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You. We hear a lot these days about the sandwich

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generation, adult children caring for

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aging parents. But what if you are aging

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and you don't have children to come and. Check on you and

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care for you? My guest on Hay Boomer

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today is Dr. Sarah south geber,

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and she's an expert in aging, and in fact, she's written a

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book specifically for solo agers called

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essential Retirement Planning for Solo Agers.

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In this episode, we ask some really important questions,

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things like who will be there to help you if you can't care

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for yourself? Who could speak on your

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behalf if you are unable to speak for yourself?

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And who is capable of making decisions for you that

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you may be unable to make for yourself at that point?

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These and many other important questions are

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discussed in this episode of hey,

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Boomer. My name is Wendy Green,

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and I will be your host.

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You.

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Hello, hey Boomer listeners.

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It's another Monday. It's another hey Boomer, and I'm so glad that

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all of you are here with us. I have some important questions

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for you. Do you have a will your power of

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attorneys defined? You've got your medical directive in order?

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Have you started withdrawing from Social Security or

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from your retirement savings account?

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Have you made plans for your long

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term care? How you'd want to be cared for, where you'd want to be cared

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for? And have you had this discussion with your children

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or your spouse or your partner or your family?

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What if you don't have children or a spouse or a

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partner to talk this over with? Who's going to care for

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you if and when you need it? These are

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really difficult conversations to have in

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the best of times and when we have that

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family support that we feel we can depend on.

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But if you're a solo ager, these questions can become

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even trickier. Hi, Anne. So I'm glad

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that you all are joining us today for this important conversation.

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And the truth is, these questions that we're going to

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discuss today, they do apply in some ways

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differently for solo agers, but they also apply to all of

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us and they are important questions for all of us to think about.

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Before we get started today, I did want to thank a

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couple of our sponsors for

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the Hay Boomer Forest bathing event that's taking place on May the fourth.

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I wanted to thank DJ. Benson and Associates.

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They are a safety and security consultancy

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specializing in threat assessment,

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management and mitigation,

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workplace violence prevention and intervention training,

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organizational and personal security assessments.

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And their motto is securing souls

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one client at a time.

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If you would like to get in touch with my friend

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Dave Benson from DJ. Benson and Associates,

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you can email him at dave@securingsoles.com.

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Our other sponsor for today is Shell Mendelssohn.

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And Shell says many people with ADHD struggle

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And I can tell you that Shell is very passionate about the work that

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she does.

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Speaking about forest bathing.

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Doris, David, Scott, Beth,

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Gail, Kathy, Rob, Bunny and Lillian are all

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joining me on May 4 for forest bathing.

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And they're joining Angie Steagall, who is our forest bathing

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guide. That means there are just five spots

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left, and I posted the

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link to register for forest bathing in the chat

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on both Facebook and LinkedIn. So you can go

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right now and sign up while there's still a

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few spaces left. It's going to be a wonderful

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way to ease out of our COVID isolation, make some

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new friends, and relax into nature.

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I hope you'll join me. It's really going to be a special event,

Speaker:

and I would love to get you all to join

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the email list so that you can get our Monday morning announcements

Speaker:

and you can get access to the blog posts

Speaker:

that I write or the guest blog posts that we have. There are

Speaker:

two ways to get on the email list. You can drop me a quick email

Speaker:

to my account at wendy at heyboomer biz.

Speaker:

Or you can go to the Facebook page and subscribe

Speaker:

to the blog post. It's that simple. And then you'll be

Speaker:

in the know with everything that hey Boomer is doing.

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And with that, I'm going to bring on our guest

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today, sarah Zeff Gepper.

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Hi, Sarah. Hi, Wendy. So nice

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to have you. I really appreciate you joining me on the show today.

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Oh, I'm happy to be here. Now I just want to know more about forest

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bathing. I know, it's so cool.

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It's like this little meaningful three hour excursion

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into the woods. Mindfulness. Very cool.

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Yeah. Sounds very good. Yeah. So let me take

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a moment and tell people about you, Sarah.

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Dr. Sarah Zekebber. She is a 2018

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recipient of the Influencers in Aging designation by PBS

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Next Avenue. She's an author,

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a certified retirement coach, and a professional speaker on

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retirement and aging. Sarah has developed a

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niche specialty which we're going to talk about today about

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solo agers people who have no children or

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who are aging alone.

