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00:00:01
E56: Wills Aren’t Optional (Even When the Economy Sucks)
10 Plays5 days ago
Inflation’s up, spending is down, and estate planning is landing in the “non-essential” pile?! In this episode, we break down why putting off your Will or Trust could cost more than just money. We’re talking long-term protection vs. short-term purchases, DIY risks, and how to reframe what really matters when times feel tight.
Plus, we lighten the mood with some epic (and chaotic) ways you can make memories on vacation—sunburns, losing luggage, family fights, and all. Because while vacations may not be essential, the memories are. And just like those memories, a solid estate plan is essential to make sure your story—and your loved ones—are protected when you're gone.
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Transcript
Introduction to Wills, Trusts, and Estate Planning
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to another episode of One of Us Knows What They're Talking About and the other one is you. I'm Lori Birch, your host. Join us as we discuss and unpack wills, trusts, estate planning, and probate law in a way that's actually informative, interesting, and well, hopefully entertaining. Because if you don't have a will, the state of Texas has one for you.
00:00:27
Speaker
Let's dive in.
Trends in Estate Planning and Consumer Spending
00:00:40
Speaker
We have kind of a blended topic today and I wanna start off with talking about some current trends that we're seeing. And it's something that we've seen in our practice in Dallas, Texas, but it's actually being seen across lots of different businesses and in particular, well, I don't say in particular, but more specific to my knowledge,
00:01:09
Speaker
there are other estate planning and probate firms that are seeing the same sort of trend. And what it is is what consumers are deciding to spend their money on and what they're not deciding to spend their money on. and starting in April, was there anything significant that started the beginning of April of this year?
00:01:33
Speaker
ah My anniversary with Birch Law. ah earn Our anniversary of seeing Taylor Swift. on that route okay okay okay just like Sarah how about you um maybe some socioeconomic factors oh yeah no well so that's when words that's when tariffs bro wait did you say that's a big word say i i almost said I almost said that's a big word for Albo but I stopped myself halfway through you still said big words
00:02:10
Speaker
That's all that came out of that. Wanting to say that. That wasn't directed at you, Sarah. That's fair. It was 100% directed at Sarah. If I said that, would you be like, wow, Laurie's using a big word.
00:02:25
Speaker
The big word for Elmo. No. Come on.
00:02:31
Speaker
All right. But yes, so the beginning of April this year is when tariffs kicked in, I guess. Stock market was plummeting.
00:02:42
Speaker
um Lots of different things. So U.S. consumers are now making different spending decisions about about things, about products and services.
Impact of Economic Changes on Consumer Behavior
00:02:55
Speaker
And so i have this one particular article that's interesting that addresses this, where ah It has a ranking of sources of concern for U.S. consumers. And I thought maybe I would just talk about the top few. But if you all have this up as well, not you, the listener, but you, the Birch Law people want to.
00:03:19
Speaker
The number one is rising prices is and inflation. So that's like, Sarah, what are you doing? Sarah? I am trying to fix my light. I didn't think you guys would notice.
00:03:33
Speaker
You're flailing about. No, no i it wasn't her moving. It was the light like the light going across her. yeah That was... Yeah.
00:03:44
Speaker
I mean, first the light in your office went off. Yeah, and then you were trying to flail to get it on. Yeah. but So let me ask you this. Are you good?
00:03:55
Speaker
I'm good. Okay. All right. So again, number one source of concern for U.S. consumers is rising prices and inflation.
00:04:08
Speaker
I would say that's fair, right? Yeah. Okay. The second one just alluded to this, tariff policies. a Okay.
00:04:19
Speaker
Those are the two, i mean, technically,
00:04:23
Speaker
I'd say three because rising prices, like if you did a Venn diagram, Sarah, is your favorite. You could have
00:04:35
Speaker
tariff policies, rising prices, and then in but no i'm sorry inflation, tariff policies, and then rising prices because inflation causes rising prices, but so does tariff policies. But anyway, all of those three, big boat,
00:04:51
Speaker
ah very concerned for people. And then we have ability to make ends beat.
