Must-Know Long-Term Care Statistics
by SGL Financial
Our 2 Cents – Episode #158
Must-Know Long-Term Care Statistics
Long-term care insurance can be complex, and some people may not fully understand what is covered and what is not. Policies vary widely, and individuals may be unsure if the coverage is worth the cost. On today’s podcast, Steve and Gabriel are sharing some must-know stats about long-term care to help you make more informed decisions.
- Must-Know Long-Term Care Statistics:
- Usage of Long-Term Care: The percentage of people who will need long-term care in their lifetime, including paid services, nursing care facilities, and more.
- The Role of Dementia: The prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia, specifically for those in nursing homes.
- The Cost of Care: Estimated lifetime costs of care for various care needs.
- Long-Term Care Insurance: Polices are changing these days, how in-demand are they, and are they worth it?
- Getting to Know Steve and Gabriel:
- What’s a small thing that makes your day better?
- What was your favorite age growing up?
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Podcast Transcript
Announcer: You are listening to Our 2 Cents, with the team from SGL Financial, Building Wealth for Life. Steve Lewit is the president of SGL Financial and Gabriel Lewit is the CEO. They’re here to discuss all the latest in financial news trends, strategies, and more.
Gabriel Lewit: Hello, welcome back to Our 2 Cents. Happy post-Thanksgiving.
Steve Lewit: Happy and heavier.
Gabriel Lewit: I hope you had a wonderful time and got plenty to eat.
Steve Lewit: I ate a ton at your house.
Gabriel Lewit: There was a ton of food at my house.
Steve Lewit: Smoked Turkey was the best.
Gabriel Lewit: It was smoky.
Steve Lewit: It was, very-
Gabriel Lewit: There was also non-smoky Turkey.
Steve Lewit: And mashed potatoes.
Gabriel Lewit: Many mashed potatoes were had.
Steve Lewit: Good morning, everybody.
Gabriel Lewit: Good afternoon, good evening. Hello, and welcome to the show.
Steve Lewit: Yes.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, we’ve got some fun lined up for you today and we are of course, wishing you all a wonderful start to your week or end to your week whenever you’re listening to this show. But let’s go ahead and jump in here. I know now that we’ve got our heater set up because Steve was freezing.
Steve Lewit: It is freezing in this conference room.
Gabriel Lewit: We angled your microphone. We got you a pen. I got myself a pen and-
Steve Lewit: We’re ready to go.
Gabriel Lewit: We got water.
Steve Lewit: We got water. Yeah.
Gabriel Lewit: Producer Katie’s got the timer on.
Steve Lewit: Yep. Yep.
Gabriel Lewit: It’s action time.
Steve Lewit: Yep. Folks, did we bore you yet?
Gabriel Lewit: I don’t know if anyone-
Steve Lewit: Are you still listening?
Gabriel Lewit: Funny enough, that was a sneak peek into some of the preparation that we’ve got to do to get ready for the show here.
Steve Lewit: Yeah, we do. We do.
Gabriel Lewit: It’s a lot of fun.
Steve Lewit: It is fun.
Gabriel Lewit: All right, well-
Steve Lewit: What do you got for us?
Gabriel Lewit: We’ve got a couple topics lined up for today. We are going to talk a bit about, well, we’re not going to go through all of them, but 100 must know statistics about long-term care.
Steve Lewit: We haven’t done long-term care-
Gabriel Lewit: In a bit.
Steve Lewit: … the data of it. We talked about communities a while back.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah, we touch upon it from time to time, but there’s some really good statistics in here and you know us number nerds, financial guys.
Steve Lewit: We are.
Gabriel Lewit: We love some statistics, and we want to share them with you. So we’re going to go through some of those, not all hundred, so don’t worry. We’re going to pick and choose some of the best ones.
Steve Lewit: But they do tell a story. That’s a pretty interesting story.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. We’re going to talk a little bit about the national debt, just a quick little update there for you. So hold on your horses for that one. And then we’re going to do the favorite, get to know Gabriel and Steve, so you can know a little bit more about the crazy worlds in which we live.
