Millennial Inheritance Part 2: Collections, Bonsai, and Midlife Realizations

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All right. Ready for part 2 of the millennial inheritance discussion.
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I am back. This is Amy Rogan with the Rolling Rogans. Joe is
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not here right now. I'm still away from Joe and he's taking
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care of his mom. So he was a little tired and couldn't get on.
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So I have my special guest, my brother Rob, and we're going to do part
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2 of the millennial, millennial inheritance discussion that we
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had just done. If you missed it, check out the last episode, uh, what we're
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going to be dealing with, with our parents as they pass. But now we're going
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to talk about what he's leaving for his kids and
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how he feels about that and how he's thinking about those discussions now,
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because Joe and I were minimalists. We lived the van life.
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So we've already kind of gone through this downsizing exercise,
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but now we're going to check out what Rob's learning at this
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point and what he's going to start planning on for the future,
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especially with his bonsai trees, because that's a totally different
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genre of— that takes things to a whole nother level. Yes. Yeah.
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All right, let's get started on part 2 of The Millennial Inheritance.
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I'm Amy. I'm Joe. And we're the
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Rolling Rogans. Buckle up for loony midlife tales and caregiving
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chaos. It's time to draw on the art of aging. Hey,
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Rolling Rogans family. Please like, comment, subscribe, and share
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right now. Before you forget. Let's keep rolling
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together. Well, yeah, talking about our parents and what we're going to have
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to deal with. Obviously that's more front and center, but as we've talked
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over the years, Amy and I, kind of have, I think,
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a special bond because of our unique life experiences,
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various things that, that we've been through. And we're, we're very fortunate that,
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uh, I've got 2 daughters, a 4-bedroom, 2-story house,
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the full basement, which affords the convenience.
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I'll phrase it that way. The convenience of having something
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and, oh yeah, I really don't need this anymore, whatever. I'll get rid of
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it. Some point in the future or sometime or whatever and
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throw it down in the basement or in the garage or wherever, just someplace,
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right? That I'll get rid of it later. But,
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um, which is something that living in a van we
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couldn't do. We had to deal with it at that moment because we did not
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have the space for it. Right, right. My family, and of course you have
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a lot of traditions and things that are passed down, us being Gen Xers
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and having things in our house. I mean, that was just like what you did.
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And so as, as I got got married and started building out
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my family, the traditions that mom and
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grandma had decorating their house for each holiday
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season and things like that got sort of passed
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on to my wife. So every holiday we have the house,
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actually 4 totes come up and pack
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away the previous holiday. Those go down and let's say 3 totes
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come up for the next holiday. And then the next month that those go down
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in the basement and then a different holiday comes up and gets packed
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or packed and swapped out with the things. And I mean,
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it's really cool. It really changes the whole theme, gets you into the mood
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for the holiday, but it's a lot of stuff, um, you know,
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to obviously have. At least my wife has gotten
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it down where we're in these totes and stuff. So,
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you know, it helps, right? Yeah. The organization side
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of it. But, uh, yeah, at a certain point we had to like like
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really force and sit mom down and to say,
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stop, we got enough Halloween decorations. We've got
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enough Christmas decorations. We have no more place to go with any of these things,
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you know? Right. And so fortunately we were able to, uh,
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get the kibosh on those things. That's good. Because it was just, it was an
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easy, you know, at the end of the holiday season, you go and you go
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to stores and you see what's half off and you buy it for the
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following year. It was just really an easy thing to do. And do you remember
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to get it out after the Remember to get it out to gift it to
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the person when the next holiday is coming up, whether it's a Christmas
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gift, anniversary gift, birthday gift, so on and so forth, Mother's Day gift,
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whatever. That definitely has happened. And as we talked about in the previous episode
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and dealing with grandma's stuff and mom's stuff, now we have our stuff. And I'm
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just, as we go through this and knowing that the younger generations are
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not as materialistic as the boomers and
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maybe to some percent, uh, Gen X for us. How are they going to
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deal with all that stuff and accumulation of things and things
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that mean something to them? Like, let's say if they were to go and get
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their own place and want to do their decorations, because I think they'd really appreciate
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it as well. Uh, for sure. You're passing traditions down.
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So there's still that tradition. And for me,
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now that we have the house and we're helping Joe's mom age in place,
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I'm, I'm actually pulling some of that back in and enjoying it because
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in Florida we don't have the seasons changing like you do with the fall
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leaves and winter. So we have
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to do that with decorations. So it's a little different, but I do find myself
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doing a little bit, but within a controlled
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reason, like only doing a couple things that are more meaningful versus
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like you said, uh, you just said on, um, in between here,
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the grandma had, she was changing sheets and she changed
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themes? Like, explain that because I did not know that. The bedding.
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Yeah. As the holidays would change, their master
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bedroom, the bedding would even change with the holidays and
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the tablecloths and everything would
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change. Yes. Yes. So maybe like your daughters
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might be more on the side that I am where we do a little bit,
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but not too bad. I would fully expect they still live at
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home. So we haven't had that full transition yet. But I'm
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just reflecting back when, when I got married and we were
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renting initially and then we got our own house, that's when like more
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and more stuff just started coming into the household because Dawn
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adopted that. She was like, thought that was really cool. And it was,
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you know, a thing to do and she gets into the holidays as well.
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And it was, it was very much a very
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natural thing to do, but yeah, at some point that it just keeps
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coming and it keeps coming. It was like, and it wasn't like they were divesting
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their stuff that they had to say, hey, I don't know where to go with
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this anymore. So, oh, I'm going to give this to Rob's wife. You know,
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you know what I'm saying? So it's just, it's, it's grown.
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It's gotten a lot. It's got to be one of the, uh,
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that's one of the methods that Joe and I have done when we lived in
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our van. If you bring something in, something has to go out. And you
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said Grandma didn't do that. So You said the storage
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unit when she passed was the size of your first floor?
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Probably the size of at least my first floor. It probably was
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bigger. It's kind of one of those things I'm trying to remember 10 years ago
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how big this storage unit was. It was really a
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sectioned off part of a warehouse that it's,
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it's not like your typical drive by the side of the road, those storage units,
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the 10 by 20s or whatever. Oh God, no. It was at
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least the size of the first floor of my 2-story house that I have.
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So, so grandma didn't divest. She brings all the new red
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stuff. Yeah, no, she definitely did not. Well, because it was also too, she'd probably
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go to the clearance after the retail stores and be like,
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oh, look at all this stuff that's left over. Maybe it's 75% clearance now,
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you know, and it's all red-themed decorations of red
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balls and lights and garland and whatever. So we're going to have a red Christmas
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next year. And then the next year would be elves because
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wherever she went, they had a bunch of elves left over. So now you could
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set elves on the Christmas tree. And then the next year it was cardinals
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and birds. Oh, I remember that one. Do you remember that one?
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Okay. So yeah, this isn't just something Rob's making
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up. This is, yeah, every year was something different on
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her Christmas tree. So how are your Christmas trees going?
