The Long Strange Strip Episode 24: Why Getting Organized Becomes More Important as You Age | Lisa Woodruff
About the Episode:
Organizing for the People You Love
I've never been known as the most organized person.
If you saw what was sitting behind my desk, you'd probably agree. Papers have a way of multiplying around me, and somehow the things I swear I'll put away tomorrow are still there next month.
So when I sat down with Lisa Woodruff from Organize 365, I figured we'd mostly talk about clutter.
We did. But not in the way I expected.
The Stuff You Can't See
Most of us think organization is about closets, garages, or overflowing file cabinets.
Lisa made me realize that's actually the easy part.
The harder part is all the invisible work that quietly grows as we get older.
Passwords.
Insurance policies.
Retirement accounts.
Medical information.
The documents our families will someday need but probably have no idea even exist.
It struck me that while the physical clutter in our lives may eventually shrink, the administrative clutter just keeps expanding. And unlike a messy closet, that invisible mess doesn't just affect us. It affects everyone we leave behind.
Growing Older Changes the Job
One thing Lisa said really stayed with me.
Organization actually becomes more complicated as we age.
That makes sense when I think about it. At 73, I'm asking different questions than I did at 43. Retirement isn't an abstract idea anymore. Neither is illness. Neither is what happens after I'm gone.
As we get older, we're often caring for aging parents while still helping our adult children. We accumulate financial accounts, healthcare decisions, legal documents, and digital lives that didn't even exist a generation ago.
That's a lot for one person to keep track of.
And if we don't?
Someone else eventually has to.
The Kindest Gift Isn't Money
We spend a lot of time talking about leaving an inheritance.
But maybe one of the greatest gifts we can leave isn't financial at all.
It's clarity.
Knowing where everything is.
Making our wishes known.
Giving our families a roadmap instead of a scavenger hunt.
Lisa shared stories of people trying to settle estates without passwords, account information, or even knowing which bank held the money. It wasn't that their loved ones didn't care. They simply hadn't prepared.
That reminded me that organization isn't really about being neat.
It's about reducing someone else's burden.
Start Before You Think You're Ready
One part of our conversation made me smile.
Lisa talked about her grandmother, who had a red folder with clear instructions for what to do when she died. Funeral plans. Bank accounts. Everything was already thought through.
Most of us aren't that organized.
I'm certainly not.
But maybe we don't have to finish everything at once.
Maybe it's enough to spend a couple of hours each week organizing one drawer, writing down one account, or having one conversation with the people who matter most.
Progress beats perfection.
The Stories Matter Too
One of my favorite parts of our conversation wasn't about paperwork at all.
It was about family history.
Lisa encouraged people to bring out old photographs while everyone is still around to tell the stories behind them. Those conversations become part of the family's history in a way that no legal document ever can.
It reminded me that we're not just organizing our assets.
We're preserving our lives.
Our memories.
The stories future generations will never know unless someone tells them.
Some Final Reflections
As I get older, I've become more aware that preparing for the future isn't really about me anymore.
It's about the people who will someday have to make decisions when I'm no longer here to answer the questions.
Getting organized doesn't mean achieving perfection.
It means making life just a little easier for the people you love.
That feels like a worthwhile project.
So let me leave you with the same question I've been asking myself:
If something happened tomorrow, would the people you love know where to begin?
Transcription:
INTRO (Josh)
Welcome to the Long Strings Trip.
I'm Josh, the host of the show.
We're going to dig into six areas together.
Finding real work-life integration instead of that brutal 95-5 split too many business owners live with.
We're going to approach retirement as an actual reinvention rather than just stopping work.
And we're facing death honestly and avoiding PTSD around death.
We're also building resilience when life throws us curveballs.
We're sharing wisdom across generations.
And finally, we're understanding the patterns that show up in all our transitions.
I'm not coming at this as an expert.
I'm a fellow traveler figuring this stuff out in real time, especially now as I navigate my own dual cancer diagnosis at 73.
