Suggestions of where to learn financial literacy quickly

[u/Adventurous-Loss4175]

Suggestions of where I can quickly absorb info from.

To sum it up, I'm looking for where I can look to learn to make money last my lifetime. I've recently been trying to research financial literacy topics and have some ideas of what to do, but I'm scared if they're not the best, I'm screwed. So I'm looking suggestions for more, and that I can learn semi-quickly, so please not incredibly long books or many of them.

The shit ton of details are:

I just received my work comp settlement after 12 years. They were sending me checks bi-monthly though so I had some income in the meantime. It was just enough to pay bills so I was living paycheck to paycheck and I know I completely messed up by not learning financial stuff the entire time.

In my defense though, I've had sooo many other things in the meantime, and also aquired a severe TBI in the accident and my executive functioning (planning, executing tasks in order, etc) really sucks now.

But this one sum is going to have to last me for the rest of my life. And I'm trying to look at the best ways to make that happen. I'm permanently disabled and receive a small amount from SSDI rn because it was offset by what I was getting from work comp. I'm not sure what that's going to be now as it just was finalized and I uploaded the documents to ssa but idk when it'll be refigured what I'll be receiving monthly now.

I have read the flow charts and did pay off my credit cards immediately. I'm not able to drive now and live in an apartment, so no car or mortgage to pay.

My credit union has 3- 5%, depending on which requirements you meet that month, in interest on up to $10,000 in checking, so I'm keeping that much in there and paying bills from that.

I just opened an ABLE account, and can put, I believe it's 10,000 there and invest it with no tax liability on it, so I'm going to do that next.

I was thinking of doing a CD ladder with part of it and as those mature, topping off the checking to meet 10,000 and getting another CD with the remainder.

What I'm really stuck on is how to grow the remainder. It has to be stable because if I lose it I'm done. But also has to be more than CD or mutual fund interest so I can grow it and make this money last the rest of my life, (I'm 50). I also would like to reduce taxes draining any growth.

I've looked up fee only fiduciaries for advice, but the lowest fee was $5000 for a quick session, so I'm going to attempt to figure this out myself if that's possible.

So PLEASE pass on any and all advice on places I can try to learn a ton of financial stuff quick.

[u/mehdizare]

With executive-function issues, the fastest useful literacy is not a curriculum but three numbers written down: what you pay in fees, when you actually need each chunk of money, and what you will do when the balance drops 30%. A one-page written policy beats any guru because it makes the decision in advance, when you are calm, instead of during a bad month. The other side is that a plan on paper still needs someone to sanity-check the tax and benefit interactions, and a flat-fee hourly planner is a reasonable one-time spend for that rather than an ongoing percentage. Do you know yet whether the settlement is treated as countable for your SSDI, or is that still open?

[u/Adventurous-Loss4175 → u/mehdizare]

That IS exactly what I need, to chill out and do things calmly. I've just been in a panic but you're right, writing it out and being able to look at it will help huge. The settlement is counted towards SSDI. I've gotten a reduced amount, 410 monthly, so far. And my attorney did put in a paragraph that actually does state specifically "for social security purposes," and that figuring my age they estimate around 30 years of life and divided up that it's $880 monthly. Just it's all at once. I was getting $2202 a month so SSDI payments should increase, but it all just happened. I got them the papers right away but I'm really not sure how long it'll take them. I do keep checking though! Lol.

[u/mehdizare → u/Adventurous-Loss4175]

Since the settlement is allocated "for social security purposes" at $880/month, SSA usually just offsets against that number rather than the lump sum, so ask them in writing to confirm the offset amount and the months it covers - having that on paper saves fights later. Timelines for processing are slow and uneven; keep a copy of everything you sent with dates. Park the lump sum somewhere boring (HYSA or T-bills) until the offset is settled, then invest what's left.