I left my job about two months ago, and I applied for unemployment immediately. I got a new job today, but I STILL haven’t gotten my unemployment decision. Additionally, my food stamp application was delayed due to personal circumstances. In short, had I not had money saved for an emergency, I would have been mega-screwed.
I know some people are not in a position where they have the luxury of storing away significant amounts of cash but, if you are, I beg of you to do so if you aren’t already. I can’t imagine what position I’d be in right now if not for my budgeting.
Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.
PS. I posted this here instead of in c/finance because the sidebar there specifies that it’s supposed to be for finance-related news.
1–3 months is enough for other developed countries other than the US, due to unemployment benefits, social security and most importantly: at least 3 months prior to termination a required termination notification.
Anyways: due to the current high interest rates it might be worth it to put more money into your savings account, since the opportunity costs compared to company shares are low.
You can also do short term investment like T-Bills or CDs too. Just make sure they’re maturing regularly. For example you could split your emergency fund into 8 chunks, and buy an 8 week T-Bill every week for 8 weeks. If you ever need the money stop reinvesting them and you’ll get 1/8th back per week for 8 weeks.
T-Bills are a bit over 5% now.
Is it nearly as much a nightmare to start getting unemployment in other places? I’m stunned that it’s taken as long as it has in my case.
My experience in the netherlands is that there is usually some delay, but not more than a month usually. I used to go in and out of unemployment a lot when I had just dropped out of college. Lot’s of temp jobs. It was very annoying. But the unemployment money started accumulating right after you got fired. Only thing was that it could take a few weeks before they payed out.
Here in New Zealand it took me about three weeks.
But, I know we get far less money than in many other places. It wasn’t even enough to cover rent so I had to use savings.
Now I’m on disability and it’s less than half what people get on minimum wage. I know from my support group that disability is harder to get in the US but it’s also pays a lot more money.