S3E6-I Asked You A Question-RETIREMENT

Don Pafifer: And welcome back. Apparently we're in R rating today. How are you?

Gary Pegueros: I'm high. I'm good, good, it's, ⁓ you know what it is. It's hump day.

Don Pafifer: ⁓ you know, and speaking of that, yes it is hump day, happy hump day. Speaking of that, the podcast that just keeps giving is three P's in a podcast because I was looking at the stats again today. 75 downloads this week. Yes, from a podcast we stopped doing, what, two, three years ago? No toggle, no talkie.

Gary Pegueros: Well, I'll wait for you to toggle and then I'll talk.

Don Pafifer: ⁓ you can talk now, I toggled.

Gary Pegueros: Well what's weird is that you've got like this much screen time and I've got like this much. Just this week?

Don Pafifer: Well, okay, let's call it, okay, let me just, well, you have this much and I have this much. That is bizarre,

Gary Pegueros: Well, this is our third season for here, so we probably started, I mean, we stopped, yeah, like three. ⁓ how bizarre.

Don Pafifer: Yeah, I mean, I wish we had made money off of that one because it's still pumping out the content, which is crazy.

Gary Pegueros: That is crazy.

Don Pafifer: And I say that because you used to say happy hump day because we would record three peas in a pod cast on Wednesdays. Yeah. And I got to say, I know I've said it before, but we're funny. We're funny in that podcast.

Gary Pegueros: Yeah on Wednesdays, lot of times on Wednesdays, yeah so

Don Pafifer: dude's like, how do I mix that into the podcast? Hmm. How are you? Long time no see.

Gary Pegueros: Have you gone back and listened to all the episodes?

Don Pafifer: Not all of them. I'm thinking about doing a retrospective and sending it to the Met Gala, but yeah, I'm thinking about it.

Gary Pegueros: I know it's been like a day.

Don Pafifer: Right. I don't think I can be away from you that much. You're like the desert giving me rain.

Gary Pegueros: Because in our later episodes, like towards the end, I did go back and listen to all of them. Because one of the episodes I asked both you and John questions that came up as a listen to previous episodes. Like, hey, when you said that, can you elaborate? So I did dig into the past. And since then, if something comes up, I have my favorite episodes that I will go back to and listen to. Maybe just a segment of it, if not the whole thing. Seeing you're like the gum on my shoe.

Don Pafifer: No. No. ⁓ where's my bell? I don't have my bell. ⁓ Yeah, I guess we are just Play-Doh machines of content. Mmm.

Gary Pegueros: You gotta ring them bells!

Don Pafifer: Mm-hmm. Okay.

Gary Pegueros: We are. Well, know, when we got energy, we got ⁓ information we want to give out, we have ideas. And I don't want to jinx it, but I heard that I might be getting a pay raise. I'm just saying. Rumor has it.

Don Pafifer: squeeze it and it pumps out. I do have to admit.

Gary Pegueros: because there's some ones where we just love

Don Pafifer: Happy and bursting with love. One of my favorite ones is when you were talking about Halloween and somebody was coming up and you said something like, are you my daddy? Or am I your daddy? Do remember that? Okay. It's funny. I looked it up again. Maybe it was something else. I forget. It's like either Countin' His Candy or you something. ⁓ where'd you hear that? It was nice talking to you. Enjoy the podcast. Bye.

Gary Pegueros: So basically, I don't need you anymore.

Don Pafifer: You never did and you never will.

Gary Pegueros: Ha! They'll be doing Don doing 60 all by himself. Well, one of my favorites is when I'm talking about, I was at dinner tonight, you know what I said? And you came up with, I'll get the check.

Don Pafifer: I thought it would be Gary doing 60L by himself. Weren't you going to dump my butt? Okay, well here's the wonderful thing. Through the magic technology, I might try and share a screen with you today. Won't that be exciting? Yes.

Gary Pegueros: You got that right. And I'd never do that. I mean these impromptu things were pretty darn funny.

Don Pafifer: Yes, we were. So anyway, if you want to check that out, audience, please go to ⁓ Apple Podcast, which is where most of the downloads are taking place. Apple Podcast. We did not have a YouTube channel for three peas in a podcast at the time, but it is so funny. And you can find it on Spotify. Apple Podcast. You can find it anywhere. Just Google it under three peas in a podcast. Is it it gay in here or is it just me? I think that's the one. Yes.

Gary Pegueros: well, it'll be exciting for our YouTube viewers. ⁓ But I'm still trying to figure out why in my view, you've got 2 thirds of the screen and I only have 1 third.

Don Pafifer: Yes, and not for you. ⁓ It's probably you because I can't touch your toggles. I'm not sure. It might be. I don't know. But I think as long as...

Gary Pegueros: No one touches my toggles. Is there something I can do on my end? Yeah, that's the full long title.

Don Pafifer: But anyway, if we could move on, let's talk about welcome to the Don and Gary podcast doing 60. How are you? Okay, you can you can find us on Apple podcast. You can find us on Spotify. You can find us on YouTube at the Pfeiffer pod, which is where you can watch and see all of this and all of that. Gary being that me being this, so please tune in there. You can see all of our prior episodes. We do a lot of shorts in there. Of course, we're on Instagram.

Gary Pegueros: Because I didn't do anything different. I signed in. I say, yes, I'm using headphones. And then I select my mic option. Other than that, I'm interested. Yes, I'm good. I'm good. It's a week.

Don Pafifer: Okay. Okay. Yeah. I don't know, but we'll see if the whole podcast goes this way, which is fine with me. Well.

Gary Pegueros: Right, well you know, you'd get all the glory because you do all the work.

Don Pafifer: But like, well, you do some heavy lifting too with all your ideas, like today for example, right? Okay, but don't say anything, gotta take a break, gotta take a break. So hold onto that, hold onto it, okay? So we'll be right back. You will be right back, right? Okay, calm down, ma'am.

Gary Pegueros: like today.

Don Pafifer: and Facebook and on Sky. So so you know, we're here to unpack, unwrap, and navigate the world ⁓ at this Did it fast, sorry. ⁓ And while at it, please don't forget to visit our ⁓ web page sponsored by PodPage ⁓ and ⁓ us You can see all of our prior episodes there. You can leave us messages.

Gary Pegueros: Yes, I'll be back. ⁓ wow, you said so fast it threw me.

Don Pafifer: You can leave us reviews. can leave voicemail, which is really exciting. if you go to the webpage, there's a little microphone at the bottom of the right-hand corner. You just click on that and leave us a message. So ⁓ Gary, what are we talking this week?

Gary Pegueros: Yes. So as we were trying to come up as a new season, we've been here now, this is our third season, and I know that our listeners and watchers are thinking, who are Don and Gary? What makes them tick? What butters their bread? And so I figured, well, we need to unwrap and unpack ourselves, so to speak.

