Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
He served at the Pentagon as an army jag. He
graduated from Notre Dame and has two law degrees from
Boston University and Georgetown University. He's been practicing law for
over thirty years. He's your family's personal attorney. It's time
for the David Carrier Show.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Hello, and welcome to the David Carrier Show. I'm David Carrier,
your family's personal attorney. You have found the place. Well
for the last time. This year at least, we'll be
talking about the state planning, elder law, real estate and
business law. So give us a call. Went up to
sixty one six seven seven four twenty four twenty four.
(00:53):
That's six one six seven seven four twenty four twenty four.
And if you have a question, comment, or concerned that
you would like to get on the air at six
one six seven seven four twenty four twenty four. We're
gonna be doing some maintenance in the second hour, so
they're gonna be doing a best of What does that mean?
It means it's a rerun. We hate reruns, don't we
(01:15):
But it's gonna be a rerun for the second hour.
So if you do have a question, get it in
the first hour because for reasons beyond our control, technical difficulties,
et cetera. I believe the the string between the two
team cans is getting a little bit fraid and they're
going to replace it for the new year. For that reason,
(01:36):
we're going down. Well, I mean, the radio is still
be on, but it will be a recording. So if
you want, you know, if you want to answer or
just voice your concern, that would be great. Six one, six, seven,
some of them four twenty four, twenty four. You know,
as you look at the new year, you know, and
most of us have seen. Most of us have done
this before, haven't. We've seen a few of those new years.
(01:58):
It's a time for making stock. And I will say
that over the over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, these
are times for an awful lot of families to sort
of evaluate where are we, what are we doing? How
how are things moving ahead? And it's a good opportunity.
(02:19):
You'd be surprised to hear me say this, to revisit
your planning. What is it that you want to have happen?
You know, I have to say. One of the the
obvious reason that people want to do estate planning, and
this is born out by surveys in a private study
recently were participated in all the rest what people are
(02:40):
looking to do is not make a mess when you leave.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
You know.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
It's like it's like there are some protest groups. You
may have noticed this here. I'm going to get all
super political, but not really. There are some protest groups
go to Washington and the place is absolutely trashed when
they leave, and there are other people who pick up
the litter that was already there. Okay, that seems to
be That seems to be a thing. So which kind
(03:08):
of people are you? Are you the people who trash
it and leave and somebody else's got to clean up
the mess, or are you the kind of folks who
not only clean up your own mess, but you're also
straighten up what other people may have done poorly, incorrectly
or what have you. I know what kind you are.
(03:29):
You're the kind of folks who not only take care
of your own business, you also take care of their folks. Great.
So when we were talking about a state planning, people
tend to focus on that. It's like, look, I want
to make sure that when i'm you know, when I've
gone on to my reward, when I've traveled over the mountain,
when I've crossed the Great Divide, all the rest of
(03:51):
that stuff. When you've done that frequently, you want to
make sure that you don't leave a mess. And of
course that is an important part of it. But one
of the things that for thirty years now, thirty five
thirty five in a week, we've been we've been talking
about the key is to make sure that you yourselves
(04:13):
are okay right while you're here. It's not so much
a matter of leaving a mess as a matter of
as you live your life, if you need the long
term care. And I do focus on that which barely
showed up as a blip on the on the studies,
right on the stuff on the secret to you know, surveys,
focus groups and whatnot, barely showed up as a blip.
(04:36):
People aren't worried about it. Okay, Well, denial and not
a river in Egypt and all the rest of that
that's in it. Those are issues, okay, But at the
same time, you can't very well do right by your
loved ones if you haven't done right by yourself. That's
kind of the fundamental insight point. Whatever you may, whatever may,
(04:58):
you want to say, what you mean, I said, get
Joe on the line. Morning Joe, Welcome to the David
Carrier Show.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Yes, how are you doing, Dave?
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Oh? I am just perking and working and having a ball.
Looking forward to twenty twenty five. Now, that's one of
those years, you know that when you hit those fives,
that seems like you know, the fives in the zero
years though, you know, I guess we're going to take
back Greenland and guy those you know, who knows what
what other craziness is going to happen, But hey, there
(05:31):
you go, doing great. How are you?
Speaker 3 (05:34):
I'm doing well, sir. The question I have is my
wife and I have a trust through you. In fact,
the five year window will be in twenty seven, so
we got two more. And the question I'm having is
from my parents. My parents are in their eighties. My
(05:55):
dad buy me retired, but he's still trying to do stuff.
