Joey: Thank you, thanks for coming, Sabrina Schmitt.

Sabrina: Thanks Joey.

Joey: From PrimeLending. So, thank you very much for coming in. I know you're. You've big plans for all these.

Sabrina: I'm happy to be here. Oh, and everybody's busy. You know what? We decided, probably a couple of years ago, that Thanksgiving would be at our house no matter what.

Joey: No matter what?

Sabrina: No matter what, even if it's just the two of us or if it's all our family, it's like we're having Thanksgiving at home.

Joey: So do you have a like. Is Thanksgiving a big deal at your house?

Sabrina: This year, Thanksgiving's a big deal at our house. Everyone's going to be there. All kids, all mother-in-law's, everybody, so I'm actually really excited about it.

Joey: How do you do the Turkey yard? Do you deep fry it, smoke it, or is it traditional?

Sabrina: I always do it in the bag.

Joey: Oh, okay, yeah. Yeah.

Sabrina: Oh my gosh, and it tastes so good, and at least you cut down on the hours, and it's tender, and you can throw in your veggies and all that kind of stuff in there so yeah, it works out good for us.

Joey: I got a Green Egg last year as a gift from my father-in-law, and we were like, "Hey, we ought to do Turkey in." And then I started doing ribs, and I'm like, "Man, this is more challenging than it.

Sabrina: I really want to try the fryer.

Joey: Yeah. Oh, that's the classic burn-your-house-down Turkey fryer thing?

Sabrina: Absolutely.

Joey: You know the whole trick, right?

Sabrina: Uh-huh.

Joey: Put Turkey in first, pour water until it gets to where you want, then take Turkey out, mark the water line, dump out the water so when you pour the grease, so the oil in, you pour it up to the line.

Sabrina: Got it.

Joey: So when you drop the Turkey, you don't get the infamous splash and burn the entire. And the other thing is don't do it in the living room, that's another, that's another.

Sabrina: Oh, okay, that's a good tidbit. So, maybe outside here.

Joey: So that's what we do here. We educate people. You know what I mean? And not underneath an awning. So you have a big family now, but you don't always have a big family. You were a single mom and were on your own.

Sabrina: I was a single mom, and I was for a long time, and it was challenging, but the most challenging thing really about it was just the time management part of it and trying to feel organized.

Joey: Oh, I bet, I bet logistically managing two boys. Right?

Sabrina: Two boys, and they always have games. They're always in sports. So you've got the, especially when you're a working mom, and then they're doing sports, and then somehow you've got a cram and dinner in there, and then there's homework, there's always homework. So yeah, it's just long days and that feeling like, "Ah, I'm not prepared for dinners or anything like that."

Joey: What are some tips you have for single parents?

Sabrina: One thing I found a couple of years ago was called eMeals, and it's an app.

Joey: Oh, eMeals not.

Sabrina: EMeals, yeah.

Joey: That wasn't like a Northeastern version of email.

Sabrina: No.

Joey: Okay, eMeal.

Sabrina: And it's an app called eMeals, and what you get to do is you can pick out, and they're usually 10 to 15-minute prep times, but you get to pick out four, five meals for the week so on Sunday when you do your grocery shopping, it gives you the grocery list to make these meals and the recipe. So you've already got it planned out. I could review it with the kids and say, "What sounds good for you this week?" But at least we're having home-cooked meals because going through the drive-through is so easy.

Joey: It is.

Sabrina: And I did that a lot, and so at least by doing this, it was like, "Hey, let's pick four meals, we'll do something out for the fifth one, but hey, I've got it all planned, and then I'm not wasting food, it's saving money," and that was a big help.

Joey: Oh, I bet. So your boys were really active. What are some sports or things that they did growing up?

Sabrina: Oh, baseball, tons of baseball, both of them, basketball. My oldest son got into football in high school and was a quarterback at Redding Christian.

Joey: Oh, really?

Sabrina: And oh, it was so much fun, so much fun to watch him play sports. They play Eight-man football, so it's slightly different from watching a regular game. A lot of the offense would play the defense positions as well.

Joey: Just a smaller school, so they have to play hard too.

Sabrina: Exactly.

Joey: To dress up 11 people on both sides?

Sabrina: Oh, definitely, definitely with small schools.

Joey: So who did they play in the local area? There's only a little of it.

Sabrina: Well, they'd play a lot of the other Christian schools or smaller outlying schools. I'm thinking of the one that was way out there, like HayFork. So we went to HayFork one time, and HayFork is a small school, but they all would bring chainsaws, and so they're outside the gates in their trucks, and every time HayFork would score, they'd run up the change saw, and I was, it was just.

