To Build Wealth is to Mitigate the Health Factor. To an Extent.

I’m a pretty healthy person as a 30-year-old. I get my fruits and veggies in. Exercise at least 4 times a week. Get a lot of great sleep. Regularly shower and brush my teeth.

I also do not smoke or do drugs other than the occasional cocktail when socializing. All of that, plus great genetics and a robust immune system, means I don’t really need to worry about declining health for at least several years.

The reason I do still worry about my health is because of how I grew up. My older sibling has some severe disabilities, mostly physical. That meant I knew a lot more about disability from an early age than most, other than children with disabilities themselves. My sibling’s special needs meant a lot else fell to the wayside; this was not their fault in any way, as no act of nature (as disability is) is anyone’s fault. What it did make clear to me is how significantly special needs can affect everything around you.

Then I went on to learn about all of the resources people with disabilities have courtesy of local, state, and federal governments.

Which is to say: a lack of.

People with disabilities are an oppressed group. There is prejudice against them as much as there is prejudice about race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, religion, or economic status. The only difference is now that oppression presents itself. Some of it is similar – people with disabilities, too, deal with hate crimes, for example. The most marked difference is through how they’re also the most vulnerable group of people. Many, many people fall into the trap of assuming that disability is the only thing you need know about who they are and their value as a person; they see the people with disabilities as their disability, instead of their personhood, and that the most they can serve to be is either a milquetoast inspiration or a receptacle for pity.

A Quick History

It is this prejudice that makes the lack of resources especially heinous. It took until the 1970s for federal law to go “hey, maybe we can help people with disabilities get jobs” with the Rehabilitation Act. On the civil rights front, people with disabilities didn’t get formal rights until 1990, with the Americans with Disabilities Act that several activists fought for. My older sibling was born only a couple of years after that.

Why Should You Care?

It’s good to answer that question here of “why care?” if you need more of a reason than empathy. And that answer is: odds are excellent you, at some point in your life, also had a disability. The difference is, you only had it temporarily. What else would you call a broken bone, which requires weeks to heal and impairs your mobility on some level? Crutches and casts are tools that ensure you minimize the damage already done, so you may return to being fully able-bodied once more.

Know what else qualifies as a temporary disability? Pregnancy. Depression. Digestive disorders. Cancer. And those are the temporary ones. The odds are good that you’ll develop some kind of disability the older you get. Men have a 43% chance of becoming disabled during their working years. For women, the likelihood is even higher at 54%. And once you hit your early 40s? Statistically speaking, a disability is more likely to befall you than death. It can be something sudden, like a car crash or sporting accident. It can creep up on you, too, when some minor issue you’ve noticed about yourself is actually connected to a much bigger issue.

I’ve faced that latter possibility already myself.

I have a diagnosis that is, for now, manageable enough. After getting the diagnosis in 2022, I could start restructuring my life with this new and vital information. I could also start preparing for the potential of my symptoms going from “manageable enough” to “severe”. I’m in the minority of people with this diagnosis in that I can still work a high-paying, six-figure job. There are many days when I’m genuinely surprised at the level of high functionality I still have with it.

Disabilities can, and do, and will, affect your family and community in some way. According to the CDC, 1 in every 4 Americans have a disability. It can be a tough metric to measure as there are many more, like me, who have conditions known to progress into disability.

This doesn’t mean we are without disability prevention measures. Vaccines prevent death, yes, but they also prevent disability if death doesn’t happen. Same goes for prompt medical care, for when any sudden incident poses a serious threat to your quality of life. Same for health education, too, so you know how to better your own health and avoid what compromises it.

Which makes it infuriating your ability to manage disability depends quite heavily on how much money you have access to.

The Costs of Disability

Having a disability is going to cost you more. That is the blunt reality. If you’re lucky, you can get away with low-cost medication as your sole cost. The disability spectrum is so broad that costs run the gamut from “this easy-to-get monthly prescription” to “24/7 care, intense surgeries, and constant therapy”. Don’t even get me started on the financial limits placed on those on disability benefits. The most I can say about that is “The law says you can’t have more than two thousand dollars in the bank, ever, so you are not allowed to try and save any substantial money” without raging. I recommend this article from Bitches Get Riches to see my ire written more cohesively than I could attempt.

