SEPTEMBER 16, 2009 VCU WEBCAST Services Provided By: Caption First, Inc. >> MICHAEL MORRIS: It's a pleasure to be a part of the webinar series for Start-Up USA. I want to share with you my insights, my experiences, about advancing self-sufficiency for people with disabilities, a topic that is particularly important for any of you that are on the path to becoming entrepreneurs, starting your own business or have already started a business, and are looking to grow that business. I want to share with you first a quote from someone I've worked with, a blogger with the Real Economic Impact Tour, one of the projects of both Burton Blatt Institute and NDI: An optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. "Hi, my name is Claire, and I'm a free-lance writer and home healthcare aide. I have a disability, but I'm an optimist. The disability does not have me. I'm so much more than the label disabled. I'm an aunt, a sister, a daughter, a writer, a reader, a photographer, a book club member, and a poetry- lover, among other things." I think Claire really sets the stage for what I want to talk about today. It's the opportunity to be a part of the American dream, to start your own business, and different tools and strategies that you can utilize to not only dream of starting your own business, but succeeding. Claire shared with many people across the country in her blog what her American dream is. Her dream seems so simple, it's "to live on my own and be self-sufficient, to live with dignity and independence, to become a part of the mainstream economy." I want to use that as a context for this three-part presentation. First I want to share with you some of the statistics and framework about thinking about disability in today's world. Second, I want to share with you some tools and strategies, and third, some next steps we can all follow for the future. Part 1, context. Let me give you a statistical perspective. Students with disabilities are twice as likely to drop out of high school than students without disabilities. Working age adults are three times more likely to be living at or below poverty levels, as compared to individuals without disabilities. As of March, 2008, 1.1 million children nationwide were receiving Social Security benefits, SSI benefits. Two-thirds of these children will remain on benefits for their entire lives. The cost to all of us will be in excess of $200 billion over their lifetime. They are over ten million recipients of SSI and SSDI. In 2009, the Social Security Administration will expend over $125 billion in payments to SSI and/or SSDI beneficiaries. What we know is only half of 1 percent of these beneficiaries will return to work. What does all this mean to us? What it means is too many people with disabilities are out of work, underemployed, and are really facing a life sentence of poverty, just to be eligible for public benefits. The president's committee for intellectual disabilities in a 2004 report to the president stated it this way: Historically public assistance in exchange for enforced poverty and the absence of freedom is a bad deal, one that fails all parties to the arrangement, people with disabilities, their families, and the American people. Well, why are we talking so much about this context? We will share with you just a few more thoughts about this context, but then where I want to take us is what we can do about it, and the steps, the tools, the strategies, the partnerships, that are now happening across this country, as people with disabilities are saying, they want a better economic future. They have higher expectations than simply relying on public benefits. What we do know is that enduring poverty and a lack of economic empowerment diminishes choices, and quality of life, within communities, and singularly diminishes freedom, opportunities and self-determination. Then where are we going? What can we do? The key is, economic empowerment. That is a big phrase. What does it mean? The ability to develop and control income and assets, capacity to preserve and grow resources that expand life choices, assets include savings, investments, home and/or business ownership, could be a means of transportation or even consumer products. Why is income preservation and asset development so important to people with and without disabilities? First, and most important, it will have a positive impact on one's self- concept, and level of community participation. It will change expectations and status, with other community stakeholders. I wish I could tell you that there is one simple step, or one simple path we could all follow towards economic empowerment. However, many of you who are exploring self-employment and entrepreneurship are already going down a path which will help advance your economic self-sufficiency. There is no single strategy, single path, single solution, that will overcome the multiple barriers to advance greater self-sufficiency for people with significant disabilities. But I will share with you multiple paths, multiple tools and strategies. What are these emerging tools and strategies? Well, I've prepared a short list for us to think about. First and foremost is if you are thinking about self-employment, you have a good concept, you will eventually need access to capital. And what people will care about is, your ability to manage money. There is a great deal of work now going on in this country, related to financial literacy, which will impact favorably your ability to access financial services. There are favorable tax positions, the earned income tax credit, and free tax preparation, which will also be a key strategy. There is something called individual development accounts, matched savings plans which we will talk about. Home ownership may be a path to new financial resources, with equity in a home, that may be leveraged to access capital to start a business. There are the work incentives and ticket to work program, many of you may be familiar with, in terms of the Social Security Administration. And