The Arsenal Money Clip Podcast

An Introduction to the Sandwich Generation: Are you in a PB&J, Dagwood, or Pastrami Situation?

• Arsenal Financial • Episode 17

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Arsenal Financial advisors Doug Orifice and Jeremy Vaille are trying really, really hard to make a listenable podcast about money and finance. In this episode they wrap up 2025 and dive into a topic that will run throughout the next few podcasts to start the year: the sandwich generation. If you're a Millennial or Gen X parent, you're likely in the sandwich generation. Learn which sandwich type you're in: primarily taking care of younger kids (PB&J), dealing with both kids and aging parents/family (Dagwood), or focused mostly on your older parents/family (Pastrami). Then Doug and Jeremy talk about some of the challenges of each, give a few tips and advice, and help set the stage for future episodes on the topic. And, of course, we round things out with some sandwich-themed dad jokes.

Find Doug, Jeremy, and Arsenal Financial at arsenalfinancial.com or call (781) 335-9100.

Securities and advisory services offered through LPL Financial, a registered investment advisor. Member FINRA/SIPC. The information in this podcast is educational and general in nature and does not take into consideration the listener’s personal circumstances. Therefore, it is not intended to be a substitute for specific, individualized financial, legal, or tax advice. To determine which strategies or investments may be suitable for you, consult the appropriate qualified professional prior to making a final decision.

Doug: 0:05

All right, everybody, welcome once again to another episode of the Arsenal Money Clip, where we are trying very, very hard to give you a listenable podcast about money, finance, and investing. My name's Doug Orifice, and I'm here with my pal Jeremy Vaille. We run a firm called Arsenal Financial, a financial planning and investment management firm based out of both Watertown, Massachusetts, and Norwell, Massachusetts. We're recording this here before Christmas. You're listening to this probably in the new year. JV, we almost made it. How are you doing today?

Jeremy: 0:34

Oh, good morning. I just realized that I cannot stay up past eight o'clock on a weeknight. You know, I always tell Andrew, nothing good happens after dark. It's true. It's true. I should heed my own advice. Got to go to a rare game last night, rare Bruins game, and it was late night, 1130, getting home. So I'm looking forward to the weekend. 

Doug: 0:54

So similar topic, less fun. What does it mean when I am watching a Muppet movie with my wife and kid, but I am the first one to retire? Like, 

Jeremy: 1:04

Oh yeah.

Doug: 1:05 

You know?

Jeremy: 1:06

Yep. Yep. That's the way it goes. 

Doug: 1:08

It's been a long year. It's been a good year. There's a lot that's gone on. Our topic today is kind of looking ahead at the year to come. Hey, you know, like, why don't we start off kind of thinking about some themes that have really bubbled up this year, which continue to be a focus on the year ahead. And then our focus today is going to be one of these themes, which I think really is kind of the big one for us. So, JV, a lot of different themes that we've dealt with that we deal with every single year, but I feel like there's been some recurring themes. And why don't we take a couple minutes to talk about those? And maybe I'll start off with one that we really can't stop talking about because it is real. It's the battling of rising costs and inflation. 

Jeremy: 1:46

Persistent, right? 

Doug: 1:47

Yeah. I feel like in 2025, we probably could have gone to one candidate every single month. And not a person, right, but something in that market basket, something that somebody's spending money on that happens to be like the boogeyman that particular month, whether it's groceries or I mean, you know, this like October, November. 

Jeremy: 2:06

Insurance costs.

Doug: 2:08

Yeah, health insurance. That was huge.

Jeremy: 2:09

Yeah, 20, 40% increases in premiums across the board. Just huge numbers we talked about last time.

Doug: 2:15

One thing that I shared on social media, it was probably in the fourth quarter, but the stats were about grocery inflation. And from July 2024 to July 2025, if you take the six New England states and look at the year over year inflation, it averaged over six percent. 

Jeremy: 2:32

Wow. 

Doug: 2:33

So the stuff is real, whether it's essentials like healthcare, whether it's discretionary type stuff like going out to eat. Rising costs is real, right? And you and I, we got to forecast somebody's expenses and the longevity of their money, and we're redoing the math. Redoing the math.

