7/14/25 In-Demand Jobs, Precious Metals & Backpacks Full of Hope

The Moneywise Radio Show and Podcast Monday, July 14th 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_Management LinkedIn: Moneywise_Wealth_Management Guest: Natalie Martinez, High School Director for 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 a.m., 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 Sharad Waite and

• 1:04Speaker 00

  Sammy Abiyawie.

• 1:05Speaker 01

  Sammy Abiyawie. Good seeing you.

• 1:08Speaker 00

  Same here.

• 1:09Speaker 01

  Love doing the show with you. We never have enough time when it's just you and I.

• 1:12Speaker 00

  No.

• 1:13Speaker 01

  It feels like time flies.

• 1:14Speaker 00

  That's right.

• 1:15Speaker 01

  And one thing that I also enjoy about this show is answering our listener questions. So we've got a few questions and comments, and I think it's a great way to start the show.

• 1:25Speaker 00

  Yes, definitely. I'll read the first one.

• 1:27Speaker 01

  What sectors do you believe will lead the next wave of job growth here in California?

• 1:32Speaker 00

  And how should younger workers, students be preparing for that shift? Thanks.

• 1:36Speaker 01

  You know what I love about this question, Sammy, is that it's specifically about California.

• 1:41Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 1:42Speaker 01

  Because we've talked a lot on this show about what, basically what we've advised our children. You have a child that's, you know, a pre-teen, basically. I've got, you know, three kids. I've got one that's still in college. But it's been on the top of my mind as a parent for the last 10 years. You know, what does their future look like? You know, what should they be studying? What sectors, what industries might still be around in another 20 years? And it's a really challenging question, but

• 2:17Speaker 01

  If you narrow it down to where you live, there are opportunities.

• 2:22Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 2:22Speaker 01

  And Bakersfield being inside California, California being the fourth largest economy in the world. And we're the ninth largest city in that, in the fourth largest economy. Not only do we have the benefits of being inside this, this, this state's economic force, but we also live in a part of this, of the country that is very well diversified. And it's different than Sacramento, than San Francisco and LA in terms of where our industries have been in the past and what they might be into the future. So you have like this transition place here in Kern County.

• 3:04Speaker 00

  Bakersfield.

• 3:05Speaker 01

  In Bakersfield specifically, Richard Chapman has talked about this quite frequently.

• 3:10Speaker 00

  Extensively, yeah.

• 3:10Speaker 01

  You, you talked about it with Mary Ann from Legacy Staffing, right? And, and brought up some of those statistics about what's specifically here in Kern County is interesting is that there are some very strong growth sectors.

• 3:22Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 3:23Speaker 01

  In this area.

• 3:24Speaker 00

  Yeah, I, I a hundred percent agree with you and, and for, the question is about students and upcoming professionals. What comes to my mind always, and I think it's going to be here for, for, for some time to come is healthcare. Talking to, not just to Mary Ann, but talking to other doctors, talking to hospital people. Just the need in general in the healthcare system is, is there. It's still gonna be there for years to come, not just nursing, but every aspect of, of healthcare. And healthcare is changing.

• 4:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:00Speaker 00

  Right? Healthcare is changing with the introduction of AI or the introduction of things being done now overseas by some of the doctors so they can minimize expenses and costs to running a clinic or, or practice.

• 4:14Speaker 00

  Um, a bunch of new stuff is coming up like AI oriented jobs into healthcare, for instance.

• 4:21Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, and you almost can't go wrong anywhere within healthcare. There's just a strong need there. Part of that is the demographic changes. We have an aging population and, um, you know, there's not as many fam- uh, families aren't having as many kids and therefore we're just, we're gonna have a continued need for those to aid those who are, are older. And so, you know, there's all different kinds of areas in healthcare that can go in. It doesn't have to be a physician.

• 4:49Speaker 00

  No.

• 4:50Speaker 01

  It can be, or a nurse. It can be, there's so many different areas that are in, in high demand all across the country. But especially, you know, always here.

• 4:59Speaker 00

  Ultrasound techs, for instance.

• 5:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:01Speaker 00

  Ultrasound techs takes, I think, two years to go and become an ultrasound tech. Don't quote me on that, but it's a good paying job.

• 5:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:09Speaker 00

  And there's, like Mary Ann told us, she has a request for those from multiple outfits.

• 5:16Speaker 01

  Yes, and we had.

• 5:17Speaker 00

  And they cannot fill them because, I mean, there's school, nursing schools here in, in, in Kern County and Bakersfield, but there's still huge need for things, for, for, for people like that.

• 5:27Speaker 01

  And any kind of therapy in, you know, with occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech therapists. Those are all, any kind of therapist in the medical world is in high, high demand.

• 5:40Speaker 00

  I, uh, Mary Ann shared with us too that she had like seventeen or eighteen, uh, therapist, uh, position open. It would just one outfit.

• 5:49Speaker 01

  Oh geez.

• 5:51Speaker 00

  And, and.

• 5:51Speaker 01

  And how many applicants did she have?

• 5:53Speaker 00

  It's, it's, there, there are none. I mean, you can, you can start poaching from others, but her as a staffing agency, you cannot be doing that.

• 6:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:00Speaker 00

  You have to go outside of the city, outside of the county. Sometimes the success comes from the Midwest. A lot of the success comes from overseas as well.

• 6:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:09Speaker 00

  So there's, there's a dire need for those, again, because of the aging population.

• 6:14Speaker 01

  And I learned also something last week. Uh, Stephen, make him remember who it was that we had on the show. Frank was with me and this person has started up a healthcare company, like a in-home, uh, in-home care kind of companion care. And.

