Latest / Winning With Winans! / Nancy Roecker-AI, Manufacturing & Money: What Investors Need to Know Now

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Nancy Roecker-AI, Manufacturing & Money: What Investors Need to Know Now · Winning With Winans!

• speaker-0: Well I guess it's another time for an episode of Winning with Winens. Let's go. And welcome to Winnie with One is the Las Vegas News and Coolest Financial Show. I am your host, Ken Lennons. And for those of you who still don't know me yet, I'm a nationwide financial commentator on radio and Forbes. I've been doing it for about 25 years, even though I think maybe it's even a little bit more now. And more important, I actually do rock the talk. I am a professional money manager. I founded a successful investor. speaker-1: Firm in 1992. I've seen a lot of booms and dust, and I am looking at what is making the markets move. speaker-0: Today and for the rest of this year and how we can all make money. So look over the next hour we are going to cover those current events and see and we certainly we also have our special guests a little bit later. But I am a news junkie and I do follow nine different sources. I am paid to do it. Most of you out there don't have the time to do it yourself. I try not to take it from one vein of thinking. I actually look at even international news, but we want to get the big picture. What's going on with stocks, bonds, real estate, commodities, and even cryptocurrencies, believe it or not Those are all back in the swing now. So anyway, winning with wine is is really a different type of show. You know, I know I've said this many times, but this is the truth. You know, day in and day out, you can get way off track if you just follow the daily news and you'll have a knee-jerk reaction to something that was said or done. I'm trying to connect all those dots so we can try to make or have a handle on what's going on. All right. This week's big headlines, there's always interesting things, but the big one, and I loved it. I saw this headline. You know, every now and then you see something that makes you proud to be an American. This. Barron's Financial Weekly. And it came out the new boom. Don't you love it? I love it. The next big boom. Well, guess what they're talking about? Not tech stocks. Folks, they're talking about manufacturing in the United States. You know, Donald Trump talked about it. Everybody's talked about it. I've been out to the Midwest not that long ago. It is happening. Now for me, it's interesting because I actually do have a stock index that I designed called the Rynans Legacy Stock Index. It has 118 of these industrial stocks. Now many have been around a very long time. Probably something that your grandfather or your great grandparents might have actually owned. But anyway, you know, we talk all about tech and how well tech's doing. I want you to think about this. in industry stocks this year they're up twenty three percent in nasdaq is up fourteen as we would say in poker rid it or weep but anyway the point is this I think what all of us who are investors need to get away from what is a popular name to go find a stock that is appreciating I find it interesting you know just my observation to people is what people talk about a stocks. You know, talking about some dull old manufacturing company in the Midwest who you probably don't even know the name of the CEO, that's boring to people. But I find that people care more about making money than how they do it. Even but if you so sometimes people get those two flip-flopped. Don't forget, it's about making money, how you get there, but we really don't care as long as you do it in a disciplined way. Okay. Well let's talk about the other big news that came out this week. We're still in an IPO boom. Now what's IPO? Initial public offerings. Here everybody thought SpaceX was going to be it this year and it was going to be the best in all time. Well, it did turn out to be one of the biggest, but also one of the most volatile. So you're going to be hearing from your people who are reading to for investment advice about all these new companies. Now what I would just say is this. I'm not necessarily a fan of IPOs. If somebody's been in this business a long time, I I'm certainly not afraid of new, but what I am afraid of is stocks that have people trying to sell it who work for these companies. You know, you know, big the investment bankers are having to stabilize the price. I like to give them about six months before I'll actually take a good look at them. But just get prepared. You're gonna get a lot of calls about all these new offerings. Okay, on the tech news, guess what? No surprise. NVIDIA came out, prices soared or their sales soared 70%. All this talk about AI being overpriced, stocks are in a bubble. Well, Nvidia proved them all wrong. They're still grooming like a weed, and we'll have to see how their other numbers come out. But it's pretty funny. Just because something like AI is taking off in sales, you know, I know everybody keeps hearing about they're going to replace all the jobs. I've heard how they're going to replace money managers, it's which I find pretty funny. And yet in the same literally in the same page of the headline about Nvidia, there was talk about This hedge fund called Situational Awareness that blew up last month. And now there's an SEC investigation. And this thing is an AI-operated hedge fund. Folks, things take time to truly integrate into our society. I feel the same way about AI. Remember last episode I talked about people taking investment advice on TikTok using social media and AI? Again, I would be extremely careful. on you taking advice from something that you can't talk to face to face. Okay? Know who you're working with and certainly know their track record. I would not listen to anybody tell me how great they were unless they can show me, hey, how have you done over the last 10 years? Okay, you're gonna hear lot about this Jackson Hole Economic Conference that's that's happening in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, which by the way is a gorgeous place. Probably we'll see a few cowboy hats being worn out there. Why is it important? Our new Fed chairman, Kevin Warsh, is going to be there. He's going to be facing all these other business people and central bankers from all over the world. And there's going to be talk about the fact that we just reached $40 trillion in U.S. debt. There's going to be talk about the dollar. There's going to be talk about the trade issues with Canada. All this