Topic Title: Should I volunteer to go on furlough?
Life Situation: I (26F) am married to husband (25M). Married filing jointly, no dependents. We live in PA (relevant for later concerns in notes section).
Gross Salary/Wages: Myself: $1806 Husband: $2385, both paid bi-weekly. *for furlough salary: expected regular UC is $450 to $550. I cant calculate it well because my highest quarter was probably last spring when I was earning shift differential and a ton of OT, and we switched pay systems in June and don't have online access to those old records. I'm expecting to land around 500/week, +$600 bonus = $1100, or $2200 bi weekly to compare directly)
Individual amounts of each Pre-tax deductions 401k, HSA, FSA, IRA, insurance, etc
Mostly moot for the discussion (I think) but I'll include them anyway
Husband Retirement: roughly $10k
My retirement: roughly $7k
HSA: $2000
$250k life insurance on each of us, I think I have around $50k additional on myself at work.
Other Ordinary Income: None
Qualified Dividends & Long Term Capital Gains: None
Rental Income, Actual Expenses, and Depreciation: None
Adjusted Gross Income: Last year was $81500
Taxes: Federal, state/local, and FICA. Fed: $9k, state $3k, local $1k
Current expenses:
Listed in per month
Rent: $1020
Food: $250
Student loans (both of us): $550
Insurance (auto, renters, life): $150
Utilities + Internet: $150
Personal (his + hers): $200 (split between us)
Gas + Tolls: $75
Misc: $100
Total: $2495
Expected ER expenses: don't think this is relevant right now
Assets: Amount & description - include current asset allocation plan if you have one
Cash on hand: $11500
Anticipated cash from canceled cruise: $2850
Liabilities:
Student Loans: His ($11k, payment $330) and hers ($18K, payment $210). All federally insured loans, private loans are paid off. Both are a collection of smaller loans that I don't want to break down into individuals because its not relevant. Interest is paused at 0% (regularly 3.1-4.4%, varies between loans) until September. Payments can also be paused if needed. We've been paying these suckers off like no tomorrow... we were originally at $103K in August 2018, so to be below $30k is amazing. Also, you could probably see where all of our money was going since retirement is so tiny, income is so high, and our expenses are so low... yea. Its been going to Sallie Mae.
Taxes: we underpaid 2019 by around $900 (federal), which means we probably underpaid state some too. Both are postponed until July 15th.
No mortgage, credit cards paid in full every month, no car loan.
Specific Question(s):
Alright, so given all that's above, does anyone have any recommendations or advice for us?
Job in question is mostly okay.
It comes with a super unmustacian 60 mile round trip commute (please don't facepunch me. Husband walks to work from our apartment to balance us out).
It's (almost) my dream job. It sometimes upsets me because I am overqualified for the position with my education, and am regularly stunted my management when I put forward a desire to build my skills in different sections of my department. I've been there for 2.5 years and there are functions I have the education to do, but management wont acknowledge my masters degree and do the short "training" I would require to be signed off on performing those duties.
I am getting somewhere with promotions, and have been "on track" to receive one for eight months now. I've been given additional responsibility with no change in compensation, and can't really do much about the situation as that's the mo of the company. They dangle the title and slight pay increase as incentive to perform those tasks for at least 9 months to a year, year and a half. I have this perception that if I get too many years with "company" without having some promotion my resume would look weird.
I have been searching for employment elsewhere for around 18 months. In that time frame I have applied to two jobs. The first was around 14 months ago that lead to an interview, but a coworker of mine got the position. Second position was 2 months ago and I was eliminated from consideration due to a glitch and I didn't feel like fighting for the position as it wasn't fully desires anyway.
We have a high likelihood of leaving the area (and potentially entire state) early spring of 2022.
As I am getting older I'm leaning more towards wanting a more family friendly career. Working in a lab does not give much flexibility in leave. Also, considerations of what I can/cannot do has to be considered during pregnancy.
Furlough period is initially 8 weeks. I can be called to return earlier. I could potentially not be called until 12 weeks. At 12 weeks, "company" will begin layoffs and has assured employees that layoffs would not be determined by furloughed employees first. I believe I would continue employment after workforce reduction. Company initially handled COVID by reducing us to 35 hours/week last week, and now 30 hours/week this week. Staff is being reduced by 40%, and I'm probably on the side that would not be chosen to be furloughed, hence me believing I could return at that 12 week point.
UC is expected to last 16 weeks.
Perks:
Time off would give me a lot of opportunity to contemplate future career options I didn't really have time to consider before or have continuing education opportunities online.
The emotional toll at work has been getting to me, so time off would help alleviate anxiety.
Husband has been fully remote for 3 weeks now, so I'm our only point of contact and me staying home would make us totally isolated except for grocery store trips.
Husband's salary would cover all of our expenses and still have $900/mo surplus without UC
Concerns:
PA already has 1 million applicants and the length of time to receive benefits could be at least a month. From what I see normal processing is 2-4 weeks, and we just saw the applications overload the system. I fully expect to be put in the system and have to wait for around 2 months.
Me staying home would delay our pay-off-student-debt goal (assuming UC doesn't go through at all).
Husband's engineering firm is doing ok on work, but a long construction pause could affect business. Other firms are saying they're having problems and are beginning furloughs but husband's boss has stated things are looking fine at their firm at the moment.
As for the ethical concerns of taking the UC in the first place, my husband and I are confident that our taxes over our lifetime will more than compensate society compared to this period of time. We do have a feeling that we are more fortunate and should pay in more and will continue to do so. Also, other coworkers aren't in a position as fortunate as ours, so I feel like me staying on "to achieve financial goals and pay off debt" vs their "I can't make it without my paychecks coming consistently" is a little selfish. For us going into furlough and claiming UC will just make our spreadsheet look sad for a month or two. For them it could be very stressful and have longer lasting effects.