Joey: This was welcoming. As a visitor, that sounds cool. I think I'd like that if I went up into the country, I probably want to watch Deliverance or something like that to prepare myself, and they go out there.

Sabrina: It was a little unique, it was a little unique. But yeah, they played the small outlining schools, mineral, things like that.

Joey: Mineral, wow. So oh, travel Time Paradise, things like that, where they had smaller outlying schools, but they had a football team.

Sabrina: Yeah.

Joey: So baseball, basketball, football, that's quite a bit.

Sabrina: Oh, yeah.

Joey: And both of them play or?

Sabrina: Both of them were very active. Matthew, my youngest one, played baseball and went to All-Stars, which, of course, have the All-Star games in the heat of the summer.

Joey: Of course.

Sabrina: So I mean, it's 110, and it's 4th of July weekend, and you're out there cheering on your son and his team.

Joey: Your kids are pretty grown, right? I met Matthew. At least he's tall. I don't know how old he is, but he's tall.

Sabrina: He's 14.

Joey: Oh wow, he's really tall.

Sabrina: And so he's a freshman at Reading Christian.

Joey: Oh, very good.

Sabrina: Oh no, I'm sorry, at Foothill.

Joey: Foothill.

Sabrina: And then Michael graduated Redding Christian this year, and so he's back in Massachusetts, going to college and working out there, Yeah.

Joey: Oh very good, very nice, Massachusetts. So he might use eMeal, eMeal.

Sabrina: Yeah, he's going to have to do something.

Joey: Is that. I wonder if that's Massachusetts. I just killed the Northeast, or was I doing something like Texas? So some of the services when you were a single mom beyond just the sporting events, like the city of Redding has a bunch of stuff, and my wife gets them. It's like a little paper magazine around here discussing various things. Do you remember any of the stuff like that?

Sabrina: One thing I used to do during the summer just to keep them active because that's always a hard time as a single parent pushing them into daycare while you're working. Then they want to hang out with their friends, but there's really nothing that they have that they're doing during the summer, so we used to put them into flag football.

Joey: Oh nice.

Sabrina: And so doing flag football at least kept them active. At least it kept them busy. And it was something that they enjoyed doing that a lot of the schools only sometimes offered when they were younger.

Joey: Yeah, I don't know. It's through the City of Redding. There's a term for it. They do many things at the Redding Aquatic Center, formerly the Splash, but I need help remembering it. It could be Redding Recreation.

Sabrina: Yeah, it's Redding Recreation Center..

Joey: Okay, is that what it is Okay, thank you very much.

Sabrina: Yeah.

Joey: So I know that they put on a ton of stuff. We've looked at that before, like everything from martial arts to art to music to obviously sporting events, things like that, so there's plenty of services around here. So, you were a single mom before you were in the military.

Sabrina: Correct.

Joey: Thank you for your service.

Sabrina: Thank you for yours.

Joey: Oh, you're very welcome. So when did you go in? Where did you go? What did you do?

Sabrina: Oh well, I was 18, I ended up graduating high school early, I had all these units from all these different classes that I had taken, and so I went to Shasta College for my senior year and the summer and graduated early, and so then I was able to go into the Air Force right when I was 18, so everybody was going through their senior year, and I was like, "Hey, I'm outta here, I'm ready to go." So I went into the Air Force and Imagery Intelligence.

Joey: Oh, nice.

Sabrina: Continued with college, I took colleges during my, or college classes during my lunch hour and after work at night and things like that, and it was a good stepping stone. I was stationed in Nebraska and Missouri, and then eventually, when I got married, we were transferred to Japan.

Joey: That seems like a natural progression.

Sabrina: Yeah.

Joey: Nebraska, Missouri, Japan.

Sabrina: Missouri, yes.

Joey: You bypassed France completely and just arced right into Japan. How much of a culture shock was that going to Japan?

Sabrina: Huge, I mean, it's a different world, it's an absolutely different world. And so we got to visit Germany because that's where my ex-husband's family is from, and so we went to Germany, which was really neat because it's a different country. Japan is just a completely different world. They have vending machines where that's where you get your eggs and your milk and your bread, and you just pull right up on the sidewalk, and you get out, and you get this out of a vending machine, and you hop right back into your tiny little car and mosey on down the road.

Joey: Well then, how do they sell Coors Light potato chips if you can just get your red milk and eggs through a vending machine?

Sabrina: You know what? I don't know how they do that.

Joey: Did you come back addicted to anime?

Sabrina: I think it's more socky.

Joey: Yeah, more socky. Oh, there you go, and that's not cheap.

Sabrina: I don't think they do Coors Light.

Joey: No. Did you come back addicted to anime?

Sabrina: No.

Joey: What?

