Latest / Winning With Winans! / Benjamin Rowden, a premier Las Vegas youth sports videographer sits down with Ken Winans!
Transcript
- Speaker 2: Well guess it's another time for an episode of Winning with Winans. Let's go. Vegas newest and coolest financial show. I'm your host Ken Winans and for the last 30 years I have been involved as a financial commentator. I've ran an investment firm and as of right now my firm is the only top-ranked money management firm based in Las Vegas and as we know in the great state of Nevada. So I want you to enjoy this show. This is something very different unlike the other shows out there that just talk about the news. day in and day out, don't connect the dots. We actually connect those dots and give you the information you need to make concise decisions and get ready for the next week. So let's go ahead and get started with what is going on in the markets. Wow. I'll tell you what, I told my team, I have three pages of notes here about just what's happened in the last week. But with all of the things I'm gonna talk about, I want you to think about this. The stock market, although it's been volatile. The S &P 500 is down 3 % so far this year. The Dow Industrial Average is down 2%. Even with all that volatility. It's just not showing up in the market, folks. I mean, I know if you talk to certain people, they'll make you think that, hey, wow, the market is down. We're heading into a recession. Not the case. Then when you even look at bonds and preferred stocks, they're even for the year. So again, lots of volatility, but it's not showing up in the market. Now, some things that came up. Number one, war. I mean, we have to talk about it. We're in a wartime situation. We are watching the news every night. I'm a veteran. One of our other teammates here on the show is also a vet. We all know what goes on. We all have glimmers of what happened with Iraq and Afghanistan. This is a different animal. The markets are acting kind of the same way, but still things are a little different. So why is it different? Well, number one, we seem to be forgetting about Venezuela now. That was. two weeks ago news, the Venezuelan government is going to cooperate now with the United States and our U.S. corporations to actually possibly fast track the production of oil out of Venezuela. That's huge. Item number two that was not around during Iraq and Afghanistan, fracking, our own oil production. Our oils and driller stocks are taking off right now because right now at the price levels that we're at, they can go out there and do that offshore drilling. They can get back into fracking at a much higher level. So the point is the United States is better positioned than Europe or Asia with what's going on right now. And that's another reason why our markets are really pretty stable. Okay, let's talk about what's happening right now with the Fed. I know a lot of people were hoping the Federal Reserve was going to drop interest rates, mortgage rates were going to come down, credit card rates were going to come down. Well, bad news, the Federal Reserve was very concerned about the simple fact that with the war, inflation is still running somewhat hot, especially in what we're going to call blue states. And the simple fact of the matter is that they just said, we're not going to lower rates, we're not going to raise rates, everything's going to stay where they're at. I think it's actually going to be okay for us because we have a Fed Chairman change in May, and I think it's safe to say that that person will be more accommodative to what this administration wants. Okay, let's talk real quick about bonds. Kind of interesting, I know like. Most people bonds are boring. I mean, they just say, yeah, they put them to sleep. The truth is there's more bonds out there than they're actually stocks. And what was interesting about even with all this talk about interest rates, in one day, $65 billion worth of bonds were sold to investors in the United States with 37 billion of those coming from probably you all have gotten packages from them lately, Amazon. Why is that important? These companies have confidence that things are gonna be okay. And that's important because again, if they're out there borrowing money with rates are not necessarily heading down, that's a positive. Now there's one thing you're probably gonna hear a lot about. It's been making the news quite a bit. It's about private debt. And what they're talking about are these smaller companies that have been doing private debt deals with Wall Street firms. Well, some of these pools have actually found themselves where lot of investors have wanted to pull money out. Some of the bigger players have actually told their investors, can't get money out right now. It's kind of sending people a little bit of the ghost of 2008, 2009, like, wow, are we back in another mortgage mess? I don't think we are, but it is causing some shakeups in that area. We'll talk later about alternative investments, because I have my theories on those. Hey, real estate, let's talk about that for a moment. Believe it or not, ⁓ pending home sales actually ticked up. Now, why is that important? Now I'm talking about nationwide, not just in Vegas, not just in Nevada. If you have been following the news lately about the weather back East, it's been pretty brutal. We're having home sales moving up nationwide. Again, I think people have stronger beliefs that the economy is actually going to be okay in the long term. and they're willing to step back in and start buying houses again. These are positives. This is not negative. This is not what happens when you're getting ready to roll into a recession. Believe me, I've seen a few of those. Okay, the other thing. There's been a lot of talk about the Senate