

• 32:17Speaker 03

  My shameless plug. So that's Art Fest. And the base of Art Fest is it's all about celebrating the children and their accomplishments in art. And so performing arts and visual arts. In fact, I brought you guys some artwork from our kids.

• 32:29Speaker 01

  Oh, cool.

• 32:30Speaker 03

  I'm gonna share with you later. But anyway, it's October 10th. It's at Vista Delago Estate, which is a wonderful venue. It's owned by some people out of town, but they're really invested in Kern County and they're hiring people in Kern County and doing amazing things for us here locally. But we'll have 700 of our closest friends come for amazing pomp and circumstance. It's all gonna be about the art. Our kids are studying Henry Matisse right now. So we're studying faux visum, which I couldn't tell you what that meant. But I know the word faux visum because one of the kids was saying it the other day. Okay, that's something real. But we'll have lots of art out, lots of great food, lots of entertainment. We have some top-notch performers. A lot of people don't realize our kids perform on a national stage.

• 33:14Speaker 03

  So they're getting ready. In fact, they'll be going, they just got through performing in San Diego. They'll be performing at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas in September.

• 33:22Speaker 01

  What kind of performance?

• 33:23Speaker 03

  Dancing and singing.

• 33:24Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 33:25Speaker 03

  No, no showgirl stuff, man. No, no, they're kids, remember? Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're under 18, yeah. So they'll be on a national stage. And what they do is they go to different conferences and they perform. But they perform for other groups all over, literally performing community service. But these are some of the most talented kids you've ever seen.

• 33:41Speaker 01

  Oh, cool. How cool is that? Again, we're joined by Zane Smith, his executive director of the Boys and Girls Club here in Kern County. Sammy, do you have a question?

• 33:49Speaker 02

  No, I was just gonna talk a little bit more because I've been to those events and some of the things I've seen there is the art itself, the painting. And Emily Waite, I tell her all the time, I'm not an artist, I'm not into art, but when I go there and I see these paintings, they mean something to me. Especially when you gave me the tour of your Niles facility. This is almost 10 years ago. And we were both bawling after you told us the stories of some of these kids. So tell us a little bit more about that.

• 34:16Speaker 03

  Sammy, I so appreciate it. Our kids study different artists. Every year we pick a themed artist. And this year they studied Henry Matisse. And they learn all the materials, all the, all the, um, all the, the techniques. Um, and then they try to recreate us pieces with their own lens. And then they donate. So they're also not only artists, selling artists, but they're philanthropists because they're donating their work. They know that their money goes back into being reinvested in their own programs. So we go shopping in, in November. All new canvases, all new paints, light boards, all kinds of crazy stuff that they want. We have, um, four studios, working studios, and then we have a mobile studio. And then this year we piloted a studio working with South High.

• 34:59Speaker 03

  Cause they've been great partners at the table. So we're doing visual arts with them. So the visual arts program is a huge part of, of full circle, kids giving back, giving, supporting themselves. Um, and then, um, just bringing our guests to the table. So they understand what can be accomplished with kids. We can give them the right environment, the right tools, the right mentorship and the right inspiration.

• 35:21Speaker 01

  Yeah. Speaking of these kids, what, what are some of the biggest challenges that you see the kids or teens facing in Kern County today?

• 35:28Speaker 03

  Well, a, a couple of things. One, we have them really young. The schools are now doing what they call TK. And this is a generation of children that did not go to preschool or any kind of head start program that typically would have. Where they would have learned their social boundaries and, and all kinds of skills. Um, so they're, they're a little wild. Yes. It's just, uh, we're, we're getting used, there's some odd social behaviors that we've never seen before, which are coming out of, it is, uh, post COVID. Um, I think for the teens, um, it's really trying to figure out getting workforce ready. You know, what, what's the next phase? Not everybody's going to go to college, but if they are, we want to help prepare them for a plan. But if they're going to go into the workforce, what skills do they need?

• 36:09Speaker 03

  And we actually have, we just finished, uh, training 240 high school students on soft skills, workforce readiness skills. Even down to etiquette, how to have a, a business luncheon and what, how to use your napkin and butter a piece of bread.

• 36:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 36:22Speaker 03

  And then we'll hire 50 of, of the top of the line kids, um, as paid interns during the summertime. And they actually go out into different businesses like Bunnywise.

• 36:34Speaker 01

  Yeah. Oh, so you actually train them and then place them?

• 36:38Speaker 03

  We place them in an industry that they're interested in and they get paid for, they go four days a week to work. And then on the fifth day, they come back to the club for networking, more mentorship, guest speakers. Some of the banks come in and do a whole mon-, you know, how to, how to create a savings plan.

