Women's Money Wisdom

Episode 299: Caring Through Crisis: Dementia, Aging, and the Sandwich Generation with Nicole Smith

• Melissa Joy, CFP® • Season 4 • Episode 299

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When three dementia diagnoses hit her family at once, Nicole Smith, Author of Diagnosis Dementia, didn’t plan to become an expert—she had no choice. In this episode, Melissa Joy, CFP®, talks with Nicole about navigating the overwhelming realities of caregiving for aging parents while raising kids, maintaining a career, and trying to hold everything together.

Nicole shares her personal story of managing care for three parents across multiple states during COVID, the lessons she learned about elder care, and why she now advocates for better preparation and open communication around aging and incapacity.

Key Topics Covered:

  •  How to manage multiple dementia diagnoses within one family.
  •  Building your caregiving “team” with medical, legal, and financial professionals.
  • Why early planning and clear documentation make all the difference.
  •  How to have difficult family conversations about aging, capacity, and long-term care.
  • Balancing caregiving, parenting, and personal well-being as part of the “sandwich generation.”
  • Why lifestyle choices—like sleep, exercise, and stress management—can help prevent dementia.
  •  The emotional side of caregiving: guilt, burnout, and learning to set boundaries.

Melissa and Nicole also discuss how professionals—financial advisors, attorneys, and healthcare providers—can help families prepare before a crisis and support caregivers with empathy and clarity.

✨ This conversation is both practical and deeply human—a reminder that caring for others starts with caring for yourself.

Connect with Nicole Smith:
Website: njsmithbooks.com
Instagram: @dementiabookreview
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/utnicolesmith/

Daughterhood.org – caregiver support community

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SPEAKER_01:

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. Hi, everybody. Today on the podcast, we're going to be talking about something I just hear about more and more in my client conversations, especially in 2025. We're joined by an author, Nicole Smith, who wrote a book called Diagnosis Dementia, which is all about how to manage through the complexities of being in the sandwich generation and helping to become a caregiver for your parents. But meanwhile, Nicole, after having tackled this topic, um, also knows that the, you know, caregiving comes from both ends of the spectrum. So her next project is going to be all about the sandwich generation, which I know, like myself, so many of our listeners are experiencing. Nicole, welcome to the podcast. Thanks. Excited to be here. Well, I think this topic is so important. We have had some knockout guests recently talking about their journey through caregiving, providing resources, et cetera. And you are one of those where you've just been through it. Um, I know as we were getting to know each other in preparation for the episode, you mentioned that you had to deal with three dementia diagnoses all at once about five years ago. Can you give me a little perspective on why or how you became such an expert on these topics?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I became an expert by accident. I just had to dive in and figure it out. Um, so I was living in New Jersey, and uh my mom was living in LA, and my dad and stepmom are living in Iowa where I grew up. And it was just um my mom uh got an Alzheimer's diagnosis, and then and she was 74-ish, and then my stepmom was just 70 and got uh primary progressive aphasia, which is the same as Bruce Willis. And then my dad has um normal pressure hydrocephalus, which had he had known about but hadn't progressed. But through COVID, it progressed quite significantly. And so he's the lucky one as he went to the University of Iowa and had the um brain surgery to put a shunt in his brain and the tube, and and now he's got a new lease on life and he just turned 83. So um, but still it was navigating all of all of that the legal, the medical, the financial, the logistical, the emotional. And um, I just put together a team and started going at it.

SPEAKER_01:

Wow, that is so much on your plate, and we never know what's around the corner. And to do it all during COVID, where you have the difficulties of how do you be three places all at once when you're supposed to be staying home, has to have even increased the level of difficulty. Um, tell me about that team. So you said you build a team um when you, you know, now you know you need to build a team. Um, who was on your team for you?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, so first and foremost, it's my aunt Nancy. So she's my mother's older sister, and she became a nurse in 1962 and had lived with my mom in California um before she moved back to the East Coast. And she um she's the one that kind of sounded the alarm and started navigating and getting those doctors' appointments, figuring out the neurology appointment. And um, she uh she and I worked together seamlessly to figure this all out. And she was the the medical person, but also just um, you know, flying back and forth. We were taking turns flying back and forth from between East Coast and LA just to help figure all this out. Um, and then um my husband, thankfully, is a CPA and just knows everything about everything that has to do with finance, taxes, legal, medical, long-term care. Like he he was in um public accounting, but he just, you know, as uh as a family with five kids, he, you know, funded all the 529s. Like he just knows that stuff inside and out, thankfully. Amazing. Um, yeah, so that was good. Um, the only and then I didn't even know about the world of elder law attorneys, estate planning attorneys. Like we had all of our stuff again, because my husband was very responsible. So when we were in California, we had a trust in New Jersey. We dissolved the trust because the state law doesn't, you know, isn't conducive to that. And then we moved to Arizona, we created a new trust. So it's so different wherever you are. And then California is just another planet, really. So um, so uh yeah, so he was helpful, my aunt was helpful, and then the elder law attorney I found in a state law attorney, but I had one in Jersey in case she moved to Jersey. I had one in Maryland in case we need to do that, and and then we had one in California that I was working with, and then in Arizona we had a new one. So um, because it's it's so state specific. And um, so I found a an elder law attorney in Los Angeles that was uh personally and professionally aware of everything going on, and he helped me figure all this out.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh, but there was um And the figure it out is like a doctor's note saying that you know, whatever your mom had laid out, or what are they figuring out? The assets. Well, no.

SPEAKER_02:

So what happened was um that was the thing. So because of my um, we had the my mom's trust and will and everything was she already had a different attorney draft and was current and all that, but she um had specified, which is typical, that uh if I'm declared incapacitated by two two separate physicians, then blah blah blah, then the the um what's it called, dude? Um a successor trustee, your power trustee in the place. Exactly. I mean, we had powers that they're all separate, like anyway, but yes, the successor trustee assumes that role, which was me. And then um, but the problem was is she had the Alzheimer's diagnosis from her primary and from the neurologist, but they didn't want to write the letters because medical and legal don't really get along, and they're like, we don't we don't feel writing these letters. Yeah, they didn't want the risk. So it took us eight months to get those letters. Oh my god. Like eight months of total chaos with my mom. And that's only because my aunt Nancy had worked in LA for 20 years. She was a nurse, she worked in hospital administration, she spoke their language, she was on the portal, she was the um medical power of attorney, and it still took us eight months to get them to write on the letterhead that mom was was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Unbelievable. And we lost a lot of valuable time.

SPEAKER_01:

But I've never run into that myself, but I guess it would be a question that do you recommend people ask that up front when they're working with a doctor?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, I think um I think the PCP was fairly new and young. Um, the neurologist was not, but you know, neurolog everybody in neurology doesn't always deal with dementia. Some are, you know, brain bleeds, and I mean there's a million things, and you know, not all of them, not all of them specialize in dementia, especially um uh primary care physicians. They'll just slough it off as, oh, a midlife crisis, you're depressed, whatever. A lot of the primary care physicians don't even know about dementia. I mean, they've got a lot to deal with. Right. So um, you know, so you've got to have an advocate, you've got to have an and I didn't know myself at this time, I didn't know much about dementia. So that was a huge uphill battle. And then on my dad's side, he didn't have anything in place and didn't want to and had no desire to. So that was a battle.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't, you know, like, yeah, if I'm, you know, if it's a crisis, I'll get around to it. But, you know, you're not able in a crisis to um, you know, carefully go back and give up the authority that you didn't want to give up in the first place.

SPEAKER_02:

So that can be really difficult. Yeah, and it it took 18 months to get my dad to get his documents all done. Like, I mean, we went through a couple different lawyers, and so fortunately, like mom's issue, even though she had all her legals, legal, it legal docs done, forced me to ask dad just out of a just uh offhandedly, like, oh, do you have yours done? No. And then is when my stepmom guy got diagnosed, I'm like, she needs to get hers done because she's got aphasia. And then luckily her brother, because they had always kept their stuff separate, her brother came in to help navigate her getting her documents done so I could focus on dad. Perfect.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, that's tough. I went, you know, thinking about um these types of conversations, I just wish, you know, some of our listeners sent their parents to this discussion to say, hey, none of us want this, and I don't want control of your accounts, but I feel like I might be forced to someday. And please make it easier for me if that's the case. Give me a heads up about, you know, even if it's not me, who do you plan to have be responsible? It's fortunate that your husband is, you know, kind of the family financial guru because he can handle some of those things, but that's another, you know, um, time where you may need a professional like a tax preparer, CPA, andor financial advisor, investment advisor, or financial planner, um, because not every family is equipped with someone that can navigate um and has a qualification or skill to understand how to manage the finances of someone going through it.

