Short Term Plan - Quit

Short term is done.   Now I need to move on to medium term.  

I'm not shy about admitting it.  This whole deal with migraines and work has me depressed.  Since I wrote that post thirteen days ago I've actually only worked two days.  I'm actually burning through my FMLA days faster than I thought and when I'm down with a migraine it's not only hard to think about anything, it's hard to think about anything other than my current predicament.  But that did let me break down my thinking into three stages.  Short term, medium term, long term.  

This post is less about updating anybody on these processes and more about me putting my thoughts down and making sure they make sense. I see my neurologist in the morning and need to make decisions quickly after that visit.  

So, here's the "terms" that I'm considering:

• Short Term is the next few days
• I need to decide how I'm going to deal with work.  My FMLA is running out and my migraines, even if they were miraculously better, would still have me calling in more than my sick time would allow.  
• I talked with HR (from the prison... MY current HR still hasn't contacted me) and there are three options:
• Medical Leave of Absence - I get my doctor to write that I can't work because of the migraines.  It can last upward of six months.  I don't get paid and need to pay out of pocket for anything that's normally pulled automatically from my checks (insurance, 401k contributions...).  When the doc says I'm good, I come back or if he still says I'm not good after the six months, I have to quit.  
• Waived Rights Leave of Absence - I more or less quit.  My job isn't held for me but if I get another job with the state within one year I keep all of my seniority (continuous service hours) as if I hadn't left.  BUT, and this is important later, I'm still a state employee until the year is up.  My insurance and such is canceled, so I'd have to pay for health insurance out of pocket and probably drop everything else.  
• Quitting - Give two weeks and hopefully the FMLA will cover me until then.  This lets me part ways with the state on good terms so that I can eventually come back.  I'll lose all of my seniority and of course lose all of my benefits. 
• Medium Term is the six months to a year
• These decisions depended on what I decide on in the Short Term.
• My current spending budget is just about $4000 a month and that will need to be attended to in one way or another.  
• Long Term is the rest of my life after the Medium Term
• Obviously depends on decisions made in both Short and Medium Term.

While my mind kept wanting to wander into the Medium Term (do I make my next car payment?  Do I cancel my Patreon donations?  Do I need to borrow cash from Mom?  How long does it take to get my 401k cashed out?  CAN I cash out my 401k?...) I kept returning to the short term.  All the answers in the Medium Term depend on those decisions.  

Initially I was going to wait for my doctor's visit.  If the Neurologist says he has a plan that can return me to work in six months, then why would I quit?  Right?  But at the same time, I knew the Medical Leave of Absence was a low chance of success.  He'd have to reduce my migraines by almost 100% for me to be able to return and even then, he'd have to honestly write out a time frame for that expectation.  Medical Leaves are more for recovering from surgery, not flailing in the dark and hoping a new treatment gets you better.  

Knowing that I wanted to move fast, regardless of his decision, I started planning for Medium Term contingencies.  First thing I did was write up my two weeks notice letter for work.  My migraine was particularly bad today so it took me hours, where it should have taken ten minutes, but I finally got it done.  

Next up was contacting the fund manager for my 401k.  I don't know much about 401ks and how they work.  I know the money is mine, but I know there are severe restrictions on how you can take it out so long as I'm employed by the original employer (my current employer; the State).  Some questions that really did need to be answered, in order to make an informed decision, included; how long does it take to cash out?  Are there higher penalties if I cash out some of it?  Are there specific penalties if I cash it out while on medical leave?  So I called them.  

I explained that I was just looking for information but what would it take to withdraw the money.  Oh, and I already knew I was fully vested, meaning all of the money in the fund is mine.  The woman answered simply; the only way to withdraw any money was to first use up the loan option and then I could withdraw under a hardship clause for certain circumstances.  The loan is borrowing against it.  I'd pay some fees but with interest would end up being whole after I paid off the loan.  The loan maxes out at $50,000.  

If I want to make my poverty budget work, I need to pay off all my debts and those add up to just over $60,000.  Obviously I already knew I'd need to get into the hardship withdraws as I'd need to pay back the loan AND pay my budget going forward.  Then she mentioned something that set my course for the short term.  I could only use the hardship withdraw for specific reasons.  I won't go over them as hardly any applied to me and they certainly didn't include the hardship of paying back the loan I'd just taken.  I.e. while on medical leave I'd be making no money, would likely be paying for my own health insurance, having to pay back the loan I'd just taken out, having to pay my normal expenses, and wouldn't have access to the rest of the 401k to make it work.  She even specifically said the same thing applied for waived rights leaves.  

In other words, so long as I was employed by the state, I couldn't rely on my 401k for money.  IF however I wasn't employed by the State, i.e. I quit, I could withdraw all of it.  That decision becomes really easy... I'll be giving two weeks notice tomorrow regardless of what the doctor says.  

Before I move on to the medium term, lets go over getting the 401k as it really kind of blows my mind.  I knew I'd have to pay taxes on it if I withdrew it before retirement age.  That's the whole advantage of a 401k... I'm not paying taxes on the money I put into it and can take it out only when I retire.  If I break that arrangement, all taxes are now due.  That's 20% federal taxes and 4.25% state taxes right off the top.  I also need to pay an early withdrawal fee of 10% but that won't be due until the next fiscal year (I don't know why, she just said the paperwork would come through in January along with the tax information).  