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Well, so my Christmas trees, we do have 2 Christmas trees
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that we have. One is kind of more of the elegant Elegance, white lights,
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brass, gold, glass, you know, kind of very classy
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ornaments, shall we say. In your living room, you have a living room and a,
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like a living room. And again, this is just our tradition that we've had.
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The other room, the more of the family room is just, you know,
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you give ornaments to your kids, your parents give ornaments to them
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every Christmas and whatever. And those have accumulated
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over the years as they've grown up and they have a special interest of
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whatever. And yeah, yeah, exactly.
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And the thing is, is it's, we've got so many ornaments now that we cannot
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put all the ornaments on the trees. So we kind of rotate.
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I think there's like 4 totes. And so this year we'll do these 2
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totes. The next year we'll do these 2 totes. The next year we do these
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2 and then these 2. And we're actually starting now
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that my daughters have graduated college and at some point they'll move
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on. And we're like, you guys got to take your ornaments.
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You've got to take your ornaments and that's probably going to be a full tote
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already. Just moving out, they're going to have their full tote. But,
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um, do they like that idea or do
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they not know about it yet? I think they might be overwhelmed with it because
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like, where are they going to store it in an apartment and their tree and
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all that sort of stuff? But yeah, there's, the tree gets so full of everything.
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He's, there's no way to put them all on there. And, and then that was
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another thing I had to tell mom, stop giving the girls ornaments. We, we do
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not have any more space for ornaments. So, yeah, because Because it would be like,
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I think it would, yeah. Mom would
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give each girl 2 ornaments apiece. And then I
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think my mother-in-law would give them an ornament. And I mean, we would give
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them an ornament and it was, and they're in their 20s.
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And so it's not just one ornament. It's like 3.
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Yeah. No, we stopped that when they were in their teenage years. Cause we,
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it was already, we, yeah, we, we had to tell mom. I mean, I really
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had to, in each year that mom would give an ornament, I said,
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I'd look at Mom and I'd be like, you— I told you we got to
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stop this. We have no more room for ornaments. I— you,
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you try to be nice at first, but now you got to be— yes,
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yes, it has, it has stopped for now. You,
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as Mom's, um, dementia progresses, you may have
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to get to the point of just accepting it because she may regress to a
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point where she forgets that you told her that. Yeah. And to to
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keep her feeling like she's got purpose and
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continuing, because that's very important for dementia, is you
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may just have to accept it and figure it out on the other end.
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As we figure out with dementia and as it progresses,
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everything. Yeah. That you have to just react differently and
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get it. It is what it is. Yeah. Yeah. So,
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so your personal collection, I want to get to that
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one. My personal collection traumatizes me. That was like immersion
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therapy. Wow. Only as late lately, it traumatizes me. True.
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Really quick backstory. In 2022, I was
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bit by a rabid raccoon. Um, if you go on our YouTube channel,
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there's a whole video about that one, uh, when we were in the van.
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But Rob has for years, as long as I can
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remember, you love raccoons. So it might have even
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gone as far back. I don't remember what the reason was, but it might have
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actually been Maybe when, I don't know, I'd be a little bit past you when
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you were born because I was really young. I don't even know if
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I was a teenager yet, maybe like 12, 13 kind of a thing. Wow.
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Maybe. Okay. Yeah. And it was just me. It wasn't, wasn't our,
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our brother Mike and whatever. But anyways, I went to a family farm,
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second cousin. Don't remember that, but they were there. They ran their family farm and
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they had sort of adopted a, a baby raccoon that had
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been injured or its mother got killed, something, some, something with that backstory.
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And when I stayed with them for, it was probably at least a good week.
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Yeah, I, to this baby raccoon,
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watching it watch his food and just so playful and
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curious and everything like that. And I just fell in love with it. And from
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that point on, I started collecting raccoons as people just kind of collect
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things. I think that's your spirit animal. That could
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be. I feel like everybody's got a spirit animal and it kind of fits you
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pretty good. It kind of does. It does. Yes. So yeah,
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collecting raccoons. So then raccoon ornaments, then, you know, mom would give
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us that. So then when, when I got married, yep, I'd have to bring all
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my raccoon ornaments with me. So I'm doing it with my daughters.
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So that's, that's why they got to take theirs. Happened to me. As our family
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does. When you've got something you like, that's all you're getting.
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Pretty much. Yes. Yes. So,
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uh, everything is gifts of raccoons. Yeah. Yeah. So my
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whole family room basically is decorated in raccoon stuff pretty much.
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I don't know. Get pictures. You can throw some in or something.
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Just to show people. You might have to send me. Yes. You need to send
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me pictures of And I'll pop them up on the screen as we're talking.
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And so after I got bit by the raccoon,
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I came to visit you and I was like, oh my God, I knew
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you had this. You've had this for years. But it was so different
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at that point. Yes. Yes. We got raccoon throw pillows,
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warming blankets on the couch, statues, figurines of
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anything and everything, you name it. And eventually, yeah, I had to put the kibosh
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on that because I had no more place to go. So stop giving
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me raccoon stuff across the board, both families' sides. Do not give
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me any more raccoon stuff. I have no place to go for it. That was
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pretty crazy. I mean, still is. What do you plan on doing with those?
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You know, well, I don't plan on doing a thing. I enjoy them because that
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has meaning in my life. And of course my daughters know that the
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whole, they know the backstory. So then I, so I would think, yeah, at some
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point when I pass on, they'll each want something,
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maybe a few things, but of course not all of it because they're not
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into raccoons kind of a thing. So, but, but all the rest
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of it probably will just be sold off as one big lot of all this
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raccoon stuff. And somebody else who's a fan of raccoons
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will, will get a huge hoard of all sorts of things
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that are for pennies on the dollar because it's, it's— you're
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never going to get that much. Oh no, no, no, no, of course not.
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But, and that's to go back a little bit, why we're talking about the millennial
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inheritance is Nick Fox Radio on all the social medias.
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He's talked about this and he's brought up— and you sent me the video
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and I've been loving watching them. And, and so this
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has actually created the conversation for you to start thinking now of
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what you're going to do with it and hopefully have the conversation with your
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daughters later in life. Because,
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um, obviously it's, you know, well, we never know when our time is,
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but You, you have time still to enjoy those things,
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but now you can have, you have this awareness that you can have those conversations
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with your daughters later on in life because we're dealing
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with it with our parents. And now you're— aha moment of
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saying, oh my God, we're gonna have to deal with this with all the stuff
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that mom and dad have and everything. And then I went, oh,
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not to be a hypocrite, but yeah, my daughters are going to have to deal
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with that when I get to that age with that. And not to just take
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all the blame because my wife's got an entire full curio cabinet
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of all these Precious Moments figurines that I know where we've collected
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and I've given her over the years for special moments and things
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in our life, you know, milestone moments. And yeah, we've pretty
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much stopped collecting those things too because that curio cabinet is only so big.
