Violeta Sandoval (00:01.314)
I am someone that is part of the sandwich generation. And one of the biggest things that I guess keeps me up at night, and I'm sure many of those that are part of the sandwich generation is we are the retirement plan for our families. you might not think so or it might not come to mind right away, but part of that is, you know, caregiving.

And you know, what about the finances with that? I know that is something, you know, that I've been thinking about and trying to plan for. And, you know, it's very stressful. So with me today, I'm excited to have is Basiliso Moreno to share his story, his journey through caregiving and everything that comes along with it. And, you know, he's going to give us his tips, his experience and, you know, help us out because

We, it's a stressful situation. So, hola, Basiliso. Thank you so much for joining me here today.

Bas Moreno (01:07.362)
Thank you so much for having me. It's great to be here.

Violeta Sandoval (01:12.066)
Yeah, I'm sorry, like, I think we were kind of like talking offline. That is something that I am starting to, you know, stress out about. My dad, he just hit 65 last year and my mom's going to be just around the corner. So all of this is definitely on the top of my mind. But before we get into the conversation, you know, yeah, tell everybody a little bit about yourself.

Bas Moreno (01:37.442)
Yeah, sure. So my name is Basilisa Moreno, like you said. Everybody calls me Bass. I'm a licensed mental health social worker in the state of Delaware. I'm a certified financial social worker helping people of color in this sandwich generation who are stressing out about their finances while caring for their older adult parents. So perfect. This is why.

Violeta Sandoval (02:03.758)
Mm-hmm.

Bas Moreno (02:04.63)
Having that conversation, I'm also a public speaker talking about finances, mental health, self-care in our communities. do lot of in-person presentations, virtual presentations. I also host a podcast myself, the Social Work Ranch podcast. yeah, it's been... Stay busy. I'm a two-time published author as well, so I do quite a lot of different things.

Violeta Sandoval (02:20.332)
Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

Violeta Sandoval (02:28.622)
Yeah.

Nice, nice. Yeah, so I'm glad that you're out here and sharing your experience and expertise. But for those who may not know what the sandwich generation is, who does that include?

Bas Moreno (02:48.526)
Yeah, for the most part it includes, so I use myself as an example, so I have two kids, I have a 16 year old son and a 13 year old daughter and I'm currently caring for my 78 year old dad. So I'm in the middle and I'm sandwiched in between the two generations. So that's part of it.

Violeta Sandoval (03:09.614)
Yeah? Yeah.

Bas Moreno (03:15.67)
And it's not just necessarily like older adults. Most people think it would be older adults, but also caring for be like either younger siblings with parents or you're the one kid that's responsible for caring for younger siblings. So, but for the most part for this conversation, I'll focus on parents, grandparents, and caring for kids. And we're stuck in that middle.

Violeta Sandoval (03:44.577)
Yeah, that's like, first gen immigrants pretty much fall under that category as well, which is like, you know, me, because we are the ones in the middle of, you know, figuring out, like I mentioned a little bit earlier, of being the retirement plan for our parents. And then,

Bas Moreno (03:55.182)
Hmm.

Violeta Sandoval (04:06.954)
Of course, you I have a one year olds and I have a stepson who's 15. So he's around the corner of, you know, adulthood and I'm stressing about like, okay, what we all we have to do with him and then set up my daughter as well. yeah, being the sandwich generation is definitely not for the weak. So it's a stressful situation. And so I guess I want to start off a little bit about your experience.

Bas Moreno (04:25.185)
Absolutely.

Violeta Sandoval (04:34.818)
being like growing up with that of like, like I guess when did you become aware that it was going to fall on your shoulders to kind of like take care of the older generation and the next generation?

Bas Moreno (04:54.446)
that is a good question and it's hard to really pinpoint like a certain time frame or, cause it was always the three of us. And when I say the three of us is me, my mom and my dad. So I grew up as an only child. I do have half siblings, but growing up as an only child, was just the three of us. And you know,

until eventually I met my first wife and then moved out and then having my two kids. And even then, like still, like it didn't really hit me of like, I spent so much time like focusing on caring for my kids that, you know, my parents were for the most part, you know, my mom had like diabetes bang on her, but at least she was taking her medicine, going to the doctors.

So staying somewhat active. My dad, even though slowly, even before my kids were born, developed a kidney issue that... So quick story. So my dad used to paint and plaster apartment buildings, different apartments. And one day he like was painting a ceiling in some apartment building.

and he fell off a ladder. He broke a couple of ribs, but when they did testing, they found out he had initially a hole in his kidney and they were doing all these different tests and now he ended up with called polycystic kidney disease. So that fall actually pretty much saved his life because he didn't know anything about it. We didn't know anything about it.

Violeta Sandoval (06:24.831)
shoot.

Violeta Sandoval (06:42.748)
Eh.

Bas Moreno (06:52.142)
So now he had to get a kidney transplant. So even with that, like I was so focused on just working, know, social work is stressful by itself, adding, you know, marriage can be stressful and it was stressful for a while then having a newborn that like I really wasn't really, like I was there for my dad, but not really. I lived in a different state.