stuff is going to be being discussed. I expect to hear a lot next year or next week, but I would just say this: everybody has an opinion. I'm going to be concerned on how the markets react to the news, not someone else's opinion on that. Okay, for those of you who are not crypto people, a bit of a surprise. Bitcoin for this month is up, believe it or not. twenty five percent. So guess what's happening? Crypto stories are back in the paper again. it's not a surprise. I do think that once certain regulatory hurdles are are basically crossed, you will find banks will be able to offer things in cryptos. Mainly there was a lot of talk about stable coins. These are supposedly more stable, but let's just put it this way. There's a lot that has to be worked out there. And there's been a lot of talks about President Trump, crypto, and treasuries. Listen, I would just say this. Let it all play out. But if you are interested in crypto, you should start studying it now. There's good and bad there. So but I I mean I'm a I'm a certified cryptocurrency trader. I do pay attention to these things, but it's not disappearing. It's not a fad. It's going to be used in some way, shape, or form. Okay, I talked about it last week, about there's basically global droughts. It's not just the Colorado River folks. It is happening through most of the major European rivers. Well now they're talking about in Europe, there's going to be a shortfall in their grain harvest. what does that mean for us? I think commodity prices are going have a major rally going it from this year right into next year. I mean the simple fact of the matter is it is a global resource, just like water. Grains are something we all need. And I think you're gonna find there's gonna be a lot of discussion about this as we go forward. But as I've talked about many, many times, I don't understand why many people in our industry Whether it's the firms won't let them talk about it, firms were afraid of lawsuits, but why the financial service industry largely doesn't talk about commodities. It's been on a tear for the last three years. I mean I'm not talking about necessarily going into crypto, but I don't understand why people are afraid of cows and wheat. That doesn't make any sense to me. But anyway, you need to bring that up with your advisors. You're missing big opportunities there. I think it's worth something you have to take you know, let Okay, funny story. This is comical. They just had an article out about the most pet friendly cities in America. They're in this order: Scottsdale, Arizona, Tampa Bay, Florida, and Vegas. Yes, we're one of the top three pet-friendly cities. And I find this pretty funny because the cities that were the most unfriendly. All these cities that were making the news recently, all the they're basically worried about the homeless, worrying about all these new socialistic programs. They were in New York, Chicago, and Milwaukee. So for any of you out there who are just offended, hey, all I could ask you is why isn't your city more pet friendly? That's all I'm saying. Anyway, everybody, we're going to take a quick break, do it, and then we'll be right back with winning with Winins. I'm your host, Ken Winins. And welcome back to Winning with One is the Las Vegas News and Coolest Financial Show. And guess what? My guest is like me, actually a finance person. Hello Nancy Brooker. How are you today? I'm doing great. Thank you for coming on the show. Wait speaker-1: I'm good, Ken. How are you? Absolutely. speaker-0: a minute, you just told me you're spent all that time in Texas. Where's your cowboy hat? speaker-1: you know, I I'm a country girl, but I grew up in the city, so I'm always trying to wa run away. That's w that's why I live by Lake Mead. I'm an outdoors girl. There you go. I mean makeup for me is something you do when you have to be on camera. You don't do it every day. speaker-0: you know, it well it is funny 'cause I also with me I grew up in the country too and y you never leave it behind. It's it's what you know, like I told people, who'd you go to high school with? They No, you were asking the wrong question. Who'd you grow up with? This is who I grew up with, this is who I graduated high school from. I knew my whole life, you know. speaker-1: No, you know what's funny about that is I'm originally from St. Louis and if you ever meet someone from St. Louis, the the question they will ask is what high school did you go to? Don't ask me why that's a thing, but that's what they ask in t in St. Louis. So And if you speaker-0: The wrong answer, you get the O. speaker-1: get the Yeah. speaker-0: All right, so let's talk about you know so how long you've been in Vegas? speaker-1: I've been here since two thousand nineteen. I came out here. I have now three children here, but at the time two of them were out here and it was time to sell the big house in Colorado actually. So another place where we have mountains and beautiful scenery. And so I came out here and you know, three months later, here comes COVID. boy. So it was an interesting time to move and didn't even see the children much after I got here. But speaker-0: So but here you are. Is speaker-1: Here I am. speaker-0: Vegas feeling like home to you? speaker-1: It is, you know, I I always said I would never live here, but never say never because your priorities in life change, your what you see and what's important to you can change on in a heartbeat. And I think COVID did that for a lot of people. Had it not been for COVID, I don't know. Maybe I would have decided something different, but I'm here and I'm happy. speaker-0: You what's funny? I always say people say, I'm gonna I'm gonna live here for two years, and that two years became twenty years. You know, th I f I hear people say that all the time. speaker-1: I didn't speaker-0: I was based at Nellis, I thought I'd just say her year. Nope, here you go. Yeah. But you know what you said about COVID. I think you know, you and I both work in the financial industry, and especially in our industry where we had what were considered critical jobs where we were allowed to to travel. But I did the same thing when I going back and forth between my office in Las Vegas and back to the Bayer. And as I kept coming here more and more and and we went back to normal faster. Yeah. speaker-1: Thank God. speaker-0: Yeah. But then I literally I was telling somebody not long ago, I was here at a cigar event with a bunch of veterans. And then I went to go get on a plane and I was like, well put your mask back on. It's like, okay. And then