All Forum Posts by: Elizabeth Kinde

I need day to day assistance, so living on my own in a 4 plex isn't feasible, unfortunately.

Anyone who is awarded SSDI has to wait a qualifying period of 24 months before they have access to Medicare, unfortunately. If I had that insurance to fall back onto, I wouldn't be worried about saving up. But until then I need to make sure I continue qualifying for Medicaid. And that means come next October I need to have <$2k in the bank and <$7k in total assets that aren't a car and a mortgage. Medicaid does, unfortunately, count savings accounts. You might be thinking of the ABLE savings account, but you need to have been determined to be disabled before your 26th birthday to qualify for that.  I'm "allowed" to put money into mutual funds and stocks, but Medicaid still looks at those as assets for determination.  It would be exactly the same as keeping the money in savings or in cash from a determination standpoint.

So I really can't save it. I need to figure out the best way to spend before my next Medicaid review.

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I want to thank everyone for your thoughtful replies!  It's at least heartening to know there isn't an easy solution that I've missed in my research.  

 My question is: are there any resources or strategies that this community knows of which I have not already looked into.  Or, as I said in my final paragraph, should I put thoughts of investing out of mind and just blow the money that I have on something frivolous?

Firstly want to thank this community and forum, I've found myself being directed back to it a number of times as I've been digging around the internet for information.  I realize my situation is a complex one, and I'll try to be as thorough as possible. 

I was recently awarded SSDI, and with that about $19k in backpay.  I know that's not a lot, all things considered, but it's very likely the largest lump sum of money I'm ever going to get.  My SSDI is my only income, and my disability prevents me from working to supplement it.  I live with family so my monthly expenses are minimal and leave me with about $500 a month that I comfortably could put aside for a potential investment (and/or mortgage payment).  I would like to invest it, but my options are extremely limited.  Medicaid is need based and takes most financial assets into consideration when it determines whether you qualify.  (I would be able to collect a net cash flow of aprx. $5k from a rental without getting kicked out of Medicaid.  In two years I'll qualify for Medicare and this whole thing will be moot.)

I can't invest in things like CDs, IRAs, ETFs/Mutual funds, or any type of savings account.  Real estate is one of the few things that I can invest in that won't knock me out of qualifying for Medicaid when I have to renew next year.  So, unfortunately, if I wanted to invest this money, I'd need to do it before October '24.  If I had unlimited time to figure out what to do with it, I wouldn't be in such a pickle.  

I don't have any wealthy investor friends or family I can approach for cash.  I don't own my own home that I can put up as collateral.  So far as I can tell, pretty much all traditional mortgages, as well as down payment assistance programs and low income grants, would both disqualify me based on the debt/income that a mortgage would put me at, and necessitate my occupying any purchased real estate as my primary residence.  This would defeat the purpose of my purchase in the first place.  

DSCR loans are going to need a minimum loan amount of $100k and a down payment of 20-30%. So the minimum I'd need for a down payment is around $25-40k on a $130k house. Even if I pushed my monthly savings up to $600 a month, it would still take me 10 months to save up the $6k to hit the very bottom of that threshold. And even then, it's highly unlikely that I would secure a mortgage and close on a house before my next income review.

I live in Dayton, OH and roughly an hour from both Cincinnati and Columbus.  I could get a very nice little income property for $130k in that bubble of cities.  If I had time.  

I'm running out of ideas for how to twist this to make it work, but I doubt I've been 100% exhaustive in my research.  If anyone has any insights or suggestions, I would be extremely grateful.  Or would it simply be better to put the idea of investing out of mind, and just go on a nice vacation lol.

Thank you all so much for your time.