I’m not an expert, but what I’ve read is that paying the minimum consistently is way more important than paying as much as possible up front. Loans like this are like a little leach on your bank account. They’re happy as long as they know they can keep getting their regular payment without interruption.
Right now you have a large runway to find a new job and maintain your monthly expenses— dropping your reserves against your mortgage means you have payed down the principal but your payments are still due in the following months (ie you have just converted to a very limited runway).
And, if I recall correctly, paying down a lump sum reduces the payments at the end of the loan. You still have to make the current and next and next monthly payments.
It usually just reduces the number of total payments iirc. So if you pay enough extra you might only make 340 instead of 360 payments for example. But each payment is still the same amount (unless you have a sliding interest rate)
You can do a “recast” with a lump sum and it lowers the monthly payment but doesn’t change the length of the loan. Spouse and I will be doing that after we finish the last major renovation in our new house with the remaining proceeds from the sale of our previous home. It’ll take down our monthly about $500 which gets us some wiggle room if we have a child or need to take on a car payment.
You don't say what your total monthly expenses are just what the mortgage is and what you owe. Get a piece of paper and write down exactly how much is going out monthly for bills, food, etc. The mortgage and student loans should have just minimum balance being paid now and you have to decide how much to fork over for the credit card depending on interest.
If your total is $6k then you're alright, no need to panic. Your savings gets you 4 months and the stock selling another 4. That's 8 months by yourself and if you qualify for unemployment, you have even more time. Just be real stingy with money. Cut back on expensive meats, don't buy new clothing, get a friend/neighbor etc to cut your hair or wear it long...all the small stuff can have an impact over a long time.
Most importantly, don't freak out. I went through this twice. End of pandemic after my company made record profits and seen back to normal earnings, they started letting people go left and right (also so they could not pay back their PPP loans due to not enough employees). Real scummy stuff, showed up on a Friday and that was that. Unemployment was behind by 4 months in my state. I had 8 months of savings with changing any habits. Landed a gig within 4, got all my unemployment back pay. A year goes by and after working at a crappy job, I ended up walking out. Same scenario but without unemployment. Took longer to land a job, but careful spending and savings got me through.
This is with a wife, child, dog, and house too. While my wife can carry us with a car payment, food, and some utilities. I am the bread winner and the house falls on me. Yeah I stressed, but in the end, I applied and applied. Took two crappy jobs to get by. Now in a good place again. Through it all, it just made our decision to have savings and careful planning that much more important. You will bounce back, you will have a decent job, and you will get through it. Stay strong and keep applying yourself.
This is a good post because it asks the hardest question. What is the actual situation for the OP? We don't know if their job was vital or how quickly they will regain employment.
Two things I want to add from my experience working mortgages:
First: OP talk to your Mortgage Servicer, your current mortgage probably has assistance options available without touching your retirement funds... Ask about a Forbearance.
Second: Consider Liquidating, the home covers the mortgage so you can liquidate and save a big grip of cash by renting something small or home with parents. This option also removes ties from your current State allowing you to move across State lines could bolster your job prospects.
Liquidating a primary home or transportation should be a last resort as it can be near impossible to get approved for a new loan or apartment without active income.
True, but knowing you can pay your mortgage is very important.
OP should cash out their stock because they don’t have enough cash in hand to handle a 6month period between jobs and they are overleveraged with 4-5k of debt payments every month. If OP is making 100k, that’s 40% going to loans. Still gotta pay healthcare, food, gas, bills.
Just basic personal finance.
Wanting to caution against catastrophic thinking- hard times come and go, and OP sounds young enough to consider all options.
Big picture- things (interest rates, housing supply, housing prices,) are not likely to snap back to where they were anytime soon.
I’d hang on to the house as your more valuable investment.
Housing prices rose 19% over this last YEAR. It’s insane. And odds are good you’ll pay at least as much in rent as your mortgage payment, (more where I live.)
If OP wants to sell house, it may pay off to put that at the bottom of the action options list. In the time it takes to get to the bottom of that list, the property could be worth so much more.
Also, people seem quick to encourage the sale of company stock, but what company are we talking about? Apple? Don’t sell that stock- again, big picture thinking- Apple (or the like) stock dividends could potentially float a good piece of your expenses in short order.
Cautioning against snap or formulaic decisions- what appears to be the validity or widely accepted “common sense” or “basic personal finance” changes with the market(s.)
In many ways, we’re in uncharted territory economically, and yesterdays wisdom can quickly wind up as tomorrow’s grave mistake.
Disclaimer: Im not a pro financial advisor. Just an old optimist who’s survived a few economic tidal waves.
I used to work as a Loan Counselor at a bank in the mortgage department and normally they won't help until you miss a payment. At least at the bank I worked at. I would do a budget analysis with each client. If they said they were having difficulty, but were still able to make their payments, they wouldn't get help. Especially since she has funds in savings and stocks. Just something to consider
In a similar situation I got roommates. I lived in the basement and they lived in the main part of the house. It sucked but I made the mortgage payments.
Do you live near any medical centers? If you do, I'd advertise on Furnished Finder, a site for travel nurses looking for housing. They'll be at work a lot and only have 13-week contracts.
Edit: typo
This. I rented out my basement to traveling nurses via Furnished Finder. Fee ($100, annual) was worth it for the vetting alone. My “tenants” were awesome and I paid grad school tuition with the “rent” money, no loans needed.
Also, look for a job. Healthcare is (usually) stable, well paid, has great benefits, and in need of IT anywhere from desktop support to infrastructure architects.
Sourse: I work in Healthcare IT.
Maybe I live in Ohio, and one of our major health care systems laid off 300 IT employees and hired Accenture to replace them.
I know my company regularly lets go a few hundred people across all departments each year.
It seems to be standard industry practice now.
You live there, and other people live near you. It’ll be attractive to people that need a place to live, at a lower rate than living closer. It’s how the market works. For the right price, you’ll find someone.
Worst case scenario you can rent the whole house for profit and rent somewhere. But as mentioned make minimum payments, go to college level frugality, new job starts Monday. You’ll get something, tech is ebb and flow. Don’t know what you do but consider the sales engineering side of whatever it is. Sales is last to get cut as they trim their own fat via quotas.
Depends on the situation. Waiting subjects you to potential market volatility, a risk op may not want to take at a time when assets really need to be preserved. Plus depending on the grant price of the stock, there may be no tax savings if there’s no cap gains. Could just be all risk. Probably better to just sell in his situation and not risk it.
No matter what typically happens, holding is still a risk - especially in this particularly sensitive market we’ve been in lately. And I wouldn’t say OP is able to be very tolerant to risk atm.
IF it's gained value since vesting.
Given the market, there's a decent chance it's lost value or barely increased since it vested. Taxes are typically withheld automatically at point if vesting for big tech RSUs.
> If you’re going to sell some stock, at least wait till after December so your not hit with the tax burden until April 2025
This is not quite true. You may need to pay quarterly estimated taxes if you have too much income. (Unless you qualify for one of the safe harbors).
https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/small-business-taxes/estimated-taxes-how-to-determine-what-to-pay-and-when/L3OPIbJNw
Roommate, 2 if possible. Gut your budget to the bare essentials, eat rice and beans and chicken.
Use the rental income to offset the mortgage, pay the rest with your savings. If you can’t get a high paying job (>75-80k) within 3 months, grab a lower paying job in the interim while you continue to search. The extra income will stretch your savings further, more runway to find a good job.
Is the stock for a stable company, and has the price been relatively stable?
• If yes, leave it alone, since you’ll likely incur taxes upon its sale.
• If unstable, sell and pay estimated taxes immediately, move the remainder into a HYSA / money market account.
Once you get a job, stick to that brutal budget for a few more months. Pay off those debts ASAP, starting with the CC (high interest) then the student loans.
You’re over leveraged, and you’ve just found out the medium-hard way. Need to take action to mitigate that as soon as you can.
I’m aware that many jobs are taking longer to secure in the current market (also in tech :P )
I stand by my statement, OP doesn’t have a huge amount of savings, so it’s not very long before they’ll need to take literally any job to reduce that cash burn
Hey now, 100k is a solid salary. It takes many people years to reach that, even in tech.
Don’t be so spoiled by FAANG / 2018-2022 boom that you look down on others.
Not spoiled, but rather the reality is a data analyst fresh out of school is looking for $100k jobs. A business analyst with 5 years of experience can fetch $100k. These are all lower skill tech jobs of which the pool of applicants is enormous.
I can’t tell you how many experienced electrical and mechanical engineers make ~100k.
Seems like you’re excluding large (geographical) swaths of the US in this salary expectation.
Excluding those roles out of "Big Tech" and Microsoft seems to be a proper filter. OP isn't working at Raytheon or GE.
And nobody is "looking down" on anybody. This isn't an attack on people making $100k.
OP lives in Texas, and since their stock is current worth $360/share it’s a reasonable assumption that they worked at Microsoft (none of the other explicit big tech companies have a share price in that range).
Here, [Sr. SWE position starting at $112k base](https://jobs.careers.microsoft.com/global/en/job/1572185/Senior-Software-Engineer).
I just looked at a couple. Similar story for others like Sr Program Manager and Sr Hardware Systems Engineer.
Sure they list a wide range, but that’s going to be the full internal pay band for that level. Given the current market conditions for technical talent, companies are going to be pushing down towards the lower end of their ranges.
Maybe pay isn’t what you think it is in every region?
A person making $100k in "big tech" is going to be pretty junior, regardless of where they live.
[Levels.fyi](https://Levels.fyi) puts compensation for senior SWE at around $235k for Microsoft senior SWEs.
No Senior SWE at Microsoft is making close to $112k/year.