you go land back in California and you have to wear a mask everywhere. I said, okay, I've had enough of this. I'm ready to go back to a normal world. But it does seem to attract us. But then here you are now with your long career, you know, in in IT with financial software, which, hey, business runs on it. And now you're now you're running for take another bite at the apple in politics. So what what made you decide to do it again? speaker-1: Well, I you know, I tell everybody I had a pity party after I lost. you know, I know people have lost by fewer votes than I lost by, but it just didn't feel right. And it was, you know, it was right before the holidays. So I had my pity party and then I s I said to myself, you know, I had a motto the first time around. Someone's gonna win and it might as well be me. And nothing has changed. So pick yourself up. Get back in the saddle, as they say, and go do it again. And you know, losing is not only character building, but you also you you learn what's important and what's not. I I r filed very late in the last race. A friend of mine had said he was gonna run, dropped out like two weeks before filing ended, and a bunch of friends got together and said, You helped our prior candidate who stepped up and ran for Congress. You know the ropes, you know the district. You have the background, you've got the fortitude to do this. You know, I don't suffer bullies very well. So and, you know, after I got over my feeling sorry for myself, I decided to do it again with a lot more knowledge and conviction really about why I'm doing this. speaker-0: Well, it is important. I mean, you and I are both Republicans. I'm very proud to say that. And in the show, people know this is about finance and economics and reality. but you and I have both seen some of the crazy stuff that happens at legislative session. Mm-hmm. You know, our lieutenant governor was on here not long ago and he was talking about the lockout at the Senate. And you're going, Wait a minute, what century is this? Are we are you kidding me? This stuff goes on. So y i and I'm I'm told that again as far as the assembly is concerned, which you you're running for a a a very important area. You know, it's it's one of the growth hubs of this of this and it's an important seat. It's it's not out in the Tinderlands. It's a very important seat. speaker-1: Well it is and and it's diverse. So it the composition of the district has changed over time. So it d part of it is in East Henderson, the other part of it is in East Las Vegas, Sunrise Manor Henderson or Frenchman's Mountain. so that is a township and l and East Henderson is part of Henderson, two completely different government situations. And then I live in Lake Las Vegas, which is Congressional District Four, but the rest of my district is Congressional District One. So for for having a 50,000 person constituency, I've got a lot of different things to deal with. Wow. And you know, that that's sort of the name of the game from my background because I was in business software, is you know, there's certain things that work for everyone because they're They're I'm I'm gonna say constitutional, not like the federal constitution, but just baseline kinds of things that everybody needs. And then, you know, in businesses, I when I would talk to business owners, I would say, Hey, w have you ever thought about doing this? well, they do that in this other industry. Yeah, but so what? Like, why wouldn't it apply? And so you start to find those things that are foundational that everybody needs, and then you learn to work with people who l live in different economic circumstances, different backgrounds, different goals. And so it's a great challenge for me. It was a it was a pretty easy transition other than the loss of income. speaker-0: So well we well and let's talk about that. You're not gonna get rich being a state official in Nevada, are you? speaker-1: Nope. speaker-0: Well what what's the whopping amount? I I speaker-1: Well, you know, I I'm not even a hundred percent sure when you when you go on on the state website it still says $138, but I've heard it's actually a little bit more than that a day and you get a stipend, but I'm that's not why I'm doing this. I I was blessed to have a good career and I had gotten to the point where it was time to do something more for the community and When when I moved here and I my ch children started telling me about the schools here and I saw more, even though I didn't I had been coming out here for years and it wasn't just about going to the strip, I realized that just because there's a lot of money here, the money doesn't stay here. And there's a lot of room for improvement here. I mean, I've lived in three other states Missouri, Texas, and Colorado, and Nevada's very different. I mean, 85% of the land is owned by the Bureau of Land Management. Wow. Big open spaces. Texas is big. And I drove from side to side, rode my bicycle through a lot of Texas. But people don't realize how much land there is here and how much opportunity there is. And that's my forte. Let's make it happen. speaker-0: Well, and you know, we're big thinkers. And I think that I I think again, one of the things I love about people like you running for office is that the w we're gonna we're gonna grow like a weed. I mean, I think that people don't realize that, you know, w these migration patterns. You know, it's funny you you mentioned Texas. I mean, I I've seen it with my own eyes what's happening in the you know, the the the y'all centers of in Dallas and all these big hit I mean I'm still I'm sure you and I could both laugh because you and I know a lot of finance people. I'm trying to picture some of these New Yorkers moving to Dallas. I I it's a little it yeah, I I it it'd be fun to have to give them like a lesson and culture and stuff. But you know what's also I think interesting, I'll go back to the the you talk about how different the state is. you know, the folks that have migrated here from California. you know, they in there they have a you know full time like when you're an assembly person or a senator in California, that is a full time job. You're working all the time and you make a lot of money. It's not a part-time legislature. And so when people come here and say, you're running for office, they assume you're gonna have a whole nother career. And I say, guys, it's it's it's a little bit more like jury duty with what you're being paid. It's not what you all see in California. So I've had to tell a lot of people that that I said this midterm matters. Yeah. You