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We can't, there's no more room for more figurines to go
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into them. So we, we did start the daughters on
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Gosh. Yeah. They had these little figurines for each year that
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they were born, kind of their birthdays. I think we
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took, whether it was 18 or 21 is when we stopped that. But so
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they have those, but you know, they're, they're kids at this point. I don't know
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whether they have them displayed or, or whatever, but they see obviously in
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our house, uh, having those displayed. It's obviously they have their
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own, their own interests and hobby things and
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whatnot, but whether they're going to want to carry those on, because again, those figurines
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for Dawn, my wife, were special moments between me and her,
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or like when she graduated high school, she got that from her
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parents or whatever. Those are meaningful to her.
16:42.888 --> 16:46.154
Anybody else? I don't know. And I see that a lot at thrift stores,
16:46.429 --> 16:49.873
which again, if somebody is gifting it to the birth of their
16:49.906 --> 16:53.296
first child or the, their first home or so on and so
16:53.361 --> 16:56.674
forth, I mean, those are meaningful between those people, but whether that,
16:56.754 --> 16:59.842
that, that was a thing back in our generation.
16:59.970 --> 17:03.750
Yeah. Generation, but whether that's a thing, people displayed
17:04.250 --> 17:07.684
their collection. Somebody collect— some people collect spoons, some people collect thimbles,
17:07.716 --> 17:11.030
some people collect shot glasses. I don't, you know. Do you?
17:11.353 --> 17:14.847
Yeah. Are the next generations going to be collectors like that, or are they going
17:15.347 --> 17:19.233
to see our— like, have to deal with our stuff and be like, screw that?
17:20.885 --> 17:24.108
Or could it be all the stuff will be in thrift stores
17:24.448 --> 17:28.318
and then it'll be fun hunting the thrift stores for this stuff
17:28.818 --> 17:32.090
and maybe it'll come like a resurgence. Who knows? Well, I, yeah, I,
17:32.170 --> 17:35.461
there, there is, I'm sure gonna be a, a resurgence of
17:35.961 --> 17:39.410
a lot of the stuff with boomers passing on and the next generations.
17:39.474 --> 17:42.524
They don't want this stuff or that stuff or whatever. And yeah,
17:42.605 --> 17:46.265
donating it to thrift stores because they know people do collect Precious
17:46.361 --> 17:50.021
Moments or horses or dolphins or whatever,
17:50.133 --> 17:53.601
eagles and different animals that you like that you
17:53.842 --> 17:57.744
collect anything about an eagle or something, you know, like I've been doing for raccoons.
17:58.097 --> 18:02.159
So, but yeah, that even dovetails into going back to the holidays,
18:02.336 --> 18:05.338
my raccoon ornaments that I've got gajillions of,
18:06.060 --> 18:09.576
of putting those things up every year. And, but that's
18:10.076 --> 18:12.434
something we're going to do every year because that's, that's us. That's our thing.
18:12.563 --> 18:16.191
So I'm sure that will continue on and I'm sure the girls will keep one
18:16.239 --> 18:19.659
or two of them or something just to, you know, in memory of me when
18:19.755 --> 18:23.170
I do Do you, now that you have this awareness, do you
18:23.442 --> 18:27.418
think that you will be better when you get
18:27.466 --> 18:30.912
to that point and start downsizing things when you get to our
18:31.412 --> 18:33.926
parents' age? Well, um, do you hope you will?
18:35.401 --> 18:38.943
I think that the challenge is sort of the head and the heart,
18:39.472 --> 18:42.759
right? I mean, my head knows I probably should, but the
18:43.259 --> 18:45.724
heart says, hey, these are all my memories and they're attached to these things,
18:45.901 --> 18:49.058
which is why I can rationalize why our mother
18:49.251 --> 18:52.490
has some of these things. And I think it is with everything. I can't think
18:52.990 --> 18:54.658
of an example right now, but Dawn will be like, just get rid of that.
18:54.706 --> 18:58.046
And I'll be like, no, this means something to me
18:58.495 --> 19:02.092
that I can't exactly articulate right now. So, you know,
19:02.188 --> 19:05.448
well, and that honestly is something that you're working on. You're dealing
19:05.962 --> 19:10.425
with those emotions now, which I think I'm very proud of you for being
19:10.522 --> 19:13.685
aware. I've really been self-aware. I've been really self-aware.
19:13.749 --> 19:16.912
And like I said, sometimes there's what the head knows what it should do.
19:18.068 --> 19:21.229
But, but the heart kind of holds you back or convenient
19:21.729 --> 19:24.423
excuses. Well, I'll, I'll do that tomorrow or next week,
19:24.439 --> 19:27.280
or this, this thing is going on. I'm too busy right now. It's a real
19:27.312 --> 19:31.147
convenient excuse in a way. And yeah,
19:31.163 --> 19:34.646
it's getting the motivation to, to do it, go through some of the stuff,
19:34.854 --> 19:38.770
whether it's a specific collection or just something that I've set
19:39.270 --> 19:41.771
aside to be like, ah, I'm too busy right now. I'll have to look at
19:42.271 --> 19:45.592
this later. And then suddenly there's a pile of things I need to do
19:45.673 --> 19:48.612
later and, and go through. And, and this,
19:48.821 --> 19:52.034
this may be different when you retire. Like you will have
19:52.534 --> 19:56.131
time to start going through. Uh, agreed, but I don't want to wait.
19:56.275 --> 19:59.344
There's a part of the brain goes, I can't wait till I'm retired to go
19:59.844 --> 20:03.424
through this stuff. True. True. Nick Fox Radio and the Millennial
20:03.924 --> 20:07.745
Inheritance Community. I have learned that having these conversations
20:07.922 --> 20:12.290
and people are starting to document like
20:12.451 --> 20:15.723
now what they want their children to do with
20:16.223 --> 20:19.525
the stuff. And I think that's a great idea. And maybe you tie that into
20:19.734 --> 20:23.311
your estate planning. So when you do start doing estate planning,
20:23.760 --> 20:27.370
start documenting what you would like them to do with
20:27.498 --> 20:31.171
like the raccoons, for example, is okay if they want
20:31.671 --> 20:34.364
to keep one or two, and then this is how you get rid of this
20:34.476 --> 20:37.893
stuff. Because what it, what it is and stuff
20:38.393 --> 20:41.008
that that we've been hearing Nick talk about is it's sort of that mental load.
20:41.152 --> 20:44.395
You have the death, of course, which is very traumatic, grieving,
20:44.508 --> 20:48.265
the family's grieving or whatever. And it's that duality of,
20:48.377 --> 20:51.412
I don't want to get rid of the memory of that person. So I want
20:51.912 --> 20:55.377
to keep stuff around, but what should I keep? And that having to,
20:55.506 --> 20:58.556
that mental load on the people who are
20:59.056 --> 21:03.036
left behind and helping out with that, that says, hey, these are
21:03.052 --> 21:05.733
things that were important to me. And for some reason, I want them to be
21:06.233 --> 21:10.131
important to you. And that may or may not translate into my
21:10.631 --> 21:14.222
daughter's going, well, I don't want that thing. I, for whatever reason, they have a
21:14.722 --> 21:18.042
better memory with this other raccoon object that, that they want
21:18.542 --> 21:21.636
to keep or whatever. But having that conversation now to say,
21:21.668 --> 21:25.070
hey, look, I realize you guys aren't into raccoons. So keep
21:25.570 --> 21:29.451
a couple things, couple ornaments, whatever. And you're not going to offend me or
21:29.951 --> 21:33.382
upset me that you're getting rid of all my other raccoon stuff. And I think
21:33.882 --> 21:37.009
that can be a huge relief. For, again, the people who are left behind to
21:37.509 --> 21:41.310
have those conversations in advance so that they aren't feeling like, wow, I'm throwing
21:41.326 --> 21:44.680
away the memory of that person that was collecting those things.