Don Pafifer: You Mm-hmm. There you go. Very good idea.

Gary Pegueros: ⁓ So I thought it'd be fun on some of the episodes where it's just you and I. can work in this segment. ⁓ takes a little deep dive ⁓ ⁓ particular topic. So for this episode, we're going to talk about retirement. Because we, when we have guests, we ask them, what are your plans? Have you thought about it? Or if you've already retired, how's it been going? And what would you change? ⁓ different questions related to that. ⁓ so. ⁓ The segment is called Don and Gary doing 60. I asked you a question. you and your special effects. I love it!

Don Pafifer: Well, hopefully, hopefully I can get something to happen around that. I love this. Gary, you're so smart. You are the brains behind this podcast because you actually come up with these amazing ideas, which I love because it was such a great way for us to maybe, as you said, share a little more realism of us, a little more of our inner sanctum, if you will, and talking about. Well, you know, just to be a little more real with everybody because we always, you are talking about topics and we just stay on the topic and we don't really talk about ourselves much. But I think it's a really good way for people to get to know us a little bit better. We show our sincerity, our gratitude, our hair, ⁓ whatever we got, you know, to show.

Gary Pegueros: Right. And plus, since it is Don and Gary doing 60, any guess that comes on is 60 or older. And if you haven't already broached the subject, you're thinking about it. In this case, retirement. So I know you have some info you've looked up. I found a couple articles here and there. And then there's just some random questions we can go. So do you want to start or can I?

Don Pafifer: Yes. Yep. Why don't you, since you came up with this really stellar idea, I'd like you to be stellar and you start.

Gary Pegueros: Okay. So since the focus is on retirement, there was an article I found from internationalliving.com. The title is, What's the Biggest Thing You're Still Trying to Figure Out About Retirement? So maybe you've thought about it, but the questions come up, at what age? ⁓ And a big question, especially if live in California, it's so damn expensive. Where am I gonna retire?

Don Pafifer: Mm-hmm. Yep.

Gary Pegueros: Am I gonna stay in my existing home and retire here? Or am I gonna move to another city or out of state? Because there's all kinds of data that comes out, all these polls that are taken about, ⁓ the top 10 cities to live for retirement. And they break it down by affordability and healthcare and all the different things that, know, walkability, whatever. And it's hard to really know. which of those is true or how factual they are. Because anyone can come up with a poll. So, but, know, so what age, where do I retire, and am I gonna live on my own? Am I gonna maybe seek out maybe a senior community environment? Which can get super expensive. ⁓

Don Pafifer: Mm-hmm.

Gary Pegueros: And if you are having any health issues, are you looking at maybe an assisted living place where they have, can do a step up to maybe another floor where you have more assistance if you require it. ⁓ And then the big thing is it's all gonna cost money. So how much money do I need? And when should I have started saving? Right, if you're lucky enough to have a company where they offer 401K and you're putting money away, great, but not everyone can do that.

Don Pafifer: Mm-hmm.

Gary Pegueros: ⁓ So that's a big criteria is how much money do I have to spend? And then once you find where you're gonna live and your limited income that you're on now, will I have the opportunity to do what I wanna do? If it's travel or some other hobby that's gonna cost you some money. So healthcare, big topic, gets expensive, I mean it already is expensive. How am gonna pay for that?

Don Pafifer: Yeah, yeah, I think that's something. Yep. Yep.

Gary Pegueros: you know ⁓ so there's just a lot of things so those are some of the big questions that come up as you start having a conversation

Don Pafifer: Right, and this is something that we have to think about because as you said, know, I think it's, if you're thinking about it when you're on the verge of retirement, it might be a little bit late. So we're putting this out to all the children and all the people that are younger than ourselves because you and I put some thought into it. But as you say, it does take a lot of preparation. And what you mean by that, what I mean by that is that it's something that you can't just jump into lightly because I have some information. What I focused on when we get to sharing from my side is how prepared the generations are for retirement. And I'll tell you ahead of time, guess what? The boomers are the least prepared to do that because there's a certain, there's a number of reasons why. But as you say, I don't think you should go into this subject lightly because there is so much to think about just from the aspect, as you say, living in California is incredibly expensive. Probably one of the most, if not the most expensive place to live in the States of, ⁓ in the United States. ⁓ There is housing, as you say, there's so many costs there. and also what you really have to put in your head, set and mindset is what does retirement look like for me? And there are a number of steps as you say, deciding what kind of care you'd like to have. Unfortunately for us, or fortunately, or oddly enough, is that we actually do qualify for 55 plus communities already. We're actually behind the curve if we wanted to join one of those, but they're not...

Gary Pegueros: But have you looked into any of those?

Don Pafifer: I have, I've looked at it because at one point there was actually a community in Palm Springs that was being developed, one of the first LGBTQ communities that were set there. It's very nice and it's very expensive. Yes, yes. So I think that's something to...

Gary Pegueros: Very expensive. Yeah, there's one that's being talked about here in San Francisco. And there's some in the Bay Area, but there aren't that many in the Bay Area. But the ones that they do have are astronomical.

Don Pafifer: Mm-hmm. Right, and LGBTQ not even part of the decision making process anywhere that you look. I think I saw a couple, there's some here being built out in ⁓ Riverside, not sorry, Riverside, ⁓ near the ocean. And it's touting to be this very, very nice idyllic living situation. But again, I looked at the prices, it's astronomically expensive.

Gary Pegueros: Right. Right. Mm-hmm.

Don Pafifer: So unless you plan financially for that to be part of your scenario, there's ⁓ some thinking you have to be doing. So whatever your current living situation. And on the other side, some people choose to rent their entire lives because they don't want the responsibility of home ownership. But I have to say, when I get to the statistics, when it comes to boomers, there is a major factor played into our situations as boomers with having being property owners because property ownership is no longer a priority for many of the other generations out there. So yeah, there's a lot to think about. And then you also said mentally, what does it look like? What does it look like when you are not doing your nine to five that you might've been doing for? Yes, yes. So those are.

Gary Pegueros: Right. What am I gonna do with my time? Am I gonna be bored? Yeah.

Don Pafifer: Yeah, so that well that's just it, you know, because everyone says, oh, you know, back in our day, our parents were thinking, oh, I'll play golf. I'd love to play golf. Well, my husband's dad actually plays golf and he's turning 90 this year. He not he can't play golf anymore. And also, who wants to play golf all the time? So, you know, there has to be another mindset behind what you're thinking about, too.

Gary Pegueros: i mean it's good that you know you want to stay active but it gets to a point where you just can't for you know you age or health reasons whatever ⁓ in terms of location it's not mentioned in this first section but i've seen a lot of articles and interviews of people who have chosen who live in the states but have chosen to live outside the country be it somewhere in central south america or in europe

Don Pafifer: Yes. Yep. Mm-hmm.