Steve Lewit: Can’t wait. I love that section.
Gabriel Lewit: Of course. Of course. My favorite.
Steve Lewit: My favorite too.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. Okay, let’s jump on into the pool, I would say, but it’s freezing out the pond, the hot tub. There you go.
Steve Lewit: The hot tub. Let’s-
Gabriel Lewit: Let’s jump into the hot tub. Okay. We’re going to talk about long-term care here, all sorts of data. Now, a lot of people have mixed opinions on long-term care, mixed on whether or not they think they’ll leave and need it or not need care, whether or not they need insurance, whether or not they’ll need insurance for a short amount of time or a long amount of time. Basically, you ask different people for their opinions on long-term care. You’re going to get many different answers. And so what we’re going to focus on here is some data, some real concrete data that will hopefully give you some perspectives into this world. But what I think is very interesting then, is generally anybody that’s ever known, somebody that’s had long-term care needs or is in a nursing home or needs their kids to take care of them or needs help or assistance very clearly understands the value of long-term care. A lot of people that have never experienced that don’t. And that will hopefully be where some of these data points will maybe give you an insight into that world.
Steve Lewit: Well, the first data point I would like to toss out for you in that light, Gabriel, is the data that says 57%. Think about this. I didn’t realize it was this high. The percentage of caregivers to people, 50 plus who are providing care to a parent or parent-in-law is 57%. So 57% of the people over 50 years old are taking care of a parent or a parent-in-law. That’s like a huge number.
Gabriel Lewit: That’s very large. Yeah. 57% is a big majority.
Steve Lewit: When you say, well, you may have had experience, 57% of adults, 50 and over are having that experience today of taking care of a parent or a parent-in-law.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, I don’t think it tells us to what extent they’re taking care of them, but generally there’s obviously a range there.
Steve Lewit: Obviously. You’re such a nerd. They’re taking care of a parent. You have to know whether three days or four days.
Gabriel Lewit: Let me ask you this way, we primarily work with people over 50, right?
Steve Lewit: Yeah.
Gabriel Lewit: Would you say 57% of those people have told you that they’re taking care of their parents?
Steve Lewit: Well.
Gabriel Lewit: It’s not matching my data. It seems a little high, but maybe that’s what I’m saying. Maybe there’s some range in what they’re talking about there.
Steve Lewit: Yeah. Well, even if they’re not taking care of the parent, like going there every day, maybe they feel responsible for that parent-
Gabriel Lewit: Could be.
Steve Lewit: The care of that parent.
Gabriel Lewit: So, a little asterisk would be every one of these comes from a study and you could literally dive into every one of these and pick out the key points of the study to get more clarity. But there’s going to be, I think, some nuances to some of these numbers.
Steve Lewit: And you can extrapolate that as you wish. In my head, I’m saying that if I’m a person today with children, do I want my kids taking care of me? Because 57%, according to the study, despite your pearls of wisdom, say that 57% of people over 50 are taking care of their parents. So then the question is, okay, I’m getting older. Do I want my kids taking care of me?
Gabriel Lewit: No, you don’t.
Steve Lewit: I really don’t. And here’s the deal on that, is that a lot of-
Gabriel Lewit: [inaudible 00:06:32] does my mother.
Steve Lewit: No, she doesn’t. A lot of parents say, “Oh, my kids will take care of me.” They even said, “They will let me live in their house.” And I want to inform everybody out there, they don’t want take care of you and they don’t want you living in their house.
Gabriel Lewit: They definitely don’t want you living in their house.
Steve Lewit: Absolutely. They don’t. So pack that one away.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. Well, let’s dive into more of these numbers. We’re one out of 100 statistics in, let’s see if we can tackle some more.
Steve Lewit: Well, I wanted to start with that because-
Gabriel Lewit: That’s a big one.
Steve Lewit: … it affects all of us.
