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Ask HN: How much savings did you have before quitting your industry job?
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Re: Ask HN: How much savings did you have before quitting your industry job?
#2On the order of $4,000, though in my circumstances it was less risky than that number would suggest, since I already had covered-the-day-job cash flow from Bingo Card Creator and strong odds of successfully filling a consulting pipeline by that point. (I'm not counting my retirement account, which was in the low five figures, since I wasn't planning on touching it for any reason short of "I'm dying in the snow.")
Re: Ask HN: How much savings did you have before quitting your industry job?
#3I only had about $2000 (half a month's paycheck at the time), but the change in work was prompted by a multi-month consulting gig that was paying in the low five figures over the course of a few months.
My advice is to start looking for work before you leave your industry job - think if it as though you're doing lean testing on your product, except your product is yourself. If you can't find clients while at your day job, then iterate on yourself (website, services offered, your client pitch, how you're looking for clients, etc) and try again.
Re: Ask HN: How much savings did you have before quitting your industry job?
#4I had 3 months worth of pay in savings. My plan was to start looking for work if there wasn't enough income to keep me going after month 2.
1 year later and still going strong!
Re: Ask HN: How much savings did you have before quitting your industry job?
#51 year of expenses including rent,healthcare, food ,etc.
When doing financial planning you should always try to save up to 6 months of all expenses. This is hard to achieve but the recommended number even if you are staying at your industry job. You never know what can happen.
Re: Ask HN: How much savings did you have before quitting your industry job?
#6I quit my job two months ago with close to $10k saved up. It's too early to claim success, though. I think location is really relevant. In Pittsburgh, rent is quite cheap, but I'm sure the situation is different elsewhere in the country.
Re: Ask HN: How much savings did you have before quitting your industry job?
#7On the order of $4,000, though in my circumstances it was less risky than that number would suggest, since I already had covered-the-day-job cash flow from Bingo Card Creator and strong odds of successfully filling a consulting pipeline by that point. (I'm not counting my retirement account, which was in the low five figures, since I wasn't planning on touching it for any reason short of "I'm dying in the snow.")
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Re: Ask HN: How much savings did you have before quitting your industry job?
#8If you plan on quitting your job, don't just follow what people comment here. The actual amount you need should be calculated yourself, based on your plans.
1) How much money do you need to get round per month.
2) Add a chunk ontop of that for unforseen expenses, broken fridge for example...
3) How long do you estimate you'll be working on your project?
4) Add a large percentage to that estimate for unexpected issues
5) Will you need to make investments? Hardware? Designers? Calculate these figures.
6) Add a month (or 2) to the above, if your project fails to start making revenue, you'll need to find yourself a job - well, depending on how easy it is for you to find a good job...
It's an amount you need to calculate. Don't underestimate.
Then you're ready to roll.
Re: Ask HN: How much savings did you have before quitting your industry job?
#9I had about $11,000 USD after working for 20 months at IBM, lasted for about year and a half. Best decision ever. =)
Re: Ask HN: How much savings did you have before quitting your industry job?
#10Planning on quitting with 6-9 months of burn (assuming I don't make another dollar). But I'm also planning on putting a startup before freelance/consulting so it might be a while before I start breaking even.