Now your host Ken Brew on News Radio seven hundred w welw.
Yeah, all right, we.
Pay the guy. You might as well show up, right. He might have been out partying this week too, You never know. Welcome on in. It's this Saturday extravaganza. We are here till three o'clock. Yes, it is going to be near sixty degrees tomorrow, maybe not by that Bengals game, but certainly through the Bengals game. It's going to be you know, mid late upper fifties in late Jane, in late December, and then of course all hell breaks loose
again on Monday, the temperatures plummet. But nevertheless, savor this while you can. Welcome on. And we got a lot to get to between now and three o'clock. And one of the things I wanted to touch on because I was out and about last night after the show, I wanted to fill my car up with gas because it was run and low, and I noticed the price of gallon of gasoline around here, somewhere south of three dollars. It's like where I bought it. It was, I believe
two seventy eight. There are places, according to gasbuddy dot com, in places like Middletown, up in Sydney, in that area, down around the Louisville area, there are places, within the sound of my voice, well, you can find gasoline hovering just above two dollars a gallon, two dollars and seven, two dollars and eight cents. You got to know where to go. Go to gas buddy. They'll tell you exactly
where they are. But those prices are out there. And President Trump, when he campaigned last year and when he was inaugurated earlier this year, he said his goal was to drill, baby, drill again and get gas prices down to two dollars a gallon. And so not just in local places around here in the greater Cincinnati area, but if you go to let's say Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, you will find gas prices hovering around two dollars a gallon, Missouri, Tennessee,
South Dakota. Now, okay, we're not anywhere near there, But as I said, there are places around here where you can find similar pricing, particularly if you're out on the road on I seventy one, I seventy five, coming home perhaps from a lot of revelry during the Christmas break. When do we get close to two dollars a gallon, I mean all over, when do we get close? Standing by is somebody who thinks he knows it's gonna be great talking to RT. Travino from Peko's Country Energy. You've
seen the TV show Land Man. I believe that the chief character in Land Man, that Tommy whatever his name is, the Billy Bob Thornton character. I believe he was based off RT. Travino. I'm going to try and confirm this right now when we get Urt on the horn, But I believe that there was some sort of partnership. Maybe he was shadowing RT or something like that. I don't know why. I want to get to the bottom of that. And when we get to two dollars a gallon of
gasoline right here all over the tri State. So let's bring him on in from Peko's Country Energy standing by and flashing euphemistically, speaking of course online one is our buddy, ARTI Travino. How are you on this glorious Saturday.
Oh my gosh, I'm doing very well.
Marry Christmas is very Christmas to.
You and everyone out there, and think you always with wonderful introdiction.
Now, is it true that you're the character on Landman, the Tommy, the guy that Billy Bob Thornton plays. Is it true that he actually spent time with you down there in the premium basis to understand what the oil industry is all about? Can you confirm that?
I cannot confirm that when they cannot confirm.
But man, what an action packed show.
That is what it is. I mean, we're like four episodes into the new season. It's unbelievable. It seems like all hell breaks loose down there in oil country. They keep saying, this is a tough business. This is a tough business. People are getting shot, people are dying on heart attacks, They're getting blown up on oil rigs. Now there's some sort of crap in the air, some sort of gas that's killing people. Is it really like that down there in the permium basin?
You know, I will say this safety is number one in the real life oil and.
Gas industry, and that H two S gas.
Yes, that is a major risk and extremely dangerous, so that they did definitely get right.
It's so dangerous.
That you can't even smell it, and that's why it is so dangerous.
So is that all over the place down there literally when you go out on the field in the morning, and I mean very early in the morning, like at three or four o'clock, do you have to take make a gas mask with you to survive?
Well, that gas is usually coming up out of the ground. There's pockets of it as are either drilling or after we've drilled, and then that's how that gas comes out of out of there and all of the take batteries and with the oil itself.
Wow, man, I can't I can't imagine it. RT. I mean, you are really one of the real crusaders down there. Now, let me ask you about this. I'm reading this on gas Buddy, the nation's average gas A price of a gallon of gasoline has fallen about six cents over the last week. Fourth straight week the national average price of gasoline has declined. I don't know what it's like down by you. Up here in the greater Cincinnati area, we're
still paying close to three dollars. It's like two seventy five to eighty two eighty five in some places out away from the downtown area here, there's reports on gas Buddy of gasoline being sold for two dollars and seven two dollars and eight. I'm just wondering, is this in an or do you sense like you told us the last time you were on that we're eventually going to get to two dollars a gallon?
It is it is creeping closer to two dollars a gallon. As you mentioned, the national average is now below two ninety nine, and just like in Ohio, here.
In the great State of Texas, we are seeing those lower.
Prices, and even diesel is.
Now below three dollars a gallon, and we will continue to see that, just especially during the rest of this holiday, but probably going to at least the first quarter of twenty twenty six.
Our nation has once again, you know.
The number one producer in the world, and with all of the refineries already being switched over to the winter blends, all refineries are back at full capacity of what they're producing. And as we continue to have the drill Baby, drill mantra from this president, we will continue to see these.
Lower gas prices. Just as an American, I'm.
Proud of it because we're really getting that US economy back into action with these lower prices.
Right now, Well, let me ask you about that, because there's something called the Energy Information Administration the EIA. Are you familiar with that?
The EIA, Yes, very familiar with the EI al right.
So they've got numbers out now that show that at the time Trump was inaugurated, the US had five hundred and eighty two oil and national and natural gas rigs in operation, but in August of this past year, the number dropped to five thirty eight. So why are the number of rigs going down if we're drill baby, drill.
Well right now.
The number of rigs that are going down is obviously obviously due to the fact that we are producing so much oil right now, and also to the fact that oil and gas rigs are getting more and more efficient. Can For example, when we used to drill a well that might be ten thousand feet straight down and then ten thousand feet horizontally, we're now drilling these wells ten thousand.
Feet down and maybe thirty thousand feet or bowing.
And then that's a little bit of a deggeration. But we're drilling now four mile laterals into the ground, and so these wells are producing even more oil. So basically, what used to take three or four wells to drill without doing.
It in two now you raised an interesting point just a few minutes ago. It's not just what you and I pay at the pump, it's also diesel. Diesel moves this country. The trucks that carry the goods and services to the stores around here like Kroger and various other places. It's trucks like that that bring the food to the store. And if their diesel prices are down, chances are the
prices on those goods and services will go down. To Diesel is almost, if not more important than what you and I pay at the pump.