Gabriel Lewit: Okay. So I’m going to give you a couple here that are related to one another. The first is that 70% of people turning age 65 will develop a severe long-term care need in their lifetime. Now, does that mean that they will all have long-term care provided by some form of service? No. Some of those might be family members taking care of them. However, again, to use your example here, a lot of people are going to be caring for some form of long-term need from their parents or their parents, whether their kids care for them or not. Over 70% of them are going to have some form of a long-term care need.
Steve Lewit: They’re going to need help.
Gabriel Lewit: Whether it’s from a paid service or from a family member.
Steve Lewit: That’s correct. And if you’re a couple, the husband might be taking care of the wife. The wife might be taking care of the husband, but think about the burden of that, and the probability of 70% is pretty high. It’s seven out of 10 people are going to need help. To me, these are huge numbers that are almost mind-boggling.
Gabriel Lewit: And the part two of that one that I said I have a couple related is 48% of people turning age 65 will need some type of paid long-term care service in their lifetime. So 70% will need it. 48% will need to pay someone to help take care of them.
Steve Lewit: And one of the reasons for that is that the children can’t take care of their parents. They are so disabled that they have to hire help. In other words, a child can’t sleep there 24 hours a day, or they can’t lift a very heavy man to go toilet.
Gabriel Lewit: Or the kids have their own kids.
Steve Lewit: Or the kids have their own life to live. Work.
Gabriel Lewit: Work. All sorts of reasons. Okay. So here and then we’ve got the part C of my three related, which is 24% of people turning age 65 or higher will require paid long-term care for more than two years. And we’re going to get into some of the costs here in just a second from the data. But the point being is of the people that need care, paid care, half of those are going to need it for more than two years.
Steve Lewit: See here’s what, the average is three and a half years, but you could be the one that’s 10 years or 12 years.
Gabriel Lewit: I think the average is a little less than three and a half.
Steve Lewit: It might be.
Gabriel Lewit: I don’t think that was going to be right.
Steve Lewit: That might be, I think it was. I think I saw-
Gabriel Lewit: Well, that’s for women. I think you’re saying the 3.7 is the average duration of long-term care need for women.
Steve Lewit: For women. Okay.
Gabriel Lewit: Okay. Yeah, I was going to say it wasn’t for everybody.
Steve Lewit: But the average is the average. That means you have some in there five, eight or 10 years and some two years. So averages don’t really count when it comes to your own parents or yourself.
Gabriel Lewit: Yes. And then we get into, actually there’s a part D or a fourth part of my related statistic, which is 15% of people above 65 will spend more than two years in a nursing home. So not just paid care or support, because there are different forms of paid care or support. We’ll get into that. There’s adult daycare, there’s at-home care, there’s nursing homes, which is generally everyone’s least favorite choice if they have an option.
Steve Lewit: You bet.
Gabriel Lewit: But this is 15% of people will actually spend more than two years in a nursing home.
Steve Lewit: Yes. To me, that’s an incredibly high number.
Gabriel Lewit: And those are expensive.
Steve Lewit: And there was data in here that’s 62% are women.
Gabriel Lewit: 68%.
Steve Lewit: 68% are women, which is lower than I thought, because, I don’t know, I used to do performances in nursing homes when I was singing and-
Gabriel Lewit: We learn something new about you every day. You really do. I didn’t know that. You’re talking about opera singing?
Steve Lewit: Yeah.
Gabriel Lewit: Or did you just go sing ballads?
Steve Lewit: No, your mom and I used to go to McDonald’s House for kids and then we’d go into nursing homes.
Gabriel Lewit: Who are you people?
Steve Lewit: We’re weirdos. But even recently, my daughter does, Julia plays the harp, and she’s done multiple harp concerts in nursing homes. And when you look out in the audience, it’s all women. So that’s why I’m surprised at that number.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, this says, to your point, 3.7 years is the average for women that need long-term care. Again, that doesn’t mean in a home, but just need long-term care. 2.2 years is the average duration for men.
Steve Lewit: Men have no ability to withstand pain. We are WSS folks, us men. I’m speaking for all men now. We do not know how to tolerate and-
Gabriel Lewit: Speak for yourself, man.