00:05:00
Speaker
And it never occurred to me it's M-E-E-T, not M-E-A-T.
00:05:07
Speaker
ah I'm kidding. I'm just going to go right past that. I guess immigration po policies... costs and accessibility of healthcare international conflicts political polarization and I wanted to get to this one and I I'm not laughing because I'm minimizing this I'm just I'm trying to see the connection gun slash knife violence
00:05:35
Speaker
ah hu is
The Importance of Estate Planning
00:05:40
Speaker
a source of concern for US consumers
00:05:47
Speaker
Anyway, ah that ranks higher than climate change, stock market performance, and discrimination against certain groups of people.
00:05:58
Speaker
Higher than that is gun slash knife violence, which is somehow influencing people's buying decisions.
00:06:08
Speaker
I mean, I can't do it. i don't know. Okay, please explain. Because I was thinking, oh, people want to stay home more. However, we have online ordering. Like, yeah, that's what I was thinking, too. It's like people think it's like unsafe to, you know, go out and do things because of the stuff. spend more online than I ever have in a store.
00:06:36
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah.
00:06:39
Speaker
I don't know know. Anyway, there's other ones here that are interesting. But ah yes, so that's it. It is rising and it is stark. And so then lots of people have already started to change their spending habits because of this very starkly.
00:06:59
Speaker
The statistics show if you're into things like facts and reality. um so Here's this, among consumers who expected to change their behavior, more than half plan to cut back on, and this is where rubber hits the road for our point here, non-essential spending.
00:07:20
Speaker
So we see that here are some spending habits. One, cutting back on non-essential spending, like I just said. We're going to put a pin in that, Sarah, and circle back. ah Then we're going to have a thought shower about it.
00:07:35
Speaker
Oh, which I've never heard that used except by my corporate jargon, GPS voice.
00:07:44
Speaker
ah Purchasing fewer items overall, switching to lower priced products. Here's another one. So this is one to pay attention to delaying purchases, then buying items secondhand, um purchasing from different stores, websites, making choices based on country of origin. Intriguing.
00:08:05
Speaker
um But I get it with like tariffs and stuff and making purchases sooner. Oh, if only. um
00:08:14
Speaker
Let me see if there's anything else. So I think those are the big ones. So what am I getting at here? Besides this is interesting and sad and scary in no particular order, but what am I getting at here?
00:08:33
Speaker
People are viewing estate planning as non-essential. Is that hurtful to you, Sarah? It is. That is hurtful.
00:08:44
Speaker
What the hell, guys? It Thank you. That's it. um True. so we are So we've experienced this. We've experienced and we know other businesses have. ah people are There's less people reaching out.
00:09:01
Speaker
There's more people putting it off. So delaying, and that's always been ah trend, but I think that the biggest mistake to come out of this is viewing an estate plan, a will, a trust, a power of attorney as a non-essential item or service or product.
00:09:28
Speaker
And then, i mean, we could really dive deep, but I know we've got some more fun things to tie into this. But we could get into, do we think where we see the switching to lower priced products? Do we think that some people who would ordinarily want to do this right by going to a qualified law firm are doing what the misperception is of better than nothing with the online stuff?
Online Estate Planning Alternatives
00:09:54
Speaker
I don't, I mean, there's no way for us to know Personally, because it's not like they tell us that I would guess that there's that's probably lower in in what the trends are showing But the thing that is unfortunate about all of this is that I don't know how you can consider something that you absolutely are going to need that will have a significant impact on your children, on your loved ones, on your family, and on the hard-earned money and assets that you have.
00:10:34
Speaker
It's definitely going to be affected. It's definitely going to be needed. How on earth do you consider that non-essential?
00:10:45
Speaker
I mean, we saw the same thing in 2020 whenever we couldn't come to the office because we were considered a non-essential business. Right. And that was a time whenever more than anything, a lot of people really needed basics of having a medical power of attorney.
