November 25, 2024 • 28 mins
Solar glut boost California power bills… other states are reaping the benefits. California suburbs refuse to fix earthquake-vulnerable buildings. Buy the house, get married later. More than half non-retired US adults expect to rely on social security in retirement.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listenings KFI AM six forty the bill Handle Show
on demand on the iHeartRadio a F Good morning, everybody.
Bill Handle. Here on a Monday morning, November twenty five, we.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Are officially in.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
The Pastathon mode and I would like you to donate
and help us donate to Pastathon helping Chef Bruno Caterina's
Club feed five thousand kids a night, I mean something
completely crazy, and so we've been doing this for fourteen years.
So we're going to be broadcasting all of us, all
the day parts on December thirtieth or December third, I'm sorry,
(00:40):
which is Tuesday, and we're going to be accepting donations pasta,
sauce money, and please show up there at the Anaheim
white House on the third, and I'd love to have
you there also there in the morning, just in the morning,
I'm going to feed you. They'll be pastries and they'll
be coffee and juice and arting at six o'clock, real
(01:01):
jew bagels and shmear and cream cheese.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
So come on down. Love to have you at the
Anaheim white House.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
You can go to Pasta, you can go to KFIAM
six to forty dot com, slash pasta fon for all
kinds of information. Okay, something rather rather interesting that I'll
bet you didn't know, and how counterintuitive this is. California
is making so much solar energy that the large commercial
(01:27):
operators and farms are forced to stop production many days
during the year, raising all kinds of questions. Because we,
the state of California, have a plan to shift entirely
to carbon free sources of electricity, and what's the number one.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Of carbon free source solar energy?
Speaker 1 (01:48):
But wait a minute, we have so much solar energy
that on well, according to study out of Berkeley, half
the days, we've got too much power in estate from
solar energy. So what's that about? Well, let me give
you some facts and figures. In the last twelve months,
(02:08):
the solar farms have curtail production of more than three
million megawatts hours of solar energy, basically enough to power
half a million homes for a year.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
More than that, and what do they do with it all?
Speaker 1 (02:21):
And by the way, this amount has doubled since twenty
twenty one, eight times from twenty seventeen. I mean, we're
building solar like crazy, especially solar panels. I bought my house, right,
you know, my new place. After I got rid of
the Persian Palace. One of the first things I did
to put in a solar system, and I had one
at the Persian Palace because I have the joys now
(02:42):
of living in the most expensive utility in the United States.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
You bet you, I have solar. It's gotten now. You
used to be able to sell solar back.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
That was the tear system that has been establish the
net revenue system, which you can't deal with anymore, because
it used the utilities used to pay for excess power
that was generated during the day. During the day, if
you have.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
A solar panel, if you have solar panels.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
You're generating generally more than you use. I certainly have.
So what I used to do is sell it back.
They took it back and I didn't actually do anything.
I mean, the system does that, and now that's done
because there's too much solar energy. And at night when
there is no solar energy, now we have battery power
(03:33):
which only lasts four to five hours.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
But I'm on the grid at night. Well, it's so expensive.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
I'm putting in batteries and so is everybody else with
a new system. So we just have more power than
we know what to do with and the waste that
we have, the amount of energy that we don't use.
The waste would be even larger if California did not
pay other utilities to pick up their ex solar power. Now,
(04:03):
we used to sell power to other utilities, and now
the cost is so low and we are producing so
much power based on these solar systems that we are
actually paying other utilities to take the power. I mean,
that is completely crazy. By the way the grid officials
(04:23):
worn back in twenty seventeen, when curtailments were still happening,
when power operators saying we can't take any more power,
we can't produce any more power, especially on hot days.
You know, out of UC Berkeley, I said on Sundays,
more than half of the power goes to waste. They
just throw it away, they give it away, they take,
(04:45):
give it to other power companies and pay them to
do it. And that also means that it's costing us
more because we are producing more. I mean, there is
cost in terms of putting in a solar system, commercial
solar s systems, and that is what is that's the
basis of them going to the PUC and saying we
(05:08):
need more money from the consumer. That's why we are
paying so much, and we have so much energy that's
going to waste, that's being sold to other utilities or
being or paying other utilities to take the power.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
I mean, it is cray z.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
And according to Gavin Newsom, and we're going way back,
California has to be nett net energy, no more emissions,
fossil fuel emissions by twenty thirty five. And you know what,
the number one way we can do this, the easiest,
the cheapest way to produce zero emissions.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Is through solar power.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
So using solar power, we're going to be able to
hit by twenty thirty five. We're going to be able
to hit that level no fossil fuel emissions producing power.
But wait a minute, right now, we have too much
and we haven't hit we haven't hit that level yet,
So how are we going to get there using more
(06:11):
solar power? When we have too much solar power that
has to be given away or paid for.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
To have other utilities do this?
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Arizona, they get sixty nine million dollars a year in
savings or we pay them.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
I mean, it is completely crazy.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
We have too much solar. Other states are getting the
benefit I'm still paying insane rates for power, which is
why I have solar, so therefore I'm not using it.
