Episode 14 Year One Anniversary

Hosts Hope and Harold are celebrating the one-year anniversary of their podcast, You Still Have Time, marking a total of 25 episodes produced during their first year.

The core focus of the show is addressing topics specifically relevant to an older demographic.

 A primary theme and mission of the podcast is filling a gap they identified in the current podcast landscape, ensuring older individuals have dedicated, relevant content tailored to their experiences and needs.

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 I'm good Hello, and welcome to You Still Have Time. We're your hosts. I'm Hope. And I'm Harold. And we welcome you to our celebration. This is our one-year anniversary. So happy anniversary to us. Uh, uh, let me get that straight. This is the one-year anniversary of our podcast. Right, right, right. Not- No ... we've been married a lot longer. A lot longer than that, but- A lot longer than, uh, that, but thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who's ever listened to us, and thank you to the people who are joining us today for the first time. You know, Harold tells me, you know, he's the, the podcast king. He's the one that listens to multiple podcasts and does stats on it and stuff. Um, but most podcasts don't last past 10 episodes, and we have 25. We've been doing two a month for a year now, and so we thank you for listening, and yay. And we really appreciate your, your feedback, your listening, your willingness to listen to us for all this, this past year. Um, as we said at the outset of these, this podcast, our goal was to reach an audience that no or very few podcasters currently addresses. There are tons of podcasts out there for all types of subjects, but issues that are relevant to people of a certain age, there's still, even a year into this, we still find very few. So we plan to continue, and, um, hopefully we will address issues that are important to you. And one of the, um, interesting things about the podcast, uh, you know, we don't have thousands of viewer, of listeners. I wish we did. It'd be nice. But, um, the, the, what's the host of our podcast? What the, the- Right, it's the host. Yeah, the, the- Yeah, the- B- because all podcasts, just like websites, they have hosts. Right. And so. Um, so the host of our pod- gives us stats on who's listening and where. That, that's the most, most interesting thing to, to me, um, the location. So 90% of the people who've downloaded our, our podcast are in North America. So n- that's not so unusual. But 3% are in Europe, 2% in Asia, and Africa and South America together make up for another 3%. So I, you know, it's, it's just remarkable. It just shows you how far information can reach, uh, because, you know- We may know someone in Europe or in Asia or in Africa or South America, but they haven't told us that they're listening to our podcast. Right, right. And by the way, if you are one of our listeners who are located, who is located in Europe or Africa or South America, please contact us, 'cause we would love to maybe have you on this show, because what we would like to know is why, what, uh, what is of interest? What did you find of interest that you are willing to listen to us? 'Cause I'm sure, I don't know... Well, you could probably listen anytime you want, but I would love for you to get in touch with us. Uh, I think we'll give our Gmail right now is Youstillhavetimepodcast@gmail.com, and we'll give you that at the end of the podcast- Of this episode too ... of this episode also. But please reach out to us. Yeah, I mean, we had three downloads from someone or someones in Helsinki, Finland. Um, we had one from the Galapagos Islands, one from Sumatra, and one from some place we had to look up because literally, and I, I'm probably gonna mispronounce it, one from Cotonou, Littoral, which we looked up and found is the country of Benin. And so please, if you are one of these three, six people , please, please, please reach out to us. We would love to connect with you. So we thought that for this episode, this anniversary episode, we would just give you a brief overview of the year, the projects that, the topics that we covered, uh, and, um, do you wanna get started? Sure. So if you've missed any of the episodes, you know they're available wherever you find your podcasts. You can always go back. But, you know, we did a review of the year and the kinds of things, and we kind of lumped them into categories. So there were one, two, three, four categories that we came up with. And, um, one, not unsurprisingly, is the health category. Harold did an episode, um, solely focused on men's health. Right. And, um, I really think that, especially if you're a man, go back and listen to that because as we know, men are, even today, I don't know about the listeners in other parts of the world, but here in the US, uh, men are usually very reluctant to take t- proactive steps in regarding their health. It's usually after something happens that they are, uh, they get, you know, involved. So that was what this whole episode dealt with specifically. Right. And, and as you will hear us repeat during this episode, you can, you can go back and, um, say, "Oh, I missed that one." You can go back and listen to it now. We also did an episode that, um, we called Healthful Tips, and that was about