Right. Oh. Absolutely.
First of all, anybody out there that is just driving a big ring today, I want to say thank you very much for can you continue hard work in service to this country. But yes, no, diesel is very key to everything going on.
And what I.
Understand, a lot of big truck operators and owners really like prices to be up a little bit more just so that they're able to maintain a better cash flow for their individuals, and actually it provides better service for the for the customer to honors.
Okay, okay, so that's good. That's good. Now let's talk about Venezuela. We got a blockade down there. As you well know, and we've been seizing oil tankers, blown up drug boats along the way. But the fact of the matter is we've got them blockaded down there, and we're going on these ghost tankers and seizing them and the oil they're carrying the places like China and other places where we don't necessarily do business with. There are rigs,
there are drills down there. They're obviously oil down there in the hills and valleys of Venezuela that were left behind by major oil companies who are either forced out by the Venezuelan government Hugo Chavez and now his successor Maduro, or they just turned everything over and got the hell out. And Trump wants to go in there and he wants to get those assets back and seize those things. So if there's any oil coming out of there, it's controlled
by the United States. Is that is that tension down there? Is that driving prices up? Or have they not affected anything yet at the pump?
Well, right now, those prices actually are effect.
Excuse me, that action.
Down there does affect the price of oil.
And it does it like this.
If you ever follow any of my information on the crude true substack or another Goodwin of energynewsbeat dot com. We have been talking what we call the dark fleet for about six years now, and that is tankers across the world that go across that sale and.
The seas with oil that is not registered.
So basically we have oil going across the globe that's not part of the actual supply count. Which guess what that means that in some ways our supply is lower because we have more oil that's being sold than what is accounted for now. The reason for the sanctions is basically, you know, Venezuela is not playing nice and they need
to get back in check. And I just want to say on a side note that I want everybody to take a look at Venezuela as a pure exampleful of what communism truly does to a great country.
Like that in less than thirty years.
And went from a thriving tourist destination to basically everybody is now poor except for the president of that country. But there's so much more to unpack your cans. So it all started out with US blowing up by US, I mean our US military up these drug boats and ken there is absolutely nothing this has absolutely nothing.
To do with the drug boats. What is going on right now, is that there is a true.
Russia and Chinese present presence, a heavy presence in Venezuela, and that is what needs to be removed.
Believe we're not moving a.
Fleet of shifts over to the Caribbean for drug boats. And this all has to go back to the Monroe doctrine, which states of the United States controls our hemisphere and the British control There's and so on and so forth. And so with Chinese Chinese presence there in South America, we really need to get our backyard cleaned up.
So why are we blowing up drug boats? That the real issue is oil.
The real exactly the real issue is oil.
And so I'm sure that there's the planned attack or plan is to try to get them to stop sooner than later somehow.
All right, So I was always told, I think you were the one that told me initially that Venezuelan oil, the stuff that comes out of the ground in Venezuela is quote unquote dirty oil. That is not really good oil. It's just oil. Now is that because it's not refined properly? Or is it just bad stuff and not as good stuff as we have underneath our feet here.
That's correct, It's just not as good as what we have here.
It's funny we do have when we talk about the sleep Texas tea and the Sweet Texas crude oil, it does come out of the ground a lot cleaner than other places around the world, and so when we do that, it actually is.
Refined a lot smoother.
However, here in America we do not have the capacity at refineries to actually refine all.
Of our oil that we produce.
So so play this out a little bit. Our tea. So the Venezuela thing is is down there and it's percolating. If it becomes a full fledged hot zone and we start shooting shells in and missiles and whatnot into Venezuela and then well hell breaks loose and who knows what happens. But let's just let's just talk about this. If Venezuela kind of stays the way it is and we're doing other things to get the Russian and China influence out of there, do we get to two dollars a gallon?
And if so, how soon? I mean, I'm just I'm just trying to figure out with you know, oil and for that matter, anything else that's a traded commodity the stock market, but oil especially, which is so dependent on world and geopolitical politics. I'm just wondering, is it a realistic thing to say two dollars a gallons for everybody by the summer.
We'll see I don't know if the summertime. It might be sooner than that, and it might be back up by the summertime. You know, some some people are predicting that we'll be at sixty dollars oil.
Prices here by summer.
With two means that we'd be above two dollars for sure, But to the.
Others they saying that we may be even lower than fifty five. So I think if we actually had an opportunity to see two dollars gasoline prices here in America again, it would be in the first quarter of twenty twenty six, right, were the second or third?
So so WTI, which is West Texas Intermediate, you know West Texas Crewed, it was at fifty eight dollars and forty cents a barrel when the market's closed right before Christmas. So I mean, we're we're under sixty right now, right.
That is correct, and I do expect it to stay there. So companies like us and Excellent are doing what we can to be as efficient as we can with our lease operating expenses so we can continue to get profits.
To our shareholders and in our investers all the time.
All right, RT for Banio Peko's Country Energy. Here is the big question. Are you ready for the big question that you're going to get in this interview?
Come on, bring it out, ken Head and.
Brew number one.
That that that well that rig that we got down there that was just spitting out oil like it was hitting Jed Clamping in the face in West Virginia. I'm just wondering, how is that? How is that doing right now?
You know, I'm glad you asked. Kim Brew number one is doing excellent. We had to go down hole and do some work to it a couple of weeks ago. But you know what, that will has been staying steady and it declined and so we had, like I said, go down hole and get some working.
It came right back up.
So kim Brew number one is doing well and is looking pretty Yeah.
That's kind of like me. I went. I was steady there for a while, then I went in decline and they had a drill deeper into me, and all of a sudden, I'm back in my feet. Now, how many gallons a day are we getting out of that? How many? How many gallons of war? Would you say? How many barrels of oil are we getting out everyday?
Oh?
My gosh, we're somewhere probably around about a hundred barrel of the day.
KI at fifty eight dollars a barrel, Yes, sir, Okay, why am I going to see a check up here? Rtie? You got my address?
Oh?
I need to get to my Joe.
Wait, wait, we got a communication break down here.
Our teacher radio Pinkoa's Country Energy. He knows all, seesell and can tell you anything you want about oil and natural gas. Rt You have a happy new year, and you know you and I are gonna be talking when we get into twenty twenty six. Thank you.
I'll look forward to it.