And then I found something. As you know, I have
an EV I have an electric vehicle. And so here's
what I learned, especially now that I'm living in high
(06:52):
end utility land, is I charge it during the day.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
I don't try to use anything at night because all
of us are on the grid at night. So it
has it has been reversed. Now, remember when you were
told use run your appliances at night, not during the day.
Now it's run your appliances during the day and not
at night because energy costs are so expensive and we
(07:19):
have too much of it and you're paying a fortune.
I looked at my bill before I switched over to
daytime charging.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
I go, how is this possible? This is crazy? This
is half a mortgage payment. It's a weird Where do
we live in? I want to move over to earthquakes
Southern California.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
We're hitting a seismically active this year, more so than
in decades. And we still have a ton of those
buildings that are called soft story apartment buildings, a ton
of those, and those are the ones that have carports
underneath them, and they have those poles that hold up
(08:05):
the building where the car ports where you part the car.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
And you know, they're old, really old, and they're.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Not particularly safe. And guess what happens in a major earthquake, Well,
they can collapse because they're not really strong. Have you
seen on the Hollywood Hills where you see those houses
where the poles go down thirty feet and it's maybe
a pole six inches in diameter and it's holding up
(08:31):
the house. You know, look at that, you go, earthquake comes,
they snap. Well, they haven't snapped, but there are some
that have. Nineteen ninety four earthquake, the on oh my god,
Northridge quake, and my parents lived right on Partheni in
the middle of it at the time, and there was
(08:51):
a building I think in receieda a soft a soft building,
soft story apartment building that pancaked. Sixteen people died, literally
the whole it all came right down.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
And sixteen people in there were crushed.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
And since then cities have said, Okay, we have to retrofit,
we have to make these buildings safer. Now.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Is it easy to do.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Well, it's expensive to do because you put in a
much more robust in terms of the posts that hold
the building up. And then the walls have to be
retrofitted and they have to be stronger. I mean I
did that when I bought a house in Hancock Park
adjacent I had a duplex there and I had to
(09:40):
retrofit the whole thing. I had to pull, I had
to put new, I had to put. What did I do?
I'm trying to remember what I did. Bolts into the
foundation and shore up the walls, and it cost me
a fortune. And therein lies the problem, and that is
what does a build building owner do? Because some cities
(10:01):
are said, you have to do it. There's laws on
the books. La has a law on the book. San
Francisco has a law on the books that you have
X number of years and that time is here that
those soft story buildings have to be retrofitted because in
a big quake they go down and people die.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Loma Prieta quake.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
If I'm not remembering, if I'm remembering what it was called, Yeah,
Loma Prieta nineteen eighty nine, the ground four floor of
several apartment buildings.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
In San Francisco crumbled and people died.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
So there are cities where they say no, thank you,
We're not going to deal with it at all. Alhambra,
Monterey Park, South Pasadena no plans to retrofit those apartment buildings.
Los Angeles, plenty of plans. Beverly Hill, big plans. Matter
(11:02):
of fact, Beverly Hills has two hundred and twenty nine
of these soft story buildings and only forty two of them.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Have not been retrofitted. I mean, they're going balls to
the walls. LA.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
We made big progress in the city of Los Angeles,
where I don't live anymore, and LA has more than
nine thousand out of twelve thousand of these apartment buildings
have been retrofitted, and officials experts have known for generations
about this structural flaw. I mean they know it, they
(11:36):
see it. You know, we know a fair amount about earthquakes.
The big issue about earthquakes is figure out when they're happening.
They can figure out how deep they are, they can
figure out how long they last was fairly easy. They
can figure out how much the earth moves, and it's
not hard than to extrapolate how much damage there is
(11:57):
going to be. I mean, the information is there, So
what are they going to do? Well?
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Here's the big problem.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
I don't think anybody's against retro fitting. You want a
safe apartment building, and these apartment buildings are among the
least expensive to rent. These are very old, and they're
on these posts with the car ports. They're not garages.
I mean, you've seen these all over town and they
are the least about there. And this is where people
(12:31):
who don't have a lot of money live. So what
does the building owner do? Well, the law says that
the owner has to retro fit. What does it cost
to retro fit a typical building, a soft story building,
well from a low of eighty thousand to one hundred
and sixty thousand dollars. How does a mom and pop organization,
(12:55):
small company, a couple that have two or three or
one up our small apartment building and they rely on
that for their income, how do they come up with
eighty thousand dollars? And that's exactly what the Apartment Association
of Greater Los Angeles says. These mandatory retrofits are brutally
expensive and they get forced mom and pop owners to
(13:18):
sell their properties. Now, on the other side of it
is saying, hey, you're responsible for putting on new roofs
when you need to. If there's a leak, you have
to repair it. If there's an issue as to heating,
you have to repair it. If there is an issue
as to plumbing problems and pipes bursting, you have to
repair it. It's the cost of doing business as an owner.
