Savings Ideas for Someone on Disability

[misscas]

There is no penalty to withdraw money early from a 401k or IRA if you are disabled. The money will be withheld and you will have to file the appropriate tax form to get the money back as a refund.

If she is receiving SSDI, she can work up to $940 a month without losing her benefits. She would also qualify for medicaid in some states. It's called Working Healthy where I live. The maximum copay for a doctor appt would be $3 and rx is $1-5.35 each. You have to pay about the same amount as she would for medicare which is $96 a month. The state pays your medicare premium.

Anyone who owns a house or an older car should have an emergency fund. I would say that $3k is a good amount as that is about how much it costs to have a furnace or air conditioner worked on, a new appliance is $600-1k, plumbing and electrical are massively expensive, a rotorouter visit for the sewer line is $130.

I am disabled and get SSDI. I liquidated my 401 and IRAs after I filed for disability as I didn't have any income for 5 months and I had run out of savings. I qualify for medicare since I have been disabled for over two years. I am looking into getting medicaid because I work and would qualify for working healthy. It would save me a lot on my shrink visits and psych meds. I am paying about $50 out of pocket every month for psych services and meds. The part-time job helps with the desire to get out of the house and be around people. Even a volunteer job can be a pick me up. You can also use a volunteer job as filler to get rid of any gaps in your resume. Look at the United Way website for your section of the country to find volunteer opportunities.

[SouthShoreGirl]

Thanks for the great follow up posts to this subject!!!! There is definitely a huge difference between just "wanting to save some money" vs. really needing to keep your benefits because you medically NEED them, and want some $$$$ to enhance your quality of life where the gov't benefits do not come into play (ie. paying for special/alternative therapies, private doctors, meds, etc.). The population of people I work with are also severely disabled----they would probably never be able to work again in most cases. Not only that, but they tend to have aged parents who are not going to be around forever to support them........another main reason for the SNT being created.