Sabrina: There's so much of it all around. It just drove me crazy, honestly.

Joey: Just me. Okay, what did you pick up from Japan that you keep with you today?

Sabrina: We got a lot of souvenirs and a lot of memorabilia. One of the neatest things I have in my house right now is when they have tsunamis. And underneath the ocean, the crust makes a glass ball when it opens up. It's the heat of the earth hitting the cold ocean, making a glass-like bubble.

Joey: Very cool.

Sabrina: And so they wash up on the shores, and it's only in Northern Japan that it happens because the water's so cold there.

Joey: Oh, okay.

Sabrina: And that's where we were stationed. And so there's this beautiful glass ball that I have that's all painted with cherry blossoms and things of Japan that they paint, and yeah, I mean, it's thick.

Joey: So, how long have you been in Japan?

Sabrina: About a year and a half.

Joey: You like it? Have you been back?

Sabrina: No, and I won't go back.

Joey: No?

Sabrina: I've had enough. I'm like, good, yeah, yeah.

Joey: Yeah, Island fever at all. Do you get that in Japan?

Sabrina: You do a little bit. I don't think we drove over 35 the entire time I was there, so that's a little different. I definitely went on the freeway the first time, which was scary. When you come back to the States, and you have to drive on the freeway, it's like, ah, I'm not used to this. I only go 35 for a year and a half, and then driving on the other side of the road, that's a little different to learn.

Joey: Plus Godzilla.

Sabrina: Yes, we.

Joey: I mean, he attacks now and then, so you've got that problem.

Sabrina: Well, we were in a bad earthquake. They had like an 8.2.

Joey: Oh my.

Sabrina: And so we lived in towers, and we were on the fifth floor, and when that earthquake hit, I grabbed the kids, put them in the bathtub, and I thought our towers were going down. Everything was coming off the walls, all your dishes are on the floor, it's more the noise than anything that I think is the scariest part of it, but that's when I kind of said, "Yeah, I think I'm done."

Joey: 8.2.

Sabrina: I think I'm good.

Joey: That is, I'm trying to think of context. I'm curious about the one in San Francisco in '89 what that was.

Sabrina: Like a 6.9 or 6.8.

Joey: 8.2 sounds insane.

Sabrina: Oh, it was, and all the cars. You could see them from the window. They're bouncing, and the alarms are going off. It was quite an experience and really not one I want to live with again.

Joey: I don't blame you. I don't blame you at all. So, enough of Japan. I was wondering about the island fever because I always get island fever when I go to Hawaii, which I don't go to very often. I don't know why it's totally in my head, but there's something about where I would go if something here, like I'm just going to go inland more or something like that, that's ridiculous, but it bothered me.

Sabrina: Well, I mean, wait, I ventured out of the Air Force base, but there's no street sign, so it's a little scary because you don't really know where you're going. And so they did have a McDonald's there, and we tried that once or twice, but tofu burgers with horseradish could have been better.

Joey: No.

Sabrina: French fries really tasted as if they came from the United States.

Joey: You're an American.

Sabrina: And it took two weeks to get to. It was.

Joey: You were born and raised in America. I have to get back to America.

Sabrina: One thing I did love about Japan, though, is the people. There's absolutely no crime there.

Joey: Really?

Sabrina: Oh yeah, if I needed to get directions somewhere, somebody who's a one-man shop owner, they'll leave their shop, take you around the corner and show you exactly where you need to go. There's just the crime, theft, it just is non-existent there.

Joey: So you came back from Japan?

Sabrina: Correct.

Joey: And then, did you come back and you got discharged, and was that it, or?

Sabrina: Well, actually, I did my four years before we ended up leaving for Japan. So I got out, started having kids, and then married, and then we went to Japan. So I was a civilian, technically or dependent, by the time we went to Japan.

Joey: Oh, okay. And so when you moved back, did you return to Redding?

Sabrina: No. Actually, my ex-husband and Michael stayed back because he was just starting preschool, and I went with my son Matthew, a baby like a five-month-old, six-month-old baby, and I started working at Title and Escrow in the Bay Area.

Joey: Why the Bay Area? Was it just because there was work and stuff?

Sabrina: My dad lived there, and my step-mom lived there, and I was able to get a job in Title and Escrow because they were both in real estate and things like that, so they had the connections.

Joey: How was the economy when you came back to Redding? Was it spiking at the time?

Sabrina: Oh, well, it was '04, so it was.

Joey: Booming.

Sabrina: Oh yeah.

Joey: Booming.

Sabrina: Oh, house prices, everything was, yeah.

Joey: It was like watching Bitcoin today. I was watching. Checking the price of your home daily was like checking Bitcoin.

Sabrina: Oh, yeah.