Jeremy: 2:49

Yeah. Yeah. And it keeps rates high, right? Keeps rates higher for longer. 

Doug: 2:53

That's right.

Jeremy: 2:54

Coming down, but still at a slower clip than anyone expected, right? 

Doug: 2:58

Yeah. As rates, as people want rates to grind down, this is the hook keeping them maybe a little higher than some people would like. Maybe as an offset for that, for a lot of folks that we work with, even though life has gotten more expensive, if somebody has been saving for a number of years, if they've been sticking to their financial plan, if they've been investing wisely, year over year, there's a lot of folks who are actually in a better position. This in no way describes all of America or most of America. You know, you and I talk about this. We get conflicted because we have kind of a skewed view of the universe. Most of our clients have resources, they have assets. And year over year, many of them are in a better position. More than half of Americans are probably not in a better position year over year. 

Jeremy: 3:43

The stock market is not the economy, right? 

Doug: 3:45

The stock market is not the economy. And I think one of the things in our conversations every single week is those folks who are in a better position year over year. It's often on the backs of stocks and bond investments, and there's a lot of fear of a bubble out there.

Jeremy: 4:01

Yeah. Those asset prices continuing to go up. 

Doug: 4:05

We have an all-time high concentration in a small amount of names in the S&P 500, almost all of them related to artificial intelligence. There's just an incredible amount of spending. So, you know, as we look ahead, and we'll talk about this later this year, probably on one of these podcasts, there is a wild range of outcomes where there could be generational growth on the other end of this, or there could be a halting, an easing on the brakes, or a slamming on the brakes. And we just don't know where that's gonna be, right? So sure we'll have an episode about being balanced and diversified.

Jeremy: 4:39

And this may be maybe not as critically important in your early innings of your career, but as you're kind of entering mid-career, middle age, and you get into your back half of your working career, these things are getting more and more important.

Doug: 4:52

It's gonna tie into our main topic today, won't it? 

Jeremy: 4:54

I think so. 

Doug: 4:56

One other thing that I feel like we've talked about a lot with clients is I kind of talk about like pulling that additional lever of income. And you might be like, what the hell are we talking about? We have a lot of business owners. We're business owners, we're talking to entrepreneurs every day. And I feel like I've watched a lot of clients either reinvent themselves and create entrepreneurial work or just decide to work longer because they can. Somebody might have owned a business and it may have been a full-time gig. And I think one of the many blessings and curses about owning a business and running a business, but you know, one of them is that you can scale down and work longer if you want to and if you like it. And that's not, it's not something that's available to everybody. So I feel like whether it's running a business a little bit longer in a smaller capacity, or even picking up something fun part-time for a lot of our clients who are retired, we're seeing that more.

Jeremy: 5:49

Reminds me of the hero’s journey podcast we did a few months back, right?

Doug: 5:53

For sure. 

Jeremy: 5:54

It's a good one.

Doug: 5:55

But what's our big one today, man? The topic that we talk about maybe every day? 

Jeremy: 5:59

Sandwich generation. 

Doug: 6:01

Sandwich generation. It's gonna be a lot of sandwich talk. Uh it's too bad we're recording this so early because probably about five minutes into this, we're gonna be pretty hungry. 

Jeremy: 6:09

It's always a good time for a sandwich.

Doug: 6:11

Sandwich generation, which has a broad definition, which JV you'll go into in a second. It's in our conversations every day. We're a five-person business, and all five of us are part of that sandwich generation where we're taking care of kids below us and either worrying about or helping or taking care of folks above us, right. Or have that on deck. Sandwich generation describes a lot of our clients. Sandwich generation is a particularly difficult group in terms of what they have to face. JV, you want to spend a few minutes just kind of defining what that sandwich generation is? Let's bring a little bit more detail to that.

Jeremy: 6:45

Yeah, it may be a little confusing because you talk about generations too, and it kind of bridges a few generations, but. So in my half-ass internet research, the sandwich generation involves adults caring for both aging parents and their own children. So essentially, you're the sliced meat and cheese between the bread, right? So one in three adults, 32%, might be in this situation. And 54% of those in their 40s are in that situation. So if you're in your 40s, there's a good chance you or somebody you know, your best friend, is in this situation. And it bridges the Gen X and the millennial demographic. So Gen X, I think, is in the what do you call that 45 to 60 range right now? 