Steve Lewit: We are not very courageous.
Gabriel Lewit: Bring on the pain. I’m super courageous.
Steve Lewit: We just get into a nursing home and that’s the end of us.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, I hope not. Yeah. Okay. Well, to start things off, those are some pretty crazy numbers.
Steve Lewit: They are really interesting because candidly, we spend very little time talking about long-term care to most people don’t want to talk about it.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, the challenge in our business is we’re advisors. Yes. But people also view advisors as, unfortunately, I’m going to use air quotes here. If you could see my hands as salespeople, and I think a lot of times when-
Steve Lewit: I didn’t see your hand move.
Gabriel Lewit: Okay. Salespeople.
Steve Lewit: He did it.
Gabriel Lewit: There’s the air quotes.
Steve Lewit: He actually did it.
Gabriel Lewit: Okay. Meaning that a lot of people, “Oh, you’re just trying to sell me a long-term care policy.” Which isn’t true. We were trying to make sure that these are real concerns, real numbers. They can wipe away legacies, they can wipe away assets. They can result in you depleting assets and going to Medicaid, which is state paid care, which generally isn’t as good as private care. There are ramifications here, and we do our best to educate and bring up these issues and data points. But certainly everyone as we started is very opinionated on this topic.
Steve Lewit: Very opinionated. A lot of people say, “Oh, I’ll never go into a nursing home.” Which most of the people in the nursing home, if you talk to them, will say, “I never thought I would go into a nursing home.”
Gabriel Lewit: Exactly. Speaking of care, one of the most extended stays that one might have in a nursing home or paid care at home or whatever the case may be, would be for dementia related items or issues.
Steve Lewit: Yeah, I was just looking at this too.
Gabriel Lewit: Okay. And-
Steve Lewit: Which data did you pick out?
Gabriel Lewit: Well, I was going to say 49.1% of people.
Steve Lewit: Look at my sheet here.
Gabriel Lewit: Nursing home residents-
Steve Lewit: Same circle have not-
Gabriel Lewit: … have a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia.
Steve Lewit: Think of that, half the people in nursing homes have a memory issue.
Gabriel Lewit: And there’s probably a good reason for that. I mean, if someone has dementia or Alzheimer’s, they’re going to need much more hands-on care. And I would venture to guess that family members are poorly equipped to provide that level of around the clock care.
Steve Lewit: I have clients now, both parents have dementia. They were both put into separate rooms in nursing homes. The kids are visiting them all the time because if you want your parents taking care of, if they’re in a nursing home, you got to go visit them. I’m going to say this globally, that if the nursing home knows you never show up, people generally get less attention in their nursing homes. So one of the rules is if somebody goes into a nursing home, you make on the spot visits so they know your presence, you get a better quality of care.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, that’s depressing.
Steve Lewit: I have personal experience with that with my mother.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, so definitely, obviously we’re looking, you can skew statistics if you get into statistics. So this isn’t to say that 50% of all people will get Alzheimer’s. It’s just saying of the people in nursing homes, that is one of the predominant needs or issues that is arisen. And part of why coverage for something like Alzheimer’s or dementia is so important because they can be extended stays and they can be amongst the most expensive of stays because you’re needing more care at possibly a nursing home in a room. Would you say, Mr. Lew?
Steve Lewit: I’m sorry. I was looking. I was reading my next note.
Gabriel Lewit: That’s why I thought I called you out.
Steve Lewit: I said, I’m going to let him ramble on and whatever he says.
Gabriel Lewit: I didn’t have much more to ramble with on that one.
Steve Lewit: Whatever he says is good by me.
Gabriel Lewit: Now, here’s for just in general, 11.6% estimated lifetime risk of dementia for age 65 and older for men.
Steve Lewit: Yeah. No. Yeah. So that’s one out of 10 people.
Gabriel Lewit: Men.
Steve Lewit: Men. And women?
Gabriel Lewit: 21.1%.