Gary Pegueros: because it's, it's so beautiful and a different lifestyle and it's less expensive, but as romantic and idyllic as that sounds, there's also some challenges because you're moving to another country, right? So there's all kinds of other ⁓ things that'll come up that could challenge you or make it challenging for you to make that transition. So I've seen a lot of articles on that.

Don Pafifer: Mm-hmm. Absolutely.

Gary Pegueros: When you talk about renting, I'm gonna go back for one second. What turned it for me was, I, in my younger days, my 20s and 30s, I was renting. And in the last apartment that I had, it was in Park Merced here in San Francisco. Now this is back in the 90s.

Don Pafifer: Sure. Yep. I love that place though, that was a good place.

Gary Pegueros: My rent, there's a great one bedroom apartment and the buildings were like built in the 40s, just a great detail, wood floors, thing, had a backyard area. If I'm not mistaken, my rent was $810 a month. Again, back in the 90s, But that was sound, but then back then I wasn't making the money I'm making now. So, right? So back then, we did have a 401k, but I couldn't contribute that much.

Don Pafifer: Unheard of. Yeah. It's relative too, isn't it?

Gary Pegueros: So I've not, even though I have a 401k, I've not always contributed to it because again, living in California, it's like I have bills to pay and there's not a whole lot left to be able to throw in that, which is the smart thing to do, to do that. But if you can't do it, you can't do it. But, so 810 a month, when you do the math, that's 10,000 a year. I'd live there, rented there for four years, that's $40,000. When I realized that, I said, that's $40,000 that I'll never get back. That $40,000 could have been a down payment towards something. So at that point, I reached out to my parents. I said, I want to buy a place, but I can't afford to do it living on my own. Can I move back? And of course, mom and dad were like, yeah, do it. So I moved back to their house in San Mateo. And eventually now, 22 years ago, I bought my place.

Don Pafifer: Sure.

Gary Pegueros: And that was good timing too because of the special program the city had set up for first time home buyers. so just things aligned for me that doesn't happen to many people.

Don Pafifer: No, and thank goodness for that program in the city because the city is incredibly unaffordable or hard to get into in any way. I think, didn't you even, weren't you part of a lottery to make, to be chosen?

Gary Pegueros: Yes, and actually a lot of cities do this and I don't know they do it as much as often now but back then and that bought my place in 2004. Yes, there was an article in the real estate section. I went to this informational meeting. They told you about it. It was only meant for people who had never owned a home before. So you had to be a first time home buyer. You had to qualify, you know, good credit score and you know, the finance that all line, submit all this paperwork. And then if you qualify, your name gets thrown into a lottery. And long story short, they ended up calling my number and then I was able to qualify and I bought my

Don Pafifer: Amen. Yeah.

Gary Pegueros: I've been there now 22 years.

Don Pafifer: I do remember that because you were so excited to be chosen for that and I think you actually had a number of places to choose from. Didn't you get to choose?

Gary Pegueros: So you were not allowed to physically see the units until you qualified. You can only see it, you know, the diagram on paper. So I'm not gonna buy it based on the layout of a piece of paper. So that Friday when I got qualified, I got to come here to the building and they showed me these are the units that are available. And I walked through about three or four of them and they all had different layouts. So the one I am in was my first choice. And so I ended up getting the one that I wanted.

Don Pafifer: ⁓

Gary Pegueros: But yeah, so a lot of things to consider. So maybe we'll just start with some basic questions. Or did you have more information you wanted to share?

Don Pafifer: Sure. No, just wanted, later on, want to, after we're done with a couple, I just want to bring in some statistics to talk about how it comes generationally. As I said, how prepared are the future generations and our generations actually prepared for this? So it's a little more dry, but it's some statistics that are interesting. So please go ahead. I'll ask you and you ask me and we'll go forward with that.

Gary Pegueros: Right. Sure. Well, maybe we start with the first question that was on this list of at what age to retire. So have you thought about at what age you want to retire?

Don Pafifer: Yes. At first I never did. thought it hadn't come to mind until, of course, being a married couple now and having considerations there. ⁓ It was something where I think initially we were in a good place, but... I think the thing that solidified the date or the time was to have a truly in-depth, and you've talked about this too before, is having an in-depth, ⁓ informational discussion with your financial planners to see where you are literally in your... journey, I hate to say that, but in your journey towards financial freedom, what that means, because that definitely determines where and when and if you can retire. So I have to say we found a wonderful ⁓ financial planner. They walked us through a bunch of scenarios. We talked about our situation financially, property, taxes, because that's a big factor, actually, to think about yearly expenditures going forward, because your taxes, they can be quite high depending on your tax bracket. I think what helped me decide was having this in-depth conversation. We've always had a trajectory to ⁓ spend time in Palm Springs. Again, we're very fortunate to have a situation based on my parents basically, which helped launch this because I'll go back very quickly. ⁓ When my parents passed away, actually inherited their home in San Mateo that you and I know quite well. ⁓ Instead of selling it off, we decided to renovate it. What started us on this ⁓ jump towards or journey towards this was we kept the house. We worked for literally two and a half years every weekend renovating that house ourselves. And we learned that instead of selling it off and taking some cash away from it would make much more sense to invest in it over a number of years and rent it. And we found out because it was paid off, that was a lot easier for us to do. So there was a trajectory towards making the Samiteo house responsible for our ability to get into the next properties, using equity and doing all those other things. Plus the income from that house allowed us to do these things. So back to your question. After a discussion with our financial planner, I decided that I was going to work because the other thing to consider is insurance. Insurance costs are very high and costs are also spent like out of the world high. I remember having one when I was still I hadn't reached my my plateau yet of how much to spend. I got literally I think like I went to the dermatologist and had like a mole removed or something. It was like $5,000 just to get a mole removed and I got more moles.

Gary Pegueros: That must have been a nice mole.

Don Pafifer: But again, the thing to consider, of course, is in addition to that, health costs. with a dual income, there was, at one point I was on my husband's insurance, but now my husband has retired after our discussions. So he has made the decision because the reason why we moved here was his promotion for work. But he had also made the decision, he no longer wanted the bump and grind, the anxiety, the angst of having a high

Gary Pegueros: Great.

Don Pafifer: had pressure position. So he and I had that discussion, say, what does that look like? Luckily, our financial planner said, you can do it. He actually even had me retiring this year on paper, on paper. But ideally, it doesn't make sense or didn't make sense because, you know, my husband was in the position to be able to do this.

Gary Pegueros: ⁓

Don Pafifer: but I still had the position of working and then shifting our insurance costs over to me, which is fine because he covered the load for a long time too, so it's fine. So I am looking at probably working out at least through past my birthday next year. and seeing where we at. Well, I'll be 64. So I'm trying to get, basically I want to keep working till 65 or have a very small window of time between the year that I turned 64 and my 65th birthday where we can go to Medicare. So that's where, and actually I believe it, isn't it required to go to Medicare? Or you have to determine whether or not you accept it. I forget.