dealing with serious diagnoses. Un- unfortunately, as we grow older, um, you know, f- Getting a serious diagnosis about your health is more likely, I'd say, than when you were younger. And that just dealt with some of the things that you might look out for, like getting a second opinion and, you know, and keeping your family members informed about your health so that they can be literate about it if called to question. And, um, just we thought help- healthful tips for managing what could be, like, a very challenging time of your life. And of course, along with the healthful tips, we... And I'm sure you've seen this on numerous locations about the value of exercise. Keep moving was a topic that we dealt with. I think we probably dealt with it on a couple, uh, in a couple of the episodes, but it w- we wanted to stress the importance of staying physically active, getting out and walking or whatever it is. One of the things that is so important to, as we get older, is to stay active. Yes. Whatever you find and you enjoy, whether it be pickleball, whether it be walking, swimming, hiking, cycling, the important thing is not how long you do it, but that you do it. Yes. And, and Harold is... I mean, he is so disciplined when it comes to exercise. You know, he walks every morning, and then he'll come back and, you know, do workout with weights. I'm more sporadic about that kind of stuff. Uh, I did find an aqua, uh, aerobics class that I like. It's only once a week. And, um, unfortunately, the guy's on vacation again this week, so I'm, I'm looking forward to, to going back next week. I'm gonna try to do that regularly. But I do try to stop... You know, you see these things online where, you know, you can do some 10 of these exercises, 10 repetitions of an exercise, you know, in your house, and I've been trying to d- you know, do that, establish a habit, but keep moving. Um, the, the next large category, I guess, that we focused on, uh, over the past year was technology. And we believe, um, that seniors need to be aware of technology, familiar with technology, not be afraid of technology because there are so many benefits to, um, embracing tech. Specifically, I, I, I think we both would agree that some of the technology that we see out there today, some of it is very, uh... It's daunting to, to say the least, about, "Ok- how do I operate this? Do I need this device?" Maybe not. But I think that we all can s- see that the technology is here to stay. Now we're dealing with AI, and you can't just go back into your shell and say, "Well, when I was a kid, we..." Yes, I know. When you were a kid, people used to use typewriters. They don't use typewriters anymore, so t- don't try to get your ribbon, uh, fixed. Um, but I think- ... that we have to be realistic, and I'm not suggesting, well, neither Hope or I are suggesting that you need to embrace everything that's new, 'cause we don't. Um, we, on one of the episodes, we talked about things like Siri and Alexa. We don't have it. Yet. Yet. That doesn't mean that we might not find use for it in the future. But for example, if you're a senior living alone, you know, a technology like Siri or Alexa might be helpful to you because, you know, you might find yourself in some sort of an emergency situation, whether it's health or otherwise, and unable to reach a phone or something and, and, you know, you can use one of these methods to sort of help you out and get, get you the help that you need. A specific example, during one of the, um, during the winter one morning, it was a little slippery and, and I slipped and fell, and my Apple Watch said, "It looks like you have fallen. Do you need us to call 911?" And I'm like, "Oh, wow. Okay. No, I'm okay, Apple Watch." But that just gives you an idea of, yes, the technology is here, and it can be of value. There's no need to be afraid of it, and there's no need to have an expectation that you're gonna continue without learning it, because it's not going away. It's not going away, and, you know, I think the episodes that we did on this, we, we talked about, um- Health, of course, because, you know, I, I know all of you have MyChart accounts if you go to a doctor. Um, so, you know, the technology is there to help keep track of all the tests that you've had and the results and, and all of that. Um, banking, goodness knows. S- you know, very rarely do people stand online in a bank anymore. You're using an ATM. You can deposit money if you still get a check. You know, sometimes it's just electronically sent to you. So it's just, you don't have to use everything, but you do need a basic understanding of what's out there. Most people are texting. If you have grandchildren, they don't even talk on the phone. I mean, we, we, we talk about, you know, phones. They don't even talk on the phone, on the cell phones. Everything is texting. So there are ways of just staying, you know, involved and engaged with folks. As, uh, we often say during our episodes, we still have time, but you don't wanna waste time. Exactly. But, you know, time is our most valuable commodity, and if there's some technology that will enable you to save time, I think we should be, we probably more than anybody, should be very, uh, eager to try it. Yes. Time, time is more precious as you get older. Time is more valuable because we, we never know. So use... We try