Welcome to the Long Strange Trip.
I'm glad you're here.
Josh:
Hey, how are you today?
This is Josh Patrick, and you are at the Long Strange Trip podcast.
And my guest today is Lisa Woodruff with Organize 365, and she's going to help us figure out why staying organized, which is a, a problem I have and don't seem to be able to do well with that, and if I was to show you what's behind me, you would know that was absolutely true.
But how staying organized helps with resilience and wisdom and getting the things that you want out of life that you need to get.
So let's bring Lisa on, and we'll start the conversation.
Hey, Lisa.
How are you today?
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
I'm doing great Josh Thanks so much for having me
Josh:
My pleasure.
So let's start off with, uh, does wisdom fit into the world, uh, that I live in?
I mean, not wisdom, but organization, sorry
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Yeah so I think um so much of the research around organization specifically household organization focuses on the population of married couples with children under the age of 18 And back in the 80s when we moved from the economic theory of how households run to this gendered view of who's doing the work at home men and women uh 40 of the US population was married with children under the age of 18 which still wasn't the the majority of the population but it was a large set of the population and we can all agree if you've had children you know they create a lot of work And when you're married you like to divide the work cause nobody wants to do the work But what I've learned over time is that only 179 of the current US population is married with children under the age of 18 And probably the people listening to this podcast there's only a handful of you that are in that demographic So my work yeah so my work is really looking at that 80plus percent of us who are either uncoupled widowed single single parents aging all of those different demographics that are not studied in academia and talked about in the media What does organization have to do in those areas Because we still live in households And what I've found is the organization becomes more complex as you age The physical organization of the house
Josh:
you for a
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Josh:
Why?
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Yeah, so I'm gonna tell you why.
So the physical organization of the household and the changing of the organization, like as kids age, you have to constantly reorganize your house, that doesn't change.
You can enter your later years in a house that has a lot of extra stuff that hasn't been decluttered, so it's not organized, okay?
We could start there.
But you're not usually adding a lot more to the disorganization.
You're just at a steady state of we're in disorganization.
Where the complication comes is the invisible work.
So you think that there's not a lot of invisible work as you get older, but actually there is.
Like, just figuring out the Medicaid, the Medicare, the retirement, the 401, um, you know, which plans go with which plans, if you need to care for your parents or when your children need to care for you, what information you share with them, the passwords, all of those things.
The complexity of running the administration part of the household continues to grow exponentially
Josh:
So the physical part
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Mm-hmm.
Josh:
stay the same or actually reduce a little bit.
In my case, it keeps expanding 'cause I keep buying crap,
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Yeah.
Josh:
my problem, not yours.
And, um, but now we're talking about what I call the soft side,
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Yeah
Josh:
are talking about the technical side of planning
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm
Josh:
yes, that is complicated, and it needs to be organized.
Um, what is your opinion about getting help with doing this sort of organization and
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Yeah
Josh:
particularly the financial stuff and the
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Mm-hmm.
Josh:
stuff and all the stuff that's what I would call...
I- it's not soft stuff because we're not talking about our own physical wellbeing or what we think about.
We're talking about the stuff we need to have in place so those who come behind us will not be left with a mess
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Here's what I observe and I'm 54 I'm telling you I'm 54 so I'm doing this for myself As we age our executive function declines It's just humanity Like our ability to
Josh:
no, question about
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Okay
Josh:
it.
That's a good topic by itself someday, by
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Yes great topic So planning and executing declines Also like our kids are our kids or our siblings are our siblings whoever's gonna handle our estate like they're not as smart as we are You know what I mean Like we know more than they do and we don't want them to know all of our stuff We don't want them to know all of our dirty laundry
Josh:
so the question becomes why?
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Well because we don't really know our own stuff Like I'll just speak for myself
Josh:
our, know our, our own stuff?
