Eddie and Betty Are Coming to the Big Screen
August 23, 2026
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Show Notes
Eddie and Betty's Conversation
Welcome back to The American Retirement Advisor. I'm Betty, and Eddie is here with me in the studio today, as always. Eddie, I have to say, I've been looking forward to this one.
That makes two of us. And I think the listeners might already know why, depending on whether they caught Ian Schaeffer's piece this week.
So let's just say it out loud, because Ian wrote it up beautifully and now it's officially out there. We're going to the big screen.
We really are. October 2. Two showings. Two libraries. And yes, I've already picked out what I'm wearing.
The blue blazer. Ian told everyone. There are no more secrets.
Look, it works. It has always worked. I stand by it.
It does work. Okay, so let's talk through what Ian wrote, because I think people who are reading along or tuning in deserve to understand what this event really is, not just the fun headline of us appearing on a big screen somewhere.
Right, and there's a lot of substance here. This isn't just a meet-and-greet. There's a real reason this workshop is happening on October 2 specifically.
Which is that Medicare's Annual Enrollment Period opens on the fifteenth of that same month. So ten days before the window opens, we're putting on a public education workshop about just that, about Medicare's fall enrollment season.
And if you've lived through one of those falls, you know why the timing matters. Your mailbox becomes a disaster zone. The television commercials start running and they all promise everything and explain nothing, as Ian put it. And people who are smart and capable just get buried.
That phrase stuck with me when I read it. Because that's the experience, isn't it. You're not confused because you're not paying attention. You're confused because what is being thrown at you is designed to be confusing.
It's a lot of noise at a really high-stakes moment. And the idea behind this workshop is to be the antidote to that, as Ian called it. A plain-English hour in a public library where the whole point is that you walk out understanding how this works.
And the venue is my favorite detail. Not a hotel ballroom with a rubber chicken dinner at the end. Not a financial firm's conference room. A library.
And Ian was clear about this too. Nobody is selling anything from that stage. It's educational from start to finish. The advisors walk through it the way they do across the table every single day.
Which is one of the things I find most valuable about watching them work. There's a version of this conversation that's full of jargon and acronyms and a lot of nodding along without understanding. And then there's the version where someone just sits down with you and explains how it really works.
And the second one is what this workshop is built around. The advisors are going to walk through it live. And then there's time at the end for questions, which matters a lot, because everyone comes in with a slightly different situation.
So let's talk about the logistics, because Ian laid them out very clearly and I want to make sure people have what they need. October 2 is a Friday. There are two showings.
Ten-thirty in the morning at the Foothills Branch Library in Glendale. And two-thirty in the afternoon at Mustang Library in Scottsdale. Same program at both, so you pick whichever side of the Valley is easier for you.
And each session runs about an hour, and then the advisors stay for your questions. So you're not looking at a three-hour commitment. You're looking at an hour of content and then the chance to actually ask the thing that has been sitting in the back of your mind.
Which for a lot of people is worth the whole trip by itself. Because you can listen to a podcast, you can read an article, but there's something different about being in a room and raising your hand and asking the specific question that applies to your life.
And your seat is there at no cost to you. Ian was clear about that too. Seats are limited at both showings, but there's no cost to you, and you reserve your spot through the link in Ian's article.
It's a simple process. You pick your showing, you tell them who is coming with you, and you get a confirmation right away and a reminder as the date gets close.
Bring your spouse. Ian said that. Bring your neighbor who forwarded you the article. If there's someone in your life who you've been meaning to sit down and talk through Medicare with, October 2 is the day.
And speaking of neighbors forwarding articles, Ian said something at the start of his piece that I think is worth pausing on. He wrote that yesterday he told everyone you and I were keeping a secret, and that you had earned the right to break it yourself.
He did. And he said he keeps his promises, and he handed the microphone over. Figuratively speaking.