My mom is the one that's not doing so well,
so he's the caregiver and we've been investigate the PACE
program for them and everything.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
The question I do, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
The main question I have is it's kind of late
for them to actually perform and do a trust, I think,
But is there steps they can take from this point
forward to protect their assets more in the future. If
stuff does you know, as as we as we as
(06:32):
things progressed along to you know, as as life goes on.
I mean, so there somebody well you know, you.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Go go on.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Yeah, yeah, So here's the So here's the thing. It's
like it's like anything else in life, right, there's always
something you can do. Okay. The reason we focus so
much on the protection trust, on the investment and all
the rest of it. The reason you focus on that
is because it's an all fifty states solution. So if
(07:03):
you're in your fifty sixties whatever, and you might go
to another state, maybe follow the grandkids. People do that.
The trust works everywhere you go. Plus, because it's based
on the law that Congress passed back in six the
whole devestment thing, the states can't screw around with it
(07:24):
so much. So it's a very solid, reliable and now
for eighteen nineteen years, you know, it's born that out,
a very reliable way of doing things. Also, you have
to do it anyway. To do the let's not leave
a mess when we pass thing. So it's just a
matter of let's get the job done. Instead of half done.
(07:47):
When we're doing the planning, now a good half if
not more, of the medicaid cases that we're doing the
actual apply for benefits cases involved, just like your fak,
just like your parents, okay, people who did not plan,
people who did not provide for the future. Now, I
(08:09):
won't kid yet, it's more expensive to do it that
way than what you did. It's it's more of a hassle.
It's it's all those things. But it's like anything else
in life. You know, if you wait until the tire
blows out instead of replacing your tires when you know,
when the fabric shows through, you know, I always, I
always recommend that as soon as you see the first
threads of fabric in your tire, right, you know, now,
(08:32):
smooth as smooth as fine. Yeah, what's the problem. It's
when the fabric. As soon as you see the fabric,
replace the tire, okay, and then that way you don't
have to worry about you get what I'm saying. So
the idea here is there's always but if it blows out,
well it can be patched, right, I mean, there's a
way to fix it. It's not the best way. The
(08:54):
best way is to replace it. You know, maybe when
you get a you know, an eat divin inch of
tread left or whatever. Don't wait till it blows out
before you before you fix it, don't you know, don't
wait to change the oil. I was just talking to
somebody about this, yes, the other day, who didn't understand
that you had to change the oil and it was
getting a new engine in their car. One of my
(09:15):
one of my one of my lawyers, actually, oh yeah,
we didn't understand they have to change the oil. I
was like, Okay, engines are expensive. You can wait, or
you can change the oil. You guys are changing the oil.
You you know, you or your wife are changing the oil.
You're making sure that things are Yeah, yours isn't going
(09:37):
to break. We're not going to be in that crisis situation.
But that doesn't mean that for people who are in
a crisis situation, nothing can be done. So just real basically,
did your parents have a house? Yes, all right, they have?
(09:58):
Do they have I ra.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Yes, to do another thing my dad had done in
the past, and that's one of the things he's kind
of back thinking on, or not the back thinking, but
maybe regretting, is they did it buy an insurance policy
for long term care. So they've been paying on this
program for years. So I mean there is they do
(10:21):
have protection for the long term care costs at this moment.
But I've talked to him a little bit, I says,
and he says, if anything I can tell him, you
should at least make an appointment with your office and
talk to you guys, and at least set up a
strategy plan and says, okay, if we go this way,
(10:42):
or what do we do if we don't do this?
Or I mean so, I mean, at least you've got
information coming in and then you can make an exact
right decision on the on the final end, you know,
whatever you want to do.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Right, They're going to start playing the music here in
about ten seconds, So if you don't, if you don't
mind hanging on just so we can get a little
more into the details, because the things that you're talking
about people with long term car insurance all the rest,
there are things that you need to know about the
long term character. A lot of people say, oh, I
(11:14):
got a policy, I'm all set, and then it pays
one hundred dollars a day, which you'll get you three
hours of you know care of Yeah, somebody who's not trained,
you know, one hour of the greatest or nurse. So
all right, so if you don't mind hanging on, that'd
be great. You've been listening to the David all right,
(11:35):
you're listening to the David Carrier Show. I'm David Carrier,
your family's personal attorney. I can tell that it's going
to be a long road.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
This hour of the David Carrier Show is Crowboo. So
call in now at seven seven four twenty four. This
is the Jagad Carrier Show.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Well, come back to the David Carrier Show. On David Carrier,
your Family's Personal Attorney. We're talking to Joe, and jo
and his wife have already got their plan in place
and the clock sticking down, the five year clock, and
so they're all setting.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Ready to go.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
The question is his parents, who are in their eighties,
who do have do have a home, do have savings?
