It’s National #ABLEtoSave month!  Rachel joined Matt Syverson, Financial Planner and Dad to a daughter with Down syndrome,  Tom Treacy, Kansas State Treasurer’s Office, and me in sharing about ABLE accounts at the Down Syndrome Guild of Greater Kansas City last week.  As a long-time advocate for the ABLE Act and an ABLE National Resource Center Advisor, Rachel is doing her part to “increase awareness about ABLE accounts and to accelerate the amount of ABLE accounts opened across the country in the short- and long-term.”

My Very Own ABLE Savings Account by Rachel Mast

 

I am an ABLE National Resource Center Advisor. One of my jobs is to encourage people to open ABLE Accounts. This is the website http://www.ablenrc.org/

They have this Road Map to help your learn about ABLE Accounts. I used it and it is easy.

I had the honor of opening the first ABLE Savings Account in Kansas.  I had been saving my birthday money the past few years.  That’s what we used to open my account.

It was easy to open my account.  Go to this website:

Kansas ABLE Savings Plan

Funding my ABLE account

• My parents make monthly gifts.
• When I speak to groups, sometimes they make a gift to my ABLE account.
• If you have a job, you can deposit some of your earnings.
• Friends and family make gifts directly to my ABLE account.
• Graduation gifts –
  • We invited people to make a gift to my ABLE account as my high school graduation gift.
  • We used this for graduation but you could use it for birthdays or other events, too.
  • Most people made my gift directly to my account.
  • They used the information on the back of my party invitation.
  • Every person has a uniqueU-gift code.  This is used to make sure gifts get to my account.

• Some people wrote a check. They printed a form and sent to me as a  graduation gift.

• My parents say people were very generous.
• I had to write lots of thank you notes.
• I will use my ABLE account to help pay for college.

I want to go to college so I can get a good job. I need a good job so I can get my pink house and live my dreams.

Research shows people with Down syndrome and other disabilities who complete college programs are more likely to get a good job.

I am very excited to start the Missouri State BearPOWER program in January.

My ABLE account will help pay for college.  This is a video of me when I got my acceptance letter.

Missouri State Bear Power Acceptance Letter

My ABLE account will help me to be more independent. I hope you will open an ABLE account so you can be independent and live your dreams.