00:11:01
Speaker
Right. Things like that. And so we're charged with spreading the message and the education of this is absolutely not something that is non-essential.
00:11:16
Speaker
um We get it. i We're, I mean, all of us on this podcast are consumers ourselves, right? ah Now, I know personally that um the people at the office have not had a decline in any sort of income. In fact, they've had to increases there.
00:11:40
Speaker
But have any of you changed any of your spending habits in light of, as Sarah would put it, socioeconomic factors?
00:11:54
Speaker
We have some. Yeah, a little bit.
Personal Stories on Economic Adaptation
00:11:58
Speaker
What are examples? yes because Because you know Kimberly and I are not in that category. No, well, one of the biggest things for me is i and like to do this thing throughout the year where I buy myself little treats that I'll like save up for like an item that I want. So I'll be tracking the price and then I'll be like, okay, by this date, I'll buy this. By this date, I'll buy this.
00:12:19
Speaker
Well, with everything increasing i was like well i have to adjust some of those plans so i ended up buying a few items sooner than i would have and then also with other things um we've put off like buying certain things so it's just a matter of like okay well this is now just doesn't seem reasonable to us and then we start yes we do think about reasonable compared to what but then we're looking at something like
00:12:51
Speaker
ah on the economic scale, everything is fluctuating so quickly. Up, down, up, down, and nothing is stable. So it's like, okay, well, if we don't absolutely need it we can put it off for a little bit.
00:13:03
Speaker
And I feel like that's a category where people will get into. But then once you start looking at, okay, well, what is a necessity versus what does it want? And so that's how we're really looking at it. If it's a necessity, we're still going to buy groceries. We're still going to buy eggs.
00:13:20
Speaker
I still have a very strong opinion versus one brand of cottage cheese versus another one. But if it's like something like an electronic or like something like that for fun, it's like, I don't need it.
00:13:33
Speaker
I'm okay. I can put that off until something is more like stable. Yeah. Sarah, you said yes. So what spending habits of yours have changed?
00:13:46
Speaker
um Kind of similar. It's like just putting things off. You know, if I don't really need it, it's, you know, I'm just going to wait. um
00:13:58
Speaker
Like, I don't know. we We still buy groceries and all that, but we do cut down. You do? so. got a Rockefeller over here.
00:14:11
Speaker
cut down on what we buy. um Yeah, same. Because i i like I use the HEB app and I can see like even six months ago the price difference on certain items and it's ridiculous. So it's like where if it's something like we used to buy um you know for fun as like a little treat or something, but now it's like $2 or $3 more, no, it's not on the list anymore.
00:14:35
Speaker
um So it's like little things like that. It's like, I don't know. So we already know some things that... because it's what we do, that are essential, that people perceive as at some people, not everybody, um because we're we're still rocking and rolling, okay, everybody, but ah there's there's been some shifts, that's for sure.
00:14:59
Speaker
But what items do you think people are considering essential, and feel free free to put yourself in this category, that actually are, in fact, non-essential? Sam, let's start with you.
00:15:12
Speaker
Is there anything that you think is that people are considering essential, but actually ah not so essential? My first thought was the Switch 2 just came out.
00:15:26
Speaker
um And the like so many people who report that. like in And it's the same people who are complaining that things are rising. but you're How much is it?
00:15:37
Speaker
I think like $500 or $600. I think it's closer to $600 something. I think it was originally going to be $499, but then they announced it. Tariffs, I think, officially went into effect. And then they... What was the price, I think?
00:15:52
Speaker
Man.
00:15:56
Speaker
What else?
00:15:59
Speaker
What about your cruises? Cruises. but Why is it your cruises? There's somebody here that's like... So right now... No, I'm just going on cruises next year.
00:16:12
Speaker
The bundle for it $4.99, so with tax, five-something. Yeah. yeah But i've people are putting off, like... Sam, are you going on a bunch of cruises?
00:16:23
Speaker
Going on two next year. Wow. I know. I'm so happy that I'm spending so much money. Where are you going?
