Tools and Strategies for Special Needs Care with Steve Gundy

Matt: 00:00:01

Steve, again, thanks for coming in and just having a conversation. And like you said a little bit ago, I think this is just where the nuts and bolts really present themselves.

So I think, again, the first episode, sitting down, talking through, just what can you expect? Look, you're not alone. It's not a problem to be fixed necessarily. It's something to be solved. And it's.

It's much different than if you're just going to try to say, fix something or erase it. Look, like I said earlier, we may never know why somebody has what they have. We may never know why a child has autism. I may never know.

And, you know, I came to a place in my life where I said, look, does it really matter? Or do we just look ahead and say, all right, what are the tools?

What are the things that we need to utilize to give them as good of a chance as possible to have a great, meaningful, productive life with dignity? And I think that's really all we're trying to do here is just provide some perspective.

And I think you and I both have tremendous perspective on this subject, and I really appreciate you coming in and talking through, you know, all the things that we mentioned in the first part of this. So let's get down to the nuts and the bolts and let's talk about the financial realities and surprises that families often encounter.

So let's start there.

Steve: 00:01:44

Okay. Well, one of the big surprises that many families don't realize is just how much it actually costs to raise a special needs child.

You're talking about 1.4 million to $2.8 million to raise a special needs child, depending on what the degree of their needs are.

Matt: 00:02:02

Wow.

Steve: 00:02:03

And that is pretty daunting. So it goes to say that when you have all the necessary supports in place to be able to make life go. Yeah.

That can be very helpful at mitigating costs. The reality is that don't have those things in place. It can wipe out your ability to save for your future.

Matt: 00:02:28

Yeah.

Steve: 00:02:28

And then I just think about a single parent that can start cutting into your ability just to be able to live, and next thing you know, you're in survival mode. Every single month, you're trying to raise that child.

Matt: 00:02:40

I know we talked a little bit about this before, but there's able accounts, there's special needs trusts, and I think that's one of the most popular searched items, if I'm not mistaken, you know, on the subject of raising a child with special needs or autism. So let's just kind of talk through that. Can we just.

I Guess, highlight what would or what the best reason for an able account is and where you might need a special special needs trust.

Steve: 00:03:09

Before you really get into accounts that can support the future of a special needs child, you really have to get really honest about what the supports and systems look like that are out there to fund services and support for your child. That's the first thing you have to do to be able to mitigate that cost.

And that's through the home and community based services that Medicaid waiver offers. It can be through vocational rehabilitation when your child gets to the point that work is a viable option.

But those are the things that got to be looked at, especially if there's medical needs. When you can get your child into a place where they have Medicaid support that can help fund and reduce a lot of these costs involved.

Matt: 00:03:57

Yeah, so when we look at an able account, you know, an able account is going to be for somebody who is disabled before the age of 26. It's an account that you open up basically through the government. Right. And I think as of last year the contribution limit was 19,000.

Can you explain why that's important?

Steve: 00:04:22

Well, here's what's important about an able account. It's that there isn't costs involved with trying to be able to do it.

You can get online, set up an able account, drop $25 in there and you have an able account. You don't have to about trying to go through a lawyer to try to set up a trust fund and all the costs that comes with that.

The government set up the ability for you to simply do that. Now there's a caveat to that. Is an able account what's best for you and your special needs child.

That's where some legal advice might be beneficial for your family. Because everybody's path is different. Everybody's situation is different, everybody's financial life is different.

per year in the year: 2025

And that typically increases a bit, I believe, each year.

The only caveat to that is that if you are a family who is going to have higher contributions that could trip that $19,000 and exceed it, now you get into an issue where you can start to reduce living benefits, whether it be through Social Security or being on Medicaid that funds home and community based services, this sort of thing, it can really compromise that. So it's very important again to understand what, what is the path that makes sense for your special needs child and overall for you as a family.

Matt: 00:06:09

Yeah. And those funds can be used for qualified disability expenses like education, housing or even healthcare, right? That's right, yeah.

And I think it's important to understand that these tools are out there. You know, I hear the term, but how many people really know that they're available?

And yes, you don't necessarily have to use an attorney for that, but this is starting to get into the place where you need to start coordinating your team. You know, coordinate with an advisor, have an attorney, and you know, they all need to collaborate.

So if they're collaborating to make sure that you have the right structure around you, then, you know, you can avoid some common missteps there. And I think that's important.