need to pay attention that this is an important midterm. speaker-1: Yeah, well I y I'm a person who believes in balance. So I'm I'm I'm middle of the road on most things. I don't I don't go crazy on too many things in life. Food maybe. But speaker-0: Well in Vegas you can. speaker-1: Yeah, but it doesn't show because I have speaker-0: It's that's all right. speaker-1: to rein it in, but you know, just looking at how many different opportunities there could be here versus how narrow our economy is here. that that's and I we were talking before this about manufacturing. I'm used to economies that have a lot of diversity. And growing up in St. Louis, it was an aerospace and defense area. And that's actually was my original career. I I built missile systems, ammunition, flight simulators. Douglas speaker-0: McDonnell Douglas's big dog. speaker-1: was there, yeah, that's right. That was a that's right. That's right. And then I moved to Dallas and that was also a big aerospace center. But I moved to Dallas, Arlington to be specific. when it was about a tenth of the size that it is today. I moved there in nineteen eighty five. And wow, did that place blow up? I mean, you got highways that have six levels. It's ridiculous. And then to Colorado, which was Denver was also a small town. And I watched it grow and now I'm here and the same thing is happening. speaker-0: Your your good luck. speaker-1: Well, I'm destined to do this, I think, to help To help build economies and help business owners. I mean, really, when I so my the last part of my career was at Oracle, and I worked with businesses in almost every industry you can imagine. And so, even though we're talking about financial services, those were not really many of my customers. Now, do I have I worked with financial services professionals? Absolutely. But I more worked with business owners and fintech, we were talking about that. But I i i i I like money. That's what makes me a conservative. I like my money. I worked hard for my money. You know sing the song. speaker-0: All right, I want you to hold that thought for a second. We'll be right back. We've got to go do a quick break. We'll be back with winning with one-ins. And welcome back to Winning with One is the Las Vegas newest and coolest financial show. Yes, I am wearing a cowboy hat because we're in the West. And our guest is also a Western finance person. So, Nancy Roerker, we were talking about how much you like money. speaker-1: I do. speaker-0: You know what? I do too. I love money and all the great things you can do with money because money's a tool. So, but your decision to run, okay. The what are the big issues you see coming up? I mean, now, and let me just preface it this way. there's issues with places that are having big problems, and I think it's mainly population, you know, tet like California, taxpayers are leaving. We have the opposite problem. We're growing fast, and it's literally outstripped schools, health care. I mean, we've gone to what we're we're looking at 3.6 million people, you know, I mean, which is mind blowing when you think about this valley. But what do you see as the the key issues? Assuming you get elected next two years out, what are the big things? speaker-1: Well, what I hear from everybody is the economy and that that brings in a bunch of things. So first of all, an economy is based on business and jobs. And as people are moving here, some of them are c are coming here without really understanding our economy and thinking, I'll just be able to get a job because it's a growing place. Well You know, if you're if you want to be in hospitality, most people can find jobs in hospitality, but if you have a background in something else, then it may not be as easy as you think. And granted, a lot of people can work remotely, but j there there are not as many jobs as there are people who wanna come here. I also hear a lot about the cost of living, and part of that is because of our dependence. So I'm gonna get into energy on California for gas. I mean, we're paying much higher prices than other states are. Sometimes I will drive to Arizona to buy gas because I'm going that way anyway. so the cost of living is very, you know, very much of a concern. attainable, affordable housing for some people. Yeah. w Deja and I were talking earlier about yeah, there's this is a very diverse city in terms of home opportunities, but When you're so heavily dependent on hospitality and union type jobs, which may not pay as well as other types of jobs, then housing can become an issue. And so I actually on the in the Sunrise Manor part of my district, they applied for a high density housing permit on the south side of Sunrise Manor. And I I suppose I need to find time because campaigning is a very busy life. To research more about that and what the impact is, because anytime you build new homes, anytime you build a new campus for businesses, you have to look at the infrastructure, things like that. And so that takes me to, you know, I talked about energy costs, water. People are very concerned about water. The federal government is now involved in our water rights. I I really am concerned about the fact that we've pulled out so much greenery and are looking at even conserving more. You know, we're humans. We need the whole nature thing to work for us so that we have clean air and things like that. So especially in Henderson, it was a a much bigger issue. We just did a poll than I thought it would be about what's happening with water. Really? Yes. And then I would say the last thing is healthcare that I'm hearing a lot about. It I'm always gonna be concerned about public safety and education, and those were two big parts of my platform before. But healthcare, we have a hard time attracting and retaining doctors here. I know UNLV's working, Toro's working to get more doctors to stay here. But I have to tell you, I had a personal journey from a healthcare perspective, and I am like on my pulpit about us getting more facilities with next generation technologies. We've got to get into the twenty first century. Not it's not just about quantity, it's about quality. I could talk for hours about some of the things that I found when I've been out researching what we could do for people that would allow them to live longer. But you know, then you're fighting big pharma and that's always going to be a challenge. I think that our insurance costs here are fairly high. That's partially healthcare insurance, then also the fact that we have a lot of personal injury things here that drive costs