Life Transitions Blog Posts
5 Situations Where You Need Short-Term Health Coverage
Short-term health insurance can be critical to ensuring you are covered with no gaps throughout the transition periods in your life. Below are examples of five life transitions during which you would need short-term health insurance. 1. You started a new job and are waiting for your employer's insurance to start. A short-term health insurance plan may be a great solution for you if you are moving from one job to another. Your former company's plan will lapse once you leave, and many companies don't provide health insurance on your start date, but rather 60 or 90 days after. Keep in mind that you will not be eligible for Cobra if you opt for short-term coverage.... Read More ...
How a College Student Should Prepare to Manage Finances as a Working Adult
Graduating from college is an incredible accomplishment and a significant life event. As your academic years will soon be behind you, it is important to get your finances in order so you can start on the path to personal financial success. If you are one of the growing number of students graduating with student debt, getting on track to pay off your loans is a vital first step after graduation. Most student loans give you six months before payments are due, but the sooner you start making these payments, the sooner your hard-earned money will start adding up in your savings account.... Read More ...
How to Start a New Job in a New City
Moving to a new city is an exciting (and sometimes intimidating) experience. Not only are you starting a new job, but you are uprooting your life and moving to a new home in an often unfamiliar area. You can avoid being overwhelmed by planning out each step of the way and putting together a strategy for what to do when you land in your new hometown. ... Read More ...
7 Tips on Preparing for Graduation
Graduation is a major step in life. It marks the end of an era of education and the start of a new career or other life adventure. Whether you plan to go to work, graduate school, or take time to travel the globe, follow these tips to get ready for the real world as an adult with a college degree. ... Read More ...
How to Get a USA Green Card
People around the world look at the United States of America as a land of opportunity, but moving to the United States can be a major challenge. The culmination of efforts to move to the United States permanently comes in the form of a Green Card, or Permanent Resident Card. If you are looking to become a permanent resident, here are the steps you need to take.... Read More ...
How to Find Internships for College Graduates
Post-college internships are a great way to introduce yourself to full-time work. With an internship, you have the opportunity to gain experience in different areas of your field, get real-world experience before heading on to graduate school, and maybe even land a full-time position at the company where you intern.... Read More ...
Pros and Cons of Staying on Your Parents' Insurance
The Affordable Care Act allows young adults to remain covered by their parents' insurance plan until they turn 26, regardless of whether they get married, attend school, have a full-time job, or still live at-home. According to the United States Department of Labor, this applies to both employer-sponsored plans and all plans in the individual market. For some, staying covered by their parents' plan will make the most sense financially. For others, it may be preferable to get your own insurance, through the government-sponsored Marketplace, your employer, or directly from an insurer.... Read More ...
What to Do for Health Insurance While You're Waiting on Medicare
Medicare is a federal health insurance program for adults 65 and older, and for some younger Americans who have a qualifying disability. The program was originally designed to take over for health insurance in retirement after employer coverage has ended, but has grown to be the go-to health plan for adults over 65.... Read More ...
Moving to a New City After Graduation
Some college students graduate with the same dream they had when they first received their acceptance letters in the mail – to receive a job offer in a faraway state so they can pack up their things and begin their lives somewhere else. Others are perfectly content to remain in their college town, surrounded by friends, but the reality of the job market forces them to start submitting applications across city and state lines.... Read More ...
Returning from the Mission Field
Going on a mission trip to a foreign country can be an amazing and rewarding experience. In addition to religious work, missions are a great way to help those in need around the world by offering community building, medical, and other support. Returning home from a lengthy trip in a less-developed region can be a big shock. Follow these steps to make your transition home smooth and comfortable.... Read More ...
6 Best Places to Retire
Retirement is a big part of the American Dream. However, with the decline of defined benefit pension plans, affording a comfortable retirement can be a challenge. Money savvy individuals are finding that moving to a less expensive location can stretch those retirement dollars further. Enjoy this list of the 6 best retirement destinations to spend your golden years—and your budget!... Read More ...
Study: Women's Health and Coverage Both Decline Following Divorce
A study by the University of Michigan titled Divorce and Women's Risk of Health Insurance Loss reported that roughly 115,000 American women lose private health insurance each year in the months following a divorce, and more than half of them become uninsured. What's more, divorce also causes their health to decline, both physically and psychologically, compounding the loss of medical coverage and financial hit that follow a divorce. It's a perfect storm for many women struggling with the end of their marriage.... Read More ...
Coping with Unemployment After College
So you've recently graduated. You're thinking, gone are the days when you're forced to speak in front of the class, write 200-page papers, and stay up all night to study for tests (well, maybe you're never had to write a 200-page paper, but nonetheless, distinguishing between MLA format and AP style are no longer your concern). You are free to jump right into the career your major has prepared you for. WRONG! The chance of you getting a job related to your major [immediately after college] is the same chance as you being selected as tribute in The Hunger Games.... Read More ...
