7/21/25 Behind the Anchor Desk: Alex Fisher's Story + Proven Steps to Cut Credit Card Interest

The Moneywise Radio Show and Podcast Monday, July 21st 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: Alex Fisher, News Anchor with KGET-TV 17 website: www. KGET.com

• 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 with your hosts, I'm Sharad Wade and...

• 1:04Speaker 00

  Sammy Abiyawi.

• 1:05Speaker 01

  Sammy, good seeing you, man.

• 1:07Speaker 00

  Same here.

• 1:07Speaker 01

  It's always good having to doing the show with you.

• 1:10Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:11Speaker 01

  We got a few listener questions, and I think some of this is geared towards your expertise, so why don't we jump right in it?

• 1:18Speaker 00

  Sure. You want to read, or I can read it.

• 1:21Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:22Speaker 00

  I'm wondering how I can lower the interest on my credit cards now that my credit score is better.

• 1:29Speaker 01

  This is a good question. You know, I had to scratch my head a little bit initially thinking, oh yeah, I never really thought about that. You know, if somebody's score improves on their credit card, I guarantee Sammy that the credit card company is not going to automatically lower your rate.

• 1:45Speaker 00

  Nope.

• 1:46Speaker 01

  I've never seen that happen.

• 1:47Speaker 00

  Yeah, that's, that's, no, no, no. That system does not exist.

• 1:50Speaker 01

  Does it, right? They force us as the consumer to go in and make those requests.

• 1:57Speaker 00

  That's true. However, other credit card companies are also paying attention to your credit score.

• 2:03Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 2:03Speaker 00

  So you will be getting offers as soon as your credit score starts getting better. Most of the time, you will be getting letters, so don't just... Get rid of those. They might have some really good offers, which we will dive into here in a minute. But one of the things, the first thing to my, that comes to my mind is pick up the phone and call your credit card company.

• 2:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, unfortunately, you gotta, you gotta call and talk to them. There's, there's usually not a way that you can do it through the app or, you know, through an email. You actually need to call and talk to the, usually it's, sometimes they call it a retention specialist, but just talk to somebody that can,

• 2:36Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 2:37Speaker 01

  That, you know, can answer your question and say, hey, look, I, my, my, my credit score has gotten better. I'm trying to get my rate down. Who do I need to talk to? And go through that process with them. The good news is, like you said, Sammy, if they don't have any luck negotiating that rate drop with the credit card company, they're probably getting offers from other card, cards.

• 2:56Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah. So, so you've got to pay attention to that. A great advice. I mean, whenever you call, just, just, just call and just go through the motion and, and ask politely for that rate reduction, given the fact that your credit score just now improved. The second thing is look at the other offers. I mean, if, if it's not in the mail, there are a lot of services now that you can just Google online what offers are available. A lot of the time for balance transfers, you can get zero percent for 12 months at least.

• 3:28Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:29Speaker 00

  And, and that, and that, that would be great because first you can now start knocking down the principal balance versus just paying the interest.

• 3:37Speaker 01

  Yeah, it can make a big difference when the average rate is over 20%. I can't, you know what it is by chance?

• 3:44Speaker 00

  I would say, I would say 20, maybe 22. We can look it up.

• 3:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:49Speaker 00

  But, but I've, I've never seen anything less than that unless you're a long time client with maybe a credit union or, or even your existing bank, where you might be able to get something in the 18 to 20%, but that's rare. Credit cards are known for high interest rates.

• 4:06Speaker 01

  Yeah, I, I just look it up, Sammy. The average credit card interest rate in the United States currently is around 21 and a half percent. Which I agree that it's usually around 20, 20%, which that is such a high rate.

• 4:20Speaker 00

  It is, it is. I mean, as a comparison, if you look at the eighties under Reagan, that's, that's the interest rate that people used to have to, to, to, to buy in real estate. Or that's the top of rates people paid back in the seventies and eighties.

• 4:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:34Speaker 00

  We shouldn't be paying that high of a rate now. Now, granted, a credit card. Is an unsecured credit, basically. So there's no collateral.

• 4:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:44Speaker 00

  It's basically your signature and you get spending money.

• 4:47Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:48Speaker 00

  And that's, that's the reason why they, they have that high of an interest rate.

• 4:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:54Speaker 00

  They do their studies and decide, hey, we're gonna grant this credit card for a thousand dollars to a million people.

• 5:02Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:03Speaker 00

  They know the percentage of loss from the get-go.

• 5:07Speaker 01

  Right.

• 5:07Speaker 00

  They're willing to take that because of that high interest rate.

• 5:10Speaker 01

  That's, that's where I always feel like people can, can game the system and turn it on them, on the credit card companies by not paying them any interest. Then essentially they're losing money on you.

• 5:22Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 5:23Speaker 01

  Cause.

• 5:23Speaker 00

  You use it for points system, you mean?

• 5:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, using it for points or using it for the security. You're using it to be able to, you know, track your expenses and to have that, some of those protections that the credit card offers you. Then you, you win it. But the minute you pay any interest, then it's, you know, it's not cost effective. Then you should probably not be dealing with credit cards. If you can't control that, you'd need to stick with the debit card. Or some other way of paying, cause that, that interest can accrue so quickly.

• 5:53Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 5:53Speaker 01

  This used to be a much more popular tool for people to use is to switch cards. To just go from one card, just balance transfer from one card to the next and just keep getting those offers. And, you know, you can only do that for so long because if it eventually, you're going to, you're gonna run out of credit cards. But you're also going to run into the issue of every time you open a credit card, it does hurt your credit. It, it dings your credit when you do that.

• 6:21Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 6:22Speaker 01

  And you sometimes have transfer fees that can be three to five percent when you're transferring your balance to a new credit card. Even if it's, has a, a zero percent introductory APR offer, there doesn't mean that they don't, there may be some other charges there. So it's like, it's still not cost effective for most people to just do a balance transfer.