up. So Eventually it all comes back to the system. So you gotta have good schools and safe neighborhoods to attract and retain doctors. And so I'm a systems thinker. My masters is in engineering management. And you gotta look at everything because you pull a lover over here and it affects something over there. speaker-0: And it's always the weakest link that gets you into trouble. Absolutely. I mean, I'm the same way. I mean, that's you know, I tell people it's always that boomerang that comes out of nowhere that hits you. Well, you know, interesting, because you you brought up with certainly the the thing with job retention. We've got a serious shortage of people working. I mean, we're talking about trying to grow financial services. You need to have licenses. You cannot be a money manager without SEC FENREA licenses. There's a shortage in this valley. So one of the things that I did, I went to UNLV. And I talked the business school into having an independent study course so the graduates could get come out of school with their securities licenses, which means they can immediately go to work. So we're doing things that, and by the way, most other schools don't do this. So yeah, because again, the banks want to hire people, they want to hire young people, the bro, the brokerage houses, the wealth managers, same problem. Yeah, we don't we can't find the people here. So W it's it's a good problem to have in one perspective, but I 100% agree with you on the what's going on. But the positives here. You know, the the people in this valley are special. We're a tough bunch. We usually Yeah speaker-1: Wild West. speaker-0: it is the Wild West, you and and we're and we are w almost nobody is from here. That's right. Everybody's from somewhere else. And I find immediately that the things that I've noticed is that there's a huge number of people here who served in the armed forces. There's a huge number of people here to go to some form of church or temple. It's almost evenly mixed racially. And people here get along. They just get along. They're respectful. We we respect our our public safety people. We revere them. I mean, yeah, where else can you go and see people probably having a police badge on their car license? speaker-1: I'm always amazed. speaker-0: yeah. So I I think again what you're talking about, we we're we're very practical thinkers and I think people can come together and at least that's my take. I think we can fix these things. Do you worry about the as many people are calling the Californication of the Valley? Are you finding that as you're talking with people? speaker-1: yes and no. So I would say, I said I lived in like Las Vegas. I almost half of the people I know came from California. And some of them were running away from them there and some were running to here. So if they were running away, then they don't want to create what they left. If they were running to here, it's because they don't want to have high taxes. But what's interesting is that it's a connect the dots thing. Don't you realize if you want to promote all these social and and you know free programs, the money has to come from somewhere. And so if you are going to spend without taxing, then what happens? You have to rob Peter to pay Paul. And I'm just I'm amazed at how many people can't connect those dots to realize. that don't just come here to get away from taxes. We have to be more innovative, or we can become California because people are going to expect the same services that they had there. And then you'll be right back where you are, where you were, and and that's the definition of insanity. Why would you leave one thing and recreate something else? But I I think, you know, and this is all over my collateral, common sense just isn't that common anymore. People do not think about the repercussions of what they want. I was at the gym today and a young man was telling me about how he's teaching his thirteen year old son of of actions have consequences. And it's amazing to me. I don't know if these people didn't have good parents that taught them that actions have consequences, but they can't they just can't. I the the connect the dots to me. It's that systems thing. Again, if you take money from over here, unless you're Printing money, then you have to take it from somewhere else. Or eventually you have to tax people. speaker-0: Well, I think what happens is that we you know I know that, you know, there a lot of people who run for public office make a lot of promises. You know, same thing. They don't tell how they're gonna pay for all this stuff. But when I've but you know, and when I lived in California, I did get to know a fair number of politicians and I just said, look, I'm not gonna get into a debate with you, you know, Democrat, Republican. However, fine, you're gonna have the highest taxes in the land, that's fine. But do you have the best schools? No. Do you have the best roads? No. Do you have the best police and and fire protection? No. Where's the money going? So I I'm not gonna argue with you on the level of taxation, but if you're not getting what you're paying for, then what? And I've said that to people who've moved here too. I I'd say this too, Nan, it's kind of funny. a really funny story. So people don't realize we're an open carry state. This is the West. And I remember was in a restaurant, because I I mean I I'm I have a hunting license. Like I said, I'm a country boy. I grew up with this stuff. And I was out at a restaurant with somebody and somebody was saying, we just we're from Orange County and we just love this place. It's so much like home. And and somehow we started talking about, you know, a lot of people were cow, you it's cowboy stuff. And I said, Well, you know, this is the West. And they go, What do you mean? I said, Well, this is an open carry state. The lady looked at me and goes, Guns? I said, yes, this is an open carry state, and there's probably some people in here with a CCW permit. I said, you know, that it's that's those state lines matter. We're different. But let me ask you this. As an elected official, do you worry about other states infiltrating our politics? Do you feel like these were a swing state? Do you feel like California lobbyists could come here and try to influence things? Would you worry about that at all? speaker-1: Absolutely. Lobbyists have one job and that's to protect their their in the interests of those they represent. Okay. So yes, if if things are moving here and there's opportunity here, you know, the one thing we won't overtake them on is food