SPEAKER_02:

Right. And I say they all work in tandem. So the chances are if you have a if you have a financial advisor, they're probably gonna know a couple of the elder law attorneys and they'll know a tax preparator, or like vice versa. Like, you know, I mean, you have your people that you know like and trust. And that's why I became a certified senior advisor. We're specialists in aging. I would they give you some manuals, you um go to a class and then you take an exam. So it's it's it's like an add-on for a lot of financial advisors, realtors, attorneys to because it's a specialist in aging. And um, so I I became a certified senior advisor because I was like, I I know all this stuff already and I want to help more people through it. Yeah. And so that was the only credential that I could get that kind of gave me some legitimacy for what I'm doing. But I've been living it nonstop for the last five years.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I bet you can be a mediator in a family where maybe there is an acknowledgement of a need or a risk, but the unwillingness to just be like, oh, let me just hand over all my information, which is understandable in a, you know, in many families are very private generationally. Um, silent generation is more private, perhaps, than certainly um Gen X and millennials, and in many cases boomers. Um, and so, you know, having that person who can kind of be a mediator and explain why things are important and explain how to protect from, you know, funds being used for other things or, you know, things happening against your will can be really important.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, but the the common whatever studies say that most older adults, parents, they want two things. They want to give their kids a little bit of money or leave them a little money, and they don't want to be a burden. Well, guess what? All of that goes out the window immediately once you've got a fall, a scam, a car accident, you know, any number of things can just go bananas sideways like it did in my family. Ours was a slow burn, but it was a very traumatic burn. So um, yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I'm curious, um, since you've been through it, um, and we're gonna get to some of the you know best tips if you just got a family member with a dementia diagnosis or something like that. But what are your thoughts with the information that you have about, you know, some of the options that we have? Like, what do you think of what would you tell your kids to do if you um had an adverse diagnosis in terms of aging in place or going into a care facility? And also, what are your thoughts on long-term care insurance?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, well, I mean, my whole book and everything with with this is it's it's important to have these conversations. Yes, we don't want to talk about death, dying, disability, dementia, but it's it's important to have these conversations. So you've got um, you've got to initiate it. There's the conversation project, the five wishes, the death deck. Like you've got, there's all these tools out there that can help you figure out how to navigate this. Yeah. So um, you know, start, you know, sometimes it's the kids that don't want to, they're like, no, no, no, I don't want to talk about it. And sometimes it's the parrots, but it's you can bring in a mediator, you can um go to a public event or go to an information session, uh, find a support group to kind of just figure it out. But uh I I don't know much about long-term care insurance. That's another animal in and of itself. It's an expensive animal too. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So we, you know, luckily my husband is very prudent and um responsible and knows all this stuff. So he got ours like over 20 years ago, got us policies, right? So we're good. Um, but and then my mom's in memory care, my stepmom's in memory care, and my dad still lives at home. And then my husband's 99-year-old aunt still lives alone in her condo and she's thriving. So, you know, it depends on do you have debilitating disease? Do you have um comorbidities? Do you have um, do you have finances? Are you isolated in rural, a rural community? Like you need, you need a social network, you need to stay active, you need to, you need to be responsible for your own, for your own aging. Yeah. So I mean, we're yeah, we're we moved to this house in Arizona and it's just a flat single story, and we were talking about renovating, and my husband's like, oh, well, maybe we should add a second story. I'm like, no, we're aging. We stairs are not our friend. I mean, you know, that's a ways off, but you know, you gotta think long-term, grab bars, community. Um, you've got to put these plants in place because the newest uh research says 45% of dementia can be prevented through um through lifestyle. So sleep, stress, exercise, nutrition, uh, eating, right? Yeah. I mean, all the stuff that's good for your body is good for your brain, but it's just hard to make these choices, right?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and I'll share with you, Nicole. I've said this before on the podcast, but one of the best decisions I've seen, um, I use my mentor, my first financial planning mentor. I worked for her more than 25 years ago. And when they retired, they moved to Arizona, very similar to you. They picked a beautiful ranch, pool in the back. There was a golf neighborhood, and um, they had 15 years where they were really living a great independent life, but with no adverse diagnoses, they decided um, hey, we don't want to become isolated. We're not using the pool. Um, maybe we should move to an active retirement community a little bit earlier than you would have to, or probably a lot earlier. There weren't any um, you know, bad diagnoses. And there they, you know, have um meals prepared for them. They, you know, are involved in the bridge group. They know other um, you know, very successful people who have chosen the same life. And it's just been a gift because I think it had them aging better. Um, obviously, there's some investment if you're going to a higher-end community like that. Um, but I just see when people are willing to kind of face the beast and and the reality that aging um has a lot of difficulties and a lot of um trade-offs, then um that can really set you up perhaps better for that nutrition, for that um, you know, people keeping an eye out, sociability, because becoming isolated and not around people as often both um means that, you know, kind of alarm symptoms don't get caught as quickly, but also um you may not, you know, but kind of be in keeping up the cognitive skills that keep you young. Um, and so, you know, that's just one point of view. I know many people feel very differently and really want to stay in a place that they know and love. Um, but I certainly, when I my husband and I ourselves decided to purchase long-term care insurance not quite as long ago, five or six years ago, um, which more of the more recent long-term care insurance policies are often more affordable if they're um a life insurance policy that's really doesn't make sense just for your life insurance, but makes more sense as a bucket for long-term care costs. Um we, you know, factor that in. Like it's it's not the worst thing to live in a different place. Um yeah, it's all about your choices.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, yeah. And you can make choices if you're informed. So being informed talks about it, it requires looking at your options financially and otherwise. So some people um build an accessory dwelling unit on their on their property. So you can have you can have kids move in with you, you can move in with your kids, which has really got its own issues, but then you can have um a college student move in and rent and help care help with you with groceries and different things. Like there's the the good, good and bad is is there's 73 million people in the baby boomer generation. So they're the ones that are aging right now. They're all hitting 75 and 80, and a lot of things are catching up. We have modern medicine that helps you live longer and sicker with more meds, more procedures. So that's affecting things. But the other thing is um it's created what I call the wild west of elder care. So everybody's trying to monetize, digitize, profitize, but there's all these ideas. So I'm going to think tank in Austin. It's a um senior living conference for influencers in the senior space, and it's everybody in all kinds of um industries all over the country. And so there's 50 of us convening on Austin for the fourth annual think tank. So I'm so excited to learn um what's on the horizon. And then our small group project is um focusing on intergenerational um uh solutions. So whether that's music or um co-spaces or Montessori space, like uh we're very excited about what's coming up.