00:16:35
Speaker
Um... The one with my family, it's Cozumel, then I think somewhere else. um The one with Justin, Ally, and Britt for their 30th birthday anniversary crew anniversary birthday cruise um but i'm also calling up my 30th birthday cruise but they just don't know that um um we're going to bahamas and then the perfect day at coco bay which is like world caribbeans each that they have nice okay okay
00:17:14
Speaker
So would you consider vacationing essential or non-essential?
Are Vacations Essential?
00:17:21
Speaker
Non-essential. Yeah, here we are. And here we are. It is fun.
00:17:28
Speaker
Well, and it's fun. And does it make memories? It does. It does. Is it something you share with your family and loved ones? Yeah.
00:17:39
Speaker
yeah Good and bad memories. Good and bad memories. Absolutely. Okay. hu Would you say that when you're dead and gone that you would rather your loved ones reflect upon those memories, good and bad, than to have to deal with a total mess of court battles and red tape through title companies or financial institutions. Is it is that the stuff your story is made of, Sam? Yeah. No.
00:18:15
Speaker
No. but It is not. Because I have my own mistake planning. yeah Did you even listen to what I said? ah yes Yeah, I'm joking. Oh, did I hear him?
00:18:31
Speaker
Well, you answered wrong. um Okay, well then I'm going to repeat the question. um Thank you. Yeah, can you just repeat it? Would you rather your family loved ones have those memories of those yeah shared times together? Would you rather them be able to focus on that when you're long gone than court battles and confusion and red tape with title companies selling homes, financial institutions and all of that? Yeah.
00:19:02
Speaker
That was my bet. I thought you were... Yeah, anyway. i Yeah, correct. I heard it wrong. It's fine. ah we We all know that, Sam. We were just waiting for you to catch up with that realization. fine We're fine.
00:19:19
Speaker
well Yes. want them to focus on the good stuff. Focus on the good stuff. So maybe will transition to that. how How's that? That we will transition to focusing on the good stuff.
00:19:31
Speaker
So we have, i do you you want to talk about some vacation memories, but me look at what you all prepared today. What is the point of what you prepared today?
00:19:42
Speaker
Are these... ah These are memories you can make. Memories to make. So do you want to save this for last and take a few moments to talk about some of your own personal memories? Because I'm hoping most of these are not actual memories.
00:20:01
Speaker
um so are There's one that I think can have a memory or two to them. And that's really about it. I think the other ones are just us being dumped. Okay.
00:20:13
Speaker
So do you all have any personal? want you to rephrase yes it's fine. Can you say having fun? Us having fun. Okay. All right. So what we'll do first is why don't each of you share like one or two vacation memories, good or bad, that you that you've had?
00:20:38
Speaker
Don't everybody speak at once. Well, the bad one I want to say, I'm not going to say or Or Sarah has to cut it out. But I think you guys already know it. feel like one of the, like a really nice story for me my brother and I are 10 years apart.
00:20:54
Speaker
So a lot of people, whenever I say, yeah, no, I feel like I'm the only child. They're like, you have a brother. I'm like, okay, 10 years difference. It doesn't really feel that way because you're also like,
00:21:06
Speaker
they also spoil you it's not just like your parents you know helping with stuff it's also like your sibling so whenever we would go on vacations for example we went to disney so we did the road trip all the way from texas to orlando that's a long drive done it's a long drive same yeah i feel like um i feel like you have to do it at least once and i've done it twice So we were there and then this is back when i feel like fast pass was just kind of taking off in a, in a slightly different way
00:21:42
Speaker
So we didn't realize like what it was just yet whenever we bought like the tickets for everybody to go in But once we were in, my brother started realizing, wait, there's fast pass available. Like this is a thing.
00:21:55
Speaker
So he went up to somebody and you know, Sorry, Mr. Big Cheese, but Disney's not going to say no to taking more of your money. And they were like, so where can i where can I get this? Because it wasn't like, you know apps and everything on smartphones weren't a thing.