• 6:30Speaker 02

  Sonia Dillon.

• 6:31Speaker 01

  There you go, Sonia. Um, she, she was great. And she talked about how there is, um,

• 6:40Speaker 01

  An incentive for, for, for, let's, let's say this therapist and, and speech therapist to work here because they actually get paid more here in many cases than they would down in the LA area or up in the Bay area. So not only do they get paid more, but we have a much lower cost of living.

• 7:00Speaker 00

  That's right.

• 7:01Speaker 01

  And I asked why that is the case and they said, well, it's, it's, it's to incentivize those workers to come here, you know? If you're down in LA, there's just a waiting list, you know, of, you know, to, to, to get these, um, you know, to, to apply for these jobs, but here they're just needed. They're just needed right now and you get paid more.

• 7:21Speaker 00

  Yeah, signing bonus is, is, is strong. That helps you if you want to establish yourself in, in a city like Bickersfield. There's a lot of the time the signing bonus is strong enough to incentivize you, that will help you with buying a house, whatever you want to do with, with, with that. But healthcare definitely, uh, future, there's a lot of future in it. There's a lot of need. So that's just one of the industries that, other things for me, it's education and, and, and government, education mainly because we are always in need of teachers.

• 7:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:57Speaker 00

  And again, we're competing with other areas in the state.

• 7:59Speaker 01

  Right.

• 8:00Speaker 00

  For top teachers.

• 8:01Speaker 01

  Right.

• 8:02Speaker 00

  Right?

• 8:03Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 8:04Speaker 00

  And, and, um, so, um, one, one, another industry that's not very, um, sexy, a lot of people shy away from it, and that's just accounting and CPAs.

• 8:14Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 8:15Speaker 00

  I mean, we have an aging CPA population. I think when John Duffield was here one time, he said there's like 60 or 70% of the CPAs are in the, close to the age of retirement.

• 8:25Speaker 01

  Right, right.

• 8:27Speaker 00

  And, and, and our schooling now became like five years plus. The audit hours and the so it's I think there's a need definitely a need there but also there's a need for us to maybe to take a look at the education and maybe shorten that so we can make it appealing for young people to want to go into it.

• 8:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, because I I can see how young people would just shy away from accounting, for example, because of not just the timeframe that's involved in it, but a lot of them are concerned about the technology advancing to making that makes that job obsolete, which is a legitimate concern, which is why I think that there's a future in just general data analytics and AI applications, so it which means you become a specialist in being able to use these technologies.

• 9:09Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 9:09Speaker 01

  All that means is you can still run your own business or run, you know, have your career in that sector, you're just going to be using these technologies, it's going to involve some human involvement and and so, you know, and and here in Kern County especially, we have a very quick growing advanced manufacturing and automation industry that's that's blowing up, especially over in China Lake and Ridgecrest area and then out, you know, out of all of these hubs that are being being created out out near Shafter and and Tahoma, these massive warehouses that are being built that require people with

• 9:51Speaker 01

  with advanced manufacturing skills that often involves AI or involves, you know, technology, software. And so they're, you know, they're they're good jobs, they're good paying jobs, and there's a lack of people that are applying.

• 10:05Speaker 00

  So for instance, I think when we're again, when we were talking to the staffing agency, when they were guests on the show, we talked about Microsoft spending eighty billion dollars on new capital expenditures to retrain, to rehire some of these AI focused jobs. For instance, one of the jobs they they mentioned was AI prompt engineer.

• 10:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, a prompt engineer, isn't that interesting? It's like back when the internet was first invented or first came out and you had like people that were just there, knew how to how to search on Yahoo or AOL, you know, they were like internet, internet researchers.

• 10:43Speaker 00

  So, so, so, I mean, this is a great question. This is a great, great debate on where are the jobs going and where's, what type of industries and things like that. I would say, you know, AI stuff is here to stay and it's changing our lives on a daily basis, on, on, on a minute by minute, really. So, AI focused job, I think you, you call it data or data?

• 11:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, data analytics.

• 11:13Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 11:14Speaker 01

  AI applications. And then I want one more thing and then we can, we can end this question. And that is the, the skilled trades are in, in huge demand. Every trade, linesmen, electricians, plumbers, carpenters, welders.

• 11:31Speaker 00

  That's the new millionaire.

• 11:32Speaker 01

  One hundred percent. Especially if you are entrepreneur minded and, and, and you're, you're process driven. Like, I think what happens is a lot of people think, I don't want to be a plumber. I'm going to be stuck, you know, unclogging toilets. Yeah, well, some, some people do. Some people like get into it and then they're stuck just, you know, clearing toilets all, all day.

• 11:50Speaker 00

  Look at this. You can, you can create your own schedule.

• 11:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 11:54Speaker 00

  You can make good money doing that. And if you're an entrepreneur, to your point, you can, you can build a business.

• 12:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 12:01Speaker 00

  I mean, we're, I'm lucky because I have, you know, Stephen's dad, plumbing, plumbing stamp, I don't have. But if you don't have that, you gotta have to wait.

• 12:09Speaker 01

  Right.

• 12:10Speaker 00

  A long time to get an electrician, a good one, or a good plumber to come to your house and fix your problem.

• 12:15Speaker 01

  Right. And I'd love that it's actually a job where you're, you were, you were physically doing something that is of value. Like, I don't know how to fix that, that, that, you know, the electrical stuff that's going on. Like, thank goodness there are people that come in there and can do it. Like, what an honest, fair way to make a living. You're, you're really just using a trade and a service. And I think what stops a lot of people from doing that is it does take a little bit of time to go through a apprenticeship and to get, get your, your certifications. It's just like, you know, it's just like going to college or doing some of these other things. I can see that being a roadblock, but if, if you look at the, you know, the earnings five, 10 years down the road, it's, it's,

• 13:00Speaker 01

  it's a very affordable way to get into an industry that is also in need of workers.