last week passed a housing package. It's funny, I had some friends in from ⁓ California and these gentlemen are very much in tune with real estate. They were not in favor of this package. I'm not, and listen, I'm not a political expert, but I will tell you this. What they're trying to do is to make sure that the housing stock of the United States meaning all the houses are out there the inventory Isn't bought by a bunch of Wall Street firms that then turn around and rent it to individuals President Trump has made it very clear. He believes. Hey, he's a real estate guy He wants individuals to be able to buy houses and then if those people don't want to buy the houses and the companies can buy them later That's the gist of the package You might argue it's a political move for the election coming up. I don't think so. I actually think there was a there was a growing concern, especially with what happened with the mess in California with the fires and the fact there's still haven't rebuilt a lot of those houses. Those lots have been basically been bought up by a lot of company by foreign investors and by companies. So again, we don't want that to continue to happen. OK, crypto. I know many of you don't get involved in it. But whether you like it or not, you're going to. ⁓ The NASDAQ stock exchange just cut a deal with Kraken, which is one of the crypto exchange companies, to come up with a token to allow stocks to trade within the tokens. We've all known that crypto and stock investing and bond investing, and I actually think real estate investing at some point, are all going to come together one day, but folks, it's happening now. Then, just lo and behold, Standard & Poor's Corporation, Dow Jones, just cut a deal with a high-frequency trading 24-7 hyperliquid group to have the S &P 500 indexes trade within this quasi-crypto environment all the time. I don't know about you, but I've been enjoying my weekends for a good part of my career. We're now gonna be looking at the possibility. stock investors going to go on 24 seven. It's going to be a game changer for people in my line of work. I think for investors in general, the question that comes up in my mind is how are these things going to trade if the stocks are not open? How are these cryptocurrencies going to trade? We'll have to see. Now let's also jump into commodities real quick. You know, I'm a big fan of commodities. ⁓ It's been a wild ride. We all know what's happened with oil. I I went and filled up my car last night. I was going, whoa. What is going on? And this is Nevada. When I talk to my friends in California, they're really having convulsions out there because of the tax problem. But it's been a wild ride. But think about this. I've been for a long time telling everybody you should have commodities in your portfolio. Hey, the Goldman Sachs Commodity Index is up 32 % on the year. Excuse me. We're not even 90 days into the year yet. Think about what I just said. As I say in poker, read it and weep. It's the number one group winning hands down. And then again, the bigger question you all have to be asking yourselves is if this is the first time you're hearing this news and you're not hearing from your advisors, you might want to have a little talk with them because this is crazy to miss these opportunities. Now, gas prices, obviously crude oil, you know, ⁓ our Bob gas, as we call it in commodities, they're flying high, but also pretty wild to think about this. gold, silver, platinum, all those metals. The state of Wyoming is actually stockpiling gold in their capital. I think it's something like $132 million worth of gold. So now we've been worried about China buying all the gold or Europe buying all the gold or our own Federal Reserve. It's now the states. So it begins to ask the question. And at some point we'll have the treasurer of Nevada come in. I'd love to run this by them. But if you wonder who's buying all this gold, hey, it's the government. It's not just you and I and everybody else. So you have that going on. So listen, we're about ready to, we're almost time for a break here. We're coming up on it pretty quick. So listen, we're to take a very quick break and we will be back with Winning with Winans. I'm Ken Winans. Stay tuned. And welcome back to Winning with Winans, Las Vegas' newest and coolest financial show. And I am your host, Ken Winans. And yes, I'm a finance guy with a cowboy hat. I'm proud to call myself a cowboy. I do ride, I do shoot, I do enjoy Las Vegas. And so here we are. And in the last segment, we talked about what was going on with all the different parts of the financial market. And look, I know it's been volatile. It's been scary when you listen to the headlines. And then you throw on top of it all of the political BS. that they're trying to intertwine with the markets. But listen, at the end of the day, there's a lot of positive green shoots that are popping up. And maybe by my nature, I'm an optimist, but I find that there's actually, especially in Nevada, there's a lot of green shoots. But let's talk about some things that you might not be aware of or we haven't even thought about, weather. You know what, I love it when people like to beat me up about the heat in the summertime. I wouldn't trade places with those guys in the Midwest and the East Coast right now. Have you been listening to the weather reports out there? ⁓ my gosh. But why is this important to us? Well, we all eat and guess where that food is grown and where that most of that cattle is found. It's in the Midwest. It's in Texas. It's in Florida and those places are having some pretty rough weather. So here's my point that we should expect there will probably be some volatility in food. As we certainly look at going into the summertime and into the fall, just