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."