Steve: 00:06:54

I think one of the things that's very important here to remember is that having a financial advisor, a team that can really bring in the resources that you need to find the path for you is crucial. Think about that for a second.

If you're looking at 1.8 million to 2.8 million to raise a special needs child, I don't think it's going to cost quite that much for a financial advisor to come in and help you find the path that's going to take all the residual things out of the way so that you're not paying any more than what you're intended to to set up trust funds or able accounts or find what's needed for your child.

Matt: 00:07:36

Yeah.

I think that if you have a good relationship, good attorney, good advisor, you know, a good advisor isn't necessarily going to know all the answers right off the top of their head. But a good advisor is going to know how to get the answers.

They're going to know what resources are available, they're going to work for you to make sure that you have the right tools at your disposal there.

Steve: 00:07:59

It's really a partnership between you and your financial advisor and that's what's so important about that relationship.

Matt: 00:08:04

So let's talk about a special needs trust, which is a legal tool and you, you may need an attorney to draft that. I don't think that you can do it on your own.

So you're going to be able to set aside larger sums of money, more than maybe the, the 19,000 that it's at now for an able account.

But it's really Just to set aside larger sums for the person with that with special needs, again without disqualifying them for their benefits or from their benefits. So it's a little bit more flexible and it allows for oversight by a trustee so it can continue through their lifetime. And you can have both. Right?

You can have an able account, you can have a special needs trust. So I guess, do you have any thoughts on that as far as, you know, maybe how you've seen the special needs trust benefit a family or.

Steve: 00:08:56

Well, keep in mind when you're talking about having a trust or an able account or anything like that, where money can be set aside for your child's meaningful life or for anything that's going to create a covering for their future, it's so important to remember that that is in place to ensure that their day to day living is not compromised.

Because you cannot have, there's a, there's a limit that they can have in a checking account and if you exceed that limit, benefits start to become reduced. And now the purpose of trying to mitigate the cost works against itself.

So that trust is there to ensure that money can be routed to where it needs to be so that the government doesn't start reducing benefit. Because that's exactly what will happen.

Matt: 00:09:50

Right. So it's important just to coordinate everything, make sure you know where you stand.

And again, you know, going back to that family meeting, well, maybe you should have an annual planning meeting and, and make sure that you have your attorney, your advisor, your coach, somebody that's going to work together with you to provide you with, with the right direction. Again, I'm not an attorney, as always, you know, you should not take this as legal advice.

Families again, need to work with their qualified special needs attorney or an estate planner and then you can just determine what's best for you.

Steve, when you work with families who are navigating all these things, what do you see as the biggest barriers and maybe what's a mindset shift that you help people take?

Steve: 00:10:41

The biggest barrier is that this is too much to be addressed.

So our minds protect ourselves by kind of like putting it off, putting it off, putting it off until all of a sudden something intrusively comes into our life. Like my child just turned 18 and they're not going out and getting a job. We can become very overwhelmed.

And when we become overwhelmed, our minds protect us from that overwhelm. And so we never really get to the problem solving point.

Matt: 00:11:19

Yeah, true.

Steve: 00:11:21

And so before you arrive to the overwhelm, or even if you're in the middle of the overwhelm, you need someone already in place that's going to provide counsel so that if the overwhelm hits, or when the overwhelm hits, you've already got someone helping you navigate through it because it's hard to think when you're overwhelmed. Now, now that goes to say that, that a lot of the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

You know, I'm not going to say that, but the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. I mean, parents are a lot like their special needs kids. If the kid gets stressed out and can't think, why would the parents be much different?

There's a gene pool that's similar there.

Matt: 00:12:04

But isn't that true of any, any kid though? I mean, you know, what's the one? I read somewhere that the number one predictor of anxiety in adults is their parents always rushing all the time.

When the kids were, were young.

Steve: 00:12:20

Yeah.

Matt: 00:12:20

And, you know, that creates this incredible sense of urgency and I, I try to limit that. I'm not very good at it because it's like I get in the moment of what is going on and it's like, okay, how do we transition now?

Or give ourselves enough time? But you know, young families, it's a constant battle.

But it seems like, and I can tell you from my own experience with my son, it is overwhelming at times for things.

And there's this thing that he does, and maybe this is kind of what you're talking about, that if he doesn't address it or focus on it, it kind of doesn't exist.

Steve: 00:13:02

And it's.

Yeah, if you're overwhelmed, okay, and you don't want to think about what causes the overwhelm, that's to be human, then you're going to ignore what's there in order to protect yourself emotionally, mentally, all of that.