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Sarah is the author of The Essential Retirement

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Planning for Solo Agers a Retirement

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and Aging Roadmap for Single and Childless Adults.

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I read this book. I've marked it up. There's lots of worksheets in

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here. I am not a solo ager, but I

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found it incredibly useful.

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And with her speaking and writing, sarah has

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been raising awareness of solo agers for the past ten

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years. She believes that solo agers have a unique

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need in later life. That warrants greater foresight

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and a more robust approach to planning.

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And Sarah is married, but she still considers herself a solo ager

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because she doesn't have children. She has a puppy,

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and she and her husband live in Santa Rosa,

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California. Is there anything I left out,

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Sarah, that you'd like to add? That's pretty complete. Thank you.

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You are welcome. So before we jump right into

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all the things that we need to be thinking about, can you tell me kind

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of your career trajectory and how you got from

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where you started to your emphasis on solo aging?

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Sure. Let's get a little bit circuitous.

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I was for 25 years a management consultant,

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organizational consulting, team building, that kind of thing.

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Wonderful career. I enjoyed it a lot. It morphed

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into more executive and management coaching than anything

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else. And there was a time about,

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I don't know, twelve years ago, when I found myself

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coaching a lot of baby boomers, which I'm obviously a baby boomer

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too. And so I was coaching people who were my contemporaries,

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and they started wanting to talk more about their retirement

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plans than their strategic plans.

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So I found myself doing a lot of coaching

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with regard to what they were going to do next in

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their own life rather than in their company. And I thought, you know,

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I'm seeing a lot of this. I think there's something going

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on here. So the more I heard about,

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the more I got interested in actually doing retirement

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coaching, because that's clearly what many of these people wanted.

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Now, at the time it was, I must say, mostly men,

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because again, of the baby boom generation, it's mostly men

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that hold those top leadership positions. That's changing.

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But for our generation, it hadn't moved the needle very far.

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Typically, these men had not built any kind

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of a life for themselves outside of their work.

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So there was definitely a need for some coaching to

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get them from one place to the next because they didn't know what they wanted

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to do in their retirement. And when we started talking about how are you

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going to add meaning and purpose to your life after you leave here,

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they were clueless. So I looked into

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retirement coaching a little further and

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discovered that there was an organization who

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actually trained retirement coaches. And even

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though I have my doctorate in an organizational behavior, that didn't

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help me to understand anything about the retirement transition

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and kind of how people mature in their older

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years. So I went through the program

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and got a certificate in retirement coaching and kind

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of hung out my shingle. And I did retirement coaching for quite a long

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time. And then I had another Epiphany about three years

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into that. I was looking around my

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I don't know, the scenario around me, the people

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that I knew, the people I worked with, the people I hung out with as

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friends. And so many of them were spending a tremendous

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amount of time taking care of their aging parents.

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We were all in our 60s, early sixty s

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at the time. And so those of them doesn't

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include me, but those of them that had living parents,

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they were getting old, they were getting into their late 80s, early 90s,

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mid 90s, getting to a point in their lives where they

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weren't quite managing as well as they had been ten

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years ago on their own. So in some cases,

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my friends and colleagues were flying back and forth to the East Coast.

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If parents were local, sometimes they were spending a

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tremendous amount of their weekends making sure that there was

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food in the house for the week, taking them to doctors appointments,

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taking time off work to do these things and in many cases,

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getting them moved into a safer environment.

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And so I've watched a lot of this going on with people in

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my life. And I sat down to have a glass of wine

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with a friend of mine who also doesn't have children. And I

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said, Sandy, who's going to do that for us?

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Big question. Big question. Yeah. And when we

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looked at each other and went, oh,

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I don't know, I got

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very curious. And I started doing some research to uncover what

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the incidence of I'd like to call it child

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free rather than childless. At least

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among the people I knew. Most of us were childless by choice.

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We had made a decision somewhere back in the 70s that

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we were going to pursue a career. We were going to go it on our

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own, we were going to make our own path.

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If you remember, baby boomers were the first ones to have the pill.

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They were the recipients of all of the noise

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that the era folks were making.

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I marched in some of those protests

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about unequal opportunities for women, and it changed.

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We made that change. So doors

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were opening not only to universities and colleges for

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women, but they were also opening to careers that women had never really

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been invited into before. So the

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world was our oyster, so to speak. We could control our reproductive

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processes however we wanted, and we could get out there and make

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a living for ourselves such that we didn't need to get married

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and we could buck the tide

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and not have children and just pursue a

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career that was meaningful and important to us.

