scary financial worries

[Tiggeroo]

Dh has had two layoffs in the past two years. Before this he had never been laid off. The most recent one for 5 months. He was called back last week to a great company. Worked there for one week and ended up in the hospital for a severe knee infection. He's a healthy young guy. I work part time while finishing up my degree, though I worked full time during his lay off. We had savings and few bills. But when he was hospitalized this week I panicked. I realized that if this was the type of thing where he was out of work for months, even weeks we would be in serious trouble. He makes good money but the layoffs have depleted all of our savings. He hasn't been at the new job long enough to have any sick days. Disability is much less then his salary. We have kids. It makes me think that you need 2 fairly equal salaries just in case something like this happens. Or I need to look into additional disability insurance. Hopefully he will be back to work on Monday. I know that due to the job being so new he will probably go back sooner then he would have otherwise. I was really worried that they wouldn't hold his position for him.

 

[NMAmy]

Oh, Tiggeroo, I'm so sorry. What a scary time. Sending good wishes to you and the hope that DH will soon be on the mend.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Hoping things look up, Tiggeroo, and he is up and well soon. Disability benefits, preferably your own, not tied to a company (those a re a bonus to me), are so necessary.

 

[Trish Bessette]

I'm so sorry to hear your news. Your in a tough spot and I hope things clear up real soon.

My brother in law had a severe knee infection last year and was in the hospital for 8 days. Don't want to worry you more but a knee infection can't be taken lightly. They were worried the infection would travel to his heart. Which, thank god, it didn't. I know about the stress of money but the main concern is getting your husband better. Sending pixie dust your way

 

[WeirdEyes]

That's awful. I sure hope your DH gets better soon. I would invest in disability insurance. It is not expensive and can be a blessing if you ever need it. DH and I both have it.

 

[EsmeraldaX]

 

[iNTeNSeBLue98]

I completely understand what you're going through. DH has had little success finding a decent permanent job since he was left go last November. The most recent job was a pay cut of about $3.50/hour less a small amount of commissions (tips), with the incentive that he would be moved to mgmt - it never happened and he heard rumor that it wouldn't. He's back to working through a temp. service and this week's job wasn't what he expected nor was the enviornment pleasant.

My pay is acceptable, but not enough to cover all of the expenses on my own. We used up the little savings I had at the beginning of the year while he was job-hunting, making the past 6 months a strain with the reduced income. It's been just enough to pay what absolutely has to be paid.

 

[tastelikecandy]

I am so sorry to hear that. I will tell you what I do if I am ever in this situation. I tithe. I know to a lot of people this is going to sound like the dumbest thing, but it works. I give ten percent of my income to the church every check. When you do this God promises he will bless you and multiply your seed. I know it makes no sense to give away money when you don't have any as it is but that is how you know it is from God, it makes perfect sense in the spirit. He is not trying to take anything form you he is trying to get something to you.

 

[luvwinnie]

NOW that I have a chronic illness I know the importance of independent disability insurance and WISH I had gotten it before getting sick. Hope your dh is all better soon and the finances improve! It is so stressful.

 

[arminnie]

Disability insurance is just as important as life insurance or maybe even more so. You can do w/o life insurance if you don't have dependents.

But the big problem with any disability insurance is that the companies make it EXTREMELY difficult to collect. I've heard so many horror stories about being denied disability pay - and not just from social security - the private companies are the worst.

I had short-term disability (which paid pretty much automatically) and when I was still in the hospital deathly ill with tubes out of my liver, etc after the s.t. disability ran out I thought the long-term would just kick in. Boy was I wrong. It took me over a year to finally collect. I was really too sick to fight them, and I would have just given up but my doctor wouldn't let it go. Many doctors don't want to have to waste their time dealing with these companies.

A friend was diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer and given a few months to live - she was denied disability benefits 3 times before finally collecting with the help of an attorney.

The insurance companies really try to out wait you on this - you will either be so desperate that you will go back to work half dead or else you will be totally accomodating and just die before they have to pay you.

Far too many people just give up trying to buck the system and never get the benefits that they paid for. so even if you have disability insurance, you probably have to be prepared to spend 12-18 months with no income before you can finally collect benefits.