Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) accounts can help build financial capacity for people with disabilities as tax-advantaged savings vehicles designed for disability-related expenses. ABLE accounts might be particularly beneficial for low-income individuals with severe disabilities who receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) from the Social Security Administration (SSA), because funds deposited in ABLE accounts do not count toward the asset limits required to maintain monthly SSI benefits and access to healthcare. This paper investigates the potential savings and financial capacity of eligible individuals with disabilities who may benefit from the expansion of ABLE accounts. Utilizing the 2014–2017 Survey of Income and Program Participation merged with the 2014 Social Security Supplement, this study examines different levels of access to savings and financial assets – factors that may influence ABLE participation – among people with disabilities, particularly SSI recipients. Financial capacity is analyzed across three disability onset age groups: before age 26, ages 26 through 45, and age 46 and older, with particular attention to individuals in the second group, who will become eligible for ABLE in January 2026 when the onset-age threshold increases from age 26 to age 46. Findings from logistic and OLS regression analyses indicate that financial capacity is particularly weak among SSI recipients who are newly eligible for ABLE accounts, suggesting limited financial resources to open or contribute to ABLE accounts. Directions for further research on ABLE participation are discussed.

Women tend to be underconfident about their financial knowledge. In this longitudinal study, we tested two interventions intended to raise financial confidence and engagement in positive financial management behaviors among young Canadian women (N = 1119). One intervention included a brief educational task, teaching participants definitions of financial terms. Another intervention challenged social beliefs about financial competence by prompting participants to describe and browse other women’s stories about financial competence experiences on a website. Directly after the interventions, financial confidence ratings from women assigned to either or both of the intervention conditions were about 6% higher than ratings in a control condition. This effect persisted one week later, though a month later the size of the effect had dropped to non-significance. Confidence was linked to better financial management behaviors and more savings. Results also showed that participants in all conditions reported higher financial confidence and better financial management behaviors at later vs. earlier surveys. We conclude that simply reporting on financial attitudes and behaviors over time can increase women’s financial confidence and recommend fostering discourse about finances to close the gender gap in financial confidence.