production. And so they don't have to worry about that. But almost anything else that happens in California could happen here. And so You know, I don't have I don't have a ton of experience with lobbyists, I'll I'll be honest with you. But I've dealt with business owners and I've dealt with lawyers and you know, anytime you're trying to come to an agreement on something, it's good to be a good negotiator. It's good to be someone who can look behind the lines and see what's going on. And I think not only the eyes, but the words of people are are a gateway to their soul. And so I'm pretty good at assessing people. And the other thing about me is I'm just I am who I am. I'm kind of like Popeye. You know, like you're gonna get what you get from me. If I don't agree with something, I'm gonna tell you why. And if I'm wrong, I'll tell I'll apologize and say, let me dial it back. I've had that I've had that kind of conversation with lobbyists because they're really good at wanting to box you into a corner. well yeah. Yeah. And and I agree with that on that. And I try not to let that happen, but occasionally it does. And so Yes, I d I I'm always concerned when s when a discussion is one sided. But because I'm middle of the road I can usually look left and look right and kind of figure out what's going on. speaker-0: I'll tell you quick story. So I went to legislative session as a non-paid lobbyist. I went as just I wanted to promote finance industries in Nevada. And when I went to the lobbyist room, which they had at the legislative building, and when there's closed door session, they wanted to go in this lobbying room. And almost everybody there was from California. Almost every single lobbyist. And speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: they well, they claimed they were there for regional rights. speaker-1: B speaker-0: BS. They were there, they wanted to influence our votes. I I think actually I've heard some elected officials say California wants to make us an appendage of them from an electoral standpoint. So I do think it is a fight for our independence. I I would believe that. speaker-1: Yeah, I just to be careful. I can't I can't see that happen. You know, I I love visiting California. There's some parts of it I like better than others. Yeah. but I've never lived there and I I don't think I could because it doesn't make sense to me. It's beautiful, but I can drive two hours and be there and spend a few days and come back. And I don't want that for my children. I really don't. They love to go there too. You know, everybody loves Disneyland. But It's it's one thing to visit it, it's another thing to live there. And I feel so badly for the farmers who were working so hard there. I actually went on a journey la a couple of years ago, was it no, it was last year, about an RV because I thought I was gonna win my election. I was gonna live in the RV. So when I didn't win, I took it to California and I went through the center of California in search of a regenerative farm because I like the outdoors and I'm fascinated by how do we make everything natural? I want to get all the drugs out of my body. I want to eat natural foods. Anyway, I met this family who has a third generation farm. So three generations are actually operating it. There probably won't be a fourth because the younger kids don't want any part of it. They don't. But I listened to them and how they are struggling. And look at the people who lost their homes. For God's sakes. Yeah. You I can't rebuild my home two years later. speaker-0: Well it it well I'll tell you what. Hey, we're gonna take a quick break. Do you have time for a quick bonus segment? Okay, everybody. Listen, we're having a great talk here. Stay in tune for the bonus segment of our soon-to-be new assembly member, Nan Roker. We'll be right back. And welcome back to the bonus segment of Winning with Wynans with our new rising political star in the great state of Nevada. Nan, we started off, we ended on talking about California. Let me just say something real quick. I'm a fifth generation. My family showed up in 1849. I left. I left. Okay, so if you wanted an evidence of somebody who has deep ties to the land who said, This California is the California that I loved is gone. So it's it it's it geography's the same, but it it COVID really screwed that place up. Well that's just and then you talk about the Central Valley. I mean I I mean I've been all through it myself. I mean I've been through all of California. And it's there is the the people there are they're they're struggling to try to understand how they're losing the magic that made that place the Golden State. But I but here's my point. I go back to here. when I went to Texas last time. I asked people about, you know, the the Californication of Texas. And I I I'll finish on this note. They said that there's two types. The ones that have chosen to move here, they're fine. They want to be part of the community. They're happy here. It's the ones that had to do a forced relocation. In other words, they were told you're gonna lose your job unless you move to Plano. They work for a manufacturer. Yeah. Those are the problems. Yeah. And that's the thing I can I repeatedly kept hearing. speaker-1: Well, you know, so I worked for Oracle and they're now based in Texas, but they just had a massive layoff. Twenty percent of their employees laid off by AI. So I'll leave you with that thought. If you're afraid of AI, you can either fear it and you'll create what you get, or you can learn about it because it's coming. And we could talk another time about data centers and all kinds of other things. speaker-0: Well, and here's the thing too. If you're a business person and I'm just look, two business people. You wanna operate a business, Nevada is your place to come. Okay. Good I mean, you have a pro business government, loves new industries coming here. You're gonna have politicians like Nan who are gonna support you, but we want you to contribute back to the community. That's the deal. You come here with your money, but y we want you to be a community member. Absolutely. Nan, you have my endorsement. Best of luck. I'll go speaker-1: I'll take you speaker-0: All right, listen. All right. So listen, thank you for your time today. I knew you'd rush off to another meeting. We we're speaker-1: Thank you so much. speaker-0: gonna take a quick break, we're gonna and we'll be back with the last segment of winning with wine ends. Take care. And welcome back to Winning with Wine is Las Vegas newest and coolest financial show. I