Well, Christmas is over, but the financial loophole I’m in remains. What am I talking about? Let me tell you…
In carpentry and construction, during the holiday season (from around Thanksgiving until January 12th or so) work gets really slow. Really slow. Construction workers and contractors can usually only get about 10-20 hours of work per week. And that’s not enough to pay the bills.
Construction work during the holidays is as slow as this stuff. In January. Going uphill.
I can’t exactly go to the unemployment office because I’m not employed. Some dudes actually injure themselves so that they can get workman’s comp to get them through. But that just doesn’t seem right to me (and the company frowns on it). Some dudes ask the company to lay them off so that they can get unemployment. But then who knows if they’ll hire you back mid-January?
So we’re screwed. My wife and I took a long time and decided to pull some money from our retirement accounts to get us through this time. I really don’t like asking family for money, that’s usually a bad idea. And the last thing we want is some loan. I take on as many side jobs as I can, but it’s just not enough to get us through.
A lot of families in America right now are living paycheck to paycheck, and right now, that’s us too. But that’s just the way it goes when you’re in the construction industry.
So we bit the bullet and pulled a little from our retirement. We’re rolling with the punches though, trying not to stress out. We’ll replace it when things pick back up, but it sucks for right now.
