YOUR MONEY Steps To Take If You Lose Your Job by Matt Coffin, CEO and founder of LowerMyBills.com (NAPSA)—Taking a few sound financial steps may help to soften the blow if you lose yourjob. If you lose your job, you may be able to lower recurring bills by visiting www.LowerMyBills.com. 1. Eliminate discretionary spending such as cable andsatellite. Accounts can be temporarily suspended. Fire the maid. Wash your own car. 2. Slash unavoidable monthly bills by comparing rates at Low- erMyBills.com. The Website lets visitors research, compare and lower recurring bills via more than 100 service providers, and across 17 categories, including long distance, credit cards, insur- ance and debt reduction. Visitors have saved up to $2,000 a year. 3. Keep your Cobra Insurance options open. Cobra is a federal law that lets you continue your health care coverage after you’ve been laid off. 4. Defer student loan payments. Temporarily suspending or deferring your student loan payments and interest takes over 30 days to process, so apply early. 5. File for unemployment to avoid increasing debt. 6. Double check your banking interest rates and fees. To avoid ATM fees, withdraw money only from your own bank.