• 13:06Speaker 00

  So, countries like, I had a friend from Switzerland. When I first came to America, we took English classes together. And he did, he opted for the trade school. Early in the high school, they can choose where to go. So this guy opted for a trade school and became a plumber. Well, he actually was like, once he finished high school, he was able to take a sabbatical, came here to just study, focus on English and study English and tour United States on his own with the money he made throughout high school. This is 25 years ago.

• 13:37Speaker 01

  That's cool. Yeah.

• 13:39Speaker 00

  So, I mean, there, there is something to be said about that.

• 13:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:44Speaker 00

  And not, and not, not everybody is cut for college.

• 13:46Speaker 01

  That's right. That's right. And not every college and every degree is worth it.

• 13:52Speaker 00

  That's true, too.

• 13:53Speaker 01

  You know, great question, great discussion. Thank you, Sammy. We're going to do this, we're going to take a break. When we come back, we're going to bring on a guest. This is Natalie Martinez. She's the Director of Community Outreach for the Boys and Girls Club of Kern County. They've got a drive that's coming up. We're going to talk to Natalie about that. You're not, not going to want to miss it. We'll be right back.

• 14:11Speaker 02

  Need to get your financial fix on the go? If so, subscribe to the Money Wise Podcast and catch up on all past shows whenever.

• 14:29Speaker 01

  Welcome back. We're Money Wise. I'm here, Jared Waite, here with Sammy Abiawi. We're also joined right now by our guest, Natalie Martinez. She is the Director of Community Outreach and Voluntarism at the Boys and Girls Club of Kern County. Welcome to the show, Natalie. Hello, thank you. So you brought with you some information about a drive that's coming up, but with this, there is a statistic that's a little surprising to me. The National Retail Federation for Families, or National Retail Federation says that families with children in elementary through high school are expected to spend, on average, $874 on clothing, school supplies, electronics, and more.

• 15:13Speaker 01

  That is a high number. Can you imagine if you have three, four kids? No. You're talking about three or four grand just for...

• 15:21Speaker 03

  A family which is with two kids. I mean, I can't even imagine.

• 15:24Speaker 01

  Sixteen hundred bucks?

• 15:26Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 15:26Speaker 01

  Uh, so, this is, this brings a huge need to our community. Obviously, there's a, there's a big percentage of our, of our community that is living paycheck to paycheck.

• 15:36Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 15:36Speaker 01

  They don't have an extra eight hundred and seventy-four dollars per kid to buy the shoes, backpack, paper, you know,

• 15:43Speaker 03

  Right.

• 15:43Speaker 01

  pencils, things that they need. So, you know, this, kudos to Boys and Girls Club.

• 15:49Speaker 03

  Well, thank you, thank you.

• 15:50Speaker 01

  Maybe talk about what, what, what and why you're doing this.

• 15:54Speaker 03

  Well, number one, to kind of offset the price for all families that are in need. Um, we are here to help support the community. So, we were, are, we're going to be giving backpacks and paper, all, all the essentials that they would need, along with some shoes. So, that's going to be amazing. This is our first year doing a shoe drive, too.

• 16:15Speaker 01

  Nice.

• 16:15Speaker 03

  So, we're going to add that in our giveaway. Our date would be August eighth. So, any student that comes through the Boys and Girls Club will get a backpack, school supplies, and a pair of shoes.

• 16:24Speaker 01

  Very awesome.

• 16:25Speaker 03

  Yes, yeah.

• 16:26Speaker 01

  Uh, the Boys and Girls Club does so much

• 16:29Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 16:29Speaker 01

  in this community. We're, we're big, big fans. We had Zane on, uh, last month, and, um, they've been just incredibly supportive. We did some volun- a little volunteering a few years back with them, and it's just, it, it's an incredible organization. I think very few people realize how big it is, how many kids are involved. Can you give us some information?

• 16:52Speaker 03

  Well, just to, just off the top of my head, we serve about five thousand students daily food. We provide food for five thousand students. Kern County Wine, we're up in Kernville, Lamont, Arvin, McFarland, Frazier. We're, we're number one in our eyes. We are probably number two in the nation. We like to say we're number one, though.

• 17:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. Number one does. Five thousand, just food.

• 17:17Speaker 00

  On, on the backpacks.

• 17:18Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 17:18Speaker 00

  On the backpacks, you're, you're prepping and you're doing the drive for. How many students are you anticipating to help?

• 17:24Speaker 03

  We will see about three hundred students.

• 17:26Speaker 00

  Wow.

• 17:26Speaker 03

  On just that day, but then anything that we do collect, I send those out to the school locations. That have after school program. So we don't keep them in-house. I keep a closet just in case there is a family that comes in and says, hey, I need, I need paper, I need a backpack. I will have extra supplies for them. But we also give out to our school-wide community, like BCSD, all of those school locations will get some backpacks sent out to them for the after-school program. That way, if there is a need still out there, we still are able to provide services for all of them.

• 17:56Speaker 01

  Well, what else can you tell us about the back-to-school drive here with the Boys and Girls Club?

• 18:00Speaker 03

  Um, well, our drop-off service will be at our Young Street location and the Nile Street location. So we're doing backpack drive at both of those locations. So we're seeing students out in the southwest as well, in the Panama District. So we see the Panama District and BCSD District.