more of you may already be experiencing the path towards development of a microenterprise, or development of a small business. And yet another tool or strategy, working with public housing authorities, is the family self-sufficiency program. These tools, IDAs, tax credits, microenterprise development, home ownership, many of these were created in public/private partnerships for low income working families, not specifically for people with disabilities. However, what we do know and we are seeing across the country, as we become more aware of these different tools and strategies, is that there are growing number of people with disabilities who are blending and braiding these tools and strategies with some other tools and strategies that are disability specific that are beginning to advance towards economic self-sufficiency. People with disabilities are really a new market segment for some of these strategies, as we begin to talk about them. Let's talk first about the earned income tax credit. It was created by congress in 1975, to provide an incentive to work for low income families. It's a refundable tax credit. That means you may have no tax liability, and think I don't have to bother to file a tax return. But what you will learn is that with a refundable tax credit you have to file a return to actually find out that the government owes you money with the earned income tax credit. Here is the bad news. 20 percent of individuals in this country eligible for the EITC do not claim the credit. In research we have done with the IRS, wage and investment division, we know there are over one million individuals with disabilities annually not claiming this credit. We believe that that represents somewhere between 800 million and $1 billion a year that belongs to people with disabilities, that could be the beginning down payment towards starting a business, starting a microenterprise, that is going unclaimed. There is a new option related to the earned income tax credit called a split refund. What that means is, a portion of your return from the EITC could go back to you in a check, and a second portion could go into a matched savings plan, like an IDA. Or into your own savings account, to help you towards that capital you may need to start a business. The earned income tax credit access is vastly improved across this country through the work of the IRS, with what is called VITA, free tax preparation sites all across the country and over hundreds, actually over 300 cities nationwide. Basic facts to think about, as to whether you qualify for the EITC: Number one, you have to have earned income. You can be working part time. You could have started your own business and be self-employed, but you have to have earned income. You must be between the ages of 25 and under 65. You must be have earned, must have earned no more than $12,880 in the 2008 calendar year if you are single, that amount will go up a little bit in the 2009 calendar year. You must have earned no more than, close to $16,000 if you are married without children. The amount goes up, if you are single or married and have one or more children. All the way up to $41,000 if you are married and filing jointly. To be eligible for the EITC you must earn no more than $2,950 in investment income. For an individual not married and without children, at least 25 years old, the credit will produce a tax refund between $230 and $438. What we have learned in recent years is, you can also go back over the past three-year period, and that could be a multiplier times 3. In fact, the government may owe you $1200 if you are eligible for the EITC, and have never filed for that refundable tax credit over the prior three-year period. The EITC as I said is a refundable credit. Even when you have no tax liability, you are still eligible for this tax refund. But, you must file the return. Without filing, you cannot receive an EITC tax refund. EITC does not count as earned income. And as a result, it does not impact eligibility for SSI benefits. EITC does not count as earned income to determine eligibility for Medicaid. One of the great myths that are out there in the disability community is, oh, I heard about the EITC, but I'm afraid of it impacting adversely other benefits, other public benefits I receive. That is not an issue, because of the way the law was crafted. The Real Economic Impact Tour is a project of both BBI and NDI, National Disability Institute. We have been working with the IRS in cities across the country, and since 2005 we have helped over 300,000 low income workers with disabilities, who have received over $250 million in tax refund. Public/private coalitions have been formed in 84 cities with the involvement of over 550 community organizations. There are federal agencies involved, like labor, education, center for Medicare, Medicaid services, the Social Security Administration, IRS, FDIC and treasury. Most of the major national disability groups are now involved, Easter Seal and Good Will, the ARC, UCP and others. This is a growing, growing network, to say, wait a minute, there are a million people with disabilities out there, earning money, eligible for the EITC, we have got to find a way to reach them, and we can assist them with volunteer tax preparation, and there is money that belongs to you. I urge you to take a look at the REITour.org Website for more information. A second strategy to talk about is financial education and access. Why financial education? Well, most of us today's world, with the economic slowdown and chaos really in many business sectors, more and more people are losing their homes, more an more people may find themselves out of work. What we are learning about more than ever before are, there are critical financial management skills. There is a whole new area developing around financial education. The FDIC has a program called, money smart. It's to help people everywhere across the country more effectively manage their money, and manage the use of credit. At NDI we have also developed