5/8/26 Moneywise in the Age of AI + Getting Down to Business Friday

The Moneywise Radio Show and Podcast Friday, May 8th BE MONEYWISE. Moneywise Wealth Management I "The Moneywise Radio Show & Podcast" call: 661-847-1000 text in anytime: 661-396-1000 website: www. MoneywiseGuys.com facebook: Moneywise_Wealth_Management LinkedIn: Moneywise_Wealth_Management Guests: Scarlett Sabin, House Manager of the Ronald McDonald House of Bakersfield & Misty Sanders, Co-Owner of American Offroad websites: https://rmhcsc.org/bakersfield http://www.americanoffroad661.com/ 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. Scarlett Sabin, Misty Sanders, Ronald McDonald House & American Offroad are not affiliated with nor endorsed by LPL Financial or Moneywise Wealth Management].

• 0:00Speaker 00

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

• 0:37Speaker 00

  Now, let's start the Money Wise Show.

• 0:43Speaker 01

  Hello?

• 0:46Speaker 02

  Do you hear that?

• 0:47Speaker 01

  Do you hear that?

• 0:50Speaker 01

  Steve's got something going on in there. Welcome to the Money Wise Show. Frank and I are sitting here like, wait, what? Does anybody else hear that? Now I'm hearing things. Welcome to the Money Wise Show. We're live here from the basement of the historic Woolworths Building in downtown Bakersfield. For the next hour, you are here with Frank and I on News Talk 96.1 FM and 1230 AM KERN, streaming live at MoneyWiseGuys.com. Frank, where do you get all of your podcasts? Are you an Apple Podcast guy?

• 1:25Speaker 02

  No, I'm not. I have to go with Spotify.

• 1:27Speaker 01

  Okay, I'm a Spotify guy too. That's where I go to get all the, you know, the true crime podcasts that we all listen to.

• 1:35Speaker 02

  Are you listening to true crime?

• 1:36Speaker 01

  No, I do not.

• 1:39Speaker 01

  No, that is not, that is not what happens. It's mostly daily stoic.

• 1:46Speaker 01

  But we are your hosts today. I am Justin Leland here with

• 1:49Speaker 02

  Frank Lee.

• 1:50Speaker 01

  Mr. Frank Lee, Frank the Tank, joining us going into the weekend. Like we said before, if you'd like to listen to the show or any of our other past programs, please go ahead and subscribe to the Money Wise Guys Podcast, commercial free on all major podcast platforms like iTunes, Apple Podcasts, or Frank and my favorite, Spotify.

• 2:10Speaker 02

  Spotify.

• 2:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:12Speaker 00

  Well, that was our listener, Jeanette. She just wanted to tell you guys that you guys rock and she didn't know you guys moved to the basement. So when we're down here, our phone line is an internet phone. So when I'm playing the intro, that 30 second window, if anyone calls during it, that's what you'll hear.

• 2:27Speaker 01

  Okay, so now, uh, everybody knows that. So when you hear the intro, go ahead and call in if you want to interrupt.

• 2:32Speaker 00

  Anytime. Hey, I get calls at three, four in the morning.

• 2:36Speaker 01

  Oh, I know, I know. It was just, it was odd.

• 2:39Speaker 00

  I roll over like, huh, money was.

• 2:40Speaker 01

  Yeah, just odd because we're like, we're going along and wait, wait. Mom, are you calling?

• 2:46Speaker 02

  Oh, my gosh.

• 2:48Speaker 01

  Oh, man. Uh, we're off the rails. Happy Friday.

• 2:51Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's Friday.

• 2:52Speaker 01

  It is Friday. We have a great show, uh, scheduled for you. We have Scarlett Sabin, who is the house director for the Ronald McDonald House here in Bakersfield. She'll be joining us shortly. We'll be getting down to business with her at the bottom of the hour. Definitely talking all things, uh, Ronald McDonald House, but they've also got an event coming up, uh, tomorrow. So we want to make sure that we're, uh, helping them plug that. So looking forward to seeing Scarlett. I haven't seen her happy, smiling face in a minute.

• 3:20Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 3:20Speaker 01

  It's been a minute.

• 3:21Speaker 02

  It has, it has. I think we were talking about it a little bit off the show too. It's like, she, she's a great person.

• 3:27Speaker 01

  Love her to death and it's just, but she's, I don't think she sleeps.

• 3:30Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 3:30Speaker 01

  I, is, is my thought, like I, but I haven't seen her personally in the flesh i- in a, in a, in a minute.

• 3:37Speaker 02

  She's very passionate with what she does.

• 3:39Speaker 01

  Absolutely. And I can't, uh, can't wait to sit down and talk to her. But what we're going to do here, Frank and I, are we're going to talk about what happened today in the markets. So we got some jobs numbers that came out and we want to kind of dissect that for you. Frank, what's happened in the markets today?

• 3:52Speaker 02

  So yeah, let's, let's go over the, the broad spectrum for now. So, uh, obviously we're still, uh, about an hour, uh, left until the markets close.

• 4:01Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 4:01Speaker 02

  Dow Jones is about down about 16 basis, S and P up 76 basis, NASDAQ up about 157, clear winner of the week.

• 4:10Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 4:10Speaker 02

  Uh, or the day.

• 4:11Speaker 01

  The day.

• 4:12Speaker 02

  And then the Russell 2K up 63 basis points. So.

• 4:16Speaker 01

  Uh, NASDAQ, uh, crashing through another record right now, right?

• 4:20Speaker 02

  Yeah, I think for the, uh.

• 4:22Speaker 01

  Third or third time this week or something.

• 4:24Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Cause it's, it's, it's crossed through all time highs and it's still continuing to climb, which is insane.

• 4:31Speaker 01

  Yeah. Uh, AI bubble, anybody? Uh, didn't say, I didn't, I did not say that.

• 4:36Speaker 02

  Nope, nope.

• 4:37Speaker 01

  I did not say that.

