Furloughed With First Child on the Way

Summary

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Episode Overview

Episode Title: Furloughed With First Child on the Way
Podcast: Jill on Money with Jill Schlesinger
Air Date: October 20, 2025
Main Theme:
Jill Schlesinger takes a listener call from Joe, a federal worker whose pregnant wife has just been furloughed—and who himself is facing likely furlough. As they navigate financial uncertainty with their first child on the way, Jill offers practical, jargon-free financial advice for managing cash flow, debt, investments, and insurance in a high-stress, high-stakes moment. The episode underscores the real-life impact of government shutdowns and the importance of emergency planning.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Joe's Situation: Layered Uncertainty

• Both Joe and his wife are federal employees in the defense sector.
• Joe’s wife was just furloughed; Joe anticipates his own furlough within weeks.
• Complication: They just learned they are expecting their first child.

Quote

"My wife has been furloughed recently and as things continue to progress, I'm on track to be furloughed in a week or two as well. In addition, we recently found out that my wife is pregnant."
– Joe [03:31]

2. Financial Snapshot

• Combined pre-furlough income: $280,000
  • Joe: $150,000
  • Wife: $130,000
• Emergency savings:
  • $40,000 in a high-yield savings account
  • $5,000 in checking
• Brokerage account: $40,000, split 75% ETFs, 25% individual stocks, ~$23,000 cost basis (substantial gains).
• Retirement accounts:
  • Combined TSP: $280,000
  • Old university pension: $23,000 (not vested)
• Home:
  • Value: ~$540,000
  • Mortgage: $380,000 @ 2.99% (30-year)
• Debts:
  • Car loan: $25,000 @ 4.75% (3 years left)
  • Solar loan: $15,000 @ 9% (qualifies for $9,000 tax credit)
  • Student loans: His—$8,000 (forgiveness pending), Hers—$8,000 @ 3.875%
• No Roth IRAs or other investment accounts.
• Both age 32, first child on the way.

Quote

"If you had come on the air and said, how are we doing? I'm Pretty sure I would have said, this is great. We'll clean… Let's clean up this balance sheet... but as you come on the air now… it is not the same situation."
– Jill [09:58]

3. Immediate Financial Strategy: Weathering the Furlough

• "Batten down the hatches": No extra debt payments. Conserve cash and prioritize basic expenses over debt repayment or investments until job/income stabilizes.
• Use emergency savings as intended, but don’t spend it all—retain $15k–$20k if possible to avoid going to zero.
• Consider tapping brokerage account to reinforce liquidity before the emergency fund is depleted.

Quote

"What's the break-the-glass scenario?...we use your high-yield savings to pay your bills. This is an emergency. It really is."
– Jill [11:04]
"If it gets to that point, then you go into the brokerage."
– Mark [12:21]

• Jill and Mark disagree slightly on timing/amount to tap from the brokerage, exploring a spectrum from $10,000 to $20,000 to balance tax efficiency, market risk, and peace of mind.

4. Managing Emotional Stress

• Joe is calm; his wife is much more anxious given pregnancy and job loss. Jill urges steps to reduce family stress, even if it means paying capital gains to increase cash reserves.

Quote

"Take it from that position, reduce that position and just say, hey, I killed it. Let me take some of my winnings off the table and let me let the woman carrying my child feel less stress. Doesn't that make sense?"
– Jill [15:23]

5. Life Insurance & Estate Planning

• Joe’s wife does not have private life insurance and had heard on previous Jill on Money episodes to secure coverage before pregnancy advances.
• Jill emphasizes urgency: secure term life coverage as soon as possible (can still apply in first trimester) and raise work-based coverage during open season, then re-evaluate post-birth.
• Strongly recommends completing basic estate planning: wills, powers of attorney, health care proxies—with a clause for “any child to be named.”

Quote

"But it's good to have extra insurance just during this period, especially if she is a nervous Nelly. It's a good thing anyway. Beef up the insurance. Don't forget estate plan..."
– Jill [16:40]

6. Reflections on the Federal Workforce

• Mark and Jill discuss the erosion of job security in government employment—echoing how shutdowns, once rare, now create real risks for dual-federal worker families.
• Takeaway: For anyone in volatile fields (including federal jobs), emergency funds are more important than ever.

