Taking a First Step Toward Improved Financial Wellness – Live Captioning Transcript>> Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much for joining us for today's webinar, Taking a

First Step Toward Improved Financial Wellness. We are very grateful to our sponsor today,

Acorda Therapeutics. Today's webinar is a part of Acorda Therapeutics and National Disability

Institute and as financial wellness webinar series. It is the first in this year's series and we are

thrilled to have you all with us today. My name is Elizabeth Jennings, director of training and

technical assistance here at National Disability Institute. We are going to provide you with

several things today. We are going to go over a few housekeeping tips. I colleagues, Nakia

Matthews, the lead you through those to make sure that your technology is working correctly

and that you understand how to ask questions of us today. Then, we are going to give you a

few slides on the overview of the financial wellness survey that we did a few years ago, and

the importance of economic empowerment for all people, specifically looking at the importance

of it for folks on the line with MS, individuals with disabilities in all other folks with disabilities.

We are going to hear from Marlene Ware with the national foundation for debt management

on steps you can take toward improved financial wellness. And then, we like to end each

webinar with a few next steps that you can take, just to help you put some of what you have

learned into action and give you some reminders and a timeline for moving forward.

>> Nakia, I would like to ask you to provide us with housekeeping tips, please.

>> Good afternoon. The audio for the webinar is being broadcast through your computer.

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can minimize the media viewer panel. Like Elizabeth said, there will be a question and answer

portion at the end of the webinar. Please send any questions that you have during the course

of the webinar to either me, Nakia Matthews, or to Elizabeth Jennings and we will answer

those questions for you. If you are listening by phone and not locked into the web portion, you

may also ask questions by e-mailing Elizabeth directly at ejennings@ndi-inc.org. Please note

that this webinar is been recorded in the materials will be placed on our website at

www.realeconomicimpact.org /financial wellnes..If you experience technical difficulties during

the webinar, these use the chat box to send them eat, Nakia Matthews, a message or you may

also e-mail me at nmatthews@ndi-inc.org.

>> Thank you so much. So once again, welcome, everyone. I will be your moderator today. My

name is Elizabeth Jennings, director of training and technical assistance at National Disability

Institute. Since it is a new year, I want to take a moment to let folks on the line, if you are new

to National Disability Institute, we are the first in the country, organization to focus on a better

financial future for individuals with disabilities, and we provide training and technical assistance

across the country to individuals with disabilities, to disability service providers, and to service

providers within the asset building community, as well as providing policy suggestions at the

federal level, all toward making sure that individuals have access to the kinds of services and

supports they need to improve their financial wellness. We are very happy you are here to join

us today, and we want to thank again our sponsor, Acorda Therapeutics, who funding makes

the MS financial wellness series possible. So, what is financial wellness? We define financial

wellness as the state of a person's finances with the intent of working towards financial

behaviors that limit stress and the impact of stress on one's daily life. For folks on the line who

are individuals with MS, you know that limiting stress in your daily life can be not only important

to your mind, but also to the health of your body. And, we would argue that taking a closer look

at your finances can help to eliminate some of that stress.

>> When we talk about financial wellness, we talk about multiple areas of financial capabilities.

Being financially literate, accessing affordable financial services, utilizing favorable tax

provisions, budgeting, understanding your public benefit rules, building and maintaining assets,

accessing available health care subsidies, and understanding the impact of work among long-

term disability. We are going to touch on all of these things, almost all of them, throughout the

series this year. So, we hope you'll join us each month over the next several months to learn

more information about all of these different areas of financial wellness.

>> We at National Disability Institute focus on individuals with disabilities because the poverty

rate is incredibly high. For individuals without disabilities, about 12.8% of people lived below

the poverty level back when the US Census Bureau to the 2010 American community survey.

For individuals with disabilities, the rate was more than two times that, about 27.3%.

>> For millions of working age adults with disabilities, a dependence on public benefits for

income, health care, food, and housing becomes a trap their requires limiting income to remain

eligible. Anyone on the line who currently receives or is working with individuals who receive

means tested benefits, like supplemental security income, or Social Security SSI programs,

you know that the rules can be quite confusing and can give the message that you really have

to limit your income and your savings in order to remain eligible. We, at National Disability

Institute, have several programs that we can offer folks to help them better understand these

benefit rules, and will have a webinar on Social Security disability insurance, during this

webinar series. When we launched the series a few years ago, we did a study to better

understand the financial wellness of people with MS across the country. We did this with our

partners at MSAA and had some great findings we want to share with you to lunch at today's

event. About half of the households who responded are less than 35% annually. 16.4% earned

less than 50,000, but more than 35,000 annually. So, you have a large number of the folks

who responded to are all receiving earning less than $50,000 a year. When asked about the

ability to pay all of their bills in a typical month, 32% reported having a very difficult time paying

their bills, and almost 47% reported a somewhat difficult time. Also, 43% of respondents

reported that their financial status has affected their ability to access medical care at some

point during -- and perhaps in the future, we might see some shift to this with some of the new

healthcare rules, but at this time, that is a pretty high percentage of people who need medical

care but are having limited access due to their finances.

>> We also learned that almost 72% of those who responded do not have enough savings to

cover three months expenses. And, 67% reported that their finances were worth -- worsens

their MS diagnosis. That is a trend we have seen throughout the few years that we have been

doing this webinar , MS financial wellness webinar series, each year with the funding of

Acorda Therapeutics. We have connected with a lot of people with MS across the country,

and, this is a constant theme that's the challenge that finances presents once earning more

money just doesn't become the sole option for maintaining finances.

>> And 73% of respondents to the survey reported that they were not aware of or have not use

financial stability programs, like the earned income tax credit, individual development

accounts, family self-sufficiency programs, and plans to achieve self-support. You are going to

learn about these in subsequent webinars, or if you're interested in more information at any

point in time, these feel free to e-mail me at ejennings@ndi-inc.org.

>> Financial wellness is critically important, especially when you have complex medical

needs, because it impacts your mental and physical health. It also plays with your self-

concept. So the better your financial wellness, the more positive self-concept you will have. It

changes status with other community stakeholders. And, can change how much time people

are able to spend in the community because of the Gateway cost of participating in community

life. And overall, directly impacts a person's quality of life.

>> There are many financial wellness strategies that can be used to help support an

individual's wellness. We gave you many of them, and for anybody who is having any difficulty

reading this slide, I'm going to take a moment to share them with you. They include financial

education, budgeting, credit repair, and getting bank. The use of Social Security work

incentives and the use of tax incentives, which can be accessed through volunteer income tax

assistance, including the earned income tax credit, state Medicaid buy-in programs, which can

be critically important, if you're somebody who wants to earn more money, but you need to

hold onto Medicaid, buy-in programs can be your answer to that very difficult challenge. Family

self-sufficiency programs, individual development accounts, assistive technology loans,

student loans, and retirement accounts, post secondary education, employment, self-

employment, micro-enterprise and home ownership, and resources that can help you when

you run into trouble accessing any of these other strategies. Like protection and advocacy

services for people with disabilities, taxpayer advocates, credit counseling services, volunteer

income tax assistance, and benefits planning projects. Again, we have information on all of

these different strategies available. We are going to talk about several of them over the next

few webinars. But if you ever want more information, please feel free to reach out to us at any

point in time. It is my great honor today to introduce you to Marlene Ware, the director of

financial stability with the National Foundation for Debt Management. She has been a great

partner to us here at National Disability Institute, and helped us last year with a small financial

coaching pilot, specifically for people with MS, supported by Acorda Therapeutics. She was

able to support individuals in identifying their goals, and achieving some of them in a relatively

short period of time, as people received one-on-one financial coaching with her. So, thank you

so much for joining us today. We really appreciate your time and talent.

