Hello. I'm in an interesting layoff situation and wanted to get some thoughts. For the last year my company has been moving quite a lot of job functions overseas. Although they haven't announced it, there is a lot of evidence that they plan to move most of the job functions at my site off shore. About a month ago, they offered most of the employees working at my site the opportunity to apply for voluntary severance and I am tempted to take it but wanted to gather some BH thoughts.
I'm 42, married with no children. Spouse is 44. Under the severance package, if we volunteered, we would be allowed to work for two more months (until the end of August basically) and then be paid a lump sum based on years employed. My lump sum would be about 30 weeks of pay. I have been thinking about it for a few weeks now but the deadline to apply is approaching, so I'm stressed about whether to pull the trigger. Under normal circumstances, I would not typically volunteer to be unemployed but I'm pretty unhappy in my job. It's not toxic or terribly stressful, it's just boring and depressing to slowly watch our work move overseas. My motivation is pretty low and I suspect that this voluntary severance is just the beginning. I strongly suspect most folks at my site will be under some sort of layoff action in the next 12-18 months anyway. The company as a whole is doing pretty terribly, so I can't guarantee that the future severance packages will be as good. Taking some time off, shifting gears and finding something different is appealing.
Our stats:
Gross Income (mine): 130k with additional bonuses about 10k a year on average
Gross Income (spouse): 225k with additional bonuses that can range yearly from 25k-100k. Stable job with a lot of career growth potential.
Savings:
Retirement (401k/IRA): 2 mil. (15% Roth, 85% trad)
Taxable: 330k
Savings (HYSA): 260k
HSA: 100k
Ibond: 42k
Debt:
House: 350k outstanding (2.65% for 20 years with 16 years left). House is worth about 950k
Car: 1.5k (0% with 2 years remaining)
Monthly Expenses: 9.5k
Spouse Monthly Net: 10.5k (does not include bonuses)
We currently use my company's health insurance. If I separate from my company, I can go on Cobra for about 1k a month or we can switch to my spouse's health insurance for a couple hundred a month more than what we pay now. We would immediately switch to their insurance as it would be cheaper than cobra or ACA.
I don't have plans for what I would do after leaving my employer. I don't intend to just retire at my age but I would probably take some time, regroup and then find different employment. I would be open to something different than what I do now for less compensation if I thought it would be a good fit for both lifestyle and job satisfaction. Basically, I would be pretty selective about my next job. We plan to both be able to retire by the time I am 50 and I think we are still on track for that, regardless of my income, unless something catastrophic happens. The income from my next job would go towards accelerating our early retirement date, adding to the retirement stash and upgrading the yearly vacations which is pretty much what my incomes does now.
Bogleheads, is this crazy to consider? Should I wait until they just lay us all off in a year or stay but look for another job while still employed here and miss out on a very large severance payout?
I'm 42, married with no children. Spouse is 44. Under the severance package, if we volunteered, we would be allowed to work for two more months (until the end of August basically) and then be paid a lump sum based on years employed. My lump sum would be about 30 weeks of pay. I have been thinking about it for a few weeks now but the deadline to apply is approaching, so I'm stressed about whether to pull the trigger. Under normal circumstances, I would not typically volunteer to be unemployed but I'm pretty unhappy in my job. It's not toxic or terribly stressful, it's just boring and depressing to slowly watch our work move overseas. My motivation is pretty low and I suspect that this voluntary severance is just the beginning. I strongly suspect most folks at my site will be under some sort of layoff action in the next 12-18 months anyway. The company as a whole is doing pretty terribly, so I can't guarantee that the future severance packages will be as good. Taking some time off, shifting gears and finding something different is appealing.
Our stats:
Gross Income (mine): 130k with additional bonuses about 10k a year on average
Gross Income (spouse): 225k with additional bonuses that can range yearly from 25k-100k. Stable job with a lot of career growth potential.
Savings:
Retirement (401k/IRA): 2 mil. (15% Roth, 85% trad)
Taxable: 330k
Savings (HYSA): 260k
HSA: 100k
Ibond: 42k
Debt:
House: 350k outstanding (2.65% for 20 years with 16 years left). House is worth about 950k
Car: 1.5k (0% with 2 years remaining)
Monthly Expenses: 9.5k
Spouse Monthly Net: 10.5k (does not include bonuses)
We currently use my company's health insurance. If I separate from my company, I can go on Cobra for about 1k a month or we can switch to my spouse's health insurance for a couple hundred a month more than what we pay now. We would immediately switch to their insurance as it would be cheaper than cobra or ACA.
I don't have plans for what I would do after leaving my employer. I don't intend to just retire at my age but I would probably take some time, regroup and then find different employment. I would be open to something different than what I do now for less compensation if I thought it would be a good fit for both lifestyle and job satisfaction. Basically, I would be pretty selective about my next job. We plan to both be able to retire by the time I am 50 and I think we are still on track for that, regardless of my income, unless something catastrophic happens. The income from my next job would go towards accelerating our early retirement date, adding to the retirement stash and upgrading the yearly vacations which is pretty much what my incomes does now.
Bogleheads, is this crazy to consider? Should I wait until they just lay us all off in a year or stay but look for another job while still employed here and miss out on a very large severance payout?
Statistics: Posted by parnette — Fri Jun 28, 2024 5:52 pm — Replies 15 — Views 1455