• 6:42Speaker 00

  No, and, and frankly, even if you do a balance transfer, if it's not zero percent, it's not achieving anything. Because if, if you're gonna move from a credit card where you're paying thirty-one percent to a credit card that's paying twenty-one percent. Yes, you're saving ten percent in interest, but it's still twenty-one percent. You know, for, for, for an average American or average family that, that makes fifty, fifty-five thousand dollar a year, to pay that type of interest is, is, um, it's crippling to the household.

• 7:12Speaker 01

  There, there, you mentioned that there are lots of easy ways for people to find what credit cards are out there and how they can, you know, what the rates are. We've, uh, we've talked about a few of these services out there that are free, like Bankrate or Credit Karma. These are, anytime you have a free service, you are the product. That means, that means the company is taking your private, your personal information, and they're selling it to somebody. And it may be selling it just by, you know, off, making you offers and, you know, bombarding you with, with sales.

• 7:48Speaker 00

  You become a marketing target.

• 7:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:50Speaker 00

  Yeah, you're, you're now a, a, a part of a list that gets sold, change hands.

• 7:55Speaker 01

  Yep. But, you know, if, I use Credit Karma, for example, I like it. And I, I, I think Bankrate has a lot of good information on there, you know, besides the ads. But, you know, this is a time, if you are looking to shop for a credit card, I mean, those, those are the services that are out there. They probably already know all of, everything about you.

• 8:13Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah. To me, if, if you really improved your credit score, okay? And, and, and you're looking to maybe reduce the interest rate, another option is to consider a personal loan. Most of the time, credit unions. If you have a credit union in your neighborhood or the city where you live, a lot of the time, they, they offer, uh, consumer loans where you can consolidate your debt. And, and, and they're so flexible that sometimes they'll just take nothing, or they'll take even a title of a car, for instance, right? So they can, they can lend you the money and now you're going from twenty-plus percent into an eight percent maybe.

• 8:55Speaker 01

  Right, right.

• 8:57Speaker 00

  And on, on, on a payment that pays principal and interest.

• 9:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's not a revolving line.

• 9:02Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's amortized credit versus interest only. So you have an exit strategy in five or seven years, depending on the loan you get.

• 9:09Speaker 01

  It's, it's, that's a smart move. It can also be a smart move to... Potentially pull the some equity out of your home to pay it off.

• 9:18Speaker 00

  Correct.

• 9:18Speaker 01

  Cause that could be cheaper also.

• 9:20Speaker 00

  And tax deductible.

• 9:21Speaker 01

  Uh, for some people.

• 9:22Speaker 00

  For the equity on the house. Like if you have a HELOC, that interest is, I believe, tax deductible.

• 9:29Speaker 01

  If, if you are above the standard deduction.

• 9:32Speaker 00

  I see, yes.

• 9:33Speaker 01

  You know, you know, 90% of the people are not.

• 9:36Speaker 00

  That's true.

• 9:37Speaker 01

  And so they don't really get to write that off, but it mathematically can still make sense. Where even if it makes sense mathematically, I, I always hesitate on giving that advice because somebody who has a debt problem, they're just going to use that as a way to free up their more, basically.

• 9:56Speaker 00

  Their, their credit cards.

• 9:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 9:57Speaker 00

  So they can use them again.

• 9:58Speaker 01

  So they can use them again. And then it's like, oh, you just.

• 10:00Speaker 00

  You, you bring up a very good point. So I call it credit card addiction.

• 10:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:06Speaker 00

  It's an addiction, like anything else.

• 10:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:08Speaker 00

  We, we, we get addicted to the use of credit cards and then we put it on payments and sometimes we forget about it. We get hit with late fees and, and what have you. That's an addiction that truly people need to, the, the best way to get rid of it is not use it or find a way how to pay them off and just not use them again.

• 10:27Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 10:28Speaker 00

  If you have that problem.

• 10:29Speaker 01

  That's right. You gotta just stop relying on it.

• 10:31Speaker 00

  That's it.

• 10:32Speaker 01

  And stop thinking that that's your safety net.

• 10:33Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 10:34Speaker 01

  Create a different safety net of real money in a savings account somewhere. Stop using that credit card if that's the case. I, I, I don't, don't take it as a, as a failure on your part that there's somehow, you know, you don't, you, you, you don't have enough will or whatever, because everybody deals with some sort of addiction or some sort of like problem moderating, whether it's food or.

• 10:57Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 10:57Speaker 01

  Or lack of exercise or whatever. Like we all have these things.

• 11:00Speaker 00

  I have an addiction to internet.

• 11:01Speaker 01

  Uh, uh, there you go. I mean.

• 11:03Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 11:03Speaker 01

  We all have, we all have.

• 11:04Speaker 00

  And I know Steven has an addiction to Costco hot dog.

• 11:08Speaker 01

  He has got addiction to Costco, period.

• 11:10Speaker 02

  Not Costco hot dogs, but Costco in general.

• 11:12Speaker 01

  Just Costco in general. They get them. They get them there.

• 11:15Speaker 02

  Especially the pre-made dinners.

• 11:16Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah.

• 11:17Speaker 02

  Just makes me look good when I come home and.

• 11:19Speaker 01

  Make it in 10 minutes.

• 11:22Speaker 00

  You're a good man. Me, I'll just take it out of the plastic and say, hey babe, I cooked.

• 11:26Speaker 01

  Look what I made. We got another question, Sammy, and this is also right down your alley.

• 11:30Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 11:31Speaker 01

  You got it there?

• 11:32Speaker 00

  Sure. Heard your show with the former banker, I'm guessing that's me, and have been curious about how the banking industry is evolving in our region and beyond. What is the most rapidly growing source of income for banks right now? Thank you, guys.