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Okay so if you do know your own stuff then you're gonna organize uh like my grandmother had a folder She had a red folder and she had a binder and she said When anything happens to me here's the red folder and here's the binder Do the red folder first I've already prepaid for my uh funeral You're going to cremate me in a cardboard box Don't buy an oak casket and I'm taking you down to the bank right now and adding you to the account so that you don't have any friction when I die Like that is somebody who knows where all their stuff is That's like nobody That's like my grandmother and nobody else
Josh:
Well, I'm pretty much there, but Okay,
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Okay but she also had like everything in her house was assigned a person Like all these things were gonna go Okay Yeah she's like German She's a German woman She had like it all figured out Most of us have that in our head like we have some of it written down and we know our intentions but we haven't told anybody or we haven't written it down And okay go ahead What do you wanna say
Josh:
this, goes to a really interesting question,
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Okay great
Josh:
and one I used to deal with a lot when I was in the wealth management world, which I'm not anymore.
And it's a question I have more than a statement, but a friend of mine, a guy named Tom Deans, wrote a book called, um,
Willing Wisdom.
And in there, he highly recommends that every year a family meeting where
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Mmhmm
Josh:
everything in your estate with
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Mmhmm
Josh:
in your family at the same time, so they have the opportunity to let you know what their thoughts are before you die and not have to
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Wow
Josh:
your crap after you die.
Now, we've been doing this for years, and I find that it makes a whole lot of sense that don't know what the secret is about our estates.
When are our
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Yeah
Josh:
working, when they're 50 years old?
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Right So I think that is great Um I wouldn't be able to have that meeting right now because I don't have all of the things figured out
Josh:
Right
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
I haven't figured all of Now I'm in my 50s I think some of this comes the older you get the more you get this stuff figured out
Josh:
No, que-- And this became very clear to me as a huge need when I turned seventy
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Right but a lot of people die before 70
Josh:
A lot of people die before 70, and a lot of people die after 70 without doing a damn thing, so
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Correct
Josh:
what you're, what
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
and
Josh:
doing is needed, highly needed, and highly resisted
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Yeah and that's what I was gonna say So people don't wanna do it cause one they don't wanna face They don't It's work And honestly when we retire we're done with work even unpaid work Like they'll figure our kids will figure it out They're smart Like we just don't even wanna do the work We avoid it
Josh:
Yeah
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Um also I think for me personally even there's fear I mean we have really good 401s thanks to my husband and I have a business that is sellable and you know we own our house and a condo for our son that So we have assets Even though we have assets I'm like Mm will it be enough Cause I hope to live to be 100 and I don't know what life will be like in my 80s and 90s and what kind of care I will need And like these are really big questions that I don't know how to answer I don't know how to prepare for I haven't experienced them yet you know So they're they're unknowns
Josh:
I have a question for you
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Mmhmm
Josh:
Those are technical questions They're not you know what I call soft side questions
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Okay
Josh:
Do you have a financial advisor
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Yes
Josh:
Your financial advisor is letting you down
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
So they already tell us I have enough We have enough
Josh:
questions
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
money
Josh:
they should be working with you so you believe you have enough not just him saying or her saying you have enough
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Yes So our financial advisor right now we are working on growing the wealth of the company redistributing the wealth through profit sharing to the employees growing our 401'cause I'm 54 My husband's 59 and he planned to work until 65 until uh he did well in the stock market Now he's like I think I can retire now I'm like Well what will you do Cause I wanna work until I'm 80 And so now we're having this retirement conversation and I realize that there's a lot about retirement I don't know And so we are now starting to ask different questions of our financial advisor
Josh:
Okay cool Very
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Yeah
Josh:
Um just to let you know retirement without having a plan any strategy for what's next becomes a very very lonely place
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
I know
Josh:
from experience and I used to teach this