Doug: 7:29

Yeah. Yeah. 

Jeremy: 7:30

As far as years old. And then millennials, 35. I think the full bracket of sandwich generation is 35 to 59. So if you're in your mid-career, heading into your mid-career, and on the back half, good chance you're in this sandwich generation. A couple of other stats. You're more likely to be married. 38% of people in their sandwich generation are married. And you're more likely to be a woman if you're in this situation. So there are some serious impacts, right? So you feel a sense of purpose, right, by being a caregiver to all these people. But at the same time, there are some impacts, negative financial impacts. Two-thirds report being affected in their careers, and 46% report having a career setback in some way, shape, or form. So pretty impactful on that. And from a health and well-being perspective, higher rates of anxiety, stress, fatigue, insufficient sleep, and impacting physical and mental health. And we all probably have somebody in our life that puts everyone else before them. They don't take care of themselves, and as a result, they, you know, are impacted health-wise.

Doug: 8:36

Yeah. I feel like as I was growing up, and I can't really pinpoint it, I might have been an early teenager. I had a 20-year period where I watched my folks go through this. I should have charted this out so I knew how old they were, but I think my folks were in their late 40s to late 50s, maybe early 60s. So that exact band that you were talking about. The first chapter was my dad after my grandmother passed away and you know, he would go and spend time with his dad every single night on the way home. And then my grandfather suffered from Alzheimer's for 12 years, and my mother was cleaning up that mess for more than a decade. You know, a lot of people often ask us, why did you get into this? Right, and you have your story, I have mine. I know this is definitely an ingredient to why I feel like we can take something off of somebody's plate when they're going through this, having been in the front row for this, growing up. And then, you know, in all of our households right now, we're going through this. And personally, you know, you and I talk about this stuff every week.

Jeremy: 9:35

Even to be a shoulder of support, right? 

Doug: 9:37

Yeah. 

Jeremy: 9:38

Just to have somebody else to go to. Have I ever showed you the happiness curve?

Doug: 9:43

I think you have. 

Jeremy: 9:44

I mean, what you're talking about is exactly this, right? So the happiness curve is essentially over the course of life, like where you're most happy. And as you'd expect in your 20s, happiness levels high, but it really bottoms out in your early to mid-40s. And then it starts getting better and better again. So you're not the only one. Everyone is struggling with this stuff in their 40s. There's a lot going on, and happiness kind of bottoms out. So there is some light at the end of the tunnel, though, if that's actually true.

Doug: 10:13

So we do want people to listen to the rest of this podcast. So we better cheer it up and cheer it up quick. So I guess number one, you've given some people some hope that things do turn around. We have a lot of clients who are in their 60s and 70s that are having the absolute time of their lives right now, which is great. The other thing is we're going to have some fun with this sandwich generation thing and be silly and be ridiculous, like we tend to be sometimes. We're going to break down sort of groups within the group of sandwich generation and give them sandwich names. We're also going to bring in our friend Matt Hanna who's recording the podcast. And Matt, thank you for all your help this year, too. And Matt's going to give us some sandwich stats, but we came down to four groups. So, group number one, we have our group that have young kids. Mom and dad are getting a little bit older, right? Or folks are getting a little bit older. But really, your attention is skewed towards your young kids. And maybe your folks are still helping out at that point, which is great. We didn't decide on a particular sandwich for this. We almost had a tie. 

Jeremy: 11:10

Tie. Yeah.

Doug: 11:11

Between?

Jeremy: 11:12

Grilled cheese, really messy. Just oozy, thanks to Matt Hanna. He's just like, grilled cheese is really a mess, you know. And then your favorite breakfast? 

Doug: 11:20

My favorite breakfast, the PBJ.

Jeremy: 11:21

Peanut butter and jelly.

