Hello. If you're on here you most likely know me, but my name is Taylor, and it's been a rough couple of years (I'm sure you can relate). And I'm sure you're wondering how I came to be in this situation where I am unemployed, financially destitute, and chronically ill. Well... I'll summarize it initially, and for those who want to go into more detail, I'll put a fuller version below (eventually, once this bout of derealization abates...)
I am here asking for financial assistance due to the following:
- Covid infection in spring 2024, which caused several bouts of severe illness throughout the latter half of 2024, necessitating using all my PTO and taking unpaid days off (with permission)
- Sudden loss of my primary source of income that was coming from my spouse (forced separation due to threat of domestic violence to my person from 1/2024 to our finalized divorce date in 2/2025)
- Sudden loss of my primary personal source of income from my job that I held from 4/2021 - 2/2024 due to using "unearned" PTO in early February to look for a separate place to live away from my spouse. This PTO was verbally signed off on from my boss, but later used as grounds for my firing once I returned 2 weeks later
- No funds for an at-fault divorce or wrongful termination suit, resulting in no alimony and no restitution from my previous job, including not receiving pay for the two weeks I took off of work in February 2024
- Discontinuation of my initial probationary period contract at a job I held from 7/2024 - 12/2025 due to productivity limitations caused by mental and physical illness throughout that time period
- 13 total months of being unemployed in the last two years (5 months between 2/2024 and 7/2024, and 8 months from 1/2025 to the present in 8/2025)
- Exhaustion of state unemployment funds as of 9/1/2025
- Having to use my credit card to pay for daily living and moving expenses, to ensure cash-on-hand to pay for monthly bills that do not accept credit (i.e. rent, utilities, car payment, insurance, etc.) to the tune of $11,000+ owed
- 4 hospital inpatient stays between 7/2024 - present (2 for my mental health, and 2 for a spontaneous bilateral vertebral artery dissection that was most likely triggered by being under extreme continuous emotional duress)
- The nonprofit/government job market tanking due to various actions taken by this current U.S. presidential administration
- 5-digit graduate student loans that have been in administrative forbearance because of actions taken by the previous presidential administration, but that are now returning under the current one.
What I am asking for right now is money to help pay down my credit card. I am still looking for work, and am in the hiring process with at least one place, but with no resolution. I may end up having to drive for food delivery apps to make ends meet, employed or not. $12,000 would wipe it clean (I have one credit card with a limit of around $15,000).
I know I am not the worthiest cause on this site. I know that most everyone who reads this, friend, family, or stranger, is also in some kind of financial bind right now. But I have to try something. I have exhausted all other options. SNAP only gives me $79 a month for groceries, which doesn't even cover one trip with current prices. I do not yet qualify for housing or rental assistance because I haven't been, as of yet, in danger of being evicted, but that day is soon coming without an employment offer or some help.
I will probably add more to this later. It's not a very good pitch, but it's all I have at the moment (which is saying something, given that I used to do this for a living). I can detail my monthly expenses if that is of interest or concern in your decision-making.
I just need help to stay on my feet. Or, at least, not face-down on the floor. Happy to answer questions if folks have them.
Any amount is appreciated. Thank you.
Cute kitty for tax.
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