BoomerTime with Nancy Cogar

In this episode, we discuss D-I-Y or "do-it-yourself" wills, and how a LOT could go wrong when preparing such an important and essential document on your own. Here, we talk about generic online forms, selecting an executor of an estate, proper inventory and administration of assets and more in this can't miss episode for Boomers.

Join the Boomer Time community! Learn more at ⁠⁠NancyCogar.com⁠⁠, subscribe to my newsletter and gain helpful resources to help you or your loved one navigate aging with confidence.

Lurone "Coach" Jennings shares his legacy with us in this episode. He has been influential in the lives of many of Chattanooga's finest athletes, and has given decades of his life to philanthropy through several nonprofit organizations. You won't want to miss this, plus advice about how you can preserve your own legacy.

A lot of us spent the holidays with our parents and maybe we noticed some things that concerned us.  Maybe we noticed a decline of some kind or something else. Perhaps it was some memory loss, or your parents experienced a fall, or didn’t seem to be negotiating stairs or parts of the house as well anymore. Maybe they are forgetting to take their medicines or maybe they lost their way on the way back from the grocery store, or perhaps their driving scared you a bit.  Now you’re home and worried about whatever you experienced.  The big question is what do you do now?

That’s what we’re talking about in this episode.  I call those the holiday red flags and they can be very stressful.  Truth is they can indicate early stages of decline or diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s or other kinds of dementia.  If you live a far distance away from your parent this can only intensify those concerns about what to do next. 

Some red flags that may indicate some decline in your parents’ condition which require some follow up and may initiate some action on your part to investigate and start some long-term care planning.  That’s what we are talking about in this episode – what to look for and what to examine. 

Join the Boomer Time community! Learn more at NancyCogar.com, subscribe to my newsletter and gain helpful resources to help you or your loved one navigate aging with confidence.

In this episode, I meet with Chattanooga-based personal trainer Kareem Brown (IG: @lifechangesstyles47) to talk about how personal training and more generally building muscle strength can help you in your older years. We also have a giveaway prize for our listeners (more information below). But first, I want to share the story of how Kareem and I met and it's a painful story.

So, it was about two years ago. I was shopping at a drug store here in Chattanooga.  There was an item on the very bottom shelf that was on my list, so I squatted down to get closer to it.  Once I was crouched down in the aisle, I grabbed that little item and placed it in my basket. Then of course, I went to bring myself up and guess what… failure to launch. My legs didn’t have the strength to push me back up into the standing position. There I was down on the floor.  I knew it was time to do something to get stronger.  That’s when Kareem and I met.  Since then we have been working hard to change that.  

In this episode, Kareem generously addresses the following:

About the Guest:

Kareem Brown is a personal trainer based in Chattanooga, Tennessee, specializing in supporting the physical fitness needs of older adults. Email: [email protected] or on Instagram @lifechangesstyles47

Special Episode 4 Prize for our Listeners

Join the Boomer Time community! Learn more at ⁠NancyCogar.com⁠, subscribe to my newsletter and gain helpful resources to help you or your loved one navigate aging with confidence.

Caregiving your parents can be one of the most stressful roles a person takes on and given the cost of institutionalized care an increasing number of those taking on that role are the adult children of aging parents.   At least 25 percent of those adult children caregivers in the U.S. are married which adds additional pressure and strain to those relationships which are already taxed and an estimated 1 in 2 marriages are now reported to end in divorce.  So what can be done to protect not only your emotional health but your marriage, if you find yourself in a new role as in-home caregiver of a parent, in-law or multiple parents. 

In Episode 3 of Boomer Time, Nancy Cogar welcomes her husband Gary Cogar to the podcast and talks about their firsthand experience of caring for two of their parents in their home and the challenges, victories and failures that they experienced over the years along with suggestions for others to help protect their marriages while caring for an older parent.  Nancy also offers additional resources that can help with keeping a marriage healthy while caregiving. 

Main topics

Click to Read 11 Ways to Keep Your Marriage Healthy While Caregiving

In this episode, we are going to continue our conversation about foundational steps if you find yourself in a caregiver role. How do you get started? This is something that most don’t prepare for. Wouldn’t research of even be familiar with until you have to. Most times people come into my office following a diagnosis. Parent has a diagnosis of some form of dementia or Parkinson’s, or some debilitating disease and then we’re thinking about what is going to come next. How can the family protect Mom or Dad. What do they have in place or what don’t they have in place.

What do they need? How can they pay for care? How can they protect assets that they’ve worked their whole life to accumulate? What happens to that retirement plan? What about the family home? They come in scared with lots of questions and no knowledge of where to start. Maybe that’s where you are today.

Join the Boomer Time community! Learn more at ⁠NancyCogar.com⁠, subscribe to my newsletter and gain helpful resources to help you or your loved one navigate aging with confidence.

In this episode, we are talking about something being dubbed the “sandwich generation” and as I explain briefly in our intro that is label being given to anyone experiencing the struggle of simultaneously caring for children and aging parents is part of the sandwich generation.

The sandwich generation is a group of middle-aged adults who care for both their aging parents and their own children.  Although “generation” is part of the phrase, it doesn’t refer to people born at a specific time. Typically, these family caregivers will be in the 30- to 40-year-old age range, providing for their families and balancing care duties between the needs of children and parents.

What is causing this “issue” ?

The rise in the numbers in the sandwich generation is a byproduct of two influential trends: 

If this sounds familiar, you are not alone. You are most likely experiencing significant anxiety and stress as you juggle school and activities for your children, expectations at work, changing family dynamics, and daily caregiver duties. Though this is a challenging time in your life, it doesn’t have to be as hard as it seems.

Read more: https://nancycogar.com/meet-the-sandwich-generation/

This introductory episode explores what our listeners can expect from Boomer Time with Nancy Cogar, an emerging podcast for boomers, caregivers, families and friends.