21:45.114 --> 21:48.275
But I think if you start documenting of what
21:48.708 --> 21:52.416
there is value with some things, and if there's not necessarily, it's more
21:52.916 --> 21:57.214
emotional value and documenting so they can grieve
21:57.714 --> 22:00.135
you properly and then just go to the book and be like, okay, this is
22:00.183 --> 22:04.164
what we have to do. Instead of just dumping
22:04.228 --> 22:07.150
and we have to sort through all that stuff while you're grieving.
22:07.727 --> 22:11.131
Yes. Yes. So that's something you can do when you do your estate
22:11.179 --> 22:14.469
planning, kind of an idea. So, because you're
22:14.969 --> 22:17.825
definitely going to have to do that for your bonsai trees. Yes. Yes.
22:18.402 --> 22:21.677
Um, yeah. Uh, so I, I started over COVID
22:21.773 --> 22:24.663
kind of some, actually I started when I was in high school trying to keep
22:24.743 --> 22:28.178
bonsai trees alive because I was so enamored by them and I kept killing
22:28.211 --> 22:31.520
them off. But then I started a family or, you know, career, family,
22:32.131 --> 22:35.987
all that stuff. And, um, yeah, during COVID
22:36.487 --> 22:38.461
I found their flyer and I said, oh my gosh, if I don't do this
22:38.574 --> 22:42.398
now, I'm never going to do it. So I got into the Milwaukee Bonsai Society
22:43.137 --> 22:47.218
and started taking some of their education classes and got a few trees
22:47.250 --> 22:50.882
and then a few trees became more trees and more trees became a whole lot
22:51.382 --> 22:54.465
of trees. And we'll just stop there. It's over 100.
22:54.949 --> 23:00.133
What is different about that is they're,
23:00.149 --> 23:01.443
they're live, it's living art.
23:03.596 --> 23:07.114
Um, and even just a couple days
23:07.291 --> 23:10.810
of not being watered or taken care of can really cause
23:11.310 --> 23:14.794
a detriment to them. My wife knows, family knows if something happens
23:15.294 --> 23:17.912
to me, like if I go into the hospital or a vacation time, that,
23:18.233 --> 23:21.085
that there's gotta be somebody that comes and waters the trees. You know, they,
23:21.189 --> 23:24.611
they have to do that. But there is special education that
23:24.772 --> 23:27.309
you need to know to take care of these trees.
23:28.128 --> 23:31.724
And so then that's where the club comes in. And if something happens to
23:31.740 --> 23:35.047
me, call these people, they'll come in, swoop up, pick up the trees, and they'll
23:35.547 --> 23:39.462
take care of 'em until I return. Or if something more
23:39.962 --> 23:43.637
serious happens, obviously divesting it. And usually what I find
23:44.137 --> 23:47.843
is a lot of people will donate their trees to the club and then auction
23:47.875 --> 23:51.038
them off of some sorts. And then the money goes to the club to help
23:51.327 --> 23:55.036
fund continued activities. And it's, and it's something now that, that I've
23:55.536 --> 23:58.552
even be— I'm a part of their board. It's obviously something that's very important to
23:59.052 --> 24:02.358
me and something that continues to hold my interest and will keep
24:02.406 --> 24:06.275
my mind active into later in life. It's just something that I've really
24:06.775 --> 24:10.980
enjoyed. It's a creative side of me that I can express versus
24:11.237 --> 24:14.512
my entire career has been IT. So either ones and zeros,
24:14.544 --> 24:17.788
it works or it doesn't work. You know, it's a very patient hobby too.
24:17.916 --> 24:21.303
So the stressfulness of my my work job.
24:21.833 --> 24:25.716
When I'm working on a tree, I'm just so focused in on it. Everything is
24:25.780 --> 24:29.102
just gone. I really like seeing the transition
24:29.294 --> 24:33.193
of you creating a hobby to take you into that retirement that
24:33.466 --> 24:36.531
keeps your brain active and gives you something
24:36.595 --> 24:40.286
creative because you really, I remember you did art in high school and you
24:40.786 --> 24:44.474
were really creative. That art side runs in our family. Yes.
24:44.538 --> 24:47.186
And so I really am happy to see that. Both my daughters went into the
24:47.686 --> 24:51.759
arts field. So yes, it runs in the family. I remember
24:52.259 --> 24:53.701
you called me up and he's like, you're like, what do I do? And I
24:54.201 --> 24:57.632
was like, you're screwed. I did. Yeah. I still struggle with trying to
24:57.777 --> 25:01.131
give them career advice and coaching them. It's so different because
25:01.631 --> 25:05.175
it's so different being in the IT business world versus the creative world.
25:05.415 --> 25:08.913
But, but I'm happy to see that you have gotten
25:08.946 --> 25:12.684
that creative side and, and you found something that can
25:12.717 --> 25:16.616
take you into retirement and aging, a hobby that keeps your brain working
25:16.809 --> 25:20.416
and cognitive skills all going together. I think that's fantastic.
25:21.121 --> 25:24.791
And then you are aware of what you need to do to pass those
25:24.823 --> 25:28.429
trees on because like you said, it's living art. I mean, how old are
25:28.929 --> 25:30.800
some of the trees that you've been exposed to?
25:32.291 --> 25:35.480
Hundreds of years old. I mean, that are in the club. I've got a tree
25:35.496 --> 25:38.974
that's estimated to be about 75, 85 years
25:39.070 --> 25:43.237
old. Other trees are 20, 30 years old and I anticipate
25:43.253 --> 25:46.282
having them for another 20 plus years. Yeah.
25:46.378 --> 25:49.729
They're heirlooms in effect that, that Especially with
25:50.468 --> 25:54.257
these trees and how many years they take to grow to
25:54.963 --> 25:58.705
the dimensions and the, the, the artistic styling
25:58.801 --> 26:02.221
that they need to be. You don't want to just let that die and thrown
26:02.269 --> 26:05.545
on the burn pile kind of a thing. So they're,
26:05.721 --> 26:09.029
they're beautiful pieces of art and it's living art. And that's what
26:09.529 --> 26:12.850
I'm kind of seeing now with like some of the older individuals in the club
26:13.350 --> 26:16.843
as they get older. And are downsizing their houses,
26:16.955 --> 26:20.096
or they just can't lift the trees and the pots anymore.
26:20.320 --> 26:23.637
And their hand strength is deteriorating,
26:23.845 --> 26:27.002
that they're sort of handing off their trees now.