Violeta Sandoval (07:01.71)
yeah

Bas Moreno (07:19.31)
only like a half hour, 45 minute drive, but still like living in New Jersey, he's living in the Bronx. so just not, it's just phone calls and just checking up on him that way and stuff like that. it really wasn't when I got divorced and moved back home with the kids. then kind of like, really, that was like 2014, towards the end of 2014, they're like, all right, I'm caring for my kids. My parents are helping me like.

taking care of them and kind of still working and like, you know, doing all the things a parent does and like, all right, I help out with the expenses of the house and kind of like really, really paying attention like, okay, what medicines my parents are taking. My dad got a like, he's like a human pharmacy. He got so many medications. I give him credit to take like all these different medicines that he knows what to take. He knows the milligrams and.

Violeta Sandoval (08:09.208)
Jeez.

Bas Moreno (08:14.798)
He's sharp like that. For me, if I'm on medicine, I'll forget to take it. I'm like 20, 30 years younger than him. So was like, he's on it with his meds, which is good because it helped me out as I'm caring for him now. like, all right, he still knows his meds and I'm following, tracking on it now. So it really was like 2014, 2015, kind of like really kind of like, all right, like kind of see what's out there. But still like, no.

Violeta Sandoval (08:26.979)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Violeta Sandoval (08:39.118)
Mm-hmm.

Bas Moreno (08:43.918)
life be life in and my divorce got finalized and then I had to get full custody of my kids and that happened and then actually my ex-wife had passed away in 2016 so that was like, was like kind of 2014 to 2016 was really like a rough patch in just life and having to like really let my parents kind of.

Violeta Sandoval (09:05.302)
Oof.

Bas Moreno (09:13.71)
helped me kind of take over, like even more, like helping me raise the kids and picking the kids up from school. I work and kind of just being there for each other. then really was going to 2019. It was one weekend in June. I was going to see the kids' godmother, spend like a day there. And then my best friend was getting married. And I told my mom had a history of falls.

Violeta Sandoval (09:26.84)
Mm-hmm.

Violeta Sandoval (09:40.737)
Bas Moreno (09:43.534)
And then she had a bad fall to a point that she had to get like five to seven staples in her head one time, because she suffered from vertigo on top of her diabetes and stuff like that. So she was prone to falls. told her, like, you know, I'm not going to be home this whole weekend. You need to just be careful. If you don't have to go out, don't go out. And literally, I'm in Poughkeepsie in New York with my god.

Violeta Sandoval (09:57.07)
you

Bas Moreno (10:12.75)
I call her my little sister, the kid's godmother's house, and I get a text message through the emergency line that my mom has. And it's like, oh, sound like your mom had to go to the emergency room. I'm like, I just told her not to, she needs to be careful. she's like, and then I call her, no, eventually I find out she broke her ankle in two places, and then she needs to go to a...

Violeta Sandoval (10:16.843)
Mm-hmm.

Violeta Sandoval (10:29.996)
Okay.

Bas Moreno (10:41.932)
to a short-term rehab to do the physical therapy, to care for her ankle to get better. She ends up developing a bed sore on the same ankle she broke. So she needed what's called a wound vac, which is actually, it's like an example would be like a handheld vacuum that you use to clean your couch. It looks very similar to that.

Violeta Sandoval (10:43.746)
Mm-hmm.

Violeta Sandoval (10:56.834)
No.

Violeta Sandoval (11:10.4)
Bas Moreno (11:11.234)
just for your viewers or listeners to kind of understand, but that goes on your actual skin so that your skin could get hard and start to heal. And like all that pus and all that nasty stuff that when you break skin to heal all that up. And it wasn't healing because of her, I was told because of her diabetes that it wasn't healing the way it was supposed to heal. So.

Violeta Sandoval (11:16.065)
Violeta Sandoval (11:22.946)
Mmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Violeta Sandoval (11:39.096)
Mm-hmm.

Bas Moreno (11:40.59)
My work life and my home life personal life started to merge because that during that time I started working with older adults too and I do all that stuff anyway at the time we're working with clients who have like Breaking broken skin and eating like wound care stuff and then I got another job working with older adults So literally doing discharge planning

Violeta Sandoval (11:52.398)
Hmm.

Bas Moreno (12:08.429)
from hospital back home or nursing homes back home. So I literally had to do my own discharge plan and my own social work discharge plan for my own mom, for my own mom. And our unsafe discharge was on top of that because she wasn't doing well with the physical therapy. They kind of deemed her bed bound, which I didn't. Until this day, I don't fully accept that.

Violeta Sandoval (12:15.828)
dang.

Violeta Sandoval (12:22.926)
Violeta Sandoval (12:27.192)
Mm-hmm.

Bas Moreno (12:37.334)
was deemed bed bound. So they tried to give me what's called a Hoyer lift. It's basically a piece of equipment that they're like hoist you up and like to help to transfer to get up from the from like the bed to whatever chair if you want to sit down on the couch and it's like a strap. Now it changed now it's like kind of different material and better.

Violeta Sandoval (12:53.481)
yeah. Uh-huh.

