How to Build Real Wealth From Nothing (The System a $600M Manager Actually Uses)

Today's guest went from watching his mother raise him on $9 an hour to managing nearly $600 million in assets.

His name is Wes Rollins, and what he is going to share with you today is not a get rich quick story. It is a blueprint for understanding the three phases every dollar has to pass through before it becomes real wealth. Let's unlock it. Today we got Wes Rollins with us. I just want to say welcome to the show. I'm excited to get into this. I know for the viewers that are listening, we're talking about wealth management today and the portfolio you created from being.

“I think it was from the bottom to the top, so I'm excited to get into your story and actually even get into maybe where the markets are today and what people can do.”

So Wes, welcome. Hey, thank you, brother. It's an honor to be here, man. Yeah, I'm down to go down whatever roads you want. So I'm ready for the rock and roll ride, buddy. I love it. I love it. So just so we're all everyone listening. We're on the same page. You're running your toes a little bit about kind of who you are and like a little bit how you got to where you are today.

I think you said you're doing almost over $600 million under management.

That's no joke there. So where do you go from to even get into that point?

“Yeah, so I think how I normally kick these things off is I won the ovarian lottery, like Warren Buffett says. So my mother is best human on the planet.”

My dad left when I was four years old and left my mother to raise me on $9 an hour. And somehow she was able to pull it off. I still literally to this day have no idea how she was able to pull that off. Give me all the gifts from a social perspective that I could have ever asked for when we when I was 11. We were we gotten another eviction notice from our apartment. So it prompted me to go work and as the universe, you know, gifted me a blessing. I worked at a local country club like on the rich side of town because every other business would not hire me because I was too young.

I knocked on literally every single business store that I could. The golf club was the only one that would take me on. And the number one rule of being a caddy was do not speak unless spoken to. So again, another blessing. So I just got to sit there and absorb all of these conversations. That's where I got planet into my head of getting to Wall Street investing and so on. So I kept up that pattern. I worked literally all throughout grade school, high school and college and eventually got to Wall Street and then then moved on and helped build a firm and now I own a firm.

One of three partners and we currently manage about almost 600 million dollars. The markets have been down last couple weeks. So, you know, it fluctuates, but yeah, that's roughly the story.

So as you were talking and you're mentioning basically how hard working your mom was, seven, six, seven dollars an hour.

“I mean, I think back to my my mom doing the same thing, but what really hit me was I could I could hear it in your conviction and your voice was like, how did she do it?”

And right away, I was thinking about my mom and I was thinking, how did how do they do it? So this isn't part of the show, but just for all the moms out there, I just want to say we salute you. Thank you for giving us the power and the vision and doing the hard work so we can live the live we live to all the great mothers out there. Amen. Back to back to West over here. So West, I know you have a firm where you, you know, we talked about $600 million, you know, under management. Where where do that start? Tell us a little bit about that. Yeah, so I've only done finance professionally for like my my professional career. So since the age of 18.

And the long short of it is I was able to get to the stock exchange, get to Wall Street, et cetera, et cetera. And then I had another great blessing and mentor reach out to me and said, hey, you know, if you come out here at California and help me build my book of business. I'll allow you to build your clientele as well. And that was all I needed because on Wall Street, I was doing institutional finance and I loved it, but I wasn't 100% in fact to it with it. And the reason I got into finance was because of my story, right? Like, how can I actually impact families? So the corny phrase, I know it sounds like this, but it's what I actually believe is I want to change my family tree and help others do the same.

Yeah, when you do that institutional level, there's you're just several standard deviations away from that sort of nucleus. So the writing was on the wall is okay. I got this blessing from the universe again. Let's take it and run with it. And it was an amazing journey. So that gentleman, his name was Dave. He's absolutely phenomenal.

And it just needed fresh pair of eyes. So anyway, it was a really good deal for me. And then to put it in perspective, start building our both for a books of business and then create another company and then create another company after that.

So now there's adequate wealth partners that's almost a holding company for several other companies and they all roll all roll up into about $600 million. And to put it in perspective.

Same thing I learned in cattying. If you just learn and absorb things and then just apply the things that you learn as easy as it and simple as it sounds.

“It's literally that simple. So last year we brought in, I think it was like close to $80 million. So you go from like $1 million to $80 million of new money.”