to encourage everyone, including ourselves, to use our time well. Uh, the next area that we focused on over the past year, unsurprisingly, money and planning. Uh, and of course, you know, if you're a retiree and you're not, you're not getting a raise every year, you're, um- And, and if you're familiar with the Social Security cost of living incre- Increase increase each year, you know that's not gonna make a significant change in your lifestyle. So, so one of the things that we, uh, highlighted in an episode is things that retirees should stop spending money on. Uh, and there's a lot of them that, uh, just go beyond, below the radar. Things like memberships in Costco or what's some of the other- BJ's BJ's. When you were raising a family and you had kids, it made sense. But now y- it's just the two of you and- Or maybe the one of you Or just the one of you, and maybe that membership ne- is no longer necessary 'cause you don't need to buy food in bulk like you used to. Yeah, and, um, uh, we, I know we did an episode, house rich, cash poor, something like that, where you might be living in your family home, and it might be worth a lot of money, but you're, that's where all of your wealth is in, in that, in that building, that real estate. Uh, but yet you're struggling, you know, on, on a monthly basis to, you know, pay for food and pay for insurance and pay for, um, I don't know, medical or whatever. Uh, so m- you might want to consider, "Maybe I could downsize. Maybe I could sell this place and use that money to live a more fulfilling, spend, spend the l- the time that I have left in a more fulfilling way." Some of the other things that we covered in this category are going through your, your monthly expenses. What are you spending your money on? Are you still paying for cellphone bills of adult children? 'Cause you did, you did it when they were in their, you know- ... college, but now they're in their 30s and 40s, and you're still paying their bills. They're still on your account. They're still on your account. Maybe you can- Maybe it's time to get on their account. Right. Or, uh, the, one of the ones that Hope and I talk about ourselves, we have two vehicles. One of them stays parked most of the time. Maybe we don't need two vehicles. Maybe we could just downsize to one. Maybe we can cut the insurance rates, uh, cost down some. So these are just some of the things that- Yeah, that we t-t-t... Right Yeah And, and we also talked about not leaving a mess, and that means planning ahead of time and, and, you know, we will, all, all of these categories will be v- revisited in, in the next year, I guarantee you. Because these are the things that are most critical to people in our age group, we believe. You know, don't leave a mess. Don't leave your finances in a mess. Have a will. Um, you know, maybe you wanna, uh, look at, investigate, you know, getting a trust, uh, making sure that your family m- members know what your wants are, what your desires are should, God forbid, you pass away, or even if you get, you know, seriously ill, uh, you need to have someone to make these decisions. And listen, um, we haven't done all of this stuff ourselves. You know, part, part of this podcast and the episodes that we do, um, really encourage us to do certain things and to look at certain things. We find all this information, and then we share it with you, and we say, "Hey, we need to do this, too." So, but these are, th- these are all, um, things that, as I've said earlier, if you missed any of these episodes, you can go back and take a look at them now. And one, one element of the money and planning, um, s- topic that I want to make clear. We so often think that, "Well, I don't have that much money, so it's not that important." Believe me, it's important. You don't have to be very weal- you don't have to be wealthy at all. It's always good to have all of your plans tied up so that you leave nothing to chance. Right, or to arguments among your family members. Right. You want them to be thinking of you if you pass away, um, thinking about your life, not arguing with each other. Um, you know, the next sorta major topic, uh, that we discussed over the past year are just lifestyle and family things. And one is staying active and engaged with other people. I know if you watch TV at all, if you watch any of the, like, morning shows or, they're always talking about, um, how important it is for seniors, and I'm putting that in quote, to, to stay actively involved with other people. Having interpersonal relationships really contributes to longevity. And so, uh, you know, and there are so many ways of doing that. I mean, gyms have special senior programs. Um, senior centers have senior activities. Uh, churches, you know, religious groups. Uh, you know, there are so many ways to stay engaged. You know, just calling your friends on a regular basis, getting together with them for lunch once a month or having a book club. You know, we're, Harold and I are involved in a movie club. Just staying engaged with other people really makes a, a difference in the quality of your life, and according to experts, the length of your life. One of the topics we also put into this category, uh, I think the topic was called hand-me-downs, and we weren't talking, we wasn't, we were not talking about clothing. We were talking about