Happy Easter from Home Office Warrior. We hope you have a quiet holiday with family and friends.
Disability and Getting a Job
Mar 04, 2008
Recently, we had a post on Home Office Finance about disability insurance and the home office warrior. Today, in my RSS reader was an interesting post from a really good law blog, Maryland Injury & Disability Law.
Should I get a job is a question most likely asked a lot when it comes to Social Security and disability benefits. If you are a home office warrior, would working at home keep you from getting benefits?
But, the answer is a little complicated. First, social security (SSA) defines disability as being unable to work. So, if one is working, it’s difficult, if not impossible, to prove one cannot work. Having said that, not all work counts as work. So, when is work not work? Unfortunately, there isn’t a black and white answer to that. But, there are some guidelines. In 2008, if you gross $940.00 or more per month(gross, not take home pay), it is considered substantial gainful activity. If you perform this job for 3 months or less and have to stop due to an impairment, it is usually considered an unsuccessful work attempt. If you do this job for 3-6 months and have to stop due to your impairments, it will probably be counted as an unsuccessful work attempt. But, beware, if you are deliberately keeping the hours down so your earnings will be under the $940 limit, then SSA may find that you are working. Or if you stop working due to reasons other than your impairment, SSA may consider the work to be substantial gainful activity. There are more regulations regarding this issue so, if you are considering a return to work, you should discuss the matter with your attorney.
If you are really able to work, you are almost always better off working. And, if there was a period of, at least, 12 months where you were unable to work, you can request a closed period of disability. That means you can get benefits for the period of time when you were unable to work.
The most important thing to remember is let your attorney know if you are planning on going back to work. That way you can make an informed decision.
This is a great post that may provide you with an answer to the question of “should I get a job” if you are trying to get disability benefits. It also points out that working usually is better than waiting for benefits if you can work. One of the advantages of working at home is that you can do so many things you could not do working at an office.
While I don’t want to appear I am planning for the worse. If you don’t consider events we have no control over, you could be accused of failing to plan. Talk to your advisor about disability and include it in your overall financial plan.
Reminder: Who do you want to Jott™?
Mar 03, 2008
Have you ever been driving down the road and had one of those thoughts you just don’t want to forget about. And what about that list of to-do’s that is bouncing around in your head? Have you ever just left a client’s office and wanted to “jot” down the time you want to bill to that client?
I have been using a great tool which enables me to jot those notes down with my cell phone and never use the keyboard on my iPhone. Jott is the service and it is actually quite amazing what you can do with it.
You can:
One way I have used Jott is to send a Jott to my virtual assistant when I happen to think of something I need help with while I am driving in the car. You can make a list of other people you would want to send Jotts to, including your children. Which really drives them crazy when they get the text message with the Jott I just sent them. A great way to text message them without having to actually type. I also can access my Jotts on their Web site or as I do, on my iGoogle home page.
You get your Jotts via SMS and email. I have mine set to come in both fashions.
Currently, Jott is FREE and I hope it stays that way. However, because it is so useful, I would imagine even if there was a small monthly fee, I would get it.
Twitterfeed.com - Just set it up for Home Office Warrior
Mar 02, 2008
I just set up twitterfeed.com to feed twitter each time I post a new post to Home Office Warrior. Just trying the tools everyone is talking about on the web to get your blog noticed. Let me know what you think. And if you want to follow me on twitter, you can follow grantgriffiths If you sign up to follow mine, I will put you in my following list too. And if you are not already signed up, go to twitter and join.
Another twitter tool I have been using the past week is twitterific.
Twitterrific is a fun application that lets you both read and publish posts or “tweets” to the Twitter community website. The application’s user interface is clean, concise and designed to take up a minimum of real estate on your Mac’s desktop.
If you use a Mac and if you twitter, get twitterific..
We will be posting more about twitter in future post.
Blog Design Matters
Jan 19, 2008
Over at Blog for Profit we discuss a recent poll done where readers of Blog Herald were of the opinion that Blog Design Matters.