SPEAKER_01:

I love that. I also, it's so interesting because you might assume that wealthier areas have higher costs for long-term care nursing home. But um the biggest cost I have for clients' parents in care is actually in rural northern Michigan, not a place with um a lot of money. Um, but because there's no other game in town, there's no competition and resources are fewer and fewer, it's um very, very expensive in that case. Um, so much so that in Boca Ratone, a client in a very tony neighborhood just moved into a brand new, beautiful assisted living facility because of medical needs. And it's like a third of the cost of the northern Michigan um per month payments. So that's also, you know, something to consider is like where makes sense and where's family. So um, you know, do you end up staying close to where you've lived if your family is not there? Um, all of these are fantastic discussions, difficult discussions, but also really important if you have the opportunity to have them not in a crisis.

SPEAKER_02:

Right. So I break it down to where, care, and cost. So where do you want to live? Do you want to stay in your town or do you want to move too close to your kids? You want kids want to move closer to you? I mean, that's part of the thing. Where and then what kind of care are you gonna are you gonna move to a community? I mean, again, like you said, the meals, like one of my friends, her dad was suffering and militating because they would just go to Costco and buy him a bunch of food to sustain him with all, you know, fat and sugar and salt and whatever it's so his health was declining. And so then once they moved him into a community, then he's getting three square meals a day, he's getting healthier options, he's getting the socialization. So there's so many factors to consider. Uh, but you gotta you've got to make conscious choices, you've got to make choices you can afford. And and cost is a big one, you know? What and there's all these financial, there's reverse mortgages and there's um life settlements, like there's all these new financial tools that people can use, but you have to talk to someone who's very knowledgeable in that space and what's your situation and what um you know, what can you afford and and what tools are available to you?