26:27.274 --> 26:30.848
And as I've been in the club for a while, my skills have gotten better
26:31.200 --> 26:35.222
that I can continue that legacy of that tree and not just
26:35.722 --> 26:38.859
let it die and whatever, versus the trees that I'm learning on.
26:39.228 --> 26:43.083
Now that I've got some experience, I can pass those on. To people
26:43.583 --> 26:46.682
who are just starting in bonsai and they're thrilled to death because I was,
26:46.698 --> 26:49.603
I was scared to get a tree that was, let's say,
26:49.619 --> 26:53.713
25, 50 years old and just beautiful and then
26:53.729 --> 26:56.745
have it like die on me because I just didn't know how to take care
26:57.245 --> 27:02.375
of it. So it's definitely something as I saw my
27:02.875 --> 27:06.826
father-in-law, as I see our parents, as they got into retirement and they just
27:07.284 --> 27:11.104
watched TV and minimally do other things that their health
27:11.714 --> 27:15.224
seriously declines. And it's just something that
27:15.724 --> 27:18.013
I said, hey, if I can get in front of this with something that keeps
27:18.513 --> 27:22.517
my mind active, as opposed to just vegetating out watching TV, that would
27:23.017 --> 27:26.829
be really good for me and help out. And, and it
27:27.329 --> 27:30.532
is something that's just actively an interest that I hear
27:31.032 --> 27:34.508
people that have been in the bonsai hobby for, you know, 30 years saying
27:34.684 --> 27:37.361
they're still learning things. And I'm like, yes,
27:37.505 --> 27:39.557
that's exactly why I wanted to do this.
27:40.310 --> 27:43.452
Because I've been a lifelong learner, obviously in IT,
27:43.597 --> 27:47.219
technology is changing constantly. So you gotta stay abreast
27:47.268 --> 27:50.794
of it. And it's just kind of as IT and as I've
27:51.294 --> 27:54.786
had my career 30 years now, I've been there, done that. Yeah, there's new technologies,
27:54.898 --> 27:58.168
but fundamentally you're making the business more efficient,
27:58.184 --> 28:01.326
more profitable, so on and so forth, making people's lives
28:01.390 --> 28:04.772
easier with technology that I just wanted something different in my
28:05.272 --> 28:09.516
life that I could express that creative side. Bonsai is definitely a time-based
28:10.016 --> 28:13.585
hobby. You, you buy time. You buy someone
28:13.682 --> 28:17.380
else's tree that they've been working on for 20,
28:17.494 --> 28:21.228
30 years or more. And now you can take care of that versus you can't
28:21.438 --> 28:25.302
just plant a seedling and say, well, I'm just going to throw $100
28:25.318 --> 28:28.316
at it. Now it's going to be this gorgeous bonsai tree. That just doesn't happen.
28:28.879 --> 28:32.678
No. But, but many other things in society,
28:32.727 --> 28:35.802
you can, you can throw money at. I am going to give you $100 to
28:35.810 --> 28:39.061
do this for me or whatever. So it is very
28:39.414 --> 28:43.216
unique hobby, creative hobby that, uh, forces people to look
28:43.716 --> 28:47.065
at the world differently, think about things differently, because it's an art that's
28:47.194 --> 28:50.707
creation by subtraction. And what I mean by that is you have your tree and
28:51.207 --> 28:53.899
you're going to make it look better by cutting this branch out. That, that's,
28:54.107 --> 28:58.038
that's a real mind bend. It really is. I've already killed
28:58.054 --> 29:02.529
my first tree. It took 5 years to grow that branch. I've already
29:02.593 --> 29:05.624
killed my first tree. The one that you left down here. Um, so yeah,
29:05.656 --> 29:08.254
I've already touched that. Yeah, that one wasn't, that one, well,
29:08.543 --> 29:12.327
wasn't intentionally left down there. Um, we kind of kept
29:12.827 --> 29:16.144
it. Um, she kept it, but, uh, yeah, that tree was, is not
29:16.644 --> 29:19.560
necessarily for your climate zone. So, but, um,
29:19.784 --> 29:23.360
special training that you needed to have to make sure that that tree survived.
29:23.617 --> 29:27.257
True. Now, being that you're in Wisconsin, I'm in Florida, and you're
29:27.289 --> 29:29.999
using our property to grow some trees.
29:30.753 --> 29:34.378
Yes, that no, I'm actually, you're starting to get me a little interested.
29:35.309 --> 29:39.078
Okay. And the way that, you know, again, time.
29:39.640 --> 29:42.672
So I got some seedlings, very inexpensive seedlings,
29:43.169 --> 29:46.441
and we planted them around your property. And now we're just going to let them
29:46.473 --> 29:50.612
grow. And in hopefully 10 years, we're going to have some really
29:50.644 --> 29:54.478
nice material that we can work with and take that tree and
29:54.654 --> 29:57.365
turn it into a bonsai. That'll be amazing and fantastic.
29:58.424 --> 30:02.017
And the way that you're explaining your thought process of
30:02.517 --> 30:06.670
keeping a hobby that continues, you're actually kind of getting me interested in maybe
30:07.170 --> 30:10.456
having one or two because I'm not having 100 like you do.
30:11.819 --> 30:14.947
But I know it's more than that. I'm trying to be nice,
30:15.092 --> 30:18.765
but I, I like that. And I think that's something that you and I can
30:18.781 --> 30:22.086
connect on. Like you can teach me what you've learned and it's
30:22.586 --> 30:25.874
something that I could do. Minimally. Um, yeah.
30:26.099 --> 30:29.247
And like you say, your art, you went to school for art and,
30:29.375 --> 30:32.089
and your hobbies that you're doing, because it is,
30:32.346 --> 30:35.253
again, another aspect of it is you do a painting, you know,
30:35.334 --> 30:38.787
you're adding paint to it and whatever. And you're
30:39.287 --> 30:42.673
done. You're done with that painting and you go do another one. With the bonsai
30:42.802 --> 30:46.303
trees, they continue to grow. So you continuously have
30:46.319 --> 30:50.190
to work on that same material over and over again. And then suddenly the
30:50.690 --> 30:52.679
tree might go, you know what, this half of the tree is going to die
30:53.179 --> 30:57.061
off. Now you're like, Well, dang, that was a key part of my composition.
30:57.414 --> 31:00.544
Now what do I do with this? And you have to rework the tree to
31:01.044 --> 31:04.541
now work with what's still living. And that's just a unique aspect
31:05.041 --> 31:09.051
of bonsai that again continues to intrigue me and different
31:09.551 --> 31:13.561
species and even maple trees. There's thousands of cultivars
31:14.061 --> 31:16.931
of maple trees with different sizes and color leaves and you name it.
