civilservant

You mention retirement in 10 years - so that makes you 55 approx? Have you been paying into a 401k during your working life?

Since you company is selling 'to a competitor' any chance you can get hired on with them, even if it means a pay cut?

scrubbedexpat091

Won't need to pay much out of pocket for healthcare, prescriptions can be iffy though depending what province your in and what type of insurance coverage one may have, some provinces have better prescription coverage then others.

That is really the only benefit to Canada, the lower cost to healthcare.

scrubbedexpat099

Trudeau not Trump?

chawkins99

I spent several years as a contractor in the UK. Don't really want to go back to that but if needs must...

Too cold. Too old.

When I moved to my current company, there was a 3-month wait before their healthcare kicked in. I managed to fenagle it down to 2 months. You don't have to commit to COBRA immediately. You have a few months. If in that time you find you need it you can enroll then (and pay back-payments).
I'm currently 57. Will be 58 in June. I have a couple of small pensions in the UK and have paid into a 401k over here for about 10 years. Not enough to retire comfortably. I was expecting to work until 67 and max out my current 401k.
I will do my best to make myself valuable to the new owners and maybe they might hire me but they are based in northern Pennsylvania. See previous comment re: Canada.

Hotscot

If you can revisit this....

I was on the scrap heap at 53. Now very comfortable. Coupla bob here and there.
I sell mostly to the Gov.

In the US contracting can be very lucrative, and by Federal rules they have to give a certain percentage of business to minorities/women owned businesses/small businesses/deprived areas.....There's money out there....

https://connxus.com/dbe-certification/florida/

lizzyq

There are worse places than Pennsylvania, OK yes we do get snow, but we also have nice hills, lots of trees, pretty autumns, and the snow-birds head south to Florida in the winter

Hotscot

[QUOTE=lizzyq;12662605 and the snow-birds head south to Florida in the winter [/QUOTE]

I may have to visit...

chawkins99

I'm sure it's very nice in the summer. I've become accustomed to the heat.

Thanks for all the support and suggestions. I think I'm still in shock mode.

I guess I'm fortunate to have been given this much notice. I have options which is more than many have.

We have already made the decision to sell the house. It will free us up to look further afield. If we are living in the trailer, we can at least just go where the work is.

I spent several years contracting in the UK, staying away in the week and going home for weekends. It nearly destroyed our marriage. At least this way we'll be together.

Giantaxe

You are. I was given precisely zero notice of my layoff. My employment - along with health benefits etc - ended at midnight that day. Got to love "at will" employment.

Oh, and I was informed by... text message.

Hotscot

Yeah...I was given an extra month's holiday in thanks for my service. I went home to Scotland and on my return there was a message telling me not to return to my office.
That was difficult as it was in my spare room.

scrubbedexpat091

I hate this new trend of using text for important communications with employees.

I do appreciate we have some notice rules for termination so there is either working notice to the employee or a small severance pay, unless fired for just cause.

Rete

It is rough finding employment when you are considered "senior" by corporations today. Being that you both are diabetics with need for long term continued care, finding employment offering a relatively good wage but equally important good healthcare coverage is all important. It is sincerely hoped that they offer you a continue to work with us package so that you can stay until at least the age of 65 to qualify for medicare.

Pulaski

Sorry to hear about that, I hope that some favourable solution appears for you.

Re the storage you're contemplating, I suspect that your idea of loading a 20ft container then storing it will be impractical or unnecessarily expensive, as container companies rent containers for the purpose of moving stuff, and holding things indefinitely in a container is not usual. Also buying a container creates its own problems, maybe Steveq will be along to tell me that I don't know what I am talking about, but owning a container means that you have to find the means to move it, will need the space to store it, ultimately you will need to sell it, and in between freight companies often shy away from transporting privately owned containers because if they are not inspected regularly and/or are poorly maintained, this can happen.

chawkins99

Florida is also an 'at will' state. My wife had a month off last year for a knee replacement. FMLA meant they couldn't fire her over that but a few weeks after she returned, they fired her over a 'disagreement' with her manager. No notice, just escorted off the premises.
I know numerous others who have been fired on the spot.

Hotscot

FWIW
When we were building our new house we rented such a container to store much of our stuff from the old house, and it lay on the same land as our new build, then when ready we moved the stuff the 100 yards to the new house.
I think we rented for a year but we didn't use the container to actually move our belongings.
It was handy for the transition though.