Thank you, Kennedy. Everybody out there having successful twenty twenty six.
Man, send that check up here. Well it's doing great. Okay, where's my money? No, I'm on gas buddy right now, Lewis Center, Ohio. Not quite sure where that is, but two dollars and five cents a gallon that was reported two minutes ago, Union City two dollars and seven cents, Sydney two dollars and seven cents, Sheets two dollars and seven cents. All up in Sydney Franklin are reporting two dollars and seven cents a gallon. So it looks like in that area of the world, it's it's doing pretty
danged well. Now as we get closer here to Cincinnati and northern Kentucky, it's certainly it's it's a lot higher. But one would think that if it's that way in other places, and if there are other states where it is just above two dollars again, and it's got to be coming here. But again, you know, we go into Venezuela and all hell breaks loose down there and then there's a completely different story, and we'll see what OPEK does because they always react to whatever we do. So
but it is trending that way. It is trending that way again. I'm getting that off gasbuddy dot com easy to access, and that was RT. Travino, who is one of the best in the oil and gas business. We're coming up on twelve twenty five. It's Saturday afternoon on seven hundred w l W. Hey now twelve thirty nine on this Saturday, good afternoon, seven hundred w LW. I am Ken Brow A lot to get to on the show today. Northern Kentucky schools have benefited atially with money
from Billy Joel. Yeah, that Billy Joel. Anyway, we're going to talk about that and how all that money wound up with so many arts programs in the Northern Kentucky school districts. Brian Diardo, cbssports dot com. What nuked the Bengals this season? Is it too really simple to say
that it was all Joe Burrow's injury? I think it is. Anyway, we'll get into that as we look ahead to the Bengals in the Arizona Diamond Arizona Arizona Cardinals tomorrow at Paykhorse Stadium, and then a few other twists and turns along the way. You know, I mentioned that it was twelve thirty nine, but as you and I both know, it's five o'clock somewhere. There's one for you, one for me. Well, that's just the way it is. Now we're moving past
college football or into like the winter months. We still have college football today because out in is it Arizona? Yeah, the Snoop Dog Bowl. It's the Miami RedHawks against Fresno State. That's at four point thirty. Snoop Dogg's got his own bowl. Well, Barstool Sports had their own bowl game right at one point. I think all you got to do is probably put up like maybe one hundred and fifty two hundred grand and you could get your own bowl game. They would
name it after you. That's how how desperate they are for money. See, these bowl games exist by and large for programming on ESPN. So ESPN puts up the money, then they get a sponsor to put up some more money, and then all of a sudden, you get these teams can fly here there and play these bowl games that with each passing year become less significant. Everybody is wrapped up in the college football playoff because that determines who
the national champion is. So if you're not in the playoff, then you're basically just playing out games or one extra game this year. I don't mean to diminish it. I watched some of these bowl games. Watch the terrific one last night that New Mexico was involved with with Minnesota was wonderful. It's an exciting game. But by and large, these games, these bowl games, have lost their significance for
a couple of reasons. One, there is the College Football Playoff, and two, a lot of the players, the bigger name players on these teams don't always participate. Some skip just to get ready for the NFL, and some are in what's known now is the transfer portal going to other schools. You can do that obviously in college football, and other schools will offer infinitely more money with nil payments, among
other things to the bigger names on these teams. For example, the University of Cincinnati is going to play in the Liberty Bowl, They're not going to have their best player on offense. Their quarterback, Brendon Soorsby is in the portal. He's going somewhere and for significant money. I've heard four five million dollars. The possibility of him going back to Indiana he was there before Signetti took over as head coach, or maybe going to Texas Tech. That's that's another rumor.
And a lot of these teams that play they don't have they're stellar. They're stellar performers. Now sometimes it's fun to watch, you'll be able to see what a team will look like next year or the year after for whatever reason, when younger players play. But the luster has left a lot of this. And so when we've got Penn State and Clemson, what are they in the it's the It's it's the pin Stripe Bowl, right because they
play at Yankee Stadium. But of course you have to have a sponsor, the bad Boy Movers pin Stripe Bowl, all right. You know they never have a bowl game called the Broken Water Main Bowl or the Sewage Treatment Bowl. Never have those cons of bowls. Anyway, Penn State leads Clemson three nothing after one halftime, pit seven Eastern Carolina three, and then you've got Yukon and Army and Georgia Tech and BYU and then Miami and Fresno and it goes on into the evening. So I mean, if you're into it,
if you're watching it, God bless you. I'll watch it if it's on, but I ain't running in my television set to see the bad Boy Movers Pinstripe Bowl. Oh, we have NFL football today. We have the Texans at the Chargers. Texans are ten and five, and yes they are playoff bound and the Chargers are eleven and four, and they are too. Baltimore desperately needs a win right now tonight against Green Bay. They're playing the Packers in
Wisconsin tonight. Down to the final couple of weeks in the NFL, and there are still a number of playoff spots that are still in play. Let's just just line it up for you. The Broncos are in, the Patriots are in Jacksonville's in. Steelers are fighting with the Ravens to try and get that AFC Nord championship. And that's what's at Bay right now. Houston is right now in the in the seventh slot at ten and five. The first wild card are the Chargers. They're eleven and four.
I shouldn't have gotten ahead of myself. The Texans aren't in yet. They're ten and five, so they still need to win. And on the other side of the equation in the NFC Conference Seahawks in, Bears in, Eagles in the last is the NFC South and it's Carolina at eight and seven, battling with a Tampa team that is in a free fall. They're seven and eight. They play next week, but both teams would stand to do well if they won today or tomorrow. In the case of
the NFC, South Rams are in. They've qualified as a wild card right now, but wait and see, there's still a fight for that division title with Seattle. The Packers are barely in at nine to five and one, Vikings eliminated, Lions eliminated, Cowboys eliminated, and every other team except Tampa and Carolina have been eliminated. So there's a lot going on that can transpire beginning tonight in the National Football League, So all of that is in play. The Bengals play
the Arizona Cardinals tomorrow. The Cardinals are not good. I mean, it's just they're just not good. The Cardinals are three and twelve, They've lost seven in a row. They're just a team. They've lost Kyler Murray for the year. They were even kind of a little bit of a suspect team going into the season. Their best player is their tight end Trey McBride. He's making big money. He's caught ten touchdown passes this year, one hundred and nine total receptions,
and uh, you know, the guy's not happy. I wouldn't be happy. The team has lost seven in a row and you're getting slapped upside the head with a skillet. It seems like every week, here's mc here's McBride. I don't think this, No, I feel like we're right there.