SPEAKER_01:

Like, and with all of those, yeah, with all of those, whether it's long-term care um being sold before, you know, well before you have any negative diagnosis and many years earlier, um, or a viatical settlement or um life settlement or um reverse mortgages, there's also costs. So you really need to be careful. Are you being consulted to where you're being told options? Are you being sold to a product that you know somebody represents where um you know there's definitely disclosure on commissions? How are you being compensated? What would you be compensated? Um, and you know, hopefully working with someone who's multidimensional that will consider all of the options um in order to determine what's best.

SPEAKER_02:

Right. I mean, it's just the old adage like um if you go to a surgeon, surgeons cut. Like not, you know, they're gonna want to do surgery. So I mean, I mean, again, you have to advocate no matter where you are, in what profession you are. And and we're the generation where we're not afraid to ask questions because I was in another thing where they're saying, well, you know, in in the older generation, they revered doctors and lawyers, and you know, so you didn't question them, right? You just accepted what they told you, right? And so, and that's when uh my elder law attorney kept pushing guardianship, guardianship, guardianship, because mom had all her documents, but she refused to leave her house and we couldn't force her to leave her house. And so, but then I was like, I really don't want to do this guardianship thing. And so I finally got close and I said, Okay, what if what if we push the go button and we do this? It's like, well, you know, I'll get the court date and we'll get get on it. And I said, Okay, so then she can move out, you know, soon. And he's like, No, no, no, the courts take like six months, and I'm like, What? I didn't know that. And then it's like ten thousand dollars to set up a guardianship. I mean, it depends, but I'm like, okay, that that's why my gut was telling me, don't do this, don't do this. And then she ended up disappearing in the middle of the night and all no broken loss. And so that's how we ended up. So yeah, it's a long story. That's why I write a book. Oh, she was she was so I mean, like I tell people, it's not like your brain just shuts off, it's firing certain times and it's it's working sometimes and sometimes it's not. And yeah, when it was working, she was on and she was working against us 100%.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, and I see so often very loving, um, you know, rational, um, caring people. When you first are starting to lose your capacity, there's a lot of agitation, there's a lot of paranoia, um, there's a lot of working against the system, anger, um, so much that they're going through, but also you're experiencing that as a caregiver. So just giving grace for those that are going through that.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. I mean, well, my husband's like, he's like, wow, you just like flip-flopped overnight. Cause like I said, I'm feisty, my mom's feisty, my sister's feisty. Like we were constantly screaming. And then when I realized that, oh, this is what dementia does, it's partly, I mean, she was feisty to begin with. She didn't go from like this suite, yeah. But um, so it was just like on steroids. And then I and then when I stopped arguing with her, stopped correcting her, stopped, you know, then I was like, oh, it was much easier. Yeah. And I was like, oh, well, that makes sense. Even though, I mean, I had to keep like steal documents from her office when she wasn't when she was napping. And so, like, and I and as a daughter, I was like, I'm being a bad girl. I'm not, I'm disobeying my mom. Like, you know, it was all these emotions wrapped up, you know. It's just that was horrendous. And um, but now I'm like, whatever, you know, I I got bolder and bolder and bolder because I was more desperate to just figure it out.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, with the time that we have left, give us a preview about what you're learning about being a sandwich generation. You've got um, you don't have the little kids, they're not mom, you know, like older generation and younger generation aren't both in diapers. You've got young adults in your your household that um have their own um emerging adult needs, plus you have um these ongoing caregiving responsibilities. What do we need to be telling ourselves? How do we prepare um for being part of this sandwich generation?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, I always say get a get a support group. So find a support group, whether it's um online through daughterhood, which I'm part of, daughterhood.org, or your local library or your local area agency on aging, some elder law firms have their own support groups. Um I like to say, throw a rock and you'll hit a caregiver. I talk about it all the time and always like, oh yeah, my my grandma, my mom, my aunt, my so if you if you're not, if you're not um shackled by the the shame and the blame game, and you just start talking about it, you'll find other people open up and then you have instant camaraderie. So find a support group because a lot of everyone's going through this and and it's we all have our own stories, but there's a lot of commonality. So um, like for example, it in with big kids, I have big problems. So we were trying to take mom's car away, which is another nightmare DMV story. I believe unbelievable. And then I'm having my teenagers get their license, right? But then they're getting into fender benders and getting tickets and like, you know, so all that. And then the same on the same vein. So my mom, when things finally got so hectic, she ended up in behavioral health for uh psychotic break and um dementia and everything. So three weeks she was in there, and then like within the year, my daughter's in behavioral health for anxiety, depression, the whole night, you know. So it's just I it's both sides. Like I wasn't worried about daycare, I was worrying about you know suicidal ideation and death.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, and I know so many people with kids with complex um needs, um, it's very isolating because it's it's easier, frankly, to talk about your parents with dementia. Everybody understands more. And in a society where social media is just, you know, showing everybody off to their Ivy League experiences, that isn't shared as well. I've definitely been through that. And another thing I would, you know, tell everybody listening who has the potential to go through this, or if you're in the thick of it, we see you and hear you is, you know, just like when you get on the plane where they say put the oxygen mask on yourself first before you help the others in your aisle, um, you need to take care of yourself and your resources because oftentimes, you know, the whole, the whole web is relying on you. So, you know, investment in mental health therapy um and wellness is is so important because if you burn yourself out, um, that does not make anything any easier.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, everybody uses the oxygen mask, which is true. Like I mean, I as in raising five kids, I always prioritized exercise forever because it's like it gave me more energy and it let it was my release for my mental and physical angst. So I was just already in the habit of doing that. And then I would say, just always bring a chocolate bar on the flight because shove that in your mouth before the oxygen mask, because chocolate helps everything.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. And you still like you can't cut out time for yourself, even though, you know, even if it's just planning and saying, hey, I'm the primary caregiver because I'm local and I need respite. So if there's a sibling that could come in who's not local to do, you know, some trade-offs or things like that.

