DH Laid Off - help?

[pooh2001]

1) COBRA - 65% past employers pays, 35% you pay - new law - ARRA - www.dol.gov/COBRA or 1-866-444-3272 for information.

2) Contact your local church - St. Paul DeVincent Society and you may qualify for food donations.

3) Be frugal with your savings

4) Contact your mortgage company about a short sale - or a reduced mortage rate - AND - Contact Legal Services in your area to get FREE legal Real Estate advice and help with stopping a foreclosure.

5) Contact your local and county government offices and see what help they may have for you. Free resume help ? Free Counseling ?

6) Be proactive in looking for a job. Change careers if you have to. Just because there is no help wanted sign - it does not mean there are no jobs.

7) Always keep a resume with you. Contact anyone you know - and ask about any job positions you may qualify for.

8) Keep a positive attitude. Get up every moring by 7 AM and create a routine. - Check www.monster.com for job listings. Go to the library and look at your local paper for job listings. Make a few phone calls or visit a few businesses to see about job positions.
- Keep a log of where you applied, who you have to follow up with and where you were totally rejected.

9) At least once a week or more, go to Church, the Synagog, or where ever you pray and keep your faith.

10) Know that this recession is a way our economy can 'clean' itself of bad investors, greedy companys and banks poor judgement of mortgages.

Best of luck to you and God Bless.

 

[Kellydelly]

1) COBRA - 65% past employers pays, 35% you pay - new law - ARRA - www.dol.gov/COBRA or 1-866-444-3272 for information.


4) Contact your mortgage company about a short sale - or a reduced mortage rate - AND - Contact Legal Services in your area to get FREE legal Real Estate advice and help with stopping a foreclosure.

For us the COBRA was not a feasible option. It sounded good to pay just $65more a month to get the coverage we used to have (premium was around $282 with Obama paying 65% of it), but it was offered at the end of March (for coverage retroactive to March 1st), we just received the paperwork a few days ago and we cannot elect to begin it when we want to (like for April or May), so that's one month where we would have had to double payed for insurance premiums, and two months where we didn't even USE the insurance, and that left us with 7 months of coverage. I think dh's former company won't even last that long, so I talked my husband out of signing up for the COBRA. For families that have a lot of health issues I'm sure it would be a wonderful option. I am just going to pray that my husband and I stay healthy, it's better than draining my bank account for 3 months of premiums right now and not having funds left to pay my mortgage.

The mortgage modification sounds like a wonderful idea, but we have had no luck getting anyone from our lender to implement one for us. When we've called to get information and see if we qualify (which according to the guidelines we should), we are told to get a job, to find a renter, that they cannot help us until we are in arrears . When you call HUD counselers (like from HOPE), they tell you that there's no shame in missing a few mortgage payments in this economy, that it would take a few missed payments before foreclosure would be initiated . I don't know if it will just take another few weeks for the lenders to implement the new modification plans, or if they are just going to continue to play games with homeowners and not help them .

 

[RN4Babies]

You've received some very good advice from pp. I urge you to make certain you have some sort of health insurance coverage. If COBRA turns out to not make financial sense for you, get your minor children signed up for medicaid and a bare bones basic major medical policy for you and your DH. Being diagnosed with a serious illness or being in an accident could be catastrophic financially forevermore if you didn't have any insurance coverage.

Don't be too proud to access food pantries. I was a SAHM with a 10 year old and a 3 month old baby when ex-DH decided to leave me for a then-19 year old girl (he left me with the house and $50). Food pantries and food stamps kept my kids fed until I found a nursing job and got my first paycheck.

I know my 401K allows for withdrawls if there's a hardship in the family. If you're worried about the company your DH worked for, I'd be looking to get my money out of there ASAP (you can roll it over into something you control without paying taxes and penalties). Access it if you need to; yes, there would be taxes and penalties, but if it keeps you out of a homeless shelter it's what would need to be done.

I know it's terribly difficult to find any job right now. Be good to yourself, and try to find a silver lining in this by enjoying more family time together (cooking together, board games, walks, reading books out loud to each other, etc). All the best to you and your family.

 

[vicb]

For us the COBRA was not a feasible option. It sounded good to pay just $65more a month to get the coverage we used to have (premium was around $282 with Obama paying 65% of it), but it was offered at the end of March (for coverage retroactive to March 1st), we just received the paperwork a few days ago and we cannot elect to begin it when we want to (like for April or May), so that's one month where we would have had to double payed for insurance premiums, and two months where we didn't even USE the insurance, and that left us with 7 months of coverage. I think dh's former company won't even last that long, so I talked my husband out of signing up for the COBRA. For families that have a lot of health issues I'm sure it would be a wonderful option. I am just going to pray that my husband and I stay healthy, it's better than draining my bank account for 3 months of premiums right now and not having funds left to pay my mortgage.