>> Thank you. I'm happy to be here. This is what I love to do. I don't necessarily always have

the answers for every situation, but, my heart is certainly in it. And, I did enjoy, and have

ongoing relationships with those folks that I coached a while back, and, I'm coaching another

group right now, and in my mind, that is what works. I do an awful lot of work with Habitat for

Humanity, and some of the people that I coached with Habitat for Humanity, I'm a coach for

three years to get them where they need to be. But, it works. Eventually, it works. Because I

have the buy-in, and the books I'm coaching have the by and. And, I'm a credit counselor, so

that also helps. I'm a credit counselor and roll up my sleeves everyday, and sit at kitchen

tables and look at credit reports and create budgets and applaud successes. And, aside from

me, there's an awful lot of really smart folks out there talking about financial wellness. There

are folks out there talking about how to diet and lose weight, there's folks out there talking

about exercising and smoking plans to stop smoking, anything that we want to do, there is a

robust group of really smart experts out there. But, if the experts have the answers, if all of

those people that write the books and are on TV, if they have the answers, then why are we

not prepared for our financial futures? And, why are we an obese nation? And why are we not

the healthiest country in the world? And, I believe it is because the experts can't make us

change our behaviors. Nobody can make us do what we are not ready to do. And, that is it,

and that is what I have seen over the last nine years, when someone is ready to change a

behavior, that may be causing them to not be financially as fit as they would like to be, then it

works. I need to lose weight. Okay? I'm just going to throw it out there. I need to lose weight

but I really like to snack at night. That's a behavior and I need to change it. I could eat carrots

instead of chocolate ice cream every night, but I'm not ready to do that. I have a class reunion

coming up, and I will at some point start eating carrots instead of chocolate ice cream,

because my behavior needs to change because I'm going to be with a bunch of people that are

probably doing the same thing and I want to look as good as they look. So, I will change my

behavior. It may be brief, I may not be ready to commit for an entire change, but, I'm in charge

of my behavior changes. It has to come from me. And, it's the same with all of you, it's the

same with anything that you want to change. It is in your court. You have to make the decision,

and I can talk all day and all night, you could read 65 books, you could watch Jim Cramer on

TV, but unless there is some word that someone says, or some idea that somebody gives you

that Hugo, this is it, I can make this work, then you're not going to do it. You won't buy-in. Next

screen.

>> Okay, so that's it. I'm not the boss of you. You are the owner of your own financial wellness.

I can offer all kinds of suggestions, I can offer ideas that may work, but if you don't own them,

that's just it. I'm not going to talk eating chocolate ice cream until it's important for me to stop

eating chocolate ice cream. Same with you. If there are things that, and I'm presuming here,

that there may be some things that you're doing that you could do better, and that is a

presumption on my part, but if there are some things that would make it easier for you to

manage your financial wellness, then you will find them. Susie Orman and Jim Cramer and all

those folks have really successful careers in their careers were built on giving financial advice.

And, they tell us, they've got it all written down, they tell us how to be successful. In their

messages, they are very clear on what we need to do. But why, last year in America, where

there are over 1 million personal bankruptcies, why do we, right now, have almost 3 1/4 trillion

dollars in outstanding debt, and why is the average psycho score 600 and ash the average

FICO credit score 646 out of -- if all of these people are making millions of dollars telling us the

right way to do things, why is that still happening? And, it may be because the financial

techniques offered up by the financial gurus aren't techniques that'll work for you. Dave

Ramsey sold all of his belongings and paid off all of his debt, and eventually turned around

what was a bad situation for him, and became fabulously wealthy. Okay? I can sell all of my

belongings. To pay off my debt and start over. It won't work for me. Some of the things that

Dave Ramsey says makes sense to me, and I use them. But, I pick and choose. The things

that will work for me. So, it's different strokes for different folks. What works for your neighbor,

what works for Dave Ramsey, what works for Susie Orman name not work for you. And, it's

okay. You don't have to live up to any standards except for your own. You want to find out

what it is that will work for you, and you will be successful. It's not you. You are not the

problem. So, next screen, please. You simply keep trying, without pressure, keep trying until

you have found a system that is the perfect fit for you. And, it may not be all at once, there may

not be an avalanche of information that works perfectly for you and everything goes into the

category and you become financially successful. But, here it is. I'm going to talk to you about

taking the first steps towards improved financial wellness. Okay? Improved financial wellness.

I'm not going to talk to you about getting rid of all of your debt, I'm not going to teach you how

to put $10,000 into your emergency savings account, I'm not going to do all of that, and, watch

you struggle to pay your monthly bills. That is the 600 pound elephant in the room. That is

what all of us in the world of financial education want to accomplish. We want you to have an

emergency savings account. We want you to get out of debt. We want all things financial in

your life to be perfect. That is our goal for you. So, next screen, please.

>> Hey, this is Nakia, I just wanted to let you know that you can move your slides. There is a

little arrow right above the slides. See above the number 20? You can press that and move the

slides forward.

>> Okay, wait? Where is it? Oh, thank you, you guys.

>> You're welcome.

>> Okay, how do you eat an elephant? How do you eat that 600 pound elephant in the room?

Where do you start? What if you still don't have a whole bunch of time? Don't worry about it.

Don't worry about it, keep calm. Even elephant. If we tried to eat that whole elephant all at

once, if we try to accomplish the $10,000 in emergency savings, and all of our debt gone into

beautiful budget, we won't accomplish anything, because it's too much. We can't eat an

elephant. And our minds have a tendency to blow organizational tasks that big way out of

proportion. And, we resist the change. So, when I say I want to lose 20 pounds, I can't lose 20

pounds. I could lose 1 pound. And, that, that I can use, I'm good with that. I can do that. And

then maybe next week, I will lose another pound. So, here we are, one bite at a time, this is

how you do it. One bite at a time. People who don't succeed at making changes often fail

because they try to make too great a change too quickly. They try to eat an elephant all in one

bite. I want you to think small. Little bites. Little steps. Little, tiny successes, that become

behavior changes, and those behavior changes are the things that will make you successful,

the things that will take the stress away, the things that will make you feel like you have a little

bit more power in your life. Everyone of us has had an epiphany moment where we decide to

get our finances under control, or to lose weight, or to get more exercise, or any of 1 billion

things. Meanwhile, we are getting offers from car dealers, from credit card companies, from the