• 11:44Speaker 01

  This was really interesting. I wanted to get your opinion, Sammy, because we both, you know, read this question, preparing for the show. And I learned some things myself because I was like, well, I wonder how the banking industry globally, like how is, how have banks changed in terms of how they make their money? And, you know, speaking globally, I was a little surprised to see that Asia Pacific, for example, is, is right now dominating globally in retail banking. We're talking about retail banking here, and I know you, you dealt in commercial banking, but in retail banking, there's a, uh, Asia Pacific now makes up 33%

• 12:23Speaker 01

  of all retail banking across the world. And I thought, whoa, what, what is going on there? Well, it's demographics. You have a, a large population, population that's growing, young, exactly. And not only they're growing in numbers, but they're growing from, from low middle class to, to upper middle class. So you have this rising middle class with an increase in disposable income. And it's like, whoa, okay, this is, you know, we're, I think we're so, I'm so used to America being this, you know, the, the, like, the credit capital of the world, you know, or this is like, we, we've got lending down like nobody's business and, you know, to learn, oh, this is

• 13:07Speaker 01

  we're so advanced, we've got all these things. And now it's like, oh no, this, there's, there's going to be some changes probably that will trickle down and affect all of us in some way, just because of how different countries have different spending habits and needs.

• 13:19Speaker 00

  Yeah, no, definitely. I agree with you. And, and I think that's probably going to be the next, the next one behind, uh, behind Southeast Asia is Africa and Latin America.

• 13:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:30Speaker 00

  The, the, the population is growing, young people going, going, graduating and starting their own businesses, the middle class is growing. So definitely banking. As a, from a growing standpoint, is going to be growing in those countries. Now, going back to the question, traditionally, banks generate their income from you giving me your deposit. And most of the time, I either gonna pay you 0% or very little for it. Then I'm gonna go around and lend that money at a higher rate.

• 14:03Speaker 01

  Right.

• 14:04Speaker 00

  Right? That's the interest income, or net interest income. Now, the bank does not just make fees in that, no. There is a fee income that gets generated by just housing your account, okay? If you don't maintain a minimum balance in that account, I'm gonna charge you a fee just to house your money, which is absurd, I know, if when you really think about it.

• 14:29Speaker 01

  Right.

• 14:29Speaker 00

  You're gonna use my money, but I'm still gonna pay you for it.

• 14:31Speaker 01

  Yeah, you're paying me, you're charging me to give you my money to hold my money.

• 14:37Speaker 00

  Correct.

• 14:37Speaker 01

  That's weird.

• 14:38Speaker 00

  That's, but then, the fee income is generated through, you know, wire fees, all sort of treasury products, which is the, to me, the largest driver of fee income for banks. What is, what are treasury products in, mainly in commercial banking? I'm sending a wire, I'm doing what we call a positive pay, meaning you're right, the check shared, but the check does not get paid until every morning you verify it.

• 15:06Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 15:07Speaker 00

  So that's a service that the banks offer and charge for. ACH debits and credits to facilitate the movement of funds as quickly as possible, wiring online, all these things that you typically use to have to go to the bank to do in front of a teller now are available to you at your desk in your office.

• 15:28Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 15:28Speaker 00

  However, they're charging you a fee for that without potentially paying for the salary of the teller at the teller line.

• 15:34Speaker 01

  Right, right.

• 15:36Speaker 00

  Okay, so the fees or the fee income is probably one of the largest growing things for, for banks.

• 15:44Speaker 00

  And it takes away the fluctuations of the market when it comes to interest rate. So if you have a fee income revenue that you can rely on, it doesn't really matter if interest rates go up or down. You don't have that risk or as much of a risk when you do that.

• 16:02Speaker 01

  Right, right. Yeah, so the banks have gotten pretty clever in figuring out ways to make money. About a third of commercial and corporate banking comes from the, essentially the lending and borrowing out the money. And then you have about just around, I guess it's close to 20% is for that revenues come from the bank or from payments and fees. And

• 16:38Speaker 00

  There's a fee for everything, you know, you have an overdraft fee that you're gonna have to pay for for that. There's basically a menu of fees that the banks rely on. And they're very creative in coming up with ways to get that from every little thing that you do.

• 16:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. And banks are also starting to evolve and adopt a lot of the generative AI technologies, which I'm really excited about. I've seen that with one of the banks that I do business with, seeing that, you know, a lot of AI in the background. That's sort of, you know, prompting me to, you know, pay attention to, you know, certain transactions or certain, I guess,

• 17:25Speaker 01

  what's the word, like, I guess, patterns.

• 17:30Speaker 00

  Patterns, yeah.

• 17:31Speaker 01

  That they're looking for, trends, you know, that you have in your banking and your spending. So this is really, I think, gonna be great.

• 17:38Speaker 00

  Yeah, definitely. So the big change that happened in banking are twofold. The first one happened after the nine 11 attacks in 2001. The Patriot Act came out and a lot of the banking changed dramatically because money laundering and what have you.

• 17:51Speaker 01

  Right.

• 17:52Speaker 00

  Second time, 2008 with the financial crisis and the Dodd-Frank.

• 17:57Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 17:58Speaker 00

  And a lot of it has to do with adding a lot of more compliance in the back office, which was weighing on banks from a cost standpoint. Now with AI. Patterns. So instead of having a person sitting there and looking at the transactions of, oh, this person is depositing this much, we need to do something. Maybe this is not kosher. Maybe we need to do something. Report this person, not report this person. AI now could do a lot of that work.

• 18:27Speaker 01

  Right.

• 18:28Speaker 00

  And then that that should reduce the cost of salaries and labor, which is the highest cost a bank can can incur.

• 18:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, we're starting to hear this with the IRS as well, them starting to adopt some of these technologies, which for better for worse, IRS is going to start catching some more of these things that they've got these AI technologies that are trying to catch it all. So it's it's really an ever evolving industry. Why don't we do this? Sammy, we take a break right now. We come back, we got another message and question from listeners. Keep them coming our way, 661-396-1000. We're Money Wise and we'll be right back.

• 19:10Speaker 01

  Welcome back. We're Money Wise. Sammy's got moves.

• 19:14Speaker 00

  Well, he plays my music, definitely.

• 19:16Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, it's good stuff. Welcome back. We're Money Wise. We have a few listener questions and comments that we're getting to right now. Sammy, you got that last one?

• 19:28Speaker 00

  Any decisions made from state legislator that we should know for upcoming change, the cost of solar locally? I heard something regarding the CPUC figured I would ask.

• 19:39Speaker 01

  Yeah, great, great question. It's kind of hard to keep track of all of the changes that's happened with solar. And there was a big change that happened here just recently with the big beautiful bill. Part of that bill was

• 19:53Speaker 00

  I don't think the solar industry calls that a beautiful.