• 18:15Speaker 00

  If someone wants to help, they can go and buy some backpacks and just drop them off at these locations?

• 18:19Speaker 03

  Heck, yes. And we are more than happy to take them, yes.

• 18:22Speaker 00

  Shoes, any size shoes?

• 18:23Speaker 03

  Yes, any size shoes. And then also to Puma at the Kern Outlet, at the Tohono Outlet, there are also a box there that you can drop off supplies and things like that. And they'll give a discount for anybody that wants to buy shoes for any of the Boys and Girls.

• 18:37Speaker 01

  At the Puma Store at Tohono Outlet?

• 18:40Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 18:40Speaker 01

  Oh, that's cool.

• 18:41Speaker 03

  Yeah. We partnered with them this year. So she's been very generous. And right now, we're about 100 shoes in. So we're super excited. So, yeah.

• 18:49Speaker 01

  Wow, that's fantastic.

• 18:51Speaker 00

  Very good.

• 18:52Speaker 01

  Um, yeah, again, so if, if anybody wants to get involved, it sounds like they can drop off any of these, uh, needed, uh, supplies at the Armstrong U Center, which is on Niles, or, or the Stockdale Club, which is on Young Street.

• 19:07Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 19:07Speaker 01

  And I'm assuming that besides just these materials, it's a nonprofit that goes to a good cause. You take monetary donations, too, right?

• 19:17Speaker 03

  Yes. And then we will go shopping for some supplies.

• 19:19Speaker 01

  Oh, perfect. Somebody doesn't want to have to go out to the outlet mall?

• 19:23Speaker 03

  Exactly.

• 19:24Speaker 01

  You can just drop some cheddar towards...

• 19:26Speaker 03

  And we also take volunteers. So if anybody wants to come in, take a kid shopping with us in our gym, we actually create the gym into a big store. So those students are allowed to go shopping for their own supplies, their own backpack, their own shoes. They get a variety of things to pick from.

• 19:41Speaker 00

  Age groups?

• 19:42Speaker 03

  Uh, we serve anywhere between four and 18.

• 19:45Speaker 01

  Oh, man.

• 19:46Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 19:47Speaker 01

  That's a lot.

• 19:47Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 19:48Speaker 01

  That's a lot. So besides, you mentioned it to the 5,000 just for food. Is it, so it must be a much broader number for other services like after school programs.

• 19:59Speaker 03

  Yep. We are actually in all of the B C S D school district schools. And so we, I believe they have 38 locations, 40 locations.

• 20:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 20:08Speaker 03

  So when every one of those schools out there in the after school program.

• 20:12Speaker 01

  That's all thanks to the Boys and Girls Club.

• 20:14Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 20:14Speaker 01

  Yeah. Unbelievable. What a great service.

• 20:17Speaker 03

  We like to think we're Disneyland, an after school program. We like to make it fun.

• 20:22Speaker 01

  It is fun, and I've been in there. I've been in there a few times. Um, the club has been very gracious to let us use their, uh, commercial kitchen as we're preparing for a commercial kitchen of our own at the Woolworths building. And they've just-

• 20:36Speaker 03

  He's been amazing.

• 20:36Speaker 01

  Oh, Mike Richard, yeah.

• 20:38Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 20:38Speaker 01

  I know. I mean, she's been helping, right, with some of the food.

• 20:41Speaker 03

  We've been tasting.

• 20:42Speaker 01

  Sharing some of the tastings.

• 20:43Speaker 00

  You've been tasting?

• 20:43Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 20:44Speaker 00

  That's awesome. Is it good?

• 20:45Speaker 03

  It is very good.

• 20:46Speaker 00

  All right.

• 20:47Speaker 01

  Yeah, we can't, we can't wait to open. But, and when I've been in, it's like, wow, this place is amazing. It's, um, I've been at, at, mostly the Niles.

• 20:54Speaker 03

  The Niles.

• 20:55Speaker 01

  Nile Street location, but, um, yeah, it's just really, really great work. Yeah.

• 21:00Speaker 00

  How long have you been with the, with the club?

• 21:02Speaker 03

  I've been there 20 years.

• 21:04Speaker 01

  What?

• 21:05Speaker 03

  Yes, yes.

• 21:05Speaker 01

  So you started there as a child yourself then, huh?

• 21:07Speaker 03

  Yes, yes, thank you. Yeah, right. No, I've been there a minute, and this is the most rewarding job ever. Um, it's, I would never leave. I tell Zane, I'm gonna, you're gonna have to bury me here, because I love doing what I do.

• 21:21Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 21:21Speaker 03

  I love providing services for our community. It's amazing.

• 21:24Speaker 01

  Yeah, we actually have a listener question. It's kind of related, and that is, this might be off of your, out of your expertise, but how, how do kids get signed up for these after school programs? Is it done through the school or?

• 21:36Speaker 03

  Um, no, go onto our website, and it's done through the school. But if you go onto the Boys and Girls Club of Kern County, they're our website, go on there and sign up, and our summer program's on there for all of our summer programs. But for school, you can go through this school, and they'll send you a link, and then you sign up through there.

• 21:50Speaker 01

  Oh, very cool. So if, if anybody out there's listening, and this listener included, go, just- Google search Boys and Girls Club of Kern County. There's their website. It's B G C K C dot com. And you can you can get information about signing somebody up for an after school program for your grandson.

• 22:12Speaker 00

  And just the after school programs for people that don't know, they're just, I mean, their music, there's

• 22:18Speaker 03

  Oh, there's so much, yes.

• 22:20Speaker 00

  Arts, there's there's some of these art and these paintings that are done by the kids are just amazing.