Is there a pension involved that either one of them
have a pension.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Joe, Oh, my dad never had. They never had any pensions.
It's just basically lifelong saving saving, put money away in
traditional I ray and then roth irays and some other investments.
I'm sure, and so I mean it's not that they're
doing badly, but right, right, right, and you know, it's.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Just like you said, we don't like to pay twice
for the same thing.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Yeah, they worked and put away for their future and
they're you know, and you get to see it taken
away from them.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Right, And they do have a they do have a
long term care policy. Now here's so so kind of
crank it back. Here's the thing, not at all unusual
that people in their eighties.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
See.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
The way this works is when you're sixty five years old.
According to the National Institute of Health, at age sixty five,
you have a seventy percent chance of needing three to
five years of care. On average, it's three years. Twenty
percent of folks need five years or more of skilled
nursing care. Now, it could be at home care, it
(13:38):
could be assisted living, in skilled nurse whatever it may be.
But you do need outside help. That's kind of the point. Now,
the utilization rate in the sixties is fairly low. It
goes up in the seventies, but it skyrockets in the eighties.
A lot of folks make it to the eighties before
(13:59):
they really start needing help. So your parent situation is
not at all unusual. It's very it's kind of the
way it goes for an awful lot of folks somewhere earlier,
of course, but your parent situation very common. Now here's
the problem. They've got assets, and they've got iras. And
(14:19):
let's say they both have iras, all right, whether it's
a wroth or a traditional ira. That asset is in
their own name. And when someone is qualifying for these programs,
they cannot have more than two thousand dollars in their
own name. Okay, Now there's a one year period to
presumed asset eligible period. I'm not talking. Let's not get
(14:42):
into that detail. The bottom line is, you can't have
more than two thousand dollars in your name and qualify.
But you've got an ira, whether it's a wroth or
a traditional, and you don't want to cash it in.
We used to cash it in. That used to be
what we did seven eight years ago. We don't do
(15:03):
that anymore. Instead, what we do in that situation as
we go to the court, go to circuit court, and
we say, hey, judge, I got a married couple here
and they want to divvy up their assets between the
two of them. It's called an action for separate maintenance,
and this is the property settlement that they've decided to
(15:24):
arrange between themselves. And when we do that, then we
can move a pension. We can move traditional ira, a
roth ira, a state pension, a federal pension, a private pension.
We can move all kinds of assets between between the couple.
(15:45):
It's up to them how they want to do it. Now,
in your plan, Joe, between you and your spouse, we've
built into the power of attorney the ability to do
this even if one or both of you are incompetent
mentally incontent. Not the problem with your folks, but maybe
we're getting there. In any event, it's already we've already
(16:07):
kind of thought about this in your plan. And you know,
when we're doing a plan, it's provided for. The key
is that what it does is it takes the assets
from one spouse puts them on the other spouse. Now
this one is asset eligible. We're not done yet. There's
another step which I'm not going to go into now,
but that's the first thing that has to be done.
(16:27):
So don't be thinking, oh, I've got an IRA, I've
got this account in my name I'm stuck with it,
or I have to cash it in. That's not true.
We can preserve all the tax benefits of the IRA,
whether it's a roth or traditional, and any pension that
you may have that can all be that can all
(16:48):
be protected for the other spouse. All right, Now you've
got the long term care insurance. So there are always
some questions that you have about these policies. Sometimes they're
kind of a piggyback on a life insurance policy. Sometimes
it's just straight up long term care insurance. And then
you have to ask yourself, Okay, what's the value, what's
(17:11):
the daily benefit? What's the exclusion period? They all have
an exclusion I guess I've seen one that didn't have
an exclusion period, but they all thirty sixty ninety days
after you're eligible, they still don't pay. It's what they
call the exclusion period. You know, how long is that?