hope you enjoyed that last episode with our guests. I have to say, we have some of the most interesting guests. I always enjoy it. Hey, I forgot to mention to you, if you're all noticing, I am wearing a new cowboy hat. Now, I you for those of you in Las Vegas, you probably pass it on the 15 all the time on your way to the strip. You'll see a big building saying Shelby America. Well, I'm a big race car fan. I love F one and we're coming up on F one season. But one of my favorite movies is Ford and Ferrari. Okay, if you're a fan of that movie and you recognize the name Carol Shelby, Shelby America, well they're no longer in California. They are now in Las Vegas and have been here for a long time. Highly recommend you go there. I did make the mistake of wearing a Ferrari ball cap in there, and I was told pretty quickly to get rid of it. But anyway, to my friends who might be watching this episode, I am wearing my Shelby cowboy hat and yay go Shelby. It's pretty cool. Go see it. Anyway, listen, while we're on this, there's been a lot of talk and it's easy enough To just forget about it as you get through the summer. But now that you're all back from your vacations, kids are back in school, there is something you should start thinking about, and that is preparing for your 2026 taxes from an investment standpoint. So there's a couple of things that I think that we should be aware of. Number one, right now, this time of year, this is usually a weak lull in the market, September, especially as we're going to go into September. it's not a surprise that the market will show some weakness. Sell your losers. You're gonna need those capital losses against your capital gains. I I would just say get rid of them now. Here's the strategy. If l let's say it's a stock you really do like, even though I've told you all, don't own pets. Like I talked in the first episode about pet friendly cities, that's not stock pets. Those are your dogs and cats. I don't like pet stocks. But here's the deal sell it, book the loss now. You can buy it back in 31 days. Okay, so you're not going to miss out on any long term opportunities here. But I just don't see the reason to hang on to dogs when we've had this powerful rally all year long. Some of these things haven't moved in over a year. like I said, get rid of them. Okay, other things that you're gonna have to be aware of. I I'm always amazed when people don't know this, and I talked about it last week. it it really does tick me off. It's this whole deal that you can't. write off your capital losses against your income more than three thousand dollars a year. I mean you talk about things that need to get fixed in Washington. That's one of the big ones on the tax code. Drives me crazy. But the other thing that most people don't even think about it's charitable giving. Now I'm not kidding you on this. I had somebody say, I don't have any money to give to charities as I gave my money to some the politicians. Well, I have news for you. Your political contributions are not a tax write-off. Now, again, I'm not an accountant, but I've been in this game a long time. And you have to be very co a lot of times people do that. They think they give into some group. They're not nonprofit groups. So be careful on that. But this is a good time of year to look at who you're going to give money to. Now I happen to be a member of a church in Las Vegas. I tithe. A lot of people do as well. It's a good time if there's anything you want to give money to, to look at certainly with that. Let me say the the what I think is the best for last. Preferred stocks. Now there's a lot of people out there, especially if they are from a blue state, who own municipal bonds in their state. Folks, I'm not gonna sit here and just beat up on blue states, but their finances are terrible. And you're you're deliberately lending money to places that are really don't care about how they're spending it. Go look at what's going on in places like Los Angeles County, some of the crazy stuff they're voting on right now. But here's why I bring it up. I understand taxes are a problem, especially if you're a high income earner. A preferred stock, it's kind of hard to explain. I'd recommend you buy my book, Preferred Stocks, The Art of Income Investments, which you can find on Amazon. And yes, that is a plug for my book. But anyway, preferred's offer a lot of preferred offer the ability to basically have dividend income, but it's taxed at capital gains rates, which are much lower than ordin than ordinary income tax rates. There's a lot of preferreds out there for banks, real estate, utilities, they're all over the place. But anyway, what I recommend is this. I would suggest instead of buying more munis, go buy preferreds. They're paying a yield right now, and I'm not kidding you, close to seven percent. And if you do the math, that's a lot of savings on your after-tax bills. So even in if you're a Nevada resident, yes, you do still pay federal tax. That's quite a bit of money you can save yourself. So remind yourself. Get together with your accountants, take some of the words that I've given you today, have a discussion point, but don't wait until November. We all know what happens here in the fall. I mean you have F1, you have Thanksgiving, you have the rodeo, then you have Christmas, then you have New Year's. Boom, it goes very fast if you're a Vegas reticent. So get it done now. And also remember your accountants will be busy as well. Okay, let's jump into some Nevada news. folks, there's a lot of talk over the weekend about California's high speed rail that is it's gonna be running out of money yet again. Why are why am I bringing this up? We are having a deal, we're partners right now with California on the Bright Line train. So I did a little work. I literally I used Google AI and I asked it, hey, how much is Nevada on the hook for this train? Taxpayers are not, but we have lent the borrowing ability of Nevada toward this project. Folks, I would suggest we all pay attention to this. Now let me just be clear. I like trains. Okay, I have a lot of family in the East Coast. I enjoy riding them. And I want this train to work. The 15's a mess. I have to go back and forth to on business. I hope this thing works because I'd love to ride it. Get off the train in two hours, go have my meetings in California and go home that night and not worry about traffic jams. But I'm legitimately concerned this train is starting to balloon in price. And I'm sorry, I just don't trust California. I don't trust how they spend money. I don't trust