Quote

"Used to be...people were like, oh, my God, I'm not going to make as much in the private sector as the public sector, but I have consistency and there's no big drama. And now, like, there's drama every bunch of years."
– Jill [16:04]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Saving vs. Selling Investments:
  "There's a part of me that wants to take some of the money off the table right now, like just take an extra ten grand out of the brokerage account, pay the capital gains and don't look back. But you can roll the dice."
  – Jill [12:46]

• On Furlough Stress:
  "Should we not address that? ... The answer is at least take 10 grand out of the brokerage account ... and let me let the woman carrying my child feel less stress. Doesn't that make sense?"
  – Jill [15:02, 15:23]

• On Federal Job Stability:
  "If you're a federal worker nowadays...we always talk about the emergency fund, but it's even more important...Thank goodness he's got it." – Mark [15:38]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | Details | |-----------|------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------| | 03:31 | Joe joins the show | Lays out situation: dual furlough, baby on the way | | 05:15 | Emergency fund discussion | Details on cash and liquidity | | 08:25 | Debt discussion | Car loan, solar loan, student debt | | 09:55 | Furlough cash flow management | Savings and monthly expenses | | 11:04 | "Break the glass" scenario | When and how to use brokerage account | | 13:37 | Balancing action vs. market risk | Sell some investments or wait? | | 15:03 | Wife's anxiety and taking action | Supporting family emotionally and financially | | 16:40 | Life insurance & estate planning | Coverage pre-birth and first-trimester tips |

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Actionable Takeaways

1. Conserve cash and defer extra debt payments until employment stabilizes.
2. Don’t let the emergency fund drop to zero—tap the brokerage account if needed to maintain essential reserves.
3. Balance the desire to optimize for taxes/returns vs. family peace of mind—emotional stability is valuable.
4. Secure or increase life insurance during early pregnancy and update estate plans before the baby arrives.
5. Recognize that even “stable” government jobs now require robust financial emergency planning.

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Tone & Final Thoughts

Jill maintains her signature direct, empathetic, and practical style. She balances financial strategy with emotional support, taking the listener’s real-life anxiety seriously and offering family-focused advice. The episode is an excellent real-world example of financial planning under stress, emphasizing the value of preparedness and adaptability in times of uncertainty.

Transcript

[A]

This message comes from Jill on Money sponsor Charles Schwab. Independent financial advisors focus on building a relationship with you that goes beyond your portfolio. As fiduciaries, they must act in your best interest always. The relationship they have with you will be based on transparency and trust, and they're committed to bringing you advice that fits your values. That's why Schwab is proud to support them. Visit findyourindependentadvisor.com hey gang, here's the thing about wine. Some of the best bottles are not sitting on a store shelf. They're being crafted at small independent wineries. But those wines can be so hard to find. Sometimes I wish I had a personal sommelier to guide me to find the best wines I normally wouldn't be able to access. Where's that handcrafted pinot that I've been craving with well, Psalmsation's expert team seeks out incredible wines from top independent producers. These are bottles that you will not find in stores and on shelves. They aren't mass produced wines. They're handcrafted with care, using pure ingredients and meticulous winemaking. Whether you want a single bottle, a guided tasting experience, or an entire wine club membership, psalmsation makes it easy to elevate your wine experience. Shop their [e-mail] Jill OnMoney that's somsation.com Jill OnMoney.

[B]

Welcome to the Jill On Money Show. It's Monday, October 20th. Getting your week started. Getting the work week going. Let's go. If you've got a financial question, question or maybe something big that's going on in your life and it seems to touch something financial, get in touch with us. Go to jillonmoney.com click the contact us button which is in the upper right hand corner. Write us a note and if you would like to join us live on the air, check the box.

[A]

Mark does everything else.

[B]

He's so good. He does everything. Not just that, everything. He also manages the website jillonmoney.com where you can sign up for the free weekly newsletter and and if you're like me and Mark, you are probably a little nerdy and want to get a.

[A]

Jump on any sort of tax and.

[B]

Year end financial planning. The IRS actually came out and said oh here's the new brackets, here's the new standard deduction. It got me excited. Mark for the end of the year I can't believe it. We are so close. But this year we're going to do something a little different. We are going to make sure that ahead of the year end frenzy that you're likely to encounter. We are going to create our webinar actually a month earlier than usual. Wednesday, November 19, we are going to do year end tax and financial planning with Janet Davis. She's from Abacus Advisors. She was on the show. She was great. Everybody loved her. We're having her back.

[A]

And you can join us if you.

[B]

Are part of Jill on Money Live. That's where you have access to quarterly live webinars like the one in November and the entire back catalog of those webinars, bonus audio and video content. It's all for 45 bucks for the next 12 months. That's what I'm excited about today. Yay. The next thing I'm excited about is to talk to Joe, who joins us from the Washington, D.C. area. Hello, Joe. Welcome to the program. What can we do for you?