And don't get me wrong. I am not. I am only responsible maybe for like 2% of any of the success that I have. And I mean that for all of us.

If you think about where we are born, the fact that we are whatever race and gender and height and all of these things that contribute to all of our success. All we have to do is just do the last 2%.

“I mean that's sincerely none of my success is owed to me at all. I'm the minority impact maker on my success. But I do think that's an important message for everybody here. I also do think it's an obligation to fully maximize that 2%.”

That last comment. It is an obligation. It's your duty. I don't know what is like 1 billion chance or something like that, right? Of being even born.

And then you have a duty. No matter what background you come from, you have a duty to represent that 2% with all the forces of life. I really really really like that because it just changes the perspective of how you show up every day. And it makes it and you kind of take it off you and you make it to the bigger force. Like this isn't even about you. This is my duty to to why I'm here. So I really do like that and it seems like this was a driven factor for you from like from the get go. And I can tell in your voice when you're talking about not just being, you know, honoring that 2% but leaving the corporate world right and trying to help be closer to helping more families never have to go deal with what your mom did or what my mom had to go through.

What, what was it that there's always, there's always something that changes. There's like the thing that goes you just said from like, you know, a 1 billion to 80 million in a year. Like what was going on or what was that change that happened where all of a sudden you just caught fire and everything just started working everything started working smooth or an easier.

“So it was actually a psychological change because there was a time where it was just really tough. So just so everybody has textures is not like a sob story.”

But so when I moved out to California, I put everything I had back into the business like everything. I slept on it. I was lucky enough. I actually live with Dave for a little while. But then after that, I felt like a burden. So it was like, I don't want to do this like, you know, I need to, you know, I need to get on my own. So I slept on the floor. I rented a room that was maybe like eight by eight. And I had four other housemates in there. And I rented the smallest room. So it was the smallest amount of rent. And I literally slept on the floor for it. It goes like three or four years and I just wanted it to go down in history of I'm either going to fail knowing that I went all chips on the table.

Or I'm going to be successful. I did not want a failure. And it's like, oh, but I just casually did it. So literally, dude, I bought chicken on sale, chicken breast on sale every month at this place called Sprouts in Southern California. When it would go on sale, it was on sale for I forget what it was like $1/20 a pound. So I buy 180 pounds of chicken per month. So that way I saved money on my protein. And I would buy a 50 pound bag of rice and a 25 pound of black beans that you can get for like 50 pounds of rice.

You can get I feel it was at the time like 15 bucks maybe and your and your beans. It was like the same ratio. That fed me my calories for minimum and entire month minimum. So my cost per meal was I forget what it was the time like 24 cents per meal. Wow. So I just wanted zero excuses. My car was a piece of shit car. Sorry, I don't know if you're a lot of cursing on here, but yeah, it's all good.

So be sweating my face off to go and consult for a company out there on their finances, etc. Anyway, I'm not saying that as oh West is trying to brag or look for any sympathy notes like.

“Whoever is on the journey of success, that at least in my opinion is oftentimes what is required. And however long you're thinking it's going to take at least for me it took 10 times longer.”

So how long are you willing to suffer for what you want. That's going to be a quote right there how long are you willing to suffer for what you truly want. It goes to the code I'll never forget this when I was when I first started in commission sales like first career job anything out of school and real life. By the that time my mentor said to me cave on what are you willing to do in the next three to five years the most people won't in order to live a life that most people will never have. And he would just say that to me every single day.

And what you just said is it's it's the testament of that you know and people just always think there's some such thing as overnight success. No such thing you just haven't seen all the beats up like the tear downs and the losses and the long nights and even even getting a little bit of success then losing a little success then losing little success. And it's and I love it it's it's tenacity and it's whoever stays the longest in the game is going to win that's for sure. No doubt about it duration man and it's and it's it's interesting because it seems like and I and because I talked to a lot of entrepreneurs and it seems like a lot of business owners lot of entrepreneurs they have the same story like they have this thing which I call in in my assessment that we we do for our company is called the athlete DNA.

And it and it's this it's this grit it's this competitive drive it's chip on the shoulder and the most important one is they hate to lose more than they love to win no doubt about it.

“I'm 100% in that category. Yeah, I could tell I could tell you you kind of said it and you went all in so here's something it's not the podcast but I think it's really important is.”