Matt: 00:13:21

So it's protection.

Steve: 00:13:22

Well, that's one way to look at it. But it goes to say that any of us do that anytime we are in a place in life where life feels heavy, we naturally want it to feel lighter.

So that's what we try to do. The issue is ignoring a problem allows the problem to grow bigger. So what's overwhelming becomes extremely overwhelming.

What becomes a hill becomes a mountain. Right. And it steamrolls in the wrong direction.

Think about like a behavior that's left alone and it grows and grows and grows, or a thought that's not addressed about fear and anxiety.

And next thing you know, everything we do is, is, is framed around that fear and that anxiety so it's important to understand that before we arrive to what might look like something overwhelming, let's already have that mind shift that says, I'm going to do something about the problem before I arrive to it, or I'm going to do something about this problem that's overwhelming to me before it becomes bigger than it already is.

Matt: 00:14:44

Yes.

Steve: 00:14:45

And what does that look like? That looks like that financial advisor, that friend who knows that you need a lawyer, who you've been talking with, whatever that may be.

There is a professional access point to start getting you working on the path that begins to solve some of the problems that are expected when you're raising a special needs child.

Matt: 00:15:07

I think what comes to mind there, Steve, there's a quote from. And they attribute it to Ralph Waldo Emerson. I don't know if it's him or maybe Lao Tzu is.

What I'm seeing here says, watch your thoughts, they become your words. Watch your words, they become your actions. Watch your actions, they become your habits. Watch your habits, they become your character.

And watch your character, it becomes your destiny. And I think it's hard for a child to understand that. You know, what do they say?

The brain isn't formed until you're 25, so it's hard for just regular people to see that. But the folks that are dealing with some of the maybe neurodivergent issues that you see, it's almost. They just can't process that.

It seems they don't know that, hey, this is going to snowball and like you said, become a much bigger issue down the road. So I think just having the patience, it goes back to what we talked about in the beginning, right?

Just, hey, let's just figure out what your, what your expectations are and then maybe temper those a little bit.

Things that might, you might think take a very short period of time, they're probably going to take a little longer, or maybe they're just not going to see things the same way. But regardless, we're just trying to provide the tools for you to give them, you know, the best chance to navigate all that.

Let's switch gears for a second. And I think this is important too.

And I don't know if you have any thoughts on this, but it's the question about how do you talk to siblings about kids, you know, their, their sibling that has special needs. Maybe it's autism, maybe it's something else, but you have any thoughts on that?

Steve: 00:16:58

Siblings? Well, I think of my daughter, who is the sibling to my son, a special needs son.

And I Think one of the things that's very, very important is when the focus, rightly so, needs to be on caring for the special needs of the special needs child. The typical child might feel left out in some way, shape or form.

Yeah, it's very important to affirm that child's role in the family, to be a help to that special needs child and then very, very much forming the relationship around, look what you're doing and how you serve people. Hence starts the home.

Matt: 00:17:43

Yeah.

Steve: 00:17:44

With your, with your sibling. So I think that's a very important piece to that.

Conversely speaking, the focus is so much on the typical child and their achievements and their successes that the special needs child gets left behind. That's a concern for many people because we see that theme, my child's going to get left behind. It starts in the home.

We start to form what support looks like for that special needs child and we bring in the siblings to affirm their gifts and what they can bring of value to the support of that special needs child, not to the exclusion of their needs, but to the affirmation of their value that they bring to the family.

Matt: 00:18:33

And as I mentioned, the first episode here, the first, first conversation about this when you're struggling with why do we have to deal with this? Or why do I, why do I have to go through this? And again, it's, hey, God knew, He knew that fill in the blank needed you.

And I think that's important for the kids too, wouldn't you say? Just to make sure that the kids know that, look, he needs you too, or she needs you too. And that's what you're talking about.

Steve: 00:19:04

I think that's very important to understand is that why is this child have this issue or why does this child, my child, have this going on? It's because God decided that that child needed me.

Matt: 00:19:20

Yeah.

Steve: 00:19:21

Okay, now here's the thing. If we keep asking why continually, over and over and over, we get stuck there.

Matt: 00:19:32

Yes.

Steve: 00:19:32

And the bottom line is that doesn't get us into the place where we do the work. We do the work. And do the work doesn't mean fix. It doesn't mean fix my child, but it does mean what does that supportive network look like?

Not only is it not supposed to be that child working through whatever they need for support, support alone, you're there to be a help, but you're not to work through that alone either.