a 6-part training program to advance thinking and behavioral change about a better economic future. We are piloting this 6-part training in Florida, North Carolina and Ohio. And if you are interested in more information about that program, or would like it to come to your state, please don't hesitate to be in touch with me. The six training modules focus first on an introduction to asset development. Then turns to financial literacy, and access to affordable financial services. We then turn to the earned income tax credit and free tax preparation assistance. Module 4 is about individual development accounts, matched savings plans. Module 5 talks about microenterprise development and home ownership. And the final module looks at Social Security work incentives, and the braiding together of these multiple tools and strategies to make a difference in your life. Money smart modules, this is the program that was created by the FDIC, and you can visit this program at the FDIC Website, which is among the list of resources that you are being linked to, there are multiple modules which may be of interest to you. Bank on it, understanding more about the different types of accounts, when you go into a bank, and understanding the differences in terms of costs and fees. Borrowing basics, covering loans and credit. Check it out, the ins and outs of a checking account and its features. Money matters, covers benefits and how-to's of saving. Pay yourself first, covers ways to save money. The second group of modules covers keep it safe, covering laws that protect banking consumers, to your credit, covers the ins and outs of credit reports and credit repair. Charge it right, covering the basics of credit card use, loan to own, covering the types of installment loans and how to pick the best loan for your needs, and finally your own home, covering the merits of owning a home over renting, and steps to take to prepare for homeownership. I urge you to take a look at this particular link, 17 links to financial empowerment. What you will find there are extraordinary Websites, a tremendous amount of free information, everything from financial education gains to increase your skill in terms of financial literacy to links to public and private sites, that really will help you advance your economic future. Let's talk a little bit about IDAs, individual development accounts, a benefit for low income workers. IDAs are matched savings accounts designed to help low income workers plan for and reach specific asset building goals. Nationwide, there are over 30,000 individuals who are saving money each month as part of an IDA program, with over 1,000 IDA providers. IDAs are federally supported programs, offering low income workers three choices for asset goals. You can set an asset goal of buying a home, starting a business, or continuing higher education. For many of you who are listening to this webinar, starting a business may be your obvious choice. The IDA established for an individual has two other core program elements, in addition to setting an asset goal and a plan for saving to meet the goal. There is a match, the IDA program provider will offer you, for each dollar saved in the account that is set up for you. Each participant will also be required to participate in financial education classes. IDA programs nationwide, the match may range from 1 to $4. Let me explain that a little bit further. What that means is, as you have set an asset goal, and you begin to decide with each paycheck I'm going to set aside $1, $25, $50, for every dollar you set aside, the IDA provider is going to put an equal or greater amount of money into an account for you, to help you meet your asset goal. The maximum federal contribution to an IDA account is $2,000. And must be deposited with an equal amount of nonfederal dollars for a minimum of $4,000. For those of you who are looking for access to capital, to start a microenterprise, to start a small business, what an extraordinary way to begin to think about, well, I could save some money, and it's not just the dollars I'm setting aside, but it's also the money in my IDA account which is getting matched, 2 to 1, 3 to 1, 4 to 1. So much more quickly am I going to meet my asset goal and perhaps begin the start-up of my microenterprise or small business. All IDA savings plans must be accomplished within a five- year period. Many IDA participants leverage other public and private funding sources to meet their ultimate asset goal. You are not just limited to your own dollars and the match. There may be other programs, it could be VR, it could be even that tax refund from the earned income tax credit we just talked about, that can help you to add to the dollars in your matched savings plan. Here is another very important factor. Federally funded IDAs are exempt from counting as an asset for the purposes of remaining eligible for SSI and Medicaid. Here again, like with the ITC, people do not need to be afraid that, wait a minute, I'm setting money aside, if I'm on SSI I'm only allowed to have a total net resources of $2,000. I'm going to get into trouble. I may reach my asset goal, but in turn, I'm going to lose my Social Security and I may lose my Medicaid. Simply not true. IDAs are exempt from counting from that asset ceiling to remain eligible for SSI and Medicaid. An IDA with their savings plans could actually help preserve eligibility for Social Security benefits. As you continue to make more income, that income can be sheltered into an IDA account, and thus the person who is on SSI instead of having your amount of federal Social Security benefits going down, it will stay constant, because you are moving money into this savings plan, that is matched by other public and private dollars. So, very interesting possibility for those of you who are thinking about starting a microenterprise or small business. Are you ready for an IDA? Are you ready to select one of the three asset goals? Again, for many of you it is going to be self-employment. Are you