(13:41):
And so is this, well, there's a contradiction. How do
you deal with this? Right, it's either a worse or
worser situation. You're damned if you do, You're damned if
you don't.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
So does that mean.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
That the only owners of these buildings have to be
the big players who then have the money to retro fit,
who then have the money and they jack up prices
like crazy after a retro fit because they put X
number of dollars in and the law actually allows the
owners to take money out to charge extra for that.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
I mean, there's no easy answer here. There really isn't.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
But I will tell you that retro fitting, and I've
done this is no fun. You know, the house that
I had, the duplex that I had when they built
that place nineteen twenty seven, is when the place was
built beautiful. The home was not even attached to the foundation.
It literally just sat on the foundation. These were raised foundations,
(14:43):
they weren't slab, and if there was an earthquake where
it just slipped the foot, property's gone, totally gone.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
It's totaled. Can't live in it, which is why I
had to.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Bolt down, and I mean put in bolts that were
a foot and a half by an inch a foot
and a half tall by an inch and a half
in diameter, straight down through the foundations and really bolt
this down and had to fix and shore up all
these cripple walls by adding a ton more shoring.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
And it was thousands and thousands of.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Dollars, and there were people in my neighborhood that couldn't
afford it.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
They had to sell the property. No easy answer here,
none at all. I just want to make you feel better.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
You know, either you're gonna lose your property, or you're
gonna go bankrupt, or you're gonna die, or maybe all
three that works too. A story I want to share
with you, and this comes out of Wall Street Journal,
and this is right up my alley. Because first of all,
you know, you know, I loved talking about money, and
I love talking about economics, and I love talking about
(16:00):
and just how we live and how it's changed. So
one of the milestones of being adult.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
An adult is, if you're lucky, you.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Can buy a house, although those days are much more
limited than they used to be. And getting married, well,
what's new now, Well, couples decide not to marry at all.
A lot of those others say they're willing to delay
a wedding.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
That happened to me.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
I didn't get married till I was thirty six, mainly
because it took me a very long time to get
anybody who say yes to me. And in reality, buying
a home is actually more of a commitment than getting married.
Getting married is fairly easy. And we talk about commitment.
(16:43):
You know, I love you, I love you forever, you know,
the saying, you know, all the vows that people come up.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
With, you know, the crap you do.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
You know, I found you know, you know, I love
your my soulmate. Okay, yeah, day yeah, y dah. Now
let's go eat. That's your typical marriage, sitting down and
buying a house. Yes, that's serious stuff. And that is
what's going on right now. People are waiting a lot
of it because they're just waiting. Because you get married older,
(17:11):
you just don't want to deal with it. And how
about this, you can't afford it when you're younger. Unmarried couples,
let's start with marriage. In general, unmarried couples amount to
more than eleven percent of all US home sales. Over
fifty percent of kids that are born today are born
to unmarried parents. I mean, I'm such I grew up
such a conservative. The thought of having a kid outside
(17:32):
of wedlock was anethma.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
How do you do that?
Speaker 1 (17:37):
It never even occurred to me that those are only
bad people that did that. Today there are more of
bad people than there are of what I perceived as
good people getting married or having kids.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Out of wedlock.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
And people that are out of wedlock having kids, they're
out of wedlock, they're not married. And so the number
of people that are buying together and not married has skyrocketed.
So here's what couples have to look at the risk
the running relationship could blow up, something could happen to
(18:11):
one partner, and without that marriage certificate, living situations and
finances are more likely to fall into limbo. One of
the things, people that are married stay together more often
than people just live together, and it's more complicated when
you buy a house, because if you're looking at two
incomes and all of a sudden you break up, it
gets to be a mess. So couples are looking at
(18:36):
the purchase of a house much more.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Seriously than even getting married. Getting married doesn't mean anything anymore.
We're very little.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
So couples that even are getting married first look at
the house, and a lot of these couples ask for
down payments for help financially in lieu of traditional wedding gifts. Now,
I always told my daughters that I would help them
with their down payment on their.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
House when they wanted to buy something.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
The cost of housing is so expensive, mortgages are so expensive.
I'm getting the credit for helping them, and I never
will have to help them. This is the elevator philosophy
of life that I have told you many times.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
You're in an elevator by yourself.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Someone is running to you as the doors close, and
you start pounding on the panel with your finger so
they can see that. And of course you don't actually
press the elevator door open.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Of course that's out of the question. So here's what happens.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
The door closes and you get credit for trying to
keep the door open, which you never have, so you
get all the benefits and not only closing the door
in their faces, but getting credit for being a good guy.
That is what I'm doing with a mortgage with my children.
Of course I will help you. I have the money
set aside, knowing there is no chance they will ever
(20:06):
qualify for a mortgage, so I'll never have to worry
about coughing up the money, which means that the money
that I have saved is going for.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Vacations for me. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
It is a real thing with people looking at their finances. Also,
the cost of weddings have gotten insane. I just threw
a little wedding for my daughter who wanted a wedding
and she wanted the traditional going down the aisle dance
(20:44):
with their dad, you know, get dressed up with it
at the Anaheim White House, which is spectacular, and Bruno
put that together, actually Silvano the general manager there, and
it was absolutely lovely. I told my daughter, this is it.