again, don't take one product move at a grocery store as inflation in general. I don't like it either. I love my coffee. I can't believe how coffee prices have gone all over the place. But the other thing that we all better brace for, I have to catch a flight tomorrow. I'm not looking forward to it. It is this mess with the federal shutdown of and unfortunately what and we're not going to get into DHS issues here today. But part of the shutdown involves TSA. ⁓ I'm not looking forward to it. And so I would just again say these are things that can hurt the economy in the long term. It's been a month. We hope these government shutdowns don't go past that. It is an election year. think the politicians are smart enough to know if you start upsetting people with their ⁓ summertime plans for flights. It's going to begin to really upset people to the point where they might not vote a certain way going into the fall. So, but I want you again to be aware that can affect things like airline stocks that can affect fuel companies that can affect transportation companies in general. So just be aware of that. Tariffs. We've been hearing a lot about the tariffs lately. It's head spinning what goes on in the tariff situation. But here's what I want you to think about. ⁓ The countries that we cut these deals with recently. There's been reports out they want to keep the deal the EU even with the problems that we're having right now with the Middle East The European Union wants to hang on to the deal they cut with us. So do a lot of the countries down in South America. So did a lot of countries in Asia. So you have a situation where they're saying that even if the Supreme Court said, are not going to allow you to keep those tariffs, the countries are saying they want to still abide by the treaties. I think that's a huge deal. That's a big win for us in general, in my opinion. And we'll see how that plays out. The other thing that's happening right now, though, is again, you have to follow what goes on state to state. and I'm at this show does cover local issues. A lot of states are actually suing the federal government over the tariffs. I'm not sure if Nevada is gonna join the fight, but several of our surrounding states have. I think some of this is very political, but at the end of the day, we'll see how it plays out. But these same states and the other big news that came out, ⁓ again, one of our neighboring states, one up in the North, The state of Washington just passed an income tax. They went from 0 to 9.9 % on what they're calling a millionaire's or tax. I personally call it a success tax. But watch and see what happens. A lot of those folks, we've been talking about the migration coming out of California. We're going to talk a little bit later with my guest, who's a longtime Vegas resident. But I think we're going to start seeing that migrations are going to start coming from the state of Washington, so we'll just have to say that all plays out. OK, I also want to bring up real quick. ⁓ If there is one group and it's been a lot of write ups about this, we talk about the tariffs. And the fact it's been the wine industry and those in the spirits industry in the United States. know, I one of our offices is located up in the wine country region in Northern California. I can tell you folks that the wineries up there are really struggling. And on top of it, you have water issues. They have, you know, labor issues. mean, California's got more problems than we all can care to. Thank goodness we don't have these problems. But their wine industry, which has been one of their token areas, is really having trouble right now. That could affect us again, as we go to the store, if you do enjoy wines, you can find that some of your favorite wines might not be available, or they're going to be at a much higher price. I've actually found it kind of interesting personally, that when I look at the wines that I get from my wine clubs, and I go to the local stores here in Vegas, I can oftentimes find the wines cheaper here than through the wine clubs. So again, something to keep in mind, but the wine industry and agriculture definitely has been affected by the tariffs. We'll see how that plays out in the other things. Okay, ⁓ the other thing that I think is gonna be interesting for us, and then we're gonna come up on a break here in the not distant future, it is that there's been a lot of talk. I just mentioned about the of Washington. But they're talking about that there's really a difference in tax policies between the blue states and the red states. And what I find interesting is we all know that Nevada is kind of a purplish state, depending on what hue you want to go with. But as I talk to politicians here on both sides of the aisle in Nevada, they think this is crazy that these states are trying to pass on high income taxes and raise them even higher. during this point in time. So again, we have to be aware that we're very fortunate we live here. We have a constitution that does not allow for an income tax. A lot of these states don't have that. But again, a lot of your friends and family, when you ask them how they're doing, and they're going to be looking at the cost going up in their local communities, we're very lucky where we live. And we'll probably talk a bit about that in a moment here. Hey, a couple of things. There's some interesting twist. Hey, we're coming up on tax season. You all know we all gotta get ready here in about a month. ⁓ And by the way, don't wait until April 14th to go talk to your accountant, please. You'd be surprised when people call my office on the weekends before a tax deadline. I tell them, please don't do that. I've been saying it forever and I don't know why, but people seem to miss the deadlines or they confuse