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So that's what I and many of my colleagues did.

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But here we are in our sixty s and seventy s,

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looking ahead and going, this is the choice

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we made. And now we have to do some planning,

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some really serious planning about how we're going to be

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taken care of or how we will take care

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of ourselves, which we may or may not be able to do

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for the entire length of our life without

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the help of adult children. Right? So you must have done

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an incredible amount of research then to try

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to answer some of these tough questions.

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And I think even if we have children, it may be a situation

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where your children are not in a position to help and take care

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of. So let's start down the path

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about some of the things that you need to think about.

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Sure. Well, one of the ways that I

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approached this kind of answer to so what,

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what do we need to think about? Is to really look around me

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and observe what adult

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children were doing for their parents

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who were in their eighty s and ninety s. And so I

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came up with kind of several buckets of things.

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First of all, we certainly need to be very robust

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in our financial planning and our legal

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planning. So you mentioned early on

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something about have you done your advanced directive, have you

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written your will? All of those kinds of things.

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This is where people who have been negligent and

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not do that well. It kind of falls to their kids and their kids grumble

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and grouse. But usually when push comes to shove,

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adult children come in and do what's necessary when their parents

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run into a crisis. In our case,

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those of us who don't have kids, there is

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no safety net. So we really have to think long and

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hard about who we want to

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be our proxy, who we want making decisions for us if we

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are unable. At some point,

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things happen. People have strokes, people have heart

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attacks, people get into accidents, people fall, people break hips and

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all kinds of things and end up in rehabilitation

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units of nursing homes that they never,

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ever planned to be in. So the

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more we can get around our

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resistance to looking at that potential future and make

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some plans for it and understand what our options are

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going to be at that time, find people that will be proxies

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for us. That's the way that we need

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to plan as we get older. Yeah. And Sarah,

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you talk about that some in the book. These conversations are

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difficult at best. Right. So finding a proxy,

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somebody who is not a blood relative,

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just to build on this question. My other question is maybe they're our

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same age. They could be in trouble before

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us. Right. So maybe you need more than one. And how

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do you build that trust and build that conversation?

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Well, first of all, let me address a couple of things that you said.

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Just because we don't have adult children doesn't mean that we

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don't have blood relatives that might fill that gap.

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Okay, good point. Those of us that are close emotionally,

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hopefully and or physically to

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our brothers and sisters who do have children,

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those nieces and nephews to me are kind of the first line

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of defense. That's who you would go to first.

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But they need to know you. You need

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to have been close to them as they were growing

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up, ideally been in their life somehow,

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or at this point in your life, can find a way to help

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them because in a way, enlisting the aid of nieces

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and nephews. We need to kind of pay it forward.

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I'll give you a couple of examples out of my life. I have

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helped two of my nieces get through college.

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Their parents, my brother and his wife, did not do as

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well financially, and so I stepped in and helped

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at many junctures. Even though I didn't live very close, I tried to

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visit as often as I could. So my nieces will

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be involved, but the person I'm closest to

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and who I know will be the

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closest physically, geographically, to me, is actually a

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cousin who's 15 years younger than me.

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Okay, so those kinds of possibilities

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work. Now, there are even

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technical solo agers that I don't even think of as solo

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agers. One woman I know is the

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fifth of five sisters, and the sisters are all

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fairly close in age within a couple of years of each other.

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And when my friend got out of

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college, she went on to get further education. She became

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a scientist, she traveled all over the world, but she never got married

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and had kids. However, 20 years ago,

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when she came home to California to

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stop all the traveling and whatnot, she resumed her

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relationship with all of her she must have ten or twelve nieces and

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nephews from those other sisters. She's very close to them.

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So my guidance to her was just, Linda, talk to them,

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talk to them. And that's the key that most of us have to use,

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is we need to not only kind

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of pay it forward with those nieces and nephews and mentor where we can

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help them understand from a different perspective than their

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parents, maybe what they're going through. Because people

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go through things at every stage of life. And if you have nieces and

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nephews in their thirty s and forty s, they're still needing help.

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They're probably raising kids now or trying to build a career.

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So be in their life. Yeah. And I can tell you, as mom,

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they'd rather talk to their aunt than to their mom.

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They want my advice. Yeah, that's right.

