November 24, 2025 • 21 mins
(November 24,2025)
The KFI Pastathon is an annual charity event hosted by KFI radio that benefits Caterina's Club, which helps feed children and families in need and provides them with job training.. Consumers spend $22 more a month for streaming services. Why do prices keep rising? New CA studies give lowdown on sky-high living costs. Most Americans say raising children is unaffordable, survey says.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Jf I AM six forty Bill Handle here on a
Monday morning, November twenty four. Okay, Pastathon is here, our
fifteenth annual Chef Bruno's charity, Katerina's Club. We provide, We
help provide more than twenty five thousand meals a week
to kids in need, and without your generosity, it simply
(00:28):
doesn't happen. So giving Tuesday, December second, from five am
to eight pm, we'll all be at the Anaheim White
House on Anaheim Boulevard and we're all gonna be broadcasting
live there.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
But here's how you can help.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Anytime, you can donate to KFI AM six forty dot
com slash Pastathon and that's for money and or pasta
and sauce drop off locations. Any Smart and Final store,
thank you for that. Even in Arizona and Nevada. You
can donate the amount of check out and any restaurants
(01:03):
in southern California donate five dollars or more to Caterina's
Club and you'll get a book, a coupon book worth
a lot more than five dollars. And now the fun
part Okay, the the part the auction items. For donation.
You can co host an hour with John Cobilt. Minimum
(01:26):
bid one thousand dollars. I would spend one thousand dollars
not to be with John Cobilt, or a lot more
than that, but it's always hugely popular. Imagine co hosting
with John. Dodgers Game with Gary and Shannon. They do
this every year. Dodgers Game with Dean and Tina Sharp.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
That's kind of neat.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Doctor Wendy will give you a one on one relationship coaching.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
It will be a zoom meeting.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
So that is if you have bad, bad relationships or
even want good ones. Uh, here's one Angel, Angel Martinez. Uh,
it's a Nazi custom sandal kit.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Really, how does that work?
Speaker 2 (02:13):
How do how do you end up auctioning off a
Nazi custom sandal kit? So what's inside your Nazi custom
sandal kit? Paint ready straps in the shape of a swastika,
a crillic that's actually now naughty, not Nazi. I was
just gonna, you know, I thought I was gonna take
(02:34):
that one for a loop, but I didn't.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Okay, and then what I think is the big one.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
We've never ever done this, and that is there will
be a private backyard barbecue at my house and we're
gonna be broadcasting this. It'll be a fork Report broadcast.
Nil Savedra will be at my house and we're going
to have this very private. They'll be just one bitter
(03:04):
and a guest will be invited to join me to
this private backyard barbecue at mine and Lindsay's home. And
that'll be a Saturday from two to five the four
Core Portal broadcast.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
We'll figure out.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
What time and when, and it's going to be filled
with incredible food from guest chef, guests and pitmasters.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
I mean, we're going to make it really serious.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
It'll be catered by Anaheim White House, which is terrific.
And as I think Dean wrote this, or excuse me,
Neil wrote this cheap, crappy swag you'll regret taking and
you can take selfies to show your friends that you've
been to quote a radio celebrities house. No, it's not
Neil's house, it's my house. And here are the perks.
(03:51):
As written A non eventful ride in handles home elevator.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
I think Gamy did that one right up. She went down,
she went exactly. It's very very slow elevator.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
What you took a video of it?
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Yeah, cheap, crappy swag.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Uh. So you can impress your friends and the perks. Okay,
you get a tour of my broadcast entire broadcast facility
here that I built in my house. This massive, huge
broadcast facility.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Is one room. Uh.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
And you'll even get to sit in my chair that
I am depressed with every day of my life. Also
keep in mind during the summers, I sit in my
chair bare ass naked, and so you get the joys
of switting, of sitting where I am shweating and as
(04:48):
my you know, it's sweaty balls. Okay, fair enough Lindsay's
private prosecco fridge man, Does she love that? And maybe
even a belly rub from Neil also included in this
look at this man. We're also adding a twelve piece
professional knife set that's a two thousand dollars value. I mean,
(05:10):
this is high end professional dives, and the good folks at.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Zelman's is giving a year's supply. Now.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
I don't know if you are a little upset about
spending too much money on streaming services. It used to
be streaming services were pretty inexpensive.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
You'd pay four ninety nine a month, six ninety nine
a month.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Oh yeah, Well, now US households spend an average of
seventy dollars a month on streaming services. That's up twenty
two dollars from a year ago. Now that's pretty insane.