things. And the more complicated your portfolio is. the more prep you really do need to give. what's interesting is that, I want you all to think about this, this situation where people have been buying gold, they've been loading up on gold. I'm talking about gold coins, gold bullion, gold collectibles, silver, platinum, palladium, they've been loading up on these things. So you might not know this, and listen, by the way, I'm not a tax advisor, I do wanna just... Throw that out there so you do want to talk to your people about it. But if you're actually buying gold and remember there's a lot of gold shops all over Las Vegas, so it's pertinent to us that the tax rate is supposed to be about 28%. OK, here's the thing to think about. If you did not sell or buy more than $10,000 at any one time. There's no report. There's no 1099 and there is no I believe the form is called in 3800 are sent to the government. So look, I'm not going to tell you to not pay your taxes, but if you have done that during this year, buying and selling, wheeling and dealing, maybe gone down to the pond star store and said hi to a couple of people down there that we've all seen on television. I'm just telling you, even though you did not get those tax forms, you're still supposed to report that. So kind of keep that in mind. And by the way, the numbers are pretty generous. We're talking about if you bought or sold at any one time, less than 25 gold coins, that's quite a bit. If 32 troy ounces of gold, a thousand troy ounces of silver, I mean, I don't know about you. And by the way, that's lot of weight in silver. That's a pretty heavy bar. Anyway, my point is, You did not get notices not like you to have with a brokerage house about, hey, your taxes are owed here. You're not your 1099 didn't have that. Be careful because if you get audited and they see that you knew this and you didn't take any ignorance is not an excuse to the IRS or to any other tax regulatory group you might deal with. I'm just saying that you need to be aware of that. If you're new to gold silver, OK? How are we on time? We a little time left, don't we guys? Yep, just a little bit. I'll tell you what, we're going to take a quick break because I'm really excited about getting my guest up here. We got a lot of things to talk about about Vegas. So listen, I'm Ken Winans. You've been listening to Winning with Winans Las Vegas news and coolest financial show. We're going to take a quick break to hear from our sponsors and we'll be right back. And welcome back to Winning with Wine is Las Vegas newest and coolest financial show. I'm your host Ken Winans and I can't believe that my first guest. is and you're going to love this shirt when you see it on him is my friend Ben and Ben I got to tell you putting together a podcast is not easy guys I know I've been doing radio for years and this is a different animal I'm so proud of the studio my team that helped set it up I mean we've a lot of effort a lot of labor of love went into this thing but Ben I wanted to welcome you to the show buddy thank you for in front of the camera not from behind the camera Speaker 1: I don't put myself in front of the camera too often. I don't have a problem speaking and putting myself on camera. I just don't do it very often. Speaker 2: Is it are you worried about anybody tailing you is that the problem? Speaker 1: You know, it's funny when I first started growing the beard, I didn't realize that it was going to make me memorable before the beard. was just kind of every every other redhead, right? I looked like everybody's, you friends, cousins, brother, the kind of thing. When I started growing the beard, all of sudden I was a little bit more memorable. And especially with the the video I work I do, I do a lot of youth and high school sports here in town. I would go to music festivals. I'd walk past a group of high school aged boys and I'd hear them say that's Rouds Reels. And I was like, I'm actually memorable. And it's it has mostly do with the beard I'm not gonna lie has the beard and then the work I do but the work I do nobody knew who was doing it until I put a logo out there you go and that's actually where the logo came from. Speaker 2: I love it, man. I think it's, you know, hey, like, like with me and my cowboy hat, it's it fits, you know, you got to that hook, you know, and but listen, let's talk I'm excited about it. Because obviously, when we first talked about doing this podcast together, a lot of it is that there is not been a show. Speaker 1: You something that works for a brand. Speaker 2: that covers regional issues well. They'll cover a local thing or, you know, when I look at a lot of podcasts, I mean, they're, actually think they have kind of an East Coast bend to them. So they're almost like, doesn't really pertain to my beliefs or anything I live in. But I just thought it'd be kind of fun to go through some things here that are going on locally. And let's just talk about, and you and I know there's a lot of ⁓ disinformation about Vegas. Speaker 1: Is that Vegas is one of those places that I've said for well really since my first trip to Vegas that Vegas is Unlike anything you have in your mind about Vegas. I was growing up The only thing I knew about Vegas was casinos and strip clubs, right? My first trip out here was my senior spring break of college. So 2001 Came out here with my long-term girlfriend at the time So I wasn't coming out here to party or anything, but we did in just a week's time We did a trip to Beverly Hills and back here. She had an uncle that lived in Beverly Hills. We had breakfast by the ocean, hung out in Beverly Hills for the night, came back. We had a rental car, so we went to Hoover Dam, which is 45 minutes away. We went to Red Rock ⁓ State ⁓ National Park. We