EF - "you actually have one?"

[kgb18]

I'm waiting for about 1k in reimbursements from my health insurance company. I'm expecting that sometime never.

It was a good thing we were well prepared when we had DD. It turned out that the short term disability my work offered was terrible. They really should make it clear to new hires that you get 6 weeks of short term disability leave, but not pay. I got 60% of 1 paycheck and that was it. They have a policy that your disability doesn't kick in for 4 weeks. After that all you've got left is one pay period and your disability is done. We had a full 12 weeks of my pay saved, so it wasn't a crisis for us. But our HR person screwed up my stuff, and I didn't even get the piddly reimbursement I was supposed to until months after I came back to work.

[blackcard]

You never know when that EF will come in handy. I am shocked, about 2 or 3 times a year, when some of my old college friends confide that they still live paycheck to paycheck. Geez we are in our early 30's. Time to grow up already.

[TrixAre4Kids]

Apr 13, 2011 20:49:00 GMT -5 kgb18 said:

I'm waiting for about 1k in reimbursements from my health insurance company. I'm expecting that sometime never.

It was a good thing we were well prepared when we had DD. It turned out that the short term disability my work offered was terrible. They really should make it clear to new hires that you get 6 weeks of short term disability leave, but not pay. I got 60% of 1 paycheck and that was it. They have a policy that your disability doesn't kick in for 4 weeks. After that all you've got left is one pay period and your disability is done. We had a full 12 weeks of my pay saved, so it wasn't a crisis for us. But our HR person screwed up my stuff, and I didn't even get the piddly reimbursement I was supposed to until months after I came back to work.

How long had you worked for them KGB? Did they provide Medical? Why would a 'new hire' expect to be paid maternity leave? I don't intend to be mean, but I think a lot of employers would have just hired someone else and saved themselves a headache.

[Deleted]

Apr 13, 2011 22:42:59 GMT -5 TrixAre4Kids said:

How long had you worked for them KGB? Did they provide Medical? Why would a 'new hire' expect to be paid maternity leave?

For most employers, being out of work due to pregnancy is treated the same as any other medical leave. (Which is why I refuse to call it "maternity leave"- you don't get it just because you're a Mommy. If you adopted, for example, it wouldn't apply.) Sick leave is usually some combination of "short-term disability", which are traditional sick days, for the first few weeks, followed by long-term disability after that period. Long-term disability may be paid at only 50% or 80% of salary. Depending on how long you've been with the company and what their policy is, yes, you can be entitled to very few sick days.

I was lucky- when I had DS I'd been with the company for 7 years. I could even have stayed out the 4 weeks before he was born at full pay, but didn't because I liked my job and was having a wonderful, healthy pregnancy.

Yes, the time you're away form your job for pregnancy and childbirth certainly can be a financial shock if you aren't prepared.

Back to the original topic!

[kimber45]

$700 a month truck payment?!? I can't think of ANYTHING available right now that I'd be willing to have a payment that large on. (Maybe an income-producing rental property.)

OMG, my house payment is only $320 (not including taxes and insurance)

[Deleted]

Apr 14, 2011 8:30:36 GMT -5 kimber45 said:

$700 a month truck payment?!? I can't think of ANYTHING available right now that I'd be willing to have a payment that large on. (Maybe an income-producing rental property.)

OMG, my house payment is only $320 (not including taxes and insurance)

Mine is only $253without taxes and insurance, crazy huh? A classmate, when my fiance and I were looking at house told him "I had to choose between a new car and a house so I bought the car". Our dp was $12,000, seller paid closing and we got back $3000 from the government. He got a $25,000 car, sigh.

[kimber45]

I had to choose between a new car and a house so I bought the car


I guess I'd rather have the house, kinda hard to live in a car although I know people have lived in less

[thyme4change]

you don't get it just because you're a Mommy. If you adopted, for example, it wouldn't apply.

FMLA applies to adoption, although you don't get any medical pay or disability pay. But you can take up to 18 weeks off.

[Deleted]

Apr 14, 2011 11:18:48 GMT -5 thyme4change said:

FMLA applies to adoption, although you don't get any medical pay or disability pay. But you can take up to 18 weeks off.

I agree- and FLMA is also something that fathers can take, too, provide the family can do without their income.

[kgb18]

How long had you worked for them KGB? Did they provide Medical? Why would a 'new hire' expect to be paid maternity leave? I don't intend to be mean, but I think a lot of employers would have just hired someone else and saved themselves a headache.

Two years. I was on their medical coverage at the time. I didn't expect to get full pay. I knew I wasn't going to get any pay for the six weeks of FMLA. And as I said, we planned and had my full salary saved up. But the tiny amount of disability coverage was still a surprise. That same coverage would have applied if I had been sick or hurt. If someone gets hurt or sick and has to be out of work unexpectedly, it could come as quite a bad surprised. I just think the company should make it clear that 6 weeks of short disability leave is not the same as disability pay.

I don't intend to be mean, but I think a lot of employers would have just hired someone else and saved themselves a headache.

So you would never hire a woman in her child bearing years?

[Deleted]

Apr 14, 2011 11:18:48 GMT -5 thyme4change said:

you don't get it just because you're a Mommy. If you adopted, for example, it wouldn't apply.

FMLA applies to adoption, although you don't get any medical pay or disability pay. But you can take up to 18 weeks off.

12 weeks , not 18 weeks.

[thyme4change]

Oops - you are correct. Sorry about that.

[thyme4change]

Oops - you are correct. Sorry about that.

[azphx1972]

This is an interesting topic because some guy on NWIQ was just questioning the conventional wisdom of keeping an EF in cash vs investing it in stocks/bonds:

www.networthiq.com/people/imtos/questions/emergency-fund-in-cash-why-follow-conventional-wisdom

I disagreed with his premise, but I guess different strokes for different folks.

[thyme4change]

I agree with him. I keep enough money in savings to get me out of an immediate jam - but really, if I have a six month emergency I will go ahead and sell stocks and mutuals. Maybe the market will be up, maybe it will be down. But, in my lifetime I have never burned through more than a couple thousand (transmission.) Even with a job loss, we sucked it up and got unemployment. We never needed to pay every single bill out of cash for six solid months. Yes, it is entirely possible that this weekend my husband and I will be in a car accident that makes it so neither of us can work for months on end, and both of our disability policies reject our claim, and our health insurance dumps us and we need to pay all medical bills out of pocket - and I will handle that. But with my savings account earning less than 1%, every year I don't have that type of emergency costs me $2000. Compound that over a lifetime, and you are losing a hundred thousand dollars or more.

There is a risk-return possibility here. The risk is that I will have to sell low. The return is that I earn more than my savings rate. How low could I possibly have to sell?

[azphx1972]

I think everyone has a gauge of what they need for their own comfort level and risk tolerance. I have some friends and acquaintances who have been unemployed for a year or two now, and they used to think it wasn't important to keep a huge cushion in cash, but I can tell you they sure feel differently now.

[thyme4change]

I guess a big difference is if you are keeping investments in a regular taxable brokerage account vs. equity in a house or a larger balance in a 401k or something.