That's why beginning to talk to wherever that access point is, financial advisor, lawyer, a personal friend who might be on the path to something more. Those are very, very crucial access points. There needs to be an onboard to a place where a supportive network can begin to start and grow.

Matt: 00:20:23

No, that's great. Absolutely. And I think we continue to hammer that. And it's so true, it's so critical.

Can we talk a little bit about what happens when a special needs child turns 18? Do you have any thoughts on that?

And obviously this is kind of what you specialize in, teens with special needs and autism specifically, and young adults, and they're transitioning into adulthood. But you know, from a practical standpoint, from a financial standpoint. Let's just talk about that for a minute.

Steve: 00:20:55

Sure. So parents will raise their special needs kids through school, through anything that the schools bring in to help.

There may be even extra medical based therapists and different things that come into the child's life. And that structure is in place all the way through high school school. And then they graduate.

And if there isn't a young adults program that can carry them to 22 years old because they qualify in their disability to be a part of that, if they're doing a bit better in their functioning, maybe they've graduated with a degree or a Core 40 diploma, but they're still struggling with their daily living functioning that supports the ability to be able to even have a job. Okay. Suddenly that structure's gone on the other side of high school and every single day becomes Saturday.

And what does your average high school kid do on a Saturday, Matt?

Matt: 00:21:57

Yeah, video games and hang out in.

Steve: 00:22:00

The basement, drink soda and play video games. And so Monday comes, the proverbial Monday comes, and the parents realize, hey, it's not Saturday. What are you doing?

And they don't understand that it's Monday. And this is where the family and many times hits a wall, hey, wait a minute. Aren't we supposed to be on the way to the empty nest at this point?

What's he still doing in the basement? And why is he still or she still depending on us like it's, you know, the eighth grade or something.

Matt: 00:22:37

Right, right, right.

Steve: 00:22:39

That's a real shocker. But again, you're living in this routine of structure that now suddenly isn't there.

So before you think about a graduation and all the things that comes with it, you have to already start thinking about where is the next access point post high school that creates support, a meaningful life and something that's defined as productive that they have the capacity to do.

Matt: 00:23:13

Yeah. It may not necessarily mean college.

Steve: 00:23:15

Right.

Matt: 00:23:15

May not. And that's okay. You know, I've in the course of researching for our conversation.

I've seen some things where, and I think maybe you talked about this too, that look, some kids with autism specifically do really well working with their hands. And so maybe there's a trade that it could be beneficial for them. So college isn't, isn't necessarily the, the be all end all.

But I will say that there are a lot of colleges and a lot of college programs that have dedicated dorms or dedicated programs specifically for that. You can search up any number of these colleges and, and you'll find the ones that have that.

But what they do is they provide single rooms, maybe a dedicated floor.

There's one in Indiana not far from here, I believe more of an apartment style with supportive RAs that are trained or I guess what's an RA, like a dorm leader, residents resident or something. Okay. We had a different name back in, in my day.

But that being said, you know, you've got all these things, whether it's tutoring, all the skills and the mentoring that needs to take place for somebody that's going to go that path. So there is that option. You know, obviously you have to consider the fees, you have to consider the costs and whatnot, as far as that goes.

But it's not just one direction. You know, obviously there's, there's guardianship as well. And I don't know if you have any thoughts on that. I mean, post, you know, turning 18, it's.

Look, are they going to be able to manage their own affairs? And it may be something to consider.

Steve: 00:25:03

Well, the question you ask when it comes to guardianship is does my son or special needs, son or daughter need a level of protection to be able to maximize the independence.

Matt: 00:25:16

There you go.

Steve: 00:25:17

That they, that they, they want and deserve to have just like any others. Or does guardianship get in the way of that independence? We want to see that independence grow.

There are, you know, I'm not going to get into the weeds of it, but for some parents to claim their child as a guardian and a protected individual actually creates the space for more independence. Other parents don't go full guardianship and they become a power of attorney which takes the burden off their child.

Making decisions for themselves as it relates to power of attorney issues.

Matt: 00:25:54

Yeah, power of attorney is. I think everybody should have one now, only give it to somebody that you implicitly trust.

Steve: 00:26:02

Yeah.

Matt: 00:26:03

So because they have power and you can decide there's different kinds of powers, power of attorney, documents. And again, we're not going to get into the weeds on that.

Steve: 00:26:12

But there are young adults Living at home, who have the capacity to make some of those decisions for themselves.

Matt: 00:26:20

Yeah.