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But these are difficult conversations. Sarah, do you have

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guidance or tools that you use to be able to start

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these conversations? You won't find a

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lot of that specific thing in my book. I do mention it,

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but there are some wonderful resources out there. Ellen Goodman,

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a journalist that has also written a lot

Speaker:

of books, has headed up

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something that I think started about ten years ago called The Conversation Project.

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I've heard of that. Yes. So check that

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out. That's great guidance. There's an

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organization called Compassion and Choices.

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They have some good guidance. Remember,

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all of these things are leading up to the topic that nobody wants to

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discuss, which is death and one

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of my crusades is to get people to talk more

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about death. It's not like anybody's going to

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avoid it. We're all going to get there one of these days.

Speaker:

And so how much better a

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life we could lead, how much more peaceful a life we

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could lead if we just understand that death is part of life and help people

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to talk about it. There's something that's been going

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around the world, actually for about the past twelve or 15 years

Speaker:

called Death Cafe, where people get together and just

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talk about death, any aspect of death. But the

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more you can talk about it, the more you can incorporate

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it into your thinking about what this life is all about and

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what is some people are terming a good death.

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What is that? So talk to

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your proxies, your nieces, your nephews,

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your younger friends. By the way, I don't mean to say that you

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always have to choose a blood relative. Some people really have no blood relatives

Speaker:

to choose from. And then my

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next suggestion is look to the organizations you belong to.

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And if you don't belong to any organizations, start thinking about joining

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some.

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Everything from book clubs to hiking

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clubs, running groups,

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organizations, service organizations, the people you volunteer

Speaker:

with, the places of worship.

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Every place of worship I've ever seen, whether it's a synagogue,

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a mosque, a church, they all have

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groups that cater to people's special

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interests. They have new mothers groups, and they

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have singles groups, and they have bereavement

Speaker:

groups. That their job is to help people through the stages

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of life. So if you

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belong to a religious organization, that's a great way

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to find people that share your interests

Speaker:

that you might strike up new friendships with that are a little bit younger than

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you. A colleague of mine

Speaker:

recently approached a woman that she's been

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somehow putting it off for years and years and years,

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talking to a friend that was 15 years younger than she,

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that they had been very close at one point. Then they worked together and

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they kind of lost touch. But she made a point of getting

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back together and finally got up the courage to say,

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can I put you on my advanced directive?

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I just really have nobody else in this area. And she

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was absolutely honored. Yeah, and most people

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will be they'll be honored that you would trust them like that.

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Yeah, that's a good point. It can be frightening, but you can be surprised

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at the response.

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I want to switch a little bit from talking about the death, although that

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is important, and we do need to be able to have those conversations to

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talking about the living. So one of the things that you spend a lot

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of time with in this book is where to live.

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So aging at home or retirement communities,

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active adult communities, villages, all these different options which

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we all have to consider. But what makes

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that a different consideration if you're a solo ager.

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It'S a matter of degree.

Speaker:

I've had people say to me things like,

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well, I'm going into my 70s now. I live 10

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miles out in the woods. I've always liked it that way. I like

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my animals more than people.

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Why should I move into town?

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Why should I develop these friendships you're talking about? I don't

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even really like people.

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And they'll say, so what's a solution for me? And I have

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to look and I'm going to say, it's your choice.

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You can live however you want to live and know that

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you are actually, by default, making choices about what might

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happen in an emergency. So it

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is my belief that we are social creatures and I

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encourage living in community, whatever that

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means to you. And we can define community in so

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many different ways, but it doesn't necessarily

Speaker:

mean moving into a senior living facility,

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continuing care. Senior living facilities

Speaker:

are very expensive. They're kind of the creme

Speaker:

de la creme. About 6% of the population can afford those

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elite living situations. But there's everything

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and anything beyond

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that. I'm a big fan of home

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sharing. I'm a big fan of cohousing.

Speaker:

I'm a big fan of tiny home communities. I'm a really

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big fan. Now, you have to understand, I live in California where

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the weather is conducive to this, but all over the Southwest

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we have thousands of mobile home parks.

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And I'm a huge fan of mobile home parks for people that

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are downsizing and want to live in a

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one level unit where they have

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only to walk out their door to find somebody

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to talk to. Now, that's true, and that can be true in a condominium

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or an apartment building. Sometimes we

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have these sort of I call them default retirement

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communities of people that have just been living in the same complex for

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30, 40 years and they've gotten to know each other and they support one

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another, and that's good. But what I don't

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like to see, what I think is very dangerous is

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this whole concept of aging in place.