did that for a full day, and that was 25 minutes away. Then we did casinos one night. We did a show one night. We did just walking the strip one night. And what I found out is that Vegas has so much more to offer. Yes, it has the strip. It has Fremont. But then it has everything else that comes along with it. And I think that's One of the attractions and one of reasons that we've seen so many really people moving, not just from California, you know, from all over the country like myself. Speaker 2: Well, it's interesting is, I mean, I've gotten involved with local politics. I've gotten to know people on both sides of the aisle and hear what they all have to say. One of the things that's come up a lot is about that we still want to have Vegas keep its identity. We don't want it to be Californicated, for lack of a term. don't want it to, I mean, doesn't people have a right to their opinions? Speaker 1: be you saw. Yeah, right between those two. We don't want to be either one. Because super, super conservative to the point where they wouldn't allow, you know, gambling, even though was the Mormons that started gambling in Vegas. ⁓ It's interesting that we're kind of right between two states that we really don't want to be anything like. And I think that's one of the draws. It's one of the attractions is that it really is unlike anywhere else. And I call it the purple bubble, right? It's it's a bit of a bubble from the rest of the rest of the real world. And because we're that purple state, we get people that work together. Speaker 2: We don't want to be here. Speaker 1: on both sides the aisle. We get a lot of people that really don't, like myself, consider themselves right or left. I'm pretty centrist. I'm pretty in the middle. I agree with each side on certain issues, and I disagree with both sides on a lot. it's interesting because I think we get a lot of that here, and it allows for people to really work together. Speaker 2: ⁓ I agree. Well, I I'll give you one that's I mean, this kind of blows people's mind. But I've gotten to know that the two sides who are running for state treasurer, they both believe in a balanced budget. They both believe in that we're not going to go figure. Yeah. Don't spend money you don't have. We want to make sure the schools operate properly. We want to make sure we sell these great roads that we have. But I mean, you go and look at the races and other countries, the treasurer races in California. These guys, they have no trouble just borrow money, just keep borrowing, just spend it wherever you want to spend it, you know, have it go where it's going to go. But again, it's a very different animal here. I think now I'm going to bring up because I know we've talked a lot about this and it actually kind of ticks me off. ⁓ I think there's an active. Whether you want to look at it as economic development, people in other states. And because again, there's always competition. You Arizona has people, their job is to get business to come to Arizona, Utah, Texas, Florida. Hey, everybody's trying to pluck at the California carcass. I mean, they're all trying to get, hey, come our way. But I am amazed at how they love to dish on Nevada and Vegas in general. I was out in Flagstaff not long ago and I was actually out there just, I was doing part of the Mustang migration thing, so to speak. But anyway. Somebody saw my driverless, they said, ⁓ we hear it's just the Vegas is just doing terrible right now. I mean, we heard a second and I'm quote 30 year decline of 30 year. What are you talking about? Speaker 1: This year was really interesting to watch. Like you call it the disinformation, misinformation, however you want to describe it. It's really a perspective, I think, that people put it in, right? Like I remember one of the stats I heard was that we were down, yeah, our summer numbers, especially this last year, 2025, was down as far as tourist numbers, some revenue numbers and things like that. But it was, I think at most 7 % we were down in some places. And what it was was it just brought us down to pre-COVID levels. What happened was after COVID, after things open back up. We had a boom. was crazy for a couple years. we were seeing a lot of that. that's those are the numbers that we're comparing it to. Right. The other thing I've said about Vegas since I've been coming out to Vegas, I've seen Vegas from 2001 till now more than double in size in population. Number of businesses, casinos, things grow every year. It's interesting because pretty much every year in the last 25 Vegas has seen Nevada especially, but Vegas has seen an increase in revenue year over year. However, there are businesses that are down year over year, especially because there's more businesses, there's more competition, there's more things coming here. I love that. I love competition. love seeing things move forward. I tell people Vegas doesn't compete with anybody else. It competes with itself. And that's why we're always building new things. We're always changing. We're always trying to improve. And that's what I like to see because I've lived in places where It doesn't feel like you're moving forward. Yeah, it doesn't feel like you're moving backwards, but just kind of in that same spot. That that bothers me to live in a place like that and I don't see Vegas as a place like that. Vegas is always always moving forward. Speaker 2: You know, it's funny you say that because I went to that we have an economics club in Las Vegas. We're one of the few outside of New York and DC. I mean, it's pretty funny. LA and San Francisco don't even have them. It's pretty funny. But I remember one of the Clark County commissioners was speaking one time and been a long time, you know, Vegas resident and all that. And he made a comment. said, you