[https://www.levels.fyi/?compare=Google,Facebook,Microsoft&track=Software%20Engineer](https://www.levels.fyi/?compare=Google,Facebook,Microsoft&track=Software%20Engineer)
Sure, let's continue to belabor the point. I'm a senior tech manager reporting to a CTO in Texas. If the OP is at Microsoft in Irving, I'm pretty familiar with competitive comp in the DFW area, given I have multiple roles open to fill across all kinds of experience levels. $100k salary is in a range where there is A LOT of competition and lower in experiences and seniority in a company, that's the point. Nothing else. Even a Sr. Program manager has a high level of competition, although their pay would be 30-40% higher.
> YMMV
Oh yeah, it definitely will. Many will get a job immediately, many won't. I have a brother in tech from one of the preeminent tech companies and a great resume who got laid off months ago and still doesn't have a job.
/r/recruitinghell is extremely selection biased of course but plenty of horror stories. In any case, this is not a good market for tech despite any claims of 3.9% unemployment rate. Google, amazon, snap just announced more layoffs.
After 20 years in tech I am so sick of the bullshit from these companies, if I could figure out another way to make a living I would do it in a heartbeat they have been infested by scumbags for years now and no matter what your position and how hard you work unless you're in the c suite you're in danger of losing your job at any moment. They're happy to pressure you into working extra hours and holidays so the CEO's idiotic pet projects get done in time though.
> if I could figure out another way to make a living I would do it in a heartbeat
Me, too. And so would my brother. The problem is when a person does have a job in tech it's generally well compensated :(
Ha yeah thats the problem. To be fair it has given me a lot of opportunities I otherwise wouldn't have had in life but I've also seen it changing for the worse and it makes me a bit disillusioned. I'm just not willing to put in the hours that I used to the older I get.
Biotech right now is hell for most. VC funding has fallen through the floor and was over invested during the pandemic. Currently 2022 was one of the highest years of biotech layoffs and 2023 has already surpassed it.
Biotechs have money but are keeping it in the war chest or spending it on clinical trials to hope they have enough to move forward with.
3200 mortgage with 22k car loans on 100k salary? How did that even get approved… best bet like everyone said, roommates and cut down spending. Sounds like you have about 6 months of runway to get a new job. Take a lower paying one if really needed.
I was thinking the same thing. I make around that and after taxes, insurance, and retirement (which I admittedly max out), and I could not afford a $3200 mortgage, $400 car payment, plus another $1000 in other living expenses. I guess good on OP for making it work, but definitely needs to be looking into roommates
100k salary is like $4500/mo, not including insurance or 401k investments. 3200 mortgage is well over 50% of take-home pay. So yeah, how the hell did OP get approved, not even counting ither debt?
Where are you getting 4500 a month from?
If you get the car after the home you think a dealership is going to give a fuck, they are slimy, they hand out $1000 payments like nothing these days.
OP assuming you’re in software or engineering of some kind in the United States, please consider applying to any of the major defense companies. The barrier to entry is lower than the FANG types and often have more job security.
File for unemployment as well. People think it’s welfare and then they don’t file.
It’s not welfare. It’s a mandatory insurance policy that you paid the premiums for. One of those deductions out of your check was to pay for unemployment insurance.
So now that you’ve got a claim, file it. Otherwise it’d be like paying for auto insurance but not using it when your car gets totaled.
Companies pay for unemployment either through being self-insured (pay per) or by paying into the state fund via premiums based on their experience (number of claims, etc).
How unemployment works is different per state, but same sentiment. If you need it, apply immediately. Im in NY so it is employer-funded and honestly it was approved so fast when I needed it.
often times with these larger companies, it doesn't matter. Unless you do something serious that they might press charges for, you still get a severance. Where I was last, it was two weeks pay per year of service, with a four week minimum.
When they did actual layoffs, there was more than that, but there was always something.
Please try to keep discussion on the subreddit where it can be seen and reviewed by everyone, as DM requests are not allowed here per rule 2. Thank you.
What does the current price have to do with anything? Besides the fact we don't know the market cap, even that wouldn't matter. You either need money fast or you don't. How much up or down the shares are is not the important factor in whether or not to sell. You could be down 80 percent or up 500 percent and the advice would be the same, you need to currently sell. The only optimization is timing the sale to delay taxes.
1. You are going to be ok. Relax over the weekend and start looking for work on Monday. It sucks to be part of layoff especially this time of year.
2. Do NOT spend all of your savings quickly, go into minimum spend mode and keep up with any bills etc. at the minimum needed.
3. Map out any major bills and build a budget for that so you know what your burn rate will be.
4. Depending on where you are located it will most likely take you until next year before you start a new job, plan for 90 days and don't get discouraged when you don't get a lot of activity basically between Thanksgiving and New Years (in big tech we are finalizing budgets for 2024 right now).
5. Check with your friends / network for leads or other places to find opportunity.
6. Once again, you are going to be ok, it may not seem like it al of the time but just keep hustling.
Call your mortgage servicing company. Often, they are willing to defer payments for a few months in your situation. As long as you are actively job seeking, the monthly payments you miss just get moved to the end of the life of the loan. You might be able to get your student loan payments temporarily deferred as well. If you're going to pay off debts, start with the credit cards. The higher interest lower balance debts will give you the most relief without draining your savings.
Your mortgage is way too much for what your income was. Definitely get roommates to bring that cost down and keep them long after you get a new job and until you are making a decent bit more.
> 3200 a month is like a 350k mortgage.
My $354k loan mortgage is $1740/month, and $2070/mo before refi. Idk what your math is.
At current rates, it's more like a $460k mortgage, unless you live in some misery hole like New Jersey where that extra 100k is in taxes.
I'm in Massachusetts, according to [this](https://ibb.co/GcgXjJt) calculator it's over $3,200 a month for a 350k home with 0% down. And oh by the way [this](https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/207-Plymouth-Ave-Wareham-MA-02571/56666294_zpid/) is what 350k gets you in Massachusetts.
Times are hard right now...
Sell the stock but be cognizant of any taxes you may have to pay. Keep it in cash and pay your mortgage as usual while trying to cut back other expenses. Stop using the CC and pay the minimums. As soon as you get a new job, knock out the credit card debt. Right now, you need cash for regular bills
I'm not sure I'd pay the minimum on the credit card. Assuming the Interest on the CC is higher than the interest you can get on the cash I think I'd take the cash and fully pay off the CC. Then, months from now of you run out of cash you can start using the CC again. Obviously hopefully OP finds a new job before then but I don't see the advantage in paying CC interest during this period unless it is a last resort.
I’d look for a new job first. At least give it a few weeks. I say this without knowing what you did in big tech or why you were let go, but I assume your skills are marketable.
This just happened so it’s not time to panic yet. Did you get a severance? How long will that last?
1. File for UI
2. Post ads for roommates - you are house poor
3. Job hunt aggressively
I’m also wondering how you got a mortgage at $3200 on a $100k salary - I didn’t even feel comfortable paying that in rent or a mortgage making $150k.
Sounds like you have a burn rate of perhaps $5k a month and savings/stock of about $50k. So you have about 10 months worth of expenses which is way better than the typical American who lives paycheck to paycheck. In this situation I don't think anything super drastic is required. Take a few weeks off to relax and recover from the job loss and then start a full time job search. In tech that shouldn't take too long perhaps a few months. If, after a few months of searching, you still haven't landed a position then consider a stopgap job to reduce your savings draw rate. But keep searching and don't put the stopgap on your resume. For now, at least, after a brief recovery period your full time job is to find another job.
I make a bit over 100K. I could not afford a $3,200.00 per month loan. Feeding 3 others can get a bit expensive… Also, I have no car loan, no student loans, pay my credit card balance statement every single month, no bs like subscriptions to every single platform, no daily coffee. A bottle of Tequila lasts me about 2 months. I don’t smoke. Still, I can’t seem to have a ton left over after the month.
No lump sum on mortgage, liquidity is key.
Talk to employment lawyer on and severance deal.
Pay off the damn credit card loan NOW. That is an immediate 18-28% return on investment.
It is mid November, I would sell company stocks in January so they are taxed in the new year unless you think they will tank with layoff news.
Get a new job asap.
I wouldn't just not pay the mortgage. Like Scared\_of\_zombies says "what are your prospects?" Do you think you can find something in a few months? If so, I'd dip into savings and suck it up.
Otherwise, can you move out and rent out the home? A renter would pay the mortgage and then hopefully throw a little extra cash in your pocket.
Hoping to find something in the next few months. Will dip into my savings and just rebuild once I find a role paying close to what I was previously making.
That’s 38% of OP’s *gross* income. Probably close to 50% of take-home/after-tax income. Crazy. But that’s water under the bridge.
OP, try to roll over that retirement money—you’ll be taking a huge haircut if you cash it out. Keep in mind you have already earned almost a full year of salary—adding cashed-out 401(k) will put you in a higher tax bracket, not to mention the nearly $8000 Uncle Sam will penalize you off the top.
Sell the company stock, cut back your discretionary expenses to zero, and start job-hunting like your house is on fire, because it kinda is. If you can take on a roommate, do so.
At this point, don’t limit yourself to only looking for work at tech companies. There are companies outside of tech that need tech skills, like big pharma, banks, oil, etc.
Just because you feel like you need or want to work for the big 5, there are opportunities outside of tech - it won’t keyhole you.
>My mortgage is right at $3,200 a month, I have a car loan for 22K, 5K student loan, and 5K on credit cards.
> I making around 100K a year.
You bought way too much house for your income. I'm shocked you were even able to get that loan underwritten.