Joey: You know what I mean? It's just like.

Sabrina: Oh, yeah.

Joey: Hey, it doubled overnight. Let's, oh, I got to do this a few more times, and it's retirement time. No, I remember the market. I was involved in real estate then, and it was booming, so you came back to Redding. Did you stay in Escrow and Title, or did you?

Sabrina: You know what, I worked at First American for a little while here in Redding, and then I went over to Bank of America, and I was an assistant there for six months, and then they're just like, "Okay, hey, you're good, go out on your own."

Joey: Yeah. We need people on the front line. A lot is going on.

Sabrina: Yeah. And that was only part of the Acorn time if you.

Joey: Oh, that's right.

Sabrina: Remember the Acorn loan? Everybody was doing the good old Acorn loan. Well, of course, once the market drops and everybody realizes, wow, I'm in an interest only, and I'm paying 1700 for my house payment, I can go down the street and rent for 1200, and BFA owns many homes off of that.

Joey: I feel like there's some kind of lesson in there, but we should just glaze over it and keep going.

Sabrina: Yeah.

Joey: Yeah, we should just let that one go. So you were working at Bank of America.

Sabrina: Yes.

Joey: And you're raising your boys and jotting around, so then what happened? What was going on in your life at that time?

Sabrina: There was a kind of a breaking point for me of working so much. I used to be there at the crack of dawn. I'd take the kids to daycare, take them to school in the morning, and I'd go to the office, and I would never eat lunch just because I needed more time. And then I had to pick them up from daycare or school after school care by 6 o'clock, so I'd get there at 5:45 and get home through the door. I'd have my computer, and I'd have all these files I was going to work on, and I'd go right into the office and start getting done what I needed to do, which was another three hours of work at night. And I'll never forget one time I was on the phone with my kids. I've taught them the rule that when mom's on the phone, you need to wait.

Sabrina: You can't be screaming, you got to be quiet, you got to let mom talk on the phone, and then once I'm done, it's okay to talk to me and ask me what you need. So I was in the office and on the phone, and my office doors were closed. They're like French doors. And Matthew's probably three and a half at the time, and he knocks on the door, and I'm like, "I'm on the phone." Okay. And so he kind of turns around and goes away, and so I get off the phone, and I'm on my laptop, and I'm getting on with my work, and all of a sudden, I look at my cell phone, and it says "Home," and I'm going, "Huh?" And I answer it, and then outside the door, Matthew is on the home phone going, "Mommy, I'm hungry."

Joey: Oh, you're trying to make me cry, huh?

Sabrina: But it's like.

Joey: I'm a crier, especially when it comes to kids, you know that.

Sabrina: But it's like, that's how he knew how to reach me, and I'll never forget that moment of going, "You know what I'm doing this to provide a good life for them, and yet what am I doing right now?"

Joey: Yeah.

Sabrina: What am I doing? I'm not being a good parent, and it was like, put this down, this can wait, they cannot. And especially now in the later years of my life, working so much and being busy are so important. One of my goals, if somebody says, "Hey, Switto, what's your goal this year? What are you striving for?" I have been making every one of my son's games for the last three years.

Joey: Very good.

Sabrina: I will not miss a game.

Joey: Very good.

Sabrina: And even if it's somebody who, Hey, I got to have this appointment, it's like, I'm sorry, I've got this game until 6:30, I can meet you at 7:30, but I'm going to be busy from 4 o'clock to 6:30.

Joey: Good job.

Sabrina: And they're the most important things to me, and now they're older, and I can't get that time back that I missed. And it took me a while to realize that they're going to keep growing up and the demands of the job and working will always be there, but they won't be.

Joey: I feel like there's another lesson in there, too, that's man-wise, very wise. But you have a really strong work ethic. When you told me about how you graduated early, you were not going to college. I graduated early, and I was going to parties, or I was, you know what I mean, and then you go in the military, and you're taking college classes instead of hitting the bars, just so clearly you have this, where did this come from?

Sabrina: My mom didn't let me slack, let me put it that way. So, the majority of my childhood, from about age two to when she got remarried when I was 14, I was an only child, a single parent, and a first-grade teacher. And her job, knowing that she was the breadwinner and sole provider of me, she worked so hard to be the best teacher she possibly could. There were nights I actually slept in her classroom.

Joey: I was thinking when you were telling me that story, I was thinking of Tim Ferriss, he's the famous four-hour work week guy. I was reading his piece about how we used the term work-life balance. And he was like, "No, it needs to be work-life separation." This work-life balance is a fallacy where we merge. And I think with a lot of the telecommuting and a lot of the teleworking because I've worked from home, and it sounds great when you're commuting into an office, and then you say, "Hey, I want to work from home." It sounds great. And for anybody that's gotta commute, like you're talking 30 minutes, 45 minutes, an hour, that is because it's a nightmare. What a waste of time.