We just got to play better as a team collectively, offense, defense, special teams. We're not playing, you know, complimentary football at all. We gotta we gotta play as a team, and we're not right now. But no, there's no concern. I have full faith in our team.
Bengals, of course eliminated. Uh So, the hot topic this week was like Christmas gifts, and what Joe Burrow got is offensive line. By the way, it was fossils. He's he's in the fossils now, so all the offensive i'man't got fossils. Some of those are pretty cool, like mastodon skulls and things like that. And of course the topic with him is always as toe. It feels good.
Certainly, not as mobile as I have been in the past, but mobile enough to make a couple of plays every game. Certain we're not going to make a living doing it right now, but I've been able to be effective in spots.
There's seven point favorite, bet a seven point favorite tomorrow. Some houses have them at seven and a half. We'll be on the air previewing the game beginning at nine am tomorrow at the Holy Grail. But you know what part of the season we've entered, the draft season? Right now we can start talking about the draft. And Mike Renner from CBS Sports on my show last Sunday and we talked about the draft, and I asked him, Okay, for the moment, you're the Bengals day facto general manager,
where do you start during the draft season? How do you begin rebuilding a defense that, quite frankly, even with what has happened in the last couple of weeks, has just been awful this year. Here's what he had to say.
I think defensive tackle.
I think getting a real impact guy there to make the linebackers look better, secondary look better. If you can rush the passer, you know, ideally you want edge help too, But you've used first rounders there to the last three years, so it'd be hard to say, let's go address that again in the first round. But defensive tackles where it's like, Okay, if we've invested some draft apital, not a whole lot, we have some that they're kind of aging out.
I think that's where one.
Certified dude would really make this whole defense look a lot better and probably where I would look first to address.
Yeah, they've tried, right, I mean Chris Jenkins, they tried with him, McKinley Jackson, they brought bj Hilliback, but that has been a chronic problem for them. They also need edge rusher who knows if Joseph Osaiah is coming back. And Trey Hendrickson I think confirmed at least in the in the the Browns family's mind that you don't invest
in players heavily after they turn thirty. Whether that's right or wrong, that theory for them, I think has been certified with what happened this year with the Trey Hendrickson. But ken, if you've got an I at edge that's available when you pick, and right now you have them picking top ten in this upcoming draft, what an edge guy trump an interior guy. Even if the edge guy is a little bit of a reach.
I don't think so. I think I still look at her.
But out in this class specifically, there are going to be more edge gaps, and then this class actually there's a lot of what I call edge hybrids. There's a lot of guys who are edge players in college, but they're like two hundred and seventy five two and eighty five pounds that in the NFL that's the defensive tackle nowadays, so a lot and they sometimes moonlight there, whether it's Ruben Bain from Miami, whether it's Keldric Fall from Auburn,
that those guys could be NFL dps. And I don't think anyone bad and I given their body types, so that would be an interesting thought for them. Is a guy who could kind of do both, who could really bridge that gap, and especially with the way defensive fronts are going in the NFL, you want flexibility from those guys. Shamar Stewart kind of has a little bit of that. I don't think Boles Murphy does, but like that's an addition that you can get all three of them on
the field. Then at that point, all three of those former first hunres.
You know, like anything in life, in football, you never stop paying for a mistake. And they paid for a very long time to try and find an answer to Andrew Whitworth, whom they let go, and we saw what happened after they let him go. Jesse Bates. They have tried to figure out a way to replace Jesse Bates when it would have been just more prudent to hang on to Jesse Bates right now. And you're mock draft and I know these things are fluid and we're still
months away from the draft. But you have the Bengals picking ninth overall in round one, and you have Caleb Downs, the great safety from Ohio State. And I don't emphasize the words a great enough when we talk about this guy. He is. He is the real deal. If Caleb Downs falls to the Bengals and they are indeed picking ninth overall, to me, that's a no brainer. Is it a no brainer to you?
I think it's pretty much a no brainer.
The only way again I by change that is if the either addressed safety and free agency or if you know, a different need position falls to them and something that you didn't expect. But to me, he's a top ten pick sort of safety. Those don't come around every year. Probably last one was Kyle Hamilton, and he even did go top ten, even though I could call him top ten pick.
But like those guys, you know it when you.
See it, and a lot of Bengals fans probably familiar with Ohio State as well. It's like he has transformed that defense since he transferred from Alabama. Is ability to just cover grounds, tackle, be reliable. It's like all the things we lament this sangle secondary for not being able to do.
He is that guy, Mike.
Renner that was a week ago on Sunday Morning Sports Talk. But it's a long way away. Everything changes, as you well know. But they got to change the way they do business. They got to change. The Bengals need to change the way they do business. And free agency, they can't bottom feed on free agents that are you know, the good ones go on Day one and two. You've got to get in there and you've got to get impact players on that defense, particularly in the front seven
or the whatever it may be. Linebacker, defensive line. That's where you've got to get the impact player. They need an LB linebacker one. They need a guy that they thought they had in Logan Wilson. They need somebody like that far too young. Roll the dice on the young guys. Young guys getting better, but they roll the dice. It didn't work. And then in the secondary they gotta fix They got to fix safety. So anyway, a lot of time to chew on that between now and the draft.
But that was Mike Renner about a week ago. All right, straight ahead, Are you cheating financially on your significant other? Believe it or not. A lot of people are, and a lot of people that are fall into one specific age group. We'll do a deep dive into that. It's Saturday afternoon that you and me seven hundred w WELW.
Now your host Ken Brew on news radio seven hundred WLWE.
Oh, the excitement is building. Well, I think it is. I don't know. Maybe not for you, but it is for me. We're back talking to each other. This is wonderful on this Saturday afternoon, after Christmas and right before the first of the year. A lot going on in the world, lot going on in the world of sports, and a lot going on apparently in and around you and your finances. I don't know. I don't make judgments,
so I don't do anything like that. What happens inside your house and how you discuss it and how you resolve it is you between whomever you're talking and resolving. But I do know this. There was a company called Mortar Research Mortar Mortar Research, and they lined up about two thousand thousand people and guess what they found out
about nine to ten. More than ninety percent of gen Zers, people aged eighteen to twenty eight say they have argued with their partner about finances, and that is up significantly where it occurs on other age groups, not saving them up enough money, spending too much on non essentials. This age group was found to be the most likely of all generations surveyed to keep financial secrets from their partner.
