My Situation

I have been a self employed sub contractor for more than 10 years until I called it quits last month. I didn’t get fired or laid off. My business just dried up and many of those clients weren’t paying regularly so I just stopped. Unfortunately for me and for many other people in the same situation, there are no unemployment benefits to fall back on. In most instances, you cannot collect unemployment if you work for yourself.

This is also one of the risks of trying to start a home business. The hot thing for a while now has been to try to learn how to make money from home as thousands of people jump online everyday looking for opportunities. It’s all the rage in this terrible economy as people need money and are hoping to find it online.

Most people get bored quickly and never make anything, but those that are successful and transition themselves into a work from home business will then be left without the safety net of unemployment if things go bad and dry up. That is something to seriously consider: working from home sounds great but it doesn’t have some of the safety nets that a job with an employer will have.

If You Are Collecting Unemployment Now

Likewise, people who ARE collecting unemployment right now should be careful about what they do online to make money. There was the much publicized case in New York where someone got their benefits terminated because they were making a couple dollars a day online with their blog through Adsense.

In order to qualify for unemployment in most states, you have to fill out many forms and one of the questions will ask about whether you are employed part time or whether you have any income from a business. If the answer to either of those is “yes” then you probably don’t qualify. The important part here is that any money you make online can be considered income and part of a sole proprietor business. So, if you just goof around online making a couple of bucks here and there, it might technically disqualify you from unemployment. Even though you may not tell anyone, they could find out which might result in you losing your insurance benefits.

Unemployment continues to be over 9%, home values continue to go down, people continue to curb their spending, and pessimism is getting stronger every day. Is this the kind of change you voted for?

It is serious this time as there is no more taxpayer money to bail us out. Most of the people in the United States live in total denial that something like this can happen. They think somehow, someway there is unlimited money and that things will miraculously take care of themselves. They believe our politicians are smart and have our best interests in mind. But they don’t.

Greece is bankrupt and people are rioting in the streets because they don’t want all their freebies taken away. They feel they are entitled to free everything and that they have “rights”. Things are shaping up the same way in this country and we can’t be far behind. It may take 5 years, 10 years, or 20 years but eventually we will see rioting in the streets here too.

Wait a minute, we already did see rioting in Wisconsin as state workers rebelled when their benefits were going to be cut. Guess what? That is only the start of things as I am sure we will see this same scenario played out over and over again.

The United States used to be a great country full of people who were willing to work hard, make money, and build a better future for their kids. Now it is a pathetic nation of people who only care about themselves today. Never mind that our kids are going to be living in hell, as long as things are okay for us now.

Obama can’t turn the economy around because he doesn’t have a clue how to do it.  Apparently, that problem is way over his pay grade. All he knows how to do is tax and spend which is why we are in this mess in the first place. The interesting thing is that the younger generations were the main ones that voted for him and swept him into power. Now, those same younger people are the ones that are finding it so hard to get a job.

Hopefully people will vote with their wallets in 2012 instead of with their hearts or we are doomed.

For many, this means that even though you will keep your same health insurance through COBRA, you will be paying more each month. It is convenient to keep your same coverage but not everyone can afford to do that and pay the whole amount. So you might be looking for alternatives and a good place to start is here: Don’t pay more for COBRA!! There are individual plans that may be more affordable for you so it pays to check out all your options first before you automatically sign up through COBRA.