Posted on 11/15/2024 8:32:44 AM PST by mikelets456
Hello All, After 38 years at my company, I was laid off today. I have never been jobless since I was 14 years old. I could really use the input from you all here---about applying for unemployment, sites to look for a job, what to expect, how to use or invest what I have---here are some items I need help on handling--a side note I'm 57 YO:
1--I took a 401K loan as we had a few rough years and had to pay off some debt. How do I avoid the taxes and defer to the following year? 2--Should I wait for unemployment (to file)? 3--What is a good site to post my application? 4--By law, how long do I have to keep health insurance? I have a neurological disorder. 5--Any other advice.
(Excerpt) Read more at nerdwallet.com ...
But don't panic, there is life afterwards. I second the motion for LinkedIn; that's how I got my current gig. Unemployment pay, at least in my state (Tennessee), was close to a joke. I thought it was especially strange that I had to go off unemployment when I was taking training classes ... apparently "looking for work" is fine, but getting training to be more marketable for work is not. Go figure. It basically only paid for groceries anyway.
Good luck & you'll be in my prayers.
Don’t rely on websites. Make a list of companies in which you have interest. Modify your resume (be truthful) to reflect how your skills would match their openings. Apply directly. ASK FOR THE JOB
Start leveraging contacts on LinkedIn. Make it known that you’re actively looking for work. Call, text or email contacts looking for leads in your field.
If you have a college degree, look into teaching or if you can leverage your credit hours for another field that is hiring (e.g.: nursing) or go back to school for another quick degree. I’ve always said that if I ever got laid off, I would go to a Project Management boot camp to get my PMP or Function Point certification which is a niche specialty but in demand by large corporations and government entities.
COBRA in Texas is about 1400$ a month
not true... if a 401k loan isn’t repaid before separation it becomes a TAXABLE DISTRIBUTION and has an additional PENALTY TAX unless over age 59.5! See if you can leave the 401 assets in the plan and continue repayment of the loan term from HR or the plan docs... ymmv
The lady that runs a charity near and dear to my heart called Code of Vets, her husband was laid off and they relocated overseas. You need to be open to as many things that will give you an advantage.
My old neighbor, her dad lost a job in Omaha but he got another one in Des Moines so he rented a studio apartment and drove home on the weekends.
I can't answer your 401(k) loan questions, and I would recommend you follow the advice others are posting and meet a tax accountant about those. Just a couple of questions I have for you (and you can Freep-mail me if you'd prefer not to share the answers publicly):
1. How old are you?
2. What is your field of expertise?
You need to reach out to your network of friends in the same industry and hopefully linkedin represents your industry well. There are so many unfilled positions because experienced people do not market themselves well. Everyone who was laid off at the same time should be in your network that you are talking to.
At 57-65 take a job at any acceptable rate quickly, get yourself back on health care and contributing to the 401k. Scale your work effort to the pay rate, dont come in doing everything for everyone at a low rate, you landed at entry point, now you rebuild your network with working people and will be making another jump before 65 into a consulting role. Sounds like you may want to work into 70s, do that at a 30 hours a week gig, there are tons of those to find.
Wow... that really sucks.
It was a long time ago when I was laid off. I was only 26, but it was still a gut punch.
When it happened to me, I was provided with some counseling to help. The advice given was sound and I’ve shared with many people over the years. Basically, it’s this:
DON’T be ashamed of what happened. It happens to lots of great people at one time or another. It is, what it is.. and now, you have a NEW job. Your new job is: to FIND a job. Work at it. Get up every day and work on it. Make calls, send emails, search everywhere for a new place to work.
Tell EVERYONE you know and trust that you’re looking for work. Don’t be afraid to call in favors. Now is the time. Any real friend will do whatever they can to help you. Nearly every new job comes from a reference or someone pointing you in the right direction.
Definitely, work on your resume. Get updated professional photos. Spend some time on your own health. Work out more. You’ll need exercise to help with the stress.
Stop all unnecessary spending. definitely, file for unemployment immediately. Contact professional placement services, they can help.