The amount of money that I spend on streaming services
is completely crazy.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
And Lindsey goes out of her way to bundle.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Every three months, she is bundling, and we get a
great price for stuff.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
We are way north of two hundred dollars a month.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
But the big one is YouTube but TV that I
use for my major platform, and that's seventy bucks a month.
It has gone crazy. And I have everything because you know,
I have no social life. As you know, I don't
go out, I don't talk to anybody. I don't see anybody.
So I'm at home watching TV a lot. And so
I've got them all Peacock and brit Box and Acorn
(06:28):
and Hulu and Disney plus I mean, go down the list.
I've got virtually all of them. And it is a fortune.
What's going on? Well, it is a fortune, and you
know it's just gotten really expensive. What used to be
a bargain. Now is a major major part of our budget.
I mean two three hundred dollars a month, which a
(06:49):
lot of people spend even seventy dollars a month. You
can feel now, all right, Amy, streaming services?
Speaker 1 (06:55):
What do you have?
Speaker 3 (06:56):
All of them?
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Also? You pay big money too? Yes, yeah, I'm worth of.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
I need to think about this because you'res right. Used
to be nice and cheap and now it's like twenty
bucks a month for each one.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Yeah, no kidding, all of them? No kidding?
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Yeah, cono, do you have streaming services? Every single one?
So you pay north of two hundred dollars?
Speaker 3 (07:17):
My wife pays north of two hundred dollars, that is correct?
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Well, okay, yeah, she makes money, of course will streaming services?
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Several of them.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
I just dropped YouTube TV because it's it's pricey.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
It is very pricey.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
But the problem is where else am I going to
get National news CNN?
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Where am I going to get NBC? ABC? Fox? It
takes basically YouTube TV? Well I figured out.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
You know, if you buy one of those indoor antennas,
you can watch a lot over the air for free.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Indoor like rabbit ears another.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Round, are kind of cool looking if you're in the
right part of town not blocked by a mountain.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
But there's still free TV over the air, which is
you know all the networks, the big networks, yea, all
three of them. And are you a big streamer? Yes
I am. But how many do you have? I have
all of them as well. You have malls? Yeah, look
at this.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
So we're all spending except Will, of course, who loves
to play antenna where he's just there with his arm
up in the air and he goes, hey, look at me,
I'm an antenna. I get that and moving around. Yes,
go over there. When I was a kid, we had
some there was some issues with transmission. My dad would go, no, no,
move over there. Now, I'll move over there, and I'd
(08:30):
be holding the damn thing up.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
If a car goes by the signal goes out.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Yeah, and you remember putting up the antenna's the outdoor
antennas on on the roof. Yeah, oh man, that was
a lot of fun. The point is that we are
not We're not unusual. And by the way, it's it's
not as if we well, it's not as if you
guys that I work with, you know, make a lot
of money. It's just a lot of money to spend
(08:54):
on streaming. The only good news is tax deductible. You
know that, guys, Amy, you can tell deductible every dime
of it. Yeah, she throws her thumb up. Yeah, but
it's gotten so much money and it's not stopping either.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
It's not stopping. You know what the big hit is?
Speaker 2 (09:11):
By the way, there's one one big hit that it's
cost everybody buckets of money.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
And what would you think that is? Do do do?
Do do doo? Anyone if you can yell? What do
you mean? What is the major?
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Uh? The number one reason that streaming is so expensive.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Sports sports.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
They pay the streaming services pay more for sports than
anything else. I used to have Direct TV and I
would pay in ninety percent of it was sports. Sports
broadcasting is ridiculous. Uh, completely insane.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
What was that? I just read?