Sabrina: It is.

Joey: But the reality is all of a sudden, your personal life and your work life blend together, and that's not healthy. I don't know.

Sabrina: I have a hard time right now. Actually, I won't work from home.

Joey: Good.

Sabrina: If I've got something to do and it's work-related, it's like, "Hey, I got to go into the office for a couple of hours." Because I can't concentrate and focus on it, and so many other things are going on, I need that separation.

Joey: So you were raising your boys, starting building basically your brand, because even though you worked at Bank of America, I mean, its people do business with Sabrina.

Sabrina: Correct.

Joey: You know what I mean? Not just. You probably picked up some business, but you started. So what were some of the keys to building your business when you were on your own, first getting started?

Sabrina: Ooh, keys too. Oh, okay, well, the best one I can come up with is always answering the phone. Always. The main thing that agents and clients loved was that I would pick up my phone at 8:30. I would pick up my phone on the weekends. I don't do that now.

Sabrina: Yeah. Well, you know what, the business is built now, so now it's not really.

Sabrina: Yeah, but building the business is what I did. I always answered the phone and was always available, so they loved that and started using me. And then my husband now, he's the one that's like, "Sweetie, no, we're having dinner."

Joey: Good job Jody. Good job.

Sabrina : "No, this is our weekend." "This can wait. They can wait until Monday. Nobody is going to die."

Joey: Well, I hope not.

Sabrina: Okay.

Joey: Over a home loan? No.

Sabrina: They make you feel that way, though. Like, "I need to know this answer right now."

Joey: It's like the banks are closed. The rates are going to stay the same at 9:30 on a Friday night. Whatever they were at the close of business will be that way until business opens back up.

Sabrina: Exactly.

Joey: Yeah. So you did remarry. You're married now.

Sabrina: Uh-huh.

Joey: So you just got married this year.

Sabrina: Yes.

Joey: Congratulations. And so, but your husband's in the business, you guys are. Did you meet in the business?

Sabrina: That's how we kind of met. Actually, when we first met seven years ago, we didn't like each other. He was a competitor. He used to work for Wells Fargo in Red Bluff, and I, of course, was at Bank of America in Redding. And then we both came to PrimeLending about the same time because PrimeLending was just starting in Northern California. And so I was in Redding, and he was in Red Bluff, and we weren't fans of each other. It was because it was such a business relationship.

Joey: Sure.

Sabrina: It wasn't until a couple of years of actually going, "Oh, you like cars too. Oh, you kind of have a good personality. Oh," and just really developing a friendship before we actually were like, "Oh, maybe we'll go out on a date." Okay.

Joey: Oh, that's very cool.

Sabrina: Yeah.

Joey: That's very cool. So, you guys are into cars? I didn't know that.

Sabrina: Oh, yeah. Jody's big into Porsche.

Joey: Who's not?

Sabrina: Yeah.

Joey: I'm big into Ferrari. I don't own one. I'm really big into them.

Sabrina: I'm not that Porsche crazy. I love Audis. I've got my BMW M5 that I bought.

Joey: I didn't know that.

Sabrina: Yeah. I bought it before. It may be right when I started dating Jody. It was like this. It was a big present of savings for me.

Joey: Very nice.

Sabrina: And I, of course, had to get a four-door because of kids. So.

Joey: Yeah. But you got the M, so if that makes up for it, that's, oh, I bet the thing gets on it.

Sabrina: No. Oh, it's so much fun.

Joey: Does it have the paddle shifters on this? Yeah.

Sabrina: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It looks just like Jeff's, only it's the four-door version.

Joey: Oh, okay. Oh, okay. You know what's funny? That was one of the things I want to talk about because you said when you were starting your business, one of the main things was just answering the phone, and when we were talking to Jeff about business, he said just answering the phone. And I know he's. I didn't realize with loan officers that there was a way in lending, but in contractors, definitely. Or actually return the call when someone, if you don't answer the phone, then return the call. But the trades are, they're understaffed. And so they've got ten people calling for every job they could do now.

Sabrina: Right.

Joey: So, but I didn't realize it.

Sabrina: Well, a lot of times when people want to get pre-qualified, or they found a house, or a real estate agent has a question, or they want to get somebody pre-approved that day, they want somebody who's going to pick up the phone and say, "Yes, I can get them in at 4 o'clock." Otherwise, they'll call the next lender. "Oh, hey, I had to leave a message." "Well, you know what? Let me call somebody else." "Let me try to get somebody on the phone to help you today."