Bas Moreno (13:06.368)
more safer now. But I was like, can't accept this equipment because it doesn't fit in my house. I was going back and forth with the nursing home regarding equipment I needed in my house. I just need a hospital bed. So all those things, on top of that still, my dad luckily, he does his walks, he takes his meds, he sees his doctors regularly.

because he's on a certain blood thinner, he has to get blood work every week, so he's on it. So I'm not really worried about him too much in terms of health. So yes, I'm his caretaker, but all this stuff, this drama with my mom was taking place and happening. Literally, I'm nine months of my life literally going through.

Violeta Sandoval (13:40.078)
Mm-hmm.

Violeta Sandoval (13:47.298)
Mm-hmm.

Bas Moreno (14:04.622)
going through this. like literally she spent like her last birthday, her last living birthday in the nursing home, spent Christmas, Thanksgiving, my birthday, like the whole like 2019 going into the beginning of 2020. And obviously, know, the first rumblings of what we know end up being COVID, we started hearing about it and like kind of like.

Violeta Sandoval (14:11.597)
Mm-hmm.

Violeta Sandoval (14:29.549)
Bas Moreno (14:31.79)
worry but not really worry about it. like literally she came home like two weeks before the world shut down. So at least I got that chance to get her out the house, be at home finally and kind of like care for her. Like literally had to like change diapers and like give her a sponge bath. It's just like the whole, so like the whole circle of life. like, I was tired. I thought I finished like changing diapers and here I go back again.

Violeta Sandoval (14:39.598)
Bas Moreno (15:00.782)
for my mom and that's something that we do in the Latino community like without that's just generally speaking historically part of our like just traditions that we just take care of our our seniors whatever that looks like we just do it so I did it and it was hard too because I had like months prior like I had hurt my hand playing basketball and like

Violeta Sandoval (15:15.49)
Mm-hmm.

Bas Moreno (15:29.518)
It was the same hand I was using to change diapers and doing all that stuff. And then I had got diagnosed with two herniated discs in my back. those changing diapers, I was out. I needed some Advil. think I was on muscle relaxers at the time too. How much pain I was in. It was rough.

Violeta Sandoval (15:33.165)
Yeah.

Violeta Sandoval (15:39.83)
Ugh.

Violeta Sandoval (15:54.19)
Yeah.

Bas Moreno (15:59.022)
during that time and yeah, I complained about it, but like to go back to do that again, I would do it in a heartbeat because it my mom as a result of COVID. She passed away like early May as a result of COVID. it was rough and then kind of like, because so much happened, not only losing.

Violeta Sandoval (16:14.018)
Mm-hmm.

Violeta Sandoval (16:18.044)
Bas Moreno (16:26.542)
I lost clients because of COVID, like losing my mom at the same time. So it was like my kids actually like moved in to my girlfriend's house just to kind of keep them safe because I still had to like go see clients and like even though I'm masked up and wear gloves and still do home visits, making sure my older adult clients kind of like same age range of my mom. My mom passed away when she was like 78.

Violeta Sandoval (16:35.127)
Violeta Sandoval (16:42.872)
Mm-hmm.

Bas Moreno (16:54.702)
still out in New York in the epicenter of COVID and kind of just, yeah, so was really, and at the same time I was still planning to move out of New York and, cause I wanted to buy a house and still had that goal, that drive to still like, how to still try to navigate to do that. So I really didn't like even like focus on my own grieving and kind of just.

Violeta Sandoval (16:54.988)
Yeah.

Violeta Sandoval (16:58.907)
Oof. Yep.

Violeta Sandoval (17:12.739)
Mm-hmm.

Bas Moreno (17:25.218)
just focus with work and kind of like self care through like Instagram and like doing all these like, know, the birth of like kind of the explosion, the explosion of like, you know, financial literacy during COVID at that time and kind of like watching all these like, all these Zoom calls and like IG lies and just.

Violeta Sandoval (17:37.923)
Yeah.

Violeta Sandoval (17:45.997)
Yeah.

Bas Moreno (17:53.794)
the DJ that was always on, kind of like the club quarantine and like watching that. so like, like reading, and buying books, books, because I couldn't sleep. I ended up developing like insomnia for a while. And that was rough too. I guess kind of like the trauma of just everything kind of hit and I couldn't sleep. And I was like literally going on two or three hours of sleep.

Violeta Sandoval (17:57.519)
Yeah. I forgot about that.

Violeta Sandoval (18:08.716)
Yeah. Yeah.

Bas Moreno (18:24.293)
It was rough during that time. Luckily, I had the support of my girlfriend, who's now my wife, so I got remarried within the last five years. And still moved and became a first-gem homeowner at the time. I purchased my home in 2022. So it's... Was it 2022?

Violeta Sandoval (18:27.586)
Yeah, I can imagine.

Violeta Sandoval (18:43.906)
Nice.

Nice.

Bas Moreno (18:52.622)
Yeah, 2021, got to purchase my home. yeah, so it's these... And I moved my dad in. I'm like, can't live in New York anymore. gotta come, you know? Cause literally I had a brand new mortgage, a brand new car note to pay, and I was paying, still paying part of the rent in New York. And I like, I only got this month, so many months that I can help you pay after that.