Apple's new iPhone, Weight Watchers and Nutrisystem, they have built empires on our desire

to lose weight but at the same time, Burger King and Chick-fil-A are dangling french fries and

chicken biscuits in front of us. Fit that. I thought a fit bit.We now have a way to monitor all of

our sleeping, steps, through, it's right on our wrists. But at the same time, Samsung comes out

with an 80 inch flatscreen TV. So, we've got one thing pulling off one way and another thing

pulling us another way, and we are trying to fit everything in and be successful. And, the

behaviors that want to change are really tricky. We know what we need to do, but doing it is

really hard. So, that is the challenge. How do we take the step from knowing what to do, to

doing it? Whether you want to get out of debt, get organized, save money, clean a drawer,

feed a third world country, what ever it is you want to do, you have to take the first step and

you decide what your first step is. And, if you don't make that first step or that first step doesn't

work, okay. Don't get overwhelmed. Keep your eye on where you think you want to go, but

don't beat yourself up.

>> So, the first bite, that's always the hardest. Making a decision. And you may be looking at a

600 pound elephant, you may be looking at the elephant in the saying, okay, I want it all. I want

to get rid of my desk, I want to have a budget that works. I don't want anymore nonsufficient

funds. I want to have an emergency savings account, I went to sleep at night, for heaven

sakes. Okay, that is the big picture. But, this isn't a race to that end. And, this can be a long

journey, a short journey, but, you are in charge. This is your trip. This is your journey, you have

the roadmap. And, if you take a wrong turn, then just look at your map and find your way back.

And, it's okay. It's okay to do that. So, let's start this trip, my trip, come with me for just a

minute. On the trip to financial wellness. Remember, I'm driving this bus, and I find that that's

my map. Maybe my map came from AAA. But maybe you got your map from true -- Google

maps and maybe it has four different routes that you can take. Some are short, some are long

and scenic. So, you create your math in your head while I'm talking, and I know I got a little

excited about this, and people laugh at me because I do get really excited about financial

wellness stuff, but, it is because I have been doing this for so long and have seen so many

people get power. Tangible power. Digital tower. Emotional power from doing little things that

change them on their way to being financially fit. So, here it is. Step one. How goofy is this?

Let's get organized. So, you choose your method. Maybe you want an accordion file. Okay, I

got one. Maybe you want a drawer in your bedroom. Okay, maybe you want a shoebox. Been

there, done that. Maybe you want a file cabinet. Oh, I also have one of those. Okay? It's

whatever works for you. Choose your method, but you have to have a place to put your

paperwork. If you saw that movie, Field of dreams, I think he was a corn farmer and he hears

this voice telling him, if you build it, he will come. And he is talking about shoeless Joe

Jackson. So, this farmer builds a ballfield, and sure enough, out of the cornfield, comes

shoeless Joe Jackson and a whole bunch of other baseball players. Okay, I'm not suggesting

that you build a ballfield. But I'm telling you, if you build a method to keep your papers

organized, just build it, just get an accordion file folder and put it in some kind of folder. Pull out

a drawer in your bedroom. Put it in some kind of order. Get your shoebox. Make dividers for

the shoebox. Build it, and they will come. Build it, and as you find the papers that need to be

filed, you can put them in there. You don't have to rip the house apart on a Saturday afternoon

and build it right then, but, as you find them, build it. It works, it truly does. I found stuff I did not

know I had. And, everybody has their own method. Okay? I happen to use an accordion file for

some stuff, and then I use a two drawer file for other things and it works for me to but, that

doesn't mean that's the system that you have to have. But, I do think that you need someplace

to put everything that you can put your hands on. So, the file, this first file, whether it is an

according a pile or shoebox or drawer in your bedroom, but this first file is where you are

building things. It can be organized by month, it might be by month, or you could buy category.

You could have it spy utility bill, of course you can just look at your utility bill at any time you

want. As bills arrive, open them, put them in your file. If you are still paying with checks, put a

stamp on the envelope. And at the same time you do that, write it on your calendar so you got

a secondary. So, not everyone is paying their bills by check, and some of you may not be

banked. You may be getting money orders. Whatever your method is, make it work for you.

And, after you pay something, make sure that you put the receipt. So, if this up your utility bill

is due next week, Payette, crossing off the calendar, put the receipt that you have stated in

your file box, and you're all set. You've accomplished one thing. It may not be huge, but,

you've accomplished something. You've done something to move yourself forward. Not

everybody is using paper. I only pay one bill a month with a check. Everything else is

electronic. That works for me. I still work with an awful lot of people who are nervous about

paying their bills online and that's okay. Whatever works for you. So, if you are going

paperless, and everything is done electronically, you still need a backup system. So, even if

you're memory has never failed, it's still a good idea to have a visual reminder of your bills.

And, a place to keep receipts. I cannot tell you how important it is to save receipts. When you

buy stuff during the month, take the receipt. I don't know if you've noticed this, but now they're

asking you, do you want the receipt? Well, yeah I want the receipt. If you go to get gas, you

have the option to take it or not. Take the receipt, because at some point, you want to make

sure that what is in your checkbook balance is accurate with the receipts that you've got. It's a

balancing thing. And it's actually kind of fun if you want to look at all of the money you spend.

So, have a place to keep your receipts. It could be a spindle, and envelope, it could be a

shoebox, it could be anything. Also, you could use a whiteboard to post your bills so that you

know. Put them on a sticky note on the whiteboard and as he pay them, take them off. Put it on

the calendar. As they are paid, mark them off. Or, if you have a tablet, and actually, I have

done that, just write them in the tablet and cross them off the tablet as I pay them. You have to

have a secondary. We need a visual. If we're using electronics, we need a visual. There's also

a second file that you need, and you may already have this. I never worried about any of this

until I fell off the roof and broke my back. And my daughters were quite mad at me because I

did not have anything organized. And I was not able to communicate with them, so they have

no idea if I had a will, they had no idea if I had insurance, they had no idea if I have money in

the bank or what think it was. So, since that time, I have learned the importance of keeping

important papers and documents. When I go out and speak to deploy military, I remind them of

this, because we don't know from day to day who may have to access our information. So, this

is just, in my mind, a real basic idea of the things that you need. My important papers and

documents, the way I do it, I've got them in an accordion file, and then, I also scanned them all.