Gary Pegueros: Mm-hmm. Right. Right. So what they say is you have to know for sure six months before your 65th birthday. So when you turn 64, you really need to start making, your research and talk to other people who already on it or to experts or whatever because it's very convoluted. There's different plans and you know, each.

Don Pafifer: Mm-hmm. And you need supplemental plans to be able to take care of that because Medicare is not going to cover all of your medical costs. It won't.

Gary Pegueros: right so you have to do all that homework in advance so by the time you turn sixty four and a half you're already signed up and everything signed and documented and so you're good to go they don't want you to wait until you turn sixty five

Don Pafifer: Right, Correct. So again, it's back to preparation again, because as I said, our financial planners set us up, said, okay, here's what you can do. And here's 14 different scenarios, which is basically how most financial planners work. They have an algorithm that shows you all the different scenarios based on an up down market where your finances are. So all the scenarios are good. There is a really good scenario called the Monte Carlo, which I wish was the one we were, but Monte Carlo.

Gary Pegueros: Sounds expensive.

Don Pafifer: Yeah, there's a Monte Carlo, then there's the Volkswagen. regardless, the Volkswagen or the Monte Carlo, it was a win-win situation. So in a long-winded way answering your question, I will most likely work through very close to my 65th birthday.

Gary Pegueros: Right.

Don Pafifer: and then determine there because ⁓ I'm kind of done too. It's like, you know, I'm kind of done. ⁓ And now of course, you know, the husband gets to do all the honey dues and takes care of all the heavy lifting and makes sure the house is painted and cleaned and the dogs get washed and all that other stuff. So there's a benefit there. Yeah. So that's probably the scenario we're going to follow. We're not 100 % sure things could change, things could shift, who knows. ⁓ But ⁓ can I throw the same question back to you? Like when have you thought about it and maybe what was your process?

Gary Pegueros: Yeah. Yeah. You got that right. Yes. Yeah, so I.

Don Pafifer: we're thinking through it.

Gary Pegueros: So like you similar I have a financial planner I've been talking to for years and same thing you know they kind of. ⁓ One of the questions that you didn't cover but I'm sure you did talk about is like well. What do you want to do in retirement like what type of lifestyle do you want to have right so if for me I like to travel so if you want that to be part of your life well then obviously you have to plan for that. ⁓ But yeah they look at all kinds of scenarios.

Don Pafifer: Yes, yes.

Gary Pegueros: so i did talk to him and they you know talk about i have two to four one case which have since merged into one account ⁓ and i told me only other money that i would be expecting is that when my mom passes we have the house in san matteo that my brothers and i i don't think anybody wants to keep it so i'm sure we will sell it and then split it four ways you know and and ⁓ so that's the only other income that i know that would be coming my way ⁓

Don Pafifer: Mm-hmm. Okay.

Gary Pegueros: So I did talk to my boss years ago, because I've been working for him now 38 plus years. I started when I was 26. Right? So, and he's eight years older than me. So I will turn 64, which means he will turn 72 this September, where birthdays are week apart. So I don't know how many years ago I was talking to him and I said, I need to like look ahead, but how long I work.

Don Pafifer: Right, right. That's amazing.

Gary Pegueros: might depend on you because he owns the company, right? I co-owns the company. He's the president. So I, and because I've been working for you, if you decide you're gonna leave, well then maybe that's when I ⁓ cut the cord. So at that point I said, am I gonna work until I'm, I mean, the old days it was what, 62 or 65?

Don Pafifer: True. True. I think it was a, could take retirement at 62. I think they're working at maybe 65. I don't think it's changed yet, but if you wanted to, if you wanted to.

Gary Pegueros: Right. then, right. And then, so I said, so do I retire at 62, 65, or 67? I don't really want to like wait longer than that because if I do plan to incorporate travel into my retirement, I want to be able to like still be active and move, right, and not have to use walking devices.

Don Pafifer: Mm-hmm.

Gary Pegueros: ⁓ So I asked him and he said, ⁓ yeah, maybe shoot for, I think he said 67. So that's kind of in the back of mind what I've had. The other thing that came up and what was it? I had it on the tip of my tongue and I was gonna tell you and I forgot about it.

Don Pafifer: Thank Well, that's okay. What I can interject here is that part of the financial planner's job is to also say, okay, do you like to travel? Let's plan in your retirement, X two trips a year. four trips a year, one trip a year into your plan so that you still can afford to do that because it makes sense that you actually have that cost. And you know, it's not like you're gonna be sitting there eating rice and beans. You're not gonna be sitting in there in the dark with a candle. So you wanna enjoy your life and enjoy your retirement. So actually what those are called is your go-go years.

Gary Pegueros: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Now.

Don Pafifer: There's a phrase called go-go years because those are the years that you still want to travel. You still want to get out there. You're still mobile and able to do and enjoy all those kinds of things. So you're talking about that exactly, right? So it's a plan. So you were talking about your employer too, right? And whether he was going to...

Gary Pegueros: Right. yet what think the kingdom i decided to how many years you work until you retire is so security so you get your annual report that tells you if you retired this age this is what your monthly check will look like and obviously the longer you wait the bigger the check so ⁓ so i mean while that doesn't play a big factor it does play a factor

Don Pafifer: Yes. Mm-hmm. Right. Absolutely.

Gary Pegueros: It's like, wow, you know, as I was thinking about 65 and like, well, if I can do two more years, look at the jump in my monthly income. And given that you're going to be a limited income, right? That's something to maybe consider. So, yeah, so.

Don Pafifer: Exactly. Exactly.

Gary Pegueros: my answer is at this point sixty seven now that's you know i'm sixty three now so three and a half years away like you could that could that change if something else changes maybe right but that's kind of what i'm aiming for uh... i meet with my financial planner you know two three four times a year depending on the schedules and we just kind of go go through all that

Don Pafifer: Okay. Go like that. Right, right. And there's no crystal ball. You can change your mind if you one day or your boss or if someone decides that this is no longer for me, either yourself or your boss, you can have that. And the other thing that's good is that you've made a plan. So whatever that plan is. ⁓ Yes, you're also correct that if you stay working longer, you are able to collect more as the years progress. And honestly, we talked about this before. Time is going by so fast for us. Three years is nothing.

Gary Pegueros: Mm-hmm. Right. ⁓ yeah.

Don Pafifer: Honestly, it's gonna happen. First season of this podcast went like that. We're already into the second season. So it's like...

Gary Pegueros: Well, if think about it, it's six years since the pandemic. mean, that's crazy.