Violeta Sandoval (19:04.022)
Yeah, you guys come over here.

Bas Moreno (19:21.024)
I can't help anymore. He was trying to a room in the apartment. That didn't work out at all. So it was like, can't, you gotta come live with me. I hope you find your doctor. So going back to that sandwich generation role and caregiving, that really kind of like, when I moved to Vin and I had to like, okay, you need a cardiologist, you need a kidney doctor, and you need a primary care. Okay, and maybe a dermatologist. All right, let me...

Violeta Sandoval (19:21.057)
Yeah.

Violeta Sandoval (19:31.907)
Yeah.

Violeta Sandoval (19:37.112)
Yeah.

Bas Moreno (19:49.726)
look for all these doctors here in Delaware in a brand new state that you don't know anybody. I'm still adjusting to living in Delaware, but come live with me. There's space for you. You have your own private space. It's a half bath. You can use the bathroom and do whatever you need to do. yeah, it's just me, the kids, my wife, and my dad all in the house together.

Violeta Sandoval (20:17.74)
Yeah, yeah, that's what like, I'm kind of planning to have my parents live close to me and everything and I'm telling them like, y'all gonna get like a little small little maybe one two bedroom right next to me so that way I could, you know, take care of y'all and y'all could still have some kind of like, you know, like independence kind of and everything because like,

I think about it and you mentioned it earlier that, you know, in the Latino community we take care of our own and that's how like her dad, which is my grandpa, and he, one day he had a stroke like a long time ago and they've been, you know, caretaking him. And it never occurred to me too much. It's like, okay, he's in Mexico so like all the siblings like kind of come together and

take care of him and my mom sends money over there to help with expenses and all that stuff. And then now that my parents are getting older, I was like, okay, I need to start thinking about this of what am I gonna do? Because throughout your story, you were talking about all the equipment that you had to get.

Bas Moreno (21:39.053)
Hmm.

Violeta Sandoval (21:39.661)
It's not just like, okay, you know, like providing for them, like their food or things like that. But there's like, because I don't even know if my parents are going to like what kind of insurance they can get, like things like that. Like how are they going to pay for their medications? And so I kind of have like a little small plan for that. We'll see how that works out. equipment like lifts and stuff when they're like unable to move and

Bas Moreno (21:44.878)
you

Bas Moreno (21:52.76)
Mmm. Mmm.

Violeta Sandoval (22:09.934)
maybe canes, wheelchairs, all that stuff like costs money. And so how do we handle that? And so I'm kind of like curious to see like, know, because that's one of the things that you talk about is like, how can we start preparing financially to be a caretaker with all these expenses? And so from your experience, you know,

Bas Moreno (22:19.63)
Hmm.

Violeta Sandoval (22:37.89)
I guess what are your lessons learned or tips? I guess we could go into that.

Bas Moreno (22:44.11)
Well, luckily my mom, she always worked, so...

for as long as I can remember, she was in second grade when she started going back to school, getting her associate's degree. So she worked as a paraprofessional in a New York City public school. did that for 14, 15 years before she retired. usually when you hit the 65, you get Medicare. So she had her Medicare, and she was paying her premiums into that.

on a monthly basis, so she had that. Because of her income, no decrease, because she retires. So I think she was able to get long-term managed Medicaid on top of that as well. she, usually 80 % of the bill, any medical bills, goes into Medicare, and that other 20 % goes into Medicaid. So when the nursing home kind of came into play, you know...

Violeta Sandoval (23:45.952)
Okay.

Bas Moreno (23:53.026)
they paid most, was able to pay most of that. that was another thing too of why she, I did the discharge because like the money was running out. They were no longer really paying into that anymore. So, so it kind of worked out both hands that, know, pandemic was like literally like COVID was here affecting us.

Not us particularly yet, but at least COVID was in America and like we've seen all the cases like rising and like, all right, let's take her back home. Like especially the insurance is not going to pay anymore. And I just like kind of figure out how to take care of her properly as I can. I get a home attendant in the house. So all the equipment stuff, mentioned equipment that that was no kind of paid through insurance as well. And like the hospital bed.

Violeta Sandoval (24:26.946)
Mm-hmm.

Violeta Sandoval (24:37.294)
Mm-hmm.

Bas Moreno (24:48.992)
It wasn't paid in full, but insurance was paying for it and my mom passed away. It was like rented, kind of quote, quote, rented equipment. So when my mom passed away, I had to contact the insurance company and say, hey, we don't need the hospital bed anymore. So luckily we found out it was rented. It wasn't fully paid for by insurance, so they were able to take that equipment back.

Violeta Sandoval (24:57.421)
was

Violeta Sandoval (25:02.393)
okay.

Bas Moreno (25:17.102)
off our heads. Yeah, I think it was like manage long-term Medicaid because she had a long-term care plan through that manages the Medicaid. So I think that's for our older adults to kind of like look into is like manage long-term Medicaid. It's not, it should be. I'm not sure it was available in all 50 states, but that's something that you can look into to see if it is available in your state.

Violeta Sandoval (25:17.546)
Was that through Medicaid or a different insurance?

Violeta Sandoval (25:26.795)
Okay.