And put them on a flash drive that my oldest daughter has. So, I have my important papers

and documents, and my oldest daughter has my important papers and documents. It's just a

little bit of a security measure for me, because there is no one else living in my house to

monitor. So, somebody else has it, my daughter has it. But, these are just basic things. Social

Security cards, bank accounts. If you have online account any other website and user ID and

password, put that in a little notebook and keep that in case you are like I was, unable to pay

my bills, because I was in the hospital. Somebody, if you are in the hospital, can pay your bills

for you because they would have access to the website, the user ID and password. I think this

is as important as keeping your bills organized. And again, if you build this, they will come. I

don't know how everybody else is, but I have paperwork all over the place. One -- once I built

my accordion file, I would go through, find a few things and put it in. You cannot eat an

elephant all in one bite. This was a big elephant because I had many years without monitoring

my paperwork. Now, there is a third file you might want to consider. I don't own a home right

now, so I don't have a lot of paperwork. I used to have appliances and lawnmowers and all of

those kinds of things. I had warranties and instruction guides and receipts I'm a I don't have as

much of that anymore, but, I do keep the file still with any warranties, like my watch, I have

orgy at my watch, I also have the receipt for when I bought it. I have a new TV, I've got the

warranty and instruction guide for that. My computer, same thing. I keep receipts, I keep

warranties because you never know when you may have to use it. My sit -- broke, I cannot get

it to work but I have my receipt and paperwork so I called and they walked me through it. If I

had thrown it away like I used to do, I would just be putting it in a drawer and when not using it

anymore. That is $100 wasted. Keep your tax returns. If you are filing tax returns, keep them

for at least three years. And, Eric's certificate and divorce decrees, I hate to put that in the

same sentence, but I've got both, so there might be others out there with both, but at the very

least, keep that information because you don't know when you'll need it. Here in Florida, when

we renew our drivers license, we have to prove that we have a name change in the way we

prove we have a name change if we are female is we have our marriage certificate, that

proves that I changed my name and there may be other states doing the same thing. So, you

might want to read files. You might want one file for your bills, you might want one file for your

important papers and documents, you might want another file to keep your tax returns and

warranties and that, or you could put it all in one to drawer file and make it really easy, it's your

call. But, do consider getting all of the paper clutter organized together in one place. It makes it

a lot easier. Now I'm going to talk about something nobody likes to talk about. Keeping track of

your money. Okay? But, this is part of the whole financial wellness thing. You have to watch

your money. If you are not watching it, somebody else will. You need to know how much is

coming in, how much is going out. I'm positive you have a handle on the coming in, but you

may not have a handle on the going out. And, sometimes, this is really basic, and sometimes

it's more difficult. Sometimes it feels like when you do a budget that somebody is trying to put

you on a financial diet and that's not it at all. And, I would never suggest anyone go on a diet, I

certainly would not do it. But, you have to monitor your money. So, I'm not going to tell you to

make a spending plan. That has been a very popular thing to say. Let's make a spending plan.

I don't want you to have a spending plan. I just think that is wrong, psychologically. I want you

to have a budget. I want you to be deliberate. I want you to use whatever method you want,

whatever budget floats your boat, there are a ton of them out there on the Internet, I use all

different kinds, there are lots of budgets and pick one that you like, create your own budget,

but, make a budget. It's a deliberate plan for where your money has to go. And then, you track

it. You track it, and if you have a goal, it makes it so much easier to attain a goal if you know

exactly how much money is coming in and how much has to go out. That being said, I'm a big

fan of technology. This is an area that I really like technology and I love apps. On my phone, I

have a Mint app. In the Mint app itself, I have a budget be it you can see it on the phone well

but on my computer I can see it. I can click on my budget and see exactly how much money I

have spent. It is based on my debit card usage. So, if I'm using my debit card, willy-nilly, like

most of us do, I'm going to have things show up on my budget that I did not plan for. Mint is

probably my favorite and it's easy to use. But, when I was doing a search on the most popular,

of this type, level money came in real high. And so did budget ease. But, these are your call.

There are three budgeting tools out there. And, what you want them to do, you want them to

show your bottom line, how much money you have in your bank account, and then you want to

look at your bank account. You want to see your savings account and be able to look at your

savings account. If you have a 401(k), you want to see your 401(k). If you have a credit card,

same thing. You want to look at all of it but look at your budget and see where your money is

going. I look at my app every single day without fail I look at it every single day. Even though I

look at it every single day, I did end up having somebody hack me, and before I caught on to

what was going on, somebody was taking 1699 a month out of my checking account. As soon

as I saw it and as soon as I got on the phone with Bank of America, we figured it out after like

an hour, but, if I was only looking at my statement once a month, I would not have caught it.

So, it's a good idea to use electronic Xanax and stuff like that if you want to. But one way or

another, I believe you need a budget. But, this is what I hear often. I don't need no stinking

budget. I'm good, I look at my balances everyday. I'm good. I work with people on a daily basis

that they still use their debit card until they can't use their debit card anymore. I work with

people that have overdraft protection on their account, so that they can overdraft. Can I tell

you, that is a bad idea. You don't want overdraft protection because you want to be able to

control your money well enough that you don't overdraft. And if there's a possibility that you're

going to overdraft, you need to look at what's going on. What's going on this month that is

going to make me overdraft? I've had so many people say to me, I don't make enough money

to budget. Yeah, you do. If you have money coming in, you have money to budget. You have

to budget it, even if there's not enough, you have to know how much has to go. If there's not

enough money that doesn't mean the money that has to go isn't there. I've heard I'm not good

with math. I have heard, seriously, I tried it once, it did not work. Or, I have enough money, I

don't need to budget because I'm never late on my bills to or, like my middle daughter, who I

love dearly said to me, I do budget, I keep it in my head. That may not be effective. None of

those are effective, truly. So, just give it a try. If you haven't budgeted, or if it has been a while

since you've got a budget, just pull up your bank receives, or your bank statements and

receipts, just take a look, take a look at what you've got going on. This is where you come up

to see if maybe there is some spending that might be considered unnecessary. And you can

check your debit card spending. And let me tell you, there is a woman up in Brooklyn that I was

coaching for a while, and we did a budget together remotely, you know, I gave her a budget

on, she attacked me and sure enough, she was right. She had no money, nothing. There

wasn't a nickel there. Just on the off chance, I said, do you think that you could look at your

debit card spending? Could you write down all of your debit card spending that you see on

your bank statements for the month? Just write it down and take a look at it. She did the

exercise per she wrote down her debit card spending, and sure enough, there was about $300

that she was spending on her debit card in a month. And, it did not even occur to her then.

What did occur to her is when she was wandering around CVS on her way from work and she

stopped in CVS, and she realized she was looking for something to buy. She was just walking

around CVS, looking for something to buy. And that's when the light came on for her, and after

that point, she understood budgeting. And, she bought in. She got into the whole budgeting

thing. But, it has to be on her terms. So, there's a lot of money coming and going. Some of this

flexible, some of it is not flexible. The bills that you pay every month like your rent, and maybe

your car insurance, maybe your cable, maybe your cell phone if you are on the plan, those are

all the same every month, but there's a whole lot of flexible or variable expenses that are going

to show up on your budget. But, you might have to look through your bank statements to find

these variable expenses. You may not recognize them. And, it could be your electric. Your

electric may not be on a budget plan villages recommend a budget plan if you're trying to save

money. Table and Internet, that's flexible. You can cut out at mods -- as much of that is you

want to. Eating out, gas, birthdays, holiday shopping, entertainment, credit cards, and there's a

lot of different expenses that are variable. And, that is usually a really good place to start, if

you're looking to try to figure out why so much money is leaving. Look on your bank statements

at the variable things. Or, just go back in and look at your debit card spending. The bank

statement tells the truth. It tells the truth. Unless you are giving yourself a cash allowance, and

you're not keeping your receipts, if you are doing that, you really won't know where your

money is going. And, I am a big fan of a cash allowance. I give myself a cash allowance of $20

a week. But, you have to save the receipts for that, otherwise you won't know where the

money is going. So, look at your bank statements. Take a look at where the money is going.