Steve Lewit: That’s two out of 10 people.
Gabriel Lewit: Or one out of five.
Steve Lewit: Yeah, it’s even better.
Gabriel Lewit: Sorry, I couldn’t resist.
Steve Lewit: Yes. Would you like to take it to another notch?
Gabriel Lewit: Be at-
Steve Lewit: Like a half out of 10.
Gabriel Lewit: Half out of 10. There you go. I was going to say that. Perfect.
Steve Lewit: Yeah. So if you’re in a party and there are 10 people there, and two out of 10 of those women on average are going to wind up with a case of Alzheimer’s or dementia. It’s just amazing how big of a number that is.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah, yeah. So let’s get into the costs then, because I’m sure if you’re out there listening, you’re saying, “Okay, we’re starting to see the picture.” Hopefully. These are real numbers. You still may not buy in, but let’s talk about the cost ramifications here. And the number that we’re being shown here is $321,780 is the current estimated lifetime cost of care for someone with dementia, for home-based care. So that’s pretty crazy. That’s a big number.
Steve Lewit: And that’s a lot of work. Somebody’s doing that work.
Gabriel Lewit: Now at some point, and I think that’s where this number comes from. I didn’t click into the underlying study. Of that, 200,000 ends up being the portion that’s applied to a nursing home. So some of that care might start before one goes into a nursing home. And then eventually, as we were just talking about, dementia leads you into a nursing home. And that could require two years or more of care, $100,000 a year, for example, you might be spending 200,000 of that 330,000 in a nursing home. And if you want, we’re going to get into regional differences. There’s big regional differences in costs of roots.
Steve Lewit: Tremendous. Tremendous.
Gabriel Lewit: Okay. We’re here in a higher price state of Illinois by Chicago. New York is very expensive. California is very expensive. Some places in the south are cheaper. But then you’ve got different qualities of rooms. Do you want to have a shared room? Do you want to have a private room? So lots of things can attribute to this cost, but I think the biggest thing that you mentioned, Steve, or Dad, depending on what-
Steve Lewit: How you feel about me today? If you’re angry at me, it’s Steve.
Gabriel Lewit: No. Never. Never. If it was angry, it’d be Steve Lewit the full name.
Steve Lewit: What are you doing?
Gabriel Lewit: It would be basically what if you’re above the average? What if you have four or five years worth of care instead of two? Right? The average is just the average, and that’s where this can really wipe out somebody’s assets.
Steve Lewit: I’m going to compound this and add on fidelity study that said, the average couple 65 years and old that’s not in here, if you’re looking for it. The average couple 65 years older and older will spend $320,000 on healthcare. That’s insurance premiums, deductibles, surgeries and stuff like that. That does not include long-term care.
Gabriel Lewit: And OOPs. Which are-
Steve Lewit: And OOPs.
Gabriel Lewit: … out-of-pockets.
Steve Lewit: That is correct, OOPs. So if you’re going to spend 321,000 and then get hit with another, what is it?
Gabriel Lewit: 200,000 to 300,000.
Steve Lewit: 300. That’s $650,000 that nobody is really prepared to. Not nobody. Most people are not prepared to handle that in their finances, and that’s how people get wiped out. Healthcare is a huge deal, and like I said, we just don’t talk about it enough.
Gabriel Lewit: Yep. Well, in long-term care, circling back to that piece of the puzzle is the one that can really, well, as you said, most people don’t think it’s going to happen to them. So it can really feel like it comes out of left field. Generally, people are planning, “Oh yeah, I’m going to have Medicare and doctor appointments, and some surgeries and some medications and out-of-pockets and all that stuff.” But everyone pretty much would agree it’s likely they’ll have those needs. But again, interesting to see how many people think they’re never going to need long-term care. We’re all superman and superwoman.
Steve Lewit: Or worse than that. I had a client, we were talking about long-term care. He said, “I’ll never go into a long-term care facility.” And I said, “Well, how do you know that?” And he says, “Well, I have a gun.” So I said, “Well, let me ask you a question. If you have dementia, maybe you’ll forget that you have a gun and wind up in the [inaudible 00:21:40].”
