I might be laid off tomorrow at 23 weeks pregnant. The company where I work my 9-5 job is facing a large layoff, or “reduction in workforce”. This is actually the third round of layoffs within the last 2 years. While other areas of the company were the focus of the previous layoffs, this time, the focus is on the Engineering department. My department. Up to 28% of the department will be let go within the next week. While I don’t think I’ll be laid off, I really don’t know for certain. However, even if I were part of the layoff at 23 weeks pregnant, I’m actually not worried about my family or our future.

Knowing is Half the Battle

Truth be told, I was worried, at first. I then sat down and asked myself “what’s the worst that could happen?” From there, I actually laid it out. What IS the worst that could happen if I was laid off? I tried to use my worry as a tool to pivot from worrying to strategizing. So, I sat down and did the math. Between the expected severance and vacation payout, we would get approximately 7 months’ worth of expenses.

This lead to the big question of, sure “what about health insurance?”. Being that I’m 6 months pregnant, we didn’t want to be without healthcare. I took a look at the state’s ACA website and found a couple of plans that could work for us. They were still fairly expensive, even with the subsidies, approximately $850/month for the plans that had prescriptions and doctors on it. More importantly, between prenatal care and other health issues we’d had, we have already met our deductible and were on track to meet our max out of pocket expenses before my due date. If we got a plan with ACA, we would have to start that process all over again.

COBRA Insurance

With that in mind, going on COBRA insurance, which allows you to keep your current healthcare plan started by your employer, looked to be a better option. The main benefit of COBRA is that we would not have to start over on our deductible. It’s a continuation of the same plan. Even so, it was almost double the premium price. Still the difference was more than made up for by the lack of out of pocket costs for the birth of our child. If you are ever in a similar situation, you can find out what your COBRA costs would be by looking at your last year’s W-2 form, Box 12, code DD. Take that number and divide it by 12. For us, it would end up being approximately $1,550/month.

Having to account for this higher cost of healthcare would mean that my severance package would only account for 4-5 months of our expenses. However, we still would have Haven’s income to help out with these costs too. Just knowing what all of those expenses were and how we could possibly cover them, even without taking into account unemployment benefits or the state’s paid family medical leave, took a lot of my worries away.

Financial Security

We have set up our lifestyle from a standpoint of both comfort mixed with financial security. We try to maintain a balance between keeping our expenses reasonable and still being able to do what we want. Over the years, this has created the levels of financial security that would allow us to pivot should, say, one of us loses their job.

I’ve talked about the levels of financial security before back in 2020. Since then our situation has changed quite a bit. We purchased what we are planning to be our forever home. Haven has changed jobs to one that makes them less money, but it a LOT less stressful. The biggest change being, of course that I’m pregnant (yay!). So, while we no longer live on just my wife’s income, we currently live on about 60% of our combined post tax income. We also have the ability to reduce our expenses down to 45% if we have to do so. Our ability to reduce expenses gives us a large amount of flexibility when it comes to how to handle being laid off.

Between our use of sinking funds, having an emergency fund, and flexible expenses, I knew we would be okay. We would be able to afford our normal expenses through the end of my planned maternity leave timeline, or longer if required. I also acknowledge that we have also been extremely privileged when it comes to income. While we do have that privilege, we try not to squander it. Having even a small gap between your expenses and income can create leverage. That leverage can be used to build level of financial security at any income.

What Next?

Honestly, we will just have to see what the rest of the week, and year brings. I could be laid off, or not. If I am, I have other avenues that I can explore. Be it getting another job in my current field or pivoting to something new that might pay less. The possibilities are endless, but we’ve got each other and just about everything is figureoutable (definitely a word) from there.

What would you do if you knew your might be laid off tomorrow? How can you better your financial position today?

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