fact. we have to have evidence-based factual, truthful information about what works and what doesn't. i didn't want to in front of those people say you don't know what you're talking about. >> and one other thing here. the president said things are working quite well at the border. we want to give him the same thing he had last year. if they're working well last year, it should work well this year. he shouldn't shut down the government. thank you, everybody. >> and leaders heading back to capitol hill. the president later today signing legislation, the iraq and syria genocide relief act. the leaders after friday, the house and senate approving a two-week extension of government funding, but the current legislation runs out on friday the 21st. mitch mcconnell the senate leader, has agreed to take up legislation dealing with criminal justice reform. also, the farm bill and other

issues. the senate coming back into session at 2:15 eastern over on c-span2, and the house debating bills this afternoon as well, and that is on c-span. here on c-span3, we'll take you back to the politico annual women rules summit and their discussion this morning or this afternoon, i should say, of women and wealth. live coverage here on c-span3. >> the stumbling block that we face quite erroneously for women in finance, is key, and so the exercise of going through it for anybody, and by the way, my billionaire clients are doing it. large endowments and foundations are trying to get comfortable in the area of crypto and block chain. the idea is let's enhance the chain, let's get everybody into it. let's have it developed in a way that is democratic, as it was supposed to be initially. and naturally, the way i think you establish this comfort level that allows you, especially as a

woman, to get this base level sense of confidence that then forces you into or allows you, that's not the right word, to be more involved and more confident, and you sort of have this circular thing that happens that allows you to be more invested and more in control. >> one of the things we talked about in the last hour, backstage, just women's propensity to take risks when investing. we all know women tend to save more than men. save more on a percentage basis in terms of paychecks but we're not necessarily taking the risks we should be diversifying in the way we should be. could you speak to that a little bit? and the ways in which women should be thinking about investing early rather than waiting. and maybe some of the factors that are preventing us from doing those things. >> sure. it's a very complicated question because i think there has always been, and let's talk about the

united states specifically, there has always been this sort of dichotomy between the discipline that women have for saving more versus the fact that men tend to be invested more in the market, more in risk assets, and make a larger return. and i think there are a whole lot of issues there. the first one is the one i mentioned. i think the industry is inadvertently made it uncomfortable and yucky for women to get involved. and it's just now that there's this huge business imperative around it. by business imperative, i mean i grew up in a world where i was the only woman around ever, as someone who worked in the industry. i had very, very few women clients. you know, and so now, what has happened is in the next 20 years in this country, basically 60% of the wealth is going to transition, both between generations and between men to

women largely. and so what has started to happen in the last five or six years, one of the things i use a lot is when you walk through times square in new york where i live, it is the combination of doing the right thing and doing the only thing. you walk by morgan stanley, and you see morgan stanley he for she. you walk by barclay's and you see the u.n. women's campaign. you walk by ubs and see firm of choice for women. this is because it has not escaped every wealth management firm's notice that either the firms are going to figure out how to deliver what women have clearly been asking for or they're not, and somebody else is. so we have gone from some of the nice touchy-feely stuff that happened in the industry in 2006, which was more human resources gain, when times are great, to this is a true business imperative that's going to affect corporations, balance

sheets, and stockholders. so that is what's bringing all this on. i think that we owe it to you as an industry to be there, to be respectful of your time, your treasury, and your talent, and you owe it to yourselves and your family and your daughters and in my case, my son, to demonstrate and set by example that we care. we're disciplined. we own our worth, and we do it before there's a necessity that puts us in that place. >> now, you talk a lot about just the fact that women necessarily can't have it all. we have a lot of time constraints. you have run your own businesses. you do philanthropic work. you have children who require attention. how have you managed all of those things yet been able to plan for the future, invest for the future, and help other women invest for the future? >> i take it a day at a time. i do plan ahead. after my husband and i sold our

company, i must add to that, i think that's maybe a story worth sharing, we were presented with many options on how to invest our funds. and i had no idea what these products were. so i did an online tutorial on fidelity.com. for a few weeks, and i still can't fully understand the difference between an atf and a mutual fund, but i think i'm definitely better off. i want to encourage you as an engineer and someone who has two engineering degrees, i wasn't prepared with the presentations that were the options i was presented. when it comes to trying to manage all, of course, all of us, whether we have children or taking care of parents or taking care of our -- or being in a relationship, it's always a lot more than just me.

