u/Anonycorns

I know that I need a financial professional's help, but I'm not sure what kind, or how to find one that will meet my needs.

In my current job, I have a 401k. This is my first time having a job that gives me a 401k with employer match, so I'm still learning about it.
That said, I'm being laid off, and I know that something needs to be done with that 401k, but I don't know enough about 401ks to know what needs to happen next. But that advice is not what I'm posting here for.

Additionally, while I search for another job, I am planning to become self-employed again. In the past, when I have been self-employed, I have known that financial professionals exist, but I've not been in the position to utilize them or have a need for them.
That will be different this time. So I am also hoping to sit down with someone and discuss all that is related to owning a small business that is actually a small business and not just a hobby that pays the bills.

What is the job title for the type of financial professional that I need to meet these needs?
Also, once I google that job title, how do I narrow down who I want to work with and who I don't? Are there specific things that I should look for as green flags or red flags?
Thank you.

I am disabled, but I am still trying to work. I am not interested in applying for SSDI. I want to keep Medicaid for reasons that aren't relevant to this conversation, and I do not want to go through the marketplace to buy other insurance.
I make just barely over the income limit to keep Medicaid.

The person I spoke with at the Human Services office basically didn't know about the Medicaid Buy-in program when I asked, so I'm not sure if what I'm being told is accurate. But it is my understanding that, in order to qualify for the buy-in program, I need to have documentation that shows that I am disabled, and submit a packet called a Disability Determination Application. My disability is well documented, so this should be doable.

I had the Medicaid office near me send me that Disability Determination Application, and I've begun working on filling it out. But I had some questions, and I wanted to be sure that I was filling this out correctly. (Part of my disability is losing my ability to comprehend what I am reading when I am overwhelmed).

At the suggestion of Navigation through JCMH (Jefferson Center for Mental Health, who basically told me they couldn't help me), I reached out to Benefits in Action for help. They have told me that, in order to help me complete the Disability Determination Application, they would require me to pay them $500. And then, there is a separate application for the Medicaid Buy-in program, and they would need an additional $500 to assist me with that.

Is it legal for them to charge that much?

I hope it's okay to ask this here. I don't know where else might be a better place to ask, and I am on a bit of a time crunch.

I work for a small business with about 80 employees.
My company is getting ready to lay off a large chunk of staff.

The timeline is such that I saw this coming. My company owns 2 buildings, and I had been watching a sales listing for one of those buildings for a while, and last month, it changed to "Under Contract".

Last night, all employees were sent an email confirming that the building was sold, and company will be downsizing to just the one building as of June 30th. The email stated that my boss and HR would be having meetings with everyone in my department by May 22nd to discuss how we move forward in our positions.

I am off on Wednesday and Thursday, and so I assumed my meeting would be on Friday (the 22nd), when I work next. Instead, my boss told me that my meeting would happen on Tuesday, which is my Friday. I have reason to believe that I am going to get fired before the layoffs happen, so that they don't have to pay me severance or unemployment.

What can or should I do before this happens? Is there anything that I can do to ensure that I can still get some of the benefits of a large scale lay off, as opposed to losing out on all the benefits because I am being fired before the layoffs? Any advice would be helpful. Thank you.

I work for a small business with about 80 employees.
My company is getting ready to lay off a large chunk of staff.

The timeline is such that I saw this coming. My company owns 2 buildings, and I had been watching a sales listing for one of those buildings for a while, and last month, it changed to "Under Contract".

Last night, all employees were sent an email confirming that the building was sold, and company will be downsizing to just the one building as of June 30th. The email stated that my boss and HR would be having meetings with everyone in my department by May 22nd to discuss how we move forward in our positions.

I am off on Wednesday and Thursday, and so I assumed my meeting would be on Friday (the 22nd), when I work next. Instead, my boss told me that my meeting would happen on Tuesday, which is my Friday. I have reason to believe that I am going to get fired before the layoffs happen, so that they don't have to pay me severance or unemployment.

What can or should I do before this happens? Is there anything that I can do to ensure that I can still get some of the benefits of a large scale lay off, as opposed to losing out on all the benefits because I am being fired before the layoffs?

This will be long, sorry. Let me preface this by saying, PLEASE DO NOT ATTEMPT TO DIAGNOSE MY DEAD CAT. That is not the point of this post.

