Have a Survival Question? Ask Our Expert

Answer: Massachusetts pays the highest unemployment insurance compensation in the country compared to any other state, paying up to $900 weekly depending on eligibility. Rhode Island is actually second in the list, paying a maximum of $660. However, Rhode Island does provide benefits 7 weeks longer than Massachusetts does (79 weeks compared to 72). This doesn’t take into consideration the Emergency Unemployment Compensation Extension Act, which would extend unemployment benefits by additional 14 weeks. States with jobless rates of 8.5% or higher will get an additional 6 weeks for a total of 20 weeks. When filing for unemployment, you would have to apply in the state where you worked; regardless of the state in which you are currently living.

Answer: The prospects of getting a job in the present economic deluge are certainly quite slim. It gets even harder if you have had a felony conviction in the past. Before a person gets hired for a job that involves working with the disabled, children, or the elderly, a prospective employer is required by Federal and State law to run a criminal background check on him or her. Employers have to do this lest they are charged with negligent hiring. Evidence of a criminal record will definitely make it difficult to get a job in such places but this does not mean that all is lost. There are plenty of alternative avenues that ex-felons can pursue and get a respectable job as well as the much needed reintegration into society..

Answer: Suffering from a chronic illness can be a challenge in itself, but this challenge is increased dramatically for those without health insurance or access to affordable health care and prescription drugs. Sadly, the people who often need quality health care the most, are those that are unjustly denied health insurance simply for having a “pre-existing condition.” While this may make a difficult situation even harder for someone with a chronic illness, there are ways to make life easier. Here we outline alternative insurance options, prescription tips and natural solutions that could potentially make coping with a chronic illness much less of an uphill struggle..

Answer: Hyper-inflation of the dollar is certainly a concern in today’s economic climate and it would be smart to at least consider the preparation options for a dollar collapse. Investing money into stable foreign currencies (especially the Swiss Franc as it is backed by Gold) is a great way to hedge your wealth against dollar inflation, but access to those funds may be a problem if the dollar were to completely collapse. In such a scenario, it would be safe to assume that the financial institutions would be in chaos, at least in the U.S. and probably globally as well. The dollar would be worthless and getting any cooperation from any U.S.bank would most likely be difficult regardless of the currency your funds are kept in. You could opt to have savings stored in an overseas account, but even then, transferring funds to the U.S. or relying on the functionality of ATM’s might be a problem. If you have substantial savings, you might want to convert some of it to precious metals or other things with solid physical value. Bear in mind, if you buy precious metals, you will want to have some in quantities small enough to allow for easy trading of necessities. It would be much easier to trade a silver coin for some meat and milk rather than trying to cut off a fraction of a hefty silver bullion bar. If you concern is of a severe national financial collapse, another important investment to make would be in stockpile necessities: Canned goods, dry goods, fuel, matches, soap, and even seeds of crops that grow easily in your part of the country. Other useful emergency supplies would be solar ovens, some kerosene lamps and some long burning candles, several solar flashlights, a kerosene camp stove, a generator, a water purifier (also available at camping outlets), and warm clothing and blankets. In my own opinion I think that this worst case scenario is unlikely, and even if it were to happen I would hope that there would be sufficient warning in the currency markets to be able to foresee and timely plan for it. It would still be a safe bet to have a least some savings in your Everbank foreign currency account, at least to protect yourself from the steady dollar inflation that as been occurring over the last few years.

Answer: There are various ways for making money online but the big question is which ways actually offer the potential of earning anything worthwhile. Article submission websites like AssociatedContent and eHow do have the potential for generating a steady stream of income but requires a little perseverance and patience to get to that point. While one article won't bring in much cash, a series of articles featuring good, original content can. Review sites can also be good earners. ExpoTV is the best of the lot if you have a video recorder, even if it's on your camera. Here you can review products for up to $20 a pop. ReviewStream is another good review site with text only reviews but does not pay as much up front. If you live in or near a large city then there may be focus group opportunities around. These are fairly infrequent, but when they do come up they pay pretty good. This article on our site provides links to focus group website . Alternatively, if you have a liking for photography, try submitting some photos to stock photo websites such as istockphoto.com. This can be great a good money earner for those who come up with original photos that a website would be interested in buying and using on their site. While each online money earner might not bring in a huge amount of money individually, doing a mixture of the different methods can certainly result in enough money to live on. Whatever you do, don't be fooled by any website that makes unrealistic claims, and/or asks that you pay them any kind of fees. Any legitimate site will not require that you pay them any money up front.

Answer: First, we want to commend your son for overcoming his addiction.  We would love to help him find some low-cost dental care options.  Many of us are in similar predicaments when it comes to finding affordable dental care and aren't sure where to look first. We have a few suggestions for getting started on your search: 1) Look into accredited dental schools nearby. The students will be doing the work with an accredited dentist's supervision so the cost of the services is cheaper. We found a dental school in Nashville:  www.mmc.edu/education/dentistry.  It may be worth the drive to save some money on the cost of the dental care!  2) You can also look for free or low-cost dental clinics in your area.  We found the Interfaith Health Clinic in Knoxville.  3) Another option is to look for a discount dental care plan.  Have a look at this website for participating dentists in the Knoxville area: http://dentalinsurance.dentalplans.com/knoxville/index.html.  4) And one more suggestion is to ask for a dental discount.  Many dentists will actually charge you less if you are uninsured than they would bill the insurance companies. Have a look at at our article on affordable dental care for more details: http://www.survivalinsight.com/find-affordable-dentists.html.

Answer: Hi Jeff, Thank you for your question.  After doing a lot of research on this topic, we can understand the difficult position you are in.  There are not a whole lot of financial benefits available to you unless you are over the age of 65 or disabled and can take advantage of Social Security benefits. But don't lose hope. They are many resources available online that can help guide you in the right direction.  We found a great blog - Reentry One Step (REOS) Program (http://reentryonestop.wordpress.com/) - for ex-offender reentry in Missouri.  There are several encouraging posts and tips on this site and we encourage you to have a look.  The Reentry One Stop Career Center is located at 3901 North Union Blvd, Suite 101, St. Louis, MO 63115.  Along with that, we found information on the Missouri Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for which you could be eligible.  Go to http://www.govbenefits.gov/govbenefits_en.portal and search on Missouri SNAP to learn more.  For assistance with health insurance, go to http://www.govbenefits.gov/govbenefits_en.portal and search on Medicaid to learn if you are eligible. We hope this information is helpful.  Best of luck to you!

Answer: Thank you for your question. There is a great deal of information online about repairing your credit. We found a lot of information on this site: http://credit.about.com/od/creditrepair/u/creditrepair.htm. Each case is unique and handled differently with creditors so it is difficult to say how much your credit score will increase once you pay off all of your collections. Since your Payment History makes up 35% of your credit score, it may take some time to improve your score but don’t be discouraged! Ideally, the debt collectors you are working with will be willing to delete the collection account from your report, not just mark it as “Paid/Settled” or “Paid in Full”. It sounds like you have already worked that out with the collection agencies you are dealing with, but our advice would be to send a written “pay for delete” letter (you can find an example by following this link: http://credit.about.com/od/debtcollection/a/payfordelete.htm) and wait for a written response from the collector before you take any action. Once you pay your collection off and it is deleted from your report, this will help improve your Payment History score. Keep in mind an improved credit score isn’t the only benefit to paying off debt. Additionally, you will no longer have unpaid collections influencing your credit score, your debt-to-income ratio will decrease, and you will be back in the good graces of lenders and creditors.