Doug: 11:23

Right. So we'll call this the PBJ or grilled cheese generation. Younger parents. So parents maybe in their late 30s, early 40s, running around, really focused on young kids. So our second group is I think maybe this is the toughest task, right? Which is when you got everything going on. So for you, you're maybe peak career, peak busyness, peak responsibilities, peak income, peak expenses. And then from a family point of view, you have peak expense responsibility for your kids, and then this increasing responsibility for other family around you. And let's be frank, it's not always parents. Sometimes it's you know, it's a brother, it's an aunt, it's somebody that you have to take care for, right? So we kind of call this peak everything. 

Jeremy: 12:10

Bottom of the U curve, right? 

Doug: 12:11

Yeah. We got a couple of candidates here. Might even have to have you look this up because I don't even have all the ingredients here. One nominee was the Dagwood. 

Jeremy: 12:20

Dagwood, yeah. Love the Dagwood. 

Doug: 12:22

What's in the Dagwood?

Jeremy: 12:23

Um, Matt, help me here. But what was it roast beef, ham, and turkey? 

Doug: 12:28

Just all the meats?

Jeremy: 12:29 

I think it is all the meats.

Matt: 12:31

I think Dagwood can just be, it's just anything. It's like 10 layers. You can put meat on whatever meat you want on any layer. It's everything.

Jeremy: 12:40

Sliced meats on sliced meats. 

Doug: 12:43

I'm gonna give a shout out to my dad and also my buddy Chaz I was hanging out with just last night as a potential other option for this category, which is the Italian extra hot or the Italian extra everything. 

Jeremy: 12:57

Extra everything, yep. 

Doug: 12:59

The sandwich where half of it ends up in the paper as you're eating it.

Jeremy: 13:03

You gotta you need a fork, right? You do. 

Doug: 13:06

Yes, of course.

Jeremy: 13:07

I used to love the roast beef with cheese, mayo, like in that old mayo that's like real thick. At the sub shop. And then everything. Everything with the hots.

Doug: 13:16

So, listeners, you know, pick your messiest sandwich with all the stuff that works for you. And that's kind of the peak everything group, right? Where just everything is nipping at your heels, everything's nipping at your wallet. And then we get a third group, right? And the third group is maybe your kids, you're finally seeing some independence. They're getting themselves to school, they're taking care of most of their work, they're getting themselves to their activities. Maybe even they're in college or they're out of college, right? And we're not worried as much about our kids, but we're seeing our parents a lot more because they need the help. And then we think about some classic sandwiches there, right? Like a good old-fashioned pastrami sandwich. 

Jeremy: 13:56

Jimmy V. Classic pastrami. 

Doug: 13:58

Is that your dad's favorite?

Jeremy: 13:59

I think so. It's up there. That and a steak and cheese.

Doug: 14:02

I love it. I love it. Pastrami sandwich, the steak and cheese, you know, a good old-fashioned classic that's been around for generations. That's group three, where we don't have to worry about our kids so much. But we still, we always worry as parents, and we're watching costs and support for adult children really stretch out longer than it ever has. And we'll talk about that in a little bit too. And then there's the fourth group. I don't know what you name this. I'll let you do this one here.

Jeremy: 14:31

I mean, this is the nap after the sandwich. This is the football game after the turkey, you know, the Thanksgiving sub. The digestion. This is coming out of the whole sandwich generation. 

Doug: 14:43

The digestion, right? And that's our analogy for you've been through all three of these subgroups that we just mentioned. You've raised kids, you've gone through that, you've been through peak everything, you've spent a lot of time taking care of your folks and maybe worrying about your folks. And a lot of, you know, let's face it, a lot of this isn't necessarily the activity of taking care of your kids, the activity of taking care of your folks and taking them to doctors' appointments and being with them. A lot of it can just be the anxiety that eats into everything else that you're trying to do. So that digestion period, right, and we have a lot of clients there at that point, maybe they're by the worst of this, supporting others and caring for others. And it's like sometimes it's the disaster afterwards, or sometimes it's just that moment where you're just waking up and saying, Oh my goodness, like I have to take care of myself.

Jeremy: 15:34

Yeah. I put that on the back burner for the last 20 years, 20, 30 years, right? And now it's time. Yep. Maybe it's the bag of chips at the end of the sandwich.