Gabriel Lewit: We’re going down long-term care jokes now.
Steve Lewit: Well, it’s a true story.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. Well-
Steve Lewit: That’s not a joke. That’s a true story.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. Well, in any case, hopefully that doesn’t matter.
Steve Lewit: Well, we have clients that have suicide, going to move to certain states I mean, we have all kinds of thoughts, like you said about healthcare-
Gabriel Lewit: What clients you’ve got over there. But-
Steve Lewit: I have the interesting older clients.
Gabriel Lewit: Mine want their kids to take care of them. But you’ve got the other ones.
Steve Lewit: You have the boring younger clients.
Gabriel Lewit: I guess. Oh, no.
Steve Lewit: My clients are just full of interesting stuff.
Gabriel Lewit: Okay. Okay. Alrighty. Well, let’s see. The other thing is inflation, if you’re not familiar, will make these costs much higher. So let’s say you’re 60 years old today. You say, “Oh, that’s no problem. I can afford $200,000.” Well, that $200,000 in 20 years from now when you’re 85 years old will be substantially more. Okay. So you’ve got to make sure that you are thinking in future dollars with your planned expenses, not just today’s dollars. So I thought that was important to mention as well.
Steve Lewit: For sure.
Gabriel Lewit: Okay. Let’s see, like you said, we’re not going to go through all these hundreds and hundreds of statistics here.
Steve Lewit: Yeah. Well, one of the things we’re not going to cover today is Medicaid planning, because Medicaid will pay for nursing home care, Medicare will not. So don’t think your Medicare is going to take care of it. It’s just short-term stuff.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah. Okay. So here’s some interesting data on long-term care insurance. I thought this was really interesting. So we talk a lot about how individual policies, so talk about how you pay for this stuff through long-term care insurance. A lot of policies are changing these days, right? So in 2020, sorry, 2002, there is 750,000 individual long-term care insurance policies sold. By 2021, there is only 75,162 individual long-term care insurance policies sold. Now, wait, there’s more. There were in 2000, 125 insurers offering standalone long-term care. 2019, the data point last shown here, that number was down to 15 insurers.
Steve Lewit: And you know the reason for that.
Gabriel Lewit: Well, I was going to let you, I was teeing that up for you.
Steve Lewit: Yeah. So everybody got onto the long-term care. First of all, 721,000 people is like no people in comparison to the number of people that actually need long-term care.
Gabriel Lewit: 75,000 is certainly less.
Steve Lewit: And 75,000 is less. But the insurance companies got into trouble. They sold these long-term care insurance policies in 2000, and guess what? Everybody used them, and they used them far more than the insurance company actuaries calculated. So all of a sudden they said, “Well, we can’t afford this.” And still today, these policies are getting cost increases. And a lot of the insurance companies said, “We’re not going to do this business. It’s not profitable for us.” So a whole new type of long-term care insurance and alternative arose where life insurance companies said, “We’re going to sell a life insurance policy, but it’s going to really turn into a long-term care policy.” And by the way, if you don’t use it, you get all your money back because there’s a life insurance policy. But then they don’t have to worry about raising rates because it is what it is. And that’s become very popular.
Gabriel Lewit: And today we didn’t want to get into all the long-term care insurance options that are out there. We really just wanted to focus on the data points and the challenges and the risks. I think we talked about some of the options and alternatives on a prior show. We could certainly bring it back up again too and spend some more time on it. But yeah, individual long-term care, these are very good data points showing that they really have dropped tremendously in popularity. And as a result, as they raise prices for people left in the insurance pool, more people then drop out, which then means they have to raise prices more. Because insurance, it works because of large numbers. As numbers drop, it becomes prohibitively more and more expensive to provide insurance without millions and millions of people participating. And so that’s what you’re seeing if you’re out there. I know many people have had long-term care policies and they keep doubling the premiums or saying, “Hey, you can pay the same premium, we’ll cut your coverage in half.” And so people continue to do that because they don’t want to throw away this policy and they can’t afford the new premiums. And then they end up with something that’s going to provide them like 25% of the coverage they would need, cost-wise, instead of what they were expecting.