Bas Moreno (25:46.958)
And once you hit 65, you don't automatically get Medicare. That's something you have to go to Social Security office and get. People just assume, I hit 65, where's my, they call it the red, white, and blue card. But it's a Medicare card. It's through the federal government, so people get Medicare-ied and Medicare confused all the time. So it's the red, white, and blue card that's.

Violeta Sandoval (25:55.682)
Mmm.

Violeta Sandoval (26:01.847)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Bas Moreno (26:15.768)
from the federal government once it turns 65, but you have to go seek that card out and make sure you have part A, which is for hospital, part B, medical, so you can see your primary care doctor and fully get charged, whatever amount of money that is, and make sure to get part Medicare, part D, that's for prescriptions as well. So those are the main three parts for any fit.

Violeta Sandoval (26:34.978)
Okay.

Bas Moreno (26:44.046)
know, 55 and older adults could get. Or even children, even like children or young adults, if they have a disability, really more like 18 and older, potentially, depending on disability, when they have cancer or something like that, they could possibly get Medicare as well. But.

Violeta Sandoval (26:51.127)
Okay.

Bas Moreno (27:09.954)
For older adults, definitely part A, part B, and part D. Those are the main parts. Also depends on income. You may have to get part C that's managed Medicare. That's a little tricky because now you're going through different insurance companies that have a Medicare package as well. And it changes every year. They change different plans that you have to kind of recertify.

Violeta Sandoval (27:22.21)
Mm-hmm.

Bas Moreno (27:37.496)
to do that every year. It could get pretty annoying to do that. usually, it never fails every year. Come around towards the end of September into October, our older adults get the phone calls. You see a lot of commercials for it. And not all plans are good plans. if you're caring for someone, an older adult,

Violeta Sandoval (27:41.336)
Mm-hmm.

Violeta Sandoval (27:56.386)
Mm-hmm.

Bas Moreno (28:06.862)
they're gonna see a lot of commercials on TV. that sounds like a good plan. They may make the phone call and then they sign up for a plan and then it gets, it's hard to get them out that plan. Like that plan is not good for you. And you find out the doctors that they have don't take the plan and now you gotta like disenroll and it becomes a whole hassle to do that. And the other option, the only other option is for right now as we are recording, Obamacare marketplace.

Violeta Sandoval (28:11.564)
Yeah.

Bas Moreno (28:36.064)
ACA is still in effect, even though the current administration would love to get rid of it. But as it stands right now, that's still in place. So that's another option. Yes, it can be expensive for an individual or for a family, but that is the options that we have currently in the United States of America as it stands. So those are the main...

Violeta Sandoval (28:38.787)
Mm-hmm.

Violeta Sandoval (28:43.534)
Mm-hmm.

Violeta Sandoval (29:03.928)
Yeah.

Bas Moreno (29:05.538)
really are the main options. Obviously, you can get Medicaid by itself as well. You could go apply and show proof of income, proof of residence, and proof that you're paying bills, if you're electric bill, gas bill, whatever it is, your utility bills, and go apply for Medicaid. can apply that online or go to your Medicaid office, your state service center, whatever your state calls the Medicaid office.

Violeta Sandoval (29:30.242)
Mm-hmm.

Bas Moreno (29:33.25)
go there and apply in person. Depending on the state, it takes anywhere from 30 to 45 days processing time so they can process everything. I know in Delaware, where I live in, in New York, where I'm from, there's usually a phone interview that they do. And you must, they set up an appointment time and literally you have to answer whatever questions.

Violeta Sandoval (29:53.112)
Mm-hmm.

Bas Moreno (30:00.428)
you have to do the phone interview otherwise that's an automatic denial of your application and you got to do the whole process all over again. So when I tell my clients that like you want to apply for Medicaid you have to do the phone interview otherwise you get denied. So those are different options. I've helped my nine to five clients apply for Obamacare. I did that for like two years straight. So I became a quick...

Violeta Sandoval (30:08.608)
Violeta Sandoval (30:18.189)
Yeah.

Bas Moreno (30:28.91)
Like literally, like I learned like the hard way just by doing it and just became like an expert in doing it. So like I could help people now do Obamacare applications if necessary. I use the terminology interchangeably. So Obamacare, ACA, Marketplace, Affordable Care Act, it all means the same thing. Obviously what happened with the...

Violeta Sandoval (30:34.711)
Yeah.

Violeta Sandoval (30:51.086)
Mm-hmm.

Bas Moreno (30:57.038)
election and you started seeing videos of like I lost my insurance I didn't know Obamacare was marketplace insurance and I didn't know it was Affordable Care Act and it's like That's a whole topic for a different conversation. But my point is that you know you it means the same thing just because you Don't like Obama or like you Whatever so

Violeta Sandoval (31:02.414)
Yeah.

Violeta Sandoval (31:09.335)
Yeah.

Violeta Sandoval (31:13.568)
Hehehehe

Violeta Sandoval (31:21.294)
Yeah.

Bas Moreno (31:26.222)
Yeah, so for educational purposes, I always, when I talk to people, use, purposely use all those terminologies interchangeably that way. Let people know it means the same thing, that's insurance that you could get for, because people, like literally, by like, I know people that by like $100, $200, they no longer qualify for Medicaid and then they gotta apply for ACA and it's like.