You will never have a birthday present again. You will
(21:06):
never have an anniversary adversary present, you will never have
a holiday president that present. This just did it for
the rest of your life. I mean, it is completely insane.
I'm not a big fan of weddings. I'm hoping my
other daughter. What I'm going to offer her is tell
(21:27):
you what the money that I spent for your sister,
I'll cut that in half and write you the check.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Okay, I'll start negotiating with her. Now do you.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Want the money or do you want the marriage? Which
door do you want? Door number one? Door number two?
And I think she's smart enough to say, you know what, Dad,
I'm going to get married in law. I'm going to Elope,
go to Las Vegas and have an Elvis impersonator marry me.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Now there's a problem there, and you know what that
problem is.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
There are no more Elvis impersonators in Las Vegas marrying
people because the Elvis estate has put a stop to
all of that. Has destroyed the Las Vegas marriage business.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
It really has.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
By the way, that's just an aside, which you know,
what does that have to do with the story?
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Absolutely nothing. But then again, hey, welcome to the Handle
show in the morning. Okay, we're done. I think we're
done with that one. Okay.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Now I love talking about this so security because so
security is one of those issues that when it first
came out in the middle of the depression and FDR
puts social security into effect. The fight over social security
was extraordinary. The conservatives, the Republicans in Congress went nuts.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
This is socialism and it is how do we do that?
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Well?
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Today it's the third rail.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Can you imagine can you imagine a politician running we
have to get rid of of social security? Try that
one on for size and so security and it's a
different way of looking at it. People that are our age,
baby boomers and millennials, security is a given.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
We're gonna get our social security.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
We're a little upset that instead of sixty five, we
now retire at sixty seven. All right, that's no fun
working two years longer before retirement kicks in full retirement.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
But we know we're gonna get it.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
We know we're going to get our adjusted so security
check every year for inflation.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Except that the Social Security.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Fund is running out of money and they figure it's
going to go broke by twenty thirty five.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
We've done this before, Well it's going to go broke.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
So they are only three ways of dealing with SoC
security so it doesn't go broke.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
It's only three.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
One is to increase social Security taxes. It used to
be pennies. Yes, now I mean it is a chunk
of money.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
So one is raising your so scurity taxes. The other
one is retiring even further on, which makes a lot
of sense because so Security when it was created, you
retired at sixty five, okay, and you died at sixty six.
People didn't live past sixty five. Today people live forever.
My mother lived till she was ninety eight years old.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
She retired early.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
On Social Security because she decided she was going to
pull her Social Security, so she retires at sixty two,
which you can do. So it was sixty to thirty
four years. Thirty six years of her monthly check. That
cost us me, cost you a fortune, and she didn't
(24:58):
even have the good grace to die a few years
earlier to help us out. I asked her, I go, mom,
do us a favor. Okay, you're costing me a fortune,
die already.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Nope.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
By the way, she literally she should have lasted until
she was about ninety three medically, but she lasted until
she was ninety eight just to screw with me. And
she did a brilliant job, I might add, all right,
So cut those security taxes, or retire at a later age,
or decreased benefits, one of those three or any one
(25:33):
of those is going to help. And the problem is
people now and it's sort of a realistic view for us.
The thought of Social Security benefits being cut is an
ethma to people that are moving up, realize, you know
what you can't rely on, soise security. Although the amount
of money that people are saving for their retirement keeps
(25:56):
on decreasing. And this is ten pounds and a five
pound back.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Because if the.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
Benefits are going to decrease, which are probably not, if
the retirement age is going to go far longer, which
I think it is, something's going to give and people
don't think of what they need to retire. Just to
give you an idea, okay of retirement and what you need.
(26:24):
If you're getting a normal return on investments, you are
now making fifty thousand dollars a year, Let's say you're
making seventy five thousand dollars a year, and your Social
Security then kicks in when you're retire. And let's say
a really good retirement, let's say reasonable retirements three grand
a month if you've been working your whole life and
(26:45):
have gotten you know, a reasonable living. So let's call
it three thousand, let's call it twenty five hundred dollars
a month. Social Security checks, well, that's thirty thousand dollars.
So now you have to make up forty five thousand
dollars to make up to live on the same level
as seventy five thousand. You have to have a million
dollars in the bank or investments, kicking off enough percentage
(27:11):
four and a half, five and a half percent to
where you can still keep that amount in the bank
throwing off investment dollars, throwing off income, and even that
is going to get swept away by inflation. You do
that for twenty years and you're gonna be able to
buy one bucket of KFC with your money.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
But you have to start at a million dollars in
the bank. Yeah, who has that?
Speaker 1 (27:36):
Not too many people, Not too many people. So we
have a very skewed look at social security. Which is
why one of the businesses that really good growing business
is you buy old dumpsters. You clean them, I mean
you really have to scrub them out, you know, so
they're really clean.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
You put in some.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Piping and they're you have housing for so scary recipients.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Welcome to the world. How I made you feel better?