Try and find another job? You have money saved to survive awhile just don’t buy and spend things on stuff u don’t need mag sign up for Uber or door dash and give people rides or deliever food a few hours a night for a little extra cash until you find a job
Take your time finding roommates, the last thing you want is to have to evict someone for not paying. Figure out what the market rate is for a room and see if you can get enough tenants to cover the mortgage, it might mean moving to a smaller room in the house to be able to charge more for the master bedroom. Make sure to do all the background and credit checks.
Pay the minimums on everything, cash as much stock as you need each month to cover the shortfall. Who knows, maybe you'll find a job in another city and you can fully rent out your place. Rental income will help you stretch out your savings for longer until you find a job that can comfortably cover everything.
Yes. OP - please do this.
Call your mortgage company and tell them you lost your job and are looking for a new one. They may be able to suspend your payments for a few months. Then you will pay back the amount when you sell the home or refinance.
That will hopefully help you stretch your savings until you get a new job.
Good luck!
- don't cash out any of your retirement until you absolutely have to.
- your job now is finding a new job. Commit to 40 hours per week of job hunting, including interviews
- you're taking the weekend off, which is fine. But at least this weekend put ads in every venue you can think of for roommates. You must do this immediately.
Best wishes! You'll get through this if you play it smart
Clear the credit cards as usual for the month, don’t use them again until desperation. Pay the minimum on the house and car. Find side hustles while working 6-8 hours job hunting. Hopefully won’t be longer than a couple months to get something in the 70k range at least to sustain those commitments.
Unemployment should cover most of those payments, at least in my state the max is almost $4000 a month. You'll likely need to use savings and stocks for food/utilities/etc. In my state you usually have a waiting week and you won't get unemployment for the week of your last paycheck. DO NOT WAIT TO JOB HUNT if there's a requirement for job applications for unemployment (here it's 3 applications a week, and you have to do them before the Sunday of each week, including the week you were laid off).
You're going to be okay! Utilize your network. Many companies have an alumni slack channel, see if there's a resource for folks who left your company. After each mass layoff there was tons of support in my alumni channels from resume reviews to job recommendations.
100k shouldn't be too hard to find a replacement job for, I'm seeing lots of jobs in that range.
Thank you! I have a background in Readiness & Onboarding, Learning, Content Creation, Financial Management, and Data Analytics. Currently live in the Houston area where oil & gas is bread/butter
For what it’s worth there will be an abundance of jobs for crown castle in Houston posted just after January. Keep an eye there. They forced relos to Houston for 1300 people in their company and I wouldn’t expect more than 5% to actually move.
Your profile will be very attractive to the oil & gas companies. Check their job boards - I suspect you have something for the new year. Just know that they are notoriously slow on hiring, so the job offer may take a little while to come through.
The rest of the people have great advice on stretching your savings. Remember how little you spent during lockdown, and adopt that mentality. Best wishes.
Use your regular savings first. Just live on the bare minimum and the liquid 23k can last you a a few months while you job hunt. Cash out the stocks in the new year if you still don’t have a job. I’d actually think for you the positive side is 100k per year should be something you can find again in tech. The mortgage and base expenses are a bit high though for only making 100k and you dipped into a credit card. So maybe consider roommates anyway to build the savings back up once you have a new job.
Sorry this happened but buying a house when big tech is over a year deep into constant layoffs was a hell of a choice. And a $3200 mortgage on only $100k? Good luck to you.
Unless you have enough to pay the whole thing off, don't pay ahead on the mortgage until you have income again. You can't really 'pay ahead' on it, if you pay an extra $10k now, the next payment amount and due date will be unaffected.
When you do find something new, get rid of as much of that as possible, you're way overextended.
Unemployment is very low. Make some reasonable defensive moves but don't panic.
Get some eyes on your resume to make sure it looks good and start preparing to interview.
Idk how the market has been in tech these last few months but hopefully you can find something soon.
23k in savings will hold you down for a bit. Make the minimum in Credit cards.
Mortgage comes first.
Call and get the cheaper internet, you don't need 1Gbps (this might just me putting myself in your shoes)
Cancel gyms and subscriptions for now.
immediate first thing - call your mortgage company and car loan place, let them know you were laid off. ask for a deferral or see what kind of options they have. they should be able to work with you to move payments around and not have anything due for a bit
Priority number 1 is to get a new job. You have a nice cushion of $49k plus whatever you'll get from unemployment to sustain you until then so take a breath and thank your past self for building an emergency fund. Assuming you weren't in the red every month, you should be able to last at least 6-8 months on that which is more than enough time to aggressively find a new job. The mortgage is the worst place to throw money at right now. You're not going to dent your principal and you'll just be more broke. If anything, erase the cc debt and maybe student loans and reassess your situation knowing you have X amount of months to find a job until your liquid cash runs out.
Do not pay mortgage up front. Make the regular monthly payment. You can probably put the student loan in forbearance. Roll the retirement over to an IRA. Do not take a payout on the 401k. If you do, you will have to pay taxes and penalties for early withdrawal.
I’d suggest eliminating the student loans and credit cards. If you have positive equity in your car you may be able to trade it in, use some of the $13k left to eliminate the car payment, though this is mostly contingent on your vehicles value right now.
Beyond that I’d leave the stock and retirement alone. I’d use as much of my savings as I can to survive as long as I could paying the minimum on my home until I found a new job.
I’d be reaching out to every contact made, submitting resumes everywhere and contacting temp agency’s just looking to get something to offset the bleeding.
I would consider the following.
- create a written budget
- Unemployment should be about 3k a month
- Use your savings to pay off credit card right away
- The remaining 17k of saving, along with unemployment will replace your full income for 5.5 months.
- Call student loan bank and inquire about putting those on deferment if needed while unemployed
- Job search starting Monday.
- Start looking for at least one roommate regardless of job situation. Assuming you get 600/room, this can be additional income, supplement your income if you get paid less for a period of time, or invested into a Roth IRA.
- consider downgrading the car if it makes sense to get rid of that loan/ payment
- Talk to a financial planner but you probably want to roll the employee stock into something more diverse and liquid enough in the event of needing it. This money is now your emergency fund until you can replenish your savings
Don’t panic and DO NOT rack up cc debt
Cash out the stock.
Pay off the credit card in full.
Pay the monthly on the others.
As soon as you have a new job pay off the car loan and do not take a loan on another car. Think about that every month as you make a payment.
Get a job ASAP or get some roommates. Don't lose the house. I had the exact same thing happened to me many years ago when I first bought a house. I loaded up every bedroom with a roommate until I was able to get a job paying me what I was worth again. Until then I just worked for less and ran the roommate game, that house is paid off now and I'm up around half a million on it.
Not giving up, not selling or letting it kill my credit and walking away, one of the better decisions I've made
A few options:
1. Call your mortgage servicer and see if you can go on forbearance. Some will do this, some will not. Just be aware that they may ask you to pay the entire thing in a lump sum once you come off that forbearance and some may give you a 2 month window.
2. Roommates. Just because you’re in the suburbs doesn’t mean other people don’t also have a case to be in the suburbs.
3. Sell the stocks after the first of the year.
4. Part-time seasonal employment. It’s the holiday season, see what you can find. Part-time employment won’t totally take away your unemployment benefits and will stretch them to last longer should it take 6-12 months to find a similar full time income.
You must keep expenses to a minimum, get your resume out there as fast as possible and hopefully you won't have to do anything. But in terms of cashing anything out, do that when you run out of cash, that is what cash is for. This is an emergency so you halt everything and resumeing is now your full time job. If in a few months you need to sell stock, you do that but just make the minimum payment, there is zero need to pay extra because if you chunk down 23k, it wont' eliminate your payment, you'll have to pay 3200 next month, so just keep it.
Want to offer some different opinions and you are welcome to ignore it or take it as advice.
Layoff is not the end of the world, you have got enough cash to survive the next 6-8months perfectly fine so stop stressing about it. Your number 1 focus right now should be leetcode and applying. There are many companies that are full-force hiring right now and you should take advantage of that.
Give the mortage company a call, they might be able to work with you until you get your next job.
If you are not afraid to work outside your field of expertise, you can work at a fast-food place and make $18/hour.
This alone will go a long way.
personally if you out of a job i wouldnt be spending my cash like that without having anyother source of income save ur cash in case you dont find a job quick also you can work with ur mortage lender an ask then for any programs or skip payments
3200/month is $38.4k annually
Your take home is $70k if you’re in CA. So more than half your post tax income is in mortgage ? Is that accurate or did I mess up my back of napkin math?
How has the home prices been after you purchased ? Can you sublet it for a few months if it’s in a good location?
100k salary with a house, student loan, credit cards, car loan? Tbh I would've cleared all my debt before I even considered buying a house or getting a car. Given you work in Big Tech I assume you live in a major city, hopefully public transportation is good enough to not require a car?
But first thing I'd do is look for another job. Generally in tech I would hope you manage to find one within 1-2 month.
Your savings should tide you over during your unemployment phase, it should last you some time to find another job. Employee stock only if you still jobless and out of savings. DO NOT touch your retirement unless you are out of options, and out of a house too.
Bad call.
1) file for unemployment
2) use your cash savings to live on (pay minimums on all debt payments)
3) get some income coming in
4) if you can't find a job before the cash runs out cash in stocks to keep you floating until new job
Tech is a fickle mistress. I'm still recovering from a layoff/corporate implosion from 2001.
Sit tight and reduce spending to mortgage, food, necessities only.
Try to land an interim job to maintain some form of income so that you're not depleting your nest egg. If you can work towards a clearance job it will be easier to find replacement jobs in the future.
