In this insightful episode of The One Small Change Podcast, Yvonne McCoy welcomes Bill Walters to explore the intersection of financial planning, caregiving for aging parents, and entrepreneurial life. Bill Walters draws from personal experience to reveal how unexpected responsibilities caring for a parent can impact both business and personal well-being. The discussion dives into practical strategies for building a secure retirement, managing the challenges of the "sandwich generation," creating effective estate plans, and the crucial need for early conversations around care and family finances. Listeners will leave with actionable tips for protecting both their parents’ futures and their own.

Guest Bio:

Bill Walters is a seasoned financial strategist specializing in creating tax-free retirement solutions and helping families triple their savings within a decade. His expertise is rooted in his personal journey, where caring for an aging parent inspired him to help others avoid common pitfalls and emotional stressors associated with late-life transitions. An author of five books, Bill Walters is committed to empowering people with knowledge and practical tools to secure their golden years and achieve true peace of mind.

Chapters:

00:00 "Caring for Aging Parents"

03:45 "Entrepreneurs and Retirement Fund Growth"

08:16 Balancing Caregiving and Survival

09:33 "Discuss Aging Plans Early"

15:02 Estate Planning for Every Family

16:30 "Importance of Logical Support Boundaries"

19:26 "Planning to Avoid Family Burdens"

24:32 "Rock Climbing and Business Insights"

26:02 "Embrace Change, Stay Curious"

Quote from the Guest:

"You have to be organized. You just can't live paycheck to paycheck. One needs a budget, you need a retirement budget." 

Link:

Complimentary “Smart Financial Strategies” consultation for families and individuals. A no-obligation session is designed to get to know you and your financial goals. We’ll discuss where you are now, where you want to be, and explore how I can help you achieve your financial objectives. Whether you're planning for retirement, saving for a big life event, or just looking to better understand your financial options, this conversation will give you clarity and a roadmap for the next steps.

https://calendly.com/wjwalters/15-minute-discovery-session 

Welcome to the One Small Change. I'm thrilled that you're here with us

again this week on this journey of exploration and transformation.

And I'm Your host, Yvonne McCoy and I bring almost 30 years of

entrepreneurial experience and I have a passion for discovering

growth through the power of seemingly small change. I want you

to know that each week I try to bring you somebody interesting who's going to

give you some insights on their small, unexpected

or insignificant decision. Decision that sparked a remarkable

transformation and growth in either their personal, their

professional or both. And this week we are talking with the

amazing Bill Walters. Hi, Bill. Hey, Yvonne.

Thank you so much for having me as a guest. I really appreciate the opportunity

to get to know your audience as well as you. Well,

I have to tell you that, that you're talking about

a topic that I think is great. Kind of

the imperfect family and

entrepreneurs. Not only do we have a very weird life, but we also

have that imperfect family. So I would love for you to

share what you do and also

what happened that made you go in that direction makes you really good at what

you do. Sure, no problem. So what

I do is I help people money fest

or create a lifestyle in retirement

where they achieve maximum productivity

and that's either income tax free savings or

tripling. And I did say that we're tripling their savings

from their old 401k or

529 plan or whatever plan that they have in place

in 10 years. And so how

I got started, it's pretty simple.

My mom was on her

caretaking process for my dad

for many, many years. And while my dad was on his deathbed,

he reached up and grabbed me and in his

navy way and said, take care of mom. And I said, yeah dad, I got

this. And then he really grabbed me hard and said no.

I said take care of mom. And I said, yeah dad, I heard

you the first time. I didn't know what he really meant by that.

And so when he passed and my mom aged 10 years,

she didn't have a long term care plan in place. I was it.

And she just plopped herself on my couch and never left.

And I was left with the responsibility of selling her house,

consolidating her, her ownership of

things and creating a long term

care plan for her that was not only

new to me, but I made a lot of mistakes out of love.