[C]

Hi, Jill and Mark. Thanks for having me. My wife and I are going through some unsettled waters at the moment. We're both federal employees. My wife has been furloughed recently and as things continue to progress, I'm on track to be furloughed in a week or two as well. In addition, we recently found out that my wife is pregnant. So we're just navigating a lot of change and wanted to have a check in and see how we're doing and see how things might have to change for us in the future.

[B]

Let me tell you something. I can't do anything about the pregnancy. I had nothing to do with it. I just want to say you had everything to do with that. So. Well, that's good news and bad news. Right? So happy and wonderful, wonderful, happy about the pregnancy. This is great. This is your first kid.

[C]

First child, yes.

[B]

Okay. Let's talk a little bit about where things stand. Your wife being furloughed, no pay. But what was she earning before the furlough?

[C]

Yeah. So her salary currently sits at about $130,000.

[B]

Okay. And you, you're still working and how much do you earn?

[C]

$150,000.

[B]

I know this is hard to even predict, but do you work in one of the areas where there have been talks of not just furlough, but cuts?

[C]

No, we both work in the defense area, so luckily we've been relatively insulated from all of that.

[B]

Okay, so in other words, this stinks in the short term, but you will get your back wages and you'll be back on track to continue working, Right?

[C]

Hopefully there's a question on whether I'll receive back wages based on how My funding works, but she should.

[B]

What a time. My goodness. Okay, so talk to us about the cash you have on hand right now to get through this period. Do you have some emergency savings?

[C]

Yeah. So we have $40,000 sitting in a high yield savings account and another $5,000 attached to our checking account for almost instant access if needed.

[B]

Okay. Any other assets not in retirement funds, but in non retirement, whether it's a brokerage account or anything like that?

[C]

Yep. We have a small investment account that we started a few years ago that's grown pretty nicely for us. It's about $40,000.

[B]

And I presume because it's the last small group of years, there's a lot of gains embedded in that. Is that right?

[C]

Yeah, I tried splitting it between ETFs, and I put. I put like 75% of the money into ETFs and 25 into, like, some fun stocks that I wanted to pick. And, you know, luckily one of my stocks launched on me, which was pretty nice.

[B]

Okay, but there's capital gains in this account, right?

[C]

Absolutely.

[B]

In other words, if we sold the whole thing, the 40. Do you have an idea of what the cost basis of the 40 would be?

[C]

I think the cost basis is around 23,000 total.

[B]

Okay, great. Perfect. Do you guys rent or do you own right now?

[D]

Oh, we own.

[B]

What's your house worth?

[C]

Current value is about 540,000.

[B]

And you have a mortgage outstanding?

[C]

We do.

[B]

How much?

[C]

380,000 at 2.99%.

[B]

Oh, my gosh. Okay. And that's a 30 year.

[C]

That is a 30 year.

[B]

Okay, got it. In your retirement accounts. Tell me what's going on in those accounts right now.

[C]

Yep. So I have. We both have tsps. Cumulative. It's about $280,000.

[B]

For both of you?

[C]

For both of us, huh?

[B]

Okay.

[C]

There's also an outstanding retirement account from when my wife worked for a nearby university for a little bit. She was in the pension system that never vested because she left. That's net 23,000.

[B]

And do you have any other accounts? Roth. Roth IRA that you opened or anything like that?

[C]

No, we don't have any of those. Okay.

[A]

How old are you guys?

[C]

I am 32, and my wife is about to turn 32.

[B]

I mean, you got great money saved. How long have you both been in the federal government?

[C]

So I've been in the federal government for 10 years now, and then my wife has been in for two to three. I forget her exact start date.

[B]

Are you a contractor or you're a government worker? In other Words. I was just wondering, are you entitled to a pension?

[C]

Yes. We're both federal employees.

[B]

Okay, got it. Presuming if you stick around, you'll have a pension? Eventually, yes. Okay. All right. What else am I missing in all of this? Anything? Do you have to take care of parents? Do you have siblings that you're worried about in addition to this young baby that's going to come around? Anyone else we should think about?

[C]

No, no parents at the moment. My parents seem to be pretty set. My wife's parents, mother seems to be set, so no problems there. We do have some outstanding student loans, a car loan, and a solar loan that we put on our house.

[B]

All right, let's do this in order. Car loan. What's. What's a. What's remaining. What's the interest rate?

[C]

Remaining is 25,000 at 4.75%.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

Solar loan, that's currently at 15,000 at 9%, and that was put on the house this year. So we should get all the, the credits and rebates for that, which would be.