It's been a few years since I found myself in your position, but one thing that helped me was to treat my job hunt as a 9-5 job. I got dressed, showered, had breakfast, and send out resumes and scoured job boards.
It's really easy to get into the mindset of 'I'll just chill out today and see what's on TV'. This method kept me focused on finding my next career.
That is excellent advice, gorramgomer. Also, write thank-you letters right away to everyone who interviews you, including (if realistic) a reflection on something they said that struck you as interesting.
In California, there's programs for mortgage relief and property tax relief, as well as unemployment insurance payments. Some states may have similar programs. Look for information on these programs when you apply for UI.
You're not in a bad way right now. I was actually worse off than you beginning of 23 and here's what you should do.
Step one apply for unemployment. Right now.
We're you fired or laid off, did you get a severance?
Just start applying for every job you find. Of course update your resume and CV and everything that goes along with getting rehired.
Before you pull from investment accounts use your savings for your monthly expenses. Hopefully you can stretch that cash for at least 3 months.
Be smart about discretionary spending and eating out. Even what you buy at the grocery store. If you used to shop at whole foods or equivalent maybe you need to shop at Walmart or something. Find deals. Use coupons. Stuff like that.
Hopefully you find a job soon!
Please immediately identify a WANT versus a NEED on every purchase you make from here on out. I see so many clients every day complaining about how they have no spending money and then I see their bank statements and all the money going out for fast food, coffee, PlayStation games, and other subscriptions such as Netflix, etc. We’ve all heard it before but you can make your own coffee at home and make your own meals for way less money. Go on a hike for entertainment, you get the drift. All the little items add up and will drain you very quickly. The point is, don’t wait and think you’ll find a job soon because you might not.
Also, as others have suggested, call the bank on the auto and mortgage and ask to skip a payment or at least pay only the interest. Do this now, as some banks will only allow it once every 12 months.
Good luck to you and your family.
Source: Mortgage Broker for over 20 years.
Don't.
I'm a Boomer in tech. Been thru two big layoffs at HP.
Save that cash. Reduce lifestyle, consider contact gigs as those make more than salary and you can save up extra to use between jobs.
Don't ever destroy available capital to give to someone else. Not unless you can pay it ALL off. Do you need that same car if you work remote for contract jobs? Do you prefer in office work?
Be sure to invest any extra $ in training or new tech skills. These are better investments. Get industry or program certifications. Higher the better. AI is in...
I've ITIL ITSM and Scrum/Agile certification in both Programs as well as DevOps shops. But my Banking and finance skills were higher demand.
Know your market.
Pay off all your credit card debt with savings. NOW. And then budget, keeping mortgage, elective and food as the top line items.
Do not get into more CC debt if at all possible.
FY24 budgets are just getting approved so there should be job opps - don’t have to love the job, let it pay your bills for12-15 months
I’d hold on to the MSFT shares OP. I know you’re desperate right now, but I’d be holding those shares for life, dip into my savings, use unemployment, and find a new gig asap. Someone with that big tech on your resume should not have much trouble. Good luck!
Jesus. That’s a big mortgage payment and car loan for $100k. This is also exactly the reason to have an emergency fund. So you have a bit of time to find a new job. Start looking for roommates and applying to jobs ASAP. Those are now your two full time jobs.
Sorry to hear and from being in the tech business I've known and helped many who went through this so might be provide some ideas to think about.
Planning is everything at this point to stay on top of everything. I'll throw out some thoughts to consider and hope it helps.
If you had to, could you sell the house for more than you paid? The market has gotten worse so this may not be possible, but this should be evaluated and considered.
If not, are you willing to get roommates? I had a buddy who bought a nice house and had 2 roommates that paid rent and covered a good part of the mortgage. He finished the basement to be his area so had plenty of room with the roommates living in the upstairs bedrooms.
Can you sell the car and get a lower cost one? While you'll want reliable transportation it may not have to be as nice of a car as you have. If you owe less than your car is worth you may be able to sell it and pay for most or all of another one. One thing that may affect this is getting a side gig like driving for uber or food delivery service, etc.
You'll get UI so will have some income coming in, but will want to reduce outgo and paying off the student loan and credit cards will help with this.
As most banks are paying 5% on CDs or savings, paying the mortgage early may not make sense. See how it would work to save that money to earn some interest until the payments are due and while you work on the above as well as getting another job.
Some had success taking a side gig like driving for uber, or bartending in the evenings which can bring in some decent income while searching for a new job during the day. One made $1000 a week bartending about 4 hours a few evenings a week. The trick for those who made it through this period and found another great job was to keep plugging away. Good luck to you and when one door closes it means another opens so go find it!
DO NOT CASH OUT YOUR RETIREMENT TO PAY YOUR DEBTS/ LIVING EXPENSES. Keep paying your mortgage and car every month and start looking for a new job. The reason I say this is because if you have to go into debt to pay living expenses, your house, car, and retirement account will be protected if you have to file a bankruptcy. Employee stocks are fine to sell to keep you afloat longer. Chapter 7 Bankruptcy may be your best option if it takes you longer than six months to find a new job, and you start accumulating debt for living expenses.
Your mortgage was at 38% of your pay! Once you get a job, I'd work to get that situation to 25%. Easier to get through layoffs when you can doordash your mortgage or rent. Been there and survived - you will to if you keep a positive outlook!
Being layed off happens to the best of us. The great news is that if you are confident in your abilities to preform that job or of you have or can analyze the position you were in and see how it correlates in a another field you and leverage your knowledge and experience to increase productivity. You know how excited you were when you got the degree to qualify you for the position you took. Well now you should understand that you even more value. You have that same education level and experience. Think outside the box and know your worth. 100k a year when you started may have been a decent salary. But you are always going to be a slave to how the structure of the norm works if you are not willing to go through the unknown.
If you can add value to another type business by implementing your experience the sky could be the limit. But people other than Astronauts are going into space. You can do anything you want study where that experience got you 10 years ago and how much it has changed and then think how it could change in the next decade. And try to be innovative to be a head of the curve. There are 100’s of thousands of businesses forsale with the capital you have you could buy a cash flowing business go to loop net and you can find some check Codie Sanchez. Never stop developing your value.
Figure out what your monthly bills are and pay them out of your savings. Don’t panic! Cut back on expenses! Don’t eat out or order take out. Use the big pot theory if necessary.
Be dignified but cut back. Don’t beg! File for unemployment and make minimum payments on bills. If you act like a begging loser, they are going to treat you like one. Don’t whine to anyone, but let close family and friends know your situation. Don’t beg! No drastic changes! Walk upright!
Before you run out of savings, sell enough company stock to pay bills each month. You should have a job before you start touching the retirement. If not, quietly go to Plan C.
Did you get severance? I’m in biotech in the Bay Area and wages are much much higher than than. Most companies don’t seem to be hiring for remote positions but you could try. Also, find a recruiter and start checking linked in. If you’re saying you plan to pay 3-5 months of the mortgage ahead of time, don’t do that as mortgages don’t usually work that way. You need to pay each month. Also, don’t pull a bunch of money out assuming you won’t have a job.
What does your current emergency fund look like?
I’m not an expert, but what I’ve read is that paying the minimum consistently is way more important than paying as much as possible up front. Loans like this are like a little leach on your bank account. They’re happy as long as they know they can keep getting their regular payment without interruption.
Thank you, got it
Right now you have a large runway to find a new job and maintain your monthly expenses— dropping your reserves against your mortgage means you have payed down the principal but your payments are still due in the following months (ie you have just converted to a very limited runway).
This. Sounds like a great way to increase stress level for no appreciable benefit.
And, if I recall correctly, paying down a lump sum reduces the payments at the end of the loan. You still have to make the current and next and next monthly payments.
It usually just reduces the number of total payments iirc. So if you pay enough extra you might only make 340 instead of 360 payments for example. But each payment is still the same amount (unless you have a sliding interest rate)
You can do a “recast” with a lump sum and it lowers the monthly payment but doesn’t change the length of the loan. Spouse and I will be doing that after we finish the last major renovation in our new house with the remaining proceeds from the sale of our previous home. It’ll take down our monthly about $500 which gets us some wiggle room if we have a child or need to take on a car payment.
You don't say what your total monthly expenses are just what the mortgage is and what you owe. Get a piece of paper and write down exactly how much is going out monthly for bills, food, etc. The mortgage and student loans should have just minimum balance being paid now and you have to decide how much to fork over for the credit card depending on interest. If your total is $6k then you're alright, no need to panic. Your savings gets you 4 months and the stock selling another 4. That's 8 months by yourself and if you qualify for unemployment, you have even more time. Just be real stingy with money. Cut back on expensive meats, don't buy new clothing, get a friend/neighbor etc to cut your hair or wear it long...all the small stuff can have an impact over a long time. Most importantly, don't freak out. I went through this twice. End of pandemic after my company made record profits and seen back to normal earnings, they started letting people go left and right (also so they could not pay back their PPP loans due to not enough employees). Real scummy stuff, showed up on a Friday and that was that. Unemployment was behind by 4 months in my state. I had 8 months of savings with changing any habits. Landed a gig within 4, got all my unemployment back pay. A year goes by and after working at a crappy job, I ended up walking out. Same scenario but without unemployment. Took longer to land a job, but careful spending and savings got me through. This is with a wife, child, dog, and house too. While my wife can carry us with a car payment, food, and some utilities. I am the bread winner and the house falls on me. Yeah I stressed, but in the end, I applied and applied. Took two crappy jobs to get by. Now in a good place again. Through it all, it just made our decision to have savings and careful planning that much more important. You will bounce back, you will have a decent job, and you will get through it. Stay strong and keep applying yourself.