• 4:39Speaker 02

  But speaking of AI.

• 4:40Speaker 01

  Speaking of AI, we did get, the jobs report came in today. Now, you'll hear it from both sides of, and we're gonna be as centrist as you can possibly be because we can see it from both sides. From one side of the aisle, you look at it and say, oh, this is fantastic. From another side of the aisle, you might be like, oh, that's really not that great. But here's what the real skinny is. There were 115,000 jobs created in the US economy for the month of April. Now, that is a good number. We're not gonna, any, any job is a good number.

• 5:17Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 5:18Speaker 01

  Right? Anybody going out and getting a job is a good number, right? However,

• 5:27Speaker 01

  for the, and we've said this before on this show, if you've been a listener for a very long time, we've been on the radio now for 23 years, Stephen? 23 years as of March. 23 years. So if you've been listening for 23 years, you will have heard us say this multiple, multiple times. For the US economy to continue its growth pattern, there needs to be $200,000, 200,000 jobs created per month to be able to keep pace with not only our,

• 6:00Speaker 01

  you know, population growth, but folks that are graduating high school and college and they're entering the workforce, minus the number of people that are leaving the workforce and leaving those jobs open. And so for that to happen, roughly 200,000 jobs a month have to be created to keep pace and to allow for us a slight amount of growth. So

• 6:27Speaker 01

  when you see 116 or 115,000 jobs created, while that's a good number, it's about half of the jobs needed to be able to create sustainable growth. So if we were to continue on this path of 60, 70, 80, or 100,000 jobs created, this is why you're seeing the unemployment rate start to slowly climb. So it's not, was it like 3.9, then it was a 4.1, now we're sitting at about 4.6 or 4.7, I believe? Or it was 4.3?

• 7:01Speaker 02

  Yeah, the recent one was 4.3.

• 7:03Speaker 01

  A couple of months ago, I would think it was at 4.7 and it dropped back down. So it's about 4.3. So. But if you have a sustained period of time where job creation is below that 200,000 number, you're going to see that unemployment number start to rise slightly. Okay. So it's not all good. So then the question I have, if the NASDAQ is hitting all time highs and job growth is tepid at best.

• 7:38Speaker 01

  Frank, would you say that the advent of AI is not necessarily maybe replacing jobs? But when somebody retires or some like a company is taking a pivot, they're moving around things.

• 7:56Speaker 01

  If somebody quits, are they replacing that person with AI or are they replacing them with a human being?

• 8:02Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 8:02Speaker 01

  Right? If it weren't for AI, would this number not be 115,000, but would it be 300,000?

• 8:10Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah.

• 8:10Speaker 01

  Are we in a different world now?

• 8:12Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 8:13Speaker 01

  Where that becomes a question mark?

• 8:15Speaker 02

  Yeah, I think that's a valid question to ask because with the with the boom in AI and the pivot that these companies are taking, you're seeing a lot of layoffs happen in in.

• 8:30Speaker 01

  Specifically in tech.

• 8:31Speaker 02

  Exactly, specifically in tech to where they're trying to adopt this digital transformation into AI. And it's again, if it wasn't for AI, would we see better job growth numbers? And I think, yeah, like we could have seen 200, easily over 200, 250, maybe even three.

• 8:51Speaker 01

  Right. So going back to my previous statement, if you've been listening to us for 23 years.

• 9:01Speaker 01

  We've always said 200,000 is kind of the magic number.

• 9:06Speaker 01

  With the advent of AI, does that change the calculus? Where zero job growth still means we have a growing economy?

• 9:15Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 9:16Speaker 01

  Right? That's a, that's kind of a scary place to be.

• 9:19Speaker 02

  It is.

• 9:20Speaker 01

  Right?

• 9:21Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 9:21Speaker 01

  If, you know, play that out.

• 9:24Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 9:24Speaker 01

  For a year of like zero job growth, but we still have a 5% GDP growth.

• 9:29Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 9:29Speaker 01

  Like, that would be insane.

• 9:32Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 9:32Speaker 01

  Uh, to think about, but it's a possibility.

• 9:34Speaker 02

  Yeah. By then, I hope they have universal income.

• 9:37Speaker 01

  Yeah, universal basic income.

• 9:38Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 9:38Speaker 01

  Cause somebody's got to pay the rent.

• 9:40Speaker 02

  Yeah, because, I mean, it, it all works there. It's like the circle of life. Like, how else are, are these companies functioning and how are you going to be able to, you know, as, as an employee? Or just as an individual, like, how are you making income to pay for certain needs? Like.

• 9:59Speaker 01

  And if you're, if you're unemployed or underemployed.

• 10:03Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 10:03Speaker 01

  Because AI is maybe tamping down the job market. Yeah, there's, there's not much income for.

• 10:12Speaker 02

  Yeah, exactly.

• 10:13Speaker 01

  So where? To be out there working.

• 10:14Speaker 02

  Where are they going to get the income? You know?

• 10:16Speaker 01

  Uh, there's a couple of ideas I have, but none of them are good.

• 10:20Speaker 02

  Yeah. Yeah, yeah, right? I, I think in, to touch on this and not to be like all AI scared because I, I do like AI. I, I use it personally for myself. I do see a shift in the, the coming years of how we adopt into AI. But again, my language is that we're using it as a supplement.

• 10:43Speaker 01

  Right.

• 10:43Speaker 02

  Not as a replacer, because if we do, then.

• 10:46Speaker 01

  That gets, that gets real slippery slope really quick.

• 10:49Speaker 02

  Exactly. So to, to give some type of good news to people, recent studies and, and research are showing that.

• 11:01Speaker 02

  Adaptation to AI isn't fully there yet.

• 11:04Speaker 01

  Right.

• 11:04Speaker 02

  So these companies who are implementing AI, it's actually taking more work for their employees to

• 11:11Speaker 01

  To learn the process.

• 11:12Speaker 02

  To learn the process and it's not, it's not to the point in time where AI is fully taking over someone's job. Although it can do a job better or do a task better.