SPEAKER_02:

It's a whole different dynamic. I d um, yeah. Um boundaries, you need to figure out. Like, I mean, my in my sandwich book uh that I'm coming out with, I there's a whole thing on boundaries because uh yeah, I was even blinded by my own boundaries. So I mean it's a constant learning process.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I know you're gonna let us know when the new book is coming out, and we'll be so excited to read it and hear about it. But in the meantime, we'll have a link to diagnosis dementia in the show notes. Um, tell us where else we can find you and how people can follow and learn more.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, I love LinkedIn. So Nicole Smith on LinkedIn, there's probably a few of us, but I um the University of Texas at Austin, I live in Tucson. Um, but all the links are from my website, so njssmithbooks.com. And then on uh Instagram, I'm at Dementia Book Review. So I've read about 50 different books on dementia, like every aspect of dementia, and I post little tips and um stories, and also just any latest book that I've read um about dementia, I post that with a little review.

SPEAKER_01:

That's super helpful. Um, thank you for sharing your wisdom, your experience, your stories. I know there's so many people that need to hear this. Um, and I'm so glad they can find you through listening on this episode. Thanks so much, Nicole. It was really fun. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for listening to the Women's Money Wisdom Podcast. If you found value in this episode, the best way that you can support the podcast is to forward an episode to a friend or leave a review. Go to ProPlan.com and the podcast link to get all the resources and links mentioned. This presentation by Pro Planning is intended for general information purposes only. No portion of this presentation serves as a receipt of or a substitute for personal investment advice from Pro Planning or any other investment professional of your choosing. Copies of Pro Planning's current rent and disclosure brochure and from CRS discussing our advisory services and fees are available upon request or on our website platform at proplan.com. The information that we share is meant to educate and inspire, but 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 Melissa's own and those of her guests. They don't necessarily represent any organizations with which Melissa is affiliated. For more important disclosures, please go to our webpage at proplan.com.

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Melissa Joy, CFP

Host