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Yeah Yep Yes I say to my husband often you don't retire from you retire to Like what are you going to What are you going to do How are you gonna spend your time Now all of a sudden we have all kinds of plants around our house which he's talking about another dog I'm like okay he's figuring out what he is retiring to which is great before he retires But I think you know this just points out you have much more wisdom than I do in this I have wisdom in helping people when they find out that they are the Often you find out you're the executor of an estate once somebody has died
Josh:
Yeah
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
know it before And so now you're like Oh wow I'm grandma's executor or My sister's executor which should have been obvious because she's not married but it wasn't obvious for whatever reason And now you're like I have no logins I have no passwords She didn't org Like somebody has to settle every single estate So I'm coming at it from that perspective The longer you live the more lived experience you have the more wisdom you have the more organized you should be getting so that you're not leaving a burden to future generations
Josh:
So out of curiosity
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Hmm
Josh:
how many people as a percent in the country have prepared for their death
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
That is a I don't know Do you know
Josh:
No I don't I don't know if anybody's ever actually looked at those numbers My guess is it's it's incredibly large
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
That they have prepared
Josh:
No they have not
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
So I am doing a reader survey right now of my audience and one of the questions I have is um have you prepared for your estate Yeah
Josh:
And what's what are you getting for answers
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
I haven't deployed the study yet
Josh:
Oh
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
But these are people who are in an organized co like they're they're organized uh they're in an organized course so they are thinking about this actively and I'm even wondering if you're actively thinking about it have you done it yet
Josh:
So is this a course that you put together
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Yes So I put together multiple courses that help you organize your household Everything from the visible spaces in your household to the invisible uh management of the household and the administration and the information management that you would need to be power of healthcare um and to settle an estate
Josh:
So what do you do with elder people like me who don't seem to have the ability of organizing or keeping anything neat in their life
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Are we talking phys obviously you have your
Josh:
phys
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Yeah right right cause you're gonna say your information's very organized
Josh:
my information
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Actually uh physical s is so much easier than information Because if you don't have your information organized let's say it's digitized and um you ha we can never get logged in to however you organize it digitally that's much harder after your passing to organize you than it is to organize an entire house and a file cabinet At least in a file cabinet we have the puzzle pieces to start to put together the picture of what we're looking for So for example there's a man who died unexpectedly and so I was helping his widow He died at like 55 of a heart attack and they had 80 file drawers and we went through all of the paper He had every single statement for every single investment he'd ever purchased during his entire life even mutual funds which is pointless right
Josh:
Yep
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
You say This is pointless We had four bank accounts We're getting all done We're getting ready to settle the estate and I'm helping her do her monthly bills and I'm like You know what I really feel like there's a fifth bank account down at the bank And it's like a six I think it's a sixfigure bank account She's like But we've we're ready to settle the estate Like everything's been settled Do you wanna go to the bank I said I wanna go to the bank So I go to the bank I sit there and the b the teller tells the woman We've already done this.
There is no extra account blah blah blah Do you want me to go check again I was like We want you to go check again I'll be darned It's like 120000 The man had set up an LLC for their dream home She then remembered it so that they wouldn't remember they had the money and it almost got lost But we found it because of the paper trail So I am not You are decluttering like you should have nothing left in your house I'm not worried if you have physical stuff Yeah it's gonna be a burden on your kids They've gotta clean it out or whoever's doing your estate But I mean it'll take a year 18 months It is what it is Now if you would like to be more proactive two things you could do Number one start getting rid of your own stuff But even if you don't wanna do that let's say that you have a fourdrawer lateral file and it's every sing like this man every single financial statement ever of a mutual fund that doesn't matter cause he made graphs of how his mutual funds grew But there's no financial reason that you need to have those printouts You just put a little note on there that says In case of death destroy Then your family members know this whole file cabinet goes in the dumpster We don't even have to do anything about it It's just gone I don't have to go through every single piece of paper You could just make those global decisions
Josh:
That's that's really good advice for my wife who likes paper for everything