• 11:21Speaker 01

  Right.

• 11:21Speaker 02

  That, that individual still has to know how to implement that.

• 11:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, they have, it's, it's a tool.

• 11:26Speaker 02

  Yes, it's a tool.

• 11:27Speaker 01

  It's just like a, you know, a carpenter using a hammer, right? The AI is just a better hammer.

• 11:33Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 11:33Speaker 01

  Right? Um, so, you know, like I said, we've been on the, on the air for over 20 years. And

• 11:43Speaker 01

  at the, at the advent of when MoneyWise came on the show, it came onto the scene. It was right after the 2000 to 2003, you know, dot com bubble bursting. Now, a lot of people were saying, you know, we're in an AI bubble, which is very possible, very possible that we are. I'm not saying that we are, but we, it's very possible.

• 12:04Speaker 01

  When the internet dot com bubble burst in 99, 2000, 2001, does that mean that the internet ceased to exist?

• 12:15Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 12:16Speaker 01

  Absolutely not, right? It got rid of the, the stuff that should never have been on the internet, like pets.com, like, come on, right? Seriously.

• 12:25Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 12:26Speaker 01

  Um, let's face it, Amazon started in 99, 2000, right? As a competitor to the brick and mortar Barnes and Noble.

• 12:36Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 12:37Speaker 01

  They did nothing but sell books. That was what Amazon did. They sold books.

• 12:42Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 12:42Speaker 01

  Online.

• 12:43Speaker 02

  I think it was specifically like for students, right?

• 12:45Speaker 01

  Right, it was specific, it started out as like a, for a college, uh, you know? That's how it started. And look at where it is now. The advent of the internet created that ability for that company to then exist and to grow to what it is now, a mega cap company.

• 13:01Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 13:02Speaker 01

  AI, I feel, is going to go on that similar path where we may very well be in a bubble and that bubble may burst, but it does not mean that the genie is put back in the bottle.

• 13:13Speaker 02

  No, no.

• 13:14Speaker 01

  AI is here to stay and it's how do we as humans, as, as, you know, managers, as bosses, as owners, how are we utilizing that?

• 13:26Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 13:26Speaker 01

  Tool effectively to best.

• 13:30Speaker 01

  To best serve, you know, our companies and our society.

• 13:33Speaker 02

  Yeah, and, and there's, there's a lot more to it too, because last week's earnings, tech earnings has shown a lot regarding the AI. And I just want to, you know, clear the fog a little bit. A lot of, especially the Mac 7, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Nvidia.

• 13:51Speaker 01

  AMD.

• 13:52Speaker 02

  AMD, all, all of these companies have, in their earnings report, have said that they are still almost promising the, the efficiency of AI and the numbers that it's going to produce. But that's just it.

• 14:07Speaker 01

  Still not there.

• 14:08Speaker 02

  It's not there, it's just promise.

• 14:10Speaker 01

  Right.

• 14:10Speaker 02

  So that goes to show that AI isn't really replacing people. They're making room for the research and development, but they're not.

• 14:18Speaker 01

  It hasn't caught up yet.

• 14:19Speaker 02

  It hasn't caught up yet. So, you know, it, it could be in the sense where like, if, if this continues on, like we're saying, whether it's going to be a bubble and a burst, whatever it is, there's, there's probably going to be another reshuffling or reshifting, you know? So it's, it's, it's not to say that AI is going to completely replace everyone.

• 14:40Speaker 01

  No, no, it's not. Hey, we're going to take a quick break. We got some questions and comments that came in over the past little bit, but if you definitely want to reach out to us, 661-396-1000, 661-396-1000. We're going to go to get a break and we're going to come back and answer your questions when we come right back.

• 15:15Speaker 01

  Welcome back.

• 15:20Speaker 01

  I feel a little bit like I'm going to be stranded in Bakersfield this weekend.

• 15:26Speaker 00

  It's a good thing sometimes.

• 15:27Speaker 01

  It is a good thing because there's a ton of stuff going on this weekend. It really is. I mean, it's Mother's Day weekend.

• 15:33Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 15:33Speaker 01

  Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there. Um, you know, it's gonna be, uh, yeah, but there's a lot of things going on this weekend.

• 15:41Speaker 02

  You got something planned for Mother's Day?

• 15:43Speaker 01

  Uh, I don't want to say it on the air.

• 15:45Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 15:46Speaker 01

  Just in case she's listening.

• 15:47Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 15:48Speaker 01

  But Symphony's coming on Saturday, so that's gonna be a...

• 15:52Speaker 02

  Hey, there you go.

• 15:52Speaker 01

  The Symphony's on Saturday, the Mac and Cheese Fest is on Saturday.

• 15:56Speaker 00

  I heard there's a car show.

• 15:57Speaker 01

  There's a car show on Saturday.

• 15:59Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 15:59Speaker 01

  There's, I mean, plenty of stuff. So yes, I will be stranded in Bakersfield, uh, for the weekend.

• 16:05Speaker 02

  There you go.

• 16:06Speaker 01

  Little bit of social D for you.

• 16:08Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 16:08Speaker 01

  Thank you, Stephen. So we had a couple of quick questions that popped in over the past, uh, couple of hours. So Frank, hit us with the first one. Here we got.

• 16:17Speaker 02

  Let's do it. Uh, I heard the second half of the show yesterday and haven't been able to catch up yet, but wanted to see if you guys can break down these new Trump IRAs and who can use the accounts. Thanks, guys. Edward Barclay.

• 16:31Speaker 01

  Nice. Okay, that's a great question. Now, I'm not going to talk about the Trump accounts, which is the, the IRAs for kids.

• 16:37Speaker 02

  Yeah, that was different.

• 16:38Speaker 01

  That's a different.