• 19:56Speaker 01

  No, it wasn't super beautiful for them, nor for the electric car companies. It was a it was a big slash in the federal rebates that are coming from the federal government. It's usually about 30%.

• 20:09Speaker 00

  30% federal credit, right?

• 20:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, 30%, which is huge. It's like, I mean, come on, Sammy, it's like free money, or was free money. That is going to end, thanks to the big beautiful bill, come the end of this September. And that includes

• 20:26Speaker 01

  That's mostly included about related to electric vehicle rebates. The rebates that the federal government offers for solar will end at the end of the year.

• 20:40Speaker 00

  December 31st.

• 20:41Speaker 01

  December 31st. I guess there's some vagueness in terms of whether or not you have to have the the the contract signed by that day, or if it needs to be installed by the end of the year. I would, if I were you, I would, if you're considering solar, I would do it a few months before the end of the year so that you don't have to worry about any, you know, complications with that. And that way it can be completely installed by by the end of December 31st of this year. And that will be your last chance to get that 30% rebate on your home. However, Sammy, there have already been a few changes, at least in the state of California, and that's what this listener is asking about, is the CPUC, which is the California Public

• 21:21Speaker 01

  Utility Commission. And they have already made incremental changes in the rooftop solar industry that has essentially made them go out of business. Many of many of those go out of business here in in the state.

• 21:38Speaker 00

  Yeah, I mean, it looks like the PG&E and the likes of the PG&E around or throughout the state have have talked the regulators into more stringent rules when it comes to solar. Like the N M three, for instance, that came out, what, this is last year?

• 21:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think it was in 2023.

• 22:02Speaker 00

  Yes, that that affected solar just by adding the cost of batteries.

• 22:08Speaker 01

  Right.

• 22:09Speaker 00

  And and also the lower cost that you are exporting.

• 22:14Speaker 01

  Right.

• 22:14Speaker 00

  To to PG&E, a lot lots lower than what you. Pay to import from the grid.

• 22:22Speaker 01

  Right, which is what forces people to buy batteries now.

• 22:25Speaker 00

  That's right.

• 22:25Speaker 01

  Because it doesn't make financial sense to now overproduce because if you're overproducing energy, thanks to NEM 3, PG&E is not going to buy that back for you at what it costs. And whereas if you're on NEM 1, or even NEM 2, or net metering 1 or 2, okay, now you essentially can use PG&E as your battery and they'll offload any overproduction that you had. So it incentivized homeowners to just get a big system and overproduce and then just get the credits, use the credits back from PG&E.

• 23:06Speaker 01

  Now, that's changed with each of these new net metering systems. And now there has been a recent legislative action in California through Assembly Bill 942. It has not passed fully. It passed the State Assembly and it's now moving on to the State Senate. But it looks as though this bill is going to restrict even more the, essentially reduce what the solar contracts were giving before. They're trying to either shorten the contracts. The original version of this Assembly Bill was going to force anybody who was, basically

• 23:50Speaker 01

  force everybody back onto net metering 3.

• 23:53Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 23:53Speaker 01

  Which is like, whoa. And then it was like, oh, we're just going to reduce it. Instead of going 20 years, we're going to make it, you can only go 10 years. But now it looks like the current status is just going to make it so that you can't transfer that. If you sell your house, or if you move, or whatever, you lose what net metering you're at and then you're just back on net metering 3 like everybody else.

• 24:13Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 24:13Speaker 01

  And therein lies, it becomes much more difficult to pencil out the breakeven, or to make the breakeven make sense on a rooftop solar.

• 24:23Speaker 00

  Yeah, because of the added cost of the batteries. And mind you. Sometimes depending on the size of the system, it's not just one battery. I have three batteries.

• 24:34Speaker 01

  Right.

• 24:35Speaker 00

  Because I don't wanna lose all that electricity.

• 24:38Speaker 01

  Right.

• 24:39Speaker 00

  And give it to PG&E at nine cents a kilowatt when I'm importing at 29.

• 24:44Speaker 01

  Right.

• 24:45Speaker 00

  It just doesn't make sense.

• 24:46Speaker 01

  Right.

• 24:47Speaker 00

  So I invested in the batteries. However, even with the batteries, to tell the truth, by 1 a.m., especially in the summer months, you're...

• 24:56Speaker 01

  You've drained your batteries.

• 24:56Speaker 00

  Yeah, because the AC is blowing and maybe 1, 2 a.m., typically I'm out. Now, the sun goes up early.

• 25:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 25:07Speaker 00

  Right? But still, still, I still pay. On the M3, I'm still paying. On M2, I was enjoying it.

• 25:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 25:14Speaker 00

  My older house, I was enjoying it because I was selling the electricity to the PG&E and not consuming as much. So my true up was nice.

• 25:24Speaker 01

  Yeah. That added cost of those batteries, Sammy, or it just extends out that time of you getting your money back for the investment on the system.

• 25:36Speaker 00

  That's right.

• 25:37Speaker 01

  And that's, you know, it can get a little confusing whether or not it makes sense for you to buy solar or not. But the general calculation that you're looking for is, well, what's the total cost of this system? How much am I going to save each month or each year from that system? And then you can do the math and determine how long it's gonna take you to get that money back.

• 26:01Speaker 00

  That's right.

• 26:01Speaker 01

  It used to be, you could, you know, if you had it, if you did it right, you had the right system, oh, five or six years, you could get that, you could get your money back.

• 26:09Speaker 00

  Stephen, what's the name of the expert we had? I think he told us seven and a half years was like the average.

• 26:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 26:15Speaker 00

  And now it's jumping to about 10 to maybe 11 and a half.

• 26:18Speaker 01

  Right. And I think that's very, like, optimistic.

• 26:22Speaker 00

  Optimistic.

• 26:22Speaker 01

  It's probably more like over 12, 13 years. And so, why would anybody? I mean, if you know you're gonna be in the home for more than that many years, okay, great. But you call it a great investment? I don't know.