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If aging in place means to you that you're going to

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stay in your two or three story suburban home

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out on a cul de sac somewhere where there's no public transportation,

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you don't know your neighbors because they're at different stages of

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their life or whatever, and there you are.

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You've been in that house for 30, 40 years. Maybe if you

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have raised kids, maybe you've even raised kids in that house, and your

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kids maybe are saying, oh, don't sell the family home, mom. We love

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coming home for Thanksgiving. Well, you know,

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it's probably time to get rid of that family home. Are you

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going to be able to do those stairs safely

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when you're in your late seventy s? Eighty s. Ninety s.

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And yes, I included know people who

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have done that. However,

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most of the people that I see doing that successfully do

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have kids that come over and kind of fill

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in the blanks. They live close by so they help with transportation,

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they help with groceries, they help with

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the chores around the house. Because one

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of the biggest reasons that people do move into some kind of

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senior living environment is that they just don't

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have the energy and the strength to

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take care of that home anymore.

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Yeah. And the scary thing is you hear these stories about

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someone that has fallen in their home and they

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don't live with anybody and they're lying there for days

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before somebody happens to come in and check on them.

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The repercussions of doing that, the downside

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of staying like that is they're pretty dire,

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I think. But again,

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it's a matter of figuring out what kind of community

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you would be happy in. And a community can be too,

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however, not your spouse.

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I'd like to also encourage people who are married to get

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out beyond your spouse and find relationships.

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Find friendships, join a book club, join a

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walking group, join a golf group, do something

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that gets you communicating

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and hanging out with people other than your spouse. That's why

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I include married people in my definition of solo

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ager. Which by the way, has expanded tremendously.

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I really used to think of solo agers as just people who

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didn't have kids, period. But I had so many people come up to

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me and say, well I'm a solo ager, I have kids but they live 6000

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miles away. Or I have kids but we're estranged. Or they kind of

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failed to launch or in any kinds of any

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kind of situation. Right. And you never know

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what can happen. Even if you're married, you could still end up

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being a solo agent. And the thing about it is,

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especially if you don't have kids unless you get hit by the same

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bus on the same day, you and your spouse

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both need to plan to be solo agers because one of you is going to

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be a true solo age or someday.

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So you list a bunch of categories.

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I think there are six that you say are super important

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to be thinking about as you're aging and in

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our seventy s. Eighty s. But what would you say are like the top two

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or three that we all need to focus on and

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really start spending time thinking about?

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Yeah, I liken it to that old

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three legged stool. It seems like everybody has a three legged stool for something.

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And my three legged stool is legal,

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financial and social.

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Okay? We all need to have our legal act together.

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You need to get that will done, get the

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advanced directives, choose your proxies,

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get those signed, talk to the people that you're

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naming as proxies, do all of that.

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Set up a trust if your attorney thinks

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you need to. The second is financial.

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Make sure that you can maintain the lifestyle

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that you are enjoying now until you're

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100 or however long you think you'll live. I know a

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lot of financial planners now are running their

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spreadsheets for people out to 103 because it's not unusual for

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people to live to 100 anymore. So take

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a look at how you're living right now and get

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the help of a financial planner. Even if you just pay for an hour or

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two of his or her time, say, am I going to be able to sustain

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this with the income I have? Whatever that income is

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from however long you're going to work, factor some

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of those things in, because even if you're still happily

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working now, the day may come and

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like many people, you're saying, I'm just going to work till I drop.

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Well, drop can be defined in a lot of different ways.

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Yeah, true. Everybody thinks that they're going to

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just have a fatal heart attack one day at their desk or out on

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the golf course. But that's not how most people spend their

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eighty s and ninety s.

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That's a scary question. Too, though, because if you don't

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have a big source of income and you're in your 70s,

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then you have some other really important decisions, like downsizing.

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Downsizing. Living here

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in the outskirts of the Bay Area of California,

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I often say to people not tongue

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in cheek, there is life outside of California,

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and life is a lot less expensive outside of

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California. Now, lots of younger people

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are very much discovering that we've had a huge exodus of

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people to Texas and Oklahoma and Arkansas

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and places that our generation would just never have

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considered. But young people are going, they're going for the jobs, they're going

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for the to be able to afford their lifestyle.

