Date Night Doesn’t Need to Be Axed Even if Your Job Is, Expert Says
If you have been laid off, you need to take some time to figure out the minimum amount of money you will need to meet expenses and what kind of extras can be cut.
You may want to consider cuts in tiers, looking at what can be eliminated now and what has to go if the job search takes three to six months, or longer, experts told the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.). Discuss finances with older children as well as your spouse or partner, the article advises.
But employment consultant Melvin Scales of Right Management in Philadelphia said he advises clients to keep home life as normal as possible. “I encourage people who are married to still have a date night,” he told the newspaper.
The article advises those who are laid off to take four other steps:
• Keep your insurance. Under the new stimulus law, unemployed workers who opt to retain coverage from their employer under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act will get 65 percent of their premiums subsidized by the government for up to nine months. The subsidy phases out for higher earners and is available to those laid off between Sept. 1, 2008 and Dec. 31, 2009, who don’t have other group coverage options, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
• Put severance money in a federally insured account, and put aside money for estimated income taxes if you land a new job quickly.
• Apply for unemployment benefits right away, and consider applying for temporary jobs. Some advisers suggest drawing on a home-equity or personal credit line if one partner is still working.
• Withdraw from a retirement account only as a last resort and consider rolling over 401(k) accounts.