00:22:11
Speaker
So we were able to go somewhere and they're like, here's where you sign up for it we You get this whole thing. And so we were like, okay. things are different now. So like my brother would do that for us. And we, our parents didn't really want to ride rides. They just kind wanted to walk around and wander.
00:22:26
Speaker
So we would splinter off from them and it would just be me and him, like just doing stuff and fast passing our way through Disney. And then whenever, think it was the next day or the day after we were also going universal.
00:22:40
Speaker
So whenever we were at the gate, he also was like hey is this a thing that you'll have and they're like yeah so we like went ahead and did that there and one of my favorite things is we rode every single ride including the woody the woodpecker ride and the children's oh my gosh wow definitely can't can't miss bucket list we love we love Woody the Woodpecker my brother and I are Woody the Woodpecker children um but yeah ah it was just like a really nice thing where we were able just to splinter off from our parents and have fun but it's also like aw he cared he still does but it's just memories in the way a brother can yeah nice he was pretty great yeah who else has got a memory
00:23:38
Speaker
That they want share. Wow. Y'all are really. No I i couldn't tell if she. It was that thinking game where Sierra looked like she was kind of about to say something. But. It did look like you were. You were like.
00:23:49
Speaker
Yeah. Fingering with a thought. Yeah. um I was.
00:23:55
Speaker
Like I've been on vacations with my. I'm trying to like think. One memory that always stands out is, I'm shockingly that I'm about to say this now that Sarah called me out, um but my parents love cruises, like the...
00:24:10
Speaker
They're being, they had stop because of COVID, but they're actually going on an Alaskan one in a couple months, which I'm very jealous about. But we went to the Caribbean, it's probably a couple years ago. Was this pre-year? I think so.
00:24:22
Speaker
um But there is a sloth sanctuary that you can go to in Le Mans. wow And it is the coolest thing. I spent all of my money there. I was saving all of my money for that one day.
00:24:35
Speaker
We um got to go through like the jungle and they pointed out like the wild um like monkeys and sloths and there was like a ah group of monkeys that had ah exiled one of them and they were like yelling at him. it was crazy.
00:24:50
Speaker
um Wow. We like learned about sloths and we got to meet Buttercup sloth who's like the the main show girly there. Yeah. man girl it was really not like that like she was just the main attraction i mean terms of hold on i need you to go back what do you think i meant because i would whenever you said the main show girly i was like okay so it's the main like one and then you're like not like that like i need you to think i need you to explain to me what think i don't know i imagine pasties yeah i feel yeah yeah shimmy showgirl and then i think it yeah i sort know i start clicking more okay and yeah la is clicking or kicking in line yeah no yeah but i mean we got to go there we got to go i think to columbia and then so i don't remember the third place um i think it might have been in mexico um i think actually that was cosmo um but so like we got to see like the main ruins and we got to like experience other countries and it's just really cool
00:25:51
Speaker
cool that you can do that. That's nice. And it was with my parents. So I got to be baby the entire Were your siblings with you or no? It was just junior parents. Okay. Just us three. It was on princess cruises, which is all old people. So I was the youngest by about four years.
00:26:04
Speaker
Sam. Did you say four years? That's fine. Yeah. Yeah. There was a couple. 40 years older than her. Yeah. Like there was a couple who was ziplining with us that was 95 and I think like 97 years old. It was crazy.
00:26:19
Speaker
Dang. They were doing it too. you know if you're that mobile that age go off yeah right i'll i'll never forget the clients we had years ago who were anxious to get their will and trust in place before they were going on a cruise and for some reason i thought they were afraid of being attacked by vikings on their cruise and i like where right yeah we're just going on a viking cruise Well, to be fair, the way she put it was that she was scared that while they were cruising in the Nile that they would get kidnapped by on Vikings or by Viking or something. Yes, the Nile and Vikings. And then later, yeah whenever she finally like slowed down and explained it, this happened like two years ago.