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
The second thing is um what are the things in your house that are not your passion projects So like you're a wealth advisor so the financial statements would be interesting to you up until your passing Um whatever your hobbies are interesting to you But maybe there's something that you did in your 50s or 60s that you still have the stuff let's say snow skiing and you're not gonna go snow skiing anymore or whatever it is and you're like I just don't feel like carrying the skis and the boots out Two things you could do One make a list of like Here are all the things I don't wanna get rid of but could be gotten rid of And second you don't even have to call a professional organizer If you know what it is you wanna get rid of call Junk King call 1800GOTJUNK and you literally walk them around the house You're like Get rid of this get rid of this furniture get rid And they just take it out Now yes you have to pay for that You also have to pay for a professional organizer You're not organizing it You just wanna get rid of the junk and you don't wanna carry it Somebody else carries it It's awesome
Josh:
Or
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
I do it all the time
Josh:
who can't ski anymore and has five pair of skis and four pair of ski boots
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
I didn't even know that But see also that could just be donated So the thing that you don't realize with Junk King specifically is that when they come in and they take your things they take it back to their warehouse I've been to the one in Cincinnati It's the largest one They'll take all those boots and those skis and they'll recycle them into the Cincinnati community They'll take all the bikes they'll fix them and they'll give them to kids who need bikes They'll take all the appliances they'll fix them and they'll give them to people who are coming out of incarceration or coming out of domestic abuse and they'll give them Like they will fix and give away your stuff and they only end up disposing of like 20 So it's not even like you're putting it in a landfill You're giving it to somebody else to figure out what to do with it and you don't even have to lift it Josh call them tomorrow
Josh:
What was the name of that company again
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Junk King I really like Junk King There's 1800GOTJUNK but
Josh:
they're
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
King is the one that I've met with
Josh:
King is in town but
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
check They probably are
Josh:
well
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
way
Josh:
either way
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
uh 1800GOTJUNK I have not vetted that company but I think they do the same thing Like they don't wanna put all this in landfills So if the stuff is usable they will use it You can use AmVets and like there are other local places that will come and take your furniture The problem is you have to usually get it to your garage or get it at least on your driveway and I don't even wanna lift that much That's why I call the other people
Josh:
So me it sounds like the nonphysical stuff that you work with is much more complicated than the
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Yeah Yep The physical stuff is exhausting and overwhelming but it is not as cognitively taxing as the photos the memories the paper
Josh:
Right
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Mmhmm
Josh:
we probably wanna pass them on and whatever our heirs do with it is up to them not up to us
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Yes and so in my family I was the photo historian That was the direct sales company I was in for 16 years I've made over 100 personal scrapbook albums I have my dad's family and my mom's family we made historical albums and then we photocopied them for everyone Like there is somebody in your family that loves the history of your family loves the photos Give them the photos now Like if you've got boxes of old photos just get them out at Thanksgiving or Christmas whenever you have the family around or if you go to an event you bring your box with you It will be the best thing you've ever done at Thanksgiving You'll hold up pictures Family members will tell stories you've never heard of before and then whoever's the historian in the family they get to take those photos home
Josh:
How for the Do you ever recommend to your clients that they do an oral history about their family
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Oh yes I have done many of these So uh my greatgrandmother my husband's grandfather I went down and we've audio taped them so I have audio tapes of them For my mother I did the company StoryWorth I really like that company It would email her every week and she is a she's a thinker and a writer so she would re write a response to every question At the end of the year I had three of those books bound one for my sister one for myself and one for my mom and my mom added photos in it It's not cheap but it's not terribly expensive A really really meaningful gift I love having my family history preserved in that way
Josh:
And what was that company again
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
It's called StoryWorth WORTH StoryWorth Mmhmm
Josh:
there's a bunch of companies out there that do
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Mmhmm
Josh:
of stuff.
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Yes
Josh:
Um, but it's, you know, one of the things that we always wish we had
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Mmhmm
Josh:
history so we knew the answers to many questions like, "Where did my grandparents really come from?"
