233: How to Financially Plan for 2 Special Needs Family Members

BiggerPockets Money Podcast

Life can be challenging at times. When you think you’re in a stable spot, the universe tends to throw you one (or many) curveballs. In the realm of financial education, the smart early decisions we make can help alleviate the stress of these curveballs. This has happened almost to the tee for today’s guest, Karen Ferrero.

Karen grew up in a small town to a middle-class family. She was a first-generation college graduate and worked throughout high school and college. She later took a job and began consulting in the tech world, which offered her a respectable salary. She got married and had two kids with her husband, but shortly after, her husband was paralyzed in a motorcycle accident. Not only that, her son was diagnosed with autism.

Now, Karen had to sell her house, find a new accessible one, take her son to therapy every day, and continue working her full-time job. This put her in a sizable debt hole, but through strategic debt payoff and intelligent investing, Karen has come out on top. She still has a very high-paying job, a loving family and some very, very profitable investment accounts for her children that she started decades ago.

In This Episode We Cover

How to plan for when life changes your course by force

The importance of having good insurance when you’re young

Why you should always take advantage of the 401(k) match when presented to you

Investing as early as you can to capitalize on massive gains

Why you should put education accounts in a trust

The extra costs that come with taking care of special needs family members

And So Much More!

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