Screwed
Well we did it now. *sighs* I don't even want to post this.
When i was laid off my project i hung out for a month waiting to be put in a new project at Westat, without pay. We got a few bills from that time. I always thought they would find something for me. They always had before.
Then i found out they had a 30 day policy if you are not on a project in that time you are dropped from payroll. During that time i did not apply for unemployment.. had not even thought i could since officially i was still employed.
Anyway recently we had the idea of using my retirement to deal with a few things.
1) Catching up some bills from that time
2) Using some as a fall back for emergencies like when the cars break down
3) Using some of it for materials in case i was awarded the self-employment assistance instead of having to borrow money from somewhere else.
4) Using some of it to re-tile our front hall and kitchen where the plastic tile is cracking after 24 some years of use.. so the wood under it does not get ruined.
5) Putting the rest of it away in savings or whatever perhaps to be put in another retirement account when i got a job.
Well i lost almost half of it to taxes immediately. All that money that Westat matched when i put into my account is gone.
And now i will probably loose my unemployment as well as any chance of getting self-employment assistance because of it. It was my retirement, earned over 10 years of doing a job i hated, and now without a job and without unemployment it might last a year.
If i had let it be.. i might have lost about 3,000 in the recent financial mess.. but most of it would still be there.. and it would be accessible to us to use in case of emergencies (though we would still loose half to taxes if we took part of it out). Anyway if not for working for Westat we would have even less money left since they matched my payments into retirement so i guess i can be grateful for that.
Lesson learned in hind sight, don't mess with your retirement unless you really, really need it. *Sighs* My mother told me not to do it. Did i listen?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It just seems that somewhere, somehow there must be a place for me, where i would love doing the work and they would be happy for what i can do. Is that a stupid dream?
When i was laid off my project i hung out for a month waiting to be put in a new project at Westat, without pay. We got a few bills from that time. I always thought they would find something for me. They always had before.
Then i found out they had a 30 day policy if you are not on a project in that time you are dropped from payroll. During that time i did not apply for unemployment.. had not even thought i could since officially i was still employed.
Anyway recently we had the idea of using my retirement to deal with a few things.
1) Catching up some bills from that time
2) Using some as a fall back for emergencies like when the cars break down
3) Using some of it for materials in case i was awarded the self-employment assistance instead of having to borrow money from somewhere else.
4) Using some of it to re-tile our front hall and kitchen where the plastic tile is cracking after 24 some years of use.. so the wood under it does not get ruined.
5) Putting the rest of it away in savings or whatever perhaps to be put in another retirement account when i got a job.
Well i lost almost half of it to taxes immediately. All that money that Westat matched when i put into my account is gone.
And now i will probably loose my unemployment as well as any chance of getting self-employment assistance because of it. It was my retirement, earned over 10 years of doing a job i hated, and now without a job and without unemployment it might last a year.
If i had let it be.. i might have lost about 3,000 in the recent financial mess.. but most of it would still be there.. and it would be accessible to us to use in case of emergencies (though we would still loose half to taxes if we took part of it out). Anyway if not for working for Westat we would have even less money left since they matched my payments into retirement so i guess i can be grateful for that.
Lesson learned in hind sight, don't mess with your retirement unless you really, really need it. *Sighs* My mother told me not to do it. Did i listen?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It just seems that somewhere, somehow there must be a place for me, where i would love doing the work and they would be happy for what i can do. Is that a stupid dream?