And in the, in the six year span that she spent,

there was no regrets, but I learned the importance and

the difference of removing fall risks and

having everything on one floor. So there's no stairs or steps

and bed alarms and

adult incontinence diapers. And the differences between them and

having people come into the house as personal care assistants

to do bathing and general household cleaning up after her, because

I always knew what room she was in because there was always a trail of

crumbs from either cookies or pretzels. And

so I learned all these things and I could shorten them up

into a 20 minute conversation so that you don't make the same mistakes

out of love that I did. All right, so this is what I want to

do. I know the people that are listening to this

introduction because they're mainly entrepreneurs, is saying,

what does this have to do with me? Do you know what?

I don't get it. Okay. And one of the reasons that

we connected is because I had that experience as well

at being an entrepreneur. And so the thing that I want

to say to people is the first thing that you said was

I can grow your retirement fund. So there may be some

who have never worked for a corporation or. And have a

retirement fund that this might. I don't know whether what you do is

applicable to anybody who wants to set up their own retirement fund.

I don't. Yes. So it. So if you have just general

savings or money in a bank or money

that's not really earning true

interest beyond or above inflation,

then I would be the guy that can really make a difference in

that gameplay. And there's two strategies. There's a tax

deferred strategy and there's a tax free strategy.

And doesn't on both of these, they're not

limited by age. So you could be

10 or you could be 85 and still

they would work. All right, so here's the other part that I

think where there's the overlap and that is

if. If you are an entrepreneur and you have an aging

parent, you are stepping into

some totally unknown stuff. Yes.

Right. And you're doing it at a time when

you're stepping into unknown stuff in

your business, which means that your life without some kind

of guardrails, some kind of insight, some kind of advice

is going to be a whirlwind that you did not

expect and cannot anticipate

the things that are going to come up. You mentioned

you knew where your mother was because of the breadcrumbs.

My mother. It was chocolate, it was candy

wrappers. Right. And you know, the thing

is that this is the parent that raised us

and we love them very much,

whether they're. I always say everybody has, you know, everybody

has a mother, whether she's an angel or a devil. We all have mothers.

Right? Exactly. However, it

seems to me that as every parent ages,

they become more demanding and they're just more things

that happen at a time when you're trying to grow your business. So

I'm going to let you talk about this and I will chime in with my

own horror stories or whatever. But. But I wanted to

make that connection because I didn't want people to hear the beginning of the

podcast and say, well, what does this have to do with entrepreneurship?

And what I say to people is, you have 24

hours. That includes your entrepreneur business and

your personal life. And when you have to take care of your

parents as well as your own family, if you're

in that sandwich generation, God bless you because I've lived

through that. And it's

demanding, requires a lot from you. So go Bill.

So it's very demanding. It's very, very

demanding. Right. Because what happens

is that you have to be aware of doctor's

appointments and actually go on them or send someone who's reliable to take the

notes to actually hear what's going on. And you

have to do the medicine allocation and make sure that it's taken at the right

time, then the

therapy, if needed, as well as making sure that

mom slash dad is drinking enough liquids, because if they don't drink

enough liquids, they become dehydrated and they start seeing things like

spots and having conversations with people that aren't there. And

you also have the opposite end of it, which is

cleanliness, which as you age, you don't feel like getting

showered or bathed as much. And so that's why you need someone else

to do that bathing three times a week so they stay clean,

because you don't want urinary tract infections. And that's for both guys and

girls. And so again, all these things are taken

into account, plus pulse ox

readings and weight readings. And because my mom had a heart condition, if

she gained three pounds overnight, it just meant that her heart

wasn't working properly and we had to get the liquid out. So you do all

these things that are concerned with mom at the same time. I have a

daughter that's on the spectrum who be classified as

special needs and a son add.

And so when you're looking to do those things, manage

those people, take them to their activities, manage moments

and then run a business.

You're trying to just maintain status quo, not even grow, because

you're just trying to survive. You're trying to make it from

wake up Time to going to sleep without making any mistakes

for your current clients and still have a semblance of order

and knowing when to hire personal care assistants so that

you can do your job. All right, can I stop you right away?