Why why are people so afraid to go all in? I see it every day like they have this idea they have these dreams they have these aspirations they want to live more they but they have every excuse in the world except the all in button they're afraid to just burn it all down to build what they actually truly want. Why hypothesis would be that it's actually the inverse to me why on earth would we go all in when we have immediate comfort like it's a very rare breed who says yeah you know I could have this comfortable lifestyle.

But I could risk it all and maybe not have my comfortable lifestyle nor the big grandiose vision. So I see it as like yeah we got to be kind of crazy which is the prerequisite in my opinion the prerequisite for big things happening is having any enormous vision to make it so appealing that it's a no brainer I'm going to get through all of the crap because I know it's worth it. So for me it was that commitment to change my family tree every dude literally every single obstacle I encounter as corny as it sounds I ask myself is this going to give me closer to change my family tree for the better yes or no there is no binary it's a yes I'm sorry there's no there's no spectrum here it is a yes or no it's a binary question if the answer is yes I do it 100% of the time.

“I love man you're talking my language truly everything you're saying I'm I'm just absorbing because.”

What a great question to ask yourself is this helping me change my family tree yes or no. I don't way to anchor also into the vision because you know what you don't want see this is problem that I see a lot of business owners they they don't even know what they don't want. You don't need to know necessary what you do want but you got to be so damn clear on what you don't want and that's what I always kind of what driven me was I'm not sure where I'm going to go I don't know what the next thing is I don't see I don't I don't have vision like that sometimes but the one thing that I do know is I don't want X.

And then your case is like I don't want to repeat that family that family tree I don't want to repeat but like the legacy of what was I'm starting my new legacy so I and again everyone has to have an anchor and it seems like that's your anchor. Yeah there was a client who just told me about the Japanese word or phrase.

And I totally forget what it was but it's basically it's a concept of breaking the cycle.

I simply look at it okay well what did you think changing your family tree would be like.

So when you zoom out as I get of course I mean do our ancestors would probably have to travel across 3000 miles of mixed terrain to help put their families in a better position. So then when I think that's like well what I'm doing is not that hard is it uncomfortable sure but it beats trying to you know, traverse the whole United States to get to California you know six generations ago. You know perspective perspective perspective I think I it's so easy I feel like when we're when you're winning and when you kind of get through it it's easy and I just because I can nice feel people listening to like oh yeah but you don't get my story oh yeah but the whole yeah but and it's and I know it's easy for guys like you and I talk about that and talk about how easy you know or how much.

Life is when you do the trucking through the through all the terrain and you finally get to the destination things start working but don't fool for a second that you never get there without the pain like you will not like it if you expected to be easy it you'll never get to greatness and I and I don't like saying this but I'll say it right I want another quote I just love someone said this me like so true poor people live an easy life and that's why their life is hard.

“healthy people live a hard life and that's why their life is easy.”

Yep no doubt about it so let's talk about the markets a little bit here because this is your expertise and I know I know.

You're you can't talk too much about it because you're you know legally buying to information and whatnot but I just there's so much happening in the world right now there's so much going on with the markets right now. Any advice but any any thoughts of what people can be thinking about at least the next three six even couple years if they're sitting there worried about the turmoil worried about the wars worried I mean big. It's a scary time if you really look at what's going on the world it's a pretty scary time I'm not trying to do fear mongering or anything but like you know rational like if you look at it with even is logically it's a pretty scary time right now.

“So I think a couple frameworks to sort of get out of the way number one what I like to think I teach is financial leadership so you have to decide on do you want to be a financial leader for you or your family.”

If the answer is no then you're probably just gambling you know you're probably going to be blown according to whatever wins of the time or whatever your friend tells you to invest in or whatever right.

But as you and I both know well if you step into the leadership role where you have to make decisions for other human beings will now that raises the game.

To an exponential level okay now I got to treat this stuff seriously and I have to have conviction about my next moves this is entirely different this is so different. And then the buddy who shows up on poker and I said oh yeah I invested an XYZ stock and it went up by 80% it's like yeah you put 25 dollars in the stock congratulations in what up by 80% you know the reason you need to put all your bank account into that stock is because you did not have conviction on it. You like telling the story of the percentage of growth because it's cold to tell stories among buddies and that's fun but when you're leading a family or leading a business it's like I can't play around with my capital.