know what I love about this place? He said, middle of COVID, what did we do? We built the sphere. We finished the Fountain Blue Hotel. We finished the Raider Stadium. We fixed the roads for F. one, even though we did have the one manhole that came off that one time. OK, but and then he said, and then we took that technology, we fixed the rest of our roads. He says, find me one other city that did one of those things in the middle of COVID. He said we did five. Yeah. And I think that's pretty amazing. And so and then also, too, we all know there's a lot to talk about the schools. We know there's been a lot of talk. But as I like to bring up is that, look, there's different types of problems. Our problems are growth problems. I mean, Clark County School. As you said, we've grown by a million people in a very short period of time. It's pretty hard to get any public agency to stretch fast enough to deal with that. I think in time it will. mean, I think now you compare that to what's happening in New York or in California where you have school districts contracting, then you've got labor problems, you're having all kinds of issues. Speaker 1: Our issue right now is we actually don't have enough schools. Our schools are overcrowded. We're growing in areas where they don't have plans to build new schools. So we're having to bring in more more charters, which can be good. Again, it starts driving competition, starts driving that things. Our numbers are not great school-wise. I do a lot of work with schools, youth and high school sports. ⁓ That's one of our biggest failures as a state. But like you said, I think we will get better. We will continue to get better. The problem is that when Vegas was under a million people, it was just a tourist town. was the people that lived here all worked in the tourism industry. There weren't a lot of industries outside of it. And so it really was just that, right? Nobody really focused on anything else. The one good thing with the growth of the last 20 years is now you have people here that do care about the school system. They do care about the business growth outside of the casino, outside of the hospitality industry. You see the centers like the Switch Center down on 215, ⁓ different businesses that are completely outside of hospitality that are growing in Vegas. I know they've talked about trying to bring ⁓ movie studios here. I have mixed feelings on that. Speaker 2: Yeah, that's there's Speaker 1: issues with that. I would love to see things like that coming here. I never quite agree with how the tax incentives work on some of that stuff. Speaker 2: We don't want, yeah, make them pay us, not the other way around. Speaker 1: I like the idea of bringing them here, but why do we need to entice them that much? Speaker 2: It's funny you bring that up a very good buddy of mine. He's well known in Hollywood. He said, he said, fleece them. He said, get them to pay you don't don't offer him a thing. He said, these guys have been used to having you know, the red carpet rolled out for him and they don't deserve it anymore. But you know, it's funny. And you talk about what's going on with the diversity, the diversification of industries here. We're now becoming a defense hub, a big defense hub. ⁓ drone technologies. Hey, one of our major bases here. They're one of the major drone bases anywhere in the United States. Nellis is one of the major places for Space Force. It's all here. So you're going to start seeing a lot of other areas. It's pretty funny Area 51 might go back to its meaning of being top secret. We're not going to want to know what's going on there. But then the other thing too I bring up, and I know you feel the same way. I mean, there's a sense of community pride here. You know what? I went before I moved here. I mean, and I was looking at, mean, my family's a fifth generation Western family. They went to San Francisco back in the late 1840s. I've been here, my family's been here long time. And it used to be that people would just live and let live, go live your lives, you do your thing, we have a sense of community. Somehow some states have lost that. We haven't. And I'm blown away that, you know, a huge number of people here are veterans. huge number of people here go to some form of church or temple and even if they don't they respect it. then, then we're, nobody is really from here. I mean, listen, the city was founded in 1908. mean, I even had a Native American tell me, hey, even the Native Americans weren't even here. I mean, nobody was here. So it's just, yeah, just, so nobody can get into any of this other stuff. But the beauty is that we've collectively come together as a community. And I think, especially during COVID, that everybody said, hey, the massacre coming off, we can't survive like this. And I saw it as somebody who was going back and forth, how this community between COVID and also the tragedy of Mandalay Bay shooting really brought this place together in a very unique way. And I think, again, like you said, Vegas is unique. There's just no place like it on earth. Speaker 1: Yeah, people, you know, I've heard people complain about it's not for everybody, right? And I tell people Vegas has something for everybody, but it's not for everybody. One of the big things is you have to be somewhat of a people person. You have to be willing to go out there and meet people because the people that stay here, the move here and stay here, they get that about Vegas. They get that it's a networking. Speaker 2: You gotta plug in. Speaker 1: you have to plug in, have to, and it turns into a very small town very quickly when you do, which I also love, right? I tell people, just don't be an a-hole, otherwise everybody knows you are, right? Because it's that kind of small