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Uh that that Prime is going to carry h an
entire year's worth of sport And I like Prime. All
you have to do is bry you know Prime, just
regular Prime with the packaging and Lindsey we we get
five packages a day. She more than makes up for it.
(10:15):
You know, people with Prime Amazon. If you like something
you get four different five different colors, and your return
four of them. The point is is that it's just
gotten so damn expensive and the bumbling.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Are you ready for this? The bundling.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Ad free subscription to Netflix starts at eighteen dollars a month.
Remember they were all ad free. That was the whole
premise of streaming. It was all ad free.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Hum what you pay? Now? Oh? Here it is?
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Apple is paying for F one Races are going to
be an Apple next year? And F one is.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
I love watching F one? What's that say?
Speaker 2 (11:02):
That show that's on every year F one Survivor where
they go through the entire season.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
I've always enjoyed that.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Okay, I know I'm going off on tangents here, but hey,
welcome to the show. I go off on tangents, don't
I sure?
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Why not?
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Is it that they're going to do F one Racing
or is it F one the movie with Brad Pitt?
Speaker 2 (11:24):
No, no, no, I think it's F one Racing is
going to be And I love watching F one Racing.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Okay, because the movie actually hits next month?
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Do you I hear? It's not all that good? Now?
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Let me uh be really good?
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Bill?
Speaker 2 (11:41):
What I love about F one racing and then we're
going to bail out of here. You know how many
slots are there in pro football? Hundreds and hundreds right
to play pro football, baseball probably, you know, I don't
know eight hundred nine hundred people that play professional baseball.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
You know how many drive F one in the world.
Twenty people.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
That's it, twenty people drive F one racers. Boy, it
doesn't get more rarefied than that. Okay, Now I want
to spend a segment talking about something you already know,
of course, and that's the price of living in California.
But I just wanted to really nail it down so
(12:25):
you understand how broke you actually are.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Here's a shocker.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
We're paying through the nose to live in California.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Really.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
Okay, There's been a bunch of recent studies that actually
drive home how deeply we have to dig into our
pocket to meet the costs of living, which are it's
pretty fair to say are the highest of any state
in the United States if you go across the board.
So one of these studies comes from the Legislative Analyst Office.
(12:59):
This is the Legislatorative Advisor on State Budget, which is
completely bipartisan and that's the LAO, the Legislative Analyst Office,
that California home prices far exceed the rest of the country.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Oh what a shocker that one is. Welet's I have
a little bit deeper.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Mid tier homes those are roughly in the middle of
the price range are more than twice as expensive as
typical mid tier homes elsewhere in the United States. Monthly
payments for these mid tier homes run about fifty five
(13:38):
hundred dollars a month, which is seventy four percent more
than what they were twenty five years ago, way going
past inflation.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
And this is the part that absolutely floors me.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
That the annual household income needed to qualify for a
mid tier home a mortgage on a mid tier home
was in September two hundred and twenty one thousand dollars
a year. That's how much you have to make to
qualify for a mid tier home in the state.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
I keep on saying mid tier.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Wait till we get to the rest of it, Okay,
which is two times the media in California household income,
which is about one hundred and two thousand dollars. So
the mid income middle class income if you want to
call it that the media in California, household income in
twenty twenty four was one hundred thousand dollars. What you
(14:33):
needed to qualify for a mortgage on that mid tier
house was two hundred and twenty one thousand dollars, more
than twice as much that you needed. So let's move
to the bottom tier home. Okay, way down at the bottom.
And these are homes at our first starter homes that
you want to get into way way way back when,
(14:55):
which is no longer way back when. To get into
a starter home home or a bottom tier home, the
annual income needed is one hundred and thirty six thousand
dollars to qualify for a mortgage, which is a third
higher than it was in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Yep. Which is why.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
California has the second lowest rate of home ownership in
the nation. And I think a lot of it has
to do with most of us having already been in homes.