[B]

What do you get for that? You have, like, are you going to get a chunk in terms of a tax credit back when you file? Is that what's going to happen? Probably, yeah.

[C]

We'll receive 9,000 back as a tax credit.

[B]

Okay. All right, so we'll. So you get some chunk of that. Okay. Now, what else did you say? Oh, student loans. Tell me the good, bad and the ugly there.

[C]

The good is, I believe my student loans of $8,000 are on track to be forgiven in the next three to six months.

[B]

Oh, great.

[C]

Because of my time in the federal government.

[B]

Great.

[C]

Unfortunately, my wife, who's also sitting at $8,000, she's much farther off not being in the government for that.

[B]

Right.

[C]

So we're looking at just paying that off eventually.

[B]

Okay, what's the interest rate on her loan?

[C]

3.875.

[B]

Okay. All right, so we don't have to do anything with this. Okay. Now this is not bad. Nothing here scares me. The car loan is fairly new or how long will this car loan last? Four or five years?

[C]

Yeah, the car loan should be another three years, I believe.

[B]

So she has missed a one pay period. Right.

[C]

We received a half paycheck for her.

[B]

Okay, well, I guess better than nothing. Okay, so the game plan should be batten down the hatches right now. Right. We're not paying anything off. We're not doing anything. I mean, prior to the government shutting down, if you had come on the air and said, how are we doing? I'm Pretty sure I would have said, this is great. We'll clean. Let's clean up this balance sheet, meaning let's clean up the car loan and the student loan. We would do all of that today as you come on the air. It is not the same situation. So for as long as this government shutdown lasts, you are not making any extra payments on anything. We are looking at that cash to pay your bills. Do you have an idea what your monthly nut is?

[C]

Generally, it's somewhere in the eight to $9,000 range.

[B]

Okay, what do you mean generally? But this month it's 14. I mean, is it. Is it really? It's eight to nine?

[C]

Yeah. On average. Sometimes it creeps up. We look at it, we say, oh, my gosh, we spent a lot of money and then we cut back and then it creeps up again. Cyclical nature.

[B]

Okay, so let's just pretend that we're going to say for the next month or two, there's going to be ten grand a month. For some reason, I don't know, let's just say this is not going to last more than two months. I really don't think that's the case. All right. I don't. Now, what's the break the glass scenario for? Right now, my break the glass scenario for you guys is we use your high yield savings to pay your bills. That's what it's there for. This is an emergency. It really is. If things, for some reason, if we're in, you know, we're talking and it's the end of the year and the government's still closed. I think the question you have to ask yourself is, at what point do we think about invading the brokerage account? Because there is a part of me that does not want to bring you to zero in the high yield savings account. I really don't. So I think that you have. Mark, would you say two or three months Runway for the high yield savings? I'm almost feeling like I want to sell some of this brokerage account money out, but I don't want to freak this man and his woman out about, like, paying extra taxes. At what point do you think we break in and make the decision to sell some of the assets in the brokerage account, pay the capital gains and move on?

[E]

Yeah. I'm like you. I really don't want to take the high yield savings down to zero. So I would kind of like to keep 15 or 20,000 in there.

[B]

Yeah.

[E]

And if it gets to that point, then you go into the brokerage.

[B]

Yeah, that's Kind of how I'm that that's kind of what I think. Now remember, what is the downside of waiting? That I'm wrong and we're all wrong and the market starts to tank. And you have now let you know your 40,000 is really only 30,000 if we sell it out. So that's a possibility. There's a part of me that wants to take some of the money off the table right now, like just take an extra ten grand out of the brokerage account, pay the capital gains and don't look back. But you can roll the dice. That is completely up to you. If it were me, Mark, you would, I don't know if you would do this. I would take half of the money from the brokerage account right now and I would probably sell it and not reinvest it. And if I'm furloughed and I've made the wrong decision and the money comes sloshing back in, I would use that brokerage account money. I'd pay down the $6,000 that I won't be able to pay down from the solar loan. I would probably pay down the car loan and make that a little bit a month extra and I'd beef up my savings anyway because I have a kid coming. So how do you feel about that, Joe? Do you want to be wimpy like me or you want to roll the dice?

[C]

I would like to find a happy medium, Mark.

[B]

Give him a happy medium.

[E]

I'm like you, Joe. I think if, if, if I was in Joe's shoes right now, I think I would immediately free up 20 grand in the brokerage account just to be safe, you know, worst case scenario, whoop de doo. What's the, you know, at least I have it there if I need it.