Because I really work on that a lot.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Okay, KF I am six forty Live everywhere on the
iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Catch my Show Monday through Friday six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
You're listenings KFI AM six forty the bill Handle Show
on demand on the iHeartRadio a F Good morning, everybody.
Bill Handle. Here on a Monday morning, November twenty five, we.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Are officially in.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
The Pastathon mode and I would like you to donate
and help us donate to Pastathon helping Chef Bruno Caterina's
Club feed five thousand kids a night, I mean something
completely crazy, and so we've been doing this for fourteen years.
So we're going to be broadcasting all of us, all
the day parts on December thirtieth or December third, I'm sorry,
(00:40):
which is Tuesday, and we're going to be accepting donations pasta,
sauce money, and please show up there at the Anaheim
white House on the third, and I'd love to have
you there also there in the morning, just in the morning,
I'm going to feed you. They'll be pastries and they'll
be coffee and juice and arting at six o'clock, real
(01:01):
jew bagels and shmear and cream cheese.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
So come on down. Love to have you at the
Anaheim white House.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
You can go to Pasta, you can go to KFIAM
six to forty dot com, slash pasta fon for all
kinds of information. Okay, something rather rather interesting that I'll
bet you didn't know, and how counterintuitive this is. California
is making so much solar energy that the large commercial
(01:27):
operators and farms are forced to stop production many days
during the year, raising all kinds of questions. Because we,
the state of California, have a plan to shift entirely
to carbon free sources of electricity, and what's the number one.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Of carbon free source solar energy?
Speaker 1 (01:48):
But wait a minute, we have so much solar energy
that on well, according to study out of Berkeley, half
the days, we've got too much power in estate from
solar energy. So what's that about? Well, let me give
you some facts and figures. In the last twelve months,
(02:08):
the solar farms have curtail production of more than three
million megawatts hours of solar energy, basically enough to power
half a million homes for a year.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
More than that, and what do they do with it all?
Speaker 1 (02:21):
And by the way, this amount has doubled since twenty
twenty one, eight times from twenty seventeen. I mean, we're
building solar like crazy, especially solar panels. I bought my house, right,
you know, my new place. After I got rid of
the Persian Palace. One of the first things I did
to put in a solar system, and I had one
at the Persian Palace because I have the joys now
(02:42):
of living in the most expensive utility in the United States.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
You bet you, I have solar. It's gotten now. You
used to be able to sell solar back.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
That was the tear system that has been establish the
net revenue system, which you can't deal with anymore, because
it used the utilities used to pay for excess power
that was generated during the day. During the day, if
you have.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
A solar panel, if you have solar panels.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
You're generating generally more than you use. I certainly have.
So what I used to do is sell it back.
They took it back and I didn't actually do anything.
I mean, the system does that, and now that's done
because there's too much solar energy. And at night when
there is no solar energy, now we have battery power
(03:33):
which only lasts four to five hours.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
But I'm on the grid at night. Well, it's so expensive.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
I'm putting in batteries and so is everybody else with
a new system. So we just have more power than
we know what to do with and the waste that
we have, the amount of energy that we don't use.
The waste would be even larger if California did not
pay other utilities to pick up their ex solar power. Now,
(04:03):
we used to sell power to other utilities, and now
the cost is so low and we are producing so
much power based on these solar systems that we are
actually paying other utilities to take the power. I mean,
that is completely crazy. By the way the grid officials
(04:23):
worn back in twenty seventeen, when curtailments were still happening,
when power operators saying we can't take any more power,
we can't produce any more power, especially on hot days.
You know, out of UC Berkeley, I said on Sundays,
more than half of the power goes to waste. They
just throw it away, they give it away, they take,
(04:45):
give it to other power companies and pay them to
do it. And that also means that it's costing us
more because we are producing more. I mean, there is
cost in terms of putting in a solar system, commercial
solar s systems, and that is what is that's the
basis of them going to the PUC and saying we
(05:08):
need more money from the consumer. That's why we are
paying so much, and we have so much energy that's
going to waste, that's being sold to other utilities or
being or paying other utilities to take the power.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
I mean, it is cray z.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
And according to Gavin Newsom, and we're going way back,
California has to be nett net energy, no more emissions,
fossil fuel emissions by twenty thirty five. And you know what,
the number one way we can do this, the easiest,
the cheapest way to produce zero emissions.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Is through solar power.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
So using solar power, we're going to be able to
hit by twenty thirty five. We're going to be able
to hit that level no fossil fuel emissions producing power.
But wait a minute, right now, we have too much
and we haven't hit we haven't hit that level yet,
So how are we going to get there using more
(06:11):
solar power? When we have too much solar power that
has to be given away or paid for.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
To have other utilities do this?
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Arizona, they get sixty nine million dollars a year in
savings or we pay them.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
I mean, it is completely crazy.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
We have too much solar. Other states are getting the
benefit I'm still paying insane rates for power, which is
why I have solar, so therefore I'm not using it.