and i think that's the essence of being a woman. that's why i hope that next year half of this room is filled with men as well. because they need to hear it. as i tell my son, he needs to be more of a feminist than my daughter is. when we try to do it all, after of course we take care of our kids, spouses, and our family members, and those personal obligations, i think planning our life, planning ahead, is definitely worth taking the effort. one of the first things, and i think it probably goes back to my personality trait of being slightly anxious and being a nervous nelly is after i had kids within six months, i had a complete guardianship and everything else lined up. which could be good or bad, because i think i spend more

time thinking about dying rather than living, but none the less, i'm prepared. as a result of that, they're prepared. have i been able to juggle and balance all of the balls that life has thrown at me and the hands that i have had? i'm not sure. all i know is that i have done my best on a daily basis. i think, again, taking it a day at a time, being prepared, the way i have always managed my anxiety level is preparation. making sure that if i walk into the room, whether i'm the only woman at the table and if you think being the only woman at the table is tough, add the accent factor to it, and definitely, it adds additional conflicts to this formula. preparation has definitely helped me. >> now, when we think about some

of the risk factors that exist as women planning for our future, you have built some wealth. you're investing it. you're trying to sort of think about a next step. how to help other women. the three of you are involved in various philanthropic pursuits. i wonder if we could talk a little bit about that and some of the work you're doing and the role that community plays as women lean on one another for advice and sort of the ways in which we could perhaps be doing more of that. i throw this out as a jump ball. >> the one thing i would say about that is what i realized in the last year or two years quis coincident with a lot of the movements in this country and outside is women are desperate for community. community is something that certainly on wall street or in venture capital or in something like block chain, that in a

certain sense, it was very hard to have because there were very few of us. we weren't always as open to each other as we could have been. i never even thought about it because it happened over a meeting or in a locker room or over drinks, so one of the things i try very hard to do both in my work and in my philanthropy, i'm on the board of an organization called girl rising, which is a global organization that -- got some thumbs up. almost wore the t-shirt, an organization that basically just tries to create cultural change through educating and valuing women more than, for example, a goat in india, which is one of the issues we deal with. but i think that there are so -- if you are authentically who you are in whatever industry you are, whether that's blockchain, whether that's media, whether that's your start-up, whether it's finance or venture capital, i think you create this sort of

wave. especially amongst women, and that can be additive to everything. so for example, one of the things i started with my clients and we were talking about it a little backstage is i combine a jeffersonian roundtable, where you take people that have some common goal, it could be a fi philanthropic goal, a business goal, and you have a dinner where you have one person speak at a time, and everybody answers the same question, with what i call an ask. what that means is every person at that table, and in my case, it is women, you have to come, and no matter whether you -- nobody knows who you are or you're the ceo of a public company, you have give all of your biographical information, all of your contact information. you have to have one sentence discreet ask. you do not come back to a dinner if your ask hasn't met and you haven't met someone else's ask. that could be as simple as i have extra office space. i need funding, to i would like someone else to join my

blockchain, to i say to people, i would like to meet other bad ass amazing women who can enhance the network i already have. but i think there's something about bringing everybody else up with you, whether it's through funding or through community, and doing it in a specific, transparent, tactical way. >> that's a great segue to one of the questions we just got from twitter. i think probably a good one for gazelle. the question from the finley box, is a minority woman founded company, we have noticed differences in how we're treated in comparison to other start-ups. women get treated differently than men when raising capital. how can we overcome this? >> we do get treated differently. and one thing that i have tried to do throughout my life is to block out the noise.

i would say answer them, turn it around, and at the end, tell them what you wanted to tell them. tell them why you're there. so one thing i have realized throughout is that and part of it is, if you listen to the podcast, i tend not to take myself too seriously, and as a result of that, i don't get offended that easily. if i do, and if there's a personal attack, i speak up. i speak up right there. but those little minor ups and downs that you come across, ignore it. if someone is asking you, even if they're slightly condescending, respond and then at the end, tell them what you wanted to tell them. don't give up. don't let your -- the cliche, i loved one of the shirts that another speaker was wearing, not cliche. don't let the fact that women are -- we take things personal

or we're sensitive or we have thin skin. don't let that get in the way of you acquiring what you deserve, whether it's funding, whether it's a raise, whether it's a job. whether i was telling rhonda earlier today that as a government contracting firm, my husband and i ran our own government contracting firm, we saw some injustice from one of our clients. and i took my folder down to the hill. i met and requested to meet with every congressman or woman and senator that we were a company, we're constituents of, and within a month, i was able to launch a congressional inquiry. i think that was amazing because what it proved was not that the

result was irrelevant. the fact that i had a voice, and the fact that i didn't give up until i was heard. and i think for most of us, that in and of itself is worth the progress, and it's worth taking the time and effort. so don't give up. >> that's fantastic advice. now, kristen, coming back to you. and thinking about you're a woman running a lobbying organization, an industry that is largely male dominated. how are you thinking about what's the task ahead as you lead this new organization, and what are some of the things you're going to be pushing for on the hill? >> yeah, so blockchain is just kind of to pick up on what you're saying, it's actually a very open and democratizing deck knowledge. if there's one message we want to get out to lawmakers, if we get the regulatory framework