And, if you find on your budget that you are not making it to the end of the month, you don't

have enough money, you've cut back everywhere that you can cut back and you're not going

to make it, then you have to increase your cash flow. And Elizabeth was talking about a bunch

of programs that are out there, like the earned income tax credit, so many people that I work

with him about one time a year when they get their earned income tax credit, changes the rest

of the year because they can do great things with that. I've worked with a lot of people on ID a.

There are ways that you can control your cash flow. Maybe we can't be like Dave Ramsey,

maybe we can tell everything to make a little bit of money, but, there are only two things that

we can do. If there is enough cash flow, we have to earn more or spend less. And, that's it.

There's nothing magical about us. That is absolutely it. Earn more, spend less. So, how can

you earn more? Some of the programs that Elizabeth spoke about. Or, you can get creative.

You could have a garage sale, use and sell your skills, often I work with people, often I work

with people that just want to pick up a part-time job. Just for a little bit of extra money. If you go

to in deed.com and on the search line put part-time, you would be surprised the interesting

part-time jobs that come up. Silly little things like dog walking or housesitting. Or, silly little

things like that that may not make a fortune, or maybe, you know, working three hours in the

afternoon in a dress shop. Because that is the slow time of day and they need just somebody

to be in the store. There are a lot of ways. You can get creative and earn more. But, you may

have to spend less. And, spending less is the hard part. So, you have to stick to your budget,

the budget that you have created, your budget. I think giving ourselves a cash allowance, like

the old envelope system, where you look at your budget and you say, okay, for groceries this

month, we have $200. Now, you may be using food stamps, that's okay. That food stamp, that

is your budget for groceries. If you have to augment that, then put cash with it. To augment it. If

your food stamps are not enough. Put the debit card away. Whoever invented the debit card

was brilliant, because he makes a spend all of our money. Stop impulse purchases. Don't be

like my friend up there in Brooklyn who found herself wondering around CVS, ready to buy

something. And, clarify your wants versus needs. And, that is something. When I look at my

debit card spending, if I'm having a crunch month where I'm not going to have enough money

and I look at my debit card spending, that's really easy place to see if I bought what I wanted or

what I need. Last night, I was at a place calledHaven. And, if a transitional housing for women

who have been victims of domestic violence and they live in kind of a protective shelter. Where

the gates locked up by the end of the day. But, this young woman who has one child and no

car, she uses a bicycle, she took her bicycle and her son over to a Walmart to do a little bit of

shopping and on the way back, she went by a local gym, well-known local gym. And, they were

outside the gym, they, really well-built young man. There were out there trying to get people to

sign up a contract for the gym. And this young woman has no need to sign up for a gym. But,

they talk so well, and they said the things to her that she wanted to hear, and you know what?

Before they were finished with her, she had given them her check number, her account

number, and she had signed up. They said that in three days they would take the money out of

her account, that is today. Today they are going to take the money out of her account. I spoke

to last night and I said, no, that wasn't impulse. They worked on you and make you buy that.

So, she was supposed to, today, call her bank and stop payment on that and go tell them that

she did not want to have the contract. I don't know if she did and she may get quiet, I may

never know. Stop the impulse purchases. When you're purchasing something that is an

impulse, think hard. And even like when you get your groceries. When you get your core

freeze and you got your card and you're just about ready to check art, look in your grocery

truck. Are there flaming hot Cheetos in there? And were they on your list? Maybe not. Look to

see if there is something in the card that you can put back. Wants versus needs. And credit

cards. Don't carry your credit card unless you plan to use them. Plan means it's something that

you have budgeted for, that you are going to get, that you have a plan for it. So, be careful with

your credit cards. In fact, can I just tell you, I would say, stop using credit. And I know we need

it, and it's a factor in my life, when I buy a plane ticket to go see my kids, I use a credit card.

Sometimes I have today Christmas cards on Amazon because I haven't gotten it done quickly

enough, and now my feet are in the fire, I got to buy that. So I understand. That doesn't mean

you can't have a PayPal account. You can absolutely have a PayPal account and have that

come right out of your checking account. You can do that. But, it's typically that of use credit

cards or so, credit cards are not money. As much as we feel like they are money, they are not

money. Debit cards are money. That is where the problem starts, with credit cards. Credit

cards are not money, they are loans, high interest loans. And credit cards are tools to improve

your credit, but they are also the tools to ruin your credit. And, so many people that I work with

that are trying to buy homes, or are getting collection notices, if the credit cards that have done

it to them. And, this is why I always say, credit is a wonderful service, but it's a terrible master.

Don't be in a situation where your credit card is master over you. And let me show you. I

started using this chart with high school kids, because I felt like high school kids that were

going to be going into college did not understand this whole credit card thing. It does feel like

money. When you are young, it feels like money. Yeah, I can go get pizza, I've got a credit

card. But, look at this did this is the minimum payment trap. I got these right off of bank

rate.com. I go there all the time, they have wonderful calculators. So, this particular one that I

used, I said that someone had a $1000 credit card balance. The interest was 28%. Yes, that's

high. Is it incredible? Not so much. And this particular credit card, the minimum payment is

calculated on 2.5% of the balance owed. There are more than one way to copulate the

minimum balance. Some credit cards are 4%, of the balance owed, that would be the credit

card that is paid down faster. 2.5% of the balance owed pays down the slower. So, this is a

slow to pay down part. So, here you are, your first month. You can do this. You only have to

pay $25, the $25 is the minimum payment on a $1000 credit card. The interest on that

payment is $23.33. That's the interest you pay on your principal, one dollar and 67. Crazy,

right? You pay down your card by $1.67 even though you gave them $25. Six months later,

you're doing the right thing, making your minimum payment. It has gone down, now it's only

$24.79 because you're paying 2.5% of what you all. The interest on that payment is 2314, the

printable has now dropped. The pencil is $1.65. In six months, you have paid your card down

by $10. Now, let's flash forward to 240 months. 20 years. 20 years you're paying on this card.

The minimum payment now is $16.78 because you're only paying 2.5% of the balance owed,

your interest is $15.66. The principal this month, you are only paying $1.12 toward the

principal. So, in 20 years, you've paid the car down by $330. Whoever you got this card from is

delighted and my guess is if you are paying a card like this, you are getting a lot of credit card

offers because when they pull your credit, anybody who has permissible purpose can look at

credit and offer you things I credit card offers, and if they see that you are paying this credit

card every month, on-time, minimum payment, they wanted piece of that and you will get credit

card offers. Okay? This is probably one of the worst things I see for low income people

because they use tended task tend to use credit cards and I do two at half past. When I was

raising my daughter's as a single mom, I got confused as to what was cash and credit and

when I sold my house, a terrible thing happened. The equity I had built up in my house after 23

years, I had to use it to pay my credit card bills. Could have gone in the bank, could have had

money but instead I had to pay credit card debt. So I sound like I'm preaching but it's awful.