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So think about where you're living. I even encourage some people,

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especially people who

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are looking at really low income

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levels and saying, I just can't afford to get old. What am I going to

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do? And of course, if you've seen nomad land,

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you know what can happen. And you

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want to join the brigade of people who live out of their RVs

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and vans and whatnot. Think about living outside

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the confines of the US. There are lovely places

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to retire. There's a great organization called International

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Living, which their whole business. They have a magazine,

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they have a big online presence.

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They have people that live in all kinds of countries all over the world that

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write about and talk about what it's like to retire there and what it cost

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to retire there. So if that's something that really

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pushes a button for you, check out International.

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Living and they talk about the health. Care options

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out there, but they cover it all.

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They choose the ten best countries to retire to or

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ten best locations to retire to. Every year,

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I always write an article for my I write a regular

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column for Forbes.com, and I always

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cover that every year. What are the top ten this year?

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And you'd be surprised. And they cover everything

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from what's the health care like? How welcoming is it

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for expats?

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Can you get a work visa if you want to work down there?

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What is the health care situation like?

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You name it, they have researched it.

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So that could be an interesting option. It's an option.

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And then finally the social. What a

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lot of people let slide as they get older is they they

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lose their their friendships. They lose their relationships with people.

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And and I think we after we're out of the workplace,

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we have to work a little harder, a little differently to

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make sure that we do continue to be social, that we

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have people in our lives, whether they come from our

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volunteer work or some civic organization or

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maybe from our place of worship,

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our neighborhood. It can be anywhere. But be careful

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of not cocooning too far. We've all

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had a taste of cocooning this last year in the pandemic.

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Fortunately most boomers now have

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had vaccine so at least that's pretty

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true in California and other states where friends of

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ours live. And we're getting out and resuming those

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relationships which I think is really important.

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Yeah, I think it's really important too. And I

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think we have had that cocooning thing but

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I think there are limitations.

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Like if you're not really mobile,

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if you don't drive after dark,

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just reaching out and making new friends.

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Those are all great reasons for getting out of that suburban

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home and into some

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kind of community where you'll be near people,

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some of whom do drive. I know a

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lot of the mobile home parks.

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They have community rooms and they use those community

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rooms for potlucks and they usually have a swimming pool and people gather around

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there. It's like a club.

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Anytime you have a club like atmosphere you're going

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to form relationships if you get out there and

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at least have the intent of doing so. So here's where it gets

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tricky though, right? So we have this mindset. We've been working,

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we've been living in this nice house. We have this nice yard and flowers and

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all this little stuff and then to think about

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giving all that up and it's

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my bias, I know that. But to think about moving

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into a mobile home park I'm like oh what a step down.

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That would feel bad. But maybe somehow

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coach me on how would I shift that mindset. You know

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what the biggest thing I tell people? And you know what?

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It might not be a mobile home park. It might be a really lovely condominium

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complex somewhere closer to a downtown center.

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I have a number of colleagues who have kind of decamped

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out of the suburbs into a more urban environment where there's

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transportation and again where there are people right next door.

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Go visit some of these places. Just go

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walk around. If it's

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somewhere that you have to get special permission to enter, especially now with

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COVID Get that permission. I tell people to

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do that. With regard to senior living communities too,

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go look at what an active adult community

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looks like. Active adult communities are the old

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del web of the kind

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of revamped for a more

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modern day. Some of the latest ones that I get a kick

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out of were built in Florida on Jimmy

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Buffett's model.

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It's for parrot heads. It's for people that are Jimmy Buffett fans

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called Latitude Margaritaville. Those are active

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adult communities. You have to be 55 to move in

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there, and boy, people can't move into them fast enough.

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That's great. So there are those kind of communities

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all over the country, predominantly in the Southwest,

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but you'll find those kinds of communities that look more

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like a condominium structure than a cluster of a

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couple of thousand homes around a lake or something. But they're

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just urban home. They'll have to pull you out of their feet first. I've had

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that enough times. And Daras

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mentions tiny homes. You also mentioned cohousing. What is

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that? Cohousing is a grassroots

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effort by usually one

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person or a small group of people who want

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to develop what usually looks like

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a condominium set up, where they and their friends

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and people that they that also are interested and

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that they invite in live together. It's not a commune.

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Everybody has their own unit, like their own condominium unit,

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but it's

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for people who want to build community. So they always eat

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at least two or three meals together every week.

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They have meetings about what

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they need to do in the community. They take care of the community.