And then I found something. As you know, I have
an EV I have an electric vehicle. And so here's
what I learned, especially now that I'm living in high
(06:52):
end utility land, is I charge it during the day.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
I don't try to use anything at night because all
of us are on the grid at night. So it
has it has been reversed. Now, remember when you were
told use run your appliances at night, not during the day.
Now it's run your appliances during the day and not
at night because energy costs are so expensive and we
(07:19):
have too much of it and you're paying a fortune.
I looked at my bill before I switched over to
daytime charging.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
I go, how is this possible? This is crazy? This
is half a mortgage payment. It's a weird Where do
we live in? I want to move over to earthquakes
Southern California.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
We're hitting a seismically active this year, more so than
in decades. And we still have a ton of those
buildings that are called soft story apartment buildings, a ton
of those, and those are the ones that have carports
underneath them, and they have those poles that hold up
(08:05):
the building where the car ports where you part the car.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
And you know, they're old, really old, and they're.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Not particularly safe. And guess what happens in a major earthquake, Well,
they can collapse because they're not really strong. Have you
seen on the Hollywood Hills where you see those houses
where the poles go down thirty feet and it's maybe
a pole six inches in diameter and it's holding up
(08:31):
the house. You know, look at that, you go, earthquake comes,
they snap. Well, they haven't snapped, but there are some
that have. Nineteen ninety four earthquake, the on oh my god,
Northridge quake, and my parents lived right on Partheni in
the middle of it at the time, and there was
(08:51):
a building I think in receieda a soft a soft building,
soft story apartment building that pancaked. Sixteen people died, literally
the whole it all came right down.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
And sixteen people in there were crushed.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
And since then cities have said, Okay, we have to retrofit,
we have to make these buildings safer. Now.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Is it easy to do.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Well, it's expensive to do because you put in a
much more robust in terms of the posts that hold
the building up. And then the walls have to be
retrofitted and they have to be stronger. I mean I
did that when I bought a house in Hancock Park
adjacent I had a duplex there and I had to
(09:40):
retrofit the whole thing. I had to pull, I had
to put new, I had to put. What did I do?
I'm trying to remember what I did. Bolts into the
foundation and shore up the walls, and it cost me
a fortune. And therein lies the problem, and that is
what does a build building owner do? Because some cities
(10:01):
are said, you have to do it. There's laws on
the books. La has a law on the book. San
Francisco has a law on the books that you have
X number of years and that time is here that
those soft story buildings have to be retrofitted because in
a big quake they go down and people die.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Loma Prieta quake.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
If I'm not remembering, if I'm remembering what it was called, Yeah,
Loma Prieta nineteen eighty nine, the ground four floor of
several apartment buildings.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
In San Francisco crumbled and people died.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
So there are cities where they say no, thank you,
We're not going to deal with it at all. Alhambra,
Monterey Park, South Pasadena no plans to retrofit those apartment buildings.
Los Angeles, plenty of plans. Beverly Hill, big plans. Matter
(11:02):
of fact, Beverly Hills has two hundred and twenty nine
of these soft story buildings and only forty two of them.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Have not been retrofitted. I mean, they're going balls to
the walls. LA.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
We made big progress in the city of Los Angeles,
where I don't live anymore, and LA has more than
nine thousand out of twelve thousand of these apartment buildings
have been retrofitted, and officials experts have known for generations
about this structural flaw. I mean they know it, they
(11:36):
see it. You know, we know a fair amount about earthquakes.
The big issue about earthquakes is figure out when they're happening.
They can figure out how deep they are, they can
figure out how long they last was fairly easy. They
can figure out how much the earth moves, and it's
not hard than to extrapolate how much damage there is
(11:57):
going to be. I mean, the information is there, So
what are they going to do? Well?
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Here's the big problem.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
I don't think anybody's against retro fitting. You want a
safe apartment building, and these apartment buildings are among the
least expensive to rent. These are very old, and they're
on these posts with the car ports. They're not garages.
I mean, you've seen these all over town and they
are the least about there. And this is where people
(12:31):
who don't have a lot of money live. So what
does the building owner do? Well, the law says that
the owner has to retro fit. What does it cost
to retro fit a typical building, a soft story building,
well from a low of eighty thousand to one hundred
and sixty thousand dollars. How does a mom and pop organization,
(12:55):
small company, a couple that have two or three or
one up our small apartment building and they rely on
that for their income, how do they come up with
eighty thousand dollars? And that's exactly what the Apartment Association
of Greater Los Angeles says. These mandatory retrofits are brutally
expensive and they get forced mom and pop owners to
(13:18):
sell their properties. Now, on the other side of it
is saying, hey, you're responsible for putting on new roofs
when you need to. If there's a leak, you have
to repair it. If there's an issue as to heating,
you have to repair it. If there is an issue
as to plumbing problems and pipes bursting, you have to
repair it. It's the cost of doing business as an owner.