Joey: When I was in real estate, the very first thing I always did was, "Have you been approved for a loan?" Because you don't want to show someone a Corvette when they have a Camaro budget.

Sabrina: Exactly.

Joey: Because now, they've seen the Corvette, you show them the. Then you find out they can only finance the Camaro. Well, now they're miserable versus if.

Sabrina: Right, right. "I really like this one though." Yeah.

Joey: Yeah, if they would have seen the Camaro first, they would have been happy. So, it's just. This goes into a thing I read the other day about the psychology of the study on Olympic athletes, where they measured happiness, and the bronze medal winners were much happier than the silver medal winners. The silver medalists, overall, would fixate on the fact that they missed gold by this much, and the bronze medalists would be excited because they missed getting a medal by this much. It was really, you know what I mean, like a peering into human psychology.

Sabrina: Well, that whole glass half-empty, half-full kind of thing. Yeah.

Joey: Yeah. You put on some first-time buyers programs. You just put on one, right? Like, you put on a workshop, or you?

Sabrina: I did. I did.

Joey: So, who's the target audience? Like, who should come to these workshops?

Sabrina: Mostly the first-time home buyers because it's very basic, and it's walked through kind of from start to finish. So, if somebody already owns a home, they'll know many of the things we go over because it's really what to expect going through the home-buying process. What inspections do they need to have, what will they be looking at with the real estate agent, why is a real estate agent important, and things of that nature? What to expect being a home buyer and a homeowner.

Joey: And just like what the full payment is, you have your mortgage, but you're going to have to carry insurance.

Sabrina: Right.

Joey: Until you can get a certain percentage down, you're going to have PMI insurance.

Sabrina: Exactly.

Joey: But veterans loans don't have PMI, right? Isn't it?

Sabrina: No, and VA is one of the best loan products out there in the market right now, just because you can do 100% financing, no mortgage insurance. And if you're a 100% disabled vet, they are exempt from property taxes up to almost 200,000 with Shasta County.

Joey: Oh, wow.

Sabrina: Huge help on their payment.

Joey: Yeah.

Sabrina: But I'll have somebody come in and look to do a VA refi, and they're 100% disabled vets, and I can see that they're paying property taxes. They just don't know.

Joey: Oh, wow. Now, there are quite a few services in the county for veterans.

Sabrina: There is. The VA Services Office can help with the homeless for the VA. I know they do that. There have been a lot of times. Actually, I've been there twice, and I've heard them helping with getting veterans back on their feet or providing them temporary living situations. You can get a copy of your DD 214 there. You can find out about disability benefits. So, there is a lot of good information, and the people I've worked with there are very helpful.

Joey: When I got out of the Marine Corps, I was substantially older than you. The economy was not doing well here. And I remember I went in and just said, "Hey, I would like to get a job." And they had a bunch of employers that wanted to hire veterans. And I remember, oh golly, it's been so long ago. But it was. Basically, they're like, here, call these people to go interview right now. And I immediately got a job. But I just remember what it was like versus when I'd gone to the EDD.

Sabrina: Right. Oh yeah.

Joey: And it sounds so funny because this is pre-internet. Now you just get online and Google jobs, like, "Oh, there's 100 sites." Then, I go to the VA clinic here. We have an excellent clinic. The VA gets a black eye, so to speak, but it's ridiculous. It's just the media loves to pounce on any, even perceived mistake. But the Department of Veterans Affairs is 350,000 people.

Sabrina: Right.

Joey: It's the largest medical organization on the planet. It has an overhead of less than 3%. When you think about that, an administrative overhead of less than 3%, when you think about the standard medical overhead administrative-wise, so this is like, not nurses and doctors but administrative, is upwards of 30%. You said the veteran services were on Shasta.

Sabrina: Correct.

Joey: So that's a good place if you're a veteran?

Sabrina: Perfect place to start.

Joey: Okay.

Sabrina: because they can help with any kind of medical records or getting the places that you need to go for the services.

Joey: No, that's fantastic, that's a great start. And if they're looking for a loan or thinking about buying something, they can definitely contact you.

Sabrina: Absolutely.

Joey: And you offer the full array of the VA loans and everything like that?

Sabrina: VA and CalVet, we can do both of those that are going to be veteran-oriented.

Joey: Now, the CalVet, what's the big difference between that and the VA?

Sabrina: The CalVet is more backed by the state of California, whereas the Veteran Administration backs the VA. I like the actual VA just because CalVet seems to have a much higher interest rate, and the state backs it. So, it's a state program compared to the Veterans Administration, which is a government program. So interest rates are lower, fees are lower, things like that for veterans.

