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I LOVE my government. | by McNutcase | 2006-03-24 06:55:30 |
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But doesn't it help to be disabled? | by VivianC | 2006-03-24 07:17:00 |
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I don't need the help. | by McNutcase | 2006-03-24 07:22:11 |
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Come back to the US | by VivianC | 2006-03-24 08:15:05 |
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that'd be nice... | by niwikki | 2006-03-24 08:19:05 |
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What are you trying to say? | by VivianC | 2006-03-24 09:19:21 |
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What I'm trying to say | by niwikki | 2006-03-24 12:07:45 |
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I haven't been in your situation. | by VivianC | 2006-03-24 14:19:13 |
| well, let's put it this way |
by niWikki |
2006-03-24 16:26:27 |
While I'm paying around $286/month on medical and dental insurance, I'm *still* saving money on what I'd be paying if I didn't have insurance at all. It's nearly at a break-even point, but at the end of the day I do come out "ahead". This is the price I pay for my prior internet career (tendonitis in my wrists), the bad teeth I inherited from my dad, the cholesterol issues I inherited from both sides of my family, etc.
I'm not yet 30, but I'm on 3 daily prescription meds, seeing a chiropractor every couple weeks, and have a fair number of fillings, crowns, root canals, and caps. And the only HSAs I've seen were employer-offered. That doesn't mean that's all there are, just that it's all I've seen. I'd rather have an employer-offered PPO, as it'd be a group plan and my monthly premium would be about 15% of what it currently is (not to mention a significant reduction in the deductible).
I have not looked into working with the public defenders for some very good reasons. One is that it's a tough job to get (to actually be employed by the public defenders office). There's actually a bunch of people who *want* that job out here. Another is that the way to "work with" them without being employed by them is to do what it sounded like your friend did - put your name on the list to be assigned cases on an as-need basis. Works great, if you've got the expertise to provide effective assistance of counsel (or a network of people who can help you to do so). Otherwise you're just setting yourself up for a malpractice suit and your client appealing on the basis of ineffective assistance of counsel. It's not a good idea for someone completely inexperienced to walk into that sort of situation without supervision.
And yes, my loans are consolidated. And as I've mentioned, I *have* a job, it simply doesn't pay enough. I've already discussed with my loan company how the heck I can make the payments, and they've effectively cut my payments in half for the next 6 months, followed by 6 months of paying 75%, followed by a year of paying interest only... but dude. Interest is going to be compounding that entire time, and I'm just *starting* to pay them off. I'm already expected to be paying back more than 200% of what I borrowed, and that's no small change. That's more than many people make in their entire lifetimes. I'd rather have a job where I'm capable of making the minimum payments required in order to get the loans paid off within the next 30 years (i.e. before I reach retirement age).
It's not like I require a lot of money. 60-65k/yr would allow me to eek by if the job offers benefits. This is small beans in the tech industry (or at least was when I was in it before). I was earning 47k as an HTML drone in 2002 before the layoff. Here it is, 4 years later and I've got a law degree. People won't even interview me for jobs in the industry where I want to be which pay 30-40k. Jobs in industries where I don't want to work are paying $50-$55k/yr... but while they'll interview me they won't give me offers. Only offers I've gotten were from hourly positions working at firms specializing in things I *really* don't want to be doing with my life (e.g. personal injury), paying $15-$20/hr... which is less than I was earning as an HTML drone 4 years ago.
I'm working on networking. I've joined the AIMP and I'll be joining TheCCC, and attending their events (attended my first AIMP event yesterday; went rather well). I've joined LinkedIn and reconnected with a bunch of former coworkers. I'm doing what I can. There just aren't the entry-level jobs out there for someone with my qualifications. I'm either extremely overqualified, or just underqualified enough that they can easily find someone else who's properly qualified.
And it's very frustrating. |
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[ Reply ] |
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Hang in there! | by VivianC | 2006-03-24 20:33:40 |
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my family is 400 miles away | by niwikki | 2006-03-24 22:31:47 |
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