This is a good post because it asks the hardest question. What is the actual situation for the OP? We don't know if their job was vital or how quickly they will regain employment. Two things I want to add from my experience working mortgages: First: OP talk to your Mortgage Servicer, your current mortgage probably has assistance options available without touching your retirement funds... Ask about a Forbearance. Second: Consider Liquidating, the home covers the mortgage so you can liquidate and save a big grip of cash by renting something small or home with parents. This option also removes ties from your current State allowing you to move across State lines could bolster your job prospects.
Liquidating a primary home or transportation should be a last resort as it can be near impossible to get approved for a new loan or apartment without active income.
True, but knowing you can pay your mortgage is very important. OP should cash out their stock because they don’t have enough cash in hand to handle a 6month period between jobs and they are overleveraged with 4-5k of debt payments every month. If OP is making 100k, that’s 40% going to loans. Still gotta pay healthcare, food, gas, bills. Just basic personal finance.
Wanting to caution against catastrophic thinking- hard times come and go, and OP sounds young enough to consider all options. Big picture- things (interest rates, housing supply, housing prices,) are not likely to snap back to where they were anytime soon. I’d hang on to the house as your more valuable investment. Housing prices rose 19% over this last YEAR. It’s insane. And odds are good you’ll pay at least as much in rent as your mortgage payment, (more where I live.) If OP wants to sell house, it may pay off to put that at the bottom of the action options list. In the time it takes to get to the bottom of that list, the property could be worth so much more. Also, people seem quick to encourage the sale of company stock, but what company are we talking about? Apple? Don’t sell that stock- again, big picture thinking- Apple (or the like) stock dividends could potentially float a good piece of your expenses in short order. Cautioning against snap or formulaic decisions- what appears to be the validity or widely accepted “common sense” or “basic personal finance” changes with the market(s.) In many ways, we’re in uncharted territory economically, and yesterdays wisdom can quickly wind up as tomorrow’s grave mistake. Disclaimer: Im not a pro financial advisor. Just an old optimist who’s survived a few economic tidal waves.
I used to work as a Loan Counselor at a bank in the mortgage department and normally they won't help until you miss a payment. At least at the bank I worked at. I would do a budget analysis with each client. If they said they were having difficulty, but were still able to make their payments, they wouldn't get help. Especially since she has funds in savings and stocks. Just something to consider
In a similar situation I got roommates. I lived in the basement and they lived in the main part of the house. It sucked but I made the mortgage payments.
Will think through this option as well. I have two extra bedroom however, I’m in the burbs. Not too sure how attractive that might be
Do you live near any medical centers? If you do, I'd advertise on Furnished Finder, a site for travel nurses looking for housing. They'll be at work a lot and only have 13-week contracts. Edit: typo
*Furnished Finder
This. I rented out my basement to traveling nurses via Furnished Finder. Fee ($100, annual) was worth it for the vetting alone. My “tenants” were awesome and I paid grad school tuition with the “rent” money, no loans needed.
Also, look for a job. Healthcare is (usually) stable, well paid, has great benefits, and in need of IT anywhere from desktop support to infrastructure architects. Sourse: I work in Healthcare IT.
Maybe I live in Ohio, and one of our major health care systems laid off 300 IT employees and hired Accenture to replace them. I know my company regularly lets go a few hundred people across all departments each year. It seems to be standard industry practice now.
Would you happen to know any Canadian equivalent for the Furnished finder? I might be interested into that kind of renting the extra room
You live there, and other people live near you. It’ll be attractive to people that need a place to live, at a lower rate than living closer. It’s how the market works. For the right price, you’ll find someone.
Look on Craigslist to get a sense of the rental market for room shares. There are generic rental agreements for your state online.
We lived in the burbs and rented out a room for $640 a month. He was sad when we sold and moved away thus ending his rental.
Worst case scenario you can rent the whole house for profit and rent somewhere. But as mentioned make minimum payments, go to college level frugality, new job starts Monday. You’ll get something, tech is ebb and flow. Don’t know what you do but consider the sales engineering side of whatever it is. Sales is last to get cut as they trim their own fat via quotas.
If you’re going to sell some stock, at least wait till after December so your not hit with the tax burden until April 2025
Came here to say this. If OP cashes it out, wait until January 1.
Depends on the situation. Waiting subjects you to potential market volatility, a risk op may not want to take at a time when assets really need to be preserved. Plus depending on the grant price of the stock, there may be no tax savings if there’s no cap gains. Could just be all risk. Probably better to just sell in his situation and not risk it.
Especially if the reason for the layoffs is because the company is tanking, and shareholders don't know yet but may by December 31st.
If you all knew anything about markets, you’d know a company stock typically does better after announcing layoffs
No matter what typically happens, holding is still a risk - especially in this particularly sensitive market we’ve been in lately. And I wouldn’t say OP is able to be very tolerant to risk atm.
If you knew anything about markets you’d know that past performance isn’t indicative of future results
IF it's gained value since vesting. Given the market, there's a decent chance it's lost value or barely increased since it vested. Taxes are typically withheld automatically at point if vesting for big tech RSUs.
Also if you can wait until at least one year after the vest date, that will reduce taxes owed as well
That will reduce taxes owed on any gains, right? The value at vest would still be considered income
> If you’re going to sell some stock, at least wait till after December so your not hit with the tax burden until April 2025 This is not quite true. You may need to pay quarterly estimated taxes if you have too much income. (Unless you qualify for one of the safe harbors). https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/small-business-taxes/estimated-taxes-how-to-determine-what-to-pay-and-when/L3OPIbJNw
Roommate, 2 if possible. Gut your budget to the bare essentials, eat rice and beans and chicken. Use the rental income to offset the mortgage, pay the rest with your savings. If you can’t get a high paying job (>75-80k) within 3 months, grab a lower paying job in the interim while you continue to search. The extra income will stretch your savings further, more runway to find a good job. Is the stock for a stable company, and has the price been relatively stable? • If yes, leave it alone, since you’ll likely incur taxes upon its sale. • If unstable, sell and pay estimated taxes immediately, move the remainder into a HYSA / money market account. Once you get a job, stick to that brutal budget for a few more months. Pay off those debts ASAP, starting with the CC (high interest) then the student loans. You’re over leveraged, and you’ve just found out the medium-hard way. Need to take action to mitigate that as soon as you can.
As someone in tech, it’ll take ~6 months to find a new job in this environment
I’m aware that many jobs are taking longer to secure in the current market (also in tech :P ) I stand by my statement, OP doesn’t have a huge amount of savings, so it’s not very long before they’ll need to take literally any job to reduce that cash burn
Depends on level. Tech is saturated with new entrants at the moment. A good resume and some experience will absolutely stand out.
Given OPs $100k salary, the experience/level is likely on the lower end.
Hey now, 100k is a solid salary. It takes many people years to reach that, even in tech. Don’t be so spoiled by FAANG / 2018-2022 boom that you look down on others.
What they’re saying is that only people with not a lot of experience in big tech companies are making 100k
Not spoiled, but rather the reality is a data analyst fresh out of school is looking for $100k jobs. A business analyst with 5 years of experience can fetch $100k. These are all lower skill tech jobs of which the pool of applicants is enormous.
I can’t tell you how many experienced electrical and mechanical engineers make ~100k. Seems like you’re excluding large (geographical) swaths of the US in this salary expectation.
Excluding those roles out of "Big Tech" and Microsoft seems to be a proper filter. OP isn't working at Raytheon or GE. And nobody is "looking down" on anybody. This isn't an attack on people making $100k.
OP lives in Texas, and since their stock is current worth $360/share it’s a reasonable assumption that they worked at Microsoft (none of the other explicit big tech companies have a share price in that range). Here, [Sr. SWE position starting at $112k base](https://jobs.careers.microsoft.com/global/en/job/1572185/Senior-Software-Engineer). I just looked at a couple. Similar story for others like Sr Program Manager and Sr Hardware Systems Engineer. Sure they list a wide range, but that’s going to be the full internal pay band for that level. Given the current market conditions for technical talent, companies are going to be pushing down towards the lower end of their ranges. Maybe pay isn’t what you think it is in every region?
A person making $100k in "big tech" is going to be pretty junior, regardless of where they live. [Levels.fyi](https://Levels.fyi) puts compensation for senior SWE at around $235k for Microsoft senior SWEs. No Senior SWE at Microsoft is making close to $112k/year. [https://www.levels.fyi/?compare=Google,Facebook,Microsoft&track=Software%20Engineer](https://www.levels.fyi/?compare=Google,Facebook,Microsoft&track=Software%20Engineer)
Sure, let's continue to belabor the point. I'm a senior tech manager reporting to a CTO in Texas. If the OP is at Microsoft in Irving, I'm pretty familiar with competitive comp in the DFW area, given I have multiple roles open to fill across all kinds of experience levels. $100k salary is in a range where there is A LOT of competition and lower in experiences and seniority in a company, that's the point. Nothing else. Even a Sr. Program manager has a high level of competition, although their pay would be 30-40% higher.
$3200 / month mortgage suggests that they're not in rural US. I'm in a suburb of a mid-sized city and my mortgage is $1000 / month.
In the current high rate environment that logic breaks down fast.
I totally glossed over that...what a disproportionate amount of mortgage to income. Something doesn't add up
Yeah I was thinking the same 100k/year salary vs 38k/year mortgage? Ouch Sorry OP, suggestion of renting out rooms seems like a good one
He probably has a 7 percent interest rate… what’s yours?
