Women's Money Wisdom

Episode 255: Downsize Your Stuff to Upgrade Your Finances with Sharon McRill

• Melissa Joy, CFP® • Season 4 • Episode 255

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In this enlightening episode, we sit down with Sharon McRill, founder of Betty Brigade, to explore the transformative power of professional organizing, outsourcing, and future-proofing your life. Sharon shares her journey from corporate burnout to building a business that helps clients manage home organization, relocation, and vendor coordination with ease.

We delve into the challenges faced by the "sandwich generation," juggling belongings and responsibilities for their children, spouses, and aging parents. Sharon shares a powerful story of how her team helped an overworked attorney reclaim his home and peace of mind, showing just how life-changing professional organizing can be.

Discover the art of maximizing your personal time by outsourcing tasks, rethinking the 'do-it-yourself' mindset, and focusing on what matters most. Learn how to cherish and use your treasured possessions rather than letting them gather dust and how clearing your physical space can enhance your mental well-being.

Sharon highlights her book, Downsizing the Silver Tsunami, a must-read guide for managing trusts, estates, and the emotional process of decluttering.

Listen and Learn:

  • Reclaiming Your Space: How professional organizing can transform your home and well-being.
  • The Sandwich Generation Struggle: Strategies to balance belongings and responsibilities across generations.
  • Outsourcing for Success: Why letting go of the 'do-it-yourself' mindset can free your time and reduce stress.
  • Cherishing Your Possessions: Using what you love and finding joy in your space.
  • Future-Proof Your Life: The benefits of home inventories, wills, and trusts for peace of mind.
  • Motivation and Momentum: How to tackle overwhelming projects and clear spaces faster.
  • Expert Advice: Practical tips from Sharon's book, Downsizing the Silver Tsunami, on managing estates and trusts.

Resources Mentioned

The previous presentation by PEARL PLANNING was intended for general information purposes only. No portion of the presentation serves as the receipt of, or as a substitute for, personalized investment advice from PEARL PLANNING or any other investment professional of your choosing. Different types of investments involve varying degrees of risk, and it should not be assumed that future performance of any specific investment or investment strategy, or any non-investment related or planning services, discussion or content, will be profitable, be suitable for your portfolio or individual situation, or prove successful. Neither PEARL PLANNING’s investment adviser registration status, nor any amount of prior experience or success, should be construed that a certain level of results or satisfaction will be achieved if PEARL PLANNING is engaged, or continues to be engaged, to provide investment advisory services. PEARL PLANNING is neither a law firm nor accounting firm, and no portion of its services should be construed as legal or accounting advice. No portion of the video content should be construed by a client or prospective client as a guarantee that he/she will experience a certain level of results if PEARL PLANNING is engaged, or continues to be engaged, to provide investment advisory services. A copy of PEARL PLANNING’s current written disclosure Brochure discussing our advisory services and fees is available upon request or at https:...

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Women's Money Wisdom Podcast. I'm Melissa Joy, a certified financial planner and the founder of Pearl Planning. My goal is to help you streamline and organize your finances, navigate big money decisions with confidence and be strategic in order to grow your wealth. As a woman, you work hard for your money and I'm here to help you make the most of it. Now let's get into the show. And I'm here to help you make the most of it. Now let's get into the show. Just a quick note before we dive in.

Speaker 1:

The information that we share is meant to educate and inspire, not serve as personalized financial advice. Everyone's situation is unique, so be sure to consult with your own financial professional for guidance that fits your life. And just so you know, the opinions shared in this podcast are my own and those of my guests, and they don't necessarily represent those of any organizations that I'm affiliated with. For more important disclosures, please go to our webpage at pearlplancom. Now let's get started.