Forty five percent admitted it forty five percent. And that lead me to It led me to wonder, do you keep financial secrets from your wife, your spouse, your significant other, whomever it went may be. Do you have a hidden account, you know, one of those little go to places when you've got to go to it to get what you want to get. Seems to me there are a lot of people like that, male and female, And I'm just wondering, why,
why does it have to be that way? Are you doing something the farious or you know, maybe just you know, you want to have a little time out with the fellaws or the gals, and you don't want anybody to know about it, least of all someone that you're partnering with. Yes, is your honey, hiding money, because apparently that is the second most common reason why marriages end financial and financial secrets, arguing about money or hiding money. What's number one? You
got to ask that? Come on now? Anyway, Apparently it's going on through all generations, not just gen Z, but most frequently with gen Z. So what's going on here and why is this a problem? And is there a way around the problem? I think there might be, and there's got to be some red flags when it is going on that maybe the one partner could say, hey, wait a minute, now, what's going on here? Maybe we should talk about this.
Thing.
Standing by is Steve Cotton. I've had Steve on the
show before. He is president of Cotton Wealth Management Associates, and he's had a terrific career, it spanned more than forty eight years, and I wanted to get him on the show today to talk a little bit about this because maybe we can all make a resolution as we head into the new year that we can actually attain and that is more open communication and more less deception, which then would think would keep more partnerships or marriages or whatever is going on inside your house more intact
and happier. How about that for a project. Hey, let's bring them in. Steve Cotton, how are you on this glorious Saturday?
Hey, I am doing great.
Hello to all my friends in Cincinnati.
I love it. Now. Did your honey ever hide money from you?
Steve?
Well, I'm gonna have to. I'm gonna have to say that classified information.
It's sure.
I will not say anything that may incriminate me.
I've been married before and divorced, and I'm married to the woman of my dreams now, so we have none of those kinds of issues.
Good good.
But I think where gen.
Z is concerned, I think there can.
Be lots of different reasons why gen Zers and people you know, eighteen to twenty eight might be a little less forthcoming about their financial activities.
You know.
One reason sometimes is that in a couple, both parties want to maintain some semblance of some kind of independence. And that's not bad in and of itself. You know, sometimes that gets colored if one partner is extremely controlling, and you know, instead of a team team partnership, it's more of a dominating kind of thing. Sometimes people will react by hiding things for that reason. Sometimes you've got
people who are mismatched. You've got a saber and a spender, and the saber wants to be more frugal and the spender just spends money freely without any discipline, and that creates tension in the relationship and can often cause one partner to do things a little differently and high things. But I'm with you, Ken, I think keeping taker's, certainly in a marriage, financial secrets especially, is not a good thing.
It's not a good practice, and I recommend something very different from my clients and friends.
Yeah, you know, the thing is you have to obviously know what you're doing and who you're going to do it with when you go into a marriage. But I don't want to say it's a generational thing. I'm not sure that's completely fair. But it does seem to me that people marry later in life now than they did maybe when I got married, maybe when you got married, And because of that, they build up some sort of
wealth themselves. They have a career, they have money, and then all of a sudden they come together and instead of dumping all that money into one pool, they're very protective of the money that they came into the relationship with, and it wasn't that way all those years ago, those many many years ago when I first got married, And
I'm guessing it's changed over the course of time. But I think, Steve, it's really something that just came to the forefront here with gen Z and I think that's more has to do with why it's this way than I think anything else. And am I wrong or is that just some anecdote that I believe in that's not true.
I think there's a lot of that.
But I also think it's you know, with people that are eighteen to twenty eight, they may not have had that much experience yet working as a financial teammate with a partner. So some of it may just be a lack of experience, some of it may be extreme caution. You know, when I'm counseling young professionals that just get married, one of the things that I recommend is that they continue to keep their investments, their retirement funds separate that day.
But in terms of bank account activity, he should have his own accounts, she should have her own account, and then they should have a joint account for joint expenses, like if they're living together, they have a house. If they're legitimate joint expenses, they should share in underwriting those. But that both people in a relationship, whether it's day strait doesn't matter. Both people in a relationship should have a small account that they don't have to account to
anybody for. And if they want to buy Chump the Chip cookies or comic books or you know, a jet ski, well that's kind of expensive.
But if they want to you know, get their hair done.
Or go play golf, did not have to account to their partner for every time they spend. They need their own accounts, but they also need a team account.
You know, in a bad old day years ago, it was probably thought of, well, if you're doing that, you're expecting the marriage to fail. And that's a way of protecting yourself. And it may be a residual of what you're talking about, but it just sounds like what you're talking about is good business.
Well it is. I saw a situation.
I had a client one.
Time who she was the saverer and her husband was a spend thrift, and he wanted her to put all of their money in one account and there were going to be no constraints, and he also wanted her to pay off you know, an eighty thousand dollars worth the death that he had and she had credit card debt, and so I counseled caution on this kind of situation where there are lots of fact, there's lots of variables, and where people have two distinctly different spending patent patterns
and habits. You know, people in a relationship have to be prudent and they have to be protective of themselves and the money they saved.
But you see these situations.
Sometimes when you have two different people with two different, radically different sets of spending values and habits.
Eighteen twenty eight is the gen Z group, and again the sort of I said around nine to ten about ninety one percent say they have argued with their partner about finances, compared to seventy six across all age groups. I think those numbers are low. I'm sure, if not an argument, serious discussions have occurred within every marriage about finances at some time or another. But one of the things I did see Steve this week that I was
encouraged by bankrate dot com. I released a survey and of the outlook of they have for twenty twenty six, and one of the things that was in that survey was that one of the financial goals for all age groups, but particularly for gen Z is to buy down debt, just pay off debt. And I think one of the things that a lot of people, particularly the younger folks, get into, is this spiral of debt that just absolutely sinks them financially and in turn probably sinks their marriage.
So I'm encouraged by that. If people really are past kicking debt down the road and want to buy down debt and get rid of it, or least most of it, I think much of what you and I are talking about right here probably goes away.
Well.