And the thing about it, you may have paid the car down little bit, but sometimes during the

month you may pull that up and say, oh, I've got $27 available on here, I can go get pizza, and

his perpetual and it could be five cards that are perpetual. So if you have credit cards,

unsecured loans, try to reduce it the best way you can. And a lot of us have that. I have it. And

there are ways to do it. You can snowball at and this is part of Dave Ramsey's thing I agree

with. Snowballing your debt write it down, take the smallest one and put as much money tour

that as you can, while still paying the minimum on everything else. Snowball one of them, get

rid of it and you know the fear, take that money and apply it to the next one. And that has

nothing to do with interest rates, that has to do with the size of the debt. Avalanche in your

debt is another way you pay off the one with the highest interest first, but it's a little bit like a

diet. I think that avalanche in your diet desk that is like a diet. If I'm on a diet and go one full

week without losing any weight, I may eat a bag of chips because I'm really frustrated. And

avalanche that, you're paying the largest interest first and it may take a while before you see

any activity, even though you're paying as much as you can, the interest rate is still high and it

takes a while and you may give up. That management is for a company like mine would take

the debt, get interest rates reduced to have you send one payment a month to cover all of

them and the debt management company pays all of the debts for you. You are not taking on

any loans, you're just having somebody managed that for you. Debt consolidation is where you

consolidate all of the debt into another loan, so you are trading a debt for debt. Debt settlement

you don't want to do. Don't ever do debt settlement. If you can help it, maybe there are

situations where you may have to, but debt settlement is where everything goes to collections

and the collection company that works on settlements with collection companies to get it paid.

So you have to ruin your credit with debt settlement. The other options, snowballing, avalanche

and, debt management and debt consolidation do not ruin your credit debt settlement will ruin

your credit. In a hurry.

>> Savings. I never had savings. Cruelty. I never had a savings that I will tell you I have them

now because I'm getting old and I get it. Popular wisdom says, save 10% of your income, and

my wisdom says, say whatever you can save. Just start. If all you can save is one dollar, save

one dollar. If, in your budget, you can find a way to pull off a little bit, ask your HR person to

have it go right from your check, right into your savings account. If you have an HR person. Or,

the way I do it, my paycheck goes right into my bank account, and I have an automatic, on my

own, I set up an automatic transfer to my savings, twice a month, I have automatic transfer go

to my savings. And then, don't touch it. Don't touch it. Make sure you can budget, make sure

you can afford the savings, and then don't touch it. And increases whenever you can. And, this

is a discipline, and I feel that even talking to people about this, but the power that you get from

having a little bit of money in savings is huge. Even if all you can get in the savings account is

$500, that is $500. That could be tires on your car. That could be a new muffler. $500 is a lot.

Yes, you want to strive to have three months worth of savings, you bet you do. And, I'm

working on that and I have been working on that. I will tell you, I've been working on that for

four years. Do I have three months of income saved? No, I do not. Am I close? I am getting

close. And, when I reach that goal, I'm not going to stop, I'm going to start another savings

account and I'm going to keep putting money in savings. There is no resting. This is too big,

there's too much at stake. So, that's all my prattle on getting organized and having a budget

appeared you've heard it all before, you've heard it 30 times before. But, maybe there was one

thing that I said that you go, yeah, maybe I can try that. Or maybe while I'm talking there is

something that you thought of. Write it down. The next thing as goals. Why would you do all of

this without having a goal? What is your goal? Is it to have emergency savings? Is it to pay off

your debt? Write a goal down where it is tangible, you can see it, sure it's realistic and

manageable, break it down to a bunch of little steps, and, if you miss a step, that's okay, pick it

up estimates you can. And, don't make your goal at all or nothing, I can go into when the

lottery. No, you're not going to win the lottery. Make the goal something that you can do.

>> And, if your goal. Okay? It's yours, it belongs to you. It's not my goal, it's yours. Manage it

the way it works for you. You don't have to have a goal, and if you don't, you're still a good

person and we are hardwired to resist change, but think about it. Like, if I was going to

McDonald's and I know I that I have to lose weight, maybe I could get french fries, maybe I will

throw one away, I'm on my way. I threw away a french fry. Maybe when I get my groceries I

will look at the card and take something out that I did not really need, or maybe I will empty my

wallet at the end of the day. Start the way that works for you. Give yourself some credit, allow

yourself some successes, every day does not have to be an award winner. So, either french

fry today, throw one away tomorrow, if you fall, get up, try again, keep your sense of humor. It's

important but there are a lot of things that are important. And, here's some tips. Get your credit

report if you have your credit report, called 877-751-8080, that is in your credit. Get your credit

report and look at them. And, by the way, they sell your credit reports, Experian, Equifax and

TransUnion so your credit reports. You don't want them doing it. Call 888-567-8688. For five

years, you will be invisible to you won't get credit card offers, you won't get marketing sales

calls, you will be invisible. It tells you on your credit report that they sell you. But, we never

read that far in our credit report so call 888-567-8688. Do it for you, tell your parents, sisters,

brothers, but stop all of the marketing. It's crazy. And monitor your self. Monitor your own

credit. You can do it, you can pay somebody to do it, but you can do it your self. If you go to

credit.com, and some of you have seen the commercials for creditkarma.com, credit.com looks

at your Experian credit report and tells you what you're doing right and wrong. It gives you your

score. And, it gives you the five areas that impact you. Your Experian credit report. credit

karma Looks at TransUnion, let them tell you the same thing, your score, what you're doing

right and wrong. Also, once you have a username and password in have those accounts, if

someone tries to pull your credit, they will send you an e-mail saying someone just try to pull

your credit or there was an inquiry on your credit. If you are not making an inquiry, now you

know that you need to make a phone call to Experian or TransUnion to find out who made

inquiry. If you don't know the number, nobody knows the number because they are not listed,

but if you go to a little-known website that I'm going to let you in on my big secret, there's a

website called gethuman.com, and it is a place where if there's a number you're trying to call

and all you get to do is push buttons and you never get to speak to a human, if you go to

gethuman.com and type Equifax, you can get the number. Or you can call the IRS. Both of

these sites, credit.com and credit, are free, secure, as secure as your bank. And, they are

good. They are good stuff.

>> One more time, this is your future, it's in your hands. Organize your clutter, create a budget,

stop impulse spending, make savings I have it, reduce your debt, use cash, set reachable

goals. All of these, some of these, one of these, whatever works for you. It's yours, this is your

elephant to eat, so, if the bytes you want to eat, and move yourself forward as quickly or as

slowly as you want. Are there any questions?