So my $165,000 fund quickly becomes $108,000.  That allows me to pay off my $60,000 in debt and have $48,000 to live off of with my poverty budget.  Getting that money is even more hilariously stupid.  No matter what, it will take one to two business days to process the request.  That actually makes sense as this money is literally in stocks and bonds and needs to be cashed out.  They can then either cut a paper check to me that takes five to eight days via regular mail, cut a paper check and express mail it to me (costing me $50 that they'll generously take from the money I'm withdrawing) that will take two to three days, or they can deposit in my checking account via direct deposit.  To utilize direct deposit though, I need to "verify" my account which takes seven days and then one to two days to process ("and maybe longer").  I got the verification process started, but it sounds like the paper check is going to be the way to go as it might just be the fastest route.  

Now I'm into the Medium Term.  How do I pay my bills for the next few months.  I process my budget whenever I get paid, which right now is every two weeks.   My next few checks (this week is a pay week) will be small.  I only worked two days on my previous pay period and have only worked one day in this pay period (I can still work tomorrows and Friday but it's been a long time since I worked two days in a row).  Those checks will roughly be $500 apiece.  

Now, one good thing about the way I've budgeted money is that I budget huge payments on all of my credit cards.  My running assumption was that I'd carry a balance on my biggest credit card and just continuously pay it down.  When it got to that $5000 to $6000 available balance, I'd consider making a big purchase.  That's how I paid for my last two computers.  I have an Amazon credit card that gets me 5% back in cash to spend on Amazon.  I got that card specifically because I was buying so much from Amazon that I figured it was worth the 5% and I'd just pay it off every two weeks.  That carried through until my checks started getting smaller and it now has a balance that I budget quite a bit for but never really make.  The same goes for my gas card (BP/Amoco) in that I used to use it and pay it off every month.  I then got a Best Buy card last year (just as the migraines started to get bad) to get my nephews computer on.  I hadn't intended on getting that card, but it offered 0% interest for 18 months so it seemed like a good idea.  At this point, almost 10 months later, I've only made minimum payments. 

I mention all of that because my big budgets for those cards will go to zero once I get the 401k money.  All of my credit cards will be paid off.  My other big bill is Tiffany.  She'll also be paid off.  My student loans have been forgiven, so I don't even have that over my head any longer.  That leaves two big ($300+) bills each month.  Health insurance and 'monthly spending'.  It also leaves a handful of smaller bills.  Let's go over the smaller bills first.  

I was paying mom monthly for "rent", some of the Xfinity bill, and Netflix.  I haven't paid those for months and won't be paying them going forward.  For the first time since I became a nurse, she'll be making more money than me.  I pay for streaming via Apple ($17), Youtube ($14), Hulu/Disney/ESPN ($20), and I put my PC Game Pass here too ($11).  I also pay for DashPass at $10 a month but with as often as we order food delivered, it pays for itself.  I pay for the New York Times digital edition at $12 a month, but it will increase to $25 soon.  Unless I'm absolutely 100% poor broke and busted, I plan to keep those going.  Not only do I utilize and enjoy these services, I share them with the whole extended family.  Collectively it's a small price to pay.  

While I won't have the Tiffany payment, I still have car and renter's insurance to pay.  That's normally about $130 a month.  Then there's the cell phones.  I pay for mine and mom's and that's about $150 a month.  And finally the cigarettes.  Don't give me the 'just quit' talk.  I've wanted to quit smoking for a long long LONG time and budgetary concerns won't be the thing that pushes me over the edge.  Cigs cost me about $200 a month.  

Those are the smaller bills.  The two big ones are health insurance and 'personal spending'.  Assuming I can't get the state to pay the disability benefits, I'm going to have to pay for my insurance through COBRA.  I can keep that between twelve and eighteen months at around $700 a month.  I know I can get cheaper payments through the marketplace, but honestly this insurance is worth it.  Plans on the market place that were nearly as good cost between $900 and $1200 a month.  And 'nearly' doesn't even start to explain the difference.  Between paying for individual doctors visits and specialists visits (remember, I have a doctor and two specialists), copays, deductibles, drugs, and other fees, my $700 a month will save me a lot of money per month.  

So, it's either pay for the COBRA out of pocket or have the state pick it up.  I'll get to that in a bit.  The other expense sounds extravagant... personal spending... but its just how I've always thought of it.  It's spending that isn't able to be a regular payment.  Paying for my prescriptions goes here.  Yeah, I only pay about $20 per med ($60 for a few of the expensive ones) every three months, but its' not like I get them all at the same time.  I seem to order one or two meds every two weeks or so.  With thirteen prescriptions that just keeps going and going and going.  Beyond the prescriptions its also stuff like groceries, ordered food (doordash, pizza, fast food...), buying or renting movies, buying games (although with the game pass its been a while since I've done that) and other things.  I normally budget $450 every pay period for this but rarely get up that high.  And I can easily pull that back with the 'other things' becoming far more conservative (no more buying a $500 tablet when I just wanted it and didn't need it).  

With all of that, and staying with my current 'every two weeks' budgeting, my budget ranges from a low of $600 to a high of $1500 every two weeks.  Looking out through April, without any more income, I'd spend about $14,000.  

The other income I mentioned earlier could be my long term disability.  That would be about $4000 net income each month, but would last only two years.  My budget wouldn't change, but instead of 'spending' $14,000 by mid April, I'd 'gain' $11,000.  

Just a quick 'back of the napkin' calculation says that I could go without any income for about two years.  If I get the LTD I could increase that to about six years.  But that's where we get into the long term.  

And before I get into the long term, I gotta call it a night.  I see the neurologist tomorrow and want to get ready for that.  I'll hopefully talk more soon about this as I now want to think these things through.  But let me say this as simply as I can as 'Long Term' is talking about treatment, healing and living the rest of my life:

If I can't get these migraines under control within those two years... I'll kill myself.