Doug: 15:43

Before we move on and actually talk about people in the situation and tee this up, because we're going to do a series of podcasts on the sandwich generation. We're going to have a couple of guests. So we're really going to be talking about this for the next couple of months. And as a firm, I think we want to try and help provide more resources to our clients outside of the financial planning world, outside of the investing world to help them. Before we do that, hey Matt, can we get some sandwich stats just to keep it fun for a second more?

Matt: 16:10

All right. So let me throw the first one at you here, to keep it financial. The global sandwich market, how much do you think it was valued at in 2024?

Doug: 16:19

The global sandwich market. Is that every sandwich? Is that like global sandwich GDP?

Matt: 16:26

I guess so.

Doug: 16:27

I have never even thought of that metric in my life. That's amazing. How about $291 billion?

Matt: 16:35

You're in the right area, but more. It is $428 billion.

Doug: 16:40

$428 billion. Wow. Sandwich GDP. 

Jeremy: 16:45

It's bigger than a lot of countries out there.

Doug: 16:48

It is.

Matt: 16:50


And we were talking about this before so it’s not a question for you guys, but in terms of who eats the most sandwiches, in terms of adults. So if you split it between 20 to 40, 40 to 60, and 60 plus, and then men and women, men in the 40 to 60 age range eat the most sandwiches. You ask them if they've eaten a sandwich on a given day. 54% of them say yes. 


Doug: 17:11


Doug, Matt, and Jeremy are.


Jeremy: 17:12

Yeah, it's essentially me, Matt. 

Matt: 17:14

You're eating all the sandwiches. Yeah.

Doug: 17:18

We're a statistic.

Matt: 17:20

The last one I'll give you here. So in terms of the primary filling, I want you guys to guess. What do you think are the top three sandwich fillings in terms of the primary filling in a sandwich?

Doug: 17:31

Well, I feel like cheese is versatile, right? So like cheese shows up and a whole bunch of different sandwiches.

Matt: 17:36

But it's not the primary, so primary would be grilled cheese. 

Doug: 17:37

Oh, primary, right. That is a secondary item. 

Matt: 17:41

So only 4% of cheese primary filling sandwiches are eaten. So pretty low down. The top one is 27%.

Jeremy: 17:47

Roast beef. 

Doug: 17:47

Turkey

Doug: 17:49

Oh, we tied. What'd you say, JV?

Jeremy: 17:50

Roast beef.

Matt: 17:51

They just put cold cuts. So you're both right.

Doug: 17:54

All right. There we go. 

Matt: 17:56

Number two is burgers. Surprising. You don't necessarily think it's a sandwich, right?

Doug: 18:00

You know what? It is a sandwich, technically, right? Yeah.

Matt: 18:03

Yeah. Then number three was poultry. 

Jeremy: 18:05

Chicken. Turkey. 

Matt: 18:07

Yeah. So there you go. There's some sandwich stats. 

Doug: 18:10

Sandwich stats. All right. We ready to segway this back into financial planning? 

Jeremy: 18:15

Sure. Let's do it. 

Doug: 18:16

All right. Well, we've described the issue. Most people have gone through something like this, whether they're observing it, they're in the middle of it, they've been through it, they know about it. What do you do about it, right? So I think one thing that we'll focus on in our series of podcasts about the sandwich generation is just really the theme of please, please, please, please try not to go it alone.

Jeremy: 18:38

Yeah.

Doug: 18:39

I feel like again, seeing this firsthand, this is where that dynamic can be the hardest and most miserable, is if you try and tough it out and take care of everything on your own. It's too much.

Jeremy: 18:51

And one thing those stats didn't mention was loneliness. 

Doug: 18:54

Yeah. 

Jeremy: 18:55

Right. I think anecdotally we've experienced that, right? Either you're a single parent in the middle or you don't necessarily have the support at home and you're just getting beat up on all sides, right?