For example, as you know, I sold the Persian Palace.
I could not afford the Persian Palace. When I sold it,
I could not afford to buy it. And that says
(15:43):
a lot for many people. And the way you used
to homeownership used to be in the homeownership world, and
you would move up the scale is you would buy
a home mid tier, medium tier or mid tier or
lower tier, sell it.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Of course, equity goes up.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Then you go into a higher house, you go into
a more expensive house, and you keep ongoing. And the
Persian Palace, I think was my fourth house, and I
mean there was no way I could ever ever afford
it at the end of it all.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
And that is not unusual.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
And today, while I remember I bought my first house
when I was in my twenties and I was making
a pretty good living as an attorney right off the bat,
but nothing incredible, and I was able to comfortably comfortably
buy a house, how many brand new inted attorneys out
there can comfortably buy a house.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Exactly. Okay, I want to come back and talk.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
A little bit more about this because the numbers are startling,
and they really are and why and it's completely counter
in intuitive that people are still coming into California. And hey,
I want to throw something at you as we end
the program, and that is how much thanks you have
(17:11):
to give living here in southern California, especially in the
world of costs, we have forty million people that live here,
and I still think we're growing, or if we're not growing,
we are. The number of people that are leaving are
just a fraction of the number of people that are
(17:32):
coming in, So it keeps it keeps our population fairly stable.
And the part that I don't understand is how people
can stay or even move here and get started.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
And I told you and buy a home. How about
that one?
Speaker 2 (17:50):
I mean owning a home unless you've already owned a home,
unless you're already there, it's going to be insanely difficult. Lindsey,
who is a couple of young years younger than I am, well,
a few years younger than I am, well, a lot
of years younger than I am, well, a decade or
(18:13):
two younger.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Than I am.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Let's just say she's a little bit younger than I am.
She has said you baby boomers referring to me because
I'm a couple of years older than she is, Okay,
a few years older than she is, Okay, a lot
of years older than she is, Okay, a few decades older.
The point is is I'm a boomer, she is not,
(18:36):
And quite often she said, you boomers have ruined it
for the rest of us, And I said, no, we haven't.
What we did is we just have We just had
an environment in which we could buy a house.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
I told you prior to the break.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
I bought my first house in the twenties, my twenties,
and it was like a year after I started practicing law.
What lawyer coming out of law school and practicing law
for the first year can buy a house today, even
a medium tier house and it's so expensive, for example,
a bottom tier house. And by the way, lawyers can
do it if they're out of a Yale or Harvard. Okay,
(19:10):
those guys first, top, top ten percent can do it.
But the bottom tier home, bottom of the barrel. You
need one hundred and thirty six annual income one hundred
and six thirty six dollars annual income to be able
to get a mortgage. Cal how about gas four dollars
and sixty four cents a gallon in California. How about this,
(19:32):
It's about a buck.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Fifty a gallon higher.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
You remember what it used to be. I mean gas
was always expensive in California. It used to be fifty
cents a gallon higher. Now it's a dollar fifty cents.
If you look at the Transparency Foundation and a conservative
economic think tank, an upper middle class family with one
hundred and thirty three thousand annual income pays almost thirty
(19:58):
thousand dollars per year more than the national average for housing, utilities, healthcare, taxes,
other costs of living, just utilities. You know, California, we
pay the most of any state other than Hawaii for energy.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
And I am very, very lucky.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
As you know, I bought a house in Orange County
and I happen to be, Oh, this is great my
utility costs. I happen to be in the most expensive
utility in the most expensive state in the United States.