Don Pafifer: Yeah, yes, yes. What's also interesting is that I do oddly and actually I'm gonna get to another question for you, but oddly enough, so many people are not prepared because they are assuming that they're going to be living on social security alone. And I'll get into that statistic after we talk about this a little bit more, but I think it's a myth to think that you can live on that income alone because depending on how your salary was based throughout your career, that can make a huge amount, affect a huge amount, the dollar that you're going to be receiving back. So if you made $10,000 a year for 30 years, I know that's not the case, but if someone were to make that, there's only so much that you're going to get from that. If you made $300,000 a year, because of what was taken out, there's a difference there. So I mean, I think it's a myth for people to believe that they can live on just their social security alone. It's just not enough. It's just not enough with healthcare costs and everything too. can I jump in? Did you have anything more on that one? Cause I do have another question. So my question for you is, yes, you're taking a look at 67, but are you, and have you thought about, because you said you worked for how many years? 30 what?

Gary Pegueros: Mm-hmm. No, no, you go ahead do another question. I've been working for this boss for 38 years so far.

Don Pafifer: 38 years, a major factor in your life and a major factor in your time. Have you thought about what that is for you when that space of time you spend working is no longer there?

Gary Pegueros: ⁓ in terms of the question, what am I gonna do with my time? Is that the question? Well, I, as you know, I do a lot of volunteer work. ⁓ But, you know, it doesn't pay. Maybe I'll have to start charging. But I've got 21 years volunteering for the fire department. I've got our neighborhood association. I'm the OG of the board because I'm the only original member.

Don Pafifer: Yes, kind of, yeah. Yes. It could. And have flyers. Yes Thank

Gary Pegueros: from the board because others have changed over the years and that started in 2008 so that's what 18 years that I've been on the board ⁓ of our neighborhood association ⁓ and emergency preparedness that's the fire department so 21 years there I've been ⁓

Don Pafifer: Yeah, yeah.

Gary Pegueros: coordinated from my neighborhood since 2009, do the math. I've been on the advisory board since 2012, do the math. I'm the chair of the advisory board, thank you. So deep connections in the fire department. For about six years I volunteered for the police department. At that point I was just doing drills because nothing, we haven't had any events where they call us into action.

Don Pafifer: Right. It sounds like you got to get a great sense of fulfillment out of the volunteer work. Right. So and you still do. I know you're still so there's still a lot going on there. So.

Gary Pegueros: Yeah. And it's a crazy schedule because that also I'm the social director for a ⁓ local ⁓ political group. So ⁓ yeah, there's some weeks where it's like I work all day and then like I got to run to a meeting or get on a zoom.

Don Pafifer: Mm-hmm. And don't forget you're a social director for all of us when we come to town or want to come to town because you've apparently been given that crown. So I hope you wear that well. Really?

Gary Pegueros: I've already put the call out for the next event coming up in the next few weeks for the locals. We're going to go visit the Walt Disney Museum here in the Presidio in San Francisco. Yeah.

Don Pafifer: ⁓ really? Okay, interesting. That'd be fun. But I think that's also, as you say, that your involvement with community has developed a lot of friendships, neighbors that you get to know better. So there's always that, which we also talked about before. It's so important to remain socially engaged.

Gary Pegueros: Right.

Don Pafifer: after retirement because there's some people that, you know, if they had all of their career in their jobs and only their cycle, their cell was their job, it was hard maybe for them to establish friendships or keep people in So I think all those things are so very, very healthy. But on the top of that, I have another question. Are you, do you allow yourself or would you allow yourself to have an unstructured day? Because it sounds like you, you you said you work all day and then there's many times meetings that come in afterwards. I'm sure your month is quite full with the calendar. ⁓

Gary Pegueros: depends on the week there's some weeks is like I don't have any meetings this is great there could be a Sunday where I decide I don't want to get out of my PJs I don't want to go outside even if it's a nice day I don't I don't want to see anyone I don't want to talk to anyone I'm just gonna sit here watch TV and have some ice cream whatever you know so there are days yes I do a lot of and probably more often than more often than I should but

Don Pafifer: Yeah. So you let yourself do that. No, no.

Gary Pegueros: Yeah, there are some days I just, don't wanna do anything, don't wanna see anything. But there's other days like, know, oh, like I just signed up for the whole season of the Broadway type shows here in San Francisco, the stage shows. Because if you buy the whole season, you end up saving money on a per show ticket. I did, I haven't got my socks yet, but I just signed up. yes, I do enjoy the theater, you know, concerts.

Don Pafifer: Mm-hmm. ⁓ you did that? ⁓ good. You liked that last time. You also got a pair of socks or something, didn't you last time? ⁓ But you enjoy the theater. You enjoy going to the theater.

Gary Pegueros: Some of can get super expensive, so I don't quote a lot, but when I can and it's affordable, I'll do it. So, to your original question, so when I retire, I, some of the things I may drop off, I did hint that, you know, when I retire in three years, I may put down my sword, if you will, for volunteering with the fire department, because I've been doing this so long, and let the younger generations, you know, pick up the torch. I don't know, but.

Don Pafifer: Sure.

Gary Pegueros: I have enough of those things that I am involved in that I don't think I get bored and enough interest to want to get out and see shows or travel or whatever. I'm thinking of the folks that maybe don't have those connections right now. You know, start looking at them now and connect with whether it's local, you know, the rec center or your church or there's all kinds of, there's meetups and different social activities.

Don Pafifer: Mm-hmm.

Gary Pegueros: that you can meet up, mentioned like playing golf. You maybe find a group that plays tennis or golf or a book club or cooking, whatever things you enjoy doing as a hobby. I'm sure you could find groups to connect and that'll help you stay active, stay connected, do some networking and meet new people because the sad thing is if you're, for those that maybe don't do any of that and they're just home alone all day and then.

Don Pafifer: Peek-a-Bop. Yes. Mm-hmm. I know.

Gary Pegueros: don't have that stimulation.

Don Pafifer: And I'll be honest with you, that was something I struggled with and I was very concerned with when it comes to retirement because when I first moved here, it was a struggle because we didn't know anyone and it was...

Gary Pegueros: Right.

Don Pafifer: I have to give you kudos for being such ⁓ a trailblazer for things like that. You let go of the stigma of doing something and saying, okay, I'm just going to go do this because I want to do it. So I have to say you truly are a leader in that respect. I think that you are ⁓ kind a ⁓ natural leader for those kinds of events. But I have to say it's a little harder than it sounds because you have to get past your own self to say, okay, I'm just going to go to some event or go to a ⁓ group or something and introduce myself. And ⁓ one thing that came from our last guest Marty Bean was he actually made it a point when he got a little bit older to say, I'm just going to say hi to people. And it was this, it sounds like the simplest thing in the world, but I thought that was such great piece of advice. to get past your own shyness or your own ⁓ insecurities or whatever, just say hi. You'll be surprised how open people are and how much they actually appreciate that. So I was very concerned about it actually in my retirement saying, OK, what am I going to do? So I still have work to do.

