A Survival Guide for the Unemployed

As you all know, both my fiance and I have joined the ranks of the unemployed in the past two months. Being unemployed is a scary place to be! I know I'm not the only one in this boat, so I thought I'd share this article, shamlessly copied from http://lovelytonight.blogspot.com (Thanks Candice!) I hope this may be of some help to some of you also finding yourself in this situation!

A Survival Guide for the Unemployed (from MSN Money)

If you've just lost your job, the decisions you make in the coming days and weeks may be critical to your financial survival.How you organize your time, corral your resources and handle your money will help determine whether this job loss is a temporary setback or a potentially life-changing disaster. But your most important task will be managing yourself, said career coach Nancy Collamer. "It's OK to catch your breath and lick your wounds," said Collamer, the publisher of the Jobs and Moms Web site and author of the e-book "The Layoff Survival Guide." "Take a week, two weeks if you need it" -- but then get going.

1. Get your head on straight.
Keeping your spirits up, your energy level high and "a realistic sense of optimism" will be essential skills in helping you navigate the road ahead, Collamer said.

2. Schedule your job search.
Get up early, take a shower, put on nice clothes and schedule what you'll do for the day."Even if you don't have appointments, you can take some time on Sunday night or Friday afternoon or whenever it works for you to schedule out your week," said Collamer, whose husband's layoff in 2001 prompted her to write the unemployment guide. "You might decide that from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. you'll research new companies on the Internet and from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. you'll go to the library and check out three books on writing résumés to see what you can do to improve yours."

3. Let people know how to find you.
Your business and professional contacts may have only your work e-mail address and telephone number. As soon as possible, send a short e-mail to all of your contacts letting them know your personal e-mail and phone number. Mention the change in your job status (Collamer recommends something like, "Because of a staff reduction, my last day at XYZ Industries was Oct. 29."). You can follow up later with more-personal notes to key contacts to let them know you're looking for work.

4. Stay covered.
If you had health insurance through your job, you should be able to purchase continued coverage under COBRA rules, but that can be an expensive way to go. Fortunately, you usually have 60 days to sign up under COBRA, and the coverage is retroactive, so you don't have to decide right away. If you get another job quickly, you may not need the coverage. If you don't, you may find that a high-deductible individual policy is a better deal.

5. Apply for unemployment benefits.
If you think this is a no-brainer, it's only because you haven't seen the e-mails I get from readers. Some worry that applying for unemployment will affect their credit (it won't) or that jobless benefits are some kind of welfare (they're not; your employer paid into the system in your behalf).The earlier you apply, the earlier you'll get your first check. Most states have a two- or three-week waiting period based on when you file, not when you lost your job. Unemployment benefits typically last for 26 weeks, although during periods when the state jobless rate is high, those benefits may be extended for an additional 13 to 20 weeks.The amount you get won't replace your old paychecks -- far from it. The national average unemployment check is about $270 a week, and the maximum you can receive depends on your state. Contact your state's employment office for details on how to apply and how much you're likely to get. Unemployment benefits are typically available only to workers who lost their jobs through no fault of their own. You generally can't get benefits if you were fired for cause or voluntarily quit your job.

6.Track your spending.
You no longer have the luxury of not knowing where your money is going. Keep track of every cent, at least for now. You can do so in a variety of ways: with a notebook and pencil you carry with you everywhere; with personal-finance software such as Money or Quicken; or with one of the online money-tracking sites such as Wesabe, Mint, Geezeo or Quicken Online.

7. Get your priorities straight.
List your bills and other spending in order of importance. The items at the bottom of the list should be pretty easy to trim. You also should find savings by cutting back on big-ticket items such as groceries, dining out, utilities and transportation.You should have another list: the "If Things Really Get Bad" list. Tops should be holding on to the roof over your head (the mortgage or rent), keeping the lights on (utilities) and ensuring you have transportation to get to job interviews (car payments and insurance). At the bottom should be your unsecured debts -- credit cards, student loans and other personal debt that paid for stuff that can't be repossessed.

8. Don't tap your retirement funds if you can avoid it.
It can be tempting to raid these pots of money, but the financial repercussions are so serious that you should avoid such withdrawals if at all possible.Not only will you lose one-third to one-half of the withdrawal to taxes and penalties, but you lose forever the tax-deferred returns you could have earned. A $10,000 withdrawal now from your individual retirement account or 401(k) means $109,000 less for your retirement, assuming the money would grow at an average 8% annual rate for 30 years.It's an especially bad idea to use retirement money to pay credit card bills. In a worst-case scenario, your credit card debt can be wiped out in bankruptcy court, while your retirement funds would be protected from creditors.