Do you want to quit your job? Are you terrified of the money you are giving up and the quality of life you will lose if you do it?

Money isn’t everything

I quit Corporate America, giving up my six-figure salary with it.  I did it with no other job lined up.

Saying it out loud still sounds insane to me.  I’m not the type to just say, “just quit your job”.

I worked at the same company for 14 years, straight out of college.  I was going to be the loyal employee that retired with this company.

Then I realized this was not the life I dreamed.  I had another dream.

I dreamed of being an entrepreneur, doing creative work that brought me joy and opportunities.

It was a dream I’ve held since my young adult years, and my life was wasting away, realizing it would never be my reality.  Besides, who decides to quit their job with that much money coming in?

I can tell you an old cliché that rings true, money doesn’t buy happiness.

My decision did not come lightly.  In fact, it was the most terrifying decision my family and I ever made.

It took several months to verbalize it as an actual reality.

Here is a mental checklist if you want to quit your job:

1 – Are you happy?

How much of your happiness are you trading for material things? Visualize your ideal life.  What does it look like? List out your core values, hopes, and dreams.  Does it align with your current path? If it does, fantastic!

Now I’m a realist.  I have a family, a husband, and two kids.  We have to work to provide for our family, and we have a standard of living we do care about.

I wasn’t happy, and I hated my job. I hated the culture. There was a time when I loved it.  As I continued to climb the corporate ladder, I realized the nastiness that occurred behind closed doors, and I did not want to be a part of it any longer. I was not happy.

2 – Can you afford to quit your job?

This one is tricky.  You need to crunch the numbers. Check out online calculators, really dig deep into your budget, and start thinking about your unnecessary spending.

Consider the following costs of working:

• Daycare
• Before-care
• Aftercare
• Convenience foods
• Eating out costs because you have no time to cook
• Commuting costs
• Clothing allowance
• Cell phone data

My initial answer was no.  There was no way I could give up that kind of money and still live the life we wanted off just my husband’s salary.  That would be insane.  Then, I started to do the math.

I knew we paid a lot of money on daycare.  That was an obvious saving. We also paid for school tuition, before-care, and after-care.  Even with these savings though, there was still money in the bank we would lose.

Keep crunching the numbers

Then crunch more numbers.

How many nights did we eat out because we were too tired to make dinner? Or because I did not have time to go to the grocery store? Those numbers were high!

Would I really need as much cell phone data if I was not working? Would I need all those little conveniences which helped me save time but cost money?

I knew I would not need the astronomical clothing allowance I was giving myself every month.

3 – What kind of emergency savings do you have?

Do an analysis of all of your accounts.  Are you in debt? Do you have an emergency fund? If not, give yourself time to build it.

You have an end goal in sight.  That can be so motivating! Start living now like you would if you had no money coming in.

We had a family.  We didn’t feel like we could make a decision that would jeopardize our family’s stability.

We analyzed all of our accounts.  It turns out we were pretty smart with our cash.  We had pretty comfortable emergency funds.

We talked to a financial advisor to get validation as well.  We were financially prepared IF we were willing to live tight.  We were so willing.

4 – Stock up like it is the apocalypse.

This step is probably not necessary, but boy it gave me peace of mind.  While I still had money coming in, we stocked up on all essential items every time they were on sale.

I had enough toilet paper and toothpaste to survive for six months.  I figured there would be some initial growing pains with the decision to quit Corporate America, and I wanted to be as prepared as possible.

5 – Put in your notice to quit your job, and follow your dream…even if it scares you.

Now that you have done all your work and prepared for this insanely awesome decision, walk into work with your head held high and put in your notice to quit your job!

I nearly cried when I put in my notice.  I was shaking so badly.  Knowing what I know now, I wish I had been so much braver. I guess the act alone was brave enough.  You’ve got this mama!

Be brave!

You have a skill, and you can always go back, if you need to.

Once you experience the beginnings of your dream, you will never look back.

Even if something catastrophic happened, I don’t think I could ever go back to what I was going before I quit my job.  I would have to find more creative ways to keep following my dream.

How about you? Are you considering a decision to quit your job? Did you already quit your job? Share in the comments below.

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