• 16:39Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 16:39Speaker 01

  That's a different beast. If we're talking Trump IRAs, uh, President Trump back, oh, about a week ago, uh, April 30th, uh, a little over a week ago, uh, signed an executive order creating these Trump IRAs. Now, um, good news, bad news, indifferent, uh, it's, it's filling a gap that exists, but that gap is, um,

• 17:05Speaker 01

  rapidly shrinking.

• 17:07Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 17:07Speaker 01

  Okay, so essentially what the Trump IRA is there to do is if you are, uh, an individual who does not have, uh, a, a retirement plan through your employer.

• 17:21Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 17:21Speaker 01

  Or you're ineligible to participate because you're a part-time worker and the, the eligibility doesn't allow for part-time workers to join the 401K or whatever the case may be. Then the Trump IRA may work out for you. But if you have access to a 401k, a 403B, a 457, you know, the alphabet soup of retirement plans, if you have access to one of those, the Trump IRA is not for you. It's not going to work.

• 17:53Speaker 01

  So essentially what it is, is if you are a part-time employee, if you're self-employed, if your company doesn't offer a 401k at all,

• 18:05Speaker 01

  then you can open up a Trump IRA. And now it won't happen today. The accounts, the website isn't going to be up until about January of next year.

• 18:18Speaker 02

  Oh, so not even this year.

• 18:19Speaker 01

  Six months or so, six, seven months. So it's not, not, not available for, for now. But the idea here is that there's roughly 40 million Americans that don't have access to a company-sponsored retirement plan. And this is hoping to fill that gap with that. Now, based upon if you were like, there's, there's also maybe some, some government money, some matching funds that might be available to you. If you meet certain criteria, if you hit the savers credit, you know, tax-wise, then there might be a thousand dollars that gets dumped into your, your IRA for you, those types of things, but you have to meet certain guidelines. You, you know, you put $2,000 in, the government might give you a thousand. So that does exist.

• 19:03Speaker 01

  However, but like I said, this is an ever shrinking pool.

• 19:08Speaker 01

  There are now 30, 30 states in the United States that already have a mandated state-run retirement plan. California is one of them. Okay. Now, it's called CalSavers. But if you're an employer and you have more than one employee, you are required by law to offer a retirement plan to your employees. Or you're part of CalSavers.

• 19:37Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 19:39Speaker 01

  So does the, the question I have is, does the Trump account really help anybody in California?

• 19:49Speaker 01

  Unless you're in a company that doesn't offer a retirement plan at all, you're part of CalSavers, or you're ineligible because you're a part-time employee and you're not eligible because of that, maybe that works, but it's a very small subset of people.

• 20:04Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 20:04Speaker 01

  I think in California. Elsewhere, maybe more.

• 20:07Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 20:07Speaker 01

  Right. But that's, hopefully that answers your question. The Trump accounts or the Trump IRAs are coming out. It'll be in January of next year is when the website will be live is what I'm seeing. But like I said, it's a kind of a shrinking pool.

• 20:25Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's not going to really be hitting the mass affluent individuals because we have all of these.

• 20:31Speaker 01

  You already have the 401K.

• 20:32Speaker 02

  Right, right. So if you have a 401K, utilize the 401K. Ask your HR or whoever about more information about that and what they offer as far as match goes. But I think most people in California don't have to really worry about or look into the Trump IRA because there's already something in place for that.

• 20:54Speaker 01

  Right. And I think that, you know, one of the things that, you know, I love where they're trying to go, right? I love, I love where the state of California is saying, hey, if you have, if you're an employer, well, you're, you have to offer healthcare insurance, right? So, well, what's, what's also important to people, right? And, you know, social security is there, but it's not going to be there. It's, it's, it's not going to be as valuable to many people as it, as it once was. So we have to do something where it comes to the 401K, IRA, a simple, whatever the case may be, forcing employers to say, hey, look, you have to offer a retirement plan. Whether somebody takes it or not is entirely up to them at that point.

• 21:40Speaker 01

  But we're here to answer those questions. Thank you for the question. We'll be right back with Scarlett Sabin from Ronald McDonald House.

• 22:03Speaker 01

  Welcome back.

• 22:08Speaker 01

  Welcome back to the Money Wise Show. I'm your host, Justin Leland, here with Frank Lee.

• 22:15Speaker 01

  And we are joined by a wonderful friend of the show, friend of the community, friend to all.

• 22:22Speaker 01

  The amazing, wonderful, lovely Scarlett Sabin. Welcome. How are you doing?

• 22:29Speaker 03

  I am good. I am in awe of the new place.

• 22:32Speaker 01

  The building is amazing, isn't it? It smells like grilled onions everywhere you go, though.

• 22:36Speaker 03

  Oh, I don't care. And grilled cheese.

• 22:41Speaker 03

  French fries. I can't, don't eat those, but you know, I eat a few.

• 22:45Speaker 01

  You're only allowed to have six, is what I heard from a doctor. You can order french fries, but you're like, and I'm like, shut up, nerd.

• 22:50Speaker 03

  That's why they only put like-

• 22:51Speaker 02

  Six servings or?

• 22:52Speaker 01

  Six fries. You're allowed six french fries. And I'm like, no, shut up, nerd. I'm gonna eat all the fries. That's what-

• 22:58Speaker 03

  In the kids' meal at Mickey D's, that's what I like about it, though. The, what is that called? Happy Meal?

• 23:03Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 23:04Speaker 03

  There's only about 10.

• 23:05Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's like a little tiny-

• 23:06Speaker 03

  The little tiny baby french fries. I'm obsessed.

• 23:09Speaker 01

  It's enough of a taste.

• 23:10Speaker 03

  It's enough of a taste. That is right.

• 23:13Speaker 01

  But that's kind of my, my, I don't know, my jam is the french fries.

• 23:17Speaker 03

  I know, but I remember when I first moved here, too many years ago to count, this was also open as the Five and Dime.

• 23:24Speaker 01

  Right. The, yeah, the, exactly.

• 23:28Speaker 03

  I remember eating here and like, I remember buying, you know, the little rubber coin purses like, like grandma's had with the little chain. You know what I'm talking about?