I think that's right. I think that is a wonderful objective. I recommend that highly to the people that I counsel, because, and you know, we're swimming upstream a little bit. We're swimming in a culture that is by now instant gratification, don't wait, don't say if you want to now, get it now, and that runs contrary to good prudent fiscal management.
And the credit card companies take advantage of this. I call them financial vampires, because if you're an hour or a day late in making your credit card payment on time, they will jack you up automatically with their algorithms into a penalty rate, a penalty interest rate two to twenty nine percent. It's absurd, And under the law they do not have to lower your rate until you've made at least six months of long time payment, So they count
on people being late. They want people to carry huge balances because they make a killing when they can jack you up into a penalty rate and you're carrying a big balance. So if you know best practice is to limit your credit card spending, pay off that balance every month in full, and do it on time, and then I guarantee you they will hate you.
Well, too bad for them, right. Steve Cotton's our guest. He's president of Cottonwealth Management Associates. And we're talking about financial infidelity among couples, among people that are in a relationship or a marriage together. You know, we talk about the solutions. What are the red flags? I mean, how would you know in a relationship if there is some sort of financial infidelity going on?
I think if you discover your partner has accounts that you were in a aware of, if you discover your partner is squirreling money away, you know, you get a paycheck of X, and yet you know only why seems to get deposited in a joint account. If your partner suddenly starts, you know, suddenly has a lot of new clothes or lots of toys, or is you know, coming up with excuses why they can't spend money on joint purposes, and yet they don't seem to have any restraints on
their personal spending on themselves. Those are all red flags. I'm a big advocate ken of being honest and transparent in a marriage or really in a relationship. If you've got two people who've been dating a while and they're very close and they are committed to each other, transparency is always good. Now there's an asterisk on that if one is a big saver and one is a big spender. The big spender isn't really always going to want to tell his partner at all he went out and spent
some more money. But I'm a big believer in and you don't have to get pre clearance on the tiny expenditures, but on the major expenditures you should always talk to your partner and get there buy in because you want to operate as a financial team. You're no longer on an island by yourself. Hey, financial visions, especially on big things, will impact your partner, and you need your partner to be a teammate, not a victim.
Right, everybody on the same page, no question about it. I can't let you go without asking you this twenty twenty six. I see a lot of mixed reports as to what twenty twenty six is going to look like from personal wealth point of view, and certainly from how this country will do as a whole. In twenty twenty six.
We know the big beautiful bill kicks in and that will be I think a financial boom to a lot of different areas of the world, not the least of which is those that wait on tables, those in the food service industry, things like that. But I also know that we're not just a US economy. We're a world economy, and if somebody, for example, burps in South Africa, the repercussions are felt all over the world. So I'm just
wondering what your outlook is for twenty twenty six. Is it robust, is it bust or is it something in between?
No, I am cautiously very optimistic about next year, and I'll tell you fly I was in Washington and working on Capitol Hill in nineteen eighty through nineteen eighty six during the eight years of the Reagan administration, and I watched him cut taxes, I watched him rebuild the defense budget. I watched him trim regulations, and that led to the longest peacetime economic expansion in US history that went all
the way into the Clinton years. I will tell you with what Trump is doing to reduce trade barriers to our companies, to reduce tariffs on our goods and services, to attract eighteen trillion dollars of new foreign investment into the United States. What he's done with no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, you pay no interest if you buy a car it's a US made car, and a six thousand dollars tax credit for people on Social Security.
You put all of this together and his de regulatory efforts, what he is doing is one hundred times bigger than what Ronald Reagan ever did.
Well. I am optimistic. Now.
Market volatility is normal, it's healthy, but I think this economy is going to be poised for expansion. And you've also got the FED rolling interest rates, which will pull win into those wings. So I am very very cautious, but very bullish about twenty twenty six and beyond.
Love to hear that, Steve Cotton. He is with Cotton WMA that stands for Wealth Management Associates COTTONWMA dot com. Steve, it's always good to hear your voice. Merry Christmas to you and yours and for your time today. We appreciate it. Thank you so much.
Thank you, God bless everybody. I'm simple.
Love to hear that. Absolutely love to hear that. Thank you, Steve. Yeah, it's like anything else in any other relationship. If there's no communication, chances are there are going to be problems on a number of different levels. So people, can't we just all get along, particularly with somebody you allegedly love, Just be upfront about this stuff. Ninety one percent of gen zers say they have argued with their partner, and that same age group say they have kept financial secrets
from said partner. Of them said so. More to research, more than two thousand people surveyed Get Rid of the Stash one News Radio seven hundred wl W.
Now your host Ken Brew on news Radio seven hundred WLW.
Welcome back, two six two o seven, Maybe like two eleven but we're back, and that's all that matters is we're back. One big more hour to go and then Stirling comes in to create havoc on the world, but he'll solve all of those problems before he's done. So tomorrow the Patriots play at the Jets. The Jets are a thirteen and a half point underdog. They're starting a rookie quarterback, Brady Cook, who in the last eleven quarters has been sacked seventeen times, has thrown six interceptions, and
has fumbled the ball away three times. What a franchise And now this The Jets are taking heat for yanking an invitation to a fan who won the right to try the team's one hundred thousand dollars field goal challenge after they've found out the woman is a soccer coach. Oh yeah, season ticket holder too. Ashley Castagno Gervasi said that she could not participate in this, she was told because she coaches high school soccer. She said, this would be a life changing money for me. I was confident
I couldn't make it. I could make it. Why would they do they judge? So she's a soccer coach, so what she's a season ticket holder? One of the worst franchises in the National Football League traditionally, and that happened to be her purpose. It's not like she's a professional placekicker. Man, it's a twenty yard challenge. Okay, you got to kick the ball through the uprights from twenty yards away. I mean, it's a chip shot for any high school kicker. But
she's not a high school kicker. It's a soccer coach. You're kicking a soccer ball that high up, that close to words supposed to go, then you've got problems the Jets. The Bengals play the Cardinals tomorrow here at pay Corpse Stadium. They're five and ten, the Bengals are The Cardinals are worse. They're three and twelve. Nevertheless, that's their problem. The Bengals problem is rebuilding a defense and how do they go
about that in one off season? Standing by the way in on that topic is a guy I have on the show a lot. I like Brian Diardo. I think he's a terrific football writer. Writes for cbssports dot com. And I asked Brian to comby today, maybe tee this thing up and see what can be done in one off season to make all of this better, and he's flashing euphemistically speaking of course, on line one, Brian, how are you on this glorious Saturday.