Doug: 19:06

Right. So you and I, in our daily lives, our family lives, and even in our business lives are big on community, right? And I think this is where community can step in, and it's a perfect time to reach out to your community for help, whatever that community is, whether it's neighbors, friends, church community, activities that you're in. You know, just it's okay to let people in. We're a part of the solution for some folks too, different professionals that can just take something off the plate. That could be your finances. Goodness gracious, that could be like somebody that just cuts your lawn so that you don't have to. It could be the person who's your handyman, it could be your accountant, just somebody who takes a task off of your plate. But I think our role in this, JV, and I think this is one of the things that keeps me going every single day is knowing that what we do for a living is a responsibility. And, you know, mea culpa, one of the things that you and I should have done before this, is just have some stats about how many of our clients are actually in that sandwich generation. I know generally who's being impacted. I know from client group to client group who's in the middle of it. You and I have a lot of extended families and multi-generational clients where we're actually kind of helping the entire family in some sort of way. But I think that's one of the things that, at least for me, keeps me going. And after almost like 27, 28 years, just has a sense of responsibility that I'm like, okay, there's no way I can solve all the world's problems. I can't solve all the problems in my family or my business. But based on what we're doing, maybe we can take one or two worries away from somebody who's in the middle of it all.

Jeremy: 20:39

You know, I always talk about that skill, will, time aspect, right? So if you're in that, let's just say you're in that phase where everything is happening, you know, you don't always have the time to get to it. You might not want to do it. That's that will piece. And then you might not have the expertise, right? You don't have time to necessarily know all the ins and outs of the financial world and just the ability to have somebody that is an expert in that area and can help navigate that for you. That can be a huge relief. Anecdotally, that tends to be the case when we're working with clients. It's that they have a concern, they have a worry, they have a need. And over time, we have the ability to hopefully alleviate some of those concerns, issues, and worries. And that's one of the huge, I guess you could say, purpose of what we do and what makes it really meaningful and fulfilling.

Doug: 21:31

As you talk about that, I'm taking back to another silly podcast that we did, which was the quote, elements of financial planning, right? I'm thinking about your favorite one, which was the element of carbon, which stood for consistency. 

Jeremy: 21:43

Consistency. Yeah. 

Doug: 21:44

And as I'm looking at these groups, right, there's our PBJ group, there's our Dagwood group, and then there's our classic pastrami group. Focus on young kids, peak everything, and then focus on our folks. One thing that does help is the good habits and the autopilot piece, right? Which you can start at the very, very outset of your financial planning journey. You can start at the outset of your first innings of being in this sort of sandwich generation situation. And those are things like just making sure that, hey, if I'm in a workplace, am I saving for the 65-year-old version of myself by putting X into a 401k every year? And maybe just at the very least having a conversation about that or thinking about that 401k once or twice a year. It's one of the easiest things that you can set and forget is your savings, right? And then the same thing to be said with paying down debts. I think that's one thing that I've often seen from that middle group, that Dagwood group, the peak everything group, is sometimes spiraling debt because you're paying for everybody, or you're spending so much time taking care of everybody that you don't get a chance to look at your balance sheet all that often.

Jeremy: 22:55

Yeah.

Doug: 22:55

You may have your American Express login and your Bank of America login and your Capital One login and then your mortgage. Maybe you just don't have the time enough that you're looking at that whole picture to say, geez, wow, I've really racked up some debt here and now I need a plan.

Jeremy: 23:10

We talk a lot about, I mean, I talk a lot about automation. Right. And making it systematized so that it's easy, right? It's almost like you're not going to eat sandwiches if the meat's not in the house. If you set the things up early and you systematize it and you make it streamlined, it kind of reminds me of the basement episode, right, where we're talking about all the things in the basement. If you do that upfront planning and you put things in motion, you stay consistent with it and you just have everything on auto, then that takes a lot of the burden off as well.

Doug: 23:38

Right. So from a financial planning point of view, I think as you're thinking about the year ahead and you're in the sandwich generation, maybe this could be recommendation or hey, consider this number one is think about your cash flow, think about the year ahead, think about your budget. If you were able to pay down some debt last year and save for retirement last year and you made it and things were okay, can you attack it a little bit harder? Can you save 1% more into that 401k? Can you make another, I don't know, hundred or two hundred bucks a month principal payment to your 6.5% mortgage on that home that you bought a couple of years ago to try and accelerate that pay down? Because once you do those things and it's on autopilot, then okay, maybe I don't have to worry about that for 12 months. And I can worry about like being an amateur Uber, getting kids to multiple practices and whatever it is, or taking my folks to appointments, or spending family time together, all that. So yeah, it's funny. Since we did that elements of financial planning episode, I think about that a lot. Like C, carbon, consistency, autopilot. It's not the magic bullet for this sandwich generation problem, but it I think it's a core principle to getting some relief here.