• 23:39Speaker 03

  You could get those and all sorts and a rain bonnet. Oh, all the things.

• 23:44Speaker 01

  Well, Scarlett, tell us what's going on over there at Ronald McDonald House right now.

• 23:49Speaker 03

  Well, it is, our Walk for Kids is right around the corner. That is gonna be Saturday, May 30th. It's always the Saturday after Memorial Day. We always pray that it's not 112.

• 24:00Speaker 01

  It most likely will be.

• 24:01Speaker 03

  I know. We have lots of water, thanks to, you know, our various generous beverage sponsors. We love our friends at Reyes.

• 24:09Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 24:09Speaker 03

  Um, but yes, because it's always hot. But that's okay. It's only a few hours. People survive.

• 24:13Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 24:14Speaker 03

  It's Bakersfield. But we have so many things going on to help support the Walk for Kids. And one of them is why I invited my friend Misty here. I love when the community partners we already have want to expand what they do to help support the Bakersfield Ronald McDonald House. Because in case any of your listeners don't know what we do.

• 24:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:30Speaker 03

  We have the families that stay with us while their child is in the hospital, at one of the area hospitals. And as I was sharing with Frank, he and so many members of the Asian Chamber of Commerce here in Bakersfield last year helped make our family, we had two families from Indonesia that were here for eight and a half months.

• 24:47Speaker 01

  Oh, my goodness.

• 24:48Speaker 03

  And so they would bring like the meals, the cultural meals from their homeland. And they would come over and just visit with them in their native language, pick them up for the various celebrations.

• 25:01Speaker 02

  It was nice, especially for those, those individuals who came over. You know, they're a long way from home. And so they, it was nice to see the community step up and, and offer that, that sort of familiarity. And just bring food that they're natively accustomed to.

• 25:21Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 25:21Speaker 02

  And so it was, it was nice and just to hear their stories.

• 25:23Speaker 01

  Well, and you know, this, this organization actually helped my family at one point in time, not directly.

• 25:29Speaker 02

  Oh, wow.

• 25:30Speaker 01

  I did not know about this, but my wife's family, we have, we have family that's in Missouri. There was one of the nephews that was very, very ill. And Ronald McDonald House put them up for like a week and a half, two weeks while he was recovering. So all over the country, Ronald McDonald House is an amazing organization.

• 25:48Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 25:49Speaker 01

  Um, that helps families when they're in their most, you know, stressful time.

• 25:54Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 25:55Speaker 01

  You know, and can't say enough good things about what you guys are doing here in our community, how you're helping those families with, with those needs.

• 26:04Speaker 03

  And we're very lucky. We have so many people that love the house. And sometimes they may regret ever crossing paths with me because then I put them to work even more. Right, Misty?

• 26:15Speaker 04

  Absolutely.

• 26:16Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 26:16Speaker 04

  All the time.

• 26:17Speaker 03

  All the time. But it's so many great people that make the house a home because that's what it's about. It isn't just a place for people to lay their heads. We want them to feel that home away from home experience. And so I met Misty and Shay a couple of years ago at our Mopar car show, which is tomorrow at the KOA Crest, whatever you want to call it out there from 10 to 3. So stop by. But with our Walk for Kids coming right around the corner, this year our friends from American Offroad came up with a fun new event to help support the Walk for Kids, which is May 30th at the Kern County Museum. But I wanted Misty to come on and share a little bit about what she and her husband are organizing to help support that event.

• 26:55Speaker 01

  So Misty, good to meet you. Thanks for joining us.

• 26:57Speaker 04

  Thank you guys.

• 26:57Speaker 01

  Yeah. So what do we, what do we have going on? What, how is, how is American Offroad going to be helping with the Ronald McDonald House coming up?

• 27:05Speaker 04

  So we help a lot with a lot of things. So we also have an off-road group. We're called the Crawler Crew. So we don't want to be a club. We don't want the politics involved with it. We just want to go out and have fun and rock crawl, open the trails and also help with our community. So we, we have a group that meets up and we go and deliver food to the families and

• 27:27Speaker 01

  Oh, cool.

• 27:29Speaker 04

  Shop. They always need detergent, good stuff, snacks. So try to help there. But we're also trying to extend our help out there and we're putting on a clay shoot at Five Dogs.

• 27:42Speaker 01

  Oh, okay.

• 27:43Speaker 04

  On Memorial Day weekend. So on Saturday, the 23rd at Five Dogs.

• 27:47Speaker 01

  Oh, wow.

• 27:49Speaker 04

  Yeah. So we need teams. We right now have about 15 teams.

• 27:52Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 27:53Speaker 04

  We would like to have 20. If we can have more, that'd be even better because it all goes to the Bakersfield Ronald McDonald.

• 27:59Speaker 01

  And everybody loves Five Dogs.

• 28:01Speaker 04

  Yes. It's so much fun. We're going to have food. We're going to have a huge raffle. We've teamed up with Dirty Bird. So they're donating some guns. We're also purchasing some guns. We're going to have a nice raffle out there. We're going to have, of course, some stuff for the women because women love some nice stuff too.

• 28:22Speaker 01

  They like guns too.

• 28:23Speaker 04

  They do. They really do. So we'll have guns. We'll have saves, but we'll have girly stuff. We're an all around. We want everybody to. Yeah, we love for everybody to feel welcome in and enjoy what we're doing.

• 28:35Speaker 01

  Yes, absolutely. That sounds like a lot of fun. So the 23rd of May.

• 28:40Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 28:40Speaker 01

  At Five Dogs, the clay shoot.

• 28:42Speaker 03

  The clay shoot, and we just love that when they had their Walk for Kids team with a crawler crew last year, then this just kind of was an offshoot. So you don't just have to like send out emails to people or, you know, go ask your friends, "Hey, I'm doing the Walk for Kids. Write me a check." You can come up with these fun events. We've had everything from Bunko to whatever was that? Cinco de Mayo Tuesday?