• 26:35Speaker 00

  Not under this new rules.

• 26:37Speaker 01

  It... That was David Castro.

• 26:41Speaker 00

  That's right.

• 26:41Speaker 01

  And he's gonna come back on. He said he'll have to clean up what he had to say 'cause that was pre this bill. Yeah.

• 26:49Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 26:50Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 26:50Speaker 00

  Yeah, I think we should have him back to answer some of these questions. I think he would be a good guest, especially after the bill just passed.

• 26:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, I can see where, and I've seen some of these proposals by solar, rooftop solar companies, usually what they're putting in their proposal is an expected increase into the future.

• 27:09Speaker 00

  That's right.

• 27:09Speaker 01

  PG&E increases, and that always seems a little aggressive to me. How do they know how much PG&E is going to increase it?

• 27:16Speaker 00

  He talked about that, and he said that in the last four and a half years, the cost of electricity went up by 40%.

• 27:24Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'm just skeptical.

• 27:26Speaker 00

  No, I, I, I, and look, I'm a former lender.

• 27:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 27:30Speaker 00

  You cannot get anybody more skeptical than I am.

• 27:32Speaker 01

  Right.

• 27:32Speaker 00

  Especially when somebody is trying to sell me something.

• 27:34Speaker 01

  Right.

• 27:37Speaker 00

  I would like to have him back and just talk about data.

• 27:40Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 27:40Speaker 00

  Like true data and see where things are going to go. Now, I've been told by multiple industry leaders that the price of electricity is not going to slow down, it's going to keep going up.

• 27:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 27:50Speaker 00

  Just because we have more houses, more population, more everything, so.

• 27:54Speaker 01

  Well, just do the math.

• 27:55Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 27:55Speaker 01

  Do the math before you do it. All right, we're going to take a break. Sam, when we come back, we've got a lot, lot, lot more to talk about.

• 28:00Speaker 00

  Money Wise.

• 28:01Speaker 01

  We're Money Wise.

• 28:03Speaker 02

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

• 28:29Speaker 01

  Welcome back to Money Wise. We're your hosts today. I'm Sharad Waite, here with Sammy Abiyawi. We're joined right now by our guest for today, Alex Fisher. He is a, one of our local news anchors with KGET. Alex, welcome to the show.

• 28:43Speaker 03

  Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.

• 28:44Speaker 01

  This is your first time to the show?

• 28:45Speaker 03

  This is my first time, yeah, on the show, on your guys' show.

• 28:48Speaker 01

  This feels really good to have the tables turned a little bit.

• 28:51Speaker 03

  I was going to say, yeah.

• 28:52Speaker 01

  We're usually on your show.

• 28:55Speaker 02

  I put a little makeup on him before he came in.

• 28:57Speaker 01

  Good.

• 28:58Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 28:59Speaker 01

  Uh, for those who don't know, Alex, uh, you've been with KGT for a long time now.

• 29:04Speaker 03

  Almost 10 years, yeah.

• 29:06Speaker 01

  In, in, in that industry, that's a, that's like a career. That's a lifetime.

• 29:11Speaker 03

  Yeah. Well, yeah, especially for, you know, like small market, cause usually, you know, what we do is, you know, small market journalists are, are on for two, a two-year contract, sometimes three, depending on, you know, the, the gig.

• 29:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 29:26Speaker 03

  Um, yeah, so it's, it's been, it's been a while.

• 29:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 29:29Speaker 03

  It's been a while. It's, it's not, it's definitely not the usual.

• 29:32Speaker 01

  Did you start here?

• 29:35Speaker 03

  Not only did I start here, I was like three, like I graduated on a Saturday, started on a Monday. Graduated college.

• 29:43Speaker 01

  Really?

• 29:44Speaker 03

  And started, it was literally like, I mean, talk about, it was a-

• 29:48Speaker 01

  Right into it.

• 29:48Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 29:49Speaker 00

  And you went straight to the studio? Did you do, uh, auto reporting before that?

• 29:53Speaker 03

  Yeah. So I did like, well, okay. So basically, you know, I was born and raised here, you know, Bakersfield's my home and everything. And I was just talking about how, you know, went to, in 2003, I went to the station and visited George Lindsey Young.

• 30:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 30:07Speaker 03

  If you, you know, if anyone remembers George Lindsey Young. And, uh, got to see the 5pm and all that stuff. I had no idea that, you know, so many years later, I'd be, you know, anchoring that newscast.

• 30:19Speaker 01

  Right.

• 30:19Speaker 03

  Um, but yeah, so I, you know, born and raised here, everything, and went to school, I went to Pepperdine, uh, for my undergrad. And I'm like, I don't know what I want to do. I don't know what I want to do with my life. And so, you know, kinda did, I, I started out in business. Um, and then I was like, I don't like calculus. So got out of that real quick.

• 30:39Speaker 01

  That's almost why I changed my major too.

• 30:41Speaker 03

  I was, I'm not joking, my very first college class, you know, freshman Alex Fisher, walking in at 8am, you know, like, you know, nervous as can be, it was calc. And I just went, no.

• 30:56Speaker 01

  Oh, what have I done?

• 30:57Speaker 03

  What have I done? I did stay with it, by the way.

• 31:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 31:01Speaker 03

  I got a B minus. So I'm like, all right. So I, I at least, you know.

• 31:05Speaker 01

  But you changed your major.

• 31:06Speaker 03

  But I immediately changed my major. Immediately changed it. And so, um, went undeclared for a while, lived abroad in Germany for a year and just traveled all over Europe, you know, did that whole thing, what's, you know, so many college students do.

• 31:19Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 31:20Speaker 03

  Came back and my girlfriend at the time, who was in sports broadcasting was like, hey, you know, you always talk about the news. You're always up to date on everything. Like, you always know what's going on. Why don't you do our campus television news broadcast? I was like, I'll try it out.

• 31:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 31:37Speaker 03

  Rest is history.

• 31:38Speaker 01

  That was, that was it. That was your first job.