Sabrina: One thing I was talking about with the girls in the office is that I have a single parent who's a co-worker and also a co-worker who has a large blended family. We were talking about things you can do with your family and your kids on the weekend that aren't going to the movies and spending $100 because your kids talked you into popcorn. And doing things that are free but fun things you can do. And so I was learning about Tortoise Acres, and it's in Anderson. And what it is, it's a rescue place or a rescue farm for Turtles and tortoises.

Joey: Oh really?

Sabrina: And you just go with the head of lettuce, and you can feed the turtles, you can ride the big tortoises, but really all ages from three to 15 are going to think it's really cool.

Joey: But I'm almost 50. That sounds cool. I want to do that. That very. I've never heard of that.

Sabrina: Yeah, it's Anderson, and yeah, they. It's complete. You can actually adopt a turtle for $20 a month, and they will send you updates and pictures of how your turtles are doing once a week.

Joey: Very cool.

Sabrina: And so yeah, you can kind of have a turtle without having a turtle in your house. But.

Joey: It's a good call.

Sabrina: Yeah, it's. They're really neat people, so everybody who's been has been excited to go back, and the kids want to go back. But to buy a head of lettuce and do something for an hour and a half and have everybody in your family enjoy it.

Joey: And be active.

Sabrina: Yeah.

Joey: And be out in the community. We live in a. This community is very good and has huge outdoor options. I'd like to have an episode soon where some local fishing guides and hunting guides come on and talk about how we're surrounded by nature and have national parks in three different directions. And so there's a ton of stuff. We try to get out, and there are some really good trails for hiking with your family. With three little kids, it can be tough.

Sabrina: Right.

Joey: And our youngest is, he's not quite five. And so he spends about the second half of the hike on Dad's back. So yeah, so, but get out. We love running with other families and lots of biking trails and stuff.

Sabrina: A couple of years ago, the kids and I went out to Whiskeytown, and we saw that they had kayaks for rent.

Joey: Yes.

Sabrina: $20 for the day. And so the next weekend, we packed a bunch of sandwiches, chips, and sodas and went out there for the day for $20. We all three were in this kayak, and it was a blast. It was a blast, and we just went around the lake and, you know, splashed each other with paddles. It was fun.

Joey: Yeah, no. Whiskeytown National Park is a beautiful and awesome resource to have so close. What about families moving up? What about families that bought a house, and maybe they had one or no children, and now they've got two, and it's time to get a bigger fish tank?

Sabrina: A lot of the families that I work with bought the house when they were just married. And so they got this two-bedroom house six, seven years ago. So they've got a Banquity, but of course, now there's the baby and another one on the way, or two of the kids are sharing a room, and it just doesn't work anymore. They want to get more space and have a dining room table that fits all of them. And so we'll help them transition to that new bigger house that's still within their budget but yet fits the whole family. And I love doing that because kids get their room if they still need to have their room. They think it's the coolest thing. So.

Joey: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. It's about time for us to be. We've got six of us, and we're tight, but we've been kind of. We live next door to my wife's dad, so whether we bust out a wall and add or move. We've been debating that for two years. We need to make a choice and commit. So definitely, and if you purchased your house, even what about five years ago, was the market still really low?

Sabrina: Yeah.

Joey: I know, seven years ago. If you purchased it seven years ago, good for you.

Sabrina: Yes.

Joey: You got into Bitcoin at $400.

Sabrina: Honestly, almost two or three years ago, there's a lot of equity just because the market's gone up so much in the last year.

Joey: Really?

Sabrina: It's about 12%-13%.

Joey: Really?

Sabrina: So people will come back to me saying they bought their house a year and a half, two years ago, and they want to refinance and get the MI off nine times out of 10. They will be at an 80% loan-to-value even if they did 100% financing two years ago.

Joey: Oh, wow. Okay. I didn't even think about that. Just to get rid of the insurance.

Sabrina: Just to get rid of the MI and then be able to lower the rate, or sometimes we'll be able to put them into a lower term because jobs increased or wife's going back to work or something along those lines where maybe we can get them into a 15-year.

Joey: So we've talked about veterans. We've talked about the challenges of being a single parent. The logistics and there's finance, I think we're in a really good economy. And so the. One of the things that we didn't talk about, but something that triggered in my mind when you were talking, was that you always improve yourself. You graduated high school, so you started taking college courses. You go into the military, and you're taking college courses. And so there's like this balance of, "Hey, you know what? Things may not be perfect where you are now, but strive to add more. Always be improving yourself, and there's always tomorrow." So I like it. That's a really strong theme. And the successful people I talk to always have the same common themes. And they're the kind of people that are going to get up just a little bit early. They're going to stay just a little bit late. How many people will say in life, "I'm just going to go a little bit above what's expected."

