8 ms·

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?

by gregd 11y ago

YuriNiyazov 11y ago
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.
- timjahn 11y ago
  I'd venture to guess you're single, a renter, and have no children or relevant financial obligations?
  - YuriNiyazov 11y ago
    Only "a renter" is true. I have one kid. We have one family car instead of two. The three of us live in a one bedroom apartment. I carry no credit card debt, but I don't buy any toys. I paid off my college loans in the first two years out of college because I worked like a dog and lived with my parents.
  - bryanlarsen 11y ago
    Having children and/or other obligations makes it more likely you're living above your means. It doesn't change the fact that if you're not putting money aside for emergencies & retirement you are living above your means. Sometimes it's OK to live above your means. I'd willingly go into major debt for my children. But not acknowledging you're doing so while you're doing it will cause problems.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- mathgeek 11y ago
  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).
  - mistermann 11y ago
    > We own our home and both cars. Whether that is possible depends a lot on where you live - from what I can tell, outside of a few major cities there are plenty of places in the US where you can buy a house for <$200k in the US, good luck with that anywhere in Canada.
    - brianwawok 11y ago
      But you choose where you live. I do not live in SF, despite the nice weather, because I am not willing to spend a million bucks for a basic house.
      - mhurron 11y ago
        > But you choose where you live Given that it takes money to move, no, you do not always have a choice in where to live.
        Killswitch 11y ago
        Bullshit. Nobody forces you to live in an expensive city. Nobody makes you buy a million dollar house. You chose your own destiny. Stop putting the blame on others. I lived in Chicago on a $800/mo salary for a year and a half. Yes eight hundred dollars a month, in the city of Chicago. I had no money, but I made it work, then I moved back home to small town Iowa and make a lot more now, and live a better life. Nobody made me do either of those things.
        mhurron 11y ago
- johnward 11y ago
  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.
  - YuriNiyazov 11y ago
    You do. Either that, or (if you are in tech) you are massively underpaid at your job.
    - johnward 11y ago
      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.
      - YuriNiyazov 11y ago
        I completely agree with you that correcting "living beyond your means" is a very hard thing to do.
      - hunterloftis 11y ago
        Definitely. Some types of living beyond means (buying expensive toys, regularly flying to expensive vacations, eating out a majority of the time) are easy to correct. Loans and depreciating assets will be much more difficult.
    - caseysoftware 11y ago
      @johnward More likely you have a lot of optional things that you can trim away. Do you have cable? How often do you eat out? Do you smoke? Do you have a budget that you stick to? It's all about priorities. If you don't prioritize it, it won't happen. It's not easy and emergencies and unexpected bills come up but the freedom is amazing. Check out the Ramsey Plan. We wiped out most of our debt in about 2 years while saving for a house. And that's while renting, 3 kids, and living just outside DC.
- nkohari 11y ago
  I really have no idea why you're getting such bad feedback on your comment. It's kind of terrifying to see such negative responses to the idea that people should save money.
  - gregd 11y ago
    It's because of his assumption that if you aren't saving a specific amount (some arbitrary amount that made sense to OP), then you're living beyond your means.
    - YuriNiyazov 11y ago
      I don't even know where to start with this comment. If you read any "how to plan your life financially" books which are not written for multi-millionaires, but the average "Working Greg", you will see that the agreed upon advice is that you are supposed to save about 25% of your after-tax earnings. I didn't make up 10%-15%, I intentionally lowered the amount from the standard advice because I knew that 25% would elicit responses like yours. Fine, forget the 10% - 15% number. Let's see if you agree with the following: If tomorrow you are fired from your job, and you can't afford to live on your state's unemployment aid for six months (that's not an arbitrary number, most states' unemployment period is 6 months) then you are living above your means.
      - gregd 11y ago
        You are still not understanding me. You know nothing about me or my living situation. My state's unemployment maximum amount per