How your bank account might predict dementia

The Indicator from Planet Money

NPR

Business

4.7 • 9.5K Ratings

🗓️ 5 May 2026

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Some of the earliest signs of dementia can show up in your financial portfolio. Missed bill payments and erratic investments could be indicators, and they can happen years before an official diagnosis. Today on the show, we dig into the connection between finances and dementia, and why the financial health of seniors is falling through the cracks.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Adrian, what do you think about when you're not working?
0:03.2	Food, of course.
0:04.5	I think about that when I am working.
0:07.8	Yes, I consume a lot of food videos and podcasts and, of course, also a lot of actual food.
0:14.7	Well, there is now a place for you to discuss this even more.
0:18.8	The Indicator has a brand new newsletter. It's a roundup of news we're following each week. Plus, we answer your listener questions, and importantly, we tell you what we're doing outside of work. Yes, I would be very happy to tell you all the things I'm cooking up and or shoving in my face. Nourishing the mind and body, Adrian.
0:38.2	Well, let me tell you about it.
0:39.7	No, no.
0:40.0	Save it for the newsletter.
0:41.7	It comes out every Friday morning.
0:43.9	Sign up now at npr.org slash indicator newsletter.
0:51.4	NPR.
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1:02.4	Okay. NPR. Sanda Balaban remembers when she got an email from her stepmother.
1:06.3	It was about her father.
1:07.6	Sanda's stepmother said she was divorcing him,
1:10.1	and Sanda needed to come help move her father out of their apartment. Sanda and her father. Sanda's stepmother said she was divorcing him, and Sanda needed to come help move her
1:12.2	father out of their apartment. Sanda and her father hadn't been in close touch for a few years. Still,
1:18.5	she made the trip to Baltimore. I had not been to his home for a while, and I will never forget
1:25.1	there was a room that was sort of his office. And all I can say is it was the manifestation of a very deteriorated mind.
1:37.1	There were piles of papers everywhere. And when Sanda tried to start packing up the office, she realized with horror what these documents were.
1:45.5	There were credit card statements showing that Sanda's father was spending thousands of dollars every month on scammy-looking health products and online subscriptions.
	...

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