working and want to commit to a savings plan and schedule that takes real discipline? You have got to be ready to do it. You can't start one month and say no, I can't save the money the next month. The program will end for you. Are you willing to attend financial education classes to improve your financial literacy skills? Are you a good credit risk that will encourage the IDA provider to enroll you in the program? This gets back to the importance of financial education and financial literacy. Family self-sufficiency program, another, not very well- known public strategy. Public housing agencies across the country, many of them run what is called a HUD supported, the U.S. housing and urban development supported family and self- sufficiency program. It is like an IDA, but here instead of a matched savings plan program, as your income goes up, if you are receiving a choice of, housing voucher, as your income goes up rather than having to pay a greater share of your income for your rent, that money is going to go into an escrow account into a bank or credit union. You are allowed to create employment goals for the purpose of using that money. Withdrawals are on a case by case basis, could be for home ownership, could be for transportation, could be for education. But it could be because you want to start your own business. Housing choice vouchers limit rent to no more than 30 percent of your income. A couple things to be aware of, as to the family self-sufficiency program. One is, not every public housing agency offers it. You will have to check with your local public housing agency. Number 2 is, you have to be a current recipient of a housing choice voucher, and in many public housing authorities, there are waiting lists. I would urge you at least get on the waiting list, see if you qualify, see if you are eligible, because eventually, this family self-sufficiency program in addition to the rent subsidy for housing choice voucher you may receive, all may be a part of your plan for a better economic future. Social Security work incentives. Here again many of you probably through some of the other webinars are much more familiar with different options for work incentives to increase income, save and advance self-sufficiency. There are over a dozen different work incentives. Some of you may be familiar with IRWE or 1619 (A) and (B) program or PASS, Plan to Achieve Self-Support, or PESS, property essential to self- support. Here are other strategies you need to be looking at alongside those that we have already talked about, those including earned income tax credit, financial education, the family self-sufficiency program, and IDAs. All of you should be aware that the Social Security Administration is funding a nationwide program of work incentive planners. You can find out more about individual benefit planning by visiting the Website at socialsecurity.gov/work. There is probably a planner in your area you can make contact with, who can help you sort through some of the different options, in terms of work incentives, and may also become increasingly more aware of some of the options that I have spoken about. What's missing after we have talked about so many different tools and strategies? What is missing today is the bridge to connect these existing programs to other organized efforts to advance self-sufficiency. The bridge may be, a person centered plan, or an individual plan, that you already are required to have if you are a customer of the vocational rehabilitation system, or a customer of the work force development system, or the Medicaid system. There are actually nine different federal authorities, that now require some type of individual plan. There is with CMS, the centers for Medicare and Medicaid service, under multiple Medicaid waivers, there is something called an individual budget. Under Social Security Administration, you may be a ticket user, and be participating in the ticket to work program, which also has an individual planning component. At Department of Labor, you may be accessing an individual training account for one of the One-Stop career centers nationwide. At Social Security, you may be interested in thinking about a Plan to Achieve Self-Support. We discussed already the IDAs. If you are younger, you may be a person still in high school, and then you have a required individual transition plan. VR has the individual plan for employment. The mental health system has individual recovery plans, and then we spoke a few minutes ago that HUD has the family self-sufficiency plan. Wow, this is a lot to try to take in. But what can happen if we can bring all the different planning mandates together? We might begin to think in a different way, a more exciting way about braiding of resources. What happens if we braided together a matched saving plan, an IDA, with a PASS plan, with participation in a family self- sufficiency program, and the housing choice voucher, with use of the refund from the earned income tax credit, and we thought about how can we make all these pieces come together, to make a difference in being successful and starting my own microenterprise? The pathways to advanced economic independence would be greatly expanded for you, and others that you work with. What really to say about all of these choices, all of these options, is, knowledge is power. What I mean by that is, the more you learn about each of these options, the more you can think about, are they right for me? Maybe some of them are right and some of them just don't fit into my current situation, in terms of the income I'm taking in, the amount of income I'm ready to save. Everyone has a different individual situation. But think about the possibilities. Think about the exciting possibilities when we begin to blend all of these resources together. Let's look at next steps. What can you do? What can you do over the next 30 to 60 days? Number one is, I urge you to take a look at the Real Economic Impact Tour. If you earned income, it could be a few dollars, it could