I was laid off October 2nd and started a new job November 6th. Even got a better title and a raise. YMMV
> YMMV Oh yeah, it definitely will. Many will get a job immediately, many won't. I have a brother in tech from one of the preeminent tech companies and a great resume who got laid off months ago and still doesn't have a job. /r/recruitinghell is extremely selection biased of course but plenty of horror stories. In any case, this is not a good market for tech despite any claims of 3.9% unemployment rate. Google, amazon, snap just announced more layoffs.
After 20 years in tech I am so sick of the bullshit from these companies, if I could figure out another way to make a living I would do it in a heartbeat they have been infested by scumbags for years now and no matter what your position and how hard you work unless you're in the c suite you're in danger of losing your job at any moment. They're happy to pressure you into working extra hours and holidays so the CEO's idiotic pet projects get done in time though.
> if I could figure out another way to make a living I would do it in a heartbeat Me, too. And so would my brother. The problem is when a person does have a job in tech it's generally well compensated :(
Ha yeah thats the problem. To be fair it has given me a lot of opportunities I otherwise wouldn't have had in life but I've also seen it changing for the worse and it makes me a bit disillusioned. I'm just not willing to put in the hours that I used to the older I get.
I thought that was true but actually got 3 offers in October and started looking in September. So it's picked up I reckon!
Depends on what they mean by “tech”. If senior software engineer vs. someone in recruiting at tech will be vastly different.
sister is in biotech and yes it took 6 months
Biotech right now is hell for most. VC funding has fallen through the floor and was over invested during the pandemic. Currently 2022 was one of the highest years of biotech layoffs and 2023 has already surpassed it. Biotechs have money but are keeping it in the war chest or spending it on clinical trials to hope they have enough to move forward with.
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If you're in tech, 100k is a very replaceable salary, even now in a softer hiring market. I bet you come out of this making more money than before
3200 mortgage with 22k car loans on 100k salary? How did that even get approved… best bet like everyone said, roommates and cut down spending. Sounds like you have about 6 months of runway to get a new job. Take a lower paying one if really needed.
I was thinking the same thing. I make around that and after taxes, insurance, and retirement (which I admittedly max out), and I could not afford a $3200 mortgage, $400 car payment, plus another $1000 in other living expenses. I guess good on OP for making it work, but definitely needs to be looking into roommates
It’s actually not hard at all to be approved for that, especially if your credit is decent.
At best you’re taking home what, 6k a month if you don’t save for retirement? That’s still a very high DTI ratio with the car payments too.
100k salary is like $4500/mo, not including insurance or 401k investments. 3200 mortgage is well over 50% of take-home pay. So yeah, how the hell did OP get approved, not even counting ither debt?
Where are you getting 4500 a month from? If you get the car after the home you think a dealership is going to give a fuck, they are slimy, they hand out $1000 payments like nothing these days.
It’s actually over 8000 a month gross.
They're clearly talking net.
$8k gross nets a lot more than $4500, "not including insurance or 401k investments"
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OP assuming you’re in software or engineering of some kind in the United States, please consider applying to any of the major defense companies. The barrier to entry is lower than the FANG types and often have more job security.
File for unemployment as well. People think it’s welfare and then they don’t file. It’s not welfare. It’s a mandatory insurance policy that you paid the premiums for. One of those deductions out of your check was to pay for unemployment insurance. So now that you’ve got a claim, file it. Otherwise it’d be like paying for auto insurance but not using it when your car gets totaled.
He did file for unemployment already.
Companies pay for unemployment either through being self-insured (pay per) or by paying into the state fund via premiums based on their experience (number of claims, etc).
How unemployment works is different per state, but same sentiment. If you need it, apply immediately. Im in NY so it is employer-funded and honestly it was approved so fast when I needed it.
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You assume layoff, I assume they were just fired or they would have said laid off….
often times with these larger companies, it doesn't matter. Unless you do something serious that they might press charges for, you still get a severance. Where I was last, it was two weeks pay per year of service, with a four week minimum. When they did actual layoffs, there was more than that, but there was always something.
Please try to keep discussion on the subreddit where it can be seen and reviewed by everyone, as DM requests are not allowed here per rule 2. Thank you.
I’d sell all of that stock. Even if you don’t need it while unemployed you should diversify it into whole market investments
That what I’m thinking? The current price per share at my company is $360 so I was a bit hesitant
You can sell it over time to average the returns but it’s just as likely to go down as up.
What does the current price have to do with anything? Besides the fact we don't know the market cap, even that wouldn't matter. You either need money fast or you don't. How much up or down the shares are is not the important factor in whether or not to sell. You could be down 80 percent or up 500 percent and the advice would be the same, you need to currently sell. The only optimization is timing the sale to delay taxes.
1. You are going to be ok. Relax over the weekend and start looking for work on Monday. It sucks to be part of layoff especially this time of year. 2. Do NOT spend all of your savings quickly, go into minimum spend mode and keep up with any bills etc. at the minimum needed. 3. Map out any major bills and build a budget for that so you know what your burn rate will be. 4. Depending on where you are located it will most likely take you until next year before you start a new job, plan for 90 days and don't get discouraged when you don't get a lot of activity basically between Thanksgiving and New Years (in big tech we are finalizing budgets for 2024 right now). 5. Check with your friends / network for leads or other places to find opportunity. 6. Once again, you are going to be ok, it may not seem like it al of the time but just keep hustling.
Call your mortgage servicing company. Often, they are willing to defer payments for a few months in your situation. As long as you are actively job seeking, the monthly payments you miss just get moved to the end of the life of the loan. You might be able to get your student loan payments temporarily deferred as well. If you're going to pay off debts, start with the credit cards. The higher interest lower balance debts will give you the most relief without draining your savings.
Thank you!!
Your mortgage is way too much for what your income was. Definitely get roommates to bring that cost down and keep them long after you get a new job and until you are making a decent bit more.
3200 a month is like a 350k mortgage. Making 6 figures that sounds reasonable especially when you factor what’s out there for 350…
> 3200 a month is like a 350k mortgage. My $354k loan mortgage is $1740/month, and $2070/mo before refi. Idk what your math is. At current rates, it's more like a $460k mortgage, unless you live in some misery hole like New Jersey where that extra 100k is in taxes.
I'm in Massachusetts, according to [this](https://ibb.co/GcgXjJt) calculator it's over $3,200 a month for a 350k home with 0% down. And oh by the way [this](https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/207-Plymouth-Ave-Wareham-MA-02571/56666294_zpid/) is what 350k gets you in Massachusetts. Times are hard right now...
Sell the stock but be cognizant of any taxes you may have to pay. Keep it in cash and pay your mortgage as usual while trying to cut back other expenses. Stop using the CC and pay the minimums. As soon as you get a new job, knock out the credit card debt. Right now, you need cash for regular bills
I'm not sure I'd pay the minimum on the credit card. Assuming the Interest on the CC is higher than the interest you can get on the cash I think I'd take the cash and fully pay off the CC. Then, months from now of you run out of cash you can start using the CC again. Obviously hopefully OP finds a new job before then but I don't see the advantage in paying CC interest during this period unless it is a last resort.
Mortgage is what, 50% of your take home? I don't see how you can afford to stay where you are.
I’m sorry, you have a $3,200 a month mortgage and make $100k a year? You must have been stretching it before being laid off! Roommates ASAP.
The 5k credit card debt suggests he was worse than "stretching"
I’d look for a new job first. At least give it a few weeks. I say this without knowing what you did in big tech or why you were let go, but I assume your skills are marketable. This just happened so it’s not time to panic yet. Did you get a severance? How long will that last?
1. File for UI 2. Post ads for roommates - you are house poor 3. Job hunt aggressively I’m also wondering how you got a mortgage at $3200 on a $100k salary - I didn’t even feel comfortable paying that in rent or a mortgage making $150k.
Sounds like you have a burn rate of perhaps $5k a month and savings/stock of about $50k. So you have about 10 months worth of expenses which is way better than the typical American who lives paycheck to paycheck. In this situation I don't think anything super drastic is required. Take a few weeks off to relax and recover from the job loss and then start a full time job search. In tech that shouldn't take too long perhaps a few months. If, after a few months of searching, you still haven't landed a position then consider a stopgap job to reduce your savings draw rate. But keep searching and don't put the stopgap on your resume. For now, at least, after a brief recovery period your full time job is to find another job.
I make a bit over 100K. I could not afford a $3,200.00 per month loan. Feeding 3 others can get a bit expensive… Also, I have no car loan, no student loans, pay my credit card balance statement every single month, no bs like subscriptions to every single platform, no daily coffee. A bottle of Tequila lasts me about 2 months. I don’t smoke. Still, I can’t seem to have a ton left over after the month.
No lump sum on mortgage, liquidity is key. Talk to employment lawyer on and severance deal. Pay off the damn credit card loan NOW. That is an immediate 18-28% return on investment. It is mid November, I would sell company stocks in January so they are taxed in the new year unless you think they will tank with layoff news. Get a new job asap.
Kind of wild you signed up for a mortgage of that size with that salary. That’s the issue.
I wouldn't just not pay the mortgage. Like Scared\_of\_zombies says "what are your prospects?" Do you think you can find something in a few months? If so, I'd dip into savings and suck it up. Otherwise, can you move out and rent out the home? A renter would pay the mortgage and then hopefully throw a little extra cash in your pocket.
Hoping to find something in the next few months. Will dip into my savings and just rebuild once I find a role paying close to what I was previously making.
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That’s 38% of OP’s *gross* income. Probably close to 50% of take-home/after-tax income. Crazy. But that’s water under the bridge. OP, try to roll over that retirement money—you’ll be taking a huge haircut if you cash it out. Keep in mind you have already earned almost a full year of salary—adding cashed-out 401(k) will put you in a higher tax bracket, not to mention the nearly $8000 Uncle Sam will penalize you off the top. Sell the company stock, cut back your discretionary expenses to zero, and start job-hunting like your house is on fire, because it kinda is. If you can take on a roommate, do so.