Gary Pegueros: that's one concern i have is that because of people think i'm a certain way but if i'm in a room of people that i don't know anyone i'm the quiet one you know leaning against the wall i'm not going up and just walking up to someone i don't know start talking i've never been able to do that i'm just not comfortable that's that's stepping outside my comfort zone

Don Pafifer: Yes. But I think, yes, I hear you, and I'm kind of the same way. So I think it's something we're going to probably work on and get better at as we jump or ease into the retirement pool, right? So.

Gary Pegueros: Yeah.

Don Pafifer: And the unconstructed day, I had a problem with unconstructed days because my life used to be very regimented. I was for a while, as you know, is traveling everywhere. had literally booking flights going in and out of work, coming back. There's just so much structure to traveling and being part of a job that letting go of that was, I'll say honestly, kind of difficult. It was kind of difficult not to have a structured day. I have to work on that. That's not something I'm completely at ease with right now.

Gary Pegueros: i think you to think of it as like a reward for yourself it's like look i don't have to get on a plane i don't have to get in the car you know you can go on a bike ride or you can pick up a book that you've been wanting to read or you know go go try that restaurant that you've been you know they heard open is very popular whatever that whatever it is you can go out and do something to to ⁓ reward yourself

Don Pafifer: No. Right. Yes. Well, there's a pick-a-ball group that's actually down the street at the park over here. So that one of my goals is actually to do a pickup game if I have, if I wear my man socks and.

Gary Pegueros: I was going say because you tried it before but you had some knee injuries or...

Don Pafifer: hamstring injuries, blah, blah, blah. But they're literally right over there and they're playing almost every day. So I think one of my challenges is gonna be to say, go and introduce and say, hi, can I jump in or join in with you? So it's kind of things like that where actually I have to work on that a bit. I'm not completely there yet, but I haven't had the opportunity yet. So I have to prepare mentally, but I'm looking forward to trying that because it sounds awesome.

Gary Pegueros: Well, activity like that, I think it's a little easier because they're already interested and they say you're interested. So you're not really walking up to them blindly. You're like, can I join in the game? So you are you're already starting off on a common level. So I mean, it could be a little easier.

Don Pafifer: Right, right, yeah. True, true, that is true. And I hate to say, you know what sounds kind of fun to me is a book club. I mean, I've actually looked into that because I'd like to read more and I know how to read, that's good. Let's get that out of the way.

Gary Pegueros: You've always been a reader. You

Don Pafifer: So yeah, mean, actually I believe it or not. I actually that sounds kind of interesting to me and our neighbor Janet who we love lives behind us She actually is part of a cooking group and they get together every week and they literally cook something together It's a group of people and they literally just and sometimes people come and go and they share different locations or homes to do this and that sounds so much fun to me I would love to do that. So I'm looking forward to and there are groups locally here. You're right. You just have to look at the event calendars in your local communities to find out what's going on and you don't have to do it with somebody but it's there's pretty good chance you're gonna say hi to somebody or meet somebody while you're doing it which I love I love that

Gary Pegueros: Right. Yeah, absolutely. ⁓ What other question might you have or should I jump in on one?

Don Pafifer: You jump in with one, because then I'm going to share my stats. They're to blow you away.

Gary Pegueros: okay so ⁓ the other question one of the questions was you know we are to talk about when i retire but where do i retire so you've kind of already alluded to the fact that because you have your home in palm springs that that's where you're leaning towards for retirement

Don Pafifer: You are the ju- The dream is to, and don't let me not sound too bougie about this, but again, very fortunate that we'd like to winter in Palm Springs and summer at the beach. that's, so kind of between the two homes, we would probably do that because that's always been a dream of mine. And the fact that we own this home that we rent, it's not, it's not free or anything, but, ⁓ and we have a mortgage on it. So it still has to be paid for, but ideally I've always loved the desert. I've loved it for a hundred years now since we bought. the house over there. I do love going there during the wintertime. It's a great respite away from the beach when it's a little bit colder here. It's beautiful weather there. It's just lovely and it's something that we've always dreamed of. So it is a dream come true when it does happen. So that's the idea is to be able to. Yeah, yeah.

Gary Pegueros: So the plan would be to keep the house in Redondo as well? And it's, mean, what, they're two hours away from each other or?

Don Pafifer: Yeah, which is lovely because when we lived in the Bay Area, it was eight hours, which we got used to driving. But now it's so easy to go down there. And as you know, and you will be also invited, we have quite a gaggle of people that have moved down to Palm Springs at this point. Seems to be the thing to do. But yes, and now you know quite a few people down there also. So I can't wait to start having you come down and staying with us and getting together with some of our mutual friends who got there before me. So, yeah, I'm very excited.

Gary Pegueros: Right. Right. Yes. Yeah. Right. Right, right. Well, and that's a great thing about having the two homes so close is that it's not a big trek. There's no planes, there's no seven hour drives where you get there and you're exhausted. mean, that's great.

Don Pafifer: Well, let me ask you this, because we've talked about this a number of times too. ⁓ You still enjoy living in the city, right?

Gary Pegueros: I do and I've gone through waves. So if we go back two years, even three years, that's when we didn't come out of the pandemic well. We didn't recover as quickly as other cities. And we were the national punching bag of.

Don Pafifer: Great.

Gary Pegueros: what's wrong with san francisco let me name you know start naming everything and whether you're reading something nationally or locally everything was just bash bash bash san francisco and yes it was crowded and you know and dirty and a lot of homeless and a lot of traffic and just it was what i'd the comment ideas before was that it's lost its luster beautiful city but i would witness things like

Don Pafifer: Yeah. Yeah. Mm.

Gary Pegueros: like a family from out of the area would, know, save their money because they want to come to Francisco to see the ocean or to ride the cable car or, you know, drive down Lombard, all these things you see in movies and postcards and such. And then they get here and they get accosted by homeless person or they walk down the street and it's just, you know, dirty and then they walk away with a bad taste in their mouth. It's like, we spent our money for this and that's what really hurt me because it didn't shine a good light on this.

Don Pafifer: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Gary Pegueros: what has changed since we have our new mayor who started a year and a half ago. And not just because of him, obviously some things were already in motion from the previous administration. But the tide has turned. More people are coming to visit, more businesses are opening in San Francisco. ⁓ There's just a lot more activity. ⁓ He's worked with a lot of different groups to create a lot of social ⁓ events. ⁓ Down the street from me, the first Thursday of every month, there is a street party where there's music and food and games and they block off like three blocks. And that type of event is happening in Chinatown and in other neighborhoods. uh... where they'll pick a day once a month and then it is just you know a street party the convention centers being filled up again with more events and activities and they've signed multi-year deals right so it's a lot more positive spin uh... so what i said a few years ago was that when i retire even though i'm in a gated community and it's in a great neighborhood and easy access to everything

Don Pafifer: Is it? It's a great neighborhood. It's a lovely place.