Steve Lewit: Yes.
Gabriel Lewit: So those are some of the challenges that folks are facing out there right now. That was a lot.
Steve Lewit: That was a long drink of water,
Gabriel Lewit: My goodness. Well, certainly if you have questions or you want the full list of all 100, happy to send that to you. You can email us, info@sglfinancial.com or you can call us, 847-499-3330, and we will gladly send you the list. Anything else you want to add, Mr. Lew to long-term care?
Steve Lewit: Yeah, I’d just like to say that it is a really complex subject and worth the time to talk about it, even if you don’t do anything about it, just to understand the ramifications for you and your family.
Gabriel Lewit: Indeed, yes. Okay. Well, we aren’t going to have enough time here today to talk in detail about the national debt, so I will save that in punt on that one until next time.
Steve Lewit: Is there a debt? What?
Gabriel Lewit: National debt.
Steve Lewit: National debt?
Gabriel Lewit: Of course.
Steve Lewit: The government owes money?
Gabriel Lewit: They do?
Steve Lewit: Like thousands of dollars?
Gabriel Lewit: Such as trillions.
Steve Lewit: Trillions?
Gabriel Lewit: Yes. We’ll get into that. So you’ll have to come back for that one.
Steve Lewit: Yes.
Gabriel Lewit: But while I’ve got a couple minutes left here, I wanted to end with some, I guess, less depressing topic maybe. I was going to say more interesting. I haven’t found that interesting, but a little more on the depressing side.
Steve Lewit: Interesting. But not very uplifting.
Gabriel Lewit: Yes, not uplifting. So we’re going to get some uplifting data points here about Mr. Leit.
Steve Lewit: Maybe. Maybe. I’m not promising anything uplifting.
Gabriel Lewit: Okay. Well, the first question.
Steve Lewit: I might be down lifting today.
Gabriel Lewit: The first question for you, Mr. Lewit.
Steve Lewit: Yes, sir.
Gabriel Lewit: And this will be an uplifting one.
Steve Lewit: We’ll see.
Gabriel Lewit: It has to be by the very nature, I know the question. You don’t.
Steve Lewit: You do.
Gabriel Lewit: What is a small thing that makes your day better?
Steve Lewit: Oh, that’s my cup of coffee in the morning. The first sip of coffee in the morning is like, this is great. This is what life is all about. You asked the question, I gave the answer.
Gabriel Lewit: That’s what everybody says. That first sip of coffee. You got to-
Steve Lewit: Here’s what’s happening. He asks a question, I give an answer. Now he’s evaluating whether he likes my answer or not.
Gabriel Lewit: I was just saying, everyone says that about their day. Okay. Other than coffee. Other than coffee.
Steve Lewit: Well, that’s a different question.
Gabriel Lewit: What would be one small thing that makes your day better? Everyone else has the first sip of coffee. Yes.
Steve Lewit: Well, what’s really important, what makes my day better is if I do writing every day.
Gabriel Lewit: Okay, there we go. This is good.
Steve Lewit: If I write something that I really, really, really like, I’m like on top of the world, because I find it really hard to do.
Gabriel Lewit: Very cool.
Steve Lewit: So that makes my day.
Gabriel Lewit: Awesome.
Steve Lewit: Now, how about you? Don’t use a cup of coffee.
Gabriel Lewit: That first sip of coffee is just-
Steve Lewit: Yeah, it is. It’s the best.
Gabriel Lewit: I would actually say I’m kind of a dessert nut. My day does not feel complete unless I have ice cream.
Steve Lewit: Is that right? I didn’t know that.
Gabriel Lewit: Or a popsicle. Usually combination of the two. Although I’m trying to kick myself of this habit, I’m finding it very difficult.
Steve Lewit: Well, especially if you’re ice creaming at 9:30, 10:00 at night.
