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On Quitting

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Re: On Quitting

#51

Post by YuriNiyazov »

johnward wrote: post #36
YuriNiyazov wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do. Either that, or (if you are in tech) you are massively underpaid at your job.

It's both. I've worked on fixing the latter. However, living beyond your means isn't always that easy to correct. I can't just stop paying student loans for example. It's not like I'm dropping $300 a month on starbucks. It's student loans, mortgage, utilities, and other debt that takes up my entire paycheck.

I completely agree with you that correcting "living beyond your means" is a very hard thing to do.

Re: On Quitting

#52

Post by jasim »

Once you ask yourself about leaving, it is only a question of when, not whether. Sooner, the better. It is not you nor them; it is just time.

Tight-knit groups wrap themselves inside a bubble of conformance. The group's very existence is based on a shared worldview about itself - that it is correct. To leave is to question a choice made by everyone else. To stand out in a crowd is physically painful - it is called the pain of independence (Susan Cain).

For the privileged, jobs are not about the salary; money is aplenty. It is purpose we're after. What shall you do with yourself when, for the first time in your life, you actually get to choose how to spend your time? There was always the parents, the schools, and the workplaces to give a rhythm to our life and purpose to our days. It is scary the first time we confront it - when we quit an institution without knowing where next to anchor.

Next time it'll get easier.

Re: On Quitting

#53

Post by purplelobster »

purplelobster wrote: post #34
johnward wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TIL I live beyond my means. Welcome to America. Having 10-15% cushion to save is a luxury for a lot of people. Probably not most people on HN but still.

If you work in tech you should be able to save at least 30%. I save 60%, and I also live in the highest marginal tax rate country in the world. If you can't it probably means you live beyond your means.

@johnward Well you don't have to do 60% (I'm trying to become financially independent). But stop buying stuff you don't need. Live in a smaller apartment, preferably close to work. Avoid debt and cars like the plague, cook your meals at home. You won't miss all that stuff and it'll make it possible to save a significant portion of your take home pay.

@hoorayimhelping SF also have ridiculous salaries compared to the rest of the world. Everybody seems to be making at least $120k starting out, and many up to $300k. I make way less than that, but also live in a pretty expensive city. I just bypass that by not buying a lot of stuff. It's only possible because I reject the average consumerist middle-class lifestyle. I won't buy a house, I'll never buy a car again, I bike to work, I don't have expensive hobbies. You can't have the cake and eat it too. However most people should be able to save more than they do.

Re: On Quitting

#54

Post by hoorayimhelping »

YuriNiyazov wrote: post #5
gregd wrote: post #4

I have never been in a position to just up and quit a job without having something else lined up. Are you all trust fund kids?

Do you not save any money when you work? If you are not saving 10% - 15% of your paycheck into an account where the money is immediately accessible, you are living above your means.

I save a good portion of every paycheck, and I've slowly watched my savings grow. There's no way I would quit a job without some kind of way to pay my day to day expenses or some kind of prospect to be able to do it in the future.

The angles I look at this raise the same question: how can people do this? If people have no savings and no job lined up, how can they put food on the table? If they have savings, and know the value of safety net and how unpredictable financials are, how can they do this? It's not unreasonable to think they might have some kind of outside assistance.

Re: On Quitting

#55

Post by [deleted] »

purplelobster wrote: post #34
johnward wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TIL I live beyond my means. Welcome to America. Having 10-15% cushion to save is a luxury for a lot of people. Probably not most people on HN but still.

If you work in tech you should be able to save at least 30%. I save 60%, and I also live in the highest marginal tax rate country in the world. If you can't it probably means you live beyond your means.

[deleted]

Re: On Quitting

#56

Post by mildbow »

gregd wrote: post #4

I have never been in a position to just up and quit a job without having something else lined up. Are you all trust fund kids?

No. We have just taken a chance to get off the heroin drip of a constant salary.

Yeah, it's scary to go from guaranteed income to $0. But, here's how I, a non-trust fund immigrant with dependents, did it:

1- line up consulting contracts.

2- leave (at this point I had disposable savings for 4months).

3- Don't worry about saving because it just causes me stress.

What I do now is to work on a project when my savings start to drop below 6months runway.

Of course, it's not all rosy. I have to hustle at times to get that contract. On the other hand, I can just take the time to smell the flowers any given day. I've been on more vacations this past year than the prev 6 years or working.

So. Be your own trust fund.

This is much better than burning myself out getting someone else rich :)

Re: On Quitting

#57

Post by DarkTree »

panders wrote: post #30
debacle wrote: post #11

There's literally no detail to any of the logic or rationale in this story. People like faffing about these fantasies, but the most important advice I've ever received in my career was from my father - "Don't quit your day job."

Seriously, you can't just quit your job without having any other plans laid out beforehand. This is just incredibly dumb and irresponsible...

I wonder how many shining examples of - successful people who originally quit something with nothing lined up - it will take before people stop making such naive blanket statements such as this. Does her risk of failure increase by just up and quitting? Oh heck yes, but does that mean it's 100% dumb and irresponsible in every context?

You have one life to live and if you don't love what you're doing (she doesn't) and has the skills to do something else (she probably does) and has the guts to change her situation (she does), then in my opinion, she is making the smart and responsible decision.

Re: On Quitting

#58

Post by rwhitman »

A good graphic designer will get bored in pretty much any job where they're not being thrown into drastically different creative challenges every so often.

The comfy in-house design job for a single-product company means designing with the same palette and UI standards, using the same brand identity over and over and over. It's boring and creatively frustrating, particularly for anyone who's especially talented.

This is why you often see the best creative minds drift in and out of freelance or boutique agencies at various points in their career, having many different clients means having many different creative challenges.

Re: On Quitting

#59

Post by bluedino »

mathgeek wrote: post #16
YuriNiyazov wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you not save any money when you work? If you are not saving 10% - 15% of your paycheck into an account where the money is immediately accessible, you are living above your means.

You don't need to be single or a renter to save. You just need to make it a priority. I'm the sole breadwinner with a wife and two kids, and we pack away 20% out of every paycheck. We own our home and both cars. Do we live a garish lifestyle? Certainly not, but we travel a lot and adhere to our budget (thank goodness for remote jobs).

> 20%

Is that including retirement savings or not?

Re: On Quitting

#60

Post by hoorayimhelping »

purplelobster wrote: post #34
johnward wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TIL I live beyond my means. Welcome to America. Having 10-15% cushion to save is a luxury for a lot of people. Probably not most people on HN but still.

If you work in tech you should be able to save at least 30%. I save 60%, and I also live in the highest marginal tax rate country in the world. If you can't it probably means you live beyond your means.

This is bit of a silly blanket statement given America's main tech center (and a significant portion of HN's population) is in San Francisco, where rents are the highest in the country. It's really hard not to live beyond your means just by living there.
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