Speaker 1:

If you're like me, stuff is a part of your thought bubble how do I organize stuff, how do I deal with it? And then you have the added layer for many of our listeners, because we're in the sandwich generation, where not only do we have to worry about our stuff? We've also sometimes got our kids' stuff to worry about, our spouse's stuff and then the stuff of the aging generation people that we love, that we feel responsible or we may be responsible for in the future. We're going to be talking all about that today with the founder of Betty Brigade, sharon McRill. Sharon is an expert on getting things done, staying organized and navigating that generational divide between aging parents and the people who love them. This is going to be a really exciting podcast. It applies to all of us. Betty Brigade is not just kind of set aside for elder care, but I think this is going to be a fascinating discussion to really understand what is important when you need to deal with the stuff. So, sharon, welcome to the podcast.

Speaker 2:

Oh, thank you so much for having me. I'm delighted.

Speaker 1:

Well, tell me a little bit about your backstory, because I feel like you are. You founded this company as a result of one of the things that many of us experience. You were a busy executive, then having a career shift, and you realized that you had some skills that everybody kind of needed. How did Betty Brigade come into existence?

Speaker 2:

Well, you're exactly right. I was in my corporate job and I just kept thinking if I had somebody who could do this much stuff. And this is, you know. This is before DoorDash and Shipt and really how Amazon has kind of become ubiquitous in our lives. It is before all that. So I started this company in 2003, which is a long, long time ago, and we're celebrating 22 years this year.

Speaker 1:

Congrats, that's amazing.

Speaker 2:

Some days it feels like a thousand um. Some days it feels like a thousand.

Speaker 1:

Uh, speak to me, entrepreneur, I get it, yes um, but anyway.

Speaker 2:

So I started this business thinking, okay, if I could just get this much help, um, that would be great. Somebody to meet the dishwasher repair guy, somebody to walk the dog, somebody to just handle a few small things, do my grocery shopping, so that I'm not quite so stressed out and I can come home and actually chill. Oh, what a dream.

Speaker 1:

I think many of us are probably listening in the car or on our workout because can't fit in two things. You have to combine them.

Speaker 2:

So I get it have to combine them so I get it Correct. So that is how it initially started and it has evolved substantially since you know, 22 years ago. So we started more concierge and errands and doing small things, and where we have now evolved to after two decades is we really specialize in organizing, in relocation, in helping people with stuff and with services inside their home, like helping manage vendors, helping get things done that even we don't do so, like sweeping the chimney and making sure that you know the hot water heater is drained and you know all of the things. Maintenance around your home and clearing those closets, making sure that things are moving through the house so they don't build up. That's kind of where we've evolved.

Speaker 1:

We're sitting here as the second week of January, I've just had some busy weekends and I've got a pile of Christmas stuff that's like all in one part of the house because I've gotten that far but it hasn't been put away. So, yes, this is the stuff, I get it. Then you add that sometimes it can be challenging to manage stuff as you age. First of all, it accumulates over your lifetime, but second, that can be a big hurdle to the right living arrangement. It can make your house less livable when you have the accumulation of a lifetime of collecting as well as you may need to modify where you live and your stuff can be a big hurdle.

Speaker 1:

And that's what I wanted to talk about today is how to actively make a choice about keeping on top of the stuff and or if you get to the point where you're like you know, I got a phone call last week from someone whose grandmother works with us but there's a lot of stuff to take care of and unfortunately, you know, due to a medical event, there's urgent needs, and so how do you? Either proactively handle it or, if it's just like in case of emergency, I need to call the brigade. How do you tackle those types of things?

Speaker 2:

Well, first off, you know it sucks when that happens when there is a medical event. It sucks because what that does is it puts everybody into emergency mode and often when that happens, people aren't making clear, comfortable or fully informed decisions. They're doing their best they can in the moment, and so that's where a lot of money and energy gets wasted. And so we see that happen all the time is when people have to make split second decisions, make, you know, decide that somebody is moving, and they have to make sure that everything is handled within three days. Guess what I mean? There's going to be a lot of things that get missed and things that get reprioritized. So the answer to your question is well, it depends.

Speaker 2:

Um because um, is there a way to plan for it 100%? Is there a way to save money 100%? Do most people do it? No, most people say that's not going to happen to, or I can put that off because I would rather go play pickleball, or I would rather go for a run, or I would rather go hang out with my friends or binge watch or whatever Hang out with my kids. And all of those things are important, and so is making sure that the staff is prioritized.