What's the daily benefit? What are the triggering conditions? You know,
(17:36):
it used to be fairly simple, you say, well, look,
here's the doctor's here's the diagnosis, here's the you know, prescription,
blah blah, and they'll accept it. Nowadays, it's like pulling teeth.
It's become very difficult to get them to pay. That's
just that's my experience of it. Okay, so there are
(17:56):
all kinds of stuff that can be done, but to
find out exactly what the facts are, like what is
the daily benefit? I'm aware of two out of the
thousands of policies I've seen, I've seen two one to
two policies that actually pay. It's like, well, pay, great,
let's take advantage of that. But there's a whole interaction
(18:18):
between the long term care government program, the Medicaid, the
whole interaction between that and long term care insurance. Basically,
if you're taking Medicaid benefits, you don't get any The
State of Michigan will take the benefits from the it's
like a flat they'll take the benefits that you're paying for,
that you've got insurance for and they'll just take them.
(18:40):
Apartment of Public Health will just take the They get
the benefit, not you. So you're not adding to Medicaid
when you do a long term care policy, you're replacing it.
You're replacing what you've already paid for with something else
that you're paying. It doesn't make any sense, really, but
again that's what that's what we would be talking about.
(19:02):
In what we call a discovery meeting, we have you
come on in, let's see what we've got. You know,
we have a discovery meeting first with one of the
pair ofegals, generally over the phone, and then based on
that we come in. Because the discovery meeting, let's us
pre screen, let's figure out what is going on. He're
the documents you need to bring so that when we
(19:23):
have a meeting with myself, well then we really know
what's going on and we can make some solid, you know, advice,
Give you some solid advice.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
Okay, Okay, all right, that sounds good. I will talk
to them and mention this to them and go from there.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
So, okay, I know you got good.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
I know you got good answers every time I listen
to you every Sunday, and I tell them you got
to get the radio on and start listening.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
So, well, you know, I'm gonna be down in Portage tomorrow.
I'm gonna be Importage tomorrow. Actually, so if you can
talk to them today and who knows, maybe we can
get you in tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
It's the kind of thing you don't want to let
it go.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
Okay, okay, all right, thank you sir.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
You have a good day and the good new year. Thanks,
thank you, Jill. Merry Christmas and a happy New Year
to you too.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
David's got the how to you're looking for. Just call
seven seven four twenty four. This is the David Carrier.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Show, Welcome back. That music, of course means it's the
final countdown? What is the final countdownds of twenty twenty five?
You remember that movie? Maybe? What's that movie? That's where
a If I'm getting it right, well, I'm sure I am.
I think this was the music for that movie, wasn't it?
(21:06):
Where the it was a Nimtz aircraft carrier is taken over,
overtaken by a storm and shows up back in the
December seventh, nineteen nineteen forty one, right when the Japanese
are about to attack Pearl Harbor. Wouldn't it be nice
if you always had du overs like that? Wouldn't it
(21:27):
be nice if there could be a storm and take
you back X number of years so that you could
resolve spoiler alert? They didn't. They didn't stop the attack.
The storm showed up again right before they right before
they were going to splash the zeros as I recall anyway,
(21:48):
and it probably worked that way for you too. So
if ever, there's a funny storm out there and you're
driving your car and you know it teleports you back
to when you could have planned ahead, the storm will
show up right as you're about to sign your trust,
your will or something back in the day, and it'll
all work out the same way. Anyway. That's that's our
(22:09):
lesson from cinema cinematography, right are.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
You know it?
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Never you don't get do overs. It doesn't not even
the movie, not even in the movies, doesn't work that
way anyway.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
State planning, elder law, real estate, business law. Yeah, that's us.
Now here's the here's the thing. It is like like
we were talking with Joe, his folks have not done
the planning, and then the question is, well, what can
you what can you do? Now? There's actually there are
actually people who will tell you, and I've gotten into
this conversation with them, there are attorneys out there who
(22:45):
will say and not idiots. I mean I'm not saying
these people are dumb, not no, no, no, but but
there the idea is we're gonna wait and see, all right,
I mean there are some people. See, here's the thing.
Most of the folks you talk to who take a
wait and see approach to planning for the long term
(23:06):
care right, most of the folks you talk to, in
my opinion, it's pretty obvious to me, they really don't
know how any of this stuff works. And it's more
comfortable to say we're gonna wait and see, all right.