• 29:04Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 29:04Speaker 03

  That it was this week?

• 29:05Speaker 01

  Taco Tuesday, yeah.

• 29:06Speaker 03

  Yeah, I was stuck on the freeway, five hours home from Orange County. I'm still traumatized from a meeting that was only six hours long. But anyway, I digress. But now this came out of our Walk for Kids this year, so I'm super excited. And Five Dogs, I don't understand any of that stuff, except I love a good event.

• 29:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 29:23Speaker 03

  And y'all know Butcher Block has some good.

• 29:26Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 29:26Speaker 03

  They're doing the barbecue.

• 29:28Speaker 01

  Now you're talking.

• 29:30Speaker 03

  Thanks to my friends Sammy.

• 29:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 29:33Speaker 03

  And so we're just super excited and they're great. They're always donating to the house.

• 29:38Speaker 01

  Yeah. Yeah, and I mean, so for the Ronald McDonald House itself, how can folks get involved, not just with the walk, because the walk's coming up on the 30th? How can individuals get involved with, like you said, donating goods, donating toilet paper, you know, paper goods? You know, all of those types of things that people need when they're there.

• 30:01Speaker 03

  If you're at Vons, Costco, Walmart, we don't care where it comes from, just drop it by the house. We're there 24/7, 365. You can also give us a call at 661-437-4130. And, you know, we can make arrangements. And, you know, like sometimes people ask for donation boxes. So like we had one of our board presidents gotten up. He ordered custom wrapping paper because he is that one that had custom Ronald McDonald wrapping paper. We are not that creative. We see, we just flip around that Christmas paper and reuse it.

• 30:31Speaker 01

  Right, exactly.

• 30:31Speaker 03

  And we can decorate drop-off boxes for your business.

• 30:34Speaker 01

  Reuse of the bag.

• 30:35Speaker 03

  Exactly. No, don't judge. I haul home plastic bags in my suitcase when I go back east. The little plastic shopping bags. But you know, Misty and Shay, when they go to Costco once a week, they'll just come by the house and drop stuff off. So if you're just at Costco, just throw in an extra whatever and you don't notice the extra $12 because you're already spending 500. So what's the difference? But you know, and people often ask, well, what do you need? The same stuff you need at home. Paper plates, forks, cups, spoons.

• 31:04Speaker 01

  All of the above.

• 31:05Speaker 03

  You name it, we use it. Fabuloso. JR Jordan, if you are listening, Fabuloso, he's my nocturnal person. He loves his Fabuloso.

• 31:16Speaker 01

  That smell, it just doesn't leave you.

• 31:18Speaker 03

  No, it's like a, just a memory of childhood or something. I don't know. But, but it's people like Misty and you know, her business and her team of volunteers and the crawler crew and our friends at Mopar and just our friends at the Board of Realtors. It's all these, these are not mega corporations. These are just good hearted people. Like, yeah, like the golf tournament we do with the Board of Realtors. They are just a nice bunch of people that want to help the house.

• 31:47Speaker 01

  Right.

• 31:48Speaker 03

  And that's the one thing, we don't have these big businesses. These are just small, these are just people that want to make a difference. And that's what we love about.

• 31:57Speaker 01

  Small organizations and individuals that are just-

• 31:59Speaker 03

  That make a huge difference.

• 32:00Speaker 01

  Taking things out of their own pocket to help.

• 32:02Speaker 03

  Some of my favorite people are clients with MoneyWise. I don't just love them because they're clients of yours. And I didn't even know-

• 32:09Speaker 01

  Because of all of them.

• 32:10Speaker 03

  I know. But I love them because they're great hearted people that just want to make a difference in the community. I didn't know they were clients till they told me. Or I ran into them at the other side.

• 32:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly.

• 32:21Speaker 03

  And I mean, it's just like, we get a lot of attention here because everything we do stays local. There is no big, you know, at our global offices in Chicago, they're McDonald's employees. So that's how can we keep 100% of our money raised locally because we don't have to send 25% off to national.

• 32:39Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 32:40Speaker 03

  Their email addresses are McDonald's, you know.

• 32:42Speaker 01

  Right.

• 32:42Speaker 03

  And so, um, you know, and we love our Mc, we call them Mc Family. We love, you know, our Mc Family because I don't have to worry for like our walk. I don't worry where the coffee is coming from. I don't worry where the water is coming from.

• 32:54Speaker 01

  It's just there.

• 32:54Speaker 03

  It's, yeah, it's just magic. It just.

• 32:56Speaker 01

  It just shows up.

• 32:57Speaker 03

  I just send somebody to the McDonald's and it magically shows up on the truck. And so that's what, you know, we love about our relationship, but believe it or not, on June 4th, we're going to be celebrating our 17th anniversary here.

• 33:09Speaker 01

  Oh, my goodness.

• 33:09Speaker 03

  It seems like yesterday.

• 33:11Speaker 01

  It does.

• 33:12Speaker 03

  I, then I think, oh my gosh, my child was only eight when I first started here.

• 33:16Speaker 01

  Right.

• 33:17Speaker 03

  And then I'm like, and now he's.

• 33:19Speaker 01

  Now he's.

• 33:19Speaker 03

  20, he'll be 26. I'm like, ah.

• 33:22Speaker 01

  He's pushing 30.

• 33:23Speaker 03

  Thanks for that. It is so time. When my child turns 30 is so time I retire. It's already bad enough for having families. They're like, didn't you go to my school for running for Ronald? I'm like.

• 33:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, probably did.

• 33:35Speaker 03

  Benny, they're, he's, they're like, oh, and I have teachers that remember me going, I'm like, no, this has gotten small. But I love that's, I mean, it does mean a lot, but it's, you know, it's been like such an experience and like we were talking about, you know, T-Son and Sushi and their families that were here from Indonesia. That will be with me for the rest of my life. I remember getting on that bus. You were there, there very next morning, Misty and her, because we had the car show the very next morning and the toy run that we do in the fall at the house or first weekend in December. They had never been to America. I remember getting on that bus at 12:02 a.m. when it showed up. They had a party bus that went to pick them up. And T-Son thought, when I was telling him on WhatsApp in LA, look for a party bus.