Speaker 1:

So tell me when you're in an ideal circumstance, when you're and I know that we're not consciously making the decisions of I would rather, because I know that I also squeezed in some time to watch playoff football last weekend, even though I felt like I was making progress on the holiday decorations and transitioning to Valentine's Day, because we like to keep it festive during the cold winter months but tell me what a way, a pathway would be to staying on top of things over time.

Speaker 2:

Well, there's. There are multiple pathways, whatever you know, different things work for different people. However, if I were just to, in a perfect world, say this is what works, and it works most of the time is setting aside at least one day a month to say I am going to tackle this closet or this room or the garage or work on one part of the basement, but putting a priority on saying this is what needs to get done, and I am going to dedicate a certain segment of my life to just working towards that goal.

Speaker 1:

And now let's say that you are like you know what? I'm a busy executive. Every minute that I have that is an extra moment probably needs to be dedicated either to quality family time or more work. What is an alternative, knowing that you have these types of professional services?

Speaker 2:

Well, an alternative. I'm going to actually tell you about a gentleman who just hired us. So, he is an attorney here in town and he works 100 hours a week. That's a lot of hours. It's hard to make that many a week and his family is. He's got some. There's some health emergencies in his family, so my guess is that he's he's either avoiding or he's making money to pay for medical stuff. I don't know, that's not my business.

Speaker 1:

That's not the scope of engagement.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, right, and he may tell us over time. But what he said is I need all of my closets organized so that I can't. He said I can get my dishes in the dishwasher, but I don't have time to empty the dishwasher. I can have my dry cleaning delivered, but I don't have time to empty the dishwasher. I can have my dry cleaning delivered, but I don't have time to take it out of the plastic and put it back in the closet. So I end up wearing the same suits over and over again. So that is, you know. I mean, that's, that's an extreme, and I know that most people aren't aren hours a week. However, how do you prioritize? Well, you say you know I'm going to say I'm going to spend, I'm going to go to my kids' games, or I'm going to go to my kids' concerts or that type of thing, and I'm also going to dedicate a certain period or a certain amount of time. And if I can't dedicate that time, I am going to find somebody who can do it for me.

Speaker 1:

And what type of person could do that for you? So what type of employees do you have with the Betty Brigade? You have professional organizers, I'm assuming Correct Yep. Is that your primary workforce or are there other skills as well?

Speaker 2:

So we help with downsizing, we help with organizing and staging, we help with selling items that people want to get rid of. We also help donate those items or recycle those items. So recycling, donation and resale is a big part of what we do and and so a lot of times when we're working with our clients we they'll say you know, I've got this baseball card collection, just for example. I've got this baseball card collection and I've had it since I was a kid. I'm not interested in it anymore. I've got.

Speaker 2:

You know, most of the cards are not worth much, but there's probably about 50 or 60 that have some high value. Can you help me? And let's just say there's a thousand cards just for you know, a nice round number. So we have a couple of vendors. We have an eBay vendor, but we also have a vendor who specializes in pop culture that we bring in and those vendors take a cut. But what makes Vetty Brigade very, very different than any other company that does this kind of downsizing is that we do not take a cut. All we're doing is matching the vendor with your stuff so that you are getting the right vendor for the right stuff and we're not just bringing in a general estate sale company or a general reseller. We're bringing in a reseller that specializes in the thing you have.

Speaker 1:

Okay, and then how does Betty Brigade get paid for the services that you provide?

Speaker 2:

We charge for our time, so it's based on hourly. We've got a minimum half day and the client pays us for what they need and typically we quote that up front. Mention Melissa Joy, say the words Melissa Joy I saw Sharon speak on the Melissa Joy show then or Women's Money and Wisdom. Yes, okay, either works. Yeah, so you can say Women's Money and Wisdom or Melissa Joy, and we will waive our consultation fee. Normally that's $250.