They don't know what they mean by that. They don't
(23:27):
know what can be done when the time shows up,
when the time happens, when things happen. But it's more,
but they don't know what to do about it now either,
and so so it's a oh, we're gonna wait and see,
I'll wait and see, okay, yeah, But but there are
some people who do take that attitude right and actually know,
(23:50):
and they do know. So it's not like it's not
like there isn't another side of this. It's just that
it's such an iffy deal. I I how can you
plan when you're saying, well, I bet you that the
you know, I bet you that the government is going
(24:11):
to continue to allow us to save assets even if
we wait, and we've already we've already gotten very clear
indication that they won't they cut back on every they
do cut back. They have cut back on this stuff.
It's not like there aren't techniques.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
So like so.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
My thing, where there's life, there's hope. Right, as long
as you're live, as long as you've got something to protect,
there is some protection that can be had. That's almost
always true. I won't say one hundred percent, but very
very close to one hundred percent of the time, there's
something that can be done to make a meaningful difference,
even if you've done nothing before. Okay, that is it
(24:53):
is so if you've been told, oh, there's nothing we
can do about it, Oh, we just have to spend
it down. We're working a case right now, hundreds of
thousands of dollars, you know, working working people, and they've
been told by very reputable, authoritative people there's nothing you
can do but spend the money, which is totally untrue.
I mean, we'll have them on they came in a
(25:15):
month or so ago, and you know, we'll have them
on the benefits by in January, is what it looks
like right now. So and we'll have saved most of
the money for the other spouse. D see. I mean
this is what actually blows my mind about this. It's like,
how can you ignore what's going on with the other
spouse who was there when the money was earned? You know, Oh,
(25:38):
it's just about money, Hey, money for I don't know
about you, but it's it. Nobody gave it to me,
all right, seven days a week, you know, for quite
a long time, trying to figure stuff out, right, taking
the overtime, all the rest of that, being smart about stuff,
clipping the coupons. Hey, we've all been there, and the
(26:02):
money isn't just money. It's blood, sweat and tears. It's
making sure that everything's going to be okay for you
and for your spouse. Right, So it's not a it's
a matter of hey, I already paid for these benefits.
I would like to get the benefits. That'd be nice.
I don't feel like I'm ripping off the government by
(26:24):
getting my Social Security because I paid for it. I'm
not cheating future generations because I'm on Medicare because I
paid for it. Right. Well, it's the same way with
the long term care stuff. It's just that they want
to take all your stuff and impoverish your spouse before
(26:44):
they'll guarant the benefits. Okay, before you get back some
payback on what you already paid in, because it's all taxes.
Government doesn't create money. It borrows money, right, and it
taxes you to get The only money it's got is
the money it takes from you or from future generations.
That's it. There is no other there's no magical money.
(27:06):
I mean, there was a there was a while there
with this idea that oh we could just create money,
it be just fun. It's like nobody believes that anymore. Hello, inflation.
I mean, that's what you get. So my point is
that can you wait? Can you do that? It doesn't
make any sense to me, And you know we've seen
(27:28):
bad consequences from that. The least expensive, most effective thing
you can do is to go through the process, is
to protect your assets. But and this is what's so
important for folks like Joe's parents. He's done the planning.
They it will be nice and smooth, it's all, you know.
(27:49):
It's all a corner oil squared, you know, square the
corners and we're good to go. But that doesn't mean
does not mean that his parents are or bereaf, That
doesn't mean that there isn't something that can be done right,
even if you've got iras, even if there are pensions,
even if you've been told you've got to do a
(28:10):
spend down. We can do things with We can do
things with the pension. We can move iras from one
spouse to the other, preserve it for this spouse. Preserve
the tax benefits that you earned that you were you know,
granted granted by the by the government. We don't have
to give up on any of that. You can make
(28:31):
your spouse very, very secure. You can do that. It's possible.
And if you're a single person, it's not as good.
I'm straight up with you, right if you wait, you know,
we can save half. I mean, our rule of thumb
is that we can save half. Sometimes it's more, sometimes
it's less. But basically, if you've got if you're in
(28:56):
a long term care situation and you're single person, it's
not that as beneficial as if you're married. If you're married,
I can save pretty much everything for the surviving spouse,
except for our exorbitant fees. Of course, you know to
set it all up, but you can. You can save
basically your life savings can be used for the spouse.
(29:17):
So far, there's one technique that we use. We didn't pioneer.