• 34:19Speaker 03

  He thought it was a school bus with balloons on it, not a bus that may or may not have an activity pole in the middle of it. And I'm like, I got on there and I just burst into tears thinking, these people have just traveled like 48 hours to get here and their life is going to change. And then the next day when they came out and they saw like your vehicles, Misty, they were just like. They were just blown away and people brought them. They didn't come with a coat from Indonesia. Why you need a coat in Indonesia?

• 34:46Speaker 01

  Right.

• 34:46Speaker 03

  They had no coat, no sweaters, no anything. And just the generosity of people that were there that day.

• 34:51Speaker 01

  Just dropped it off, yeah.

• 34:52Speaker 03

  They just dropped it off. Some people went to Walmart and got them stuff right there in the parking lot.

• 34:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 34:56Speaker 03

  And, um, but it's just the random acts of kindness. You know, Bakersfield's known for a lot of things. Maybe not always the best, but it's one of the most giving communities. And when they embrace a cause, they embrace a cause. And it's the biggest small town with the biggest heart. That's what I like, how I like to say it, so.

• 35:12Speaker 01

  Well, and so you guys also have a car show that's coming up tomorrow, right?

• 35:16Speaker 03

  Yes, and Misty can talk about that.

• 35:18Speaker 01

  Where, where exactly is it?

• 35:20Speaker 04

  So it's at the Crest, um.

• 35:23Speaker 01

  The Crest building right here, right?

• 35:25Speaker 04

  Yeah, it used to be the KOA. It's the KOA.

• 35:28Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, yeah.

• 35:28Speaker 03

  Yeah, I call it Cresto.

• 35:30Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 35:30Speaker 00

  The old drive through.

• 35:31Speaker 01

  The old drive through, that's right.

• 35:32Speaker 03

  Yeah. Drive through, drive in.

• 35:34Speaker 01

  The old drive in.

• 35:34Speaker 00

  I'm thinking McDonald's, but yeah. I believe it's Wible.

• 35:38Speaker 03

  Yeah, across from the auto mall.

• 35:40Speaker 04

  I was born and raised right behind there, so I jump over the fence and you'd be right at the theater.

• 35:45Speaker 01

  At the Crest, yeah.

• 35:45Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 35:46Speaker 01

  Uh, so it's in that area and that's where the, and so there's gonna be a car show over there. Uh, we're gonna take a quick break. I have a little bit more questions to ask, but we're gonna take a quick break and we'll be right back with Scarlett and, and I'm sorry, Misty.

• 36:13Speaker 01

  Little Metallica to take you into the weekend.

• 36:19Speaker 01

  Welcome back to the Money Wise Show. I'm your host, Justin Leland, here with Frank Lee, Scarlett Sabin and Misty. From American Offroad. Supporting the Ronald McDonald House.

• 36:32Speaker 03

  Yeah, always.

• 36:34Speaker 01

  Always.

• 36:34Speaker 03

  They always. You gotta meet her husband someday. He's a hoot.

• 36:39Speaker 01

  I am good. I'm making it a point to head down there at some point here in the next week or so. Cause we were talking off the air, Misty and I, it's like. I just replaced my Tacoma, which was my off-road vehicle with the Land Cruiser, which is now my daily driver and my off-road vehicle. So I've got things that I gotta do.

• 36:56Speaker 02

  There you go.

• 36:57Speaker 01

  To that vehicle and Misty is gonna be helping me with that.

• 37:01Speaker 03

  I would let her. Misty is quite the off-roader herself.

• 37:05Speaker 01

  I saw her vehicle, actually the other day. I didn't even know.

• 37:08Speaker 03

  Which one?

• 37:09Speaker 01

  Gladiator or whatever. She was parked out there. Like I saw this beautiful Jeep Gladiator with like 40-inch tires.

• 37:17Speaker 04

  Forty-two.

• 37:17Speaker 01

  Forty-two. Huge. Huge.

• 37:21Speaker 02

  Get it right.

• 37:22Speaker 01

  I know.

• 37:22Speaker 03

  I don't know.

• 37:23Speaker 01

  They were huge. And I'm like, oh, that's a nice looking rig. I was walking back from lunch and I saw it there and I didn't know. She showed me the picture. I'm like, that was parked. She's like, yeah, I was here. You know, I'm like.

• 37:34Speaker 03

  That's your daily driver, isn't it?

• 37:36Speaker 01

  That's her daily driver. I'm betting she's getting like maybe six miles a gallon with those tires is my guess. It's.

• 37:42Speaker 04

  So with that Jeep, it's definitely miles per gallon, not miles.

• 37:45Speaker 01

  Exactly. You turn on the engine and you hear this sucking sound and that's the actual, the intake.

• 37:51Speaker 02

  Yeah. What? I'm down to half already?

• 37:53Speaker 01

  Right. Exactly.

• 37:54Speaker 04

  It happens.

• 37:55Speaker 01

  Anyhow, moving on, because we could talk off-roading all day.

• 37:59Speaker 03

  And I can talk all day about anything.

• 38:01Speaker 01

  Right. So anyhow, Ronald McDonald House, you've got your big event coming up is the, the walk at the end of the month. We have the car show tomorrow. We have the clay shoot, the 20. You had a lot of stuff going on this month.

• 38:18Speaker 03

  We like to keep busy.

• 38:19Speaker 01

  Really? I didn't know that about you.

• 38:21Speaker 03

  Mm-hmm. But then I get to go on, then I get to go to McDonald's Worldwide Convention and see Elton John, because the owner operators invited me.

• 38:29Speaker 01

  Oh, that's awesome. Elton John. That's a heck of a concert.