their accounting. And we're dependent on these people because they're our partner in this train. I would suggest that since it is an election year, there's never a bad time for any of us to ask our elected officials. Hey, where do we stand with this? We have two people running for the treasurer slot in Nevada right now. you should ask them, where do you stand on this? Now I'm a money guy. I think at the end of the day, we have to care about these elected positions. There are there are just a handful of full-time government officials that work for Nevada. that is one of them, is our treasurer. And then you also want to talk to our controller and the other people involved with things too. But I I'm just I'm telling you folks, I'm just a little concerned right now because I'm hearing that the costs are escalating. That term always makes me nervous. California has spent, I think, three billion dollars of money they don't have or they've committed to it. The federal government, you know, right now, and I know we we we're in the world still of doge. I believe that this would not have proceeded to this point if it didn't at least have blessings from the Trump administration. But we all know how government spending goes, folks, at the federal level. It ebbs and it flows. And we got forty trillion in debt right now. I'm not a hundred percent sure that this is n as as important as other things are. But I just want us to be very, very cautious as we move forward. Anyway, I think there's just a lot we have to think about there. But while we're on it, Let's also remember we have some of the best roads around. I every time I drive around Las Vegas, I'm always amazed at how great the roads were. This last weekend I went down past searchlight and I was wondering I just I couldn't believe it. Here's the middle of the desert. The roads are, you know, level, you know, not rocks flying all over the place and bumping my car. So again, we are very lucky lucky we're here. And I trust that our transportation people will keep an eye on the pocketbook when it comes to this trail the The train, as we would say it. All right, listen, we're about ready to come to an end here. I just want to talk about a couple of things real quick. Number one, I can't thank our sponsors enough. Hey, folks, things cost money. Yeah, at the end of this show, I would love it if you would pay attention to the infomercial about Wine and investments and how we do things differently. for any other reason, it's important for you to know what's happening. if you are interested on being a sponsor or a guest on future winning with Wine and shows. Hey, check out good, send me an email. I'd love to hear from our audience anyway. Hey, you don't always have to agree with me, as many of you have made that clear. you know, but I'm hey, this is a podcast. We can say what we want. But I'd love to hear from you anyway, and let me know if there's some other topics that you want to look at. if you want to share this with your friends and family, we're on social media. you can certainly look any and also on our website, Winning with Windens. There, the podcasts are all there, shorts and longs. Feel free to watch them there. my latest articles in Forbes, I would h highly recommend you go back and look at them, especially the one that I talked about, the taxes between blue and red states. That's pertinent to what we're doing here. My books. I've been having many of you ask, when am I going to do a book signing? When am I when am I going to do anything like that? I do give book lectures. I will keep you posted the next time I'm doing one. But anyway, my books are available on Amazon. my latest one, Investment Atlas 3, creating wealth using historical trends. believe it or not, I'll say this real quick. because of what happened in the Himalayas, and certainly with you know the the tornadoes that were hitting the East Coast, the droughts that are hitting Europe, I would you know, why aren't the markets still going up? You're gonna find that the markets are not always an ethical creature, but they're an economic creature. So although there might be, you know, issues that we care about as humans, the markets themselves don't care. So anyway, history is a good teacher. As I mentioned earlier, Winess Investments is the only top ranked Morningstar manager based in Las Vegas. It's important. I'm I'm certainly I I appreciate you watch this podcast. I'm worth listening to, I'd like to believe. But anyway, like I said, feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions on anything we've talked about. Anyway, folks, have a good week. Good luck. I know the vacation era is just about over, even though we're getting ready to go into Labor Day. So enjoy that holiday. Enjoy your time throughout the fall. Anyway, I'll see you next week. And by the way, don't forget, a lot of big news is going to be coming out about that Jackson Hole conference. Pay attention to it. Anyway, this is Ken Wynens with Winning with Winens, wearing my Shelby Stetson. I'll see you next week. Hey everybody, this is Ken Winens, host of Winning with Winens Podcast. And before I founded the Morningstar five-star ranked investment management firm, Winance Investments, which by the way is the only five-star ranked manager in Las Vegas, I actually worked on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange trading commodities with our traders. Yes, I actually know all those crazy hand signs you see in the movies. You know, if you haven't heard about it, commodities have had these eye-popping returns, not just gold. We're talking about cattle. Copper, soybeans, all these kinds of things. Don't be surprised. Many of the financial advisors who work for the big investment firms, they don't even bring it up with their clients. But if you're interested in learning more about this very unique area, which has been around a very long time, give Winin's Commodities a call. Founded in 2021 with an experienced team, 100% independent and veteran-owned. And you know what? Find out more about commodities and maybe it will fit in your portfolio. Give Wine's Commodities a try. Win with Winens. Boy, that time went fast. I you had as much fun as I did during this segment of Winning with Winings. Make sure and tune in next week for another round of guest and interesting topics. And if you missed this, make sure and check us out on Spotify, YouTube, or go to our website, winningwithwinings.com, where there's a lot more information for you to follow. So good at this next week. Look forward to seeing you then. Take care.