This is the post of I’ve been waiting to write and, after 9 months in the making, it’s now official: I quit my job! It feels like a huge relief to finally be done and to move on from New Haven, too.
Why I Quit
There are a few reasons I decided to leave my job:
1) I was bored and unhappy. While my job wasn’t stressful and my boss was great, I was bored at my job. I felt like I wasn’t going anywhere and wasn’t making a difference in the world on a daily basis. I’m sure I could’ve just coasted along for some time, but that’s just not my style or desire.
2) I need to give self-employment a shot. I’ve always been entrepreneurial-minded and I even attended Babson College, the #1 ranked college for entrepreneurial studies, before I decided to transfer out. I’m not sure that I’m born to be an entrepreneur, but I know I need to find out before I’ll ever be content with going back to a desk job. Now is the best chance I’ll ever have in my life to go for it. I’m not scared of failing at this, and even the worst case scenario isn’t bad enough to stop me.
3) I wanted out of New Haven. I moved there with my girlfriend, and she just graduated from Yale. Neither of us planned to stay after she finished school. I had a great time there and enjoyed the people I met, but New Haven just isn’t the place for me right now.
How It Went Down
I’d love to excite you with a dramatic story with how I quit my job, but there isn’t one. This is totally fine since things were’t emotional and there was no animosity whatsoever from my boss or coworkers. I left completely on my own terms. My boss actually knew way in advance that I’d be leaving May 2012, and I gave her official notice of my last day about a month ahead of time.
On May 25th, I walked out the door for the last time and never looked back.
The Money Question
As you may have guessed, how I’ll earn money to continue living is one of my largest concerns, and one that many others ask about, too.
Remember my Quit My Job Fund? I saved $7,000 in that. It’s a little less than I hoped, but I kept blog and freelancing income separate and haven’t cashed any of that out. I also have other savings to fall back on if I need to.
More importantly, I do have part-time income from both writing and SEO. I’m now staff blogger at HatToss.com, where I write 3 posts a weeks for money issues related to college students and recent grads. It’s a dream topic for me, as I can definitely relate to some of the money highs and lows of the younger crowd.
I’m really enjoying writing right now, and I’m confident that I’ll pick up more clients when the time allows. I’m hoping to eventually have 2-3 more consistent clients so that I can earn a real wage that allows me to save some money, too. This is the path I see myself going down right now, but who knows if that’ll change? It’s exciting to think of the possibilities out there for me now, and I certainly don’t want to rule any of them out.
In all honestly, I haven’t been looking around at all yet since I planned to take this time of transition slowly. I currently work about 15 hours a week with a flexible schedule and work that I can do from anywhere with internet. For summer, that makes me happy.
In a couple weeks, I’ll be moving out to Portland, Oregon for the summer. Once there, I’ll attend the World Domination Summit in Portland in July as well as the Financial Bloggers Conference in Denver in September (looking forward to seeing all my friends there!). I’m excited to explore the Pacific Northwest a bit while I’m taking it easy on the money making side.
Shoutouts to My Favorite Quitters
I just want to say “thanks” my favorite Quitters and to those who have supported me and helped me along the way.
First and foremost, I have to thank Sean Ogle for putting this whole idea in my head. A year ago I would’ve had no idea how to make this leap. But through Sean’s Location Rebel course as well as inspiration from Sean’s blog have helped answer some of the questions and overcome just about any fear that I’ve had.
I also want to thank Caleb from Pocket Changed for his support along the way. We had some fun plotting this date months ago.
Tom at Leaving Work Behind has had some awesome advice, and I actually got my first freelance writing job thanks to a link in one of his posts!
I also think back to reading some posts from Tyler at Advanced Riskology and Jenny at Life After College about their journeys.
Of course, everyone at Yakezie has been huge along the way, too.
My family and friends have been fantastic in supporting me. I feel blessed that everyone trusts in what I’m doing and has offered encouragement along the way.
Thanks to everyone else I forgot to mention (you know who you are!). Even if it’s just been a short comment or blog post you’ve written and I’ve read, it’s been a part of this amazing journey for me.
Final Lessons
I’m not writing this to prove a point or rub it in anyone’s face. I don’t think jobs are stupid (and I wouldn’t rule out going back to one myself). Besides, my life problems are far from solved, and I know I have some big challenges ahead.
The one thing I will challenge everyone reading this post to do is to change whatever it is in your life that’s making you unhappy. There are always options out there. They might not be easy at first, but you have to take action.
I look forward to sharing more with you on here as the next few months progress. You can follow me on Twitter to get all the updates not only on Money Spruce but my work in other places, too.
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Awesome Jeffrey! Looking forward to seeing you at WDS!
@Liz Two Weeks to Travel Thanks, Liz! I’m looking forward to it, too!
I am so excited to read this post! Self-employment has its ups and downs for sure, but I am thrilled for you to embark on this next chapter of your life! You were very smart to save up, even if it was less than you expected, and my advice- don’t underestimate the power of support systems. When you work for yourself, it helps to befriend other self-employed folks for venting, questions, companionship, whatever on some kind of IM system to feel reconnected.