• 38:34Speaker 03

  For just people that work for McDonald's.

• 38:37Speaker 01

  Considering the fact that he doesn't do concerts anymore. He doesn't, he's, he's retired from touring.

• 38:43Speaker 03

  And I've never seen him, so I'm very excited.

• 38:45Speaker 01

  And now you get a private one-on-one concert. Wow, that's, that's amazing.

• 38:50Speaker 03

  Then I'm flying out. So thank God I wasn't on my usual Spirit flight. Then I'm flying out of Vegas for vacation. I'm very depressed about Spirit.

• 38:58Speaker 02

  Why is that? Was there a bailout?

• 39:00Speaker 01

  No, there was no bailout.

• 39:02Speaker 03

  No. And somebody, a 29-year-old guy is trying to buy whatever's left. I don't understand at all. But I'm just sad because it was my direct to Detroit out of LAX. Boom, go to sleep and I'm there.

• 39:12Speaker 01

  Yeah. Now you gotta stop in, you know, Dallas or. Vegas or wherever to get to Detroit.

• 39:19Speaker 03

  Charlotte.

• 39:19Speaker 01

  Charlotte.

• 39:20Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 39:20Speaker 01

  Why would you go from LAX to Charlotte to go backwards to Detroit?

• 39:24Speaker 03

  Always like that.

• 39:25Speaker 01

  It's.

• 39:26Speaker 03

  It's bizarre. It makes no sense. But anyway, but I don't mind a really busy month because I have something to look forward to on June the fourth.

• 39:33Speaker 01

  Oh, my goodness. Oh, geez. So the the clay shoot.

• 39:41Speaker 01

  How do people get like all of these things that are going on? How do people get involved? You know, where do they go to sign up? Where do they? Who are they reaching out to? And what what means?

• 39:52Speaker 03

  Well, the Walk for Kids, you can just go walk for kids.org backslash Bakersfield or give me a call at 661-437-4130. Car show, you can just show up tomorrow. If you want to bring a car, it's $40 at the gate mañana at 7:00. And then it's spectators are free. They have a killer raffle too at the car. Yeah, they have a nice one tomorrow. And that goes till 3:00. But you can, you know, the house, but the clay shoot, you can call American Offroad directly. We have the information should be on our social media for Ronald McDonald House Bakersfield, or you can call Misty at American Offroad.

• 40:28Speaker 01

  American Offroad. We're going to make sure that all of that information is on the podcast notes so that people can go click on what they need to click on to get that on their calendar. Absolutely looking forward. Thank you so much, Scarlett and Misty for joining us today.

• 40:45Speaker 03

  Always.

• 40:45Speaker 01

  Awesome talking to you and congratulations and hopefully have a wonderful rest of the month. And you know, have fun at the Elton John concert.

• 40:54Speaker 03

  Oh, I won't have any fun. I am not known to have any fun in my life.

• 40:58Speaker 01

  As long as he's, as long as he's playing Rocket Man, you know, at least once.

• 41:02Speaker 03

  The words Journey two weeks ago, I knew all the words too. They were there too. Yeah, it was bad. I was the one singing very loudly.

• 41:09Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 41:10Speaker 04

  I heard nothing.

• 41:12Speaker 03

  But we were waving a cross at each other.

• 41:15Speaker 01

  Well, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you very much. Frank, we had one more question we might want to hit before we get out of here. So I'll ask you the question, Frank.

• 41:26Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 41:26Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 41:29Speaker 01

  Hey guys and good afternoon. Big fan of the show. Love what you've done with the Woolworths count lunch counter. Thank you very much. Brings back a lot of memories. My question or topic, what are some tax moves local business owners should be making during the year at tax time that they can really make a difference. It seems like a lot of us are being taxed more after last year and maybe you guys can help share some things that we should be doing this year when you have your CPA on. Well, we are not CPAs, but we can actually help guide.

• 41:59Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 41:59Speaker 01

  So, any tax moves that some business owners might want to take

• 42:05Speaker 01

  over the next six months to help offset some taxes?

• 42:09Speaker 02

  Yeah. Well, as financial advisors, I think the first place that we would look at is those retirement accounts. You know, those are the immediate ones that can really help offset some of the taxable income.

• 42:21Speaker 01

  Correct.

• 42:22Speaker 02

  Right? That's where we can really help out. But now as far as, you know, business owners, there's, there's other means to it. To where, again, we wouldn't be able to offer tax advice because we're not your CPA.

• 42:35Speaker 01

  Right. There's multiple different things that can be done. Again, consult with your CPA about doing some of these things. But, you know, there's always the option, and I'm not, I'm not a huge fan of doing this in many cases, but sometimes it makes sense if you are in a position where you need new equipment, right?

• 42:58Speaker 01

  And you're able to get that depreciation.

• 43:02Speaker 01

  If you already need the new equipment, go ahead and go out and buy that equipment. Now, don't go out and buy equipment purely for the depreciation, you know, because you might have equipment that's already doing what it needs to do and you don't need to replace it.

• 43:14Speaker 02

  If you don't need that.

• 43:15Speaker 01

  Yeah. If you don't, don't go out and buy equipment that you don't need just because you're gonna, you know, you get the deduction or whatever. But if you have equipment that is aging or is getting to be more maintenance than you want to take on or whatever, by all means, take a look at some of those avenues to get that depreciation. You know, maybe offering

• 43:38Speaker 01

  On your 401k, right? There's another way to get money out of the business and into the pockets of not only yourself, but your employees, and it reduces your tax liability. You're paying yourself as opposed to Uncle Sam, which we always like. We always like to pay ourselves first, Uncle Sam last, right? That's the way we need to do it. Anyhow, thank you to Scarlett and Misty for joining us from Ronald McDonald House and love you guys. It's going to be a great weekend. Stay cool, stay hydrated. There's a lot of things going on this weekend. Be smart, be safe, be money wise. We will see you next week.

• 44:24Speaker 05

  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.