Jeremy: 24:50

Yeah, 1% better. I mean, anecdotally, I have a client and he was just struggling with the bill pay. Like every month, he's like, I gotta sit down and I'm like, why aren't you doing bill pay online? And every time I talk to him now, he's just like, You've changed my life. Everything's different now. Everything's better. It's just 1%, right, 1% better. 1% makes a little bit of a difference, and it just compounds over time.

Doug: 25:12

To go to the total other end of that spectrum, right, that fourth group, which is the post-sandwich digestion. I think what we're trying to help those other groups fend off is not being in the position where you've digested maybe not just years but decades of trying to take care of others. And then being seven years from in theory, your retirement, needing, I don't know, two-thirds of the game left to go, right? You're only in the fourth inning of your savings towards that quote number or that readiness factor, but you know, it's creeping up on you. And we see it all the time. We see it all the time.

Jeremy: 25:47

You come out of the haze and you're like, oh, shoot. But if you can automate some of those things 20 years earlier, then that can take care of a lot of the work for you.

Doug: 25:57

I think back to our dorky elements episode, right? We're talking about K, potassium, knowledge. Maybe that's just bullet point number two is while you're in the storm taking care of everybody else, give yourself some time and space, A, to know where you stand. And that could be just being able to take a walk and kind of think about where you're at and what you need to do next. Or maybe just engaging some technology too, right? The fintech or the financial technology world has just moved so much and really offered you and me so many new toys over the course of the past 10 years. One that we've had for a long time is our financial planning tool, which allows people to see all of their assets from like a thousand-foot view. I think from a knowledge point of view, just understanding and not ignoring where you're at, even if it's not pretty, acknowledge it, take an action towards it. Maybe understand that we can't fix it right away. Maybe you have taken care of others for, I don't know, five, eight, ten years, and you have racked up a little bit of debt. Maybe it's okay if you can't solve that problem tomorrow. But if you can put yourself on a path to solve it over three, five years, hey, there we go. That'll get you closer to your goal. You mentioned anecdotally some client situations too. I've had many situations over the years where I think I've met people just either in or at that classic pastrami sandwich part of the sandwich generation arc. And that's exactly where they've been is, hey, I don't know how the hell I have 20 grand in credit card debt, but I do. I don't know how I have nothing in my savings, but I do. But I've also watched people find a way out of it too.

Jeremy: 27:34

Yeah.

Doug: 27:35

So I think part of it is taking that consistency piece that you love and you always talk about with that knowledge piece, which is like, okay, let's be real. Let's be real about where we stand and then attack it and understand we're not going to figure it out tomorrow.

Jeremy: 27:46

And I think one of the things to make sure that we stress is that it's never too late, right? You're coming out, you're in the digestion phase, you got seven years left. You're not doomed. It's not over. There's still hope there, there's still a light at the end of the tunnel, as long as you know, you take some energy, put it into yourself now, get the wheels in motion and make sure that you can wrap it up in a successful way.

Doug: 28:07

All right, JV. So I feel like we have a start towards really a dominant issue for us in this coming year. 

Jeremy: 28:13

Agree. 

Doug: 28:15

So, folks, if you're interested in this topic of the sandwich generation, we have more coming for you over the next couple of months. We're gonna bring you a couple of guests over the first part of the year, which will speak specifically to having some advice and some thoughts about how to tackle wherever you are in the sandwich generation chart, whether it's in the PBJ piece of it, the Dagwood piece of it, or the classic pastrami sandwich piece of it, or even the aftermath. We're very lucky that we're gonna have our friend Dr. Sara Keary. So we're looking forward to having her on the Arsenal Money Clip podcast, who will give some tips and advice. And maybe this is your time to time in, folks. So if there is something that specifically you would like to hear about, or there's a guest that you'd like to hear, or a certain topic, let us know. You can reach us at info at arsenalfinancial.com. But again, our next two or three podcasts are gonna be specifically about sandwich generation, some different insights on this. We certainly don't have all the insights in the world, which is why we're gonna bring some other guests in. So looking forward to this. And I know I'm looking forward to learning from our guests too. I always do. 