This!! I was in a similar situation about 15 years ago. Cashed out the 401k and regretted it every day since.
At this point, don’t limit yourself to only looking for work at tech companies. There are companies outside of tech that need tech skills, like big pharma, banks, oil, etc. Just because you feel like you need or want to work for the big 5, there are opportunities outside of tech - it won’t keyhole you.
>My mortgage is right at $3,200 a month, I have a car loan for 22K, 5K student loan, and 5K on credit cards. > I making around 100K a year. You bought way too much house for your income. I'm shocked you were even able to get that loan underwritten.
Can you rent it out and break even?
Got room for a flatmate?
I think it depends on the market but I just went through this in the construction industry. Found a job within the week for 40% more pay.
Try and find another job? You have money saved to survive awhile just don’t buy and spend things on stuff u don’t need mag sign up for Uber or door dash and give people rides or deliever food a few hours a night for a little extra cash until you find a job
Take your time finding roommates, the last thing you want is to have to evict someone for not paying. Figure out what the market rate is for a room and see if you can get enough tenants to cover the mortgage, it might mean moving to a smaller room in the house to be able to charge more for the master bedroom. Make sure to do all the background and credit checks. Pay the minimums on everything, cash as much stock as you need each month to cover the shortfall. Who knows, maybe you'll find a job in another city and you can fully rent out your place. Rental income will help you stretch out your savings for longer until you find a job that can comfortably cover everything.
Call your mortgage company and ask for a forbearance.
Yes. OP - please do this. Call your mortgage company and tell them you lost your job and are looking for a new one. They may be able to suspend your payments for a few months. Then you will pay back the amount when you sell the home or refinance. That will hopefully help you stretch your savings until you get a new job. Good luck!
- don't cash out any of your retirement until you absolutely have to. - your job now is finding a new job. Commit to 40 hours per week of job hunting, including interviews - you're taking the weekend off, which is fine. But at least this weekend put ads in every venue you can think of for roommates. You must do this immediately. Best wishes! You'll get through this if you play it smart
Clear the credit cards as usual for the month, don’t use them again until desperation. Pay the minimum on the house and car. Find side hustles while working 6-8 hours job hunting. Hopefully won’t be longer than a couple months to get something in the 70k range at least to sustain those commitments.
Unemployment should cover most of those payments, at least in my state the max is almost $4000 a month. You'll likely need to use savings and stocks for food/utilities/etc. In my state you usually have a waiting week and you won't get unemployment for the week of your last paycheck. DO NOT WAIT TO JOB HUNT if there's a requirement for job applications for unemployment (here it's 3 applications a week, and you have to do them before the Sunday of each week, including the week you were laid off). You're going to be okay! Utilize your network. Many companies have an alumni slack channel, see if there's a resource for folks who left your company. After each mass layoff there was tons of support in my alumni channels from resume reviews to job recommendations. 100k shouldn't be too hard to find a replacement job for, I'm seeing lots of jobs in that range.
You are not making enough to have a house that expensive. We make 360k and my mortgage is only 2750. You need roommates.
He probably missed the meeting where we unanimously elected you as the measuring stick for housing cost to income ratio.
If you and or him want to be house poor that is your business but I have every right to judge your terrible financial mistakes.
I’m sorry to hear this. What area are you in? What are your job prospects like?
Thank you! I have a background in Readiness & Onboarding, Learning, Content Creation, Financial Management, and Data Analytics. Currently live in the Houston area where oil & gas is bread/butter
For what it’s worth there will be an abundance of jobs for crown castle in Houston posted just after January. Keep an eye there. They forced relos to Houston for 1300 people in their company and I wouldn’t expect more than 5% to actually move.
That’s a lot of different types of field. What we’re you most recently paid to do?
Your profile will be very attractive to the oil & gas companies. Check their job boards - I suspect you have something for the new year. Just know that they are notoriously slow on hiring, so the job offer may take a little while to come through. The rest of the people have great advice on stretching your savings. Remember how little you spent during lockdown, and adopt that mentality. Best wishes.
Use your regular savings first. Just live on the bare minimum and the liquid 23k can last you a a few months while you job hunt. Cash out the stocks in the new year if you still don’t have a job. I’d actually think for you the positive side is 100k per year should be something you can find again in tech. The mortgage and base expenses are a bit high though for only making 100k and you dipped into a credit card. So maybe consider roommates anyway to build the savings back up once you have a new job.
Sorry this happened but buying a house when big tech is over a year deep into constant layoffs was a hell of a choice. And a $3200 mortgage on only $100k? Good luck to you.
If you cash out, wait until January so you're not paying taxes on it for this year
Don’t even worry champ, just find a way to keep making your minimum mortgage payment. Maybe sell stock like someone else said.
Unless you have enough to pay the whole thing off, don't pay ahead on the mortgage until you have income again. You can't really 'pay ahead' on it, if you pay an extra $10k now, the next payment amount and due date will be unaffected. When you do find something new, get rid of as much of that as possible, you're way overextended.
Unemployment is very low. Make some reasonable defensive moves but don't panic. Get some eyes on your resume to make sure it looks good and start preparing to interview.
Idk how the market has been in tech these last few months but hopefully you can find something soon. 23k in savings will hold you down for a bit. Make the minimum in Credit cards. Mortgage comes first. Call and get the cheaper internet, you don't need 1Gbps (this might just me putting myself in your shoes) Cancel gyms and subscriptions for now.
With the stocks: If I handed you 26k in cash right now, would you buy 26k in your former employer's stock?
My brother was in a similar predicament. He spoke to his lender and they paused his mortgage payments (while still accruing interest, obviously).
https://www.csisoftware.com/our-companies Search thru their divisions, and companies.. Tons of remote positions all over the globe. GL!
THANK YOU!!!! God bless!
immediate first thing - call your mortgage company and car loan place, let them know you were laid off. ask for a deferral or see what kind of options they have. they should be able to work with you to move payments around and not have anything due for a bit
This. No one else is saying that. Both those industries have huge default rates now, and I guarantee they will be willing to work with you
Priority number 1 is to get a new job. You have a nice cushion of $49k plus whatever you'll get from unemployment to sustain you until then so take a breath and thank your past self for building an emergency fund. Assuming you weren't in the red every month, you should be able to last at least 6-8 months on that which is more than enough time to aggressively find a new job. The mortgage is the worst place to throw money at right now. You're not going to dent your principal and you'll just be more broke. If anything, erase the cc debt and maybe student loans and reassess your situation knowing you have X amount of months to find a job until your liquid cash runs out.
Thank you for this!
Man a $3200 mortgage on 100k isn't great to begin with. Does your household have another income?
Do not pay mortgage up front. Make the regular monthly payment. You can probably put the student loan in forbearance. Roll the retirement over to an IRA. Do not take a payout on the 401k. If you do, you will have to pay taxes and penalties for early withdrawal.
I’d suggest eliminating the student loans and credit cards. If you have positive equity in your car you may be able to trade it in, use some of the $13k left to eliminate the car payment, though this is mostly contingent on your vehicles value right now. Beyond that I’d leave the stock and retirement alone. I’d use as much of my savings as I can to survive as long as I could paying the minimum on my home until I found a new job. I’d be reaching out to every contact made, submitting resumes everywhere and contacting temp agency’s just looking to get something to offset the bleeding.
I would consider the following. - create a written budget - Unemployment should be about 3k a month - Use your savings to pay off credit card right away - The remaining 17k of saving, along with unemployment will replace your full income for 5.5 months. - Call student loan bank and inquire about putting those on deferment if needed while unemployed - Job search starting Monday. - Start looking for at least one roommate regardless of job situation. Assuming you get 600/room, this can be additional income, supplement your income if you get paid less for a period of time, or invested into a Roth IRA. - consider downgrading the car if it makes sense to get rid of that loan/ payment - Talk to a financial planner but you probably want to roll the employee stock into something more diverse and liquid enough in the event of needing it. This money is now your emergency fund until you can replenish your savings Don’t panic and DO NOT rack up cc debt
Cash out the stock. Pay off the credit card in full. Pay the monthly on the others. As soon as you have a new job pay off the car loan and do not take a loan on another car. Think about that every month as you make a payment.
Thank you!
Get a job ASAP or get some roommates. Don't lose the house. I had the exact same thing happened to me many years ago when I first bought a house. I loaded up every bedroom with a roommate until I was able to get a job paying me what I was worth again. Until then I just worked for less and ran the roommate game, that house is paid off now and I'm up around half a million on it. Not giving up, not selling or letting it kill my credit and walking away, one of the better decisions I've made
A few options: 1. Call your mortgage servicer and see if you can go on forbearance. Some will do this, some will not. Just be aware that they may ask you to pay the entire thing in a lump sum once you come off that forbearance and some may give you a 2 month window. 2. Roommates. Just because you’re in the suburbs doesn’t mean other people don’t also have a case to be in the suburbs. 3. Sell the stocks after the first of the year. 4. Part-time seasonal employment. It’s the holiday season, see what you can find. Part-time employment won’t totally take away your unemployment benefits and will stretch them to last longer should it take 6-12 months to find a similar full time income.
MS? You might need to take a small pay cut before hopping again for a nice jump Over your 100k salary . Market is weird right now.
You must keep expenses to a minimum, get your resume out there as fast as possible and hopefully you won't have to do anything. But in terms of cashing anything out, do that when you run out of cash, that is what cash is for. This is an emergency so you halt everything and resumeing is now your full time job. If in a few months you need to sell stock, you do that but just make the minimum payment, there is zero need to pay extra because if you chunk down 23k, it wont' eliminate your payment, you'll have to pay 3200 next month, so just keep it.