• 22:26Speaker 03

  Well, in fact, Art Fest is coming up for us and that's in October and that's just amazing. You walk into the art room and I'm just in awe just to see, just because I paint stick figures. There's just no way I can do that. So then when I sit down with those students and I see how much they like inspire me. I'm like, oh, my God, can I just come in here in the afternoon? Anytime I'm having a bad day, I walk out there and it's just, it's music to my ears.

• 22:50Speaker 00

  Rewarding.

• 22:51Speaker 03

  It's so rewarding. It's amazing. I love it.

• 22:53Speaker 00

  Yeah, you ask for volunteers. I don't think I can volunteer, frankly, especially with the with the kids shopping. I'll just keep bawling when I'm there and I'm not going to do that. I'll definitely help in any way, shape or form, just volunteering with, especially for the shopping part. I don't, I just can't.

• 23:09Speaker 03

  You're just walking them through.

• 23:10Speaker 00

  I'll just keep, I'll just keep, seriously, I'll keep bawling, I'll keep crying and I'm not going to do that.

• 23:16Speaker 03

  But you could keep bawling and walking at the same time. It's fun. It's so rewarding. By the time everybody leaves, they're just like, you know what, Natalie, thank you for this opportunity. So it keeps growing bigger and bigger. And this is why, because our community is just amazing. They're givers.

• 23:31Speaker 01

  Yeah, they are. And especially when it comes to kids and it comes to these types of programs and activities that the Boys and Girls Club has been so instrumental in in our community for so many years. Now there's now you probably meet people who were there when they were, you know, ten and now they're

• 23:47Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 23:48Speaker 01

  In their twenties.

• 23:49Speaker 03

  They're off in college and some of them even have students of their own that are starting the program and I'm like, oh, my God, really? How old am I? And then I realize, oh, I'm that old. Yeah, you're right.

• 23:58Speaker 01

  Time flies, time flies. Well, Natalie, thank you so much for taking the time. Thank you for coming on the show. We really appreciate it. We highly

• 24:05Speaker 00

  Thanks for what you do.

• 24:06Speaker 03

  Yeah, thank you. Thank you for having me.

• 24:08Speaker 01

  That's Natalie Martinez. She is Director of Community Outreach and Voluntarism at the Boys and Girls Club of Kern County. Thanks so much. We'll be right back.

• 24:16Speaker 02

  If you're a business owner who provides a retirement plan for your employees, contact MoneyWise Wealth Management to see if you're maximizing your options and minimizing your liabilities. MoneyWise 401K plans are customized to you and your company's needs. 661-847-1000.

• 24:38Speaker 01

  Sing it, Zach.

• 24:42Speaker 01

  We're MoneyWise. Thanks for tuning in. I'm Jared here with Sammy. That's Akari, Bakersfield boy.

• 24:48Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah?

• 24:48Speaker 01

  Yeah. Um, great, great guest. That's fun. I love, I love hearing about that.

• 24:54Speaker 00

  Plus the mission of what they do. No, I'm serious. I, I, I would love to go volunteer. I'm just not going to hold myself, so.

• 25:01Speaker 01

  You admitted you're too much of a crybaby.

• 25:02Speaker 00

  Yes, I am.

• 25:04Speaker 01

  Sensitive. I'll say you're sensitive.

• 25:06Speaker 00

  That's right. That's right.

• 25:07Speaker 01

  We got a couple more messages here. Sammy, let's go.

• 25:12Speaker 00

  Uh, well, I'll read this comment because I think it's interesting, following up on our jobs and what have you. I have been an electrician for the last 20 years and, and I'm happy with the hundred to $150,000 that we currently make, but the AI is already in the industry and will be taken over in the next five to seven years. But we are being told to train on working on the robots because we want to make more money.

• 25:35Speaker 01

  If we want to make more money, yes. Yeah. So it's like, you know, here's somebody that's been in the industry, an electrical, an electrician for the last 20 years. And now he's like, you know, I can see, you know, you know, the higher up saying, hey, get to know these robots. Get to know the robots as you're powering them. And it's, you know, there's going to be, and that's, I don't, every sector evolves, right? There's no, no, no, no career you're going to jump into. And then 40 years later, 20 years later, you're doing the same stuff with the same tools and now that just, I mean, maybe there's some jobs. Like if you're, I don't know what they would be, but you're, you're always going to be changing.

• 26:15Speaker 00

  Definitely, I think definitely if it's not compliance, it's gonna be technology. If it's gonna be, it's gonna be something that's gonna make your job ever changing.

• 26:22Speaker 01

  Electrician is a funny, an interesting one because in terms of AI taking over electrician's job. Because it's, this is a perfect example of how I think you can easily think about how AI. And you'd be thinking of AI in a very narrow scope, not realizing how broad it's going to be. There's a headline here about AI or a robot that performed flawlessly gallbladder surgery. That's, you know, come on, like, and with like a hundred percent accuracy. These, these robots are gonna be way better than us at so many things.

• 27:04Speaker 01

  And you can see something like an electrician, you know, it's, it may be a while before you have a robot that's climbing up in your attic, you know, you know, running wires through there. But you're gonna have somebody there that is programming or maintaining that robot. Or you're gonna have an application that you as an electrician are using to help you with some of your calculations and some of the planning and some of the programming.

• 27:28Speaker 00

  Yep, estimation, job estimation and things like that. Yes, I agree.

• 27:33Speaker 01

  And any of these jobs, like, you know, electrical work on any major job or, you know, whether it's a house or it's a commercial, it's, it's very complicated. It's really, there's a lot involved in, in designing, electrically designing a, a building or, or, you know, space. So, very cool. Thank you for that message.