Disability strongly affects what others perceive of you, which – obviously – affects how many managers see you as a capable hire. You’re seen as weak and incompetent at damn near everything, but especially in the workplace. It’s to the point where the majority of people wouldn’t advocate for a person with disabilities to accept a leadership position.

This thinking is exactly why our first physically disabled President took great lengths to hide his disability. You might not have ever even heard we’ve had a President with disabilities in-office.

But we did; he ranks as one of the greatest Presidents America’s ever had.

If that’s the case, let me introduce you to Franklin D. Roosevelt, who served four terms as President throughout the Great Depression and World War II. He led the nation for twelve years while also being a paraplegic. After being diagnosed with polio in 1921, 12 years before the start of his first term as President, he was left permanently paralyzed from the waist down, totally unable to stand or walk without mobility aid. The reason no one knows this is because he ensured his paralysis was either seen as improving or hidden completely.

He was hyper-aware voters would choose a different candidate if his being physically disabled came to light – no matter if he was so great at his job that he was elected three times in a row. Much of his life in the 1920s was dedicated to his (futile) attempts to regain his able-bodied abilities, spending over half the year away from home in the South to regain some kind of ability through warmth, exercise, and sheer force of will. He’s the reason wheelchair ramps were first added to the White House and the Governor’s Mansion in New York. He eventually founded the March of Dimes (originally called the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis) which led to the development of a polio vaccine.

Which is ALL to say: if this country would not have been able to accept a President with disabilities, who has proven his worth many, many times over, what hope would I have in furthering my career if I were to become disabled?

How Financial Independence Plays Into This

So, FIRE. Financial independence is a game-changer for anyone, especially anyone whose future includes a disability. In my case, going full hog on FIRE has seriously mitigated the impact of a disability to my quality of life. Through several coincidences, half-blind management tactics, and outright luck of the draw, the diagnosis has been manageable enough to let me hold down a high-pay job.

Pursuing a higher salary has also meant I also pay more money into programs like Social Security; if I became eligible for disability benefits, I’d receive about $2,500 per month per Social Security Disability Insurance. As long as I move somewhere less expensive than my current apartment, that would more than cover my base expenses and, hopefully, also cover whatever medications my body needs.

However, if I have some expensive needs – surgery, specialized mobility equipment like a motorized wheelchair, or prescriptions that cost hundreds of dollars – I would need to take on a new approach.

I’ll plug an Instagram account I love, @oopsibrokemyneck, that tackles this with aplomb. Gina Schuh lives in Arizona and became a quadriplegic at 18 years old. She’s also an absolute badass with a JD, a whole gallery of gorgeous art she’s painted, and a golden sense of humor. She’s very honest about what her disability means in her everyday life, including financially.

She freely shares the annual cost of $70,000 for her caregivers, along with what she invests in to afford said cost. Her mobility aids include her wheelchair and a modded-out Chevy she doesn’t hesitate to tell you the upsides and downsides of. I think everyone should follow her for her humor alone, but she’d also fit right into any financial independence circles. If you still need convincing, just look at this newscast of her from last year.

Each post she makes is a great reminder of the power of financial health to take care of your overall health.

Gina makes a point to discuss disability insurance as well. For those that need it, insurance can be a lifesaver. More commonly, it is a source of endless frustration and grief. Ever since I was small, I witnessed how much insurance can giveth and taketh away in turn. It made me want to rely on insurance as little as possible.

It was to that end that was one of many reasons I got into the FIRE movement. Personal wealth seemed so much more reliable and stable than insurance. Unlike insurance, I do not have to file a claim and risk rejection in order to buy what I need. I’ll still take advantage of the insurance I do have through my employer. I will also purchase insurance on my own in the event I stop working. But by and large, it is the wealth I have built that will cushion me much more than America’s broken safety net.

I have an extra ace up my sleeve in that regard as a dual citizen. It is extra assurance that I have the right to move somewhere that offers free or subsidized healthcare to everyone. That, plus my overall net worth, makes me safer than most who don’t have these advantages. Being able to afford the costs of securing it may also be out of reach for those who qualify, but who do not have the resources to pursue it due to disability.

Financial independence cannot protect me from becoming disabled in the future. What it does do is cushion me from a life of poverty and strife that many people with disabilities must contend with. With it, I will not have to panic if any kind of future disability hits me during my working years. I will have enough wealth behind me to weather the biggest storms that brings. And that sure is another good reason why my finances obliterate my worries for myself about the future.

Cover image credit: P.L. via Unsplash