00:27:10
Speaker
were like, oh, you're going on a Viking cruise on the Nile. Okay, it all makes sense.
00:27:18
Speaker
Yeah, we were having a moment. Yeah. under are We were all very confused. Of all the things that U.S. consumers are concerned about, i do not see being attacked by Vikings on this list.
00:27:35
Speaker
The chances are low, but never zero. never mean, I guess so. like
00:27:44
Speaker
Sarah, what what memory you got? Oh boy. um You had all this time to think. I know. There's just so many. There are, and yet you've had twenty four hours to think of what So I think one of my favorite ones is it was like during COVID.
00:28:10
Speaker
Um, but I had just graduated, ah from my undergrad. And so my grad present was a trip to Colorado with my mom aunt and step sister. And we road tripped there. And, um,
00:28:27
Speaker
It was just really cool. I had never been to Colorado before, but we like saw the Rockies and did, we saw the Stanley hotel, which was really cool. im And yeah, it was just a lot of fun.
00:28:38
Speaker
Oh, my cousin was there too. Well, she lived in Colorado. So she like, we like hiked and stuff with her and like, it was just fun. Um, my mom and aunt didn't end up getting in a huge fight and, um, they didn't talk on the way back, but, um,
00:28:55
Speaker
It was fun. Isn't that fun? It is not a proper family trip. right At least one mom does not threaten to never speak to somebody else again. Right. Yeah.
00:29:08
Speaker
My mom was like...
00:29:12
Speaker
It was bad. Family vacation fights are so much more interesting than when you can go back to your own home. yeah like the smaller the smaller the space you're in just the more just can't cut through that with the knife it was bad worse when they stole when they like last past the trip too like why are you still not speaking to each other it's been two weeks so
00:29:45
Speaker
ah we Yeah. Well, before we wrap up here with this, ah what whatever this is that Sarah and Sam do. What do you call ah I mean, i like like all of you, ah yeah lots of lots of great memories of trips, road trips, vacations, growing up but with my own family. one One of my favorite things is for several years, my mom, my sister, and my great aunt Norma we would do a girls trip to Graceland for Elvis week in August. And so great, great times there.
00:30:21
Speaker
ah My aunt Norma has now passed. And in fact, my youngest is named after her. Her middle name is Jean, which was my aunt Norma's middle name. And so that is how we got an Elvis connection in one of my children's names and also something first very personal. personal And we we still have so many jokes and and stuff for many of those.
00:30:41
Speaker
But one that I want to share is not like the most necessarily significant, but I don't know why it's the one that popped in my head. So the first time we went to Hawaii as a family, it was before Poppy was born. So it was, we went to Maui. It was Kimberly,
00:30:57
Speaker
ah Me, Carly, Kaya, and Adley. And I guess Adley had to be about two Yeah, she must been about two years Was this the time nanny? Yes.
00:31:09
Speaker
Yes. Yeah. And Adley is a a really...
Family Dynamics in Vacation Stories
00:31:16
Speaker
picky eater. And so, and and for those of you who have been to Hawaii, it is very expensive there. It's very expensive for two reasons. One, it costs a lot of money to get food there.
00:31:31
Speaker
And two, it's kind of like the Disneyland effect. Like, where else are you to go You're locked in when you're going to like touristy restaurants and that sort of thing.
00:31:42
Speaker
But even like McDonald's is way more expensive there than it is than it is on the mainland. And so Adley would only only eat french fries, but we were always trying to also get her to eat the chicken fingers with it. And we were laying down like $18 a kid's meal for french fries and chicken.
00:32:06
Speaker
And we're like, please, Adley, let me cut it up into like microscopic bites and just have three bites, just three bites, and like every time. And you know on vacation, so that you don't have you know the same family arguments that you have, it's like, fine, we just gave in. And we were there for a whole week and every day.
00:32:24
Speaker
It was $25 kid meal, $18 kid meal. Let's try and get her to have some sort of protein. Let's get some protein in this kid. And she's just like, no, she won't. So the very fat last day, there is this...
