You've got taxes on that so 40% and then health insurance at Cobra rates. Granted it looks like they said they will pay that for 6 months. Not sure if that is taxable as well also not sure what the individual contributions are.

> You've got taxes on that so 40% and then health insurance at Cobra rates.

Your taxes would only be 40% (actually 47%) if you make beyond $500k a year. Cobra rates are quite affordable. I was on Cobra when I was laid off due to covid, and it was $550 a month for top tier healthcare.

The tax rate is only that high for amount earned after $500k too. And only for those in a few states like California.

$550 for gold level insurance is expected for someone young, which I guess you are.

You can ballpark almost anyone’s premiums based on the figures in link below. I would use Omnia Gold or Omnia Silver HSA numbers, and plus or minus 20% for your state.

https://www.state.nj.us/dobi/division_insurance/ihcseh/ihcra...

> Cobra rates are quite affordable. I was on Cobra when I was laid off due to covid, and it was $550 a month for top tier healthcare.

Those two statements are in odds with one another. $550 is quite a large sum of money to put out each month, particularly when you don't have an income.

Yes, you should have quite a bit of cash as an emergency fund. There are government subsidies available for health insurance, but they phase out if you earn more.

https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/premium-tax-credit

Try making your coffee at home. That’ll help.

I had to cut down to just tap water.

(I actually do not have any compulsion to drink coffee, or anything much other than tap water).

On a serious note, I cannot blame many young people for eschewing forming families of having kids when faced with the numbers I quoted.

Basically Cobra is whatever you were already paying plus whatever the employer contribution was.

Obviously family plans etc. will be considerably higher.

If it's a one time payout (to be clear, I'm not that will be the case here? It was for me the only time that I was laid off), I think the withholding would be calculated as though that single payment were a regular salary extrapolated to the entire year. This is similar to what happens if you receive a bonus; to compute the withholding they assume your annual salary is $BONUS * $PAY_PERIOD. So you'd likely be taxed at a much higher rate on that single payment than you would be amortized over a year like a salary is.

You'd get that withheld money back after filing taxes, but most people who are laid off would prefer to have that money now.

If Stripe is making regular salary-like payments instead of one lump sum, then the taxes would be pretty much the same as always.

> and then health insurance at Cobra rates

You can get health insurance from healthcare.gov

Granted not California, but the federal bit is the same - https://oci.wi.gov/Documents/Consumers/HealthInsuranceLostCo...

> I thought the open enrollment period was already over for HealthCare.gov. Can I still enroll?

> Yes, if you have just lost your health insurance, you are eligible for a 60-day special enrollment period. You can work with an enrollment assister, an insurance agent, or use HealthCare.gov to enroll in a new insurance plan. You may also qualify for a special enrollment period if you have experienced a life event such as moving, getting married, having a baby, or adopting a child.

True, you'd have to run the numbers to see if it makes sense on a case by case basis.

Stripe is paying for health insurance over that time too.

i’m not referring to running out of money, just the idea that it’s harder to interview during the time around the holidays and immediately after, and we are in a period where these layoffs are macro driven so lots of people are competing against you for the same roles

also all the income and benefits are taxable

If you're not out of money, why the frantic search? It isn't going to sustain you forever, but if it takes you six months to find a new job... oh well?

It's pretty frantic if you're holding certain visas.

> i’m not referring to running out of money, just the idea that it’s harder to interview during the time around the holidays and immediately after

Keep in mind that this is interviewing without a job taking 40 hours (or maybe more) of their time every week.

Interviewing is much, much easier when it replaces your job and you're still collecting paychecks for several months.

You do if you're on a work visa and don't want to leave the US.

You're not wrong that it is strange that we would force one to be completely uprooted from their home only because they didn't have a job for a few months.

Not to be cold, but some visas like H1B are non-immigrant visas and so it is not correct to call the U.S. “home”

Home refers to the place where one lives. If one does not live in the U.S. to have to leave, what's the urgency?