I've got to put in things that I have conviction on okay that's that's the decision tree part number one the are you going to be a financial leader or you're just going to be a casual kind of player when you want to be. I just want to speak to the financial leaders okay now for the financial leaders let's decision tree it out even from there. Are you going to be a primarily.

“An owner a lender a spender or a saver well we're still high level here but primarily that word is important primarily are going to be an owner a lender a spender or a saver you are going to be all four of those most likely.”

But what is your tip of the spear what are you primarily. Now obviously a spender is not going to build their wealth if the primarily spender you're not going to build much wealth. If you're a saver to be honest with you you're not going to build much wealth why because money just represents purchasing power and money gets diluted over time via inflation. So unless you're a trust fund baby you inherit a bunch of capital and you can sustain the decay over time and you're still wealthy that's probably not any of us on this call and any of us listening right.

So now we have two more left.

A lender can feel okay because it's kind of short term stable. I'm going to lend my money to the bank.

“Right, I'm going to get a CD. I'm going to get I'm going to buy some bonds etc. That's okay, but if you're primarily doing that what could be the problem of that.”

Well number one if your personal inflation's at 6% I don't care about CPI care about your personal inflation because it's your personal money. If your personal inflation's at 6% and you're lending your money via bonds at 345% you're losing purchasing power. This is quite obvious now you still in my opinion should have that or everybody should do whatever their advisor says but for me. I was still going to have some of that for short terms stability in case I need in case the market takes a dive etc.

But I want to be primarily an owner if you look at any of the people that we admire who built their wealth. Not one single time have I said oh I want to be like that guy or girl because they were just really good at lending their money.

No it's always these people have built and or owned the things that are generated there money.

Okay, so I love it. I mean this is great stuff owner lender spender saver. Let's talk about the let's break this down a little bit like so when you're talking about owner business owner of their capital like owner you know an owner I would think is the guy was being in the financial leader first. In nominal question so now if we look at the owner category we can now break that into several sub categories owner okay well there's two types of assets stone. There's speculative assets and then there's something called productive assets and I didn't make these up Warren Buffet talks about these a lot and other value investors talk about a lot.

speculative assets on the one side is where you buy low and sell high.

“At least that's the goal it's the only way in which I can make money is if I sell something for a higher price in which I bought it now this sounds amazing, but what's the problem it's incredibly hard to do to put it in perspective.”

I know personally and I can't name the certain types of assets that are in vogue right now, but you could probably imagine the ones that are in vogue right all about hey my cousin bought this coin at xy and dollars and now it's dramatically above that. Here I can tell you I do not know anybody who's done that and built substantial wealth. You may know but I don't know of them and I've been working in finance for 20 years you would think that I would have come across at least two of them. I know zero of them now I do know some people who've made some money.

But that important part is like some money because I also think people dramatically underestimate how much money it actually takes to reach financial escape velocity.

“Wow, okay, let's love it, love it, love it. Financial escape velocity. Massive. I think that I would I would assume anybody listening this podcast is trying to achieve that you're not in business if you're not trying to achieve that.”

What is financial escape velocity? I mean when I think about what number is that today and then what's that number in a hundred years from now because those are two different numbers with inflation so yeah let's talk back. So back in the napkin math it's going to be relatively similar for most people and it's going to be slightly different from most people. So financial escape velocity as I define it is at what point will my portfolio assets. Generate me enough income net in perpetuity for me to survive and ideally increase maintain or increase my lifestyles we go along that number plus having what I call mode money.

So between two and five years of expenses in short and medium term assets so that way if my long term assets dip temporarily I have a whole war chest of short medium term assets that I could live off of in the meantime.

Yeah, again let's break that down because I I'm going to go like got that but just a case someone's not understanding that is basically I'm going to just tell me if this is correct or not.

You're going to take them you're going to look at your lifestyle and you're going to ask the question how much more do I want how much more do I need and you're going to go what what money what amount of money or that's called purchasing power do I need to be able to sustain that lifestyle. A minimum I love what you said for three to five but I would think you know almost ideally for the rest of your life being where you are in your life cycle. And that that asset is continuously producing income to support your lifestyle and ideally building as well because you do not want to start hitting that principle because that's where people start losing their shirt.