31:17.060 --> 31:20.284
There's all sorts of stuff. So. I like, I do like the
31:20.784 --> 31:24.498
flowering trees that you've been fascinated with lately, but in our Rolling
31:24.530 --> 31:27.640
Rogans fashion, it's, it's just roll with it. Like you
31:28.140 --> 31:29.450
don't know what the tree is going to do. So you just got to roll
31:29.563 --> 31:33.072
with it and create the art. And then also one thing
31:33.104 --> 31:36.694
that I really liked, the idea of the bonsai is because Joe and
31:37.194 --> 31:41.005
I are about balance. We, we like to balance things in our lives, even though
31:41.518 --> 31:44.964
it kind of swings sometimes, but we
31:45.044 --> 31:48.633
are really into AI technology, the robots
31:49.133 --> 31:53.704
coming and, and Who knows what our future is going to look like if maybe
31:53.720 --> 31:57.495
we go in space or, you know, all this technology stuff that
31:57.995 --> 32:01.838
is happening. Sure. And people are so afraid of losing nature.
32:02.097 --> 32:05.975
And if you balance it with doing like a bonsai tree,
32:06.136 --> 32:08.948
you're still connected to nature. Your hands are still getting in the dirt.
32:09.600 --> 32:13.240
So to me, I feel like that's going to be a nice balance.
32:13.401 --> 32:15.351
Crap. I just convinced myself to get into bonsai.
32:17.605 --> 32:21.373
Oh, darn. I might know somebody who can help
32:21.873 --> 32:25.287
you with that though. I think so. But really, I mean, our logo,
32:25.383 --> 32:29.586
our Rolling Rogues logo is balance. It's like a yin yang. So to balance
32:29.634 --> 32:32.938
that side of technology, that's part of why we have
32:33.438 --> 32:36.596
the property that we have because there's so much nature around us. And I really
32:36.692 --> 32:40.558
want to keep in that realm of, of nature
32:41.058 --> 32:44.729
because our bodies need that so much. So, um, you have an aspect
32:45.229 --> 32:48.194
of it now with gardening. Um, but yeah, when you're doing the van life,
32:48.739 --> 32:52.188
trying to do bonsai would be really hard to do, um, because they
32:52.688 --> 32:55.878
need the sunlight. They need, you know, to be out in nature and, uh,
32:55.958 --> 32:59.311
watering and, and everything. And it just might— yeah,
32:59.488 --> 33:03.626
if you were still doing van life, that would be extremely difficult to probably
33:04.126 --> 33:07.220
do. But I did have a couple succulents when I was doing van life,
33:07.332 --> 33:10.878
and we put it in our front window in the dash for a while and,
33:11.279 --> 33:14.778
and then make it safe. I left it at a friend's house one time
33:14.810 --> 33:18.423
in Alabama and I was like, I don't know when we'll be back
33:18.488 --> 33:21.555
to get them. So he tried to keep them alive,
33:21.619 --> 33:24.846
but they died because we put them outside to get
33:25.346 --> 33:28.748
the light. Whoops. So, um, so now that we have a home base,
33:28.845 --> 33:32.265
but if we, we do plan on traveling again, so that's going
33:32.765 --> 33:35.750
to have to be part of taking care of our plants and stuff. So we'll
33:36.250 --> 33:39.186
have to figure that out. Yes. Yes. So you had a couple of people in
33:39.443 --> 33:42.718
the bonsai club that needed to divest. Yeah.
33:42.911 --> 33:46.138
Quickly, quickly tell some of those stories.
33:46.427 --> 33:49.815
Yeah. Somebody who's been in the club since probably
33:50.315 --> 33:54.134
forever, over 30 years, just as her husband passed and she
33:54.634 --> 33:58.132
had like a greenhouse and her growing area for the trees.
33:58.469 --> 34:01.986
And she basically said, once my dogs pass away, I'm going to
34:02.114 --> 34:05.390
sell this house and I'm going to move into like more of like an apartment
34:05.890 --> 34:09.385
building. She can't take care of that full yard on just a
34:09.786 --> 34:13.251
gorgeous gardener's yard. And then the bonsai trees on top of that.
34:13.331 --> 34:17.069
So she's like, I just can't do this anymore by myself. So she had
34:17.101 --> 34:20.903
3 dogs, the last one passed away. And she's now divesting
34:21.031 --> 34:24.625
all of her supplies, tools, all the things that go
34:24.641 --> 34:28.122
with just the bonsai tree pots and her trees that she was growing.
34:28.234 --> 34:31.587
There was though, there was a tree that had
34:31.619 --> 34:35.690
particular interest, uh, again, sentimental value to
34:35.786 --> 34:38.800
her that she specifically said, I don't
34:38.832 --> 34:42.326
want to sell this to anyone in the club because,
34:42.743 --> 34:46.317
uh, like, like to somebody else in another club or something like that, because she's
34:46.817 --> 34:49.972
still going to be an active participant of the club and do training and things
34:50.472 --> 34:53.242
like that. She just won't have her own trees. She said it would break my
34:53.742 --> 34:57.120
heart if somebody in the club were to kill it kind of a thing.
34:57.201 --> 34:59.797
So that way, at least if it's in another club, it's out of sight,
34:59.829 --> 35:03.581
out of mind. You won't know. But yeah, if it was sold to somebody
35:03.597 --> 35:06.980
in the club and she found out some way, or, or they put
35:07.480 --> 35:10.891
it in a show or something, and it wasn't like what
35:11.391 --> 35:14.241
she wanted to do with it, or it wasn't looking so good or whatever.
35:14.658 --> 35:17.527
She's just like, nah, I can't, I can't do it with this one. She had
35:18.027 --> 35:21.407
a particular one that was one of her favorites that she probably had 20,
35:21.535 --> 35:25.110
30 years of pouring her soul into this tree over that
35:25.222 --> 35:29.486
time. So yeah, so there was that one. Another person who actually
35:29.566 --> 35:33.061
just this past weekend, somebody is moving to Florida and there's a some trees that
35:33.077 --> 35:36.219
he had that won't survive as well in Florida.
35:36.299 --> 35:39.377
So he gave them to the club to auction off
35:39.425 --> 35:43.336
and we made a few hundred dollars off of those. So that
35:43.836 --> 35:47.696
was very nice of him to do. But yeah, we've also had another member that
35:48.196 --> 35:51.816
suddenly passed, a heart attack kind of a thing. And fortunately
35:52.569 --> 35:56.657
the spouse reached out to a friend and he came in and swooped
35:57.157 --> 36:00.777
up his trees and a couple of them were already deteriorating and whatnot,
36:00.905 --> 36:04.207
but his legacy, he was also a woodworker, so he was making
36:04.320 --> 36:08.298
stands for the bonsai trees. And so there are a
36:08.798 --> 36:12.261
number of people in the club that have his stands, and that's sort of his
36:12.438 --> 36:16.529
legacy is, as people use his stands to
36:17.029 --> 36:19.128
display their bonsai trees. So that's, that's, you know, it's just part of that.