Yes. This is, I think, the biggest mistake

that I see. So the first one is that we don't,

you know, we don't know what we don't know. Yep. So if you have

a parent who is, you know, I don't know what

the right age is, but I would think mid-60s,

70s, you need to have a conversation with them.

You know, what is it that they want? You need to have a conversation with

your siblings. I was very lucky,

and I say that because you can't have this conversation early

enough. Typically, by the time you realize that you need

help, it's already too late. It has already caused

havoc in your life. And I was lucky enough to have had a

conversation with a family friend of ours

who worked in the aging community, and he sat down with my brother, my sister

and I, in a restaurant, like, in a neutral place,

and said, what is it that you know, what is it that your parents want

and what is it that you want? And my brother was like,

put her in a nursing home. This was like, after my dad died, put her

in a nursing home. And my sister's like, well, I'm not nearby.

I leave it up to you guys. And I'm like, mom doesn't want to go

to a nursing home. So it fell on me. And

if that's going to happen, you need to know that sooner than later.

You know, what, what, what kind of support you're going to get, whether

it's going to be financial, whether it's going to be mental,

whatever. So that's, that's probably

my biggest thing. And to know that your parent is not. Is going

to resist because they feel like you're taking away their

independence and they're, you know, you're the child, they're the adult, they

know better. So it is an uphill and something, sometimes very

thankless job. I'm

sorry I spouted. But, but no, it's, it's

accurate because it's very

thankless in the aspect that

you don't know what, what you're doing

until you're in it. But I can say this, that

the gift back is that whether you

have. I was the only child, so I didn't have a chance to

get help or respite help. But when you

take care of a mom, it's just the same way as you

would that she did when. When you were a child, because

she loved you and she took care of you. Well, now it's time to return

the favor. Now, the best time to reach out to someone is

in their 60s, because they're still cognizant. And you get their real

dreams, and you get it in writing, and then you laminate it

so they can't rip it when they're older, because you want to

do exactly what their game plan is. So if their game plan is

to stay home and they say, I didn't want this, or I didn't. I

didn't sign up for this, and I'm like, yeah, you did. And you take

it out and say, is that your signature? Well, yeah. Is that your

handwriting? Yeah. And you asked for this. So

we're giving you exactly what you asked for. And then they get mad, and that's

why it's important to laminate it, because they can't rip it because it's their

signature, and they made it when they were cognizant and sharp.

So you're honoring that. And it's important because you're not throwing it in

their face. You're not teasing them. You're just trying to give them

the golden years to be truly golden. Yeah. And

I think the other thing is,

is to have a will. We haven't even

gotten to that part yet. Oh, I. I'll wait on that part, though. But.

But you know, the thing I think that I found that. I

think you also need to be. Is you talked about doctor's

appointments. You need to be an advocate for your parent.

I mean, you know, unfortunately, there is

ageism in the medical community. I

mean, I. I went to the doctors and said, can you give. Can you

up the dosage? My mother was in her 90s. Right.

And I said, can you up the dosage on my mom's happy pill?

Right. And he goes, has she.

Has she talked about killing herself? And I said, no, she makes us

want to kill ourselves. And he goes, have you thought about

therapy? And I'm like, really? The woman is in her

90s. I said, she doesn't have enough time left for

therapy to kick in. I mean, and it sounded. It

sounds harsh, but her life is better when she's happier, and

so is ours. Just, you know, up the pills, because

who's going to take her to this additional appointment that she

doesn't want to go to to do something she doesn't want to do?

And so you have to. You know, there's a certain point where you just have

to be really realistic about what's possible.

And the other thing about talking to your parents when

they're still cognitive is. And I said this to you,

you know, because both my parents lived to be 94.

Social Security had two different birth dates for my dad

and it took us a while to clear that up after he died.

Then it turned out my parents were married for almost 70 years and my

mother never changed her Social Security to her married name.