• 36:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 36:53Speaker 03

  And that sort of thing. So it's a cool program. And we see a lot of kids getting jobs afterwards because they've got a food handler certificate. If they intern with us, they get first aid CPR certification. Even they could even zap you with those paddles if something happened. So we go full out, man.

• 37:10Speaker 01

  That's cool. Very cool. Let's do this. We're gonna take a quick break right now. We come back, we got a few more questions for you. We're Money Wise. Don't go anywhere.

• 37:18Speaker 00

  Are you an employee with a company sponsored retirement plan? Do you fully understand how you're invested and whether or not you are maximizing your retirement plan's options? For more information on a free assessment, contact Money Wise's 401K specialist, Justin Leland, at 661-847-1000.

• 37:45Speaker 01

  Welcome back to the show. We're Money Wise. I'm Sharon here with Sammy. We're joined by our guest, Zane Smith. He's the executive director of the Boys and Girls Club here in Kern County. I'm learning so much about, about this organization. I always knew it was amazing. We've had some events there, mentioned, we've done a lot of the Woolworths menu, cooking, tastings there. But also we, at Money Wise, we toured the facilities just, just a few years ago.

• 38:13Speaker 00

  I got my butt whipped a few years in a dodgeball.

• 38:16Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 38:16Speaker 00

  With Mr. Dodgeball.

• 38:17Speaker 01

  The fundraiser.

• 38:19Speaker 03

  Blast from the past.

• 38:20Speaker 01

  They're not doing that anymore, are they? The dodgeball?

• 38:22Speaker 03

  We had that 72-year-old that went down on his knees and he just kinda had, you know, the exposure.

• 38:26Speaker 00

  You can't talk about Scott Cox on this show.

• 38:30Speaker 03

  Sold him out.

• 38:33Speaker 01

  It's really an incredible 8,000 kids, 72 different locations. Talk about, you know, a service for our community.

• 38:41Speaker 03

  Making a difference.

• 38:42Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 38:42Speaker 03

  Making a difference, yes.

• 38:43Speaker 01

  Really making a difference. I'm saying, what have you seen the, if you've seen the club kind of grow and evolve, are there any sort of new initiatives or programs or things that you're really excited about right now?

• 38:55Speaker 03

  You know, things are constantly changing with the Boys and Girls Club, only because we're trying to keep up with the kids' needs. So, one of the other things, I mean, well, we're doing multiple things. We have everything from our workforce readiness program and a new, a new investment in teens. And getting out onto the campuses like South High where we're doing programs. But we also have programs for kids who aren't, who aren't successful traditionally in after-school programs. So, kids that may have some behavior challenges or be experiencing something. And we've been very blessed to have somebody from the education, educational field who works with kids who are intellectually developmentally delayed. So, now we have 46 kids between two clubs, specialists working with them, and they are thriving.

• 39:36Speaker 03

  They're, they're mainstreamed into our program and they have special assistants that help them. You know, sometimes there's a meltdown. If, if a kid was crying, if you, if, if I heard a kid crying five months ago or six months ago, I would've gone running expecting blood or whatever.

• 39:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 39:50Speaker 03

  Now I've got Ivy in the hallway, she's crying. Ivy cries no matter what. It's just her coping mechanism. And then one of her aides will come to Ivy's aide and calm her down and de-escalate and all that. But that, that's kids that have had, you know, challenges of making friends and sometimes they're non-verbal. And, and so we, we're embracing them in a very supportive, safe, caring way with lots of good education about how to address their special needs. Some of the other initiatives that we see happening is this, this whole thrust of...

• 40:27Speaker 03

  Oh, I lost my words, man. Oh, I'm sorry, performing arts. Uh, because it is missing. I mean, a lot of high schools have performing arts, but the younger they get, the less of the performing arts. BCSD has a great music program and there's a little bit of performing arts, but we're, we can do things after schools that a lot of, a lot of the schools can't because they're so busy with the state requirements. And so we're taking a heavy investment into the performing arts field. There's something going up on Kernville. I think it's, um, oh gosh, what's, we, we just got through doing Alice in Wonderland and now they're doing Matilda.

• 41:01Speaker 01

  Oh, cool.

• 41:02Speaker 03

  Um, up in Kernville.

• 41:03Speaker 01

  The club up there is doing that?

• 41:04Speaker 03

  The club is doing that. So, performing arts and then we're, uh, doing four Broadway shows this summer. And then we'll do, and then our kids are going on. Two of our girls just got through performing in San Diego and they were awarded $12,000 scholarships.

• 41:17Speaker 01

  Holy smokes.

• 41:18Speaker 03

  Educational scholarships. And I have three other college students, former club kids that are on the same scholarship program by an individual donor.