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They usually have elaborate gardens,

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and it's driven by the residents,

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the people who live there, the homeowners. And it's a homeowner

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homeownership model, generally not a rental

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model, although I know some cohousing communities

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have a couple of units that are rented out.

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But it comes under the umbrella of

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intentional community. The old intentional communities

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used to be mostly religious or guided

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by some lifestyle choice. Now many

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of them are just simply cohousing. There are several architects in

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the country that do nothing but build cohousing developments.

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Easy. To find more information online, go to cohousing.org

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or cohousing.com.

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You'll find just everything you ever want to know.

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You'll see a map of where they all are in the country. There's several hundred

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of them and what stage of development they're in.

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To me, it's a wonderful concept now, by the way.

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They are multigenerational, most of them. There are some that are being

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built to be elder cohousing, but the vast

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majority of cohousing communities are multigenerational.

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People raise kids there. Nice.

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So we are getting close to time, Sarah, and there's so much

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to still talk about. So could you give us like two or three

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what you would say are the most important things people should do

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today, right now, to start planning for Aging

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and Solo Aging. Well, I would think about that three legged

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stool. How far

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along are you in your planning? Have you done your

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legal planning, your estate planning?

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Set up a dance directive? Set up powers of attorney?

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Written a will? If you're thinking, oh, I don't want to do

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that. Those attorneys are so expensive.

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You can find legal advice in

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a less expensive way. One way of doing that is

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going through your county office

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on aging. They usually have attorneys, not on staff, but attorneys

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that they know work at a lesser rate for

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people that really can't afford their services any other way.

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So there's that, and there's seeing

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a financial planner, getting that person to run that spreadsheet for

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you to see how you're going to do financially for the rest of your life

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and then assessing your

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social situation.

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Do I have a handful, at least of friends, people I can

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call? You have two or three people you

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could call at 02:00 a.m. In the morning if you somehow needed them.

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Yeah. Hopefully my sister will answer

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the phone if I call her. I hope so.

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I know I wanted to share how people can get in

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touch with you. Sarah has a website.

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Sarahzepgeber.com and you also have

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other things that you are involved

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with. I've seen you post on some of them. So if people are

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interested in some of those, will they find the links on your website?

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Yes, you'll certainly find links for how to buy the book.

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You can also find me and a lot of contact information

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and a lot of videos

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of me speaking. I do a lot of speaking engagements. So if

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you have an organization that you think could you

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find this information useful, call on me to do that. Look me up on

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LinkedIn. That's a really good source of information on me and on what

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I do. So I think both the website and LinkedIn are

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the two best places. Okay. I highly recommend your

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book. It's one

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thing to get it, it's another thing to really do some of the

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things that Sarah recommends. And like you said, visit those

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places. That's my hardest one. I've got to do

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that. All right. So I wanted to

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also remind people that hey Boomer is

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supported by you and occasionally

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by sponsors, but mostly by you and your participation

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in events and also by your support

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by buying me a cup of coffee. So this is a

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website where you can go, you can contribute anywhere from ten dollars to seventy

Speaker:

five dollars. And it just helps keep Hay Boomer going.

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So please go in and buymeacoffee.com

Speaker:

at Hayboomer four one three.

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And now I would like to tell you all about our guests

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for next week. And I say guests because we're actually having two.

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It's Eva Houseman and Kim

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Athen, and they are a mother daughter duo

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who started something called the Mother's Day Movement.

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They read a book called Half the sky by

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Nicholas Christophe and Cheryl Wudon.

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You're shaking your head. You've read it? I haven't read it. I've heard about

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it, though. Good things about it. It is a powerful book about

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the oppression and exploitation of women around the world.

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Not comfortable to read at all,

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but opened your eyes, and as they read it,

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they thought we spend so much money,

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billions every year on cards and flowers and

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chocolates for our mothers. That what if

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we took some of that money to help these women?

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Not just around the world, but the charity they're working with?

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This year is in our country, in Navajo Nation. Who doesn't have

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any clean running water? So it's going to be a fascinating

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conversation. They are very passionate

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about what they're doing and how they're doing it.

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So join us for that. And I always

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like to end with a quote from C. S.

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Lewis where he says, you are never too old to

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set another goal or dream a new dream.

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Thank you, Sarah, for joining us today. This has really been informative

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and important conversation. Thank you so much for having me,

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Wendy. My pleasure. And thank you all for

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joining us. You are the reason that hey Boomer

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is here. I love you. I hope to see you all next