It's been around the state took it away. It took
the Supreme Court after several years to reinstate it, you know,
going through the whole litigation thing. Will we already know
they want to take it away? We already know because
they already tried. So am I going to tell people, oh,
(29:38):
you should you should do a twenty year plan based
on a technique that they've already tried to take away
from us once and it was only you know, reinstated
by the Supreme How does that make any sense when
I've got something else that does everything we're supposed to do.
That's my That's my my take on it. You do
the pre planning, you're gonna be in a much better
(29:59):
pla position. You're gonna have the peace of mind that
comes from knowing that things are wrapped up and in
the new year. Why not think about it? Why not
come to a workshop, the Three Secrets Workshop. Just go
to the website Davidcarrier Law dot com www dot Davidcarrier
law dot com. Give us a call sixty one six
three six one eighty four hundred will get you signed
(30:21):
up for one and we do them in all of
the offices, whether it's Muskegan, Kalamazoo, Holleran or Grand Rapid.
And then listening to the David Barrier Show. I'm David Carrier,
your family, work and shot.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
That's great. It starts with the center.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
It's great bird scenario. Way, lady, David's working and working
and taking your calls. Now, this is the Dabad Carrier Show.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
Well, come back to the David Character Show. I'm David
Carrier and your family's personal attorney. Now is the time?
Give it to call six one, six seven, twenty four,
twenty four. That's the number of the studio, but we
are only doing one hour. The tin can the string
between the tin cans, my my understanding now has frayed dangerously.
(31:31):
That's right. The equipment, you know, the wood radio has
been around for one hundred years and we're still using
the same horse drawn equipment, you know, the uh you know,
we got the board operator over there pedaling away for
dear life and uh you know, it's just this is
the technological nightmare. And apparently somebody detected that the as
I say, the spring between the team tin cans is
(31:53):
getting frayed dangerously. So we're gonna have to do a
a a best of. Well, wow, this is the best of,
isn't it. Isn't it always improving? Yes, I would say
so every show is the best show ever that you've
ever had. So but you're only getting one hour of
it this week, So there's nothing wrong with your radio.
(32:14):
Wasn't that twilight though? Anyway, nothing matter with the radio.
It will be a best of. I'm fine. It's the
spring between the tin cans. That's that's dangerously free. Anyway,
give us a call at the office White on just
six one six three six eighty four hundred. That's sixty
one six three six eighty four hundred. You know, we're
(32:36):
talking on with Joe whose parents are in their eighties
now and needing starting to need some care. And wouldn't
you know science backs this up. Apparently there are three
distinct phases. I know you don't tune in here for
politics or science or any of the rest of that. Okay, fine,
but you know sometimes it relates sometimes, and apparently our
(33:00):
brains rapidly age at at certain distinct ages. God knows why,
and the scientists are trying to figure it out. But apparently,
at age fifty seven, I don't know why fifty seven.
But at age fifty seven, at age seventy, and at
age seventy eight, you have age related change peaks. Now
(33:22):
they're not saying, they're not saying what those changes are,
but I wouldn't guess that they're positive. Okay. So, and
this kind of corresponds frankly to what I was telling
Joe about how as we age there are relatively low
utilization in your sixties. I guess, I guess when the
brain ages. At age fifty seven, you still manage to
(33:44):
stagger through to retirement age. I guess another ten years.
But at age seventy, then you see it. You do
see it, you know. Sometimes they call them the gateway ages.
At ages seventy and seventy eight. Apparently, according to the research,
who knows, your brain does go through some rapid changes.
Now you can take vitamins, apparently, you know, the Mediterranean
(34:08):
diet where you chew on sharks or something I don't know,
supposedly helps out maybe, but you might want to look
at that, you know, if you know, I don't, you know,
I don't, I myself don't want to take any chances
you know that, you know, doing push ups or anything,
so you know I'll never do that. But but apparently
(34:30):
you know there are ways to counteract you know, age
related degeneration and or changes. I don't know why they
keep saying it changes. And you know, I'm gonna let
you in on a secret. And this is more backed
up by science science. Right. It says according to the
(34:50):
Worltal Health Organization I'm quoting now, loneliness is bad for
overalls as bad for overall health as smoking fifteen cigarettes
a day chronically lonely older adults could be an increased
risk of stroke and lead to brain shrinkage. Okay, so
that's not good. You know, people weren't meant to be alone.