Top 9 Resources for U.S. Immigrants
Moving to the United States is a challenging process. In addition to crossing borders and potential language barriers, new immigrants must consult with many government offices in order to acquire visas and green cards-both of which come with tons of forms and paperwork. While there is no way to remove all of the hurdles of immigration, the following resources may make the process a bit easier to navigate.... Read More ...
Managing Health Insurance Through Divorce
For couples going through a divorce, making decisions dividing your home and other assets and resolving custody issues may be top of mind. But you should also make it a priority to maintain health coverage for you and your children. Among the issues to resolve: Can you retain coverage under your spouse's plan? Will your children be covered? What options do you have for temporary coverage? No matter what, you don't want a gap in coverage. Know your healthcare rights and find out which insurance options are available to you as you finalize your divorce.... Read More ...
Retirement Planning: Advantages and Disadvantages of Early Retirement
Early retirement is often an opportunity to restore order to a proper life balance by spending more time with family and working on your favorite hobbies. But with these joyous prospects comes an income reduction, regardless of whether you take Social Security or an early pension. Different employers have different plans, but it pays to be aware of both the advantages and disadvantages of taking an early retirement.... Read More ...
Short-Term Health Insurance Can Bridge the Gap
Thanks to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), otherwise known as ObamaCare, interest in short-term health insurance has spiked significantly. According to health insurance exchange eHealth, there was a 134 percent jump in applications for short-term health insurance between 2013 and 2014, when many ACA rules took effect.... Read More ...
How to Protect Yourself from Open Enrollment Scams
With open enrollment deadlines looming, Americans looking to avoid the Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax penalty are rushing to get insured. While there are many reputable companies and agents helping people find the right health coverage for their needs, there are also plenty of bad guys out there trying to scam people for a quick buck. You can protect yourself from fraud with these tips.... Read More ...
Health Insurance Options When Aging off Your Parent’s Policy
When you turn 26, you are no longer eligible to stay on your parents’ health insurance plan. If you’re turning 26 soon, or have parents who qualify for Medicare before you turn 26, you will need to find alternative health coverage.... Read More ...
What To Do When Unemployed
If you find yourself unemployed, you should not give up or beat yourself up too much. In fact, you should take the opportunity that unemployment provides you and make the most of it. Here are some additional tips that can really help you along the way... Read More ...
Your Adult Child Moving Back In
As a parent, you undoubtedly want what is best for you children. But sometimes it can be difficult to help them, especially if their goals are at odds with your own, or if your child or children do not welcome your advice or assistance. And even when you are all on the same page, things can be tough.... Read More ...
Turning Your Degree Into a Career
Are you about to graduate from college? Have you recently graduated? Are you asking yourself, “I’ve got my degree, now what?” You have probably heard from multiple sources—friends, family, professors, news outlets—that due to the economy, the job market is less than ideal. What does that mean for you? That means finding job openings, landing interviews, and getting job offers will be rather difficult and often frustrating. Searching for a job is practically a job in itself,... Read More ...
Jobs On the Rise for College Graduates
One of the hardest parts about searching for jobs for recent graduates is making sure you find a position that you enjoy and one that will provide you with enough income to cover your expenses. You should realize that not every major or degree prepares you for jobs on the rise or jobs that are going to make you enough money. For example, some of the lowest-paying jobs in the United States are in the fields that involve fine arts, drama, music, philosophy, and social work.... Read More ...
Preparing for Your First Job Interview
As you prepare for graduation, you are no doubt preoccupied with finding a job or some type of employment for your post-graduate life. For some students, the job-search process begins before graduation, while others choose to wait until after graduation. No matter what you are planning to do or when you think you might start this process, there are a lot of things that you need to keep in mind as you look for and apply to jobs.... Read More ...
Sticking To A Budget After Graduation
One of the most difficult parts of being a graduate is creating and sticking to a budget. Along with all the other challenges of being a recent graduate such as finding a place to live and getting a job, learning how to manage your money is critical. For some, this responsibility may not be all that new. However, for other recent graduates, the idea of managing their own money may be a foreign concept.... Read More ...
Health Insurance Organizations and Programs
This a challenging time to research health insurance policies and benefits. Although the ultimate results of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act promise to produce positive changes to our nation’s health care system, the industry is experiencing change and uncertainty. Resources, however, are available wherever you choose to turn. Dr. Carolyn McClanahan, a physician and a financial advisor, wrote a synthesis of the legislation for the website Forbes.com, titled “Cliffs Notes Version of the Affordable Care Act.” In the article, she summarizes the 10 titles of the bill and provides specifics as to what consumers can expect as changes are implemented over the next decade. Once each change has taken effect, professional researchers will identify the public and private agencies, departments, offices, foundations and other organizations involved in the current and planned healthcare system. In the meantime, here are other resources for your search.... Read More ...