>> Thank you so much. That was a really great overview. You know, your advice is so simple,

and, so practical. And, I have to say, sometimes I think, oh, I have heard her, I have Arctic at

all of this. But, each time I reminded of how important it is to utilize these tools every day, and

to really treated like a lifestyle change, and not just something I will do for short time, and, I

have to say, I learn something new everyday. Your access to the number to opt out, and, your

tip for gethuman.com, I'm going to start using. Thank you so much. We did have a few

questions come in, and I want to encourage folks that are listening and, if you just put your

question and the question box, we will capture it. If you have sent it to Nakia, we know that she

will be able to read it so just keep sending them in. We do have a few questions. One is, do

you use or do you have any tools that are useful in helping people plan a budget? For

example, a budget template that you find, that touches on some of the important things that

people need to think about.

>> To be honest with you, I use the Dave Ramsey budget. I like the Dave Ramsey budget. I'm

not sure if it's online. I took the Dave Ramsey class so I've got it. But, there are so many good

budgets online, and, if you just do a search, you'll find one that works for you. The thing that

you need to have in your budget, though, is as many things as you have on your bank

statement, as many places as your money is going, you need to be able to represent that on

your budget. So, budgets are pretty individual.

>> And, for those of you that are joining us today, we will be launching an e-learning course

that Marlene Ware helped us create called a zero balance budget. It is going to be launched

here, likely next month. So, if you did sign up to receive information from us, we will be sure to

send it out to you. It's going to be free, and we will have many downloads so that you can get

your self organize around where your money is going. And where it should go into this budget

template, so that you can be thinking about for you might have some needs versus wants to

consider, and, where you have funds that are headed towards the achievement of your goals.

It's got a really great information in there, including reminders to talk to your family about goals,

to have circles of support, that's know about what your goals are and can help to hold you

accountable and stay motivated, another tip straight from Marlene out to you at no cost at all.

So stay tuned for that for the next month.

>> It's very exciting.

>> I do like that budget. It's awesome.

>> It's great. Another question we received is, do you have any experience working with folks

like me who are on SSI, supplemental security income benefits, and are restricted to the $2000

savings limit?

>> I do. I have many people. In fact, a young woman that just got a Habitat for Humanity

home, is on SSD I. Well, actually, to people. That just got homes with Habitat for Humanity,

and I worked with both of them for quite a while. So, yes, I do have experience with that. It's

not easy, when there is a finite amount of money that you cannot manipulate, but it's doable.

>> Thank you. Also, for those of you who receive SSI, if you want to get connected to folks in

your local communities, who can help you better understand what your return to work rules

are, and how to use the Social Security were hunted but actually help you get more of your SSI

payments when you return to work, please reach out and let us know. Every community has

work incentives, planning and assistance grantees who are funded by the Social Security

Administration, to provide free benefits counseling to people who receive SSI or SSA DI, and

are returning to work. Many times, the organizations are housed at places like centers for

independent living who also provide assistance on budgeting and managing money, so, there

are several services available in your local community that you may not be tapping into and

could be of great benefit to you. I also want to take a minute to note that there are several

protected savings opportunities that people can participate in. If you live in public housing, or

public housing office may offer the family self-sufficiency program which allows you to save

money toward a goal that will not impact your SSI. Also, federally funded individual

development accounts are available in communities across the country, and, those accounts

can help you save for homeownership, post secondary education, or starting a business. And

again, those don't count against your public benefit. So there are opportunities that you can

look at. Others that you do have to buy into, like pooled trust, but if you are in the listening

audience and want more information on any of those opportunities, please just send us an e-

mail here at National Disability Institute and would be happy to provide you with that

information. Before we go onto the next question, several of you have messaged him to ask if

the slides will be available, and if you can get a copy of the slides. Nakia Matthews put in the

chat box how to download the slides so please check the chat box. Also, you have an archive

of the webinar posted to our site and we will send you out a notice of that in about a week.

Okay, so another person, Marlene, I have a question that I'm unsure if you can address. I

have a checking and savings account at a bank in my state and they want me to do my

banking online. I can't afford a computer or the software, have you seen this, and Steve have

any guidance for me?

>> I haven't seen that, and I'm assuming that they do not want to give you paper statements

any longer. And, I think that is the trend. I think that is where we are going. And, I don't have

any experience with that, but, boy, I will tell you what, I think I would demand paper

statements, I don't know if you can, but that is what I would do.

>> Thanks, Marlene. For those of you who haven't been made aware, get, there is a federal

office, well, there's a new office at the federal level called the consumer financial protection

euro. And, they are there to do just what their name says, they are there to provide consumers

financial protection. And, they have a way that you can submit a complaint. So, you can submit

a complaint about a bank, banking service, you can do it about almost anything related to

finances, and, you can go to that website, if you would not mind putting it in the box, it is

www.consumerfinance.gov. And go to complaints. It's actually incredibly important, if you are

experiencing a challenge in using any financial services that you do submit complaints to

CFPB, only by having people who have reached out to them and told their story can they

create the kind of financial services, regulations that are going to ensure that all of us as

consumers have the protection that we should have as we go out into the financial services

marketplace. So, I hope that that person is still on the line, and that you will submit a complaint

at www.consumerfinance.gov/complaints. And in considering what your complaint was, let me

also give you the phone number. The phone number is 855411 -- 855-411-2372. Okay, we

have another question. What is the best way for a person on SSD I to engage in financial

planning, estate planning, wealth building, etc.? The individual says -- oh, I'm so sorry,

sometimes the questions are a little bit challenging to understand. They said that there is a

unique set of circumstances that are taken into consideration without having certain public

interest groups adversely impacted advice given. Let's stick with the top of the question,

Marlene. So, what is the best way for a person on SSD I to engage in financial planning,

building and wealth building? Before I answer, I want to remind everyone on the line but if you

received as SDI, Social Security disability insurance, that does not have an asset limit to it, but

you may receive other public benefits that do. So, I just want to make sure folks are keeping

that in mind. It is not just as SDI, but if you qualify for Medicaid state programs or other public

benefits, that might be where an asset limit is coming in and some specific consideration in

planning might be necessary.

>> Because I'm a credit counselor and not a financial planner, I always defer back to if you are

working on wealth building or a state planning or anything like that, it starts back with your

organization and the budget and learning where your money is going. And then, taking the

money that you can set aside. I'm also a big fan of homeownership. Even in this day and age,

I'm a big fan of homeownership, whether first-time homebuyer or Habitat for Humanity, and,

many many people that think that they cannot be homeowners can be with the habit for

humanity program. And, that is, we have to live someplace, and if we are in a location where

we want to stay there, go online and look at Habitat for Humanity in your community and see

what the income guidelines are. But here, where I am in Florida, we are able to get people on

SSD and SSI and habitat homes. The income level is low enough. So, I would always start

with the budget. I would not invest money, but I'm not sure where I am investing it. We will hire

somebody to do that for you, and I would think about homeownership.

