Mom got laid off from her job back in January. She'd gotten great reviews over her 8 years there, and her bosses loved her, but apparently they were told that they could only have a certain number of executive administrative assistants due to budget concerns, blah blah blah. Bastards in HR had called her on a Friday and told her not to come in Monday, that they'd pack up her stuff and ship it to her. So impersonal. Guess that's what happens when your company gets bought up by another company. She did get a small severance check a few months later, which she hadn't been expecting.
Fast forward to now: NJ unemployment benefits have run out, they're not providing the extended benefits anymore. She's applied to 70 companies, and not even a phone interview, except from some place that sounded like a Nigerian money scam. At this point she's going to put her name in with some agencies and see if she can't get some temp work, with an eye towards a permanent position.
Her 401k savings, which she's intending to dip into already, could support her for maybe 3-5 years. She's frugal to begin with, but there's the mortgage, property taxes, utilities, etc. that still need to be paid. Since I'm a co-owner on the house, I have no issues chipping in on mortgage and taxes, but I'm also contributing to my own household's expenses, so I don't have an inexhaustable supply of liquid assets. I figure worse comes to worst, I have her move in with me and rent out her apartment - I'd hate to have to sell the house and evict my cousin and my brother from their apartments (it's a 3 family). Besides which, we'd probably end up losing money, as the real estate market is still a little squishy.
It would have been grand if they could have just keep her on for just a few more years until she was ready to retire. She'll be 65 this year, she had been planning to retire at 68. Her COBRA insurance is requiring her to go on Medicare when she turns 65, this will then leave my brother without benefits (he's been on her insurance as a disabled dependent).
World of Warcraft: Delissandra - Blood Elf Rogue (retired) - Feathermoon
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City of Heroes: Splitshadow - Scrapper (retired) - Victory
Take the cost of whatever she was contributing to the place where she is staying. Divide it by 3 for you, your brother, and the cousin as to lighten the load but not break any one of you.
If she is 65 medicare should take over at least until obamacare kicks in in 2014.
When is she able to get her social security? Check on that and she might be able to retire early.
At her age and with obamacare coming the sad fact is she is just to old to work for a normal large corporation. She is just to high of a health risk for their insurance and age is a death sentence to the corp world in todays mentality
Find a small shop that needs part time help and go for it. Or check on local government employment for the elderly. My grandmother got something like that, it paid little and finally got cut in due to political budget cuts.
Take the cost of whatever she was contributing to the place where she is staying. Divide it by 3 for you, your brother, and the cousin as to lighten the load but not break any one of you.
I appreciate the suggestions.
I don't mind helping out, I just can't help as much as I would want to (would not be an issue if I were still single and living with her, heh). The Chinese enforce filial responsibility to force children to help their parents in old age, I actually WANT to help because she's been such a giving person throughout her life that she deserves to be on the receiving end for once.
Brother can't contribute more, he's only making enough to cover his rent plus his travel expenses, etc. Brother's live-in fiancee is absolutely worthless and of no assistance financially either, but that's another rant.
Honestly, I wouldn't ask my cousin to contribute more. Basically, despite his being related to me, he and his family are pretty much just tenants - we're not really close. They're already paying a reasonable amount to my mom for rent. Besides, both of their parents are also up there in years.
When is she able to get her social security? Check on that and she might be able to retire early.
She can start getting benefits right now, but it will be at a reduced rate until age 66 (over a year from now, she's a Thanksgiving baby). She may end up doing this if she can't get some temp work or other form of income.
No one's gonna starve or get foreclosed upon on my watch. I'm just ranting because I need the chain of shitty events to stop just for a little while so I can catch my breath and get ready for the next round.
I'm sorry all this is falling on your head Dragyn...wish I had some advice for you.
Will send some positive thoughts your way.
The inner Machinations of my mind are an Enigma - Patrick Star
A steel fist in a Velvet glove, the force is there but it's concealed just below the surface.
Yup, would be 15 years this September. Sucks big time to be a publicly traded company, because they can't tell us any more than they've told the news agencies. Find out maybe tomorrow night if I still have a job on Monday.
If you do get laid off take it as a positive sign,although right now it wont seem like it. I once had something similar happen to me at a place I worked that came out of the blue. Things turned out 200 percent better after about 6 months.
This Libor mess is growing and Europe has got some issues with liqudiity.
If the banks cut lending then NITE might be in trouble, especially since they are now tainted so to speak, you probably have a better idea how much liquidity they have than an outsider.
Also when the SEC or some other regulating body walks in and puts the hammer down on market makers its never pretty. I saw this glitch got some attention from them.
I was trading some stuff when the SEC walked onto the floor of the NYSE. Some of those stocks all of a sudden jumped up 5 to 10 dollars in a half hour after they cuffed those guys.
Ah, nice to see that Mercury coming out of retrograde has improved my world just a little bit. Mom just called to tell me that she got a letter in the mail that says that her state unemployment benefits have been extended for another $12,000 which will bring her through until January. That's a big help.
