Layoff Financial Triage

Layoff Financial Triage Skill

The first week after a layoff has three jobs: know the runway number, catch the deadlines that expire silently, and stop the optional bleeding. Grief and job-searching come after solvency. This skill runs the triage in that order — numbers first, calmly, with dates.

What This Skill Produces

• The runway number — months of survival at triage spending, computed
• The deadline list — everything with a clock: unemployment filing, healthcare election, equity exercise windows, 401(k) loan repayment triggers
• Spending triage — keep / pause / cancel, with the monthly recovery totaled
• The one-week checklist — ordered, dated, small enough to do while stunned

Required Inputs

Ask for these if not provided:

• Cash and near-cash — checking, savings, anything liquid (not retirement)
• Monthly spend — rough is fine; the triage refines it
• The exit terms — final pay date, severance if any, healthcare end date, unvested/vested equity and its exercise window
• Household — partner income, dependents, anything on employer benefits (insurance, phone, disability)
• Jurisdiction — unemployment rules and timelines vary; never guess

Framework

1. Runway before feelings: runway = liquid cash ÷ triage-level monthly spend. Compute it in the first section — an actual number beats dread every time.
2. Deadlines are the emergency: unemployment filing (file week one — eligibility often starts at filing, not at layoff), healthcare election windows, equity exercise windows (the classic five-figure silent expiry — bold it), FSA spend-down, 401(k) loan acceleration.
3. Triage tiers: Keep (housing, food, insurance, internet) · Pause (subscriptions, memberships — chain to subscription-auditor) · Cancel/renegotiate (the discretionary layer). Total the recovery per month.
4. Do NOT list: panic-selling investments, raiding retirement (penalties + taxes — flag as last-resort with the real cost computed), and paying off low-interest debt early "to feel lighter."
5. Income bridges, honestly ranked: unemployment first (it's insurance, not charity — say so), severance negotiation (chain to severance-agreement-decoder), then gig/contract stopgaps.

Output Format

Financial Triage: [date]

Runway: [n.n] months at triage spending ([current] → [triage] $/mo)

The clock ⏰

Spending triage

| Item | $/mo | Verdict | Note | Recovered: $[n]/mo → runway extends to [n.n] months

Do-not list

[The panic moves, each with its real cost]

This week, in order

Mon: … Tue: … (file unemployment day 1–2, always)

Quality Checks

• The runway number leads, computed both pre- and post-triage
• Unemployment filing appears in the first two days of the checklist
• Equity exercise windows are surfaced and bolded if present
• Every triage verdict shows its monthly recovery; the total is stated
• Retirement-raiding appears only in the do-not list with its true cost

Anti-Patterns

• Do not open with reassurance — open with the number; calm comes from arithmetic
• Do not let shame delay the unemployment filing — it's an insurance claim on premiums already paid
• Do not cut health insurance to extend runway — one ER visit undoes years; it's in Keep
• Do not build the plan on a hoped-for job date — runway assumes zero income until real income exists
• Do not moralize about past spending — triage looks forward only