This article was first published in NerdWallet. com.
When you’re laid off, you may not be in the clearest frame of mind to take care of your financial life.
It can be tricky to do much at first, says Pamela Capalad, a qualified money planner in New York. “But you have to deal with monetary problems. “
To protect your finances, the following are the next steps.
“Before you walk through the door, and corporations can say you’re out in five minutes, make sure you have contact,” says Cincinnati-based Andrea Kay of “Work’s a Bitch and Then You Make It Work,” and several other career books.
Having someone to contact at your former employer, such as an HR professional, will be if you need help renewing your 401(k) retirement plan or if there are problems with your severance payment.
Your employer may or may not offer severance pay. Depending on corporate laws and your state, this may also include severance pay, as well as any remaining paid leave to which you are entitled. Like other revenue source bureaucracy, severance payments are subject to the source of income tax.
When online payments company Stripe laid off about 14% of its job on Nov. 3, it filed 14 weeks of severance pay, and more for those with more seniority.
Severance pay can even be negotiable, experts say. Consider applying for additional severance pay, a career to help you find your next job, reimbursement of unused paid leave, an extension of health insurance coverage, or prompt acquisition of unpurchased inventory options.
Why would an employer accept? Well, severance pay is provided because an employer needs workers to sign a waiver of claims opposing an employer, a non-disclosure agreement, or a non-compete agreement.
“They want you to give signals of something, so you have some leverage to negotiate,” says Capalad, who is also the founder of financial plan company Brunch.
Experts also recommend reducing discretionary spending right away. Focusing on the essentials (food, housing, and utilities) until you get your next gig can help ease the financial pressure. You may need to cut back on subscription services, dining out, and other extras. .
If cash is still tight after those cuts, negotiate your spending with service providers and lenders. A 211 phone call (or a stop at 211. org) can connect you to social services systems that will help you stay afloat.
Unemployment insurance provides weekly benefits to laid-off workers. If you are fired, file an application for unemployment insurance as soon as you can, as it can take weeks to get your first check.
To be eligible, you will need to meet job and salary requirements, i. e. the time worked and the amount you earned. It is possible to get unemployment benefits if you also receive severance pay, but regulations vary by state.
To access unemployment benefits, you’ll need to register an application in the state where you worked, according to the U. S. Department of Labor. UU. La unemployment insurance company in the state where you live can provide you with information on how to file your claim in some other state. Find your state’s unemployment benefits on the CareerOneStop website, sponsored by the Department of Labor.
Find out when your fitness insurance will end. In some cases, an employer will offer to cover health care prices. For example, when Meta (which owns Facebook and Instagram) laid off more than 11,000 workers on Nov. 9, it promised to cover the health prices of laid-off workers for six months.
Under a federal law called COBRA, you can extend your health insurance policy for a certain period of time if your employment ends. For covered employees, this period is 18 months.
To get COBRA insurance, you will have to pay the premium, which can be expensive. Insurance in the HealthCare. gov marketplace may be less expensive than COBRA, especially if you qualify for Medicaid.
Beyond health insurance, if you had work-related life insurance, they are unlikely to stay with you when you get fired. This can leave those you enjoyed hanging.
“If you’re 23 and in good health, you don’t necessarily want life insurance, but if you have a child or are worried about a spouse or a circle of relatives, now is the time to buy life insurance,” Capalad. Says.
If you had a 401(k) with your employer and you were fired, you have 4 imaginable moves to take:
If you have acquired and not renegotiated shares from your previous employer, you will need to make a quick decision to renegotiate them. There will be a predetermined window, usually 30 to 90 days, says Capalad, to renegotiate them; otherwise, they will be returned to the company. Unearned stocks are no longer part of your portfolio.
However, it is also conceivable for an employer to use what is called a recovery provision to buy back its acquired shares after a triggering event, such as a layoff.
His first intuition when he is fired would be to start a task immediately. Kay says that’s not an ideal way to start your search.
“You’re going to respond by calling everyone you know and saying, ‘Do you know jobs?'” Wrong decision,” says Kay. You’re going to send your resume right away, the worst opportunity. Don’t do anything though, take a deep breath first.
After this expiration, compare your own experience and skills so that you have something to say with the other people in your network.
“You have to know why you’re important. You have to say, ‘This is what I’ve done for my business and this is what I’ll do for you,'” Kay says. in a simple and jargon-free way.
“You have to be able to do it with your mother,” Kay said.
Once she senses what she’s offering and how best to deliver, Kay recommends this information to update her resume, create her LinkedIn profile, and submit requests.
More From NerdWallet