36:19.192 --> 36:22.369
I think as we age, you kind of want to say, hey, my life had
36:22.401 --> 36:25.979
some kind of meaning, and having your stands be used
36:26.091 --> 36:29.428
to display elegant living art, bonsai trees,
36:29.605 --> 36:33.407
and having other people appreciate them because we do shows at like
36:33.600 --> 36:37.052
State Fair and, uh, at the Milwaukee Domes and
36:37.260 --> 36:41.017
in other places around the Milwaukee community that it's just, it's just
36:41.517 --> 36:45.064
so rewarding to have hundreds of people walking by
36:45.176 --> 36:48.050
your, your booth that you have. And we're not selling anything. We're not, we just,
36:48.227 --> 36:51.502
right. People who are interested in this art, here's our brochure. These are the things
36:51.598 --> 36:55.066
we do. And, and just having people walk through going, this is so cool.
36:55.147 --> 36:58.326
I wish I could do this. And I'm like, you can, we can
36:58.358 --> 37:02.357
teach you whatever. Yeah, we, we have a beginning workshop
37:02.373 --> 37:06.036
that after the State Fair Park that sells out every year, over 35
37:06.212 --> 37:09.826
trees that we have that we bring in and we have students
37:10.326 --> 37:13.055
come in and we teach them how to get their first bonsai and take care
37:13.555 --> 37:17.119
of it and stuff. So it sells out every year. That's awesome. We're trying
37:17.151 --> 37:20.572
to figure, figure out how to add more trees, but we only have so many
37:20.605 --> 37:24.267
volunteers and a place to go to, to do these events.
37:24.460 --> 37:27.415
But, uh, adding a spring workshop and everything else.
37:28.217 --> 37:32.625
Yeah, give us the website again. Yeah, it's milwaukeebonsai.org.
37:33.523 --> 37:36.344
All right. The website. And yeah,
37:36.729 --> 37:40.223
we have membership, of course, to get to videos
37:40.271 --> 37:43.654
that we have to grow trees. Yes, you can find videos on
37:43.782 --> 37:47.116
YouTube, but we specifically, ours is geared towards
37:47.292 --> 37:51.091
growing trees in the Midwest because yes, growing trees here
37:51.140 --> 37:54.265
in Wisconsin is way different than growing trees for you in Florida.
37:54.762 --> 37:58.177
Yes. And that's the challenge with YouTube videos
37:58.434 --> 38:01.512
are the person who's talking, you don't necessarily know where they are.
38:01.576 --> 38:05.199
They could be in England, Australia, California,
38:05.343 --> 38:08.037
who knows? And they're like, you do this at this point in time and this
38:08.149 --> 38:10.891
is how you take care of this tree. And it's like,
38:11.901 --> 38:15.380
yes, in a general sense, but in Wisconsin, this is how you need to do
38:15.880 --> 38:18.955
that. Yeah. Or Chicago or Minnesota or wherever. Yeah,
38:19.275 --> 38:22.915
exactly. So that's why it's focused to that. And of course, all the educational
38:22.963 --> 38:26.365
opportunities, workshops, We bring in big
38:26.670 --> 38:29.545
name artists into our club to do talks,
38:29.561 --> 38:32.758
demonstrations, and judge our exhibits that we
38:33.258 --> 38:36.934
have. So yeah, it's a really rewarding opportunity. It's a really great club that
38:37.434 --> 38:41.126
has over 250 members. We're one of the largest bonsai
38:41.626 --> 38:45.109
clubs in the US. Oh, wow. So yeah. Yeah. I really
38:45.141 --> 38:48.852
liked the, what you were saying about the legacy and the wood stands and stuff,
38:48.868 --> 38:52.241
because you've been trying to get me to get back on the potter's wheel
38:52.514 --> 38:55.560
and create bonsai pots. Yeah.
38:55.977 --> 38:59.584
Yeah. Yeah. We found, I think in cleaning out all your stuff, we found
39:00.084 --> 39:03.095
some of your pots from, what was it? High school or college? Yeah. Some of
39:03.111 --> 39:06.781
the pottery that I made in high school. This looks really good. I could use
39:07.281 --> 39:10.100
this for a bonsai tree. And honestly, I really like you.
39:10.565 --> 39:13.642
Well, I don't like that you broke it, but I like—
39:13.755 --> 39:17.201
You don't need to say that. I really like
39:17.217 --> 39:20.327
that you were able to find an artist that did the, I think it's called
39:20.567 --> 39:24.334
the mitsuzi. I think it's called. Yeah. And they repair it
39:24.834 --> 39:28.043
with the gold trim. And that looks pretty dang cool now too.
39:28.188 --> 39:32.203
I actually like it better. I think that's great. But it's not that
39:32.703 --> 39:35.736
I broke it. The wind knocked it off my bench and it broke.
39:36.198 --> 39:40.121
I didn't like drop it or something. That's true. And that actually is one
39:40.169 --> 39:43.799
of my favorite pottery pieces that I did make. And the fact that it
39:43.863 --> 39:47.476
is living on even after breaking it into new art
39:47.976 --> 39:51.732
with the tree, like, I, you're, you're kind of getting me a little excited
39:52.232 --> 39:56.145
to do this again. But I'll have to tell Joe, I'm like,
39:56.161 --> 39:59.784
I'm going to need an art room that involves pottery stuff.
40:00.297 --> 40:03.247
Well, you do. You do have an art room in your place. I do.
40:03.824 --> 40:07.895
I have to strengthen my hands though, because I did do a pottery class and
40:08.152 --> 40:11.342
realized that I have not done that for so long and
40:11.438 --> 40:15.381
it takes strength in your hands and I have hypermobile joints in
40:15.881 --> 40:18.635
my wrists. And other parts of your arms and stuff too. Right.
40:19.373 --> 40:22.659
And so I got to really work on strengthening that.
40:22.755 --> 40:26.571
So that just gives me more incentive to strengthen because— But it's a natural strengthening.
40:26.619 --> 40:29.747
It's not like you go to a gym and you're, you know, bench pressing weights
40:30.247 --> 40:33.870
or something like that, just mind-numbingly. You're trying to create art and you're
40:33.886 --> 40:37.367
strengthening your muscles as you do it. And then again, being connected to
40:37.867 --> 40:41.104
nature because the, the clay that you're molding, that connection, there is an
40:41.604 --> 40:45.371
energy transfer with that. And, and I've learned as we age, hand strength
40:45.452 --> 40:48.259
is one of the most important things. Oh yeah. Uh,
40:48.660 --> 40:50.906
yes. If you start losing your hand strength,
40:50.986 --> 40:55.302
you're going to be deteriorating more quickly. So yeah,
40:55.383 --> 40:58.753
I mean, that's picking up the pots and the trees and moving them in and
40:59.253 --> 41:02.493
out for the season changes and clipping. And yes,
41:02.685 --> 41:06.730
I definitely would agree with that. Something that I'm going to need to keep
41:06.778 --> 41:10.325
up on as well. I actually can't believe this, but I'm really getting interested in
41:10.825 --> 41:15.044
doing bonsai now. I tried to just listen to your excitement and
41:15.140 --> 41:18.783
encourage you. I mean, that's just the way I am, but, and you've always
41:19.152 --> 41:22.695
talked about your bonsai things and, and I, I've gone shopping.
41:22.759 --> 41:25.292
When you come to Florida, I take you to some of the bonsai places.