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Yes Or like I found out that my greatgrandmother she got a teaching degree so I'm a fourthgeneration female college graduate which is unusual
Josh:
Yeah, very unusual
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
And back in the day you could only get a teaching degree or a home economics degree so she got a teaching degree from Kent State which at that time was called Kent Normal School and I thought she was a teacher No Josh she didn't even like kids She never taught It was the only degree she was able to get in college She was an entrepreneur She started a restaurant She started a floral shop She started a gift shop At one point she was running two businesses simultaneously I would have never even known any of that Because she had a college degree in teaching I thought she was a teacher She was an entrepreneur A big entrepreneur like in the 30s She got divorced and had a child and ran a restaurant Like who did that as a woman right Like that's unusual Correct
Josh:
back then
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Yeah Yeah
Josh:
Well, that's very exciting.
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Mmhmm
Josh:
So, um, when somebody is resistant Which I would assume you run across on a regular basis.
How do you make them to become unresistant to doing what, what is best practices?
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
You know I've been thinking about that a lot and I do think the older you get the more resistant you get because it's work and you're like I'm so done working I just don't wanna do any more work I think um I try to trick people into it So I am very high energy I'm I'm a former teacher by trade I have a lot of different ways to tell you stories and motivate you and inspire you to take action I help you think about your household differently I name the rooms different things and I give you different outcomes for for what it looks like as opposed to like Go file your taxes you know I'm like Okay here's how we're gonna do this It's a little bit contagious when you can find a coach or a teacher that is exciting and you want to listen to them and you wanna do what they're saying But at the end of the day you just have to be more disciplined and you have to get it done So couple of things you could do One you could say All right Well I'm just gonna pretend that it's a subject in school and it's gonna be Monday from 900 to 1100 I am going to work on something organizationrelated to my household and all the rest of the week I don't have to think about it From 900 to 1100 that's when I'm gonna do it on Monday morning and all the rest of the week is not organizationrelated But during that time I'm gonna have Junk King come I'm gonna fill clean out one file drawer I'm going to um write down all the passwords to my bank accounts for my kids I'm gonna just do one thing every week for a couple of hours
Josh:
There are programs out there are designed to information in an organized and rational manner for your family after you, after you die.
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Mmhmm
Josh:
And it has the ability, at least the one I'm using, which I can't
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Mmhmm
Josh:
the name of, but I would tell you if I could, um, ha- has the ability of, uh, and it does it.
Well, if something happens to me, my kids are notified automatically, and my wife already has the information for how to get in.
And
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Mmhmm
Josh:
is literally everything that you would ever kn- wanna know about my finance and online world because I have like a thousand passwords, and I
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Yeah
Josh:
sites I'm signed up for, but they all have to pretty much be taken care of, and someone has
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Right
Josh:
"He's dead."
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Right right Um so my solution is just a simple binder that we sell that has a workbook in it that you fill out like it's Mad Libs You remember when you had to like put a noun here put a verb here It's like put your Social Security number here put this here It doesn't actually have all of your passwords in it Um you would locate those somewhere else Sorry But it's a physical binder And the there are so many digital solutions out there which is awesome and if you maintain them and your family knows about them that is a great solution for you What I I have found for myself personally is that many people end up settling estate reactively And so now you're on a mission like a scavenger hunt The binder is your guide to your scavenger hunt There here are all the things I know that your estate lawyer and your accountant are going to ask you for so start finding them a filling this binder with this information number one Number two it is so much easier to uh
use printed information when you are working on something Now storing it and being productive finding your digital of choice is great Maybe you have an Apple computer I have a Windows computer so you see those are not going to be compatible Or maybe you like Dropbox and I like Google Drive or whatever so now I've gotta lo log into your Dropbox I have to understand Dropbox in order to figure out what your organization structure is Personally if I was settling your estate Josh I'm gonna print it all out I'm gonna go everywhere I'm gonna print it all out And the other nice thing about once it's printed out because organization happens in analog I'm gonna print out all of your accounts I'm gonna put them all in different slash pockets These are just these plastic folders that we sell and this is how I do schoolwork I organize them all Then I'm gonna contact every single one and I'm gonna keep a written log of everything that I said to whoever I called and then I send them the death certificate and then I'm gonna print out the email that they sent me back and then when that account is closed I'll move it into a separate folder because I'm working on settling your estate So the binder is universal for everyone Everyone can understand analog Not everyone can understand digital Now here's something that might surprise you Some people over the age of 80 don't have a digital login for any of their accounts Not a single one Huh
Josh:
I'm aware of that
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Yes So uh it's all paper or it just doesn't even exist
Josh:
But here, here's a s- what a solution
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Great
Josh:
that when I was practicing wealth management, I would pretty much insist all my clients did, which is to develop what's called a revocable trust.