>> Great, things, Marlene. So another question that has come in is a lot of folks looking for

the transcript. So, if you don't mind if we could look and post that link of where to download the

slides one more time. Someone is asking, if it's harder to show you are as poor as possible

and having MS, and I will take a shot at that and Marlene, if you want to add anything.

Unfortunately, many times when you're in need of assistance, due to a disability, primarily

access to health care or access to some kind of supplemental income, those are means tested

programs. So, you do need to understand what the income eligibility is for those different

programs. It's really important that folks are aware of Medicaid buy-in programs in the state.

One of the key things you want to consider doing as a new person with a healthcare challenge

like MS is to look at utilizing the tools available to stay on the job as long as possible. And

there are many tools available. If you're not sure what those are again, please e-mail and we

will be happy to provide guidance. And so, Medicaid buy-in is a great tool because it will allow

you to purchase, to buy into purchase into the Medicaid system in your state. So, it

encourages you to work, and it does not have the same low level income guidelines that some

other programs will have. So, the kind of language is poor as possible is not language but I

would use, but I would definitely say you want to make sure that you are aware of what the

income and eligibility guidelines are and that you understand also what different programs,

how they defined the word disability, and what kind of things will meet that definition. Marlene,

I don't know if you have anything to add to that. Tonight I have nothing to add. That was

awesome.

>> Also, somebody asks if SSD I is income taxable and of long-term disability is income

taxable. I know half of the answer to the question, so I will tell you, SSD I, is that taxable? It is

not a very black and white answer. It really depends on your other earnings and whether or not

you're filing was someone else. So, there are links on the IRS website to better understand

this. But, more important than that, there are services available in your community to get taxes

done for free, and those tax volunteers are certified by the IRS. It's called volunteer income tax

assistance, or VITA and also there is My Free Taxes which is available online and virtually. If

you feel confident doing your taxes, but you do have some specific questions, you may find

that My Free Taxes is a free solution that might be helpful. Now Marlene, I know that you're

pretty good with volunteer tax, I don't know if you want to add anything.

>> Nothing to add except I would say to go to gethuman.com and look for a number for the

IRS and see if there's some of that you could talk to that would give you a better -- or send you

paperwork on it. The IRS is pretty helpful, you just have to get somebody on the phone.

>> Sure, great point. If you ever do have a significant challenge with the IRS, the IRS has a

taxpayer Advocate service, and, you can locate them online at IRS.gov/advocate, this as a

resource for folks who are needing to better understand how to negotiate something with IRS.

If you need advocacy and relations to the IRS, and they provide things like low income

taxpayer clinics. So, they can be a really great resource to you.

>> They are scary, but they are good.

>> We will do one last question and I have a few more things for everyone on the line including

resources and next steps. But somebody asks, what do you see as the main contributing factor

to the rise in personal debt within the middle age group within the middle class, and is this a

shift within the past few years?

>> What do I see? The people that IC -- the people that IC, I have an awful lot of people that

are buying cars, that they cannot afford. And, I see a lot of credit card debt, but, I'm always

wondering in my head, is the credit card debt happening because people are using their debit

card and emptying their bank accounts? I'm not seeing a whole lot of homeownership

anymore, not as much as I did. But, I am seeing a lot of -- oh, no, there's another thing causing

problems, cosigning. So it may not be your debts but it looks like it. Please be careful, don't

cosign anything if you can help it. But people are getting into cars that they cannot afford and

credit card debt. Those are still the top two, I believe.

>> I'll also tell folks, I really have the privilege of being at a conference, I left just to come over

here to do this webinar but there is a conference here in DC this week, CFED, the asset

learning platform conference, and there have been several national speakers doing some

pretty deep research on how we got to this place in the US. And, one of the things that was

noted was that not only was there the impact of the recession and job loss and the loss of

retirement funds and housing that folks had bought into, but also, some of the financial

services that we have been using have been far more costly that they need to be. And,

individuals who are lower income are particularly preyed upon to utilize fringe financial services

that just create a cycle of debt. So, you get a payday loan, but you are required to give some

one on your next paycheck which put you in debt for the next month and so on and so forth. So

you know, all of you that are working, folks, or are on the line Inc. is come, you know that the

less money you have, the better you are with that money. So, this is not a national problem of

just people needing better ways to manage their money, it is also a proud mother people

having the right financial services at the right time to meet their general banking, their small

dollar loan needs, and the other needs that folks have to build long-term assets.

>> So I do want to provide you with a few next steps, just for your consideration. Everyone

who participated today is going to get some notifications about the upcoming financial wellness

webinars, and other activities that we're doing throughout this webinar series. If you would like

more offerings from us here at National Disability Institute, we have a Real Economic Impact

Network that will provide you with other information about our monthly webinars, our monthly

newsletters, and other resources that are generally targeting service providers that can be

great information for anyone. A recorded webinar archive of this webinar will be available

within about a week, and you can locate it online at www.realeconomicimpact.org /financial

wellness or we will send you a notification that it's available. You can go to that archive and if

you did not pull the slides today, you can download the webinar so that you can follow the

guidance toward taking a first step towards financial wellness and share with those who you

think would benefit from it. I really like to encourage you to set a goal to complete those two

items over the next 30 days. Either make sure that you are connected with us, or, go to our

website and download the slides. Or use the download link in the chat box today. And, share

with us your experience of using the tips that Marlene provided to you. One of the most

important things that you can do, something that I think many of us struggle with, is try to

identify that all you have for yourself, goals can be incredibly motivating, and if you haven't

tried it before, you can do all of the things you hear about. Posted where you can see it, we

have some guidance for making a vision board about your goal, if you would like to do

something creative like that, let people know that that is your call, so that they can help support

you. There are even some apps that can help you share calls with other people and make it a

little competition between you and others who have similar goals.

>> If you're on the line and are an individual with MS and you haven't connected to some of

the resources we discussed today, like benefit planners, or centers for independent living, or

individual development account programs, please feel free to reach out to me. I would be

happy to provide you with information about those services. Again, you can reach me at

ejennings@ndi-inc.org.

>> I also wanted to make sure that you know that there are many, many free financial

education resources online. These go beyond budgeting to just a wealth of information about

how to be financially literate. And so, we wanted to provide those to you. We are not

necessarily picking one over the other, it is just like Marlene noted, you've got to find a map

that is right for you. So, each of these may have driven things that you like. There's also

games available and if you do receive Social Security benefits, we created this visa financial

soccer with FISA, and it gives you not only questions about financial education, but questions

about public benefits. So you can go to those sites to build your knowledge of the same time.

We hope that you will join us again next month for the next in the series. If you haven't gotten

connected with us, and looked at all of the things that we have National Disability Institute have

to offer, please visit us at www.realeconomicimpact.org , or e-mail me at ejennings@ndi-

inc.org. I think you again, to Marlene Ware. We appreciate our partnership and wealth of

information that you bring. And, our thanks again to Acorda Therapeutics, our sponsor of this

MS financial wellness weapon are serious. Thank you all for joining us today, have a great

day.

>> [ Event concluded ]