I can't make this payment. I got paid as monthly and it's like three or $400 for themselves. And it's it's rough. And people, a lot of people are really kind of like stuck in the middle. And it's always when we mentioned sandwich generations, but even like just stuck with their finances, really stuck like, I'm of the different tiers of income and stuff like that. So, hey man, so there's a lot of people know stressing out about finances. I would say when we...

Violeta Sandoval (32:00.072)
Ugh, yeah.

Violeta Sandoval (32:10.125)
Yeah.

Bas Moreno (32:23.17)
go back to our sandwich generation conversation. My son is already looking at schools and I'm having conversations about college and like majors and he's like doing his own research. He originally thought about doing one major and he's looking at, he wants to make pretty good money when he gets out of school and like, is it worth doing this major? And I'll be possibly changing that major to do something else. And then my dad is pretty much cutting dry.

Violeta Sandoval (32:26.104)
Mm-hmm.

Violeta Sandoval (32:46.647)
Yeah.

Bas Moreno (32:52.898)
had that talk of like, what happens when you pass away? Because of his health issues, he's had some strokes and minor heart attacks. So in my head, I always had it like, he's gonna pass first. And then when COVID hit, now I'm caring for someone I thought that wasn't gonna have around. sometimes I think he's gonna outlive me. So I like, I gotta like...

Violeta Sandoval (32:58.414)
Mm-hmm.

Violeta Sandoval (33:03.246)
Mm-hmm.

Violeta Sandoval (33:16.226)
Yeah.

Bas Moreno (33:22.286)
I had to get a whole living will for myself and now I got to get an estate plan that I've been like for myself because I purchased a home and got my business and stuff like that. I've been dragging my feet doing that, but that's like for my own personal finance story. you know, we deal with our own personal finances and that's that struggle of that sandwich generation of dealing with our

Violeta Sandoval (33:30.978)
Violeta Sandoval (33:35.502)
Mm-hmm.

Bas Moreno (33:50.956)
So I'm nowhere close to having assets to retire yet. So worried about how to try to plan for my own retirement. Luckily in my case, my dad is simple. He's like, I just want to be cremated. And like, that's it. You do whatever you want with my body. Just cremate me, do whatever. But that's not typical for a lot of us too. A lot of us are afraid to have that conversation.

Violeta Sandoval (33:55.575)
Yeah.

Violeta Sandoval (34:03.276)
Yeah.

Violeta Sandoval (34:09.194)
Hehehehe

Violeta Sandoval (34:14.893)
Yeah.

Bas Moreno (34:20.15)
So what I do with my business, my coaching, I help people who are in that sandwich generation have that conversation. What are you afraid of? is that imposter syndrome? What's your worst fear of having that estate planning conversation with your loved one that you're taking care of? And even within our community, we need to kind of like stop having

Violeta Sandoval (34:20.312)
Mm-hmm.

Violeta Sandoval (34:33.432)
Mm-hmm.

Violeta Sandoval (34:42.38)
Yeah.

Bas Moreno (34:47.958)
It might not be popular to say, but we need to stop having that expectation that we are the retirement plan for our older adult family members. So if we could get no life insurance, and I know a lot of us come from immigrant families, and some of us might not still be legal residents in the country, so that we could.

Violeta Sandoval (34:57.89)
Yes.

Violeta Sandoval (35:01.71)
Yeah.

Violeta Sandoval (35:13.56)
Yeah.

Bas Moreno (35:15.882)
especially now with the Trump administration, know, a lot of things financial that we had planned to do, we probably can't plan to do right now, no possible with everything going on. like there's ways that those who are migrating into the country who been here for a while, that they get the I-10 numbers, that they could get the, that social security numbers.

Violeta Sandoval (35:25.902)
Mm-hmm.

Violeta Sandoval (35:41.502)
yeah.

Bas Moreno (35:44.298)
through the IRS, but now I'm sure a lot of people's going to stop doing that, fear of deportation. So that could have led to them opening up bank accounts at least and try to be in the system to try to work. We already work and pay taxes and stuff like that anyway for many of us. So it's a lot of things that

Violeta Sandoval (35:50.988)
Yeah, that's gonna affect the community.

Bas Moreno (36:12.93)
we could be talking about in terms of finances to help the sandwich generation. And when we talk about Latino community might not be effective anymore because of what the current administration wants to do or just a fear of what they might do. And that fear is real. And then we have to acknowledge that and talk about that. And even for myself, like...

Violeta Sandoval (36:26.946)
Yeah.

Bas Moreno (36:42.094)
Puerto Rican from the Bronx and even like, were like, detaining Puerto Ricans too. So it's like, not even like, we're not safe. it's like, so it's like, so it's a crazy time that we're in. Obviously when we talk about no self care, just try to like, is that fine line of staying informed? Wow, like there's only so much news you could take but.

Violeta Sandoval (36:47.278)
Yeah! Yeah, that's a piece there.

Yeah, it's sisters.