I am in the literally the most expensive utility that
exists in the United States. So remember when you would
(20:38):
occasionally see solar panels on houses around you. Occasionally there'd
be a dot here, a dot there. Today, Well, in
my neighborhood, you don't see houses without solar panels. Those
are almost impossible to see. Why, because the energy costs
are astronomical. It is very tough living in Californorgnia. Yet
(21:00):
people do And as I said earlier, why do people
do well? The opportunities here, aerospace is here. People love
the weather. There's a lot of advantages to living in California,
but man financially is not one of them.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
That's for sure. All Right, guys, we are done. You've
been listening to The Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Catch my Show Monday through Friday six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Jf I AM six forty Bill Handle here on a
Monday morning, November twenty four. Okay, Pastathon is here, our
fifteenth annual Chef Bruno's charity, Katerina's Club. We provide, We
help provide more than twenty five thousand meals a week
to kids in need, and without your generosity, it simply
(00:28):
doesn't happen. So giving Tuesday, December second, from five am
to eight pm, we'll all be at the Anaheim White
House on Anaheim Boulevard and we're all gonna be broadcasting
live there.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
But here's how you can help.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Anytime, you can donate to KFI AM six forty dot
com slash Pastathon and that's for money and or pasta
and sauce drop off locations. Any Smart and Final store,
thank you for that. Even in Arizona and Nevada. You
can donate the amount of check out and any restaurants
(01:03):
in southern California donate five dollars or more to Caterina's
Club and you'll get a book, a coupon book worth
a lot more than five dollars. And now the fun
part Okay, the the part the auction items. For donation.
You can co host an hour with John Cobilt. Minimum
(01:26):
bid one thousand dollars. I would spend one thousand dollars
not to be with John Cobilt, or a lot more
than that, but it's always hugely popular. Imagine co hosting
with John. Dodgers Game with Gary and Shannon. They do
this every year. Dodgers Game with Dean and Tina Sharp.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
That's kind of neat.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Doctor Wendy will give you a one on one relationship coaching.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
It will be a zoom meeting.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
So that is if you have bad, bad relationships or
even want good ones. Uh, here's one Angel, Angel Martinez. Uh,
it's a Nazi custom sandal kit.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Really, how does that work?
Speaker 2 (02:13):
How do how do you end up auctioning off a
Nazi custom sandal kit? So what's inside your Nazi custom
sandal kit? Paint ready straps in the shape of a swastika,
a crillic that's actually now naughty, not Nazi. I was
just gonna, you know, I thought I was gonna take
(02:34):
that one for a loop, but I didn't.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Okay, and then what I think is the big one.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
We've never ever done this, and that is there will
be a private backyard barbecue at my house and we're
gonna be broadcasting this. It'll be a fork Report broadcast.
Nil Savedra will be at my house and we're going
to have this very private. They'll be just one bitter
(03:04):
and a guest will be invited to join me to
this private backyard barbecue at mine and Lindsay's home. And
that'll be a Saturday from two to five the four
Core Portal broadcast.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
We'll figure out.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
What time and when, and it's going to be filled
with incredible food from guest chef, guests and pitmasters.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
I mean, we're going to make it really serious.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
It'll be catered by Anaheim White House, which is terrific.
And as I think Dean wrote this, or excuse me,
Neil wrote this cheap, crappy swag you'll regret taking and
you can take selfies to show your friends that you've
been to quote a radio celebrities house. No, it's not
Neil's house, it's my house. And here are the perks.
(03:51):
As written A non eventful ride in handles home elevator.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
I think Gamy did that one right up. She went down,
she went exactly. It's very very slow elevator.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
What you took a video of it?
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Yeah, cheap, crappy swag.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Uh. So you can impress your friends and the perks. Okay,
you get a tour of my broadcast entire broadcast facility
here that I built in my house. This massive, huge
broadcast facility.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Is one room. Uh.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
And you'll even get to sit in my chair that
I am depressed with every day of my life. Also
keep in mind during the summers, I sit in my
chair bare ass naked, and so you get the joys
of switting, of sitting where I am shweating and as
(04:48):
my you know, it's sweaty balls. Okay, fair enough Lindsay's
private prosecco fridge man, Does she love that? And maybe
even a belly rub from Neil also included in this
look at this man. We're also adding a twelve piece
professional knife set that's a two thousand dollars value. I mean,
(05:10):
this is high end professional dives, and the good folks at.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Zelman's is giving a year's supply. Now.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
I don't know if you are a little upset about
spending too much money on streaming services. It used to
be streaming services were pretty inexpensive.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
You'd pay four ninety nine a month, six ninety nine
a month.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Oh yeah, Well, now US households spend an average of
seventy dollars a month on streaming services. That's up twenty
two dollars from a year ago. Now that's pretty insane.
