The day you turn 26 is a significant day in any person working for themselves lives. It means that you officially are out on your own in terms of healthcare. The US government is no longer giving you the safety net of your parents healthcare to fall back on. Well for me, that day is here, well almost here. Working on Mimosas and Manhattan full time has just started to really get going and I have began to feel really in the groove of things. I didn’t want health care to be the reason I had to leave this life behind and head back into the corporate world just because I can’t afford health care in the United States. So I decided I am moving to Canada.
JUST KIDDING.
I did a lot of research and was able to learn a lot about health care and how it works here in New York. For starters I didn’t really want to write this article because I wasn’t sure if anyone would find it interesting. My solution will definitely not apply to everyone but for the some it may help, I am happy to let you all know what I am doing health care wise once I turn 26 on April 12th.
After talking to a few friends that work in HR (shoutout to one of my longest friends Katelin McClure), I learned that since my boyfriend and I live together it would be possible to declare a domestic partnership and get on his healthcare. We both weren’t sure what all that entailed honestly. Are we going to have to go to the courthouse and declare this partnership, are we going to have to get secretly married all in the name of healthcare?!?! Well I had Kyle talk to his HR department about the details and as with most thing insurance related, it only got more confusing. So if you as well hit this road block know that you weren’t alone. Kyle ended up calling his healthcare provider and they were angels! They knew exactly what we were trying to do and the process could not have been easier.
There was no declaring our partnership or having to go to a courthouse. All that we had to prove was that we shared the same address and have been in a long term committed relationship and BOOM healthcare! Overall I was shocked at how easy this process was. I filled out the paperwork on Sunday and it was incredibly simple. I know that this solution unfortunately does not apply to everyone and I am so sorry especially if you are currently in this position. I hope though that this was helpful for a few of you!
SHOP THIS SPRING FORWARD LOOK BELOW
I also recently got asked about a few of my organizational tips that I use to stay on top of my expenses, partnerships and overall budgeting. This was another question that I wasn’t entirely sure if I would share as I didn’t think it was super interesting lol. More so I feel like the excel sheets I use are pretty basic in terms of what others may have so I don’t want anyone to think this is the way to do it! You definitely have to do whatever works for you! So I am going to share a few outlines on what I use below!
Expenses: I am working at getting better about tracking my expenses weekly. However sometimes work gets to crazy and I have to do it monthly. The most important thing is making sure your notes are as detailed as possible in the off chance you get audited and have to be able to explain something.
So above is how I have my whole sheet organized and it really goes on and on throughout the entire year. If I had an expense with Venmo I notated that in the payment section, etc, etc. It is extremely straight forward but it gets the job done!
Partnerships: We also track all of our partnership deals within Google Sheets (Excel), which is the same as expenses! I cannot recommend Google Sheets enough especially when you have multiple people working on your team. For Kelly and I it is perfect because we both are able to keep track, edit and update the sheet, etc. Below is an example of how we track all of our partnerships. The most important column of this sheet is the PAID box. To let you in on a little secret, no one pays on time in this industry!!!! You have to be INCREDIBLY on top of your invoices and who has paid you and who hasn’t so if you take anything from this conversation it is that you need some sort of sheet that tracks this.
Budgeting: This was something that I started when I left my corporate job. I was having trouble gauging what I was making and how much I was making a month. Now that money was coming in more spastically it was harder to track than a weekly/bimonthly pay check. Having this sheet has really helped me understand which months are high earning months and which months are lower earning months.
To note below under savings and checking I will simply write what it is in my bank account at those times, etc!
I really hope that parts of this Blogging 101 piece were helpful to anyone reading! Let me know if you have any further questions either in the comments below or by DM’ing us on Instagram at @courtandkelly 🙂
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