You’ll get through this. You might even come out better for it.
As for health care, you have the right to purchase COBRA insurance for up to 18 months. It’s probably expensive, but... it’s available to you. It will be exact same coverage, same company you had when you were working.
I believe we're looking at a confluence of two 401K laws occurring at the same time:
1) If you take out a 401K loan you have to pay it back before leaving work there or pay a penalty and taxes on it.
2) The Age 55 rule for 401K's says that if you leave work on or after the age 55, you can take distributions without penalty (but have to pay taxes unless it's a Roth 401K).
I believe in this case there would be no penalty for not paying the loan back, because the Age 55 rule would trump that. But it would still be considered a taxable distribution like any normal withdrawal taken after retirement after age 55 (or age 59.5 if you left work there before the year you turned age 55).
My suggestions:
A) Talk to an accountant.
B) Tighten up your budget.
C) You can withdraw from your 401K with no penalty (but it counts as income tax). But do so sparingly (tightened up budget).
D) Move some of your 401K into an IRA so you can have better investment options. But leave some in the 401K to take advantage of the Age 55 rule. One it's in the IRA, then the 59.5 age rule applies for 10% penalty on early withdrawals (unless there's a disability).
E) Convert some of it to a Roth IRA so it grows tax free. But leave enough of it out of there that you can withdraw without paying the penalty for the 5 year rule of starting a Roth IRA's (assuming you haven't started one). Since it's near the end of the year, you can start a Roth IRA now and it's really more like 4 years and a month and a half before you can withdraw from the Roth IRA penalty free.
F) If you convert some to Roth IRA, make as much of it as you can with contributions instead of conversions. (Look up Order of Distribution Rules for Roth IRA's.) You can put up to $8K per year per person into a Roth IRA (for age 50 and older). You can do it for your spouse even if she's not working. So if you haven't made Roth IRA contributions for years 2024 yet, withdraw $16K from your 401K and immediately put $8K each into yours and your spouse's Roth IRA's. If you or your spouse plan to be working some in year 2025, take another $16K out this year (taxed for year 2024) and hold it until year 2025 to put $8K in each of your Roth IRA's for year 2025 too.
G) Another note about Roth IRA conversions from traditions 401K or IRA money: The moment of conversion is a taxable event. So don't convert enough this year to put you into a higher tax bracket. Calculate how much you can convert, which increases your AGI (Adjusted Gross Income), without increasing your AGI so much that some of your income is taxed at a higher tax rate.
End result: In year 2029 (as early as January 2029 if you want) you'll be able to withdraw $16K from each of your Roth IRA's without penalty or taxes because you started your Roth IRA's in year 2024 (satisfying the 5-year start rule for Roth IRA's). All contribution amounts are available for withdrawal penalty free, even contributions that aren't 5 years old. If you do some conversion in this year too, then the 5-year rule for conversions will let you withdraw that much out in year 2029 as well. Each year of conversions have their own 5-year clock. So if you convert some this year and some next year, then in year 2029 the total you can withdraw without penalty is total contributions + year 2024 conversion amount. The year 2025 conversion amount has to wait until year 2030 before you can withdraw that amount penalty free. And only after all conversion amounts are withdrawn does it count as withdrawing earnings (which you can do beginning the year you turn age 59.5).
Again, a quick reading of the Order of Distribution Rules for Roth IRA's explain all of this. It's a way to let your invested money grow tax free, as long as you follow the rules that keep you from being penalized for early withdrawals.
You have to be careful with Obamacare. I was laid off from a job in October 2017. Looking at Obamacare, my premium would be based on what I had already earned so far that year. A family plan was nearly the cost of COBRA, even though I wasn’t making anything then except what I got for unemployment benefits. I did take Obamacare because it was almost $200 per month less. Same insurance co., doctors, etc.
Turned out that it really wasn’t the same plan. While all my deductibles were met by the older plan, I had to start with a new deductible and it was $14,000, $11,000 more than my older plan. Saving that $150-$200 dollars per month cost me plenty. Still kicking myself to this day. Fortunately I only needed it for two months.