I believe that's in Genesis there. You know, it was
(35:12):
not good for the man to be alone, right, so
you know that that kind of thing. One of the
reasons we're doing the Red Wagon One of the reasons
exactly the idea behind what we call the Red Wagon Club.
This is an ongoing Once you've got your trust done
and all the rest, it's it's something optional that you
(35:32):
that you can do. You can join the Red Wagon Club.
And not only do we include in the Red Wagon
Club changes to your documents and whatnot. Not only do
we do that, but we sponsor quite a few events.
So some of these are educational, right, So we have
(35:53):
the social security lady, the insurance agent, the real estate agent,
all kinds of people into the various offices to say, okay,
here's what's going on. Do you have a question about
this whatever. The idea is that we bring a group
together in person, right, and you can zoom it if
you want, You can call in if you want. On
the visiting experts kind of thing, but it is an
(36:16):
opportunity to have a cookie, a cup of coffee somebody
just like you and listen for an hour or an
hour and a half, just depends on how long they go.
Veterans benefits, stuff like that. But we've also done the
antiques roadshow kind of thing, and the mayor of Holland,
Michigan over there was a big Civil War guy and
(36:36):
brought in a bunch of artifacts a couple of years ago.
So there's a lot of a lot of that kind
of thing going on. Every quarter every three months, everybody
gets together, So a couple of weeks ago we had
over two hundred folks get together. And then once a
month we do something that's just fun, whether it's the
(36:58):
classic car show, a baseball game, a day at the museum.
Right now, we've got miniature indoor, miniature golf, and bingo
are coming up. And what we've seen is it didn't
really expect it, but it's been very it's been really good.
(37:19):
Is that people who've been to one or two or
more of the events, right, we really hit it hard
starting in twenty four starting this year. We did it
the year before, but not quite as thorough about it,
and now we're very you know, now we're really very
serious about it. And we've got about three hundred folks now,
(37:39):
I guess in the families in the Red Wagon Club,
but people who've seen each other at other events. Maybe
it was the Hawaiian shirt, you know, we passed that
Hawaiian shirts, and we had baseball hats at various things.
But they've seen each other before, they've sat at the
same table before. We do have at these quarterly events.
(38:03):
You know, I get to get up on the stage
and basically do the radio show for an hour or so,
just answering questions from the audience. But the thing is
they've had conversation. You know, these people because you already
met them before, and it's that whole keeping the connection.
Kids are very frust Your kids are very frustrated sometimes
(38:24):
because they'll say things to us like, oh, mom and dad,
they just want to be by themselves. They don't want
to talk to anybody, blah blah blah blah blah. And
what I keep telling kids, and it's hard for them
to hear sometimes, is it's not that your mom and
dad don't want to talk. They just don't want to
talk to you, Okay. They want to talk to somebody
who's going through what they've gone through, without all the explanations,
(38:47):
without who was Nixon anyway? You know what was that about?
Speaker 1 (38:51):
Who?
Speaker 2 (38:52):
You want to talk to somebody who if you say,
you know Rowan and Martin's laughing, or they remember actually
watching Johnny Carson, you know what I mean? You want
to be with. My experience has ben just observing that
people do enjoy being with people who have a similar
cultural heritage to their own. And it's not a religious
thing at all. It's just, you know, we grew up
(39:13):
the same period of time, we went through certain things,
we saw things happen, and that's a big part of
the Red Wagon Club and that's what this article is
talking about. That you know, there's there are real health
benefits to getting out, moving around, relating to other people. Right,
And you've got a good excuse because we send you
the invitations and stuff like that. And now we haven't
(39:38):
had this happen in our club yet, but a buddy
of mine who's doing one of these in over in Pittsburgh,
he goes, well, we don't have any weddings yet, we
don't have any marriages yet, but we've got three or
four couples who found each other at the Red Wagon Club.
All Right, it's not like that. Okay, that's not why
we're doing it, but it is an opportunit to get out, mingle,
(40:01):
talk to other people who get it really important. And
that's one of the things we've really committed to in
the coming year. Why not YouTube, We've been listening to
the David Carrier Show on David Carrier inviting you hit
the website Davidcarrier Law dot com, come to one of
the workshops. I don't promise you a Dave. In fact,
you're not gonna get one, but you'll find out stuff
(40:22):
that might just be kind of interesting.