Challenges of Recent Graduate Underemployment
One of the hardest parts about graduating college is the process of finding and landing your first job. Unfortunately, for many recent graduates the reality is that this first job is likely going to leave you underemployed. Being underemployed typically means your job will not offer you a high-paying salary or even a comprehensive package of benefits and perks. This may be hard to take after spending four years working toward a degree.... Read More ...
3 Steps for Moving Home and Staying Classy
Four years of independence at college is more and more frequently ending in a return to “the nest” after graduation. According to the Pew Research Center, 36% of young adults ages 18 to 31 were living with their parents in 2012. At that time, I was blissfully entering my junior year of college living in an apartment with four other girls after spending the summer 20 hours away from home in Colorado. In 2014, I am a graduate reluctantly but gratefully living with my parents in the bedroom I painted when I was 18, right before I left.... Read More ...
What to Do After College Graduation
A college degree used to mean that you were guaranteed a career in your chosen field and a higher salary than those who hadn’t earned a bachelor’s degree. After the economic recession in 2008, however, many college graduates found themselves saddled with thousands of dollars of student loan debt and few, if any, job prospects. Things have picked up... Read More ...
Moving Back Home After Graduation
You probably did not plan to move back home after graduating from college. You may feel like you are taking a step backward or that you will miss out on certain experiences. However, in the long run, it may just be the best option for you and for you current situation. Because you may be leaving college with a mountain of student debt,... Read More ...
How to Pay Off Student Loans
Almost every college graduate has to deal with this, and we are not talking about finding a frame for your diploma. We are talking about paying off student loans. Unfortunately, attending college can cost a lot of money, and not every student finds helpful scholarships or receives grants or financial aid, which leads to many students taking out loans to cover their costs. When you take out a student loan, you need to understand that you will pay back more than what you initially borrow. As time passes, interest accrues to your loan, so you will pay back the amount borrowed in addition to the interest.... Read More ...
5 Places to Turn When Job Searching
Unemployment can be demoralizing. It’s sometimes hard to make the effort to look for a new job. You feel like Sisyphus, pushing the same boulder up the same mountain day after day only to see it roll back down. But the most important part... Read More ...
5 Major Decisions for New Immigrants to the United States
Whether you’re transferring here for work or taking an extended stay with your family, coming to live in the United States can be a thrilling experience as you find your place in a new land filled with promise and possibilities. But once your “honeymoon period” ends you might become frustrated with the complexities of living abroad in a country that’s much different from your homeland. There will be all kinds of important decisions to make... Read More ...
How Young Adults Between Jobs Can Find Health Insurance
The American healthcare landscape continues to change before our eyes as new parts of the Affordable Care Act begin to take effect. The changing landscape can be especially confusing if you’re a young adult between jobs. Should you get back on your parents’ insurance plan, sign up for... Read More ...
What to Do After Retirement
Most people dream of the day when they can finally retire and have as much free time as they could want. However, when that day finally arrives, many people find they don’t know what to do with all of the extra time they now have on their hands—time that used to be spent working. Retirement... Read More ...
College Graduate Tips: What to Wear and When to Wear It
Congratulations, college graduate, it’s time to transition into the workforce. You have a stack of resumes hot off the printer and maybe you have even purchased some short-term medical insurance to make sure you are covered until you find that dream job. But have you looked in your closet lately? Many people, especially recent college graduates, frequently have no idea how to dress in a professional situation.... Read More ...
Using Social Media to Find a Job
The ritual of circling help wanted ads in the classifieds section of your local paper is quickly becoming extinct, and the paper resume has been placed on the “endangered species” list. Many recent graduates are finding that, if they are not using social media to find a job, opportunities are sliding by.... Read More ...
Five Tips for Life After Graduation
The period of time following college graduation is often characterized by uncertainty. On one hand, you’ve accomplished something both incredibly enlightening and rewarding. On the other hand, no college course has definitively provided an answer to the inquiry “What am I going to do with my life?” While you most likely have some idea of... Read More ...
How to Effectively Use Online Job Searches
Employment sites can be fantastic research tools for online job searches. They can help you see what companies are hiring and what qualifications those companies are looking for. After that, you can focus on those businesses, check out their websites, and find out who’s in the department you’d like to work in... Read More ...
Moving Back Home After College
It was only seven months ago that I was slaving away in a library while trying to maintain and mend friendships and relationships. My feeling of growth and accomplishment still depends on the achievements that I look back on in school.... Read More ...
How To Retire Early
It is no secret that most of us fantasize about retiring early in order to explore the world or immerse ourselves in hobbies that we have never had time for in the past. However, before you can actually retire, you have to properly prepare for it. There are certain steps you can take in order... Read More ...