• 27:56Speaker 00

  Yeah, should we move to the next question?

• 27:58Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 27:58Speaker 00

  Different, different thing, but how is oil year to date doing? Also, how is gold and silver from our listener, Oil Dell Trash?

• 28:09Speaker 01

  Thank you, Oil Dell Trash.

• 28:11Speaker 02

  Long time no see.

• 28:12Speaker 01

  I know.

• 28:13Speaker 02

  Haven't heard from him in a while.

• 28:14Speaker 01

  Welcome back. Welcome back to the show. And you know, gold has been on a tear. The last five years, gold is up just over $1,500. It's now trading at $3,300 an ounce, or $3,352 an ounce as of today. It's about an 85% increase in the last five years for gold. And that's a, that's a lot. That's a, that's a big, big gain. Just year to date, gold is up about 26%. On a one-year basis, it's up about 38%. So we're just seeing it, you know, blow up.

• 28:59Speaker 00

  So, this is true story. I was in Morocco in last August, not this, last year. So I bought some gold for my wife. Then I had to go back when my dad was sick in December. And I took her back to the jewelry guy. And he was like, hey, bring those bracelets back. I'll buy them for you. And he gave her like $2,000 profit if she brought those bracelets back.

• 29:22Speaker 01

  Oh, interesting.

• 29:23Speaker 00

  Seriously. It was like, three, four months.

• 29:26Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 29:26Speaker 00

  And he was giving her a large profit. And she was like, nah, I'm keeping my stuff.

• 29:31Speaker 01

  It's just, just from the pure price of the gold.

• 29:33Speaker 00

  Correct.

• 29:34Speaker 01

  The metal itself.

• 29:35Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 29:35Speaker 01

  It, it, it's really, it's, it's one of these things that we're not, we're not recommending that anybody buy or sell gold. Not, not at all. We're not, we're not trying to say that. That's not our intention at all. You have to be aware that gold is a, is a commodity. And all commodities are very, involve an inherent risk in, in trading. If you are trying to trade for a profit, buying and selling any commodity, you really need to know what you're doing. And you need to know who you're competing against. You're talking about large institutional investors that, that you can get.

• 30:10Speaker 00

  Study the market, study the industry, know, know what production is coming, or what's not going. If we're going to have any disturbance to the supply chain. They know all of that stuff. That's what I think what you're describing as far as risk.

• 30:23Speaker 01

  Yeah. You have, gold was in 2012, in September of 2012, gold prices were about seventeen hundred dollars an ounce. It did, it went down, it got as low as, as, as about a thousand dollars an ounce in 2015. And it didn't, even as far as 2022, so in October of 2022, gold was trading at about sixteen fifty an ounce. So even less than it was trading at for ten years before. I mean, you went through a ten year period where you didn't make any money. If you had bought, if you'd bought gold during that period, you were losing money for eighty percent of that period.

• 31:08Speaker 00

  I, I have not looked at this and maybe I can research it, but I'm gonna go back to these periods where you just saw the spikes.

• 31:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 31:15Speaker 00

  Something geopolitical was going on.

• 31:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 31:17Speaker 00

  Supply chain disturbance. Something was happening to the point where people shifted the risk from either a stock market or cash into the gold.

• 31:26Speaker 01

  Right.

• 31:26Speaker 00

  Thinking that, hey, that's secure, I need to invest in that.

• 31:29Speaker 01

  Right.

• 31:32Speaker 01

  And, and that's a, that's a risky, that's a risky thing to do because...

• 31:37Speaker 00

  Time, time in the market, or time in the market is what you always say.

• 31:42Speaker 01

  Yeah, and then, and then we also talk about the importance of diversification.

• 31:45Speaker 00

  That's right.

• 31:46Speaker 01

  Like, you don't put too much money in any one thing if you can't afford to lose it. And gold doesn't pay a dividend.

• 31:55Speaker 00

  That's true.

• 31:56Speaker 01

  And, and gold is just, it's, it's, it's, can be traded largely speculatively instead of being traded based off of,

• 32:05Speaker 00

  Reality.

• 32:05Speaker 01

  You know, a group of dentists that need to make teeth, you know, or jewelry makers. It's like, no, it's like, now you've just got people hoarding it because they're, they're preparing for the apocalypse.

• 32:15Speaker 00

  How did you know I'm, I'm thinking about putting a grill?

• 32:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, because you, you would look good in a grill, that's why. I think that they asked about silver, right?

• 32:23Speaker 00

  They asked about oil too.

• 32:25Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 32:25Speaker 00

  How oil did year to date. And, and, and it's, and it's a little bit down from January, I think it's eighteen, eighteen percent. A lot of it has to do with the supply, again, supply and demand and rising OPEC supply. If you don't know who OPEC is, it's a conglomerate of multiple countries that basically decide on how much output they can put out there in the market from of how many barrels a day they can produce. And they can control the spike, the price of oil that way. For us here in the US, gold, I mean, oil at sixty-three to sixty-six dollars a barrel makes it a little bit difficult for our producers to compete because of

• 33:10Speaker 00

  our cost to produce here in the US.

• 33:13Speaker 01

  Right.

• 33:15Speaker 00

  We have, especially here in Kern County, we have an aging type of infrastructure.

• 33:19Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 33:20Speaker 00

  Our wells, they have to have a workover. And it's not cost-effective, especially in light of all the permitting and all the red tape that our producer here, especially in this state, have to go through. Some other states are a lot more business-friendly when it comes to oil, might make sense. But for the type of oil we produce in Kern County, it's a little bit difficult for people to make money at sixty-three dollars.