The amount of money that I spend on streaming services
is completely crazy.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
And Lindsey goes out of her way to bundle.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Every three months, she is bundling, and we get a
great price for stuff.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
We are way north of two hundred dollars a month.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
But the big one is YouTube but TV that I
use for my major platform, and that's seventy bucks a month.
It has gone crazy. And I have everything because you know,
I have no social life. As you know, I don't
go out, I don't talk to anybody. I don't see anybody.
So I'm at home watching TV a lot. And so
I've got them all Peacock and brit Box and Acorn
(06:28):
and Hulu and Disney plus I mean, go down the list.
I've got virtually all of them. And it is a fortune.
What's going on? Well, it is a fortune, and you
know it's just gotten really expensive. What used to be
a bargain. Now is a major major part of our budget.
I mean two three hundred dollars a month, which a
(06:49):
lot of people spend even seventy dollars a month. You
can feel now, all right, Amy, streaming services?
Speaker 1 (06:55):
What do you have?
Speaker 3 (06:56):
All of them?
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Also? You pay big money too? Yes, yeah, I'm worth of.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
I need to think about this because you'res right. Used
to be nice and cheap and now it's like twenty
bucks a month for each one.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Yeah, no kidding, all of them? No kidding?
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Yeah, cono, do you have streaming services? Every single one?
So you pay north of two hundred dollars?
Speaker 3 (07:17):
My wife pays north of two hundred dollars, that is correct?
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Well, okay, yeah, she makes money, of course will streaming services?
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Several of them.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
I just dropped YouTube TV because it's it's pricey.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
It is very pricey.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
But the problem is where else am I going to
get National news CNN?
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Where am I going to get NBC? ABC? Fox? It
takes basically YouTube TV? Well I figured out.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
You know, if you buy one of those indoor antennas,
you can watch a lot over the air for free.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Indoor like rabbit ears another.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Round, are kind of cool looking if you're in the
right part of town not blocked by a mountain.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
But there's still free TV over the air, which is
you know all the networks, the big networks, yea, all
three of them. And are you a big streamer? Yes
I am. But how many do you have? I have
all of them as well. You have malls? Yeah, look
at this.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
So we're all spending except Will, of course, who loves
to play antenna where he's just there with his arm
up in the air and he goes, hey, look at me,
I'm an antenna. I get that and moving around. Yes,
go over there. When I was a kid, we had
some there was some issues with transmission. My dad would go, no, no,
move over there. Now, I'll move over there, and I'd
(08:30):
be holding the damn thing up.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
If a car goes by the signal goes out.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Yeah, and you remember putting up the antenna's the outdoor
antennas on on the roof. Yeah, oh man, that was
a lot of fun. The point is that we are
not We're not unusual. And by the way, it's it's
not as if we well, it's not as if you
guys that I work with, you know, make a lot
of money. It's just a lot of money to spend
(08:54):
on streaming. The only good news is tax deductible. You
know that, guys, Amy, you can tell deductible every dime
of it. Yeah, she throws her thumb up. Yeah, but
it's gotten so much money and it's not stopping either.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
It's not stopping. You know what the big hit is?
Speaker 2 (09:11):
By the way, there's one one big hit that it's
cost everybody buckets of money.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
And what would you think that is? Do do do?
Do do doo? Anyone if you can yell? What do
you mean? What is the major?
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Uh? The number one reason that streaming is so expensive.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Sports sports.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
They pay the streaming services pay more for sports than
anything else. I used to have Direct TV and I
would pay in ninety percent of it was sports. Sports
broadcasting is ridiculous. Uh, completely insane.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
What was that? I just read?
