Monday, November 24th, 2008
That’s right! The wifey has now been bitten by the layoff bug. Her entire department is no longer with us. I came home for lunch to play Call of Duty 4 on the XBox 360. While I was in the middle of spreading my wrath on some inferior victims I got a phone call from the wifey. She informed me that she’d been let go.
Right away I knew she was serious but for some reason I didn’t even feel an, “awe damn” moment. Truth is, I’ve been telling her for the longest that she needs to find another job. She was comfortable so she stuck with them. Now they forced her hand and she’s currently unemployed.
Now we have to find a way to get health insurance since we were using her health benefits. It doesn’t help that we found out a couple of weeks ago that we’re expecting our 5th child (July 5th ‘09). Meanwhile, I’ve been researching some health insurance possibilities. Besides the expensive COBRA option ($775/ per month) to continue our same benefit coverage, I’ve been using ehealthinsurance.com to get some much more affordable quotes.
All in all, it’s not ALL BAD. For starters, she gets a severance package of 14 weeks pay (2 weeks for the 7 years she’s been there), 1 week of profit sharing as well as her 21 days of vacation pay. To top it all off, she still gets $423/week in unemployment benefits. So once again, our layoff situation may have us coming out smelling like a rose.
It’s feels GREAT to not have worry about a job loss. But at the same time, this is the 3rd big event to happen to us this year in the negative column. 3/21, I Lost my job (quickly found another one). 9/23, I lost my grandfather (he passed away without suffering or anything). Now this.
Notice the trend? Despite the hurdles, we’ve managed to take things in stride and be ok. I feel like everything is changing as I feel that the bad comes in threes. Our luck is finally turning and I’m optimistic about the next couple of months.
For starters, I’m in the middle of opening up a second business (tattooing). I hinted on it earlier in the year and it’s finally coming to fruition. MOdify Tattooing, LLC will be up and operational by the first of the year.
Well here’s to a GREAT ‘09. First round’s on me!
Posted in Inspirational, Personal debt, relapses | 2 Comments »
Thursday, September 18th, 2008
Sorry for the long delay but I’ve been really busy with the new job and all and in the process got some good news…
The wife’s company is now sold and we inherited our share of the proceeds I blogged about earlier. It feels great to have a nice chunk of change in savings. We are sticking to our plan of taking 10% of it and helping others in need. So far it’s been family & friends.
It’s great to see people get a blessing because we received one. I’m not religious but lately I’ve been thinking that maybe there is a plan created by someone or something.
For instance, I feel like I worry less over things I can’t control because I feel that if something’s right for me, it will happen.
I’ve had 2 great interview within the past 3 months. I haven’t even called them back to check on the status. If I get it, I get it… If I don’t, I don’t! It’s that simple.
I’ve also had everything to be lined up so that when my severance ran out with Sprint, I’d have a friend that was going to put my wife & I on his plan. That didn’t turn out so well either so I’m going to chalk that up in the “it’s not supposed to happen category” at no fault of my friend.
Anyhow, for some reason this layoff has taught me a lot of things just as I’ve predicted.
It sucks having to wake up in the morning to get dressed to go to work, but at the same time it’s great knowing that I don’t have to worry about job security. Plus I work less than one mile away from where I live.
It sucks taking a $13K pay cut, but at the same time, I’ve actually made more this year with my severance, unemployment & my new job. I’ll also be getting a significant raise in’09 or ‘10 as i’m being groomed to replace someone that’s retiring after next school year. Did I mention the experience factor is GREAT. It’s like I’m over an entire section of the IT department because I’m the most familiar with the SCCM/SMS technology we’re implementing.
So in all… My layoff was actually a blessing in disguise. It’s been great throughout the entire process as it was something that was supposed to happen as it must’ve been in my cards. Actually, it was an exciting time which I can’t explain for some odd reason why it was exciting.
I guess it was a challenge of the change I am going through at this time. It was exciting to know that you’re forced to do something and you have other people relying on your for support. Since the layoffs, we haven’t missed a beat considering this is one of the worst economic times since the great depression. Some people are actually calling it worst.
I will tell you that if I would’ve been financially irresponsible, then this wouldn’t have been such a grand time in my life.
Posted in Inspirational, Personal debt, education, success | 1 Comment »
Monday, April 14th, 2008
Where do I start? I’m currently a laid off Sprint employee looking for work. My official release date was March 21st, 2008.
Despite the layoffs, I’m determined to get my family financially fit. I prepared for this round of yearly layoffs by treating myself as a corporation. I cutback on bad debt in order to increase my bottom dollar. I paid off both cars (2002 Yukon Denali XL & 2005 Ford Freestar) in April 2006. That alone allowed me to save $500+/month. It hurt me to have to write a $20K check which drained my savings & cashed in stock but it was worth it in the end.
I then switched to Vonage in February of 2008 for home phone service, saving me $40+/month. On top of that I switched my trash removal service which netted me a savings of only $20 /qtr (every little bit helps).
These cutbacks and debt payoffs now allow us to save approximately $1000 - $1500 per month.
Currently I receive a severance package from Sprint that allows me to get paid (bi-weekly) until August 22nd, 2008 (with benefits). If I land a job soon I have a real opportunity to get a great head start on becoming debt free.
A breakdown of our situtation:
- We bring home around $5k/month.
- Outside of mortgage and utilities we have…
- My wifes $30K student loan ($288/month)
- My $3500 student loan ($110/month)
- $2000 Nebraska Furniture Mart bill ($130/month)
- Our $58K rental property mortgage ($505/month)
- The rental property is currently generating $205/month income.
Currently we’re on track to have at least $20K in savings by the end of the year ($15k if I don’t find a job by then). If I can land a job soon, $40k in savings shouldn’t be out of the question at the end of the year.
Having given a financial breakdown of my situation, I’m hesitant to payoff the NFM & my student loan bill at the moment. Doing so would deplete our current savings account to a little less than half. Considering I’m unemployed at the moment, I wouldn’t feel comfortable taking out of our emergency stash at the moment to pay these off. Besides, The NFM bill is interest free until the middle of 2009 and the current $130/month payment will have me paid in full by that time. Also, my student loan is only 6% interest rate so it’s not like it’s killing me at the moment. I’ll pay it off early regardless as I pay at least $150 every month (applying the extra to principal).
Well there you have it. My financial breakdown for future references.
Roger Garrett
Posted in Informational, Personal debt | No Comments »