Speaker 2:

And that allows us to come in and create a full plan for what you need, not just this much, but we're going to look at your entire house and say, okay, you need this for the attic and you need this for the bedrooms, and you need this for the basement and you need this for the garage, and we're going to create a plan for all of that. And then we help you break that down and create doable steps. And if you want to do it yourself, you can do that and we will provide a vendor list. Here are the vendors we would call. Here's the order we would call them in, and here you go. So if all you're looking for is vendors, that's easy. If you want help, then we provide that physical help. You can work with us, or we can work 100% without you, because we do this for trusts and estates all day long, every day, every week, and so we are often working in homes where someone has recently passed and and we're helping that family manage all this.

Speaker 1:

Excuse me, all that stuff. Well, let's talk about the space in between. You know, thinking about our current listeners who, in in many cases, are in the middle of life and absolutely may need those services. I mean, I'm making a list for you. I may be following up, sharon, because I would love that Not only that consultation, but I will tell my listeners and we can talk about this on another episode. Time is your most valuable resource in many cases when you've started to achieve and accumulate wealth, and so it becomes more and more scarce as well, especially when you're successful and the value to be able to outsource something like this. I think so many people who had modest upbringing, or even their family, had, you know, kind of a philosophy on their money, that is, you do things yourself, you get out there and you mow that lawn. You know you clean the bathroom, etc.

Speaker 1:

I just cannot emphasize enough. There often are not enough hours in the day and there is no shame, if you can afford it, to outsource some of the work that you may have done in the past or your family may have expected you to do, or you feel like your friends might judge you. I don't know if you have anything to say about that.

Speaker 2:

Oh, oh. I have so much to say about them, and it's not this is not about Betty Brigade, I'm going to talk about myself for a minute. So I have a coach who said to me what is your time worth per hour? Okay, so, um, you know, and let's just for a round number, and you know cause everybody's time is worth different amounts, but for a nice round number, let's just say an, a hundred dollars an hour. If your time is worth $100 an hour and you and it takes you three hours to clean your house, that's $300 that you could have made elsewhere. And do you think that you could find a cleaner to clean your house for less than $300? Probably, if you don't have a gigantic house. And so that's. Think about it from that perspective. What are you doing? Um, to maximize your time and spend the time where you want to spend it, like, for example, my husband and I. Um, when I wrote my book, uh, we added a cleaning service because I didn't have time to clean the house. That was almost six years ago.

Speaker 2:

We never lost the cleaning service, the cleaning service, stayed with us because we realized that we stopped arguing about cleaning.

Speaker 1:

What a dream, and so many people need additional investments in their well-being just because they're feeling frazzled, they're feeling like too many things fall onto their plate Again that scarcity of time and so this can be an exceptional way to invest in your own well-being.

Speaker 2:

The other thing I want to say about that, melissa, is just like one quick thing is that people who do this every day can do it significantly faster and more efficiently than than people who don't do it every day.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. I mean that's you know, that's the work that we're doing in financial decisions, investment management and retirement planning, et cetera is when I get a thousand of bats to see you know make good investment decisions and advise on retirement. It is so much easier than if you just have you know make good investment decisions and advise on retirement. It is so much easier than if you just have you know the Google screen and the retirement calculator off of your 401k website, because I have that experience so I can send you in the right pathway and tailor the advice to you. So I absolutely agree.

Speaker 1:

So I want to make sure we have time to talk about when you, when our listeners, have that moment where they're like, oh my gosh, I'm going to be responsible for my aunt. There aren't other, you know, people to take care of them my parents, grandparents, et cetera and we've got a stuff issue. I don't know where to start and you may also, you know, in many cases have be working with someone who has a lot of anxiety around change and letting go of stuff, et cetera. Sharon, can you talk to me about how you engage in those circumstances before you get to the trust and estate administration or probate administration, but also not where you're proactively just saying I need a little maintenance on organization of the house and some extra things that I don't have time for I'd like to outsource?

Speaker 2:

Well, this is, this is a place where people can save a ton of money. A ton, tell me more. I'm interested. So by saying I'm going to hire professionals or I am going to prioritize this room or the attic or the garage, those are the. So it's those, it's those storage rooms that really collect first. So attics, garages, basements, those are the three areas that collect stuff first and that's where probably the oldest stuff that people have been collecting stays and that's the stuff that takes the longest, because there's a lot of memories attached, especially, you know, old photos and personal memorabilia and letters and military stuff. Like, we see all that stuff all the time.