Gary Pegueros: ⁓ I didn't know that at retirement would I want to still be here. ⁓ Because I bought my home as a first time home buyer, I cannot sell it on the open market at full market value now. I basically go back to the city, say hey, I wanna sell my unit, and then there's some formula they work out so that I'll make money on my selling of the unit, but. there's no way I could just turn around and buy another place all cash with this so it's like do I really want to sell this place and buy another place and then go into debt

Don Pafifer: Exactly, our age. Right.

Gary Pegueros: At our age, right? So that was one consideration. But I will say that because I was born and raised in San Mateo, which is 30 minutes south of San Francisco. ⁓ And I go there every week because my mom is still there. ⁓ I'm familiar with obviously the city because I was up there all my life. There's a familiarity to it. A it's far enough away from the city that you don't have the noise and the complications that you do living in the big city. And if you're in San Mateo, you're close enough that I want to go to the show, I want to go here. It can be there in

Don Pafifer: Sure. all your friends too are locally in the peninsula too. There's a bunch of people that we both know that still live out there too.

Gary Pegueros: Right. Right. So there is a part of me that is drawn to like, do I want to move back to San Mateo? As opposed to moving to another part of the state or out of state where I don't know anyone. I know you've joked here said, ⁓ you have to move to Pacoima or Chula Vista. And I'm thinking, I'm sure they're very pretty.

Don Pafifer: Hmm. Chula Vista.

Gary Pegueros: But I don't know anyone there. So why, as a person who is approaching retirement, would I want to move to a city or community where I don't know anyone? You know, they need to start from zero.

Don Pafifer: Right, now I get it. You've got a network you've been working on basically your whole life, which is a really strong, strong network of people.

Gary Pegueros: Right. And so now it's like, do I, for financial reasons, I would likely stay where I'm at. If that were not a consideration, I'd say, because obviously anywhere in the Bay Area is expensive, so I could sell this, but what could I buy in San Mateo? Would it be a one-bedroom condo? Would I look for a senior community, although there aren't that many around, and the ones that are are super expensive?

Don Pafifer: Okay. Right. Mm-hmm.

Gary Pegueros: so ⁓ from a financial standpoint i would say i'll stay where i'm at but if that weren't a factor i would probably say san martin

Don Pafifer: No, but I get it because there's actually a lot of factors there because you don't have any stairs in your place, which is a huge factor that no one talks about. Stairs is going to be later on in our lives going to be something of a challenge. But also, you know, you have, and I got to say San Francisco is the most beautiful city in the world. It just is. I love it. I'm sad that I had to leave it, but I do have wonderful, fond memories of it. I remember how beautiful it is everywhere. And despite the challenges that you said, it, it's lack of

Gary Pegueros: Right. Yes. Yes.

Don Pafifer: Luster, it's still a beautiful city. It's a beautiful city. There's so much to do. There's so much to be exposed to. And I will always, always love San Francisco as the first place ever. Back to your point about cost. If we were ever to think that we would want go back to San Francisco, we might not be able to do it.

Gary Pegueros: Yes. Right.

Don Pafifer: because the places that we lived in are now exponentially more expensive than they were. Even San Mateo, which we sold, has risen in price. And the peninsula is incredibly expensive and expanding at a crazy pace. All the things, lot of milestones and sorry, places that we knew of are no longer there and being redeveloped for housing because of the density. And do you want that density? And thirdly, back to you, you live in such a good neighborhood. You're so fortunate. You're literally next to the bay.

Gary Pegueros: Right. Right. Right. Yeah.

Don Pafifer: Babe Ridge, you have all those activities, you're in a wonderful space. I wouldn't want to give it up, and I don't think I would. If I were in your position, I wouldn't give it up either. You're just too central to everything.

Gary Pegueros: Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, there's definitely pluses and then, you know, there's always going be minuses. So that's something that, you know, it's it's not a big concern of mine right now. And I think more so because things have improved over these last two years where I don't feel that like the dark clouds have kind of drifted away for the for the environment. We I was feeling I was in all those years after the pandemic.

Don Pafifer: Yeah. No! Absolutely. Yeah. Yes, plus transportation is so good in the city. It's amazing. I'm sure you're steps away from any kind of transport if you wanted to take public. You can see the Bay Bridge from under your house. It's amazing. The views you have. Don't you dare move. Don't you dare. Besides, I want you have more parties at your house so we can come and visit.

Gary Pegueros: Oh yeah, yeah, the metro is like a block and a half away. No. So let me go back to, we did touch on it, but okay, so 65, you retire, you're no longer working. How are you gonna fill your time? Have you thought about that?

Don Pafifer: Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Yes, definitely thought about that. ⁓ still in some form, no matter how long we continue, I think I'll continue with the podcasting in some form. If you want to stick with it, you can stick with it. not, I'll just...

Gary Pegueros: Gone here, I was still picking it.

Don Pafifer: I put my teeth in and just get into the podcast. No, I've really enjoyed doing this with you. Obviously, you're such a good friend and I've known you for so long. love you so much about the way that we've developed this that keeps us in touch. It's actually fun. I'm learning so much about how to do this. So I have to say it's very stimulating mentally to be able to do this and to learn more things about it. And I'm actually going to be learning more things about how to edit and do multi

Gary Pegueros: Right. Yeah.

Don Pafifer: cam kind of thing. I'm still learning. I do enjoy this podcasting as a hobby. We haven't made any money off of it yet. Although I think pod ⁓ three peas made $12 and 83 cents last time I checked. And no, you don't get any. that's definitely something. But I think I'm going to challenge myself kind of the way you've already taken control of, is to

Gary Pegueros: Yeah, I'm waiting on that. Hmm.

Don Pafifer: integrate myself more with the community. I look forward to being part of Palm Springs. It's a very vital, active community there too.

Gary Pegueros: Yeah.

Don Pafifer: Plus you know there's still this house ⁓ and To be honest, houses take a lot of maintenance, so there's always something to do around here. Or one of these houses, there's always something to work on. And I think we've talked about it before, but briefly, ⁓ I really found a green thumb in really enjoying outdoor gardening. It's just something I really enjoy, and I sound like an old man, but I really do enjoy it. ⁓ And the biking too, because we have our bikes that we take out all the time. And we love walking. I know you love to walk around too, but walking everywhere is just so

Gary Pegueros: Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yes.

Don Pafifer: easy to walk here and in Palm Springs. Everything is so easy to get to. So I think there's not going to be a problem with things to fill our time. ⁓ Guests, ⁓ when they come and us, the family keeps coming to join us. So we got all that coming in too. ⁓ There's a constant stream family coming through here. ⁓

Gary Pegueros: you ⁓ Speaking of time, I need to leave in a few minutes because I have to go count ballots. So you want to give statistics.

