18 months ago, this would have been a very different conversation. 18 months ago, I would have been looking at my savings and cursing the fact that it was approaching the $5,000 asset limit.
But today that wasn’t the case. Today I was wheeling into an appointment with an investment manager at my bank wanting to setup a Tax Free Savings Account.
The investment manager was very nice and directed his attention to me, even though I had my support staff explain what I wanted; (we were a bit late in getting started and my staff knew all the technical words to speed things along).
The investment manager asked me some questions to make sure I understood what I was getting into: I in turn did a bit of education on what PWD does to disabled people.
Then I signed far more papers than I was expecting.
And then it was done; I wheeled out of my bank the proud owner of a new TFSA invested in a moderate grow mutual fund that I can still use an emergency fund if I needed it but over the long term will grow far more than if I kept it in a savings account or GIC.
Now you may be wondering why I’m talking about all this? Why am I talking about something as mundane as doing some banking as this month’s column? But it’s precisely because this action is so mundane, or normal that is the whole point.
The experts have long talked about normalization as if it was this Herculean effort on societies part to create an environment where people with disabilities would at first be welcomed and then treated like everyone else within a society. But I sometimes wonder if we wouldn’t further ahead if focused more on small changes.
As I said in a previous column the increase of in asset limits for people on PWD from $5,000 to $100,000 was a simple but impactful change.
Many believed at the time that it would mean little for people with disabilities; yet this change has made me feel more normal and apart of society in general than I have felt in a long time.
Now I just have to save more money so that I can do it again.
