ZODE - Zero-Barrier Online & Digital Expression

09/27/2025

What is ZODE?

ZODE: Zero‑Barrier Online & Digital Expression
Exploring technology, educating for safety, empowering self‑expression — for all ages and abilities.

With over 20 years of experience across disabilities and human services - from youth group homes and substance use treatment to direct support and residential leadership - ZODE delivers structured, accessible, and engaging programs that protect and empower learners.

Our Online Safety Fundamentals class equips participants to recognize scams, avoid exploitation, and protect their privacy. From there, learners can explore creativity and innovation through AI Art and Music modules.

ZODE programs are open to the public and designed with accessibility for neurodivergent and disabled learners in mind, making them an excellent fit for families using Self‑Direction as well as anyone seeking digital safety and creative enrichment.

If you would like to learn more, just comment, message, or or text/call 518.284.1337.

05/30/2022

Thanks to a mysterious 1986 law, credit reporting on student loans is mandatory. For millions of Americans, that’s meant financial disaster.

12/09/2021

Owning a home or rental properties is NOT a retirement plan by itself.

If you own real estate, you should be finding out how to diversify, and what to do if the value of your property goes down.

If you are planning to become a home owner for the first time, you should learn efficient ways to save now, and prepare for that bubble to burst.

We are in conditions similar to 2008 with corporations gobbling up property. What will you do when we have another market correction and the value of your 401k drops significantly?

US real estate prices are looking frothy, according to central bank researchers. The US Federal Reserve (the Fed) recently updated its exuberance index for Q2 2021. The little-known index exists to identify housing bubbles early, to minimize damage. For the first time since 2007, that indicator is n...

12/07/2021

Congratulations, and best of luck to other Starbucks workers in unionizing as well.

Collective bargaining and union membership have been a key area of leverage for workers to gain an upper hand in building a better life for themselves and their families.

Strong unions lead to a strong economy and growing middle class, and we can see a direct correlation with the decline of both and the decline of unions in the United States.

11/23/2021

The holidays can be a stressful time financially, and going into the new year, there is no better time to create a plan that you know will help you reach and surpass your goals. What do you have in place, and what are areas you could improve?

11/18/2021

Need help to create an actual plan for your financial future?

Or perhaps you have other specific questions:

What is a safe way to save or grow money?
Should I use a 401k or Roth IRA?
What can I do to succeed in this housing market?
Is it still possible to create generational wealth?
How can I mitigate tax risk, when taxes are almost certain to rise, and that burden shouldered by the working class and middle class?

Inflation is skyrocketing and the future is uncertain.

Send a message, and we can help.

11/11/2021

An article like this can have a useful information, but without any context for your own situation, it can be difficult to know how best to utilize your 401k or 403b.

Should you just contribute to the employer match? Is it better to utilize a Roth IRA and contribute after tax dollars?

How can someone save enough for retirement at the same time knowing life happens and so many people are put in a position where they are penalized for an early withdrawal in response to a crisis?

These are some of the questions we answer for our clients.

Your company’s retirement plan gives you more than just an employer match.