Laid off — how to manage cash?
Hello! I love your segments on WGN. I often wait to hear your segment even through commercials. Anyhow, like many people these days, I was laid off recently. I’ve been doing my homework on how to manage my cash. I don’t have much in the way of loans — student loan (min. pymt set), car, ABT (min. pymt set) and mortgage. Currently, I have 3 months left of cash to pay all my bills. So my question is, what should I prioritize and pay with cash? Should I now, ask my mortgage company for the deferral on my loan as well or wait? I now have a new expense for cobra that is almost $900/mo. I chose cobra since there is a pandemic ongoing after all.
Terry Says
OK, you don’t have to pay on your student loans.
Contact your mortgage servicer and ask for a deferment (but the federally mandated mortgage program expired at the end of July).
If you live in Illinois, there is a new mortgage help program from www.IHDA.org – -the Illinois Housing Development Authority, that starts later this month. Go to their site to learn more.
Go to www.eHealthInsurance.com, and consider a one-year health insurance policy that will be less costly. It will save money if you don’t have any pre-existing conditions. But it won’t cover everything, so call the number on their website and talk it through.
Make sure you have at least one credit card for emergencies. Charge a little each month (even though you could pay cash) and then pay in full and on time — so you look like a good bet to the card issuer. (They’ve been cancelling unused cards,worried that people would suddenly start using them just to pay basic bills.)
And try like crazy to get a part time job.
And, of course, apply for unemp0loyment asap. And let me know if you have problems getting through.