• 31:40Speaker 03

  That was, yeah. So that was like, so that was now, you know, mind you, that was junior year, junior year college. And so I knew, I'm like, all right, I'm making this late switch, gotta hit the ground running. And, uh, you know, did that. Uh, I applied for every internship. I actually was able to in, intern, um, with NBC News in Washington for a summer. Uh, did six months of, of that. And that was, as you can imagine, and what was cool was it wasn't the network, it was the local news station there. So I covered low, help, you know, I was in the process of covering local Washington DC news.

• 32:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 32:15Speaker 03

  So when things are happening on Capitol Hill, we're going, and next to the Capitol is a water main break, you know? And, and so it was really neat to be in the nation's capital, but focus on local news.

• 32:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 32:27Speaker 03

  And that was a really neat experience. And then, um, and then basically just, yeah, came on and, and, uh, I, I, you know, my news director, Mike Tryhee, I met with him, um, right before starting my spring semester of senior year and just said like, hey, like, I'm a Bakersfield boy, I know journalism. And he's like, keep sending me your stuff. And then like a month before I graduated, he said, do you want a job? And I took it.

• 32:51Speaker 01

  That's a, that's awesome. Well, that is, that's, that seems, yeah, that's unlikely. Uh, like you said, we're, we're a small market, I guess.

• 32:59Speaker 03

  Yeah. So we're market 125 right now. So there's like 212 markets in the, in the country.

• 33:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 33:05Speaker 03

  And we're market like 125. So we're comparable to like, um, you know, San Luis.

• 33:12Speaker 03

  It's the San Luis and Santa Barbara market. That's, that's one market. And there, I think they're like 126. So we're 125. For perspective, Fresno is 50.

• 33:23Speaker 01

  Oh, wow. Why are they so much higher than us?

• 33:25Speaker 03

  I know. It's always shocking and I have to go back. So they're Fresno, Kings and Tulare Counties. So there are the three counties there. And then San Diego is like 20 something.

• 33:39Speaker 01

  Oh, wow. And that's generally the trajectory of somebody that's in that, in that industry is to move up. You want to get to bigger and bigger markets? That's kind of the, is that generally the goal?

• 33:50Speaker 03

  Goal, right? So there's, I mean, everyone has like a different goal, right? I mean, there are some people who want to just keep climbing markets. Other people want to, you know, get to their home market. Some people want to get to the network and the network, going to the network. That's like, you know, CNN, Fox, MSNBC, you know, those, those high level CBS, NBC, ABC, those big ones, right? Where the whole nation gets the same bracket. That's, that's a grueling process. I mean, it is just like, they want, those people want you in markets all over the country. They really want you to have a good taste at how America runs, operates, thinks, all of that stuff.

• 34:32Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 34:33Speaker 03

  And then those, those positions are, as you can imagine, are highly coveted. But there is a, I mean, they want you in the trenches. They want you really, really, you know, getting to know America before you report on America, which is a good, that's kind of a good thing. Like you're the face of this story of, for America. We want you to know about it.

• 34:53Speaker 01

  Yeah. And I, I've noticed that with the, with local, the local media, there seems to be a, you know, a, a constant revolving door of these people. It seems like a lot of them just coming out of college or this is their, maybe their first or their second market that they've been in. And then it's like, you know, they come here, they do some work and then they just disappear. And yet, and then you have this other core group like you and others that, you know, we're familiar with. We see them in the mornings. We see them in the evening news. Like they're the, the regular anchors. Is there, is it, are there not, are there still a lot of people going into this? Is it, is it still like a high demand job?

• 35:37Speaker 03

  So. It, yes and no, so I, yes and no. So I think the, and this is not gonna be a surprise. The traditional way of media is transitioning, right? I hate saying dying because it's not. It's, it's changing.

• 35:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:52Speaker 03

  Right? I think what we grew up with and what we've consumed in the past, that way is, it's just simply changing. So you have a lot of people who are, you know, coming into the industry. They want to do this. They want to do that. Some people have, you know, big ideas on the new media. And then some come in because they're fascinated by the old traditional magic of television, right?

• 36:16Speaker 01

  Right.

• 36:18Speaker 03

  What I always say is the demand for storytelling is there, like in the sense of people, it's like, that's what it comes down to, right? People are, you have a lot of people who want to tell stories. They're, they're hungry to tell stories. I mean, what this, like what we're doing here, right now, currently, in a form, it's still at the end of it, at the root of it, it's storytelling.

• 36:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 36:38Speaker 03

  Right?

• 36:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 36:39Speaker 03

  That demand is still there. People still want to go out and tell stories in just different ways.

• 36:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 36:45Speaker 03

  And so I think that not only is there a demand for people wanting to come forward and do this, I think there's also the demand, people want to consume more and more stories. People want to consume this sort of comment or content.

• 36:59Speaker 01

  Yes. Yeah. And

• 37:01Speaker 03

  It's just different.

• 37:02Speaker 01

  Yeah. And like all media is changing. You look at the newspaper and print media is just really, really changing. And the, you know, local, I have a hard time. I have to, I have to really be careful how I consume my, my news because

• 37:21Speaker 03

  Absolutely.

• 37:21Speaker 01

  It just drives me crazy after a while. So thank goodness for news feeders, you know, where you can just like filter out what you want to hear. But one thing that I don't filter out is local news. Cause it's like, I want to hear it all.

• 37:36Speaker 03

  This is actually a really good point, and I'm glad that you brought that up because it's actually even journalists, like there's, there's ethics behind the consumption of media. If you really think like, I mean, I think there's a lot of people out there and it, I mean, it really infuriates me. Infuriates me how sometimes I'll be like, you know, they're like, oh, what do you do? You know, I meet someone, they're like, oh, what do you do? And I'm like, oh, I'm a news anchor. And they're like, oh, I would never know. I don't watch the news.

• 38:01Speaker 03

  And I'm like, do you think that's a badge of honor?

• 38:03Speaker 01

  Right.

• 38:04Speaker 03

  Like, what is your, like, what is your? And they do, it's like, oh, I don't watch the news.

• 38:07Speaker 01

  Right.

• 38:08Speaker 03

  And it's like, oh, okay.