• 33:45Speaker 01

  Yeah, and oil is another, is an interesting, a different commodity, very different than than gold, because oil is used.

• 33:52Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 33:52Speaker 01

  It's used to power the world still, or at least carbon fuel is, whether it's oil or coal or natural gas. And it is...

• 34:02Speaker 00

  Used for plastic, used for roads, used for everything you can imagine, yes.

• 34:06Speaker 01

  And it is, there's an increasing demand on oil. We talk about the, the supply side mostly, and that's in California where there's a drive to stop the supply of oil. But to stop the, the consumption of oil is, is a whole nother ballgame because it's so integrated into our society, into the world, and transportation, and medicine, and all of these things.

• 34:32Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 34:33Speaker 01

  And so, I've actually been surprised at how stable oil prices have been and how low they've been.

• 34:40Speaker 00

  Especially in light of all the wars we had

• 34:42Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 34:43Speaker 00

  in the last couple of years. Russia, Ukraine, Iran, Israel, Israel, Yemen.

• 34:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 34:49Speaker 00

  All sort of tankers passing, passing through the, the Hormuz and, and the risks. And we still had, I mean, stable, I would say, stable price.

• 35:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 35:01Speaker 00

  We had some spikes in the summer at the pump, but that's just demand that happens all the time in the summer months.

• 35:07Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:07Speaker 00

  Here in the United States, I would say.

• 35:09Speaker 01

  Uh, we, mentioning, mentioning silver, silver in 2012, in January of 2012, was trading at about thirty-three, thirty-four dollars an ounce. It's trading today, thirteen years over, you know, almost fourteen years later, thirty-eight dollars. So, you know, not much movement there. Of course, it dropped down, it got down in, in 2020. Silver got down about fourteen dollars, it looks like, and then kind of had a little spike and.

• 35:43Speaker 00

  I would, I, I'll be interested in knowing about copper, just because we use copper, like in a lot of things.

• 35:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:50Speaker 00

  You know, that's, that's, silver is like the step brother of, of gold that's just there.

• 35:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:56Speaker 00

  Gets used, but not to the same extent of gold or copper.

• 36:01Speaker 01

  Uh, Gero would call it hillbilly gold. Silver's hillbilly gold.

• 36:06Speaker 00

  Copper is. We need Gero's laugh, Stephen.

• 36:08Speaker 01

  Yeah. Copper is in the news now because it's, it's going up, there's, you know.

• 36:14Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 36:14Speaker 01

  Copper's so needed.

• 36:15Speaker 00

  People are panicking, countries like Chile, which exports a lot of it, and, and heard about the fifty percent tariffs on copper, and they're panicking.

• 36:24Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's, there's a global race right now to get, uh, these, have especially some of these metals secured and the supplies for these, for these metals. Uh, copper's trading right now at five dollars and fifty-three cents, and copper is up. Uh, oh boy, holy cow. Yeah, it's up a lot because copper was trading at about $2, about $2 back in 2015. And now it's trading at $5.53. So, you know, it's

• 37:00Speaker 00

  Double.

• 37:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, almost tripled.

• 37:02Speaker 00

  Wow.

• 37:03Speaker 01

  Price of copper just in the last, you know, it's seven years. And then, of course, we're seeing a big spike just since November of last year. We saw a huge jump there in copper. It looks like it's up about 31% since November.

• 37:18Speaker 00

  Huge.

• 37:20Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 37:20Speaker 00

  Huge.

• 37:21Speaker 01

  Huge. That's you.

• 37:22Speaker 00

  I said Gero, not me, Stephen. Oh, that's awesome. I like your, I like your sound bits better.

• 37:29Speaker 01

  Oh. Yeah. Good.

• 37:30Speaker 00

  There you go. That's the one.

• 37:33Speaker 01

  There's the laugh. All right, I want to just take a final break of the day. When we come back, we've got another listener question. Don't go anywhere. You don't want to miss it.

• 37:40Speaker 02

  Have you been putting off your finances? Seize the day. Call the Money Wise office at 661-847-1000 or email [email protected] for more information.

• 38:03Speaker 01

  Thanks for tuning in so much. We really appreciate you listening. I want to remind you, if you missed any of this or previous shows, you can find us wherever we stream, wherever you stream your podcasts, commercial free, like iTunes, Apple Podcasts or Spotify, there you can catch this and all previous shows. Got another message here, Sammy.

• 38:24Speaker 00

  Yep. What is the difference between a financial advisor and a CFP or whatever you called it? LOL.

• 38:31Speaker 01

  This, I think this probably came from last Friday.

• 38:36Speaker 02

  This was definitely Friday's show.

• 38:37Speaker 01

  It's a great show on Friday.

• 38:40Speaker 02

  Back to the basics like we used to.

• 38:42Speaker 01

  Nice. Yeah, that's available again on our, on our podcast. So you can go back and listen. That was Justin and Dustin. They were both CFPs, by the way. Both Justin and Dustin are certified financial planners. This is a good question. It sounds, it may sound like, oh, it's the same thing, you know, certified financial planner or just a financial advisor. There is a difference. There's, there's actually a pretty, pretty big difference. I have an issue with financial advisor, partly because a lot of people can call themselves a financial advisor, when in my opinion, I don't, I wouldn't consider that necessarily a financial advisor. I would think that somebody who's a financial advisor has the proper registrations that

• 39:27Speaker 01

  allow them to give advice or offer products.

• 39:31Speaker 00

  Or maybe a licensed individual that has some, one of the series.