town. But it's amazing when you start networking in Vegas, how much of that community really comes out. Speaker 2: And you know what, people have a sense of humor. I mean, you can joke about things and nobody here gets overly upset about it. Speaker 1: really drive by billboards with dispensaries to strip clubs to casinos to. I mean it's everything right and that's why the the kids thing is always interesting I say it's it's I wouldn't do I don't have kids I probably wouldn't raise kids here but it's only because you just have to be ready to talk to your kids about everything because everything is here and it's out in the open which I love because every other city I've ever lived or visited has most of the things that Vegas has but a lot of it's. in the underground or in the bowels or in the sea. And we're just like, no, let's just do you. Just have fun. Have a good time. And by the way, most of the people here are going to help you have that good time because we get it. Yeah. Speaker 2: You want to make sure people feel safe and all that. You know, again, we talk about, I mean, the strip has to be secure. mean, women have to feel safe. If they come here with a group of their friends that can walk the strip, they're going to feel safe. I mean, it's just the nature of things. I would also say, too, that ⁓ it's funny you bring up about kids because I find... that a lot of families do love here. I know with my company, had one of my employees moved here with her family. Kids love it here. They absolutely love it here. They, ⁓ it's just. Speaker 1: would love to be a kid growing up here. I was talking about from the parents aspect and it's not that you can't. It's because again, I work with lots of families and they do a great job raising, you know, great kids and things like that. I just think it's a little harder. I just think you're just going to be ready to talk to your kids about that billboard that you just passed on the highway that you might not see in Iowa, right? You're not going to see your dispensary and your strip club billboards in Des Moines, right? You will see that in Vegas. So you have to be ready to talk to your children about that stuff. Again, you should be able to talk to your children about that kind of stuff already. Most parents I've met in my life aren't very good at that kind of stuff. that's where I would see, could see the struggle a little bit. But like you said, in other places you're dealing with lots of other issues that you have to know. Speaker 2: And you can't talk about it. You're just, now the one that I keep running into, I mean, I'm a proud member of the NRA. I'm a country boy. I grew up with hunting and fishing and guns. And it was just never, it was never even an issue. And it's so funny because you have people here and I said, look, it is an open carry state. That state line matters. There is a distinct difference between California and Oregon and Nevada. There's a big difference. And you, if you don't like it, you know, that's just part of our culture. Now it doesn't mean that, you And actually, I find that people here are more respectful with firearms because the penalties are much higher. Speaker 1: Right, you kind of know what's going on. know, you it's you. I'd like to say that the bad guys aren't the only ones with the guns. You know that in states like this. And that's, you know, just makes you a little bit more aware. I'm a gun enthusiast. I like shooting and things like I tried hunting when I was younger and just wasn't very good at just sitting there being in the cold for hours. I just rather go to the. Speaker 2: Michigan. Speaker 1: in New York because I went to college in New York and that was just brutal because all the hunting season starts at Thanksgiving like it's already snowy I'm like no Speaker 2: I did the same thing. I don't get ice fishing. Same thing. I mean, just sit there and freeze. Speaker 1: No thanks, I did that when I was younger too. I'm good, I am good. Speaker 2: No, I do like the snow. I it's funny. I grew up in the snow. I don't ever again want to live in the snow. I had to work in the snow in Chicago. Never again. Been there, done that. Speaker 1: 45 minutes away. you. can go enjoy it when we want. If you really want a really good ski, you go two and a half hours up to Utah, Southern Utah, plenty of ones up there. Yeah, it's I like to choose when I enjoy snow nowadays. Speaker 2: All right, now let's jump into some funny topics. OK, how often do you get asked about how often do you run into the mob here? Speaker 1: The mob isn't as much, you know what's funny out here because of how I look, I just get compared to other people. And out here it's MMA and it's Conor McGregor. So that's one of the big ones I get. The mob, think if I had maybe that Italian look, I'd probably get that a little bit more often. The Irish look, they don't come after me as much with the mob talk. Speaker 2: How often you get asked about the barrels in Lake Mead? Speaker 1: The barrels of Lake Mead's thing. When you go home, they definitely ask you that's always one of the mentions is because there was a couple years ago where they were actually that when the water levels were falling, I this was pre-COVID, weren't they finding some bodies and some? Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, no, and listen, do not, we do not, folks, we do not condone the dealing with people in that manner. Right. But yes, and another long time, Vagan, tell me, ⁓ I asked him one time, said, hey, how many bodies do you think are out in the desert? says, more than grains of sand. So I admit that we can get into that. Yeah, that's our history. But here's the point. We can talk about it. Yeah. You don't think New York has this problem or Atlantic City or Chicago? Please give me a break. mean, come on. that's part of what happened there. I have that get asked quite a bit. I've also aliens. Speaker 1: Yeah, the aliens is definitely a thing and that's you know now we have the area 15 that leans into it So you have even more you know more aspects of it I I get a lot of lots of those pop up on my different feeds and I think they're they're telling us we're gonna find out that aliens real this year That's one of the Kelsey bets this year. Oh really they're gonna come out and say aliens are real. I'm pretty sure they are but Speaker 2: Well, I saw a lot of aliens in California, so I know they exist. I had to coexist with these people. All right, so Ben, the other, okay, other issues, okay. How are we on time, by the way? Guys, are we okay? All right, all right. All right, this is good, we'll have some fun. All right, we're running out of water. How often do you talk about that? Like our faucets are about ready to stop working. Speaker 1: I mean, we're way past the 15 minutes. Well, we are, but it's not our fault. That's what I learned when I first moved here is that Vegas is something like what, 99 % of all of our water that goes down in the drains gets recycled. 90 % of the top of the country as far as recycling water. However, the water from Lake Mead and the Colorado River, most of that's actually taken up by the California farmers. And I think it's almonds, isn't it? Speaker 2: You see one up crazy in the car. I'll tell you what, that's about to change. Speaker 1: That you would hope, that's a weird deal that they got there, how they can. Speaker 2: I'll tell you what I know something about this seven state pact and let's just say that Nevada is going to come out on the win on this. But the reason I was asking you because again, I tell people the same thing. I said, did you know that we recycle? mean, we do not water freeways here. Not like you guys do out west. And also we have an aquifer that we are yet to touch. Unlike Arizona, the geniuses in Arizona somehow figured out was really smart to grow alfalfa in the middle of the desert. I mean, even the Indian tribes are What are What are you people doing? Are you crazy? But the point is they have a Phoenix has a serious, serious water problem. We haven't touched our aquifer. We have 118 years of water. I know that for a fact. I've heard that from the water people. Now, we don't want to take that for granted. And when you're talking about, the lake meat issues, there's a lot of things that are going on right now. But here's what I get. like about the people who run this state and the connections they have with our states. They're smart. They obviously know we live in a desert. They're trying to figure out what we and how can we do it. There's a talk right now about desalinization plants running from Mexico straight up. But now we're dealing with, the cost to run those plants are very expensive. So I think there's a lot of thoughtfulness going into this issue. But I do love, like I said earlier, when people say, well, I just just I'm worried that I'm not going to have any water next year. No, trust me, you're you're fine. Speaker 1: Don't get me wrong. might want to worry about the heat at times. then like last year, it was two years ago. I think we had five or six straight days over 115. That was like a record. But then last year, I don't think we hit over 110. And so we had a mild summer. Then we had an amazing fall, winter. Spring is crazy. I'm not excited about maybe possibly hitting 100 this week. That's a little early for me. But again, like you said, I take this heat over the cold any day. Speaker 2: It's beautiful. No, mean, I know. I mean, I get used to it. I mean, I tell people in California, look, you adapt, you know, and the truth is most of us, the mornings are beautiful. The evenings are beautiful. Yeah. The you know, if you're dumb enough to go out and go golfing at three o'clock in the afternoon in August, good luck. Yeah. You probably won't. Speaker 1: I don't want to that in Michigan or Virginia where I haven't lived either. Speaker 2: Exactly. No, that's part of the thing. Ben, we're going to wrap up here. Is there anything else you want to add? Speaker 1: No, I mean, I'm looking forward to some of the developments. think I'm excited about this podcast because I think we can take it to places that we're not even sure where it's going to go yet. Yeah. I think we're going to have fun with it, but also be informative and try to really bring some new information and kind of a new field of people. So I'm excited for it. Speaker 2: Well, and I'll just and I and you and the other team members we have here dedicated good group of people and and we and the good news is you know you always get a little help from your friends and I have enough people I know in the financial world and certainly that will have you know and you might not agree with everything everybody says that's the that's America that allows you to have an opposite opinion but you know people often say look I I'm you know don't lock horns with me on financial history. This is an area that I know very well so you know if you want to get into it's different this time well that's a different topic but anyway. Thank you, buddy. I listen, I thank you and the other team members for what we've done with the show. Boy, that time went fast. I hope you had as much fun as I did during this segment of winning with one and make sure and tune in next week for another round of guests and interesting topics. And if you missed this, make sure and check us out on Spotify, YouTube, or go to our website, winning with one is dot com where there's a lot more information for you to follow. So good luck this next week. Look forward to seeing you then. Take care. Speaker 1: Yeah, thanks for having me.