Well, I'm doing well, Ken here. The last time we spoke, it was.
Sold with a lot more optimism now where I'm looking at mob draft.
So I gets that tells you where the Bengals season went until.
Right, there's preseason, this is the typical Bengals season. This preseason, this exhibition season. There's the regular season, and then of course there's the mock draft season. And that seems to be what beguns now to inch closer and closer into the other two. All right, let's just take this season. I think it would be too easy and too convenient to say that this season went south when Joe Burrow got hurt. Surely it was a huge factor in it.
But Joe Flacco came in and in several games games against the Steelers, against the Jets, against the Bears, he had quitted this team very well offensively. So Joe Burrow going down was big. Yeah, but I think it's too easy to say that that was the reason why this season went off the cliff, do you.
I think it's somewhere in the middle, I think going in and I think what you're alluding to is this was a flat team with or without Burrow, and I woleheartily agree. I think for me, the season was went downhill when Brown and Cake Brian came in and he and provide them the adequate play at backup quarterback that
they needed. And you know, when and three and those started, it was so bad that they had to figure out a way to get another quarterback and um announced everybody went and got Joe Flatto and kind of a shocking, you know, mid season trade. And to me, him not being ready to come in and go, I think it
was a surprise to everybody. And he was four and three, as you know and your listeners know, as a starter a few years ago when Burrow got hurt, and there was no reason to believe that he wouldn't be as effective this time. And he was so bad that it compelled Zach Taylor to bench him and try to save
the season with getting a forty year old quarterback. So, you know, to me, him not being able to come in right away and get a couple of wins, I mean, we're talking if they have two more wins right now, they're still in it. With the Steelers being where they are and the Ravens being where they are. To me, that right there was to me where the season ended.
That trade told me two things. It told me. Number one, Jake Browning's days, regardless of contract, that are probably over at the end of this season here in Cincinnati. And two that that group up there in Cleveland. This is remember this is week seven, This is the middle of October when this trade was made. That group up in Cleveland front off of staff. I think they know they're gone after this year, and they figure, well, what the hell, maybe we'll help someone out that might help us out
down the road. I know I can't prove that, but I mean that's the feeling I got.
Well, I think, I mean, Mike tom Win agrees with you this seasons. The coach basically said it when when asked about it. I mean, and he usually doesn't say controversial things are critical things of other teams, let alone teams in their division.
But I think no on really, it's been an enigma for them all year.
I mean, to draft Hylan Gabriel, then draft your Door Sanders right away, then trade Kenny Pickett, who was supposed to be your start before the season started, then trade Joe Flacca, who was your starter when the season started, and then basically gave up on Gabriel to no fault of the don after he gets injured. It's been it's been a catastrophe up there. Plus they still have Deshaun Watson under contract. He came back in practice. It's been.
It's been kind of a mess.
And I think that the crazy part about it is, I really do think Kevin Stefanski is a good coach, and I think a lot of Brown fans agree. I just think at some point, you know, the Rubbers got to meet the road, and for him, despite two coaches of the years, it really hasn't. They've had more losing seasons than winning seasons since he's been there. But yeah, it's been. It's been quite the mess up there. But that's you know, we probably had the same conversation five years.
Ago with them.
Okay, So here's the issue. I think that this defense was grossly overvalued. In the offseason, the decision was, let's change coaches, change the coaching staff a little bit, changed the coordinator. All things are going to be fine. They give up five hundred and twelve at Denver. They give a five hundred and two at home against the Jets five hundred and seventy six at home against the Chicago Bears. This is one of two things. I suppose it's loudly
drafting or lousy player development. It can't be anything else on defense.
Ken Well, it's also the negotiating with contracts Shamar Stewart, right, I mean, because you know he was supposed to. I think when you draft, and you know, when you draft the guy in the first round, he's supposed to be an impact player right away, you know, I think, I mean, at least that's that's to be. Like when I'm looking at mock drafts and who I'd like to draft, my thought as always, who can we get plug in here and he can make an impact immediately Jamar Chase right away, right,
rookie twenty one. And I think with Shamar with that weird clause in a contract that he wanted with guarantees that bled in, you know, bled into into training camp.
And again Angle fans.
Have to listen to an offseason or a summer or a training camp begin with contract arguments, right, And so they they didn't set themselves up well with him. And I'm not saying if he came in earlier he wouldn't have gotten injured and would have produced more, but it didn't help the situation.
But yeah, to your point as well, I.
Do think that there was some some maybe hope that they would or expectation that they would be better than they were. They clearly weren't. And then another issue too, was was Trey head. I mean, you bring him back again. That was another ugly contract situation and he's been hurt all year.
And so you have Miles You know, you.
Have Shamar Stewart who drafts first in the first round to produce get Stack Coles up.
He doesn't.
Trey Hendrickson, he re sign and mid again controversy with contract.
He has him pretty seater.
So you know, twenty four sacks. It's hard to win football game when you can't pressure the quarterback in Cincinnati struggle to do that all year.
I'm looking I'm just looking at what they do going forward, and Miles Murphy has played better in the last several weeks. I don't know why it took so long for the light bulb to go on over his head, but okay, you could look at it and say Miles Murphy on one side, maybe they go out and sign Joseph Asaig again and bring him back. On the other side, they have Shamar Stewart who can also come in there and be part of the of the rotation, if not the
starter at the right defensive end. But I'm looking at all levels of this defense that needs rebuilding. Defensive tackle mckin lee Jackson has not really lived up to what everybody thought he would be. I'm just looking at inside defensive line, inside safety, Gino Stone. I mean, there's got to be something done there. I guess my point in all of this is that you can't do what the Bengals need to do, I think, in one off season unless you're really fortunate in the draft and you really
overspend in the free agent market. They've got money, I mean, they've caught tap space galore here. I think it's over one hundred million. But you're not going to get better overnight if you conduct business the same way you have conducted business over the last twenty five thirty some would say forty years. You really have to have a change in philosophy here, don't you.
Yeah, right right? What you said at the end there is the Bengo. I believe they won't fix every hole. You're right, but giving the way for agency. Free agency works now in the league where teams can't keep go out of their rocks for a year and the year out. Given the drafty seven draft picks, including at this point ninth overall thick heading into the weekend, they have the ability to really turn this around in a year.
They really do.