The Importance of Business Networking
While completing my undergraduate degree at a private four-year college, there was one piece of advice that was reiterated time and again- There is one crucial, yet often overlooked, element that deserves careful attention when preparing to take on my first job: business networking. Most elite jobs are no longer listed in newspapers or even... Read More ...
Tips from a Career Counselor
I’ll never forget the tap on the shoulder from the woman in H.R. She asked me my name, so she could make sure she was delivering the news to the right person. Twenty minutes later I was driving home without a job and without a plan. Shortly after that, I was in the office of... Read More ...
Preparing Your Young Adult for Life After College
As your young adult is preparing for life after college, you no doubt want to help them in any way possible. For some, this means helping them find a job, or even providing them with financial support as they transition into the next phase of their lives. For much of your child’s life, you have... Read More ...
Top Job Search Sites
Monster has been around longer than many other job search sites and is also one of the largest. Monster provides a trusted name for people looking for jobs online. On Monster, you can either search for jobs or put up a for-hire ad and upload a résumé. After signing up with Monster, you can upload... Read More ...
Tips for Internship Success: Turn An Internship Into a Full-Time Position
You did it! You’ve graduated college and the world is yours for the taking. Well…it would be if this was the 90s; but this is 2012 and the job market and economy are struggling. When it comes to your job search, it’s likely that you won’t be in the corner office right away.... Read More ...
Dealing With Being Laid Off: One Man’s Story
Dealing with being laid off is one of life’s great Catch-22 situations. When you’re working, you often want nothing more than time off to travel, spend time with your family, fix up the house, or just decompress. When you lose your job you have nothing but time but may not be able to justify traveling or... Read More ...
Finding a Career After College
Preparing to graduate from college can be an extremely stressful time of your life. With senior projects, presentations, and examinations looming over your head, you might not have had the opportunity to really think about your future career very much. You may not have had the chance to seriously consider what you want to do next in life, with adulthood quickly approaching. However, finding a career after college doesn’t have to be so stressful.... Read More ...
Finding a Job After College
As you are preparing to graduate, one of the biggest questions on your mind (unless you have a job lined up already) is probably, “How do I find a job after college?” As a student, you might think that finding a job is going to be easy and you will have plenty of time to search after graduation. However, the truth about life after college, for most graduates, is that finding a rewarding job in the current economy is difficult and will require you to invest a lot of time into searching for and applying to various jobs.... Read More ...
Finding a Job with No Experience
As you prepare to graduate college, or if you are a recent college graduate, you might be wondering, “How am I going to get a job?” As someone who most likely does not have a lot of work experience in your desired field, the entire process of finding a job may be new to you. This can leave you feeling overwhelmed, and you may feel a lot of pressure to find that perfect job right after graduating. Whether that pressure comes from yourself or someone close to you, it can make this time needlessly stressful.... Read More ...
Finding a Place to Live After Graduation
You may have just spent the last four years in dorm rooms. Or maybe you lived off-campus with a friend or two in an apartment. Or maybe you commuted to school. In any case, with graduation approaching, it is time to start thinking about your living situation. You may have already found a place to live, or you have decided you will move back home with your parents. But maybe you have not found somewhere to live yet, and you do not know the first thing about searching for an apartment. This process can be both intimidating and overwhelming.... Read More ...
How Do I Find A Job After College: Internships
You’ve just graduated college. You did everything right: went to class, studied hard, made good grades, participated in student organizations, and had a summer internship. But you are still wondering, “How do I find a job after college?” The truth is that the answer to the question is slightly difficult. Because of the current job market, landing a job right after college can be pretty difficult. In fact, some recent graduates are making the decision to spend time right after school participating in internships, whether they have interned before or not. Gaining real-world work experiences, like those provided through an internship, really does go a long way when it comes to landing your first job.... Read More ...
Entry-Level Jobs for Graduates
The reality of the job world for many recent graduates is a difficult one to accept. Gone are the days when easily transitioning from college to a job was the norm. Now, many recent graduates find themselves underemployed or taking work that has little to do with the degree they earned. Many students daydream about their ideal job and, because they are enthusiastic and ambitious, they want to begin that dream job right away, right after graduating.... Read More ...
Life After Graduation
Inevitably, preparations for life after graduation are taking a backseat as you focus on everything mentioned above. However, in addition wrapping up projects and hanging out with your friends, you need to make time to plan for what comes next. You need to think about where you will live and how you will support yourself.... Read More ...
Life After Graduation
Inevitably, preparations for life after graduation are taking a backseat as you focus on everything mentioned above. However, in addition wrapping up projects and hanging out with your friends, you need to make time to plan for what comes next. You need to think about where you will live and how you will support yourself.... Read More ...