(13:41):
And so is this, well, there's a contradiction. How do
you deal with this? Right, it's either a worse or
worser situation. You're damned if you do, You're damned if
you don't.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
So does that mean.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
That the only owners of these buildings have to be
the big players who then have the money to retro fit,
who then have the money and they jack up prices
like crazy after a retro fit because they put X
number of dollars in and the law actually allows the
owners to take money out to charge extra for that.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
I mean, there's no easy answer here. There really isn't.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
But I will tell you that retro fitting, and I've
done this is no fun. You know, the house that
I had, the duplex that I had when they built
that place nineteen twenty seven, is when the place was
built beautiful. The home was not even attached to the foundation.
It literally just sat on the foundation. These were raised foundations,
(14:43):
they weren't slab, and if there was an earthquake where
it just slipped the foot, property's gone, totally gone.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
It's totaled. Can't live in it, which is why I
had to.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Bolt down, and I mean put in bolts that were
a foot and a half by an inch a foot
and a half tall by an inch and a half
in diameter, straight down through the foundations and really bolt
this down and had to fix and shore up all
these cripple walls by adding a ton more shoring.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
And it was thousands and thousands of.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Dollars, and there were people in my neighborhood that couldn't
afford it.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
They had to sell the property. No easy answer here,
none at all. I just want to make you feel better.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
You know, either you're gonna lose your property, or you're
gonna go bankrupt, or you're gonna die, or maybe all
three that works too. A story I want to share
with you, and this comes out of Wall Street Journal,
and this is right up my alley. Because first of all,
you know, you know, I loved talking about money, and
I love talking about economics, and I love talking about
(16:00):
and just how we live and how it's changed. So
one of the milestones of being adult.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
An adult is, if you're lucky, you.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Can buy a house, although those days are much more
limited than they used to be. And getting married, well,
what's new now, Well, couples decide not to marry at all.
A lot of those others say they're willing to delay
a wedding.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
That happened to me.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
I didn't get married till I was thirty six, mainly
because it took me a very long time to get
anybody who say yes to me. And in reality, buying
a home is actually more of a commitment than getting married.
Getting married is fairly easy. And we talk about commitment.
(16:43):
You know, I love you, I love you forever, you know,
the saying, you know, all the vows that people come up.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
With, you know, the crap you do.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
You know, I found you know, you know, I love
your my soulmate. Okay, yeah, day yeah, y dah. Now
let's go eat. That's your typical marriage, sitting down and
buying a house. Yes, that's serious stuff. And that is
what's going on right now. People are waiting a lot
of it because they're just waiting. Because you get married older,
(17:11):
you just don't want to deal with it. And how
about this, you can't afford it when you're younger. Unmarried couples,
let's start with marriage. In general, unmarried couples amount to
more than eleven percent of all US home sales. Over
fifty percent of kids that are born today are born
to unmarried parents. I mean, I'm such I grew up
such a conservative. The thought of having a kid outside
(17:32):
of wedlock was anethma.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
How do you do that?
Speaker 1 (17:37):
It never even occurred to me that those are only
bad people that did that. Today there are more of
bad people than there are of what I perceived as
good people getting married or having kids.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Out of wedlock.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
And people that are out of wedlock having kids, they're
out of wedlock, they're not married. And so the number
of people that are buying together and not married has skyrocketed.
So here's what couples have to look at the risk
the running relationship could blow up, something could happen to
(18:11):
one partner, and without that marriage certificate, living situations and
finances are more likely to fall into limbo. One of
the things, people that are married stay together more often
than people just live together, and it's more complicated when
you buy a house, because if you're looking at two
incomes and all of a sudden you break up, it
gets to be a mess. So couples are looking at
(18:36):
the purchase of a house much more.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Seriously than even getting married. Getting married doesn't mean anything anymore.
We're very little.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
So couples that even are getting married first look at
the house, and a lot of these couples ask for
down payments for help financially in lieu of traditional wedding gifts. Now,
I always told my daughters that I would help them
with their down payment on their.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
House when they wanted to buy something.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
The cost of housing is so expensive, mortgages are so expensive.
I'm getting the credit for helping them, and I never
will have to help them. This is the elevator philosophy
of life that I have told you many times.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
You're in an elevator by yourself.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Someone is running to you as the doors close, and
you start pounding on the panel with your finger so
they can see that. And of course you don't actually
press the elevator door open.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Of course that's out of the question. So here's what happens.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
The door closes and you get credit for trying to
keep the door open, which you never have, so you
get all the benefits and not only closing the door
in their faces, but getting credit for being a good guy.
That is what I'm doing with a mortgage with my children.
Of course I will help you. I have the money
set aside, knowing there is no chance they will ever
(20:06):
qualify for a mortgage, so I'll never have to worry
about coughing up the money, which means that the money
that I have saved is going for.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Vacations for me. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
It is a real thing with people looking at their finances. Also,
the cost of weddings have gotten insane. I just threw
a little wedding for my daughter who wanted a wedding
and she wanted the traditional going down the aisle dance
(20:44):
with their dad, you know, get dressed up with it
at the Anaheim White House, which is spectacular, and Bruno
put that together, actually Silvano the general manager there, and
it was absolutely lovely. I told my daughter, this is it.