Lots of good advice here. However, I’d like to add a few suggestions.
1. If you borrowed from your 401k, don’t worry about reporting it. I didn’t and was never contacted by the IRS. In fact, I haven’t paid income tax for almost 25 years. If you know the law, and are contacted by the IRS; just ask them to send you a copy of the statute that requires you to file and pay. Do a Google search for Roger Banister. Also remember that the statute of limitations for back taxed is three years if you don’t file. It’s much longer if you file a false return
2. As for getting training for another job/career; don’t tell your state unemployment office so you can still get unemployment. Remember, they are government employees and are lazy. Just send out you five resumes each week.
3. Contact recruiters and people you know. They know who can use your skills. You only need one.
4. Sometimes,companies use employment agencies as a way to screen potential hires. This way, they can “hire” individuals; and if they don’t work out,can just not ask for them back without the risk of an employment discrimatiom lawsuit.
“reach out to other people that you have a relationship with in your industry”.
That is key—and depending on the field is probably the easiest way to find a job.
Somebody will know somebody who will know somebody that needs your skills.
The resume should focus on what you can do to help companies in your industry be successful—the more specific the better.
use glassdoor.com to check on employee reviews of employers.
I wish I’d done this with a past job...the horrors there were well documented.
Glassdoor is a great site for sure.
Many mediocre or bad employers get roasted there.
Personally, I would hit the streets with personal contacts. You should know enough people that can refer you.
DOGE is hiring for several months
HA! I went through that exact thing here in WI many years ago. I got laid off from a foundry back in the 80’s. No jobs anywhere to be found, not even at a fast food place or anywhere else. Unemployment compensation wasn't too bad for a single guy to survive on at that time and place, so I thought it a good idea to go to tech. school using my unemployment benefits. I did have to maintain a job search for my benefits and meet periodically with a case worker.
At one point I mentioned that I was taking classes to improve my employment prospects, boy was that the wrong thing to say! She didn't like that at all. She wanted to cut my benefits off (which would have meant me not being able to attend beyond the current semester). I ended up having to sign a paper stating to the effect that I would stop going to school if I was offered a job, in order to maintain my benefits. I thought for sure now they were going to find a job for me just because of that, but they never did. Apparently, it would have been just fine to sit on the couch all day getting stoned and watching TV. As you said, "Go figure".
Having been through too many of these and if you've been through one, you know one is already too many, I wish better times for my former co-workers who were let go in the recent layoff. Those of us remaining are with you. And you should know that you will come out on the other side.Now while you're doing all the right things of being positive and updating your resume and looking for a position and a hundred other positive things, make sure you take the time to get this out of your system as best you can. You're not being negative or dwelling on the negative. You're dealing with a massive change that came unexpectedly. It's a big deal and it's personal because no matter how much you were told it's not personal, and no matter how professionally and stoically you may have reacted, it hurts. It hurts a lot, and it happened to you and that makes it very personal.
Do whatever you need to get that pain out—run, scream, pray, cry, eat ice cream (two scoop minimum but spoon to carton is preferred)—so you can be ready for when you will have to be professional and positive. You cannot carry this baggage because it will hold you back, sap your energy, and ultimately sabotage you.
During my last time out of work, I found a motivation playlist through the 8tracks app called "Motivation for life" by a user named Jason Cocurullo. This playlist pulled me through the dark days including a disastrous job hunting trip to the same area in Virginia where I now live. I believe it was heaven-sent because I stumbled onto it looking for workout motivation music but instead found motivation to get back into the game. God has His ways and this was one of them for me. May it work for you as well.
The playlist is at: https://8tracks.com/jasoncocurullo/motivation-for-life
In Italy, they don't say good luck, they say, "In bocca al lupo."
A first rate CPA with experience in the fields you’re talking about would be a great investment.
COBRA in Texas is about 1400$ a month
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Yep. About what one will get from unemployment. So it’s a wash.
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