Which tells you something about the way this whole operation works. There's a real relationship between the people writing these articles and the people listening to this show. Ian has been building toward this announcement all summer, and he kept the surprise intact.
And I appreciate that. Because the listeners who have been following along, they have been with us morning by morning, episode by episode, and it felt right to make the announcement feel like an event rather than just slipping it into a footnote.
Ian also wrote something I found kind of funny and kind of true at the same time. He said you've gotten to know us one morning at a time, Betty asking the question you were already thinking, Eddie doing the math out loud.
That's a pretty accurate description of what we do on this show.
It is. And the idea is that on October 2, you get to watch us do that in a room full of people, trading questions with the advisors live on the big screen.
Which is a different kind of experience. You have been listening through earbuds, which I think creates its own kind of closeness, honestly. It feels like a private conversation. But there's something about being in a room with other people who have the same questions you have, and realizing you're not alone in not knowing how this all works.
That's one of the things I think gets underestimated about a live event. It's not just about the information on the stage. It's the moment you look around and realize the person next to you has the exact same confused expression you do, and suddenly the question doesn't feel embarrassing to ask.
Because Medicare enrollment is complicated, full stop. And I think people carry a lot of private anxiety about whether they made the right choices, whether they're in the right plan, whether they missed something during a previous enrollment period.
And that's the moment when those questions come to the surface, because your window to make changes is finally open. So the timing of this workshop, ten days before that window opens, is deliberate. You learn how it works while you still have time to act.
For anyone who doesn't know the exact mechanics of what you can and can't do during annual enrollment, or how the decisions you make there interact with the rest of your retirement picture, that's a great question to bring to the advisors on October 2. That's exactly the kind of thing they work through with people every day.
And the advisors are going to be in the room. Not on a screen, in the room, taking your questions after the program. So if there are details that feel specific to your situation, that's the moment.
Let's talk about what Ian said about my opinions for a second, because he was a little cryptic about it and I want to be real with our listeners.
He said you have some things to say about how enrollment season gets explained to people and you're finally getting a screen big enough to share them.
Which is true. And I don't think it gives too much away to say that a lot of what drives me on this show is the gap between how complicated this stuff feels and how it could feel if someone just took the time to explain it without the noise. The fall enrollment marketing machine is loud. It's relentless. And a lot of it's not designed to help you understand. It's designed to get your attention.
There's a real difference between the two. And I think that's the gap the workshop is trying to close.
And I will say, putting this together has me reflecting on how many people go through enrollment season every single year feeling overwhelmed and kind of alone in it. Like they're supposed to have figured this out by now and somehow missed the class.
Nobody ever got to take it. That's sort of the point. Medicare isn't something most people study. You arrive at it because you turned 65 or because your circumstances changed, and suddenly you're expected to navigate something with a lot of moving parts and a lot of deadlines.
And the October 15 deadline, the opening of the Annual Enrollment Period, that's a real deadline. There are things you can do inside that window that you can't do outside of it. So understanding the mechanics before it opens isn't just nice to know. It's useful.
Which is the case Ian makes for why the workshop exists at all. This isn't a feel-good event where you leave with a tote bag and some vague sense that Medicare is important. You leave understanding how this actually works. His words.
And from what I've seen of how our advisors explain things, that's not an overstatement. They have a way of cutting through the noise that I respect.
And they do it in plain English. That's something Ian comes back to more than once in the piece. Plain English. In a library. No selling. That's a specific promise.
So if you're someone who has been putting off really getting your arms around Medicare because every time you try to engage with it you get hit with a wall of marketing, this is the room to walk into.
Two rooms, technically. Glendale in the morning, Scottsdale in the afternoon.
Right. And Ian mentioned that between now and October, people will be hearing more about what we're building for the show. So if you subscribe, you won't miss any of that.
He also said we go back to work tomorrow morning at ten forty-five, like always. Which is true. The big day is one chapter, not the whole story. The podcast keeps going.