00:32:37
Speaker
ah ah parking lot that has all these different food trucks. So we all went and because she won't eat anything else, it's not like we could go get a ah salad or anything else from any of these other trucks, a barbecue. No.
00:32:53
Speaker
So I go to where they have French fries and chicken fingers. And so I did not get her chicken fingers. I'm like, forget it. It's screw it this is our last day i' got dealing with it i'm not spending the money so we're ordering all the food we're sitting now we're putting food in front of everybody i put adley's little box in front of her she opens it up and she looks at me no lie and says where's the chicken
00:33:23
Speaker
i can see it so clearly where's the chicken Yeah. It's essential. so She's learned at that point that it just comes with it.
00:33:35
Speaker
Yeah. It's like, i was I was finally ready to try that. What the heck?
00:33:42
Speaker
I said I was going to at some point. This was the time I chose and no chicken. But anyway, yeah. So we'll see what what memories we have because we're about to embark on another family Hawaiian vacation here in just a few weeks, actually.
Conclusion and Key Takeaways
00:33:58
Speaker
oo Excited. Excited. ah So anyway, to wrap it up, because Sam or Sarah have somewhere to go or something to do.
00:34:10
Speaker
We'll never know. We'll never know. mean, maybe I'll never know because I can't. give you memorial dr know So let's talk about what you two have, where you want to close us out with memories to make on vacation. then you can decide or to share whether these are ones you've actually experienced or these are just ones that you think sound like really great memories to make.
00:34:36
Speaker
Go. all right so number one we have fight with your spouse and cause trauma this does not sound like a fun memory but it sounds common so we put it on there yeah from two people who've never been married okay correct right yeah yeah yeah well they're the ones that got the trauma from their parents right um fair enough uh number two get sunburned so bad that you get blisters which we both also experienced. You're both pale girlies.
00:35:08
Speaker
um Mine wasn't on vacation. Mine was just, um it was during the summer and I was at my best friend, Finn best friend's house. um Her cousins were visiting. We were in the pool.
00:35:19
Speaker
Her sister and mom go to go get groceries, forget we're out there and lock us out. And so we're out in... Texas a summer heat. It was the middle of summer um for like two or three hours and I got a huge blister on my foot.
00:35:33
Speaker
Like it was the size of my foot. It was gross. It was nasty. Do not recommend. ah and No? no No? No, I know surprising, right?
00:35:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:35:49
Speaker
Alright. Number three. um Spend all your money. i personally do that. I have no self control. you don't.
00:36:01
Speaker
um The next one, um part of this is really just a wish list for us in terms of where we would like to go. um so you're going to go to the new epic universe land in Florida um and specifically go to Nintendo World and buy a toad hat.
00:36:17
Speaker
um But if you're not us and you have one and you would like to donate it to us, please let us know. So when you say toad hat, do you mean it actually is like a mushroom or that it just has?
00:36:30
Speaker
Okay. I'm in. Yeah. It would go with Sarah's, you know, she can finally be toad for Halloween. my God. We just need to get you a little blue vest, some white shorts, some black brown shoes. Yeah.
00:36:43
Speaker
And we got the whole thing. We're good to go. Yeah. I'm on board.
00:36:49
Speaker
all right. Buy a souvenir you'll never look at again. i personally love doing this. I'm anti-souvenirs. Thank you. I like getting magnets because I just like to have my fridge covered. Yeah. Magnets and stickers.
00:37:02
Speaker
and I don't like things that don't have any function to them. Yes. So a magnet arguably is something you could use to like put your grocery list up or something like that. So I can make an argument for magnets. Yeah.
00:37:19
Speaker
ah but i I've gotten rid of way too many shot glasses yes if my mother brings me back for another shot glass I did that to my friends when we were in Florida I got like the word um where it was like number one grandpa and like um dumb stuff like that and I thought I was the funniest person get it get the number one grandpa for Sarah and she'd probably really like that I would. Yeah.
