HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF AN ABLE ACCOUNT

HELP AVOIDING THE BENEFITS CLIFF 

Gayle Stanford, a wheelchair user with cerebral palsy, works part time at Columbus Speech and Hearing in Columbus, Ohio. She’s on Medicare and receives small Social Security Disability Insurance payments. 

Stanford says her medical expenses — including things not covered or only partially covered by Medicare — were growing and crowding out what she had left to make house payments. 

“I pulled about $45,000 out of my ABLE account to pay my house off. 

That way, I could focus my earnings on paying medical expenses and not worry about falling behind on the mortgage,” she says. 

“I still have about $20,000 left in my ABLE account. I have about one-third in high risk, one-third in medium risk and one-third in low-risk growth.”