You will never have a birthday present again. You will
(21:06):
never have an anniversary adversary present, you will never have
a holiday president that present. This just did it for
the rest of your life. I mean, it is completely insane.
I'm not a big fan of weddings. I'm hoping my
other daughter. What I'm going to offer her is tell
(21:27):
you what the money that I spent for your sister,
I'll cut that in half and write you the check.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Okay, I'll start negotiating with her. Now do you.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Want the money or do you want the marriage? Which
door do you want? Door number one? Door number two?
And I think she's smart enough to say, you know what, Dad,
I'm going to get married in law. I'm going to Elope,
go to Las Vegas and have an Elvis impersonator marry me.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Now there's a problem there, and you know what that
problem is.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
There are no more Elvis impersonators in Las Vegas marrying
people because the Elvis estate has put a stop to
all of that. Has destroyed the Las Vegas marriage business.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
It really has.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
By the way, that's just an aside, which you know,
what does that have to do with the story?
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Absolutely nothing. But then again, hey, welcome to the Handle
show in the morning. Okay, we're done. I think we're
done with that one. Okay.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Now I love talking about this so security because so
security is one of those issues that when it first
came out in the middle of the depression and FDR
puts social security into effect. The fight over social security
was extraordinary. The conservatives, the Republicans in Congress went nuts.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
This is socialism and it is how do we do that?
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Well?
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Today it's the third rail.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Can you imagine can you imagine a politician running we
have to get rid of of social security? Try that
one on for size and so security and it's a
different way of looking at it. People that are our age,
baby boomers and millennials, security is a given.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
We're gonna get our social security.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
We're a little upset that instead of sixty five, we
now retire at sixty seven. All right, that's no fun
working two years longer before retirement kicks in full retirement.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
But we know we're gonna get it.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
We know we're going to get our adjusted so security
check every year for inflation.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Except that the Social Security.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Fund is running out of money and they figure it's
going to go broke by twenty thirty five.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
We've done this before, Well it's going to go broke.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
So they are only three ways of dealing with SoC
security so it doesn't go broke.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
It's only three.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
One is to increase social Security taxes. It used to
be pennies. Yes, now I mean it is a chunk
of money.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
So one is raising your so scurity taxes. The other
one is retiring even further on, which makes a lot
of sense because so Security when it was created, you
retired at sixty five, okay, and you died at sixty six.
People didn't live past sixty five. Today people live forever.
My mother lived till she was ninety eight years old.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
She retired early.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
On Social Security because she decided she was going to
pull her Social Security, so she retires at sixty two,
which you can do. So it was sixty to thirty
four years. Thirty six years of her monthly check. That
cost us me, cost you a fortune, and she didn't
(24:58):
even have the good grace to die a few years
earlier to help us out. I asked her, I go, mom,
do us a favor. Okay, you're costing me a fortune,
die already.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Nope.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
By the way, she literally she should have lasted until
she was about ninety three medically, but she lasted until
she was ninety eight just to screw with me. And
she did a brilliant job, I might add, all right,
So cut those security taxes, or retire at a later age,
or decreased benefits, one of those three or any one
(25:33):
of those is going to help. And the problem is
people now and it's sort of a realistic view for us.
The thought of Social Security benefits being cut is an
ethma to people that are moving up, realize, you know
what you can't rely on, soise security. Although the amount
of money that people are saving for their retirement keeps
(25:56):
on decreasing. And this is ten pounds and a five
pound back.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Because if the.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
Benefits are going to decrease, which are probably not, if
the retirement age is going to go far longer, which
I think it is, something's going to give and people
don't think of what they need to retire. Just to
give you an idea, okay of retirement and what you need.
(26:24):
If you're getting a normal return on investments, you are
now making fifty thousand dollars a year, Let's say you're
making seventy five thousand dollars a year, and your Social
Security then kicks in when you're retire. And let's say
a really good retirement, let's say reasonable retirements three grand
a month if you've been working your whole life and
(26:45):
have gotten you know, a reasonable living. So let's call
it three thousand, let's call it twenty five hundred dollars
a month. Social Security checks, well, that's thirty thousand dollars.
So now you have to make up forty five thousand
dollars to make up to live on the same level
as seventy five thousand. You have to have a million
dollars in the bank or investments, kicking off enough percentage
(27:11):
four and a half, five and a half percent to
where you can still keep that amount in the bank
throwing off investment dollars, throwing off income, and even that
is going to get swept away by inflation. You do
that for twenty years and you're gonna be able to
buy one bucket of KFC with your money.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
But you have to start at a million dollars in
the bank. Yeah, who has that?
Speaker 1 (27:36):
Not too many people, Not too many people. So we
have a very skewed look at social security. Which is
why one of the businesses that really good growing business
is you buy old dumpsters. You clean them, I mean
you really have to scrub them out, you know, so
they're really clean.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
You put in some.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Piping and they're you have housing for so scary recipients.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Welcome to the world. How I made you feel better?
Because I really work on that a lot.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Okay, KF I am six forty Live everywhere on the
iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Catch my Show Monday through Friday six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
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