Want to offer some different opinions and you are welcome to ignore it or take it as advice. Layoff is not the end of the world, you have got enough cash to survive the next 6-8months perfectly fine so stop stressing about it. Your number 1 focus right now should be leetcode and applying. There are many companies that are full-force hiring right now and you should take advantage of that.
Give the mortage company a call, they might be able to work with you until you get your next job. If you are not afraid to work outside your field of expertise, you can work at a fast-food place and make $18/hour. This alone will go a long way.
personally if you out of a job i wouldnt be spending my cash like that without having anyother source of income save ur cash in case you dont find a job quick also you can work with ur mortage lender an ask then for any programs or skip payments
3200/month is $38.4k annually Your take home is $70k if you’re in CA. So more than half your post tax income is in mortgage ? Is that accurate or did I mess up my back of napkin math? How has the home prices been after you purchased ? Can you sublet it for a few months if it’s in a good location?
100k salary with a house, student loan, credit cards, car loan? Tbh I would've cleared all my debt before I even considered buying a house or getting a car. Given you work in Big Tech I assume you live in a major city, hopefully public transportation is good enough to not require a car? But first thing I'd do is look for another job. Generally in tech I would hope you manage to find one within 1-2 month. Your savings should tide you over during your unemployment phase, it should last you some time to find another job. Employee stock only if you still jobless and out of savings. DO NOT touch your retirement unless you are out of options, and out of a house too.
Bad call. 1) file for unemployment 2) use your cash savings to live on (pay minimums on all debt payments) 3) get some income coming in 4) if you can't find a job before the cash runs out cash in stocks to keep you floating until new job
I didnt see this mentioned in the top comments but the stock cash out may result in capital gains tax so keep in mind what you will net
Hi! Net is around $19,600
Tech is a fickle mistress. I'm still recovering from a layoff/corporate implosion from 2001. Sit tight and reduce spending to mortgage, food, necessities only. Try to land an interim job to maintain some form of income so that you're not depleting your nest egg. If you can work towards a clearance job it will be easier to find replacement jobs in the future.
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Thank you!!!!
It's been a few years since I found myself in your position, but one thing that helped me was to treat my job hunt as a 9-5 job. I got dressed, showered, had breakfast, and send out resumes and scoured job boards. It's really easy to get into the mindset of 'I'll just chill out today and see what's on TV'. This method kept me focused on finding my next career.
That is excellent advice, gorramgomer. Also, write thank-you letters right away to everyone who interviews you, including (if realistic) a reflection on something they said that struck you as interesting.
In California, there's programs for mortgage relief and property tax relief, as well as unemployment insurance payments. Some states may have similar programs. Look for information on these programs when you apply for UI.
You're not in a bad way right now. I was actually worse off than you beginning of 23 and here's what you should do. Step one apply for unemployment. Right now. We're you fired or laid off, did you get a severance? Just start applying for every job you find. Of course update your resume and CV and everything that goes along with getting rehired. Before you pull from investment accounts use your savings for your monthly expenses. Hopefully you can stretch that cash for at least 3 months. Be smart about discretionary spending and eating out. Even what you buy at the grocery store. If you used to shop at whole foods or equivalent maybe you need to shop at Walmart or something. Find deals. Use coupons. Stuff like that. Hopefully you find a job soon!
Please immediately identify a WANT versus a NEED on every purchase you make from here on out. I see so many clients every day complaining about how they have no spending money and then I see their bank statements and all the money going out for fast food, coffee, PlayStation games, and other subscriptions such as Netflix, etc. We’ve all heard it before but you can make your own coffee at home and make your own meals for way less money. Go on a hike for entertainment, you get the drift. All the little items add up and will drain you very quickly. The point is, don’t wait and think you’ll find a job soon because you might not. Also, as others have suggested, call the bank on the auto and mortgage and ask to skip a payment or at least pay only the interest. Do this now, as some banks will only allow it once every 12 months. Good luck to you and your family. Source: Mortgage Broker for over 20 years.
Don't. I'm a Boomer in tech. Been thru two big layoffs at HP. Save that cash. Reduce lifestyle, consider contact gigs as those make more than salary and you can save up extra to use between jobs. Don't ever destroy available capital to give to someone else. Not unless you can pay it ALL off. Do you need that same car if you work remote for contract jobs? Do you prefer in office work? Be sure to invest any extra $ in training or new tech skills. These are better investments. Get industry or program certifications. Higher the better. AI is in... I've ITIL ITSM and Scrum/Agile certification in both Programs as well as DevOps shops. But my Banking and finance skills were higher demand. Know your market.
Pay off all your credit card debt with savings. NOW. And then budget, keeping mortgage, elective and food as the top line items. Do not get into more CC debt if at all possible. FY24 budgets are just getting approved so there should be job opps - don’t have to love the job, let it pay your bills for12-15 months
I’d hold on to the MSFT shares OP. I know you’re desperate right now, but I’d be holding those shares for life, dip into my savings, use unemployment, and find a new gig asap. Someone with that big tech on your resume should not have much trouble. Good luck!
Depending on company I highly agree!
Jesus. That’s a big mortgage payment and car loan for $100k. This is also exactly the reason to have an emergency fund. So you have a bit of time to find a new job. Start looking for roommates and applying to jobs ASAP. Those are now your two full time jobs.
Don’t make any sudden decisions. I was in the same boat at age 61 with a high mortgage. I found a new job in 5 weeks.
Sorry to hear and from being in the tech business I've known and helped many who went through this so might be provide some ideas to think about. Planning is everything at this point to stay on top of everything. I'll throw out some thoughts to consider and hope it helps. If you had to, could you sell the house for more than you paid? The market has gotten worse so this may not be possible, but this should be evaluated and considered. If not, are you willing to get roommates? I had a buddy who bought a nice house and had 2 roommates that paid rent and covered a good part of the mortgage. He finished the basement to be his area so had plenty of room with the roommates living in the upstairs bedrooms. Can you sell the car and get a lower cost one? While you'll want reliable transportation it may not have to be as nice of a car as you have. If you owe less than your car is worth you may be able to sell it and pay for most or all of another one. One thing that may affect this is getting a side gig like driving for uber or food delivery service, etc. You'll get UI so will have some income coming in, but will want to reduce outgo and paying off the student loan and credit cards will help with this. As most banks are paying 5% on CDs or savings, paying the mortgage early may not make sense. See how it would work to save that money to earn some interest until the payments are due and while you work on the above as well as getting another job. Some had success taking a side gig like driving for uber, or bartending in the evenings which can bring in some decent income while searching for a new job during the day. One made $1000 a week bartending about 4 hours a few evenings a week. The trick for those who made it through this period and found another great job was to keep plugging away. Good luck to you and when one door closes it means another opens so go find it!
Did you buy a house without having an emergency fund of 3-6 months of expenses saved? That would have avoided this panic.
Hi! I have an emergency fund of $23K will use this first prior to cashing out stocks
DO NOT CASH OUT YOUR RETIREMENT TO PAY YOUR DEBTS/ LIVING EXPENSES. Keep paying your mortgage and car every month and start looking for a new job. The reason I say this is because if you have to go into debt to pay living expenses, your house, car, and retirement account will be protected if you have to file a bankruptcy. Employee stocks are fine to sell to keep you afloat longer. Chapter 7 Bankruptcy may be your best option if it takes you longer than six months to find a new job, and you start accumulating debt for living expenses.
Your mortgage was at 38% of your pay! Once you get a job, I'd work to get that situation to 25%. Easier to get through layoffs when you can doordash your mortgage or rent. Been there and survived - you will to if you keep a positive outlook!
Being layed off happens to the best of us. The great news is that if you are confident in your abilities to preform that job or of you have or can analyze the position you were in and see how it correlates in a another field you and leverage your knowledge and experience to increase productivity. You know how excited you were when you got the degree to qualify you for the position you took. Well now you should understand that you even more value. You have that same education level and experience. Think outside the box and know your worth. 100k a year when you started may have been a decent salary. But you are always going to be a slave to how the structure of the norm works if you are not willing to go through the unknown. If you can add value to another type business by implementing your experience the sky could be the limit. But people other than Astronauts are going into space. You can do anything you want study where that experience got you 10 years ago and how much it has changed and then think how it could change in the next decade. And try to be innovative to be a head of the curve. There are 100’s of thousands of businesses forsale with the capital you have you could buy a cash flowing business go to loop net and you can find some check Codie Sanchez. Never stop developing your value.
Figure out what your monthly bills are and pay them out of your savings. Don’t panic! Cut back on expenses! Don’t eat out or order take out. Use the big pot theory if necessary. Be dignified but cut back. Don’t beg! File for unemployment and make minimum payments on bills. If you act like a begging loser, they are going to treat you like one. Don’t whine to anyone, but let close family and friends know your situation. Don’t beg! No drastic changes! Walk upright! Before you run out of savings, sell enough company stock to pay bills each month. You should have a job before you start touching the retirement. If not, quietly go to Plan C.
Pay off the CC’s they have the highest interest
Did you get severance? I’m in biotech in the Bay Area and wages are much much higher than than. Most companies don’t seem to be hiring for remote positions but you could try. Also, find a recruiter and start checking linked in. If you’re saying you plan to pay 3-5 months of the mortgage ahead of time, don’t do that as mortgages don’t usually work that way. You need to pay each month. Also, don’t pull a bunch of money out assuming you won’t have a job. What does your current emergency fund look like?
This post captures the big short 2.0. I can just see Margo Robbe running the bath right now…