.

7 years ago (before DH moved into the auto industry) the computer firm he was working for went belly up and we obviously couldn't even get Cobra. We took out a very basic family plan through BC/BS, it didn't pay perscriptions, dental, office visits, had a high deductable... basically it was for major medical emergencies. We still paid about $400 a month for that! But it got us through for 4 months until he found his current job. You definitely have to pay through the nose for that peace of mind.

 

[Chicago526]

Also, keep an eye on your tax situation. Unemployment beinfits are considered taxable income, so is any severance pay your DH may have gotten. If the state (or your employer for severence) don't withhold taxes, then you may wind up owing next April, at a time when if you haven't found employment, your benifits will just be running out. Have your state withhold taxes if that's an option, that will at least help with your unemployment pay.

 

[Janet Hill]

Non-Financial Hardship 401k Withdrawal
Although the investor must still pay taxes on non-financial hardship withdrawals, the ten-percent penalty fee is waived. There are five ways to qualify:

1.You become totally and permanently disabled
2.Your medical debts exceed 7.5 percent of your adjusted gross income
3.A court of law has ordered you to give the funds to your divorced spouse, a child, or a dependent
4.You are permanently laid off, terminated, quit, or retire early in the same year you turn 55 or later
5.You are permanently laid off, terminated, quit, or retired and have established a payment schedule of regular withdrawals in equal amounts of the rest of your expected natural life. Once the first withdrawal has been made, the investor is required to continue taking them for five years or until he/she reaches the age of 59 1/2, whichever is longer.

If you must absolutely access 401 k monies the above withdrawals are better than a hardship withdrawal as there is no 10% penalty. Something to think about.

 

[Kellydelly]

7 years ago (before DH moved into the auto industry) the computer firm he was working for went belly up and we obviously couldn't even get Cobra. We took out a very basic family plan through BC/BS, it didn't pay perscriptions, dental, office visits, had a high deductable... basically it was for major medical emergencies. We still paid about $400 a month for that! But it got us through for 4 months until he found his current job. You definitely have to pay through the nose for that peace of mind.

I finally won the argument with dh to not pursue the COBRA coverage and just keep the major medical policy that I found for us in December. It doesn't look like dh's former employers will be in business much longer so I'm glad I convinced him to just keep things status quo. Someone from the government just called to answer some of his questions about the COBRA stuff and she verified that if his former company goes under, the COBRA benefits stop anyway.


We converted one of our 401Ks into an IRA so that we can put the money into a money market account if we need to tap it to pay our mortgage. I don't know anything about whether we can get penalties waived for this particular hardship (no income) or not, it's funny how nobody seems to be able to answer that question for us. I consider our home an investment anyway, so tapping one investment to keep another doesn't seem like a horrible idea.

 

[Kellydelly]

Also, keep an eye on your tax situation. Unemployment beinfits are considered taxable income, so is any severance pay your DH may have gotten. If the state (or your employer for severence) don't withhold taxes, then you may wind up owing next April, at a time when if you haven't found employment, your benifits will just be running out. Have your state withhold taxes if that's an option, that will at least help with your unemployment pay.

If we had taxes withheld from the unemployment benefits we wouldn't have enough money to live on (or should I say even less money, cause unemployment benefits don't cover our expenses). I am thinking there is no way we will owe any taxes on it anway, considering our income dropped by about 75%.

 

[crisi]

If your husband can get another job out of state, have him go. Have him rent as cheap a studio apartment as he can, and come home whenever he is able - which may not be often. Think of it like a military deployment. Then you might be able to breathe for long enough to figure out to do with your underwater house.

 

[Janet Hill]

We converted one of our 401Ks into an IRA so that we can put the money into a money market account if we need to tap it to pay our mortgage. I don't know anything about whether we can get penalties waived for this particular hardship (no income) or not, it's funny how nobody seems to be able to answer that question for us. I consider our home an investment anyway, so tapping one investment to keep another doesn't seem like a horrible idea.

Yes you can have the penalty waived under certain circumstances. You would need to file Form 5329 with your tax return and the allowable exemptions to the penalty are in the Instruction booklet for the form. Look at the specific directions for line 2.
Here's a link to the form and instuctions

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i5329.pdf

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f5329.pdf