right, we can, despite it's a male industry, break down a lot of the barriers because you don't need permission to participate in these networks or in these currencies. but a peer to peer exchange, and everyone can, you know, compete and participate on their merits. i think that's wonderful for women if they choose to engage. so we're trying to get out the message that this is the future, that it's much more than money, and that because it's so new, none of these tokens and these crypto currencies fit within existing regulatory structures well, so we have to get into the weeds and parse out where the regulatory oversight needs to be, and then we do believe if we get that right, that this will take off and it will grow. and hopefully we'll see a lot more woman entrepreneurs who are able to get their ideas launched, women who are able to earn extra income in their spare

time by participating in these networks without having to get a job someplace, and we'll have a lot more economic freedom that allows us to move around more freely. >> you have a big year ahead. >> yes, we do. >> years, i guess. so we only have a couple minutes left, so this is going to be a little bit of a lightning round. it's the end of the year, the time when a lot of us are thinking ahead about our own financial planning in the year ahead. and there are also a lot of concerns right now financially about the markets, a lot of economists predicting the possibility of a recession by 2020. and if we can just go down the row, starting with gazelle, one piece of advice you would give to the women in the room as they're thinking about planning for the future. >> reach out to people that are more proficient in finances than you are. whether it's ubs, they have invested in this amazing

company. if you're not following them on instagram or if you're not a client, look them up. and she is an amazing lady with fantastic information and tutorials on how you can become more financially independent. i would also say that as women in general, historically, we haven't really looked after each other very well, and we haven't been really kind to one another. we are seeing a change, and i'm glad that it's moving in a different direction. so ask for help and answer help. just keep that in mind. ask for help and offer help. you'll do fine. >> 30 seconds. you got this. >> that's usually what cnbc gives me. so, the first thing i would say is diversify. you know, we lived in basically

a ten-year bull market, longest bull market we have actually ever had in this country. volatility is back. it's here to stay, so whether it's a slow grind upward or you know or it's not, or we have a 2019 or 2020 recession, diversify. and just take whatever baby step you need to do in the new year to make yourself feel more confident about your finances. just one step, one foot in front of the other, and that's really all you can do. and it's an attainable goal. >> all right. and lastly, you're officially out of time. >> if you want to learn about crypto and blockchain, my favorite podcast is by a woman, laura shin. she has a podcast every week, and she has very good tutorials you can go back to. i would learn about crypto and blockchain because it's the future. >> what's the name of the

podcast? >> unchained. laura chin. >> awesome. we're officially over time. thank you guys so much. thank you to our panelists, and to our fantastic audience. and i think we have a lot of goals ahead for the future, for 2019. so best of luck with your financial empowerment. thank you. [ applause ] >> please direct your attention to the screen for a video featuring our next 2018 women of impact honoree. >> when you're trading, you have to do everything in microseconds. not only are you committing to your decision, but you have to be able to spot what's going to come before it comes. not a normal 9:00 to 5:00 job. the market can go up, it can go down. news could break. also the amount of money that is in that room. that would give any person anxiety, but it makes me excited. it makes me refreshed.

my name is lauren simmons and i'm an equity trader for block securities at the new york stock exchange. i'm 24 years old. >> the floor is made out of traders and specialists. specialists are all the men that sit on the outside of the panel. they're the ones that supply the liquidity to the floor. there's busy men on the floor, all wearing their jackets, their blazers, and i'm surrounded by men. it's different for me being a woman or a woman of color on the trading floor, and i would say no. if there is, i don't see it. i don't look at it. i believe the role is gender neutral. there is power in numbers. i think people can identify, you display a number on the board, people can connect with it. there's no middle gray ground. it's either black or it's white, and it's right there in your face. numbers don't lie.

my experience being in new york, i had zero connections. zero, i mean, my family, they aren't in finance. after working, i met a colleague, someone who works on the trading floor, and they introduced me to them, and the rest is history. it's important for everyone to invest. i mean, it creates generational wealth. it creates opportunities. it gives you the ability of a woman who just want their own piece of themselves. i think investing is a sure way to do that. you own that. you hold that power. you hold that control. everyone should be part of the game. and that doesn't necessarily mean being part of the stock market. there are other ways to invest your money. and your future as far as investing is limitless. so it's amazing. i look to inspire millennial

women. i get to inspire senior executive women. i get to inspire so many people that want to do something more with their lives. whatever that is. whether that is a clear move, whether it's graduating college, not sure of what their first job will be. you know, for me, i have a mindset that i want to achieve great things and make my mom happy. and if i can do that, then i will have achieved the world for me and my family. >> we will now take a short break. please use this time to shop at the marketplace, stop by the lounge, and connect with one another. the program will resume shortly. >> live coverage of the women rules summit should resume in