• 38:10Speaker 01

  How do you know what's going on?

• 38:11Speaker 03

  So, you know, and it, well, that's the thing is like, I don't want to know what's going on. And I'm like, but you do, because I'm like, do you go on social media? And they're like, oh, yeah, I spend five hours a day on social media. I'm like, see, you're, you're still consuming. Anyway, so I think what's important is you need to, you know, if you are a consumer, you need to understand how the world works. You need to understand how society works. If you don't, how are you, like, there, there's so many missed opportunities. There's, there's missed opportunities for growth and just to understand. I actually will, will argue that consuming news in a responsible way can actually make you less fearful.

• 38:54Speaker 01

  Yes, for sure.

• 38:56Speaker 03

  It's the constant consumption of waking up, your phone has 20 million notifications on it, and you're going through that, then you're going to sit down and watch hours upon hours upon hours of news, then throughout your day at work, you're getting breaking news notifications, then you go home and you do the same thing. You're inundated, your entire day is inundated with information, with, with, with, with content. A responsible news viewer is someone who goes, I'm not going to shy away from this. I'm gonna take it, but I'm gonna take it in short bits.

• 39:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 39:30Speaker 03

  You know, and there's obviously now, we have like, you know, you've got cable news at the 24 hour news cycle where all it is, they, they've got to fill a hole. You know, like, people don't realize that, like, when you're watching Fox News, you're not watching news.

• 39:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 39:44Speaker 03

  Right? You are watching people who are not trained journalists just talk about what's, what, what other people have reported on.

• 39:54Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 39:54Speaker 03

  Right?

• 39:55Speaker 01

  And how, and what they feel about.

• 39:56Speaker 03

  And what they feel about it. The same thing with MSNBC, the same thing with all of these big, when it comes to the network news, that's like the, you know, like the Today Show or World News, you know, those, you know, the short broadcasts and so forth, local news, those are the people who are actually on the front lines. They're the ones that are actually reporting. Look at those newscasts. They come on a little bit in the morning, they come on a little bit at night, and then they go off air.

• 40:22Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 40:22Speaker 03

  If you can, if you want to be a responsible news consumer, if you want to be someone who's like, I don't want to buy into all of the fear, but I also want to be responsible and know what's going on, take a little bit of, ju- just schedule it. Schedule it. Say, you know what, I'm going to consume a little bit of news, I'm going to do 30 minutes of news or an hour of news before I leave for work of the day, and that's how I'm going to get caught up. And guess what? Not only will you be a responsible news consumer, you will have all of the context needed to understand, you know, this is how the world works.

• 40:57Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 40:57Speaker 01

  Well, and sadly with the demise of print media, especially newspapers, and we still have the Biggsville Californian, but you know, it's not local anymore. I mean, it's, it's here locally, but it's not owned locally. It's a, it's a shell of itself of what it was, you know, five, 10 years ago. And so what that has done is it's now we rely on, on our local TV and our local news media to, you know, inform us of what's going on in the area. We're not going to get it from the LA Times, we're not going to get it from any other source. Like it's now, it's, it, it seems like there's a lot more responsibility on our local news.

• 41:37Speaker 03

  And mark my words, when local news dies, corruption increases.

• 41:42Speaker 01

  100%.

• 41:43Speaker 03

  And that's the thing that, I mean, again, it goes back to when you're like, well, I don't watch local news or whatever, and it's like, okay, if, if you, if you see that as a badge of honor, just know the tax dollars that you're paying,

• 41:56Speaker 03

  no one's watching that. People are not keeping tabs on what public officials are doing. And if you want change, if you want, you know, the best possible society, right?

• 42:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 42:10Speaker 03

  You need to know what's going on in your community. And I think, it, it goes back to like elections, right? We're all fascinated about the national election. We all want to know who's going to be the next president. It is amazing to me right now in this community, how many people do not know that mayor, that Karen Go is the mayor of Bakersfield.

• 42:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 42:29Speaker 03

  They do not know who their councilman member is.

• 42:32Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 42:34Speaker 03

  And it's like, how, how do you not, these are the people responsible for the streets, for bringing business together, housing, budgets, I mean, all of these things. And it's like, they don't, they don't care.

• 42:49Speaker 01

  It's actually stuff that we can, you can make a difference in, like, you could go talk to Karen, you could talk to your council member, you can, you can, you can have an impact and influence.

• 42:59Speaker 03

  That's their job.

• 42:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, and, and, you know, but, good luck trying to, you know, talk to anybody at the White House, or whatever, you know, other, you know, national news, like, not saying you don't need to pay attention to it, but paying attention to what's happening locally is so important.

• 43:13Speaker 03

  I'll sum it up, it's the balance.

• 43:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 43:15Speaker 03

  It's the balance. You need to know what the president's doing, you need to know what Congress is doing, you also need to know what your city and, you know, county governments are doing as well.

• 43:23Speaker 01

  And if you're interested in not just being angry, or, you know, stimulated by the news, if you're interested in actually having an impact for, you know, for good, then follow what's going on locally, and that's where you can actually, you know, you can actually do something. Is, is, is the, is local news in general, is it trending down in terms of viewership? Let's say over the last five, 10 years?

• 43:50Speaker 03

  Yeah, I mean, I think that, I will tell you right now, the, the numbers that we saw during COVID, the, the numbers were, the viewership, it was unbelievable. All of a sudden, everyone wanted to know what was happening, but think about it. Every single person was impacted by this virus in this city.

• 44:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 44:12Speaker 03

  Right?

• 44:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 44:13Speaker 03

  And so I think all of a sudden, everyone had this interest on like, oh, because it's directly impacting me, right?

• 44:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 44:19Speaker 03

  And then it kind of went away and back to, went kind of back to normal.

• 44:23Speaker 03

  Right now, though, it's like, you are seeing...