• 41:25Speaker 01

  That's really, really cool. Well, there's an impressive list of Boys and Girls Club alumni. Uh, the national spokesperson at least was, I don't know if he still is, Denzel Washington?

• 41:34Speaker 03

  You know, it's always Denzel and it's so funny because they're always like, well, how come Denzel can't come to Kern County? Well, uh, you know, there's 500 agencies nationwide, but there's like 6,000 Boys and Girls Clubs and everybody wants a little Denzel. There's just not enough to go around.

• 41:49Speaker 01

  Well, he's not the only celebrity. Jennifer Lopez, Shaquille O'Neal.

• 41:52Speaker 03

  I know. We need some of those folks. We need to get those folks up here to Kern County and, and come visit with us. We're, we're working on it. So, but yeah, there's an impressive list of people. And you know what? And even there's people who, who are not on that list, but there's amazing people that, that have come out of Boys and Girls Clubs. We have a lot going on in this town. People that are former, are former chief of police was a Boys and Girls Club member. Lyle Martin was a Boys and Girls Club member. Who knew?

• 42:18Speaker 01

  Right.

• 42:19Speaker 03

  You know, so the, the clubs had a long history and a long impact on kids in our community.

• 42:23Speaker 01

  Well, what kind of support do you need from the community or how can people get involved?

• 42:27Speaker 03

  You know, we're always going to ask for money, man. We won't turn that away. You know, we've got about a $27 million budget. Three and a half million is always our bogey every year that we don't know. Exactly where it's going to come from.

• 42:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 42:39Speaker 03

  And just because the check doesn't come in, we can't go to a group of kids and say, sorry, check didn't come this month. You gotta go.

• 42:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 42:44Speaker 03

  You know, we just keep, we just keep plugging along, but money's, money's always a good investment. School supplies, anybody that wants to buy kids coats, you know, we, we tend not to do the gently used stuff only because we don't have the infrastructure to process.

• 42:59Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 42:59Speaker 03

  And yet we take about 200 kids, school shopping every year to get them brand new clothes. For getting ready for school. So getting ready for school is, is a huge thrust and with 8,000 kids, most of them coming from very humble circumstances. That's a lot of kids to try to, try to get backpacks or school supplies.

• 43:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 43:17Speaker 03

  You know, get them ready for cold, cold months.

• 43:20Speaker 01

  Well, that's a, that's a perfect opportunity for us to give, give a donation right now for Money Wise.

• 43:25Speaker 03

  Get out. Don't make me cry on air, man.

• 43:27Speaker 01

  I'm not gonna make you cry, but that's 1,500 bucks right there for Money Wise. It's, you know, we, we, not only we fans of, of, of the club, but also we just appreciate so much how just open doors and the staff has been amazing there. We've had, I think, three tastings.

• 43:42Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 43:43Speaker 01

  I mean, they've just been, they've stayed, they've helped us clean up. They've just been over the top giving and it's just, it's been, it's just like a true community center.

• 43:51Speaker 03

  Well, we want to make sure that menu's top rate. So we get a lunch there.

• 43:54Speaker 01

  Oh, heck, yeah.

• 43:55Speaker 00

  That's right.

• 43:56Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 43:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 43:56Speaker 03

  You can't fail with Richard, though.

• 43:58Speaker 01

  Oh, no, no, he's, he's gonna be fantastic. And he's just, he's just talked about how much he's appreciated just, you know, making friends there and being able to share the food with it, with the people and the kids there.

• 44:08Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 44:09Speaker 01

  Hey, what fries do you like? What burger do you like? And so like I said, the Boys and Girls Club are going to have an imprint on the, on the, on a, on a, a landmark here in town. And just this, this is so inspiring, Zane. Thank you so much for coming and sharing all this with us.

• 44:24Speaker 03

  My pleasure. Thanks for having me on, guys. I appreciate you very much and what you do for our community.

• 44:28Speaker 01

  We'll have to do it again.

• 44:29Speaker 00

  Do me a favor and tell Maggie I said hello. She is one of my favorite people in this whole community. Maggie and me go way back and we share a birthday.

• 44:37Speaker 03

  Oh, my gosh. Oh, yeah.

• 44:39Speaker 01

  Is Maggie one of the workers there?

• 44:40Speaker 03

  Maggie's our grants writer. She's incredible. Yeah. She's part of our DNA. She's, she's amazing.

• 44:44Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah. Any grant writer is amazing. That's for sure. Well, that's Zane Smith. He's executive director for the Boys and Girls Club, Girls and Boys Club here in Kern County. Said it right, wrong. Check them out. Donate if you can. It's a great cause. Want to thank all of our listeners. If you missed any of these, you can find us wherever you stream your podcasts. And remember, be smart, be safe, and always be money wise.

• 45:10Speaker 04

  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.