Steve: 00:26:21

But they still struggle with daily living and following through on things that require support.

Matt: 00:26:26

Yes.

Steve: 00:26:27

So you need help through your supportive network, really determining what's right for your child.

Matt: 00:26:34

And I would add too, that anybody who's got an 18 year old, when they leave home, if they leave the state, you probably should have some sort of medical information release. You should probably have a power of attorney in place. You should get those documents.

If nothing else, the medical information and the medical, what they call maybe a medical POA is something I would encourage you to explore because when they're out of state, hey, they're an adult, they're not going to give you any information unless you've signed off on it. They've signed off on it, or if you have those documents. So I think it's definitely important to explore that no matter what.

Steve: 00:27:14

There's something I want to say to parents at this point and you're talking to a parent of a special needs son. Something I want to say. I'm going to say this very gently. We all have the greatest hopes and dreams for our kids.

With those hopes and dreams comes expectations. And so not every child is going to college, not every child is going to trade school.

Not every child will be able to have the emotional capacity to handle a job. That's a reality.

Matt: 00:27:54

Yeah.

Steve: 00:27:55

But the question becomes, how do you define productivity for your child, what you expect that to be and then what their capacity looks like. There might be a gap there and you might have to adjust your expectations to be able to help them grow the independence that they deserve to have.

So let's, let's walk through this personally for me, my son, he went to a local community college and it became very evident that working through the assumed things that any student can do functionally while at a community college, he didn't have the capacity for.

Yeah, we had to adjust our expectations, having already adjusted our expectations about going to college and living on a college campus and making all the things around life go that comes with the college campuses even get you in, into the classroom yet.

Matt: 00:28:54

Right.

Steve: 00:28:55

It got to the point to where we had to ask ourselves, what's the meaningful life that he's into? Well, my son loves marine life, he loves animals.

And that created an opportunity for him through our supportive network to find him work that he could do that landed him working at a veterinarian hospital. He doesn't get to hang out with Nemo all day, but he's around animals and you know what that created the interest zone and the safety zone.

That made sense for him to be able to do the work that he has the capacity to do. And here he is working a part time job, he has his Social Security benefits and you know what life is going.

He can even drive because he managed to accomplish that.

Now, if I had expectations for him that unwittingly put pressure on him, it could be that he couldn't have felt he could achieved what he otherwise could have. He may not be driving today, he may not be working today because he might have too many emotional barriers.

It just goes to say that, take an honest look, I know it's hard. Our hearts are already breaking as we adjust our expectations.

But there is that place where if we work at that adjusting our expectations, we can work towards finding that place where our child can be independent and we've got something we can truly, truly celebrate.

Matt: 00:30:31

That is such an empowering message and for families listening. Remember, you do not have to do everything at once either. And you just have to start somewhere.

So I appreciate you sharing that message directly to the parents and for the folks that are in the communities around these precious souls.

We've talked a lot about whether it's finances or navigating life events and I think a big question, you know, like turning 18 or going to college or navigating different stages, but the question I think people should be asking themselves is, and they probably are, is what happens if I'm gone?

Steve: 00:31:25

You know, that's the one thing that I hear continuously through any family thread is will my child be okay after I'm gone? And that's a reality. And that's a very, very honest look at things. I applaud any parent who's asked that question.

And it's so important that you have in place a letter of intent or some kind of estate planning. And why are we going to do that? Why are we going to put the cost into that? Because we want our child to land softly, right?

I mean, if you think about it, we are the core of their support with the supportive network surrounding them. If the core leaves, a child can fall and crash hard. Yeah, what do we already have in place that's going to help them land softly?

Matt: 00:32:23

And a letter of intent is not a legal document. You don't have to go to an attorney to do that.

But you should be getting your estate planning, you should be getting a will, maybe the special needs trust, and that's all fine and great. Naming a trustee, naming a guardian, somebody that's going to Help them and take care of them. You need to be doing these things.

It doesn't mean it's going to happen. It just means that we need to be responsible and answer that question with yes, they will be okay if I have anything to do about it.

Steve: 00:32:54

Now to guardianship, there is such a thing as co guardianship that you can have with, with a relative who plans to come in and be a part of the process before. It doesn't have to be that now you're gone. A guardian has to be identified. You can bring in someone as a co guardian while you're aging.

The other part is let's talk about someone who's a guardian. Who. There is nobody. Once you're gone, there's just absolutely nobody.