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Yes
Josh:
it's called a living trust.
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Yes
Josh:
a bypass is, um,
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Probate
Josh:
sort of stuff you have to do normally if you die, you can consolidate everything you have in very, very few accounts.
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Correct
Josh:
do die, it automatically transfers to whoever you want it to transfer with, and nothing has to be done really, except somebody has to make a phone call
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Correct So I have one of those
Josh:
Yeah.
Yes
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
a gajillion right You know I'm in I'm pretty much in active parenting years still I have a 25yearold a 26yearold grandchildren that are four and six that live with me uh multiple houses a business Like my estate is not simple right now
Josh:
No
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
but it does have that trust And here's another fun fact If you're listening you're like Oh yeah I have a trust you might not So I was working with someone the other day and they were like Uh don't worry I have a trust and I have a transfer on death on my house I said Great May I go look for those Yes you may I went and looked for those There was a transfer on death in the previous estate and there was a trust for the previous person who had died There was no current trust There was no current transfer on death But because there had been one at one point and it was in the file we assumed it was on this current residence and
this current person's estate And so we're gonna go back to this executive function The older you get the lower your executive function is Our brains are you know a muscle and our brain is starting to slow down as our body is starting to slow down And so things that were true in your 40s 50s and 60s may not be true in your 70s 80s and 90s and if you did it once you might not have done it most recently
Josh:
True.
Um, Lisa, unfortunately, we're out of time.
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Okay
Josh:
So I'm gonna bet there's a bunch of people listening to this that said, "Oh, I need what she does." So how would people find you?
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Well thanks Josh Um I have a podcast I've been podcasting for 12 years at Organize 365 If this is an interesting conversation to you and you're like Oh I need to learn a little bit more about my household come on over and listen to Organize 365 podcast And then I have a website organize365com where I have the different courses and products that I sell that help you manage your house and run your household
Josh:
How would they find that?
Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365:
Just at the website organize365com
Josh:
Okay.
I have two things I would like you to do.
First, I've probably already said this in the intro, but please go to wherever you're listening to this podcast and give us an honest rating and review.
If you love us, you give us five stars.
If you hate us, you give me one star, and then I cry, and you get to watch and be amused by that, but goes on.
And the second thing is, if you think you would be a good guest for this show, send me an email at [email protected].
That's the number two, and solution is singular.
That's [email protected].
And we're with Lisa Woodruff.
We've been talking about organization of all sorts of different types.
I'm Josh Patrick, and you're at The Long Strange Trip podcast.
And if you follow Lisa's advice, probably your resilience will go up automatically without you having to do a darn thing.
So there you are.
I hope to see you back here really soon at The Long Strange Trip podcast
OUTRO (Josh)
Thanks for spending this time with me today.
I really appreciate you being part of this journey.
I'd be grateful if you'd leave an honest rating and review.
It helps other people find these conversations, lets me know what's standing with you and what isn't.
If you love the show, give us five stars.
And if you hate it, give it one star and I'll just cry a little bit.
Keep asking the hard questions.
Keep being honest about what's difficult and remember.
We're all just trying to figure this out together.
I'll talk to you next time on the Long Strings Trip.
Thanks for stopping by.