[B]

Yeah, and you could use it to pay down the debt, which is also kind of great if you don't want to be totally wimpy. You could do 10, take 10 out and then like you could say like, oh, you know what, 10 grand. If again, if I want to immediately, I could just pay down that solar loan. And again, if you're re employed and everything's good, but you can pay this down and you'll get your nine grand back anyway. At tax time you'll have it. And now, I mean, who knows, there could be some new expenses coming up from this little baby. You have to decide what's the prudent thing to do. I think that that would be the prudence, prudent thing to do. But I understand your reluctance to do it. But I mean, otherwise you are in very good shape. I don't want you to feel like I do think this is a short term weird emergency. It is a bit of a break the glass scenario. But on the other hand, it does sound like you're going to get this money back eventually. I just don't want you to be frantic. How does your wife feel about this? Is she a little. Is she anxious about it? Is she cool about it? Like, where does she. Where she live in right now?

[C]

Yeah, she's much more anxious about it than I am, but.

[B]

Okay, wait a second. The woman who's carrying your child is anxious?

[C]

Yes.

[B]

Okay, so should we not address that?

[C]

We will address that.

[B]

Okay. I think that that's the answer. The answer is at least take 10 grand out of the brokerage account and, you know, sell the losers. Sell some of the winner and whatever's the most highest concentration. So you have. You said you had one stock that really killed it.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Take it from that position, reduce that position and just say, hey, I killed it. Let me take some of my winnings off the table and let me let the woman carrying my child feel less stress. Doesn't that make sense?

[C]

Makes a lot of sense.

[B]

All right, that's.

[E]

I almost feel like if you're a federal worker nowadays, like, we always talk about the emergency fund, but it's even more important if you're a federal worker. Thank goodness he's got it.

[A]

And used to be.

[B]

Used to be. Joe, as I'm sure you've realized after being around this for 10 years that it used to be like people were like, oh, my God, this is like, I'm not going to make as much money in the private sector as the public sector, but I have consistency and there's no big drama.

[A]

And now, like, there's drama every bunch of years.

[B]

Seven. You already been through this seven years ago, right?

[C]

Absolutely. It's been. But it's been tumultuous for sure.

[B]

God. Well, one last thing. Your wife is early in her pregnancy. Does she have life insurance?

[C]

She does not. We were listening to one of your episodes earlier where you recommended getting some before the caller was pregnant. My plan was to, when open season comes around, kind of max out our work plan for her available. And then when the child's born, you know, reduce that and go find term.

[B]

I think that if you're in your first trimester or early, you can still get the term. You can just check that out on. Go online and just check that out. But it's good to have extra insurance just during this period, especially if she is a nervous Nelly. It's a good thing anyway. Beef up the insurance. Don't forget estate plan. You got a will and a power of attorney and a health care proxy. That should all happen before she gives birth, if you can believe it. You can always say, like any child to be named. We can insert a name, but especially when you're going through anything medical. I like having the documents in place.

[C]

We will get that done.

[B]

All right, man, you're on your way. Good luck. I'm sorry, Mark. Two who would have thought to have two federal workers and you're like, oh, there's risk there. Never, never would you have thought that. So for everyone looking for real life examples that these, this government shutdown and everything that is associated with it has a real life implication. Here it is. Joe and his wife. If you are impacted by the shutdown or not. If you're just talking to your spouse and thinking about what's going to happen when you're considering what happens with your work, if you've gotten pregnant, if something's.

[A]

Got like anything that's going on, get.

[B]

In touch with us. Go to jillonmoney.com, click the contact us but button, write us a note. And of course, if you'd like to join us on the air, check the box.

[A]

Mark will do everything else.

[B]

You can subscribe to us on the Odyssey app or wherever you find your favorite podcast. Try to lift someone up. Change your work, change your wealth, change your life. Thanks for listening. We'll talk to you tomorrow.

[D]

You know the words dominating today's headlines?

[B]

Private equity, generative capital gains on Fed rates.

[D]

But do you understand how they impact your world and your wallet? In a world that skims the what? Understand the why? Because context changes everything. [e-mail].

[F]

Hi, I'm Nancy Cartwright. You may know me better as the voice of Bart Simpson on Simpsons Declassified. We're diving into the mysteries that keep the Simpsons forever young. Have you ever wondered how the Simpsons regularly predicts future events? Who better to ask than the show's creators, performers and writers, the celebrity guests? Be sure to follow and listen to Simpsons Declassified wherever you get your podcasts.