<story><title>Layoff Runbook</title><url>https://github.com/derwiki/layoff-runbook</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>0xbadcafebee</author><text>Some thoughts:&lt;p&gt;Put your money into an HSA rather than an FSA. It&amp;#x27;s a free extra retirement account.&lt;p&gt;You don&amp;#x27;t need to worry about being locked out of your 401K after being sacked. It&amp;#x27;s still your money and they have to give you access to it, even after you&amp;#x27;re sacked. Transfer the money out to a separate 401K account that only you control after you&amp;#x27;ve left the company. (Or don&amp;#x27;t, because I&amp;#x27;m pretty sure they have to keep your account open indefinitely, but IANAL so ask a professional)&lt;p&gt;You should practice interviewing well before your last day. Interview somewhere you&amp;#x27;d like to work at least every 6 months. Tell them you&amp;#x27;re not looking to move right away but you&amp;#x27;re curious about their company and team an open to hearing about new opportunities. Keep in contact afterward.&lt;p&gt;Not mentioned there, but commuter benefits cards have an expiration after which you can&amp;#x27;t spend the money, so make sure if you have a balance that you spend it before it expires. I once built up $250 on a card and forgot about it.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>candiddevmike</author><text>HSAs and FSAs are not entirely swappable.  HSAs require a qualifying health plan, and are a pain in the ass to move around in my experience.  FSAs are actually better for those that are laid off--you can use the full balance of the FSA before you pay it.  Say you commit 3k to a FSA, you can use 3k of it on day one (or the day you are laid off...).  Your company is on the hook for the remainder of the balance if you aren&amp;#x27;t there to pay it back.&lt;p&gt;I would be annoyed as hell if someone kept asking to be interviewed but never accepted the position. Interviews aren&amp;#x27;t free, don&amp;#x27;t waste peoples time doing them if you aren&amp;#x27;t serious&amp;#x2F;need to practice.  Pay for an interview coach.</text></comment>
<story><title>Layoff Runbook</title><url>https://github.com/derwiki/layoff-runbook</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>0xbadcafebee</author><text>Some thoughts:&lt;p&gt;Put your money into an HSA rather than an FSA. It&amp;#x27;s a free extra retirement account.&lt;p&gt;You don&amp;#x27;t need to worry about being locked out of your 401K after being sacked. It&amp;#x27;s still your money and they have to give you access to it, even after you&amp;#x27;re sacked. Transfer the money out to a separate 401K account that only you control after you&amp;#x27;ve left the company. (Or don&amp;#x27;t, because I&amp;#x27;m pretty sure they have to keep your account open indefinitely, but IANAL so ask a professional)&lt;p&gt;You should practice interviewing well before your last day. Interview somewhere you&amp;#x27;d like to work at least every 6 months. Tell them you&amp;#x27;re not looking to move right away but you&amp;#x27;re curious about their company and team an open to hearing about new opportunities. Keep in contact afterward.&lt;p&gt;Not mentioned there, but commuter benefits cards have an expiration after which you can&amp;#x27;t spend the money, so make sure if you have a balance that you spend it before it expires. I once built up $250 on a card and forgot about it.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>curiousllama</author><text>&amp;gt; Or don&amp;#x27;t, because I&amp;#x27;m pretty sure they have to keep your account open indefinitely, but IANAL so ask a professional&lt;p&gt;Definitely a life best practice to periodically consolidate these kinds of accounts. Imagine trying to track down your 401k from your time at GE 20 years ago. It definitely exists somewhere, but it would not be fun finding it.</text></comment>