Can’t wait to see you at #WDS!
@FrugalBeautiful Thanks for the nice words and advice, Shannyn! I just may be coming to you with questions and advice when I need it. See you at WDS!
Congrats Jeffrey! I’m excited to see what the next few years will bring for you as you explore self-employment and beyond.
I’m glad to be featured a “favorite quitter” as well, haha. 🙂
Haha sure thing, Caleb!
Great work! Excited for you as you take on this next big part of life!
Congrats! I hope everything goes great for you.
Congratulations! Portland is a beautiful and fun city so I’m sure you will absolutely love your first summer of freedom. There may be challenges ahead, but good for you for following a plan and giving this a shot. It sounds like you’re prepared and ready for what’s to come. I look forward to hearing about your journey!
@Shannon_ReadyForZero Thanks, Shannon, I’m really looking forward to Portland!
Good for you. With a stay-at-home wife and two children under the age of four, my opportunity for doing this is in the past, but I always love reading the stories of others who grab the opportunity while it’s there.
I’m happy to share my stories. Thanks for stopping by!
That’s great, and a long time in the making! They say there’s no teacher like experience, so if you end up not being cut out for entrepreneurship, at least you gave it a shot which is more than most people can say. Remind me to buy you a drink in Denver in honor of this moment!
@Eric J. Nisall – DollarVersity Thanks for all the support, Eric! Looking forward to meeting up in Denver
Congrats Jeff! I’m not far behind you, but I’ve got to do some execution first. Even though you’ve now quit your job, perhaps you will still enjoy reading my book coming out in July about how to profitably quit your job and do what you’ve always wanted.
Best of luck and I look forward to your new adventure!
Sam
@Yakezie That sounds awesome, Sam! I’d love to read it. Thanks for stopping by!
Huge congrats! I hope everything works out great and you can do amazing things.
@DenverEric Thanks, Eric! See ya in Denver!
Great to hear, good luck to you!
Congratulations! Please keep sharing the highs/lows of your career, now with less limitations. Looking forward to reading more about your journey.
@AdamBritten Thanks, Adam!
Congrats! It’s been fun following your development. Now the real hard work starts. Keep letting us know about your experiences.
@jhcorcoran Very true! I’ll keep you posted with both the good and the bad. Thanks!
Congrats on quitting your job! That takes a lot of guts and courage. I’ve been following your story for awhile now and you’ve been a big inspiration to me. I’m in a similar place you have been, where I love my job and I make good money, but I find myself getting bored. I also moved to my current city as a temporary thing, and now 3 years later I’m not sure I want to stay. I’ve spent some time re-evaluating my situation and I definitely think something needs to change soon. Thanks for sharing your story and showing me sometimes quitting is the best option.
@Carrie Smith I’m glad to hear that, Carrie, it means a lot to me! I hope you’re able to figure everything out. There’s probably no way to ever be 100% sure that the decision you’re making is the best one. But sometimes you just need to make that leap of faith and hope for the best. Good luck, and I’ll definitely be following along with you, too!
I wished I had your courage and wisdom. I have my own ‘quit my job’ fund but is still worried about how things will be going forward. So I’m staying put at my boring job for now 🙂
Congrats on the recent development and I hope to read more about your post-quitting adventures.
@NoirHussen It’s definitely not an easy step, and I’m not sure I would’ve done it the same way if the other factors aside from money didn’t work out the way they did. Good luck with your goals, and let me know if I can help out in any way!
Hey Jeffrey, I just found your blog through Twitter when I saw that another SEO guy was going to be at WDS 🙂
Anyway, I just wanted to say “hello” and and congratulations on this big step for you!
I came across your blog from a link posted on Give Me Back My Five Bucks. Just thought I’d drop line and say that your writing reeks of ripe fecal matter, passed from the cloaca of a 1 1/2 horned mountain goat – just like Krystal Yee’s. Keep up the good work Jeffrey!
I remember reading another content on the same content few weeks back…. Reading a content on this topic has always been a pleasure to me as I myself have taken such a risk in my life by quitting my job and letting go off my monthly consistent income. I believe in order to achieve something big and satisfactory in life, you have to take risk sometimes. I had always aspired to be self employed which guided me to take such a bold decision. But obviously one should have enough resources as well financial backup before he decides to be self employed and let go off his job…. Amazingly written..
<a href=”http://www.easyfinance.com/”>Marie</a>
Jeff, just joined you on the freedom path after an announcement on FS today. Hope you had fun in Portland and I’ll let you know next time I go up!
Sam
This is SUCH an awesome post. I am SO ready to pull the rip cord from corporate america and you’ve given me a much needed boost. Thanks.
@Tomoko Good luck! Let me know how it goes!
I’ a little late to this announcement but I wanted to say congrats and best of luck! Going out on your own is both scary and empowering. I love how you not only quit but also moved across the country.
@GlenCraig Thanks, Glen! You’ve captured my feelings exactly, although I’ve felt extremely happy with life since quitting. And yeah, Portland has been nothing short of amazing thus far!