Sabrina: Have you seen the Tidbit? It's like a YouTube video or something, and it's the Marine talking about the importance of making your bed.

Joey: No.

Sabrina: Oh my gosh, it's great.

Joey: Oh my.

Sabrina: It's about 13 minutes, but it's. Yeah.

Joey: It's quite a bit of instruction in the bed.

Sabrina: I made my boys watch it, but it was talking about doing one thing that you can do and organizing and controlling your life. You can't control so many things in your life, but making your bed, if. And I know for me if I go home and my room's a total disaster, but my bed's made, it's like, "Ah, don't feel so bad." If I go home and my room's all picked up, but my bed's unmade, it's like the room's a mess. And so I started, oh gosh, probably ten years ago. It was like, "Make my bed every day." Even if I'm going to be, it doesn't make you late to spend 20 seconds, but even if I'm running behind, it's still, "Hey, I need to make my bed." It's like, "That is super important to me."

Joey: Now, are we talking about tucking the corners and bouncing a quarter to make the bed?

Sabrina: No.

Joey: Or are we talking about straightening with pillows at the top to make the bed?

Sabrina: Yes, exactly.

Joey: Yeah, because it's like, "Wow, that's pretty intense."

Sabrina: I Make the kids do it too. And I've called them back out of the car like, "Hey, Uhuh. Get back here and make your bed." They're like, "Why? I am going to be late." "I don't care. You need to make your bed. You need to learn to discipline yourself to have a routine to make your bed."

Joey: So it's not just my boys? It's not just.

Sabrina: No. No, no. Not just yours.

Joey: No. Oh.

Sabrina: I do that for towels on the floor, too, because when the shower, for some reason, hanging up a towel is really difficult.

Joey: It is. There's a lot of energy spent bending over.

Sabrina: Oh, yeah.

Joey: When you can just drop the towel like a mic.

Sabrina: Oh, yeah.

Joey: Yeah. Something you said in there was things you can and can't control. Unfortunately, we can get really fixated on the things we can't control, and I think it feeds this cycle of feeling powerless because you fixate on this thing you can't control. You realize you can't control it, and that breeds frustration versus, I think, that's the opposite story of what you just said about the marine making your bed. It's like, "Well, you know what? I can control this. Wow. I got that done. I am a master of that universe. Let me move that positive energy into the rest of my day."

Sabrina: To something else.

Joey: Versus, I turned on the TV, heard about something going on somewhere that's going to destroy my life, apparently. And golly, I feel completely powerless, so why even make the bed?

Sabrina: Well, and I think we were even talking about something like that earlier where it's little things that you can do to improve your productivity or your organizational skills, like making the bed. You start doing that, and then it's, "Hey, what's something else I can do?" I cannot throw my shoes off in the kitchen when I come home. I can walk to my closet and put my shoes away. I can do little things like that to keep life from being so chaotic.

Joey: We have a mutual friend. This reminds me of. She offers free classes at Shasta College, Linda Fitzgerald.

Sabrina: Yes. Linda Fitzgerald.

Joey: And didn't you take one of her classes?

Sabrina: I did. I did. She's phenomenal in getting little things you can do one by one throughout your day to have the success, organization, and time management you need.

Joey: Because she is, I think, the proper term for a high-performance coach, right?

Sabrina: Correct.

Joey: So that's the whole point is she's.

Sabrina: It's to get you running at the highest level possible so that you're productive during your day at work but that the kids get the best of you and your family gets the best of you when you come home.

Joey: Awesome. That's very good. So she offers a bunch of different classes.

Sabrina: She does. She does. I think one of them is leadership classes. So somebody who's in a management position, having employees obviously, that's something that can be difficult to manage. So she offers that for management and leaders. The big one, and the one that I really liked, was time management because I always feel like I don't have time.

Joey: I think we all do. Yeah. Anybody who's not.

Sabrina: There's been so many times I've looked at my watch, I'm like, "It's 4 o'clock already, I need it to be 10:00.

Joey: You have a watch? What's a watch? I have a phone.

Sabrina: Yeah. Yeah. Well, I have a phone now.

Joey: Doubles a watch and a camera. I took pictures of myself looking at it, but she offered some stuff. It's just good. Like you said, it's good advice for everybody.

Sabrina: And they're free classes.

Joey: They're free, yeah.

Sabrina: Free classes.

Joey: Absolutely. At Shasta College. So that's a good plug for our friend Linda Fitzgerald. So, Sabrina, thank you so much for coming in today. I appreciate you telling us about it.

Sabrina: Thanks, Joey.

Joey: Your background and the things, the services that you offer. And thank you very much for being part of this community.

Sabrina: Absolutely. Thank you.

Joey: Again, thank you for your service.