Speaker 1:

So I have to tell you, just like I was at a friend's house last weekend and she was visiting her parents over the holidays and it was like we were in the attic for three days and I found this old dollhouse that had been made by my grandfather and sat in that attic for close to 50 years, things like that. So, yes, that is absolutely what happens.

Speaker 2:

And that dollhouse in the attic isn't doing anybody any good in the attic. All it's doing is collecting dust. So and I say the same thing about the good dishes Like what are you saving your good dishes for? Like freaking, use them. Use your good dishes. Who cares if one breaks? Who cares? There's a website out there called replacementscom. Go buy a new dish if you break one Big whoop. But the point is like use the things you love, put it out, see it, because it doesn't help anybody when it's just sitting in the attic and nobody knows that it's important to you when it's in the attic.

Speaker 2:

Came to this country or this state, or how mom and dad met, or how? What is the history of our family? Like? Those are the kinds of things that especially people that are into the ancestry stuff want to find, want to have, want to keep and want to archive. And if they're just sitting in the attic and they don't have names on the backs of photos they don't have, like you know, and this is the thing that makes me crazy let's go through the photos. Okay, who's that person? I don't know. Let's ask mom. Mom looks, I have no idea who that is. Let's ask grandma.

Speaker 2:

Okay, grandma looks. I have no idea who that person is, and so, like, you're holding onto photos where nobody knows who that human is, but you've got a picture of them, great. So it's about saying to family members let's really prioritize the things that are most important to us, put them out so that we can see them. Take away the things that we don't love, take away the things that we don't love. That Okay. So here's an example in my own life. My fan, I love cats and my cat is right here. Hello, this is Eartha Kitten, hi, eartha Kitten.

Speaker 2:

And so for a period of time my family started giving me cat everything. I love cats, but I don't want cats on my pillows and cat decorations everywhere. That's not how I want to live my life. You're not that much of a cat lady, but there was a period of about five years where I just got inundated with cat stuff.

Speaker 2:

And so think about the person in your life where you're like, oh, they love giraffes, or they love owls, or they love African viol violets or whatever it is that they love knitting, and so you keep buying them stuff in the area that you think they love, but they have so much that they and they say to you and my mother said this to me stop buying me stuff, because all you're going to do is clear it out to me. Stop buying me stuff, because all you're going to do is clear it out. So please buy me food, like buy me restaurant gift certificates, buy me experiences, things like that. Come see me. That's what she wants. And this is really really similar to Gen X and Gen Y and Gen Z is that we have shifted towards less stuff and more experiences.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. And that's what financial therapists say, brings better sense of well-being, more happiness, et cetera. Stuff doesn't do it for most of us. Now, that's not to say that the right thing isn't perfect, you know like doesn't bring you that joy, right.

Speaker 2:

So kind of circling back. How does that save money? Well, it means that if there is that health emergency and people aren't having to make decisions under duress, like all of that stuff is already sorted. Oh, I know what's most important to mom or to grandma or to aunt, whoever I know already, because we have talked about it and we have made a plan of please don't throw away these things, because someone in our family brought them over on a ship.

Speaker 2:

And here's who I would like them to go to, perhaps, and here's who I would like them to go to and there are so many people that do not want to have that conversation, where it gets uncomfortable and it is an uncomfortable situation, it is an uncomfortable conversation, and when you have that uncomfortable conversation, so much stuff gets cleared up, absolutely so much stuff.

Speaker 1:

I love this idea, but I feel like we also have to talk about when you are under duress. So let's say there is that emergency and I'm sure you know you guys are like the Batmobile getting called up, like get out here because we need help. What happens then? And how can you both, you know, honor the desires of someone who may not have full control of our decisions, as well as the person put in charge of kind of figuring something out?

