| Wednesday, July 22, 2009 |
| Donna Freedman advises Swallow your pride -- and seek aid |
MSN's Donna Freedman's article: Swallow your pride -- and seek aid counsels applying for various government and private assistance programs early in your financial troubles. Get over the idea that unemployment benefits are some kind of welfare. Unemployment insurance is just that: insurance against joblessness. Should your employer challenge the claim, you can appeal -- if you act quickly.
And now for a hard truth: Your old job might be gone forever, and your skill set might be obsolete. That's the case in North Carolina, where workers feel abandoned by the manufacturing, biotech and financial companies that once provided a good living, Carey said.
"What we tell them is they need to reinvent themselves so they can compete," he said.
Having gone back to school after three decades away, I can definitely say that yes, this is intimidating. But so is life without employable skills. Go in and talk to job counselors about vocational rehab, job retraining or higher education. Just be wary of incurring too much student debt. |
| posted by Boston Gal @ 8:03 AM *
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I agree with Donna. I know there are a lot of well-intentioned people who don't want to accept assistance because they don't want to take what they think they don't need when there are others out there who need it more. (And yeah, some people are just too proud, for better of worse.)
However, as many people are finding out, their own personal financial crisis may be a lot longer than they expect. Even if you had 6-8 months of living expenses saved, you're going to be in hot water when you discover that it's going to take longer to find a job. You might have to move and wait for a house to sell. You might have to retrain. Either way, time is NOT on your side.
And the longer you wait to apply for help the worse your chances are of getting it. You may have missed deadlines altogether, or you may find that there is a long wait for help, or you may find that the programs are just tapped out.
So, do NOT wait to ask for help. However, if you find that you didn't need all the help after all, go ahead and restock your emergency fund and then give back to those programs so that they can help others.
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Thanks for the link love! I hope that people will come to realize that accepting aid is OK and that when times get better you can give back. In fact, one of the food bank directors I interviewed told me that many of their current donors are former clients.
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I agree with Donna. I know there are a lot of well-intentioned people who don't want to accept assistance because they don't want to take what they think they don't need when there are others out there who need it more. (And yeah, some people are just too proud, for better of worse.)
However, as many people are finding out, their own personal financial crisis may be a lot longer than they expect. Even if you had 6-8 months of living expenses saved, you're going to be in hot water when you discover that it's going to take longer to find a job. You might have to move and wait for a house to sell. You might have to retrain. Either way, time is NOT on your side.
And the longer you wait to apply for help the worse your chances are of getting it. You may have missed deadlines altogether, or you may find that there is a long wait for help, or you may find that the programs are just tapped out.
So, do NOT wait to ask for help. However, if you find that you didn't need all the help after all, go ahead and restock your emergency fund and then give back to those programs so that they can help others.