be a few thousand dollars, it could be all the way up to over $12,000 in 2009, you may be eligible for the earned income tax credit. If you go to the tour Website, you are going to find links to over 80 cities, you may live in one of those cities, and if not, contact us. Contact the names at the Website, to find out, where else could I go to help someone with this issue of filing a tax return, and accessing the earned income tax credit? We are also working in a growing number of states on asset development summits. Bringing together in a unique way often unprecedented, bringing together people in the asset building world, credit counselors, the people who are in banks and credit unions, people who run the IDA programs, people who run the family self-sufficiency programs. People regionally connected to the IRS or FDIC's financial education programs. Bringing them together with people in the disability community, with people with disabilities and their families, with disability related organizations, independent living centers, Good Will, ARCs and others, really having a new level of conversation about action planning, what can we do together to make a difference to build this pathway, to chart a new course for a better economic future? We are also working on combining what we already know about the specific work incentives that are available through the Social Security Administration, with other asset developing tools that we have shared today with you. That new curricula, we are testing now in several states, we hope to eventually be able to put it on-line and make it accessible for people all across the country. We also are working on emerging new partnerships. Of course there are the disability organizations as I just mentioned, we will continue to work together. But there are new partners who are taking an interest in how do we help people with disabilities increase their participation in the economic mainstream? We are working with mayors' offices, United Way affiliates, the IRS, the FDIC, IDA providers across the country, EITC coalitions, and a broad base network of financial institutions both banks and credit union. We are working with microenterprise lenders. We are working with home ownership and credit counseling programs, working with the work force development system and SBDC, Small Business Development Centers, and we are trying to get people to come outside of their narrow world where they have done excellent work helping low income families to also understand, low income families also includes a lot of people with disabilities, and we also want to benefit from these amazing tools and strategies, and we are beginning to see the relationships build between the asset building world and the disability community. The partnerships have brought us to working with Developmental Disability Councils, state VR agencies, Social Security field offices, the WIPA grantees, the work incentive planners, funded by Social Security, ARCs, centers for independent living, Good Will, community action agencies. We are talking about a very large network of organizations rethink how they include, how they outreach to people with disabilities to advance a better economic future. I want to share with you one other piece which I think is extraordinarily important. For several years, there have been a group of people in Washington and on Capitol Hill who have been trying to understand more about the issues of extra cost that people with disabilities face every day. It may be cost to get up in the morning in terms of assistance with getting dressed or other types of things that a personal assistant may help with. There may be extra cost of accessible technology or accessible transportation. There are these extra costs that other people without disabilities don't have to deal with. And what has been introduced in this congress, this year is a bill that I want you to be aware of, and I want you to talk to members of congress about. It's called achieving a better life experience, the ABLE act. It was introduced by the representative Crenshaw from Jacksonville, Florida, and now has been cosponsored in the House of Representatives by 130 other House members, both Republicans and Democrats. This is a bipartisan issue. It was introduced in the senate, senate bill 493, by senator Hatch from Utah, Republican, and senator Casey from Pennsylvania, a Democrat. They are now, there are now about ten senate sponsors. It's the same bill, in the house and senate, that took a lot of work. There is great interest and growing interest to see this bill move, if not by the end of this calendar year, then next year. What would it do? It would allow any individual with a disability in this country or a family with a child with a disability, to establish tax deferred savings accounts of up to $500,000. It would allow that money to be used to cover the extra costs that people with disabilities face every day, that could be related to education, employment, technology, housing or healthcare. It could be the money that could help you start a microenterprise or a small business. The ABLE act has a lot more details than what I've shared with you are three links to the Washington insider which can give you a lot more information about who are the cosponsors. It has some frequently asked questions and answers to simplify at times a fairly complex bill because it involves changes to the tax code. So please take a look at these three issues in August, July and June. What you are going to learn about is something that people have been talking about for many years, is without the complexity of setting up a special needs trust or a pooled income trust, that this would have a relatively simple process where people could go to a bank or credit union, and set up this special Able account. Then keep track for purposes of the IRS withdrawals where the money would be used for those gateway costs that you have, including starting a microenterprise or small business. I think it's really a novel piece of