What there is in place for that in this state of Indiana is what we call a guardianship caseworker. A guardianship caseworker is a guardian who represents the state of Indiana who comes in and protects that individual.

Matt: 00:33:38

No, I, I really appreciate you bringing that up. You know, obviously parents should be choosing a guardian for their children, whether it's a relative or a friend.

And that's, you know, we've changed ours many times through the years and I think we need to do that again. We need to have our annual planning meeting. But I think it's again, very empowering.

The message that you're sending and that you've given to families is, look, you're not alone. You don't have to do everything at once. But these are things that you do have to address.

And we want to make sure again that they do land as softly as possible, you know, and part of it is to help them with the skills to navigate these things too as as much as they're able to. So before I wrap up, I just want to highlight a few incredible resources that maybe families can explore.

And if you have any additional thoughts or anything else that might be out there, and we'll put this in the show notes as well. But you know, the, there's an Autism Speaks financial planning toolkit might be worth looking into.

An advisor who has experience with this would be a good place to look as well. The Able National Resource center or able nrc.org the AHRQ center for Future Planning.

Obviously the Social Security Administration's benefits for people with disabilities. Then there's the Special Needs alliance, which is a national directory of special needs attorneys.

And then Parent to Parent USA is a peer support network. It's not necessarily for everybody and not all of these are for everybody either.

But you know, these Are some organizations and programs, but is there anything else that's a local program or maybe an additional organization that you know, maybe you'd like to highlight?

Steve: 00:35:28

Sure. Look into vocational rehabilitation.

Yeah, Vocational rehabilitation is available to people who are in need, one of which are people who live on the autism spectrum. You can get it right off in.gov, fill out an application. And what that can potentially do is provide one of two paths for your child.

It can provide an educational support path, or it can provide a vocational support path that includes things like helping them find a job placement for them so they can begin to get experience. But it eliminates all the things they've got to do on their own to be able to to find work.

Or it eliminates all the barriers and gets support in place for them to what they need.

Like for instance, I had an individual who had issues with their feet and they provided shoes and the right soles for those shoes so that person could simply walk on the job. This is how practical it is.

Matt: 00:36:28

Yeah.

Steve: 00:36:29

And they have vocational rehabilitation counselors that identify what those needs are and close the gaps on them. It takes time. It's a process. But I encourage you to look into that vocational rehabilitation support post high school.

Matt: 00:36:43

Okay. I was going to ask you what point. So I appreciate you answering that. No, I appreciate it.

This is all great stuff and I think I love how you bring it full circle and you reminded parents and you're reminding families. That community, that structure, that self care, those aren't luxuries, those are essentials.

And if you don't have that, then you know, you're probably doing yourself and more importantly your child a disservice if you don't have that community and those things around you. So, you know, again, don't have to do it all today. Just again, maybe make a list.

And I think that's what we'll do as well is put together, we have checklists for our clients. So what I might do with your collaboration here, and in fact I will do this.

But whether you collaborate would appreciate it, is just what's a good checklist of things to consider as you navigate this? It's just like the checklist that we have. What to do in a loved one passes, what to do when a loved one dies.

Some people get overwhelmed with everything they need to do. And I remind them the same thing. You do not need to do everything all at once. This is a guide. This is something to help you navigate this process.

And that's exactly what it is. And it's ever changing. But you know, by and large, we have everything that you need in order to navigate that effectively and efficiently.

Steve: 00:38:16

I had to learn that when it comes to finding the supportive network and the right path for my family, I had to learn to trust the process.

Matt: 00:38:26

Yeah.

Steve: 00:38:26

One step at a time.

Matt: 00:38:28

Yeah.

Steve: 00:38:28

Not everything's revealed to you. It's not a blueprint because the blueprint looks a lot different for everybody. Trust the process.

Matt: 00:38:36

Steve, thank you for joining me today. I really appreciate it.

And thank you for the incredible work that you do with helping families, young adults with special needs, and helping them live with purpose and with confidence. Very valuable.

Steve: 00:38:52

So.

Matt: 00:38:53

And to our listeners, if you're feeling overwhelmed and you're unsure where to begin, remember you are not alone.

There are resources, there's professionals, and there's people who want to help you and your family live well and live as well as they can, not only today, but in the future. I'm Matt Wilson, and this has been the Live well podcast.

And learn more or review your family's plan or to download my financial checklist for special needs, then visit matt wilsonfinancial.com and you can reach out to me there. Until next time, live well and take care of yourself and those that.

Steve: 00:39:35

Sam.