• 44:27Speaker 03

  On for Kern County news, you know, we have our normal base that we always say these are, you know, the tens of thousands of households that that watch us, you know, at any given moment, like for our morning show or evening show at KGT. These are your people who are your normal news consumers. They're gonna, they're gonna tune in and, you know, on average, they watch about 30 minutes of news, a news program and then they, you know, they move on. Those are your normal consumers. Those are your ones who are like, I want to know what's happening. You know, these are what we consider your responsible news consumers. Then you have other people who, like, you know, when there's a big storm, when the grapevine closes because it's snowing or raining or whatever, or there's a big controversial, you know,

• 45:09Speaker 03

  something happening in city county government, whatever it may be.

• 45:13Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 45:13Speaker 03

  You see obviously an uptick, right? Because there's that that overall interest.

• 45:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 45:17Speaker 03

  So when, when you have those big stories, when you have those big moments, you do see those upticks. It's like all of a sudden, you know, people are going like, oh, I want to know. I want to know what's going on.

• 45:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 45:28Speaker 03

  But the, the nor, I would say the normal, like your average news consumer,

• 45:35Speaker 03

  that we're seeing, you know, fewer and fewer people who are consuming local news on a regular basis. But there's still, I will argue, there is a very healthy base, especially in Kern County. But it's, as we say, the pie is getting smaller and smaller.

• 45:49Speaker 01

  Yes. Yeah. And it does, I see a shift also towards much more like, I guess, social media based, much more like, you know, like, almost like TikTok, very short clips of just...

• 46:06Speaker 03

  Scrolling, scrolling, scrolling.

• 46:07Speaker 01

  Yeah, I just want, you know, this, this real quick information and, which again, you know, is, you know, I'm just, I'm just lamenting the death of print media because that's where you had in-depth, you know, stories and you could follow up and there can be, you know, resources and, and, you know, checks and balances, but now we're just, I can see, I'm not talking just, you know, KGET, but all of the local, local news. It's like, what is happening here? Is this, why is this?

• 46:39Speaker 03

  It's, it is, it is a scary thought to...

• 46:47Speaker 03

  To think, to ponder about the future where there's no local news.

• 46:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 46:52Speaker 03

  And, actually, let me rephrase that. It, it makes me fearful, pondering the thought that there's going to be a significant reduction in quality journalism, quality local journalism.

• 47:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 47:06Speaker 03

  There will always be news, there will always be, you know, information out there and all that stuff. But we're, I'm talking specifically about the watchdogs. We have now, in this community, more public information officers than news reporters.

• 47:23Speaker 03

  And what's funny is, those are the people who are supposed to be giving us information, supposed to be, and they're not always giving us that information. Or they're giving it to us in a non-timely manner.

• 47:35Speaker 01

  And, and they could get away with it.

• 47:36Speaker 03

  And they can get away with it.

• 47:37Speaker 01

  Because, you know, what, well, so what? What are you gonna do? You know, you're gonna publish your story anyways, and so what? Go publish your story. It doesn't have the teeth that it used to have, it seems like, and that's, we need these watchdogs. Do you, when, when you have people asking about going into the industry, what would be your advice?

• 48:02Speaker 03

  My advice would be, again, it goes back to storytelling. You've got to really have a heart for, for storytelling. I, it turned, when I started, I didn't necessarily want to be an investigative journalist.

• 48:16Speaker 03

  I didn't know if I wanted to be in, in the industry, but I sure wanted to be a storyteller. And, because at the heart of it, that's, that's who I am. I'm a storyteller. I'm the person who is on a, I'm, I'm the person, you know, on an airplane, that's talking to the person next to me. Now, I'm not gonna be the person, like, if they don't want to talk, I'll, you know, I won't talk to them. But I always like to hear other people's stories.

• 48:40Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 48:41Speaker 03

  And if someone wants to get into this industry, but they're not interested in sitting down and talking to someone and really, and, and also, not, not just talking, shutting up and listening to them.

• 48:53Speaker 03

  If they're not interested in that, this is not your industry.

• 48:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 48:56Speaker 03

  But if you are interested in, if you are someone who genuinely finds people interesting, then journalism is right for you. And if you don't think you have the skills necessary, they'll come.

• 49:08Speaker 01

  You know, you mentioned storytelling and I've got to give a shout out to one of KGT's storytellers, Bob Price. Bob is just, in my world, in my mind, he's, it's so, and I mean this in full-

• 49:22Speaker 03

  He is the ultimate storyteller.

• 49:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean it with all, all, all love and respect, but he's, there's such a great, like hometown kitschy feel-

• 49:33Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 49:33Speaker 01

  -to his production.

• 49:34Speaker 03

  Absolutely.

• 49:35Speaker 01

  And he does so much of it. He does like the writing and some of the editing, even some of the photography and like, he's like doing this and telling these stories in, in, you know, that are happening here locally. I love it. I love, I always watch or read Bob Price's stuff.

• 49:49Speaker 03

  He is phenomenal.

• 49:49Speaker 01

  So good. It's so good. Well, we want to thank you for your service and for what you've done now for all of these years. It's, it doesn't go unnoticed money-wise, at least the, the media and the local media and what you do, Alex. It's really appreciated.

• 50:06Speaker 03

  Thank you. I've always enjoyed working with you too, so.

• 50:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's been fun.

• 50:10Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 50:10Speaker 01

  It's been fun with, and if it wasn't me, it was somebody else in the office all of these years. We, we have great respect for KGT. I think it's still by far the leading leader, the, the local news leader. And in terms of like, you know, viewership and, and, and reach-

• 50:29Speaker 03

  Quality.

• 50:29Speaker 01

  And then quality and just how much they give back. It's, KGT has always been a giver to the community and, and involved and engaged in the community and it's because of people like you. So thank you, Alex.

• 50:39Speaker 03

  I appreciate it.

• 50:40Speaker 01

  Yeah, really thank you so much for taking the time to come on the show. We want to thank all of our listeners also for tuning in. If you missed this or any of our past programs, go ahead and subscribe to the Money Wise Guys podcast. You can find it commercial free on all podcast platforms like iTunes, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. We will be back tomorrow. We've got an, oh, Chad's going to be on tomorrow. Perfect. Bring your oil and gas questions and looking forward to having Chad on tomorrow. As we leave, remember these three things. Be smart, be safe, and always be money wise.

• 51:21Speaker 04

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