And I think that's part of what makes this workshop feel right. It's not a one-off. It's connected to what we do every day on this show, which is try to help people feel less lost when it comes to the financial and planning decisions that really matter in retirement.
Medicare is squarely in that category. It's one of the biggest calls people make as they move into or through retirement, and it interacts with the rest of their financial picture in ways that aren't always obvious.
And thinking through those overlaps, every single day, for thousands of families, is the job of the advisors at American Retirement Advisors. So when you have a question that goes beyond the general explanation we can give you here, that's who you want to be sitting across from.
Whether that's on October 2 in one of the library sessions, or by reaching out directly to set up a conversation. The workshop is a great starting point, but it doesn't have to be the ending point.
I want to come back to one thing Ian wrote that I think gets at why the format of this matters. He described the workshop as the antidote to the mailers and television commercials that promise everything and explain nothing. And he called it a plain-English hour in a public library.
That detail is doing a lot of quiet work. Libraries are by definition neutral ground. Community spaces. Not affiliated with any product or any company's agenda. There's something deliberate about choosing that setting for an educational event where no one is selling anything.
It sends a message before anyone says a word from the stage.
It does. And pairing that setting with advisors who are used to explaining this across a table, and with us on the big screen doing what we do on this show every morning, that's a combination I think works.
Can I tell you what stays with me about the people who are going to be in those seats on October 2?
Tell me.
I keep thinking about the person who got three different mailers last October and just put them all in a pile and didn't open them, because they didn't know where to start and it felt like too much. And then enrollment closed and they just stayed where they were, not because it was the right choice but because the alternative was too overwhelming.
That's a more common story than people think. And the cost of that, of just defaulting to whatever you're already in because the alternatives felt too confusing to evaluate, that cost can be real. Over the course of a year, over several years.
And this year, that person has a place to go before October 15 opens. Two places, depending on which side of the Valley they live on.
And I'd say: bring the pile of mailers if you still have them. I'm only partly joking. The advisors have seen it all.
They really have. And that's why the question-and-answer time after the session matters so much. Because the general explanation is useful, but your specific situation, your specific coverage, your specific questions, that's where the advisors earn their keep.
And if you have a spouse or a partner who you've been meaning to have this conversation with, this is the built-in prompt. You go together, you sit in the same room, you hear the same explanation, and then you can talk about it on the drive home from a shared starting point.
Ian said it exactly that way. Bring your spouse. Bring your neighbor. This isn't a solo event.
And that shared starting point matters more than people give it credit for. So much of the anxiety around Medicare decisions comes from couples being on different pages about what they have, what it covers, and what the options even are.
You can't make a decision together if only one of you understands the landscape. And after an hour in one of those library rooms, both of you will.
That's the promise. And I believe it, based on what I've seen of how our advisors work.
Alright. Let's make sure everyone has what they need to show up. October 2, Friday. Two showings: ten-thirty AM at the Foothills Branch Library in Glendale, two-thirty PM at Mustang Library in Scottsdale. Reserve your seat through the link in Ian Schaeffer's article. No cost to you. Seats are limited, so don't wait on this.
And you get a confirmation right away and a reminder as the date gets closer. So even if you're the kind of person who books something and then forgets about it, they've got you covered.
And between now and then, keep listening. Eddie and I are back tomorrow morning at ten forty-five. And as Ian said, there's more coming before October on what we're building for the show.
Subscribe so you don't miss it. The show is going to keep going right up until we walk into those library rooms, and frankly, well past.
Ian also noted that I've been telling everyone about my need for a bigger mug. He's not wrong. But that's a problem for October 2 Betty.
She will figure it out. She always does.
For everyone listening, here is what I want you to do right now. Pull up Ian Schaeffer's piece, find the reservation link, and save your seat before you close the tab. If you're close to making a Medicare decision or you have questions you've never quite found the right person to ask, October 2 is that right person. Or rather, a whole room full of them. Eddie and I will see you there.