Exactly so if we look at where let's let's pretend I was retired now full transparency I don't want to ever retire that's just not my DNA.

And still grow while simultaneously paying for my expenses yeah now that's the first prerequisite however I like to add a buffer to that which is okay, but what if my long term assets are down what if we have a 2008 or a COVID or etc. I don't really want to be removing my long term assets during those volatile times in fact I'd rather let my dividends and my rental income and my business distributions reinvest when prices drop so I can build up more density and take advantage of pricing opportunities.

But where am I going to live off that point okay while I go over to my two to five years of capital that are not in long term assets those are in short medium term assets super short term stable from a volatility perspective but they don't grow very much over the long term. So I only have I want to get scalpel level precision with that bucket of money because if I over index on it, well now I'm giving up longer term growth and inflation's a real killer of money like to agree that most people they kind of understand the concept but they don't really grasp the magnitude of how much inflation can just murder your money over time.

“Especially if it's not growing oh my god like especially if you don't have a growing so it's interesting because you just said that the the spender is definitely not going to get there.”

The saver is not necessarily going to get there and I because I always live my life with this you know you save a penny blah blah blah you know it's like now a penny saved is literally a penny at the end of the day you're just saving it you cannot grow saving pennies. If you want to go big and you don't have generational wealth you got to go and you're not going to save your I don't care and but you're not going to save yourself into wealth like making cub on a grand a year with inflation like you got to go in and go hard and then have that money start working for you.

And that's the that's the I think that's the owner the owner concept is like on even understanding as a financial leader and owner like yeah you might take some hints and you might make some wrong moves but again are you are you going to stay in the game long enough to get back up and keep moving.

This is where that distinction between speculative assets and productive assets is super important so if we if we backtrack a little bit and say okay speculative assets well.

“If the only way in which I can make money is if the price gets higher and I sell it at the right time because the price could always drop after it reaches a peak well that's a really hard game like really hard game.”

But if I go on the other side and I have more of a productive asset philosophy which a productive asset high level is okay does the asset itself produce cash and ideally cash flow to the investor and then to what degree does it do it. So I'd rather do that I'd rather buy assets where there'd be private business public companies or real estate that produce income for me because at the core there's a value exchange. The way you make money in an economy is you produce value at a fair margin the way you multiply that money is in my opinion just by investing in value creation so make money by creating value grow the money by investing in value creation.

The new clease of both of those is fair money exchange for value created.

Now in a productive asset you put them all on a buffet and you say okay well here's all of the here all the productive assets that I could invest in right now. Which one do I think is the best as simple as the sounds most people just don't do that. They just don't look at all the universe of investments that they could invest in and then select what they think is the best when Warren Buffett was interviewed one time it was phenomenal.

They said hey Warren how do you get so good in investing he said well I would study moody's manuals and read other books etc.

And the interviewer was like well moody's manuals I mean those are thousands of pages back in the day and they said well how did you simplify it and where did you start he said well I started from the letter A.

“And then I read it all and it's like oh that's what do diligence looks like but most people don't do it.”

They just don't if we're all being honest with ourselves most was do not do proper do diligence. Well in this company I would do that do the do diligence that you can lean on and trust on. Man I think there's so much like I'm just sitting here going wow if anyone listen to that and you're wondering what you got even business owners that are listening to this. You got to make that decision are you going to be that financial leader and decide if you want to be the owner the lender the spend of the saver for those are a spenders let's say because we live in this world of spending right.

Basically making another spending move that's going to get them away from their their wealth you know well that wealth that escape velocity let's call that right.

“And to keep them more focused on that and what I mean specifically I just is.”

I used to myself I don't do the same work as a god me in trouble I used to we can throw the wrong advice right I don't have an income problem I said I don't have an expense problem I have an income problem. I just got to make more income well you know what happens you keep spending more and you keep spending more you keep telling yourself you only have an income problem you just keep spending where that didn't work for me obviously I've had to change that that way of being. But for those people that just don't understand that concept like what do you what do you say.

First framework that I would offer up is putting yourself on a rubric we have a scorecard that we give to clients and we say okay let's find out where the problem in your wealth building protocol is.

We break it down really simply wealth building is not investing investing is a component of wealth money. So if we if we zoom out it's okay well how do is one actually build wealth number one make money number two save money number three grow money that's how you build wealth there's a three macro pieces you need to do.