That makes no sense. I mean, so you

want to have take a look at those things before you need them,

right? 100%. So you

know what I tell people is an estate

plan is really important. It's just not for the rich. And in an

estate plan you include a medical care directive and a

financial care directive. The person does the medical care

directive is so that they can make the sound

decisions not from the heart, but from the head when it comes to

medical advice. Resuscitate, do not resuscitate,

et cetera. And then the financial standpoint,

you want to get power of attorney not to take mom

and dad's money, but just so that they don't get scammed from

somebody on the telephone, somebody that's a relative. And

that's why I call perfectly imperfect families because I had that

crazy uncle who knew my

schedule and he used to stop by the house and have mom write him a

check for $4,000 to cover his expenses

just because he. So he would drop over a twelve

dollar bouquet of flowers and walk away

with, you know, three

$988 worth

of profit. And then I was like, you're stealing from your

own sister, you have your own money. What are your. Well pays my expenses. And

I'm like, no. So after he did it the third

time, I took away the checks, okay? And

I said there's no reason for it. So there's something that you

said that, that I think may sound harsh

but I think is really important. And that is this

is a situation where you really

need to have some logical boundaries. You need to

have a logical someplace where you can help, where somebody

can help you make logical decisions. Because

emotionally you're going to be so wound up. I mean,

you're dealing with your parents, so you know, whatever

baggage you're bringing to begin with, right?

And, and then this is like this emotional time where you start

to see them declining and you just need

somebody that can give you feedback. I

mean, and so that was, for me, that was one of the things that really

helped me was that I got a caretaker who came,

you know, for a couple hours every day, who saw my mother every, you

know, and father every day. She actually saved my dad's life

because he laid down on the couch and then didn't wake up. And

apparently he'd had a Caesar seizure, you know, and she

had enough, you know, background that she knew that something was wrong and

called the ambulance and got him to the hospital and stuff. But she saw

them every day so she could say to me, you know, this is what's going

on. This is, you know, your dad is not moving as much as he was

or your mom is like doing this right, where I

was going out once a week and I was, you know, and so I won't

say they were on good behavior, but. But

I didn't necessarily get to see the change the

way that she did. And, you know, and she was

trained. I mean, she'd been through a lot of these, so she

knew what kinds of things were not just a

blip, you know, but a kind of, a normal kind of thing that was happening.

Yeah. So, you know, when you're, when you're doing that and you're getting

organized and you create an estate plan inside, the estate

plan has a will, but it's not the

will because the most important thing is to have something

in writing because the state doesn't recognize verbal. But a

will is better than no will. But a, a

trust or an estate plan that includes a

trust is the best method because you don't

air your public laundry in the court of law.

All that information is hidden under the trust and no one else

knows your business. And it's really important because if that

becomes public records, all different information is

proprietary, goes on the black market, and people could take it

and recreate an identity and create debt

in someone who has passed away his name, okay.

And that the people don't know. So these are the things you need to worry

about. This is what you protect against. And

then the question is, well, how do you do that? Well,

you don't want to be a burden to your children, right? So you

create something that is your wishes and you have them follow it

and you put it into an estate plan that has a trust. And you

don't want your parents to be a burden to you. And taking care of them

is not the burden. The burden is giving

them exactly what they asked for, which is

the standard of living, whether it's assisted living, whether it's

full time nursing or in home nursing care, slash personal

care assistant. You do want to do is

minimum of 25 hours a week with outside help so

that you have some sanity and free time to run your business.

Okay? And if you don't have that sanity, you're not going to get the proper

amount of sleep. You're going to start gaining weight

because you're going to eat your calories because you're exhausted and you think your food's

going to refresh you. Before you know it, you've gained 20 pounds.