First, some context:
My last cat was 9 when she passed away. She was an only child from Jan 2024 until the end of her life.
In Sept 2024, I became homeless, and had to place her in a temporary care program. The program she was in the longest was through a shelter that is well-known for caring for cats with health issues, like FIV. They try to separate the cats based on health issues (all the FIV cats get one room, all the kidney disease cats get another room, etc), but beyond that, the cats in this shelter are free-roaming, which is a thing that I love (present-tense, I owe them a lot, and I love them!) about this shelter. It meant that I could come visit my baby during their regular operating hours as often as I wanted. My cat was kept in the general population area, and not with other sick cats, but escapes do happen, and my cat was known to be aggressive to other cats (possibly resulting in scratches or bites). I acknowledge that these things happen, and I do not harbor any ill-will towards the shelter for my cat's poor behavior or what might have resulted from that. My baby was an a**hole, and I know that.
In December 2024, my cat and I moved into a hotel room, where we lived until May 2025.
In May, we finally moved into an apartment. I question the cleaning that was done before we moved in because my cat was all black, and I kept finding brown tabby fur around the apartment for a few weeks after we moved in.
This building is relatively new (building was completed in August 2024), with only a maximum of 2 tenants before me, and I know that the person who lived in this apartment before me had to be evicted. The fact that the previous tenant had a cat was confirmed by multiple neighbors.

In early July 2025, my cat stopped eating. I have no idea why. Over the course of the next 3 weeks, I took her to about 8 different vets (several emergency vet visits, mostly normal vet visits) to attempt to find out what was wrong, and we never figured it out. They tested her multiple times for FIV and other common communicable illnesses, and all the testing came back negative. That said, I do not know how long after infection a cat will test positive for FIV or other similar illnesses. Every ultrasound, xray and blood test showed no signs of any reason that she should be sick and refusing to eat. Every attempted treatment did nothing. By the end, I was syringe feeding her just to keep her alive. On July 31st, 2025, I finally decided to put her down.
(The following questions are rhetorical - Please don't actually answer them). Did she pick up something from her time in the shelter? Was it a tick, in my second floor apartment? Was it cancer? Was she already sick, but she held on until she knew that we were somewhere safe together? Did the previous occupant leave diatomaceous earth around to ward off bugs? Did the apartment use a chemical pest control that is toxic to cats? I will never know what made her sick, and speculation won't bring her back to me.

I provide this context so that you can follow my line of thinking, and how I got to this point, and why I'm asking this question.

I have renewed my lease in this apartment for another year, so I am here until May 2027. I am finally getting close to being emotionally ready to adopt another pet. I'm considering another cat.
However, since I will never know what made my last cat sick, I am terrified that it was something in my apartment when I moved in, or that whatever made my cat sick might still be transmissible to the next cat that I invite into my home.

I am NOT looking for someone to diagnose my cat now that she's dead. But I do want to be sure that whatever it was isn't going to kill my next cat.
My question is, what do I need to do to my apartment to make sure that it's not something in my apartment? Is there a specific chemical that I should deep clean with? Should I just wait a certain number of months and assume that anything communicable is dead? Is there something else I should do?
I have already thrown out or washed (in the washing machine, on high heat) all of my cat's cat trees/scratching posts (thrown out), toys (thrown out, except for one that I washed and keep for sentimental reasons), beds (washed multiple times), blankets (washed), food/water bowls (thrown out), litterbox (thrown out), etc. There are no carpets in the apartment, just hardwood floors. My cat's favorite place to be was on top of the kitchen cabinets, so I haven't deep cleaned up there yet, but when I do, I want to be sure that I'm using something that will actually disinfect, in case whatever killed my cat is still lingering up there.

What advice do you have for me to prevent my apartment from killing my next cat?
Thank you.

I am an employee of a small business with about 80 employees. The employees have not been informed yet, but I have learned that the building the company works out of (which was owned by my company) is Under Contract to be sold. As a result, the business itself is going to be closing.

I have to assume that they don't plan to tell us employees anything until the contract goes through, but my main question is, how long might that be? I am basically just hoping for a timeline for when I might expect to be laid off because the company is closing. It's been "Under Contract" for almost a month now.