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Uh that that Prime is going to carry h an
entire year's worth of sport And I like Prime. All
you have to do is bry you know Prime, just
regular Prime with the packaging and Lindsey we we get
five packages a day. She more than makes up for it.
(10:15):
You know, people with Prime Amazon. If you like something
you get four different five different colors, and your return
four of them. The point is is that it's just
gotten so damn expensive and the bumbling.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Are you ready for this? The bundling.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Ad free subscription to Netflix starts at eighteen dollars a month.
Remember they were all ad free. That was the whole
premise of streaming. It was all ad free.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Hum what you pay? Now? Oh? Here it is?
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Apple is paying for F one Races are going to
be an Apple next year? And F one is.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
I love watching F one? What's that say?
Speaker 2 (11:02):
That show that's on every year F one Survivor where
they go through the entire season.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
I've always enjoyed that.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Okay, I know I'm going off on tangents here, but hey,
welcome to the show. I go off on tangents, don't
I sure?
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Why not?
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Is it that they're going to do F one Racing
or is it F one the movie with Brad Pitt?
Speaker 2 (11:24):
No, no, no, I think it's F one Racing is
going to be And I love watching F one Racing.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Okay, because the movie actually hits next month?
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Do you I hear? It's not all that good? Now?
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Let me uh be really good?
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Bill?
Speaker 2 (11:41):
What I love about F one racing and then we're
going to bail out of here. You know how many
slots are there in pro football? Hundreds and hundreds right
to play pro football, baseball probably, you know, I don't
know eight hundred nine hundred people that play professional baseball.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
You know how many drive F one in the world.
Twenty people.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
That's it, twenty people drive F one racers. Boy, it
doesn't get more rarefied than that. Okay, Now I want
to spend a segment talking about something you already know,
of course, and that's the price of living in California.
But I just wanted to really nail it down so
(12:25):
you understand how broke you actually are.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Here's a shocker.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
We're paying through the nose to live in California.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Really.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
Okay, There's been a bunch of recent studies that actually
drive home how deeply we have to dig into our
pocket to meet the costs of living, which are it's
pretty fair to say are the highest of any state
in the United States if you go across the board.
So one of these studies comes from the Legislative Analyst Office.
(12:59):
This is the Legislatorative Advisor on State Budget, which is
completely bipartisan and that's the LAO, the Legislative Analyst Office,
that California home prices far exceed the rest of the country.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Oh what a shocker that one is. Welet's I have
a little bit deeper.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Mid tier homes those are roughly in the middle of
the price range are more than twice as expensive as
typical mid tier homes elsewhere in the United States. Monthly
payments for these mid tier homes run about fifty five
(13:38):
hundred dollars a month, which is seventy four percent more
than what they were twenty five years ago, way going
past inflation.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
And this is the part that absolutely floors me.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
That the annual household income needed to qualify for a
mid tier home a mortgage on a mid tier home
was in September two hundred and twenty one thousand dollars
a year. That's how much you have to make to
qualify for a mid tier home in the state.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
I keep on saying mid tier.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Wait till we get to the rest of it, Okay,
which is two times the media in California household income,
which is about one hundred and two thousand dollars. So
the mid income middle class income if you want to
call it that the media in California, household income in
twenty twenty four was one hundred thousand dollars. What you
(14:33):
needed to qualify for a mortgage on that mid tier
house was two hundred and twenty one thousand dollars, more
than twice as much that you needed. So let's move
to the bottom tier home. Okay, way down at the bottom.
And these are homes at our first starter homes that
you want to get into way way way back when,
(14:55):
which is no longer way back when. To get into
a starter home home or a bottom tier home, the
annual income needed is one hundred and thirty six thousand
dollars to qualify for a mortgage, which is a third
higher than it was in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Yep. Which is why.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
California has the second lowest rate of home ownership in
the nation. And I think a lot of it has
to do with most of us having already been in homes.
For example, as you know, I sold the Persian Palace.