Don Pafifer: ⁓ okay. do we have? ⁓ What I wanted to talk about very was the generational disparity ⁓ about who's doing well. So if talk Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, and Baby Boomers, ⁓ Baby Boomers are the least prepared for retirement just because there were a number of factors, like ⁓ the 2008 crash, ⁓ the shifting from pensions 401ks. There was lot of places where Boomers didn't jump into there. ⁓ And the biggest pivot point that they have as group, and I'm talking generally is that they own property more likely that they can actually pivot and possibly sell off to have more money in their retirement. And of course there's inflation in medical costs. Savings rates basically Gen Z's are about 47 % on track and I'm taking this from a Times article that was out in News, Millennials are 42 % on track, Gen X is 41 % on track and baby booners are 40 % on track. So again there were factors that actually made a difference.

Gary Pegueros: Hmm.

Don Pafifer: there's different factors when they come to their priorities when it comes to saving. Gen C's are actually very much on their way. but they probably don't want to buy homes. I was going to share something really quickly. I'm going to see if I can do it. If I can't do it, we'll edit it out, I practiced all day. I'm going to share a screen. So, can you see that?

Gary Pegueros: Oh, you two people, he's gonna share a screen, perhaps. Yes! How much millennials, Gen X, and boomers have saved for retirement.

Don Pafifer: Okay, so see this big pretty screen here? It's very colorful and I won't go into all the depth of all of it, but you can see where it comes to. 28 % of baby boomers, and this again is a general times consensus, 25 % of us don't have enough retirement savings right now. ⁓ Millennials are much younger, so they have more time to save, and X, they're kind of just a little bit above us. ⁓ And then I'm just move the screen over. When it comes to basically having enough saved, only 22%, according to this survey, ⁓ age group have enough have $300,000 or more, is what is considered the least amount that you can have. ⁓ is just a very ⁓ ⁓ graph, but it's basically telling us that boomers have a little work to do when it comes to getting it together. I was more impressed that I can actually share this screen with you today at my age. ⁓

Gary Pegueros: Yeah. Yeah. Well, I have to say on the one statistic of 22.4 % of boomers have saved 300,000 more. I think of those articles that you see, they say something to the effect of how you need a million dollars for retirement. And I'm thinking, when the hell am I going to reach a million dollars?

Don Pafifer: Yes. Yes. Well, that's just it. that's a pie in the sky number. ⁓ There's a million just like this one that have a lot of pretty colors on them. ⁓ The fact is that I think you and I have talked about how much it takes. ⁓ It's never too late to jump back in. I'm going to stop sharing this can actually talk, but ⁓ it's never too late to do this. So. ⁓ You can definitely jump into it. You just have to be a little more aware. Don't go in blind. I think that's our biggest piece of advice, right? Is to make sure that you get a financial advisor that can help you and advise you to give you a true scenario of where you're at right now. So.

Gary Pegueros: Right. And every once in while, you'll see an announcement for some workshop or seminar about retirement or whatever. And it's like, if you've got the time, you know, just listen, go either Tandr or if it's on Zoom, listen to it, give you some ideas. Talked if you have, you know, parents or older siblings or other people that are older, you've already gone through that or in that stage right now.

Don Pafifer: Yes. Yes.

Gary Pegueros: I mean, it's a great, great opportunity to ask questions and, you know, be a sponge. And even if it's not your time to do it, but at least, you know, take some notes and start thinking about it.

Don Pafifer: Yeah. Yeah, and our audience basically, which is our age, I think, you know, hopefully you'll take some notes from this. I'm going to put all of the notes that I had from this in our blog. So if you'd like to reference that, it's on the pod page blog inside the web page there. There's actually a blog page where you can actually take a look at all these resources. So I'll include that there. Yeah. So I thought, you know, I think this was fun, Gary. This was really good. You did. This is such a great idea of yours. Again, don't let it go to your head.

Gary Pegueros: that's a great chart Yeah. I'll try not to. But on this segment, Donna and Gary doing 60, I asked you a question. Question, question, question. ⁓ So this segment is on retirement. We'll do another one in other episodes. There's one gonna be on relationships and whatever that entails. We could do one on what we ask our guests.

Don Pafifer: Yes. Mm-hmm.

Gary Pegueros: What do we, ain't nobody got time for that. So we'll ask each other things like, what do we not have time for?

Don Pafifer: That's a great idea. That's a great idea. And I have to say, I think on our second season, we're getting better, don't you think?

Gary Pegueros: Well, actually, this is our third season, so.

Don Pafifer: That's why it's even better than the second season. Don't trip me. Shut up. I hate that you know everything. I don't know who are you? Who am I? Anyway, so good job. Good job, Gary. Do want to close this down? didn't. I know you had to go count ballots. So, okay. Do you know how to count? I know how to read. Do you know how to count? Okay. Go ahead. No, don't do it.

Gary Pegueros: What? That'll be the next question. Don, what season is it? you Papa can you hear me? Yes, I have to go count ballots downstairs. I do know how to count. Well, I just have to, you no, I'm not going to go there. But so as Don has alluded to in the beginning, we are Don and Gary doing 60. You if you want to listen to us, you can listen to us on Apple, Spotify, Blue Sky, you can visit our web page hosted by pod page.

Don Pafifer: You

Gary Pegueros: ⁓ Obviously, you can watch us on YouTube where you get all of the sights and sounds and all our fabulousnesses. ⁓

Don Pafifer: Mm-hmm.

Gary Pegueros: On pod page you'll have access to all of the various platforms including Instagram and Facebook where you'll see us. ⁓ We record a couple times a week. We release them, you know, usually on Sundays, but not every Sunday. We take a break here and there. But we've got a lot in the can, as they say. We have some guests we've already recorded. We have more things coming up.

Don Pafifer: Yes. Yes. Mm-hmm.

Gary Pegueros: What did I not mention? If you want to drop us an email, it's donandgarydewins60 at gmail.com. And I think I covered all the platforms. All right.

Don Pafifer: Yep. I think you got it all. I think you got it all. Like you say, swing a dead cat, you're going to hit our podcast. Although I don't recommend swinging dead cats. Okay. So go count your ballots. Good job. This was fun. ⁓ My, my ducats. I'll count my dogs. I got to wash one of them.

Gary Pegueros: Exactly. I would not. I'll go count my ballots. You go count your money. I the husband does that now.

Don Pafifer: So it's a long story. It's a long story. Anyway, so great. Good job, Gary. Good job. You did such a good job with this. It's a good thing you're getting paid so well for this, right? Okay. Yeah, okay. Take what you can get. Take what you can get. Talk to you later. Bye. Bye. Oh, that was so good, Gary. That was such a good idea.

Gary Pegueros: so long so okay stay tuned next episode well thank you we'll have fun with it on another yes only in compliments and even then alrighty we'll see you next time We're still recording, you know.

Don Pafifer: ⁓ no we're not. No, I don't know. ⁓ yeah we

Gary Pegueros: We're not?