Gabriel Lewit: That’s usually 9:30 or 10:00 at night.
Steve Lewit: Yeah, that’s really bad. That’s really bad.
Gabriel Lewit: Yeah, it’s not good for the waistline. No.
Steve Lewit: So, we can bring ice cream into the office, and you can ice cream for lunch.
Gabriel Lewit: You could.
Steve Lewit: That would be a lot better.
Gabriel Lewit: That would be a better choice.
Steve Lewit: I almost said having a chocolate chip cookie is the thing that lights up my day. But I didn’t say it.
Gabriel Lewit: It’s not a bad choice. Not a bad choice. Okay. We’ve got time for one more.
Steve Lewit: One more.
Gabriel Lewit: All right. Mr. Lewit.
Steve Lewit: Yes, sir.
Gabriel Lewit: These are all uplifting ones.
Steve Lewit: I’m ready.
Gabriel Lewit: I was going to say, when or when was your favorite age growing up?
Steve Lewit: No, this-
Gabriel Lewit: No. Okay. 20 and under.
Steve Lewit: You know what I was going to say?
Gabriel Lewit: Got to position this for you. When you were growing up, meaning, I know you’re still growing up. When you were a kid.
Steve Lewit: When I was-
Gabriel Lewit: Well, you’re still a kid.
Steve Lewit: All right, try again.
Gabriel Lewit: When you were under 20 years old. What was your favorite age?
Steve Lewit: What was my favorite age?
Gabriel Lewit: Yes.
Steve Lewit: I’d say it was 18. Just starting college.
Gabriel Lewit: Porque?
Steve Lewit: Porque. Just freedom, youth, as they say, had my youth.
Gabriel Lewit: They say that?
Steve Lewit: Yeah. It was just a fabulous time of freedom and feeling good and getting out in the world and getting not so good grades in school. I actually wound up good, the first two years weren’t that good.
Gabriel Lewit: Oh.
Steve Lewit: Well, that’s interesting because I was never a big studier, and the first two years I was in engineering school, which I disliked intensely. And then I got into economics and I got straight As. So there is something about studying what you’re interested in.
Gabriel Lewit: You like the money.
Steve Lewit: I like the money. What about you?
Gabriel Lewit: When I thought about that, I knew you were going to ask. The first thought that popped into my mind was I really enjoyed when I was in high school on the varsity soccer team. I enjoyed traveling from town to town for the rivalry games against other teams. And I enjoyed, obviously I’m a big soccer fan, if you know anything about me, I love to play soccer or used to love to play soccer. And I enjoyed the competitiveness of it. And it’s one of those things that after, unless you play in college, but after high school, you never get that chance again. You can play recreational on a co-ed league on Sundays, but it is not the same. You don’t have a true-
Steve Lewit: Comradery.
Gabriel Lewit: … comradery.
Steve Lewit: Sharing stories.
Gabriel Lewit: You’re not riding buses with each other. You’re not playing in the rain, you’re not competing against the team that beat you last year.
Steve Lewit: Singing in the school song.
Gabriel Lewit: It was a lot of fun. And I do miss that. It was a good time.
Steve Lewit: Yeah. Cool.
Gabriel Lewit: All right.
Steve Lewit: Uplifting. Good questions.
Gabriel Lewit: Thank you. Thank you. Well, we hope you had an enjoyable time with us here today. We hope you learn some information and data about long-term care that will hopefully be valuable or helpful for you. And again, if you have questions, we’re here to help on anything long-term care or investments or taxes or anything else, you can give us a call 847-499-3330. Go to our website, sglfinancial.com or email us anytime. With that, stay well. We’ll talk to you on the next show.
Steve Lewit: Be well everybody.
Gabriel Lewit: Bye-bye.
Steve Lewit: Bye.
Announcer: Thanks for listening to Our 2 Cents, with Steve and Gabriel Lewit. For any questions about your finances, give SGL a call at 847-499-3330, or visit us on the web at sglfinancial.com and be sure to subscribe to join us on next week’s episode.
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