“And then each one of those breaks down a certain sub categories so if we look at making money most of the time that's where the problem is.”

From what I've seen boots on the ground most of the time it's like oh no you don't have an investment problem you have an earnings problem and that's okay. If we've checked that box to your point the next problem we have is very likely saving very likely okay well I'd much rather have somebody who makes a million dollars a year with a saving problem meaning he just spends too much. Then the opposite or the inverse the guy who makes 10 grand a year and saves 99% of it but he only makes 10 career it is way harder like way harder to make a lot of money than it is to solve for a spending issue.

Yeah, okay well I love that it's good to know and I hear you because I we just talked about the beginning like you can't you can't invest 10 grand and expected to become something. But I got that's making a million two million a year and spending half of that right your money there to be saved as money there still be enjoyed there's money to be there saved and there's money to be there to invest and grow. It goes when you said that it where goes to to a comment I used to say was like very little people don't have to make it almost even very little know how to keep it and almost nobody knows how to like you know the 1.001% knows how to invest it and there's those three things even if they know how to invest it can they can they stick to the plan for three decades.

“Yeah, most people can't do it very hard but for the people who do man the rewards are amazing well that's what you I'm going to say it that's what happens when you get generational wealth.”

Like I was talking to someone the other day and they were like and it was like a mentor mind and the way he said I was like oh my god they're like hey when you don't realize you're not the what you're unfortunate not going to be the one the live the life like the one you want right now he's like but your kids. If you do it smart are going to live the life that you've been trying to live and I and I and I got like it was he was kind of talking about that that idea that. That generational wealth it takes a little time to create and build and as long as your kids don't like it up you can grow right what do they say is it the second generation or third generation fucks it all up for something.

First generation it's a second yeah builds it and then the third just messes it all up.

Yeah yeah it's something like that like the first generation builds it the next generation enjoys it the third person the third generation destroys it something like that. I've seen it I don't I I've seen a couple times interesting or not like I've hung out with and I'm talking hundreds and 200 million or you know generational wealth types of kids and they're on the third round and and sure enough like and I see that are like the fighting that goes on the protection that goes on it's great you know the bankers have been there for for 30 years trying to you know help grow it and kids want to spend it becomes an absolute nightmare what a nightmare.

And also on the flip side what an honor it is for us to grow up at the bottom because I can tell you that's been one of the biggest blessings in my life. If I didn't have that pain to contrast my actions with I wouldn't take the actions. If you're born into wealth it's I feel bad for those people literally it because it is so hard to take action when you were like oh well life is great what why would I eat your subconscious right why would I take any action if I literally don't have to.

It's so so binary the decision is easy yeah I agree I totally agree I I see it all time as much as as much as there's two pains there's pain everywhere there's pain on each side of the coin.

“And if what what's the pain that's going to grow you drive you move you and what's the pain that's going to.”

Hold you down pin you down paralyzed you and it might feel good but there there's pain that happens deep within I man I just want to say that this is a great conversation as we come to a close here I can tell people I feel it people are like how do I get like you you obviously you know what you're talking about you're an expert in your craft here how can people get a hold of you.

Yeah I mean so I'm on we just started but I'm on YouTube now West Rollins and then same thing with Instagram and then my company's website you know my contact information is on there.

“It's such an honor man talked to you I wanted to spend a lot of time in private for the last 15 years plus of just building so that way finally felt like I had something to say.”

And sharing my battle stories and showing the scars hopefully will be able to get some people to avoid those problems and then also maybe to even inspire people.

So it's just such an honor because this is literally my first sort of round of getting out there on the internet so I appreciate the support.

I'm happy to have you man from what you're saying I'll tell you people need to hear you there's there's a young generation that I can tell you earlier should say early investors that need to hear everything you're saying and reach out because you know there it's not by fluke that you go from zero to 600 million dollars under management. And for those that are not watching and listening and we're talking to a very young man over here this is not going to mention his name as the story is age or anything but I can tell you that like this is young guy who has a lot of hustle and so make sure if you're even thinking about wealth management.

Go to the show not go look at at West reach out to him. I'm sure you'd love to have a conversation. Thank you brother is an honor and pleasure buddy. Appreciate it.