Getting laid off can be a devastating experience, and it can make planning for the future difficult. Career coach Octavia Goredema offers a practical checklist of next steps to help you focus on your future rather than get bogged down by logistics.
💼 Be sure to thoroughly review your exit paperwork. If you need more time during the process, don’t hesitate to ask for it. Negotiate your terms; you might be able to secure a longer timeframe for receiving certain benefits. 💼 Apply for unemployment insurance. The state-run benefit will pay you a weekly amount based on how much you earned before filing for unemployment. 💼 Take time to reflect on what you want to do next. It can help to think about what you liked and disliked about your last job. This can help you focus your search. 💼 Create a monthly budget based on a realistic timeline for securing a new job. For instance, if you anticipate that finding your next job will take six months, divide your savings to cover expenses over a six-month timeframe.
Positively Purging-I welcome your feedbacks in the comments and your likes and passing the real life wisdom on to others as I embark on this new venture of “positively purging“, as I know each of these pieces represents something…
Even typing this makes me seem ungrateful, but here we go. My husband is a gift-giver; it is how he shows his love. He is also a collector of many things (as is the rest of his family) and I am not. I am a practical person by nature. Sometimes his gifts are too numerous or just impractical (for example, he gives me a gift every day of December as an “Advent calendar”).
The fact of the matter is, I don’t need or want all these gifts despite them being thoughtful and sweet. This is not just a Christmas event, it is for my birthday, Valentine’s Day, Easter, our anniversary, etc. I have tried saying that I don’t need all these things, but he says that he enjoys looking for them and giving them to me. How can we strike a compromise? I don’t want to hurt his feelings, and our marriage is strong aside from this issue.– Too Many Gifts
Dear Gifts: It might seem to some to be a champagne problem, but too much champagne can be a real problem. There are two sides to gift giving: the intention and the impact. Generally, I think it does everyone a lot of good to weigh the intention more than the impact. Or, more simply, it’s the thought that counts. But in your case the impact – an accumulation of thoughtful things that you don’t need – is crowding out the intention.First, what’s the way that you like to show and be shown love? That’s important here. If there are ways to divert your husband’s energies so that he still gets joy from giving but you also get joy from getting, it’s a win all around.
However, if you prefer acts of service, for instance, and he loves to have something tangible to wrap and bestow, you’re still going to be a bit misaligned. In that case, you might try talking with him specifically about practicality. Sure, it might not initially light his heart up to go shopping for a new set of silverware or a replacement printer, for instance, he’ll come around when he sees you actually using and enjoying the gifts. A conversation is a great place to start, but a list will also be helpful here. You might also suggest that he look for things that you both can enjoy together. Maybe it’s a board game, maybe it’s something less tangible, like an excursion or a date night. By broadening his concept of a good gift, while narrowing the definition of a good gift for you, you’ll find yourselves aligned more.
My mother-in-law wants to put my husband on her bank account. What are the pitfalls, and is there a way to do it without being responsible for her bills? Here are pros and cons of adding someone to your bank account.
Pros: If you become ill and can’t handle your finances, the joint owner will have access to pay your bills. Often a parent may want an adult child to use the account to assist with paying bills or monitor for suspicious activity, such as possible fraud. If there are shared expenses, having a joint owner can eliminate the need to transfer funds. You can bypass the complications of probate after the death of one of the owners. Generally, under the right of survivorship, the money in the account passes directly to the other joint account owner.
Cons:A joint owner can withdraw all the money from the account without the other owner’s consent. The money in the account could be seized by creditors to pay the other person’s debts. If you want to leave the money to other heirs, having a joint account holder may complicate the distribution. In many cases, you can’t remove a joint account owner without that person’s consent. Joint ownership could open the door to fraud or misuse by either account holder. If one person overdraws the account, both owners can be held responsible for overdraft fees. Adding someone’s name might affect that person’s eligibility for public assistance or benefits such as Medicaid.
Finally, adding someone to your bank account generally does not make that person responsible for the other owner’s bills or personal debt. As an alternative to a joint account, a parent might consider something like granting the power of attorney to an heir.Michelle Singletary
Father, mother, God, THANK YOU for your presence during the hard and mean day. For then we have you to lean upon. THANK YOU. For your presence during the bright and sunny days. For then we can share that which we have with those who have less. – Maya Angelou
Positively Purging-I welcome your feedbacks in the comments and your likes and passing the real life wisdom on to others as I embark on this new venture of “positively purging“, as I know each of these pieces represents something…
Real Life of an MSW 