Jeremy: 29:17

We always do. So, sandwich generation, right? Lots of dads, lots of dads. 

Doug: 29:23

I was going to say. We got some sandwich dad jokes, don't we? 

Jeremy: 29:25

Yep, yep. I got three of them for you today. And one of them you already know, so it's not gonna be great for you, but it'll be great for the listeners because it's just too good to pass up. Hold on. Daddy, don't try to be cool, don't try to be cool, bro, with your dad jokes. So let's start with breakfast. We didn't really mention the egg sandwich, which you should have probably had instead of the PBJ this morning. 

Doug: 29:49

Correct. 

Jermey: 29:50

Right, but you need a pan, you know, you need some heat. It's not.

Doug: 29:53

We’re recording this early, had to do it quick. 

Jeremy: 29:56

Right. So, number one, what's an egg sandwich's favorite school subject?

Doug: 30:04

Eggs-tracurricular activities?

Jeremy: 30:07

No. Egg-onomics.

Doug: 30:10

Oh, God, that's awful. I love it. JV, can I give props to that new mic? 

Jeremy: 30:18

You like it? You like it? 

Doug: 30:19

Yeah.

Jeremy: 30:20

Yeah, I'm getting professional in 26.

Doug: 30:22

You sound phenomenal today. You really do. 

Jeremy: 30:24 

Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Take it up a level. Take it up a notch. 

Doug: 30:29

Dad joke number two. 

Jeremy: 30:30

Number two. What did the hog say when he walked into the oven?

Doug: 30:36

Matt, I know this one. I love it.

Jeremy: 30:38


Matt, do you know it? 


Matt: 30:39

Yeah, I was there when you told it to us last time. 


Jeremy: 30:42


I’m bacon in here. All right, gonna wrap it up. You don't know this one, but how did Bob Marley like his sandwiches? With jam in. One of the stats we didn't get were condiments. I'm really curious on condiment stats. So maybe we can bring that up into a next episode. 


Doug: 31:11


Oh yeah. Let's do that next time.


Jeremy: 31:13

Next time we'll get condiment stats.

Doug: 31:15

Hey Matt, as we wrap up the year, just would love to embarrass you. Thank you for all your help and support. Again, this has been fun for us. We get great feedback from our clients when we get to hang out, do this, talk about a topic, be a little bit silly. So thanks for everything and for everybody listening, especially if you're in and around Watertown, please check out Matt Hanna's podcast, Little Local Conversations, where he is doing interviews in and around the city of Watertown. Really, really cool podcast. Matt, thanks for all you do. Appreciate it. 

Jeremy: 31:39

Thank you, Matt. 

Doug: 31:41

Hey JV, thank you. 

Jeremy: 31:42

Thank you. 

Doug: 31:43

Thanks for doing this. 

Jeremy: 31:44

Another good year. Another good year. 

Doug: 31:45

Yeah.

Jeremy: 31:46

Yeah. A full year of podcasts. 

Doug: 31:48

Yeah. We actually made it. Matt, what's the stat? Like if you get through your first three, then you're more likely to get through your next 20.

Matt: 31:55

Oh, yeah. You guys are well past the typical dropoff.

Jeremy: 31:59

Yeah. What is it, Doug? If you make it five years in the business, you're good to go. I think we're past that in the podcast world. 

Doug: 32:06

Escape velocity. So, Matt, thanks again for making this easy. We really appreciate it. JV, thanks for being willing to do this and getting silly with me once a month. 

Jeremy: 32:13

My pleasure. I enjoy. 

Doug: 32:15

Thanks for listening to the Arsenal Money Clip. We'll see you next time.

Matt: 32:21

Securities and advisory services offered through LPL Financial, a registered investment advisor, member FINRA, SIPC. The information in this podcast is educational and general in nature, and does not take into consideration the listener's personal circumstances. Therefore, it is not intended to be a substitute for specific individualized financial, legal, or tax advice. To determine which strategies or investments may be suitable for you, consult the appropriate qualified professional prior to making a final decision.