I could not afford the Persian Palace. When I sold it,
I could not afford to buy it. And that says
(15:43):
a lot for many people. And the way you used
to homeownership used to be in the homeownership world, and
you would move up the scale is you would buy
a home mid tier, medium tier or mid tier or
lower tier, sell it.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Of course, equity goes up.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Then you go into a higher house, you go into
a more expensive house, and you keep ongoing. And the
Persian Palace, I think was my fourth house, and I
mean there was no way I could ever ever afford
it at the end of it all.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
And that is not unusual.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
And today, while I remember I bought my first house
when I was in my twenties and I was making
a pretty good living as an attorney right off the bat,
but nothing incredible, and I was able to comfortably comfortably
buy a house, how many brand new inted attorneys out
there can comfortably buy a house.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Exactly. Okay, I want to come back and talk.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
A little bit more about this because the numbers are startling,
and they really are and why and it's completely counter
in intuitive that people are still coming into California. And hey,
I want to throw something at you as we end
the program, and that is how much thanks you have
(17:11):
to give living here in southern California, especially in the
world of costs, we have forty million people that live here,
and I still think we're growing, or if we're not growing,
we are. The number of people that are leaving are
just a fraction of the number of people that are
(17:32):
coming in, So it keeps it keeps our population fairly stable.
And the part that I don't understand is how people
can stay or even move here and get started.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
And I told you and buy a home. How about
that one?
Speaker 2 (17:50):
I mean owning a home unless you've already owned a home,
unless you're already there, it's going to be insanely difficult. Lindsey,
who is a couple of young years younger than I am, well,
a few years younger than I am, well, a lot
of years younger than I am, well, a decade or
(18:13):
two younger.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Than I am.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Let's just say she's a little bit younger than I am.
She has said you baby boomers referring to me because
I'm a couple of years older than she is, Okay,
a few years older than she is, Okay, a lot
of years older than she is, Okay, a few decades older.
The point is is I'm a boomer, she is not,
(18:36):
And quite often she said, you boomers have ruined it
for the rest of us, And I said, no, we haven't.
What we did is we just have We just had
an environment in which we could buy a house.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
I told you prior to the break.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
I bought my first house in the twenties, my twenties,
and it was like a year after I started practicing law.
What lawyer coming out of law school and practicing law
for the first year can buy a house today, even
a medium tier house and it's so expensive, for example,
a bottom tier house. And by the way, lawyers can
do it if they're out of a Yale or Harvard. Okay,
(19:10):
those guys first, top, top ten percent can do it.
But the bottom tier home, bottom of the barrel. You
need one hundred and thirty six annual income one hundred
and six thirty six dollars annual income to be able
to get a mortgage. Cal how about gas four dollars
and sixty four cents a gallon in California. How about this,
(19:32):
It's about a buck.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Fifty a gallon higher.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
You remember what it used to be. I mean gas
was always expensive in California. It used to be fifty
cents a gallon higher. Now it's a dollar fifty cents.
If you look at the Transparency Foundation and a conservative
economic think tank, an upper middle class family with one
hundred and thirty three thousand annual income pays almost thirty
(19:58):
thousand dollars per year more than the national average for housing, utilities, healthcare, taxes,
other costs of living, just utilities. You know, California, we
pay the most of any state other than Hawaii for energy.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
And I am very, very lucky.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
As you know, I bought a house in Orange County
and I happen to be, Oh, this is great my
utility costs. I happen to be in the most expensive
utility in the most expensive state in the United States.
I am in the literally the most expensive utility that
exists in the United States. So remember when you would
(20:38):
occasionally see solar panels on houses around you. Occasionally there'd
be a dot here, a dot there. Today, Well, in
my neighborhood, you don't see houses without solar panels. Those
are almost impossible to see. Why, because the energy costs
are astronomical. It is very tough living in Californorgnia. Yet
(21:00):
people do And as I said earlier, why do people
do well? The opportunities here, aerospace is here. People love
the weather. There's a lot of advantages to living in California,
but man financially is not one of them.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
That's for sure. All Right, guys, we are done. You've
been listening to The Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Catch my Show Monday through Friday six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
The Bill Handel Show News
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