I hope you keep your job and this is a non issue.
401K - Rule 55
- Thread starter Bee1971
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Much good advice here, based on my own experience. I got laid off 17 years ago last month at the age of 50. Ironbuilt's advice about trucking as a cash flow stopgap is spot on. I had the good fortune to see it coming (I was laid off in the 3rd and final round of mass layoffs, after the company hit the rocks financially and sold off half the business). I lost a six figure job after 20 years with the outfit. Got 13 weeks severance, nothing else. Already had health insurance lined up through my wife's job, I was lucky not to have a waiting period.
I've always been a CDL holder, and I had a truck driving job the morning after I was terminated. Again, saw the end coming, and I had already talked to the new employer, the place where I had started my career 26 years earlier. I took a $50,000 a year pay cut, and used a credit line and the severance to get through the first year. Rolled my 401(k) over, but didn't touch it. HR department of former employer messed up the rollover process, paid me a lump sum instead, with a big chunk taken out for federal withholding.
This is the stuff where you need a CPA. I called mine, and he told me to make sure I executed my own rollover by year's end, and I'd be okay. Did as he advised and got a refund check for $25,000 when I filed my tax return for the year. But I did lose the potential gain on the money withheld by the HR morons.
Health insurance is a big deal, which can easily fall through the cracks while you're putting out immediate fires. I could have had 13 free weeks of coverage from my employer if a taken the severance over 13 weeks rather than a lump sum, but at that point, I didn't trust them, so I elected the single payment. Not touching the 401(k) money proved to be the best financial move I ever made.
I've always been a CDL holder, and I had a truck driving job the morning after I was terminated. Again, saw the end coming, and I had already talked to the new employer, the place where I had started my career 26 years earlier. I took a $50,000 a year pay cut, and used a credit line and the severance to get through the first year. Rolled my 401(k) over, but didn't touch it. HR department of former employer messed up the rollover process, paid me a lump sum instead, with a big chunk taken out for federal withholding.
This is the stuff where you need a CPA. I called mine, and he told me to make sure I executed my own rollover by year's end, and I'd be okay. Did as he advised and got a refund check for $25,000 when I filed my tax return for the year. But I did lose the potential gain on the money withheld by the HR morons.
Health insurance is a big deal, which can easily fall through the cracks while you're putting out immediate fires. I could have had 13 free weeks of coverage from my employer if a taken the severance over 13 weeks rather than a lump sum, but at that point, I didn't trust them, so I elected the single payment. Not touching the 401(k) money proved to be the best financial move I ever made.
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