legislation, and it deserves the word to be spread across the disability community. This could be the most important piece of legislation since the passage of ADA. The ADA created the civil rights framework for people with disabilities in this country. What this piece of legislation will do will fundamentally create the economic empowerment agenda. Additional resources. You know that much of what I've covered and covered very rapidly may be a lot to digest all within an hour, but there are a lot of wonderful links where you can go to learn a lot more. As I mentioned, the Real Economic Impact Tour, the IRS' own Website, has more information about the earned income tax credit, and they have a special publication about beneficial tax provisions for people with disabilities. There are a lot more Websites around financial education. FDIC as I mentioned, money smart is a downloadable program from their Website. FDIC's community affairs program, ten regions across the country, if you are with a group of people, you are part of a disability related organization, you can talk to the FDIC about coming out to a group of people or group of organizations, and they will do a train the trainers program, to help you deliver money smart directly to people with disabilities. There is a great Website that the Federal Government has put together called, mymoney.gov, which can help you understand the more about saving money, managing money, understanding the importance of effective use of credit. Individual development accounts, the Website idanetwork.org, wherever you are in the country, you can look up a state, locality, and see if there is an IDA program that you might want to talk to and look at whether they have funding available and whether you are eligible to start a matched savings account. There is also from CFED the assets and opportunity scorecard, which examines state by state policies that exist that are barriers as well as policies that are facilitators to advancing economic self-sufficiency for low income working families. This may be also a great resource for you. There is the federal Website on the IDA program, assets for independence program, at the office for community services, and here again if you are looking to learn more about IDAs, here is a great site to visit. There are the many Websites regarding the Social Security Administration, work incentives, ticket to work program. It's really hard to believe that in this country, there are less than 2,000 individuals on SSI who have at this point in time plans to achieve self-support, the PASS plans. Please take a look at this, and think about it in terms of your own individual plan for a better economic future. There is the information about the family self-sufficiency program on the HUD Website, which can help you identify whether your public housing authority has one of these programs, and more information about the housing choice voucher program. For those of you looking for funding, in terms of microenterprise development, there is the association for enterprise opportunity, www.microenterpriseworks.org. Again, a great, great resource to look at whether there is someone in your community or in your state that can provide you technical assistance in microenterprise development or also may help you in terms of access to capital at reasonable rates. And of course, the project here, Start-Up USA is a wealth of information in terms of success stories, and other materials that can help you think about starting a business and growing a small business. In asset-building, I would urge you, if you have not heard of, to sign up, it's free for the equity e-newsletter. It's a newsletter that was developed by the World Institute on Disability, www.wid.org. It is free. I urge you to look at back issues. Each issue focuses typically on one asset development or savings tool or strategy. One issue may focus on microenterprise development. Another, on IDA programs, another on the earned income tax credit, another on financial literacy. A tremendous wealth of literature and materials to help you. There is the new America foundation, probably the most progressive think tank in Washington, constantly developing new policy ideas that would help low income Americans become a part of the economic mainstream, both people with and without disabilities. There is an assetbuilding.org Website, and then there is the, my own, NDI Website. I know I've covered a lot of ground. I know that some of you are probably thinking, whoa! This is incredibly complex! A lot of interesting tools, and strategies. But, is it possible for me? What I think that you have to think about, and I think that you already are, if you are a person that truly is already exploring entrepreneurship, there is no barrier that you can't get over. There is no strategy that is too complex, that we can't find a way to simplify and most important of all, what you, I want to think about over the next 30 days when we look at the financial aspects of self-employment, is, you've got to develop your own plan. No two plans will look alike. Everyone is in a different situation. Economically, in terms of whether you live alone or are part of a household, in terms of what your net resources are, but regardless of where you find yourself, believe in yourself, that you can advance to a better economic future. The tools and strategies are there. We have got to braid these tools and strategies in some unique ways to make them fit for you. And what we hope more than ever before, in 2009, and as we move forward to 2010, real economic impact is just not some wide-eyed dream that is beyond our grasp. Real economic impact is possible for all of us, including every individual with a disability across this great country of ours. I urge you to take a look at this webinar's materials, and resources, and I'd be glad to answer any questions. But I would hope 30 days from now, you have embarked on the pathway to create your own individual plan. Contact me. We would love to help you with it. ******