And they have good as you alluded to Murphy, you know, Stuart. They've got young guys that Demetrius Knight. You know another guy, Jordan Battle. They have guys on defense that are ascending, you know, great players, and they got the time, They got the number one question mark solved with Joe Burrow and then you've got his receivers back right. How they can duct business right there? That's that's a million dollar question. It has this front office, Has this ownership.
Group learn from the mistakes of years past, and.
Do free agents want to give them the benefit of that doubt because they got to acquire like like Orland and Brown, for example, came to Cincinnati fresh off the Super Bowl because he wanted to play there one is, and they obviously wanted to he he got his wish to play left tackle.
But that just spoke to where they were at.
That point in their history, attracting free agents for the first time when they really weren't in the past.
Can they get back to that point?
And I believe they've really got to aggressively work to make some good signings, to show some debase. And I think the biggest thing, can it be more the site of the decision making? Don't drag these things out and will SHIMR. Stewart that it never should have gotten to that point. Krey Andrickson never should have gotten to that point. The Higgins never should have gotten to that point. I do believe they can turn it around. And there's FRA agents out there. I'll give you one easy right now,
get Kenneth Walker Seattle. Lets him go make you a nice power back guy. And they got bigger issues in running back. But just giving you an example, there's good phrases out there that they can get and it wouldn't cost them a lot of money. They have the money to do it. If you said, it comes down to that philosophical decision making that has to improve.
But again, they've got to change the way they've done business. I mean, it's just it can't be. You know, we're going to let free agency day one, day two pass this by and will bottom feet after that. I mean that that works to a degree. But all right, we're satting with Brian Diardo cbssports dot Com. We got Arizona and the Bengals and this this is a game involving teams that are going nowhere. A lot of players in this game are playing for tape, see if they can
get a job somehow somewhere or someplace else. I think the Cardinals are just I don't want to say that they're on the skids here, but they are. They've lost seven in a row and I'm not sure really what's left out there in Arizona. The Bengals look like they might be able to torch this defense. I mean, as bad as the Bengals defense has been, here are the Cardinals who have given up four hundred and fourteen yards so far this season. How do you see this playing out?
Because this should be by all intents and purposes, given the Bengals offense a route, what do you think?
Yeah?
And Vegas agrees, because the over at this game is high.
I think it's about fifty two and a half, so they're expected.
From scoring here.
I have looked at the weather yet for this game, but I don't know if it will necessarily be a factor.
But no, I expect the.
Bengals to win and continue to play the way they've played the last several weeks. I mean, really, since Joe's come back. The Ravens game game is really the only outlier there. Every other game, the offense is produced, and I really do believe even even in the Ravens game, this defense has continued to show signs of significant growth, and I think that's you know, there's been a lot of noise about Joe Burrows press conference in the last.
Couple of weeks.
I think the underlying thing there is disappointment in the fact that they're here.
Right because he knew the schedule. He knew the end of the schedule they.
Were going to have some some some some lower bottom feed are teams they could see stond uh. Because I do think that they're gonna win the last two games, get the seven and ten and then so I think that's the disappointment frame.
But I still don't win this game.
I means you said Arizona's I mean, they're they're coaches on the I don't know what's hotter than pot, but that's where their coach is. And I mean they started to and oh, they've won one game since.
They lost a ton of one possession games.
That's why I think you got to be careful if you're saying this is going to be a sure blowout, because again, Arizona does play a lot of one, one score games. But I think I just think with that, you know, with where they are with their defense and everything, and we're set the nice quarterback, but he's not mobile at all, and he'll throw the he'll he'll throw a lout pass, just like the Bengals. So I sent them
to continue to play well. And if there's one encouraging thing I've seen from the Bengals the last couple of weeks, they're still playing very hard. And I do think that there's something to be said about that. I mean, I heard a few Bengal fans stay to need the last couple of days.
Though I wish they would tank. I wish they would, and I wholeheartedly disagree with that.
I think it's important to play hard, it's important to put good, good tape out there, like you said, and I think the Bengal fan, you know, hey, a couple more chances to watch your team play, any chance to get any communy chance to watch Yo Burrow, I say, I think you should take it. So I think they'll lend it should be another exciting game and hoping to see more encouraging signs from that defense.
All right, there's one race that's left and it's in the NFC South and it's between Tampa and Carolina. Carolina's got Seattle at home this week, then they go to Tampa. Tampa is at Miami this week, and then they get Carolina back in their place. Carolina has got a one game edge. They're eight and seven, the Bank of the Buccaneers are seven and eight. How does that division play out? Who wins that division?
In your opinion, I'm going against everything that I believe and I'm gonna take Caro the Tampa Bay even though they are a fading team. I mean they really are, and Carolina is ascending, and so you would think it'd
be easy to go with Carolina. But I just like, I think Baker Mayfield's moxie if he's healthy, and what he can provide them on the field is kind of to me the X factor and I really like Bryce Young, but but there were at running team and if you can get them from behind, Bryce Young has to press and I think things can change for them. And the other thing, and this is the odd thing to me, can I can't understand. Maybe Pete Prisco could help me.
I'm not sure another other writer out there, but they their running game has not been very good lately, and.
That's you think of Carolina, you think ground and pound.
Marico Dowdell hasn't been very good lately. Another free agent the Bengals could could get after. I'm ad so they haven't really done that great lately. I would say for them they should turn to chewb be Hubbard the last couple of weeks of the season. He was replaced by Donald in the starting lineup this year. But but Donald, like I said, hasn't been as good. But I like Tampa Bay. I think for them, they've dealt with a myriad of injuries this year, just like most teams do,
and they haven't responded very well from it. But now Evan's back and godwe back, I think there's enough there for them to turn it around.
The last two games to win that division.
Well, we'll find out starting on Sunday. But for our time here, Brian, it's great catching up with you. I hope you have a merry Christmas. We probably won't talk again until the new year, so happy new year to you, and nothing but success in twenty twenty six And for your time today, we appreciate it. Thanks.
I would appreciate it too, Ken, thank you.
I know you do. I know you do. Betty, thank you. Currently, after the Christmas Day games, Bengals picked ninth overall in the twenty twenty sixth draft. That is subject to change, and hopefully they win tomorrow, and hopefully they went again next Sunday against the Browns and not only finish on a high note. Sure the draft pick would fall into the teams perhaps, but nevertheless, why do you play the games? You're right, you play the games to win. Two twenty seven News Radio seven hundred WYLW