00:37:51
Speaker
Yeah. ah Is a total Gen X thing when people would collect like little bells? Like it was like a silver. it almost looked like the... mar that it Like we never did.
00:38:04
Speaker
But I just remember when we... go on trips we would always see those and it would have like the name of the city or the state location my mom has a collection of the bells it's usually like the key chains that you see that have like the name on it that's what i probably am going to get once she's no longer with us you know i'll send my brother what a wild package like here it's just like yeah well they're all freaking ceramic Oh. fair Memphis is in here, but I don't know where.
00:38:38
Speaker
Oh, there is. Okay, what's next? Next, lose all of your belongings, preferably at the airport, so you don't know which country they're in. It's a mystery. Yay.
00:38:50
Speaker
Fun. There's not anything that possibly been more triggering to me. I'm so sorry. Yeah. No. Well, you're not leaving the country.
00:39:02
Speaker
Just road trip to find it.
00:39:07
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, i've the airlines have lost my luggage many a times. They found it, thankfully. but That was such a fear. I've never personally lost anything.
00:39:20
Speaker
It was such a fear when we moved to America because all of our belongings were on a ship for like two or three a months. Yeah. um And I was, for some reason, 12 year old me was convinced that it was going to sink.
00:39:33
Speaker
And I'd never seen my beta game. Sam, your anxiety was really fascinating to be around. Thank Because I'm not like an anxious person overall, but I just- No, you're typically not. anxiety there's It's a very, very specific thing that it's like, wow, okay. Yeah.
00:39:50
Speaker
All right. Next we've had getting carsick or seasick depending on your mode of transportation. Yeah. That seems like fun. Really?
00:40:00
Speaker
I mean, it's a memory. You never you never promised fun. Correct. It's true. Yeah. Yeah. Promised memories. The list is titled just of memories to make on vacation. Some of the worst things that happened are the strongest memories.
00:40:18
Speaker
Trauma. trauma but thats so trauma bonding it's thing and then finally um not that this is a personal story or anything but get portrayed by your parents who think sneak ginger pills into your mcdonald's cheeseburger because you get seasick specifically going on the ferry and you find said ginger pills and said mcdonald's cheeseburger and it traumatizes your your younger self so much that you pull apart every single burger you eat for the next 10 years and eat it all separately
00:40:50
Speaker
I feel like you still kind of inspect your burgers before you're willing to bite into them. You think so? I haven't noticed. But i finally I finally forced myself to stop when I was like 18. I have a question. You can bring that one then.
00:41:01
Speaker
Does this mean that the cheeseburger tasted like ginger? No, I think I just for some reason like put, I like either like knocked it or for some reason I, my brain just decided to lift it up because I remember this, this memory vividly and they were just two little pills sitting right on top of like the cheeseburger meat and town heisner they're supposed to put the pills in peanut butter and have you lick it off a spoon.
00:41:36
Speaker
so or put it on your nose so no those methods didn't work unfortunately they're gonna kill you get like the little treats and stuff them in there and do you know you know what they've done now sam since all of us were that young is they have every medicine now in liquid form yeah
00:42:04
Speaker
Still not always easy to get down. but know I just, the taste of ginger, like i cannot do it. i still can't.
00:42:13
Speaker
Yeah, I'm not ah not much of a ginger person. Well, good. i think that ah I think that's good. And I hope this inspires our many, many fans to think upon their own vacation memories, whether they're positive or not so positive. They're part of who you are and part of your story.
00:42:30
Speaker
And those are the things that we need to focus on. and And so that you you build your legacy for that. And to remember that part of that is...
00:42:41
Speaker
Vacations may not be essential, but the memories are just as having a solid estate plan.
00:42:49
Speaker
Thanks for listening. And just to cover all our bases about what you just heard, I'm sorry and you're welcome. Make sure you subscribe so you never miss an episode and tell your friends about us.
00:43:02
Speaker
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00:43:13
Speaker
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00:43:35
Speaker
Much better. Yeah, I thought that had a lot of energy.