• 39:34Speaker 01

  Yes, yeah. And instead, what happens sometimes is somebody calls themselves a financial advisor, really they're an insurance broker, or they're an insurance salesman, and they happen to have a couple of insurance products that look like investments, but they're, they're, they're not really trained in investments, and yet they put themselves out there like a financial advisor. That's, that's where I'll have, you know, I get my feathers ruffled a little bit with that. So it's, you know, financial advisor is a much broader term, and, you know, just about anybody can call themselves a financial advisor. There's no really standardized requirements or oversight on that title. But a CFP, which is a Certified Financial Planner, is quite, is quite challenging.

• 40:19Speaker 01

  It's very, it's not easy to get. It takes a while to do it. You have to go through several years, you have to have several years of experience before you are allowed to have that designation, and you have to be held to a fiduciary standard, which, of course, we are here, money-wise. You have to go through the certification process, which is, is rigorous. You have to be trained in learning about 72 different areas of financial expertise. There's thousands of hours of experience prior to earning that certification, and then you gotta pass the test, and...

• 40:55Speaker 00

  How long is the text, the test, I should say?

• 40:57Speaker 01

  I think there's seven parts to the test, so, and...

• 41:01Speaker 00

  I read somewhere it's like six hours or something like that.

• 41:04Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 41:05Speaker 00

  It's a long test.

• 41:06Speaker 01

  Yeah, each test is very long, and most people do it over, over a few years. They, they pass, they go through all those different sections of the CFP. They kind of like spread it out, but it only has a pass rate of about 60%. And on average is about three years to get the certificate.

• 41:28Speaker 00

  Become a CFP or become a CFP.

• 41:29Speaker 01

  Yeah. Yeah, I'm a big fan of that certification.

• 41:33Speaker 00

  Yeah, because it offers you a lot of education and retirement planning, tax strategies. But also there's a code of ethic, I think. So instead of, you know, calling yourself a financial advisor, which to your point, everybody can do that. Or anybody can do that.

• 41:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 41:52Speaker 00

  The certified financial planner, you can do that.

• 41:55Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 41:55Speaker 00

  It's a designation that you have to obtain through studying and passing an exam. And it's not an easy process.

• 42:03Speaker 01

  Right, it's definitely challenging. I have a lot of respect for CFPs. And we've got a few of them here at the office at Money Wise. And it's valuable and it's really, really great to have. It really just is a certification of having a broad knowledge of a lot of different areas of finance, including estate planning, taxation. You know, those are very, can be very complex and involved. And having some knowledge and training in those areas is very helpful as a financial advisor.

• 42:37Speaker 00

  Yeah, I've been amazed to see certain things that our CFPs did for certain clients and how they were able to create a financial plan, holistic financial plan, using their expertise and their knowledge. It's pretty cool to see.

• 42:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, really cool. I was very surprised at today's markets. We ended up in positive territory, Sammy, over the weekend and this early this morning. More news out of Washington in terms of new tariffs being brought on different countries. We've had different timeframes come and go, or what do we call them? Like deadlines for different countries coming and going. My opinion, it just seems like traders are sort of shrugging off now all the rhetoric. Not all of it, but a good chunk of the rhetoric that is out there regarding tariffs, unlike it was in the beginning of the year where it was, oh, my goodness, when is this going to be? A lot more of like, ah, whatever, this is gonna blow over.

• 43:34Speaker 01

  We will find out a lot more, though, very soon because the inflation report is about to be released tomorrow. We're gonna see the June Consumer Price Index report. And we're gonna see if it's showing any signs about the earlier rounds of tariffs and how much they may have impacted the US economy. You know, the Fed also is expected to make its decision on interest rates in about two weeks.

• 44:02Speaker 00

  Following this report you're talking about.

• 44:04Speaker 01

  Right, yeah, exactly.

• 44:06Speaker 00

  That's gonna be definitely something they look at before they make a decision to move rates. Or keep them the same.

• 44:13Speaker 01

  It's one of the biggest things that they're looking at is prices, inflation. And then they're looking at unemployment. And that's their two big mandates. And the Consumer Price Index is expected to increase 2.6% year over year in June. That's up from 2.4%. So it's sort of already expected to go up a little bit. And so hopefully, we don't get too much of a surprise there with the Consumer Price Index numbers tomorrow. You know, we're also, you know, speaking of the Fed, Sammy, more and more pressure coming out of Washington to Jerome Powell, whose term is getting ready to expire this year.

• 44:54Speaker 01

  It's looking more and more like the president is not gonna want to renew that, that his term.

• 45:00Speaker 00

  Yeah, in fact, he wants him to resign now.

• 45:02Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 45:04Speaker 00

  So, yeah, I don't think Powell. It would be a miracle if he stays after his term ends.

• 45:12Speaker 01

  You know, I guess everybody has their opinion on Powell, but economists and most economists have been pretty surprised at how he has navigated us through the pandemic. And how was able to tame inflation, the pandemic driven inflation. It's been remarkable. And I would, I get fearful when I hear about politics getting involved in our central banking system. I think that there's a lot of wisdom involved in not having those policymakers.

• 45:50Speaker 01

  Whip sawed by the ups and downs of of politics and presidential terms. Like we, we have this financial stability in this country for a reason because our

• 46:03Speaker 00

  Separation between those two.

• 46:05Speaker 01

  Yes, yeah, it's it's kept us eye on the prize. It's kept our country much more stable, including our dollar and, and, and, you know, all of the economic advantages that we have. It's this country, many, many of them come from the, the guidance of our central bank. So we'll see what happens there. Want to thank all of our listeners for tuning in. Of course, as we leave the show, and I'll remind you of these three things. Be smart, be safe, and always be money wise.

• 46:34Speaker 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.