And you don't know how. It's because you're not exercising to take care of

yourself. So the reason why I bring this

up is because we want people to

be the best version of themselves, whether it's in business,

whether it's in life, whether it's caretaking of others. And we want them

to have their golden years be truly golden. Well, in order to do

that, you have to be organized. You just can't live paycheck to

paycheck. One needs a budget, you need a

retirement budget. And you figure out what's the

missing delta, is what I call it. The missing delta that you

haven't set aside for. And then the time frame to save for

that gives you your answer. So

when we're talking about finances and, and how to get organized

and exit strategies from your business, even if you don't

have an exit strategy, you need to know what you want to do

with your business. So when you do leave it, it's just not

left in the air. And all that hard work and effort that you did

to build it up is not wasted because no one wants to go to

the next level. Like you were not motivated.

I cannot believe we're running out of time. I just want to say

one other thing. 1. And then I'm going to get your three

things that people can do right away. And

that is also find out where your parents have their

money. And as an entrepreneur, someone said to me,

what if you drop dead? What about the passwords? Would anybody be

able to even contact your clients? So this, this affects, you

know, you, you. You're helping your parents, but you're also learning what

you need to do for yourself. So what are three things that we can do

right away? You know what?

Game plan, Game plan for the future. Create a written

roadmap. That's one thing. And that the

idea to have a storage spot

for your passwords in your favorite vase

inside that no one knows about so that they could go to it

and say, that's where it is. Something happens to me. Here's all my key

information. No one's going to look there. Another spot that you could put

in is put it in your freezer, okay. And wrap an

aluminum foil and say emergency, emergency on

it. No one's going to go there either. Okay, it will

because of tv. I've seen that on tv.

Yes, but it's emergency information. People are not

going to go into that area if they're robbing your house.

Right. Because they're not going to go to the freezer and look on the merch

because it's just passwords and you can't sell it. It's not that type of

robbery. So that, that's one key thing is to set

up that way. I would recommend highly

that you have a conversation with me so I can give you

complimentary advice that is going to get

you on the straight and narrow. And yes, I have a free gift.

I'm an author, I have multiple books written. I would be happy to

send you a complimentary you meaning your listening audience,

a complimentary book with an inscription on it since

I'm a five time published author. So. Fantastic. And the

thing I will add is make sure you start having this conversation earlier

than later. Okay. Bill, when was the last

time you did something new? For the last, for the first time? You

know, that's a great question. I was at a, I was a monitor

or a camp counselor at a special needs

camp and I got asked by one of the campers

to rock climb, which I've never done before on a wall.

And so he said it's easy. Look,

he just goes straight up.

So I'm like, sure, it's easy. It wasn't so easy because,

you know, I'm 59 and he's 24. So it's.

But I did it. So it's the, that's the last time I did something that

was learned. First time, Brando, that rock carming

is great. I, I took a class to rock climbing and I think I got

a foot off the ground. But, but

anyway, okay, so it's time for me to give you the

commercial. So I hope that you will

subscribe and share and engage in this, you know, this podcast on

social media. Because one of the reasons that I did it is I wanted

to bring people into your world that were going to give you,

you know, help you supercharge your business through connection. It's my way of

giving back when as I meet really interesting people and their

stories to be able to share that with you. So I hope that you'll continue

to share the one small change and that you'll continue to

come back if you haven't done it yet, you should listen to the

first episode or just any of the quarterly clarity check

ins just to get some ideas of, you

know, some ideas and some trends. So, Bill, what are the last

words you'd like to leave people with? So

I'm a big believer in

trust. And so I would ask that people would align

with their faith and to lean in

and trust and when they pray with intention

to be viewed as, as God sees them,

and when you're in alignment with your faith, things have a way of

working out. Okay,

so as always, we've run out of time, but I want to

leave you with this message. Remember, change is simple,

but it's not always easy. And it requires courage, resilience, and a

willingness to step out of your comfort zone. And if you stay

comfortable, it means you're not growing and the world is changing around

you, whether you are trying to, you know, do anything or

not. And if you're not keeping up, you're going backwards, which means you're

stagnating. So I hope you will join me for the one small change

again as we embark on this journey and we build bold

vision and innovative possibilities. And until the next

time, please stay very curious. Bill, thank you.