Speaker 2:

And that's a fine line to walk. It can be really difficult, and so we're relying. Typically, if somebody has lost some, either speech capacity or memory capacity, and they can't communicate clearly or they are having some sort of health emergency, we are relying on their power of attorney to be the person to help inform. And usually and this is something I say to my team all the time the person put in charge is in charge for a reason, and the other family members who are causing ruckus in the background there's also a reason. They're not in charge because they're causing a ruckus. So often when people are setting up trusts or estates or things like that, they're choosing a human that is level-headed, is calm, has their ducks in a row. Isn't the person who's making rash decisions?

Speaker 1:

Right? Well, that's very helpful. So you guys can be the person that that power of attorney calls to assist with the actions that are necessary, while they coordinate with the considerations for the person that they're acting on behalf of.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. That doesn't mean, though, that that power of attorney isn't stressed out. No, no, happens all the time, absolutely.

Speaker 1:

Where they're like okay.

Speaker 2:

I have to find a new place for my loved one to live. I have to figure out what they're taking with them and I have to figure out what to do with the rest of the stuff. And so, in answer to that previous question, we start with what are the things that they need for ADLs or activities of daily living, or ADLs or activities of daily living, and so you know a bed, a dresser, a TV, a couch, a walker, if they need it, dishes, silverware, glasses, like clothing, all of those kind of basics. What do they need to get through their life in this next iteration? And then we look at okay, what's left? Has the family decided what they want?

Speaker 2:

What's important to the family? Is there stuff that needs to go into storage, like personal memorabilia, military uniforms, large collections of things, or are those things that need to? There needs to be an appraiser brought in to put a value on them. And so it depends on the house. We had a house that we did a couple of years ago that had over 100,000 pieces of political memorabilia Wow. And this guy had been collecting since he was 17 years old and he was now 90. And he had signatures from every president, from Jefferson through Obama. So imagine, like, lots of presidents, lots of important historical things and just a lot of random stuff that he just picked up at, you know, different rallies, and so some of it was super historically important. Some of it was not at all important and so we had to have specialists come in and take a look at it.

Speaker 1:

Perfect. Well, I know, as we were preparing for this episode. Recently we've had wildfires, we've had hurricanes, floods. It seems like natural disasters are so much more happening more frequently and we're all at risk. What can your services do to assist with being prepared for the unpreparable?

Speaker 2:

I'm so glad you asked this because this has been top of mind, especially because of the stuff that has been going on in the South and on the West Coast, and so what most people don't plan for is having a disaster. What most people don't plan for is having a disaster, and that can be catastrophic, and especially, you know, as we're hearing about the California stuff and the fires and people losing everything, so devastating. An easy solution, an easy and not expensive solution to this, and one of the things that we do is we can do full inventories of people's homes in about a day and a half to two days, with photographs and written descriptions, and our system, our tool, uses AI to find AI to find. So let's just say, for example, this was a priceless Ming vase. Well, we would bring in a specialist to appraise the priceless Ming vase, because that cannot be appraised with AI.

Speaker 2:

However the tool we're using uses AI. The tool we're using uses AI, and so when it takes a picture of this water bottle, it says, oh, that water bottle is worth $15. And it puts a brand name on it, it puts in the ounces and it says it's dishwasher safe or all of those things, and it puts a specific description with an approximate dollar amount and the last four times that that item sold on either eBay or Facebook Marketplace and it gives a fair market value. And those fair market values change. They just do. But because this inventory is hosted in the cloud, those inventories stay up to date.

Speaker 1:

Very interesting.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so it's really, really cool and it allows people to put fair market value on general stuff in their house and then bring in specialists for those special collections.

Speaker 1:

So that's critical for those special collections. So that's critical for a few things. You may not realize what the value of things are that you consider to be, you know, just stuff around the house, but also for insurance purposes if you, you know, need to value the contents of your home. That's not typically my. I used to live in a neighborhood that got hit by a tornado, so there were total losses and several homes in the neighborhood and you just don't have an inventory of everything you own, and so that um certainly provides that appraisal value too. And then it's also terrific. I would assume you tell me, sharon, for your list of who gets what um beat, which you always get when you draft a will or a trust. The attorney says, hey, make this list and say who things go to, and I'll tell you. I feel like it happens very infrequently where people are maintaining and updating those lists. But gosh, wouldn't it be helpful if you had the list of things you actually had?