41:25.949 --> 41:29.492
And so now I'm really realizing the balance of the
41:29.992 --> 41:33.884
living art with the technology and nature. And I don't know, you got
41:34.384 --> 41:38.068
my mind working. This, this kind of just deviated from Millennial Inheritance a little
41:38.568 --> 41:42.716
bit. It totally did. Like, how do we bring this conversation
41:43.216 --> 41:46.403
back home, Amy? I, I, was there any other
41:46.903 --> 41:50.074
links? It's, it's, but it is something that where I am in this stage of
41:50.574 --> 41:52.896
life, Okay, I think I know a way we can bring this home. In this
41:53.396 --> 41:56.839
stage of life, I feel young still. I feel, you know, whatever.
41:56.903 --> 42:00.430
But yeah, we never know when our time's going to come. And obviously being like
42:00.734 --> 42:04.229
really front and center with our parents and my father-in-law passing
42:04.277 --> 42:07.788
away a few years ago, with my mother-in-law having to
42:08.288 --> 42:11.955
sell their big house and go to a small apartment and how she had to
42:12.455 --> 42:16.380
downsize and everything. But then also seeing our parents like
42:16.880 --> 42:20.339
just being retired now and just watching TV. So I got into this bonsai thing
42:20.467 --> 42:24.012
and, and whatnot. I've told my wife and Hey, you know, if something were
42:24.512 --> 42:27.127
to happen, like I'll go to the hospital or an accident or whatever, you gotta
42:27.627 --> 42:30.098
be on the phone within a day. At least, I mean, I know you're gonna
42:30.598 --> 42:34.016
be like whatever with, with being concerned about me, but stressed and emotional
42:34.176 --> 42:37.918
and yeah. If I do recover or whatever and all
42:37.982 --> 42:41.016
my trees died, I'm gonna be heartbroken from that, you know,
42:41.322 --> 42:44.822
kind of a thing. So, so she knows to contact them, but really making
42:44.870 --> 42:48.130
sure, okay, she knows who to call, but does she actually have
42:48.627 --> 42:52.397
their phone numbers and things like that. Right. And actually having all that planned
42:52.897 --> 42:56.023
and put together is, is really important
42:56.523 --> 42:59.120
to have all that stuff. Cause we never know when our time comes and,
42:59.777 --> 43:03.275
and having the conversations about, again, front and center where, oh wow,
43:03.403 --> 43:05.489
we're going to have to deal with this with our parents. And I just,
43:05.730 --> 43:09.243
I was like, wow, looking around my house and going, my kids are going
43:09.743 --> 43:13.078
to have to deal with all of this. Like, holy smokes.
43:13.190 --> 43:16.479
What can I do something for that? Or at least let
43:16.979 --> 43:20.863
them know what Uh, is sentimental to me. And that's what part of
43:20.912 --> 43:24.237
this podcast is. And a lot of these other people that are talking about this
43:24.334 --> 43:27.707
millennial inheritance thing is we're trying to have
43:28.207 --> 43:31.306
the conversations because people aren't talking about this stuff.
43:31.964 --> 43:34.631
And it's hard to talk about that period of your life.
43:35.274 --> 43:39.226
And until people deal with it, like we got thrown into
43:39.290 --> 43:42.808
dealing with my mother-in-law's husband passing and we had to
43:43.308 --> 43:47.000
deal with that estate. And until you get thrown into it, you don't
43:47.500 --> 43:50.597
realize what it takes. You don't realize what it takes. It's— and yeah,
43:50.693 --> 43:53.407
it's how do you keep your full-time day job and trying to deal with all
43:53.907 --> 43:56.811
this stuff? It's— yeah, it's really too hard, uh,
43:57.035 --> 44:00.006
to be honest. Seeing what you went through and all the stories I heard you
44:00.506 --> 44:03.940
tell me, holy cow. So I, I— it
44:04.440 --> 44:08.388
was very fortuitive that you had your van life and you were able to go
44:08.420 --> 44:11.564
out there and do that, but then the realization
44:12.064 --> 44:15.875
of how that then spun your whole world upside down and now you're doing what
44:16.375 --> 44:18.953
you're doing and you're rolling with it. Yeah,
44:19.482 --> 44:23.617
we are definitely just rolling with it because we went from traveling full-time,
44:23.745 --> 44:27.992
living whatever we wanted to do, which honestly it was a benefit that
44:28.072 --> 44:31.759
I had a remote job and I was able to be
44:32.259 --> 44:35.781
there as long as we needed to be there to help her. But now
44:35.926 --> 44:39.291
that we've transitioned to moving her from California to Florida,
44:40.158 --> 44:43.527
And we have completely changed our lives. We don't
44:44.027 --> 44:47.506
travel anymore. We've taken care of her full-time. I mean,
44:47.554 --> 44:51.019
we are sacrificing everything, even our financial security
44:51.519 --> 44:55.335
for our future, because we are not working full-time normal
44:55.835 --> 44:59.651
jobs. And this is like the bulk of your earning is in your
45:00.151 --> 45:04.303
40s, 50s, these years. And we don't have that. So that's
45:04.803 --> 45:08.378
making me nervous. And I'm sure that'll be another conversation for the future.
45:09.292 --> 45:12.737
But maybe I should interview you for your— I, we may
45:12.817 --> 45:15.541
need you to do that future episode, uh,
45:15.782 --> 45:19.035
idea. But I, I'm grateful that we were able to
45:19.131 --> 45:22.352
transition that and our life was set up to be able to do that because
45:22.852 --> 45:25.653
a lot of people wouldn't be able to do that. I mean, I'm glad that
45:25.701 --> 45:29.578
you live 10 minutes away from mom and dad that you're able to help
45:29.643 --> 45:34.530
and your job, you get to work from home sometimes. So you're able to fluctuate
45:35.030 --> 45:38.059
because some of your other jobs you never would have been able to do the
45:38.559 --> 45:41.591
help that you've been able to do now with this new company. Nope. Yep.
45:41.767 --> 45:46.904
So yeah, it's everybody's situation is different. Everybody's conversations
45:47.404 --> 45:50.452
are going to be different. All right. Well, thank you very much, Rob. Um,
45:50.741 --> 45:53.293
I'm going to stop the recording and then, uh, I'll say goodbye.
45:53.887 --> 45:57.162
Okay. Okay. Before we finish up today, I want to
45:57.226 --> 46:01.833
give a big shout out and thank you to our members through buymeacoffee.com.
46:02.138 --> 46:05.612
Thank you, Matthew Pfeiffer. And our special someone who wants to
46:06.112 --> 46:09.888
remain anonymous. You are helping us keep this podcast going and keeping the
46:10.131 --> 46:14.021
coffee flowing for Joe and his mom. If you'd like to join them
46:14.120 --> 46:20.484
as a member, go to buymeacoffee.com/rollingrogans to
46:20.984 --> 46:24.807
choose the right level for you. We'd love to hear your experiences in having
46:24.839 --> 46:28.567
these difficult conversations. So send us a message and we
46:29.067 --> 46:32.693
can help more people going through similar situations. Thank you and
46:33.193 --> 46:33.289
have a good day.