handing down our stories. I had a conversation with my daughter one day, and I just happened to mention my mother's middle name, and she said, "You know what? I never knew what her middle name was." I'm like, and I thought, "That's on me. How could you not know your grandmother's middle name?" I, I said, "Or how about this? Does your child know what you do or did?" A lot of times they have no clue. "Oh, he goes out in the morning and he comes back in the afternoon. I have no f- clue what my father did, or my mother did, or who they, my grandparents." You, you wanna share these stories. You wanna share these stories because you wanna be an ancest- ancestor. You don't wanna be a ghost. I like that. I like that term. And then we did, we did things like things that bother us. I mean, one of my favorite episodes was, uh, Too Low, Too Loud, Too Many Steps. Right. That, that's what we named the episode. Right. And it came mostly from me because, you know, I'm 75% bionic. I, I've had two, both hips replaced and one knee. And so I, you know, I go places and things are too low. I think in that episode I mention when I went to that play. Mm-hmm. I went to a play, and I went into the theater's bathroom. It was like, you know, uh, an off-Broadway play. And honestly, the toilet was like 12 inches off the ground. I, I, truly I, I don't know many seniors who can navigate that. I mean, even hovering is, is an issue. And how about we went, we bought tickets for a concert a few years ago, and we're standing on line outside the venue, and we had heard some people say, "Oh, you know they don't have any seats." And you know, we didn't really pay much attention to it. We got inside the venue and it was standing only. Now for us, this was the first time I had ever heard of a c- a concert where you had to stand, and- And, and we were a little bit younger then. That was probably seven or eight years ago. Yeah. And, and, and so what we, what we wound up doing was we sat at the bar for a few minutes. Well, for a few drinks, that is. And then we just said, "Okay, we're leaving," because there's no... And 'cause we got there early, as y- you know, seniors tend to do, we got there early, and our, the person who we went to see wasn't until the second act. So Hope- Mm-mm ... actually contacted the, the, uh- Yeah, uh, right there. There was an office right there. Right. And I spoke to the young woman there, and they refunded our, our ticket money. But, but who's i- who came up with the idea of standing at a concert? Someone 25. Right. Okay. Someone 25. And then we also did an episode on relocating. You know, that's part of the lifestyle stuff. You know, we, we talked a little bit in the money part about maybe downsizing where you're living, but you may want to, to relocate to a less expensive area. Um, and we talked about some of the things that you should look out for there. And again- You know, in almost every one of these episodes, we remind you that we are not experts on this. We're really just sharing information that we found. So we, we go to all these different sources, and we compile this information, and then, you know, these are trusted sources. A lot of times it's AARP, and we know that they vet their information very well. But we try to be very careful about that, and then we come and sort of put it together in a different way and present it to you. And, and we hope that it's been interesting. We hope that we do have, you know, a number of return listeners who will come back again and again, and that, you know, next year this time we'll be celebrating our second anniversary. But, um, we want you to keep listening, and we want you, again, we say it every single time, to connect with us. Call us. Call us. Yes, you can call- Well, you can leave- ... and leave a, a voicemail message ... you can voicemail, you can leave a voicemail message on speakpipe.com, and that's link is in the show notes. Again, our email is youstillhavetimepodcast@gmail.com. You can leave notes wherever you listen to, uh, the podcast, so Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music. You know, just, just leave a comment. You can text us. You can, you can text us. You can text us. That link will also be in the show notes. So just really reach out to us. If you have ideas for g- uh, episodes, let us know about them. Let us know what you think. Yes, if you have a criticism. You know, I'm, I'm always, it's so nice to hear from people, "Oh, yeah, I listened and it was really nice." I- but we want real criticism. I mean, if there was something that you didn't like, if there was something that you thought that we should have covered that we didn't, or that we said that you thought was wrong, or... We just, we want to know because that helps us make, helps make us better s- 'cause we would like to celebrate our second anniversary doing this podcast next year in 2027. Oh, God, that sounds like the fut- the real future. I, you know, that's a, that's a, a date that just, I don't know. You know, when I was 12, 2027 was like eternity. Yeah. Well, I think that does it for this episode, this anniversary episode. Happy anniversary, Harold. Ha- uh, I'll drink... Oh, no, I don't have my drink here. I'll, I'll, I'll... Don't worry. Once I get off this call. Yeah, we'll have a toast. So as always, remember... You still have time. See you soon. Bye-bye.