Speaker 2:

Yes, and it's really easy to take things off and add things on because you just literally use your phone.

Speaker 1:

Perfect.

Speaker 2:

And so you can add things to the inventory and say, oh, you know what, that got wrecked, or we replaced this couch, or we replaced the television, or we've replaced you know whatever, or this collection got sold and so it's no longer in the inventory. It's really easy to keep track of that. And the other cool thing about this tool is that attorneys, insurance agents and every single family member can be viewers on this thing and then usually one or two people are kind of in control of adding and subtracting, because you don't want a bunch of people in there kind of messing around with it.

Speaker 1:

I love it. Well, thank you so much for sharing that, and I could go on all day, because so many you're just the work that you're doing is so relevant and, ironically, when you said oh, I started this back in the dark ages of 2003, before we had DoorDash. I don't know about you, but there's so many more productivity tools, like you just described, the inventories we can do, which is just so cool and amazing. And yet, because I'm using AI tools in my practices as well, this podcast is being recorded in the transcript, will be created with AI, and yet there is still so much to do.

Speaker 1:

I don't know why the productivity enhancements are just making the to-do list longer, but that's the way I feel. I don't know if you feel the same, but the work that you do is so important and is certainly not going away, and it's something that you cannot send. You can't outsource the management of stuff, at least not yet, and so tell us a little bit more. We're talking here, we're both located in Michigan, but some of your services are nationwide. Tell me a little bit more about both the book that you wrote and how people can find you if they're hearing this and saying tell me more, please.

Speaker 2:

Sure. So Betty Brigade and the relocation organizing piece, and especially with trusts and estates. We go all over the US and so people walk us through on a phone or a tablet. We can put together an estimate. We have a DocuSign contract so people can sign anywhere in the world. We've made this really, really simple, and the pandemic actually helped make that easier for us and helped other people understand how to work remotely better, which is great. But I did write a book. It's called Downsizing the Silver Tsunami who to Call and when Does the Stuff Go? It's in 14-point font for older eyeballs. There's actually a chapter called Family Sci.

Speaker 1:

Older eyeballs, starting with age 49, because that sounds good to me too.

Speaker 2:

But the thing is so this is really just a reference tool. There's a lot of information about how to do trust, how to divide things, what to put together like, how to work through the stuff, and so in the back there's a moving timeline if you are moving, and it breaks it down, you know, monthly, weekly, daily, and it just has a lot of just good general information. This is available on our website, BettyBrigadecom, which is where you can contact us, or you can go to Amazon. It's available in print, in Kindle and in Audible, so this book is also on Audible if you'd like to listen to your books. So lots of different ways to consume it.

Speaker 1:

Well, we'll make sure that both the Betty Brigade website as well as the link to the book are in show notes. And, sharon, thank you for your wisdom. I think being able to bring on guests that both have lived the needs that our clients experience, but also, just like you said, it's so different if you do this all day, every day. Those experiences are so different than when you come in and you say I may do this once or twice in my lifetime. Where do I even start? It's so overwhelming. So, thank you for doing the work that you do and thank you for sharing your wisdom.

Speaker 2:

Well, thank you. Thank you. I so appreciate being here and I just want to give this little bit of tidbit. Like that, most people, it takes them six to eight weeks to clear a home. If they're super motivated, it takes us six to eight days. So think about the ROI of your time, the return on investment of your time of an additional six weeks that you don't have to clear a house, of an additional six weeks that you don't have to clear a house.

Speaker 1:

That is food for thought and I appreciate you sharing, Sharon, Thank you. Thank you for listening to the Women's Money Wisdom Podcast. If you found value in this episode. The best way you can support the podcast is to forward an episode to a friend or leave a review. Go to pearlplancom and the podcast link to get all the resources and links mentioned.

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Melissa Joy, CFP

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