Bas Moreno (37:11.854)
The current administration is doing so much so fast that it's purposely done to like stress us out. But at the same time we have to still like be informed like this. There's still whatever your original financial plans are. If you didn't have them now, if you didn't do anything these last five years that you kind of, I did it, I literally did a presentation and I like.

Violeta Sandoval (37:12.494)
Mm-hmm.

Violeta Sandoval (37:21.335)
Yeah.

Bas Moreno (37:40.31)
last week as of this recording, know, like telling people like if you didn't do anything related to like financial literacy these last five years, like you're already behind and we were already behind because Latinos, because of systemic racism has been behind. So now's the time to do something with finances, whether like open up a high US savings account, start putting some money into it, get...

Violeta Sandoval (37:42.882)
Mm-hmm.

Violeta Sandoval (37:56.844)
Yeah.

Bas Moreno (38:08.46)
that free interest, if you work a nine to five, like put that money into a 401k as best you can. If you leave that job, make sure, stay as long as you can in that nine to five so that that money could be vested and you could take that money out. there's different companies out there that can help.

Violeta Sandoval (38:24.6)
Yeah.

Bas Moreno (38:32.078)
getting that 401k putting into, you can do it yourself and learn to manage the 401k yourself and putting money into that from old 401ks. I've been doing that, trying to do that to start 2025, like, cause I'm a known job hopper and like, this 401k from like 2020, 2021, was like, me finally like get it out that account and put it in a new account. I've been on a struggle bus and do.

Violeta Sandoval (38:40.834)
Yeah.

Bas Moreno (39:01.934)
dealing with that. So I'm trying to learn putting into practice at the same time, you know, at least educating my clients on you that you can even do that. So like a lot of people, because it's not taught to us that basically what I'm learning and giving back to my community, my coaching program, my one on one coaching program, when I offer that to like different organizations, nonprofits and like.

Violeta Sandoval (39:06.53)
Yeah.

Violeta Sandoval (39:22.69)
Yeah.

Bas Moreno (39:28.888)
corporate clients that I work with when I do presentations and just letting people know that this stuff exists and kind of like, you know, that the caregiving is real. We work a nine to five and then we like, it's not, our jobs are not flexible. Like I need to take this time off and let go care from my dad or like, you know, my kid's playing baseball and I got like, I want to go see him play. And it's like, kind of like take out, take at least half hour or leave a half hour earlier from work to go see him play. So it's kind of like.

Violeta Sandoval (39:40.64)
Yeah, it's rough.

Bas Moreno (39:58.05)
know life be life in and companies need to they're not very flexible sometimes with with giving us that time off or we don't we don't build that that time off or they only give you like two weeks of even like just like PTO time and it's like they lump all the people now these companies think they're slick and they lump all the PTO time together so all the sick personal and vacation time is all one bank so now you got to calculate

Violeta Sandoval (40:05.827)
Yeah.

Violeta Sandoval (40:13.292)
Yeah, that's the other thing.

Violeta Sandoval (40:24.14)
Yeah.

Bas Moreno (40:26.36)
the PTO time even more carefully than you used to, so it's like, it's really rough.

Violeta Sandoval (40:30.828)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's the other aspect of like, understanding like, you know, the finances with, with caregiving because it's not just like, you know, like the insurance and, you know, all the stuff that comes along with it. It's like your own personal finances take a hit, like you said, because they don't give us any, like they don't, they don't, they don't care. They don't care that your dad needs

to go to an appointment or whatever. it's like, so that's another thing that I have to plan for to that, hey, you know, I might have to take a pay cut or something or whatever, or lose some hours this week because I have to take them to a medical appointment or whatever. So yeah, it's lot. It's very stressful. I'm glad you talked about Medicare because that's one of the things that I got to skit.

Bas Moreno (41:11.918)
Hmm.

Bas Moreno (41:18.542)
Mm.

Violeta Sandoval (41:28.514)
I've been procrastinating with my dad because I just, my God, like it just sounds overwhelming to get it done and you know.

Bas Moreno (41:34.19)
You

And unfortunately, you're running out of time because recently the house bill passed that they want to cut no Medicare and Medicaid. So there's still time for you to do that paperwork so that you can get the Medicare. But you got to do it fast because if that... This administration is not...

Violeta Sandoval (41:43.448)
Yeah.

Violeta Sandoval (41:50.542)
Mm-hmm.

Violeta Sandoval (42:01.439)
yeah, let me get on that. That's true, I forgot about that.

Bas Moreno (42:05.464)
This administration is not playing and a lot of people are really gonna be affected. And the sandwich generation is really gonna feel the pinch. We talk about, does Medicaid and Medicaid alone is any cuts and even potential cuts to Social Security? I'm still trying to figure out how they plan on.

during the social security aspect, in terms of Medicaid and Medicare, any potential cuts that happens is really gonna hit home. Doctors are barely taking Medicare insurance. They're barely taking Medicaid insurance as it is. That's why that long-term care Medicaid, to look into applying that, that could kinda help you out as a substitute for that, but those companies have been getting hit.

even during like the first Trump administration. So there's also a program called a PACE program. They're slowly populating throughout the country as a medical model. I'm trying to always forget the acronym of it, but it's basically is all-inclusive medical care for older adults. So it includes a social worker, includes

Violeta Sandoval (43:04.27)
Mm-hmm.

Violeta Sandoval (43:08.387)
Yeah.

Violeta Sandoval (43:12.322)
Mm-hmm.

Violeta Sandoval (43:23.117)
Mm-hmm.

Violeta Sandoval (43:29.634)
Hmm.

Bas Moreno (43:32.622)
Primary care includes a nurse, includes occupational therapists, physical therapists, a speech language pathologist, sometimes home attendants on staff. So pretty much a whole medical team caring for an individual plant. So a negative to that is that they manage your Medicaid, so they help you apply for Medicaid. They could finagle ways for you to qualify for Medicaid.

Violeta Sandoval (43:37.09)
Mm-hmm.

Violeta Sandoval (43:50.477)
Mm-hmm.

Bas Moreno (44:02.19)
So they work with whatever finances you have. However, they're very limited in terms of, you know, what doctors you can see. You got to see their own network of doctors. They're popping up slowly more throughout the country. There's like, where I live in Delaware, there's two PACE programs here in the state. In New York, where I live at, there's quite a few. They're popping up like nationwide.

Violeta Sandoval (44:02.606)
Yeah.

Violeta Sandoval (44:12.716)
Mm-hmm.

Bas Moreno (44:31.406)
It's very good if you can get into it. There are some drawbacks like anything else, but that's a way for you can still get care for your older adult family members. Just look up Google PACE programs in whatever state that you live in and see if there's one that does exist and kind of look into that. that's an option. I worked at a PACE program during the pandemic and my dad currently

Violeta Sandoval (44:38.574)
Mm-hmm.

Violeta Sandoval (44:52.184)
Mm-hmm.

Bas Moreno (45:01.056)
as part of one of the PACE programs here in Delaware. it's like, so like I said, it's not the greatest in the world, but at least it's something to offset. It's something. Like at this point, something is something. And we're talking about like going back to all the things Trump wants to do that affects us, not only just cut some Medicare, Medicaid food stamps, our food bank.

Violeta Sandoval (45:03.553)
Okay.

Violeta Sandoval (45:10.382)
something.

Yeah.

Bas Moreno (45:28.492)
reserves are being cut, they're losing federal funding. those are like, you know, things in communities that our seniors can go get or in terms of community resources that all these things are being cut. know, there's cuts to, potential cuts to mental health services. know, that, you know, a lot of our older adults are lonely. They live by themselves and know that.

Violeta Sandoval (45:29.58)
Mm-hmm.

Bas Moreno (45:55.022)
Depression in seniors is a real thing. It doesn't get talked about as much. And obviously in the Latino community, we don't talk about mental health enough period, the locura, all these things that are negative talked about in our community. But it's something that needs to be talked about, that I address those issues.

Violeta Sandoval (45:58.841)
Yeah.

Violeta Sandoval (46:05.047)
Yeah.

Bas Moreno (46:21.774)
in my coaching program as well. So, that's a lot happening all at the same time.

Violeta Sandoval (46:26.19)
Yeah, yeah, definitely. There's a lot and I feel like just as I was getting a handle of this and starting and all of a sudden, like you said, the Trump administration is just doing whatever the heck they want and it's making it difficult to kind of plan and stuff. yeah, but you mentioned that you do provide coaching services and

for those that do want to seek out help with everything that we talked about, like what kind of services and where can they find you?

Bas Moreno (47:05.186)
Yes, so I'm currently offering a free 45-minute consultation on what's the number one stressor you have going on in terms of finances or just be caregiving in general. So you can go to BassModernoConsulting.com and sign up for that consultation. And then from there, we could talk about...

what one-on-one services will look like. And yet, it'll be short, sweet. It'll be like two to three sessions, depending on your individual needs. So short-term financial education and counseling. If you need more, we could discuss more after those initial sessions. But yet, we could talk about what's going on in terms of your finances, in terms of your caregiving, if you need to have that conversation of...

estate planning, what would that look like? know, if you have family involvement, do you guys, if you have siblings, for example, if you have siblings, have you guys disagreed, like kind of had those conversations with siblings and had to even have those type of conversations. So yeah, so basmaretonconsulting.com is where you can find me online, also available on Instagram.

Violeta Sandoval (48:07.459)
Mm-hmm.

Bas Moreno (48:28.098)
TikTok and threads at Bas Moreno Consulting. You can find me there, follow me there. And yet, let's work and have these important conversations that we need to have.

Violeta Sandoval (48:33.859)
Mm-hmm.

Violeta Sandoval (48:39.244)
Yeah, yeah. Thank you for coming on here and sharing your story and giving us some pointers. I know I have some stuff to do, especially now that you lit a fire under my ass with like, you better get on this because it might be gone. So I will be doing that tomorrow with my dad. But yeah, I will have all the information to like your 101 and all that stuff down.

Bas Moreno (48:59.822)
You

Violeta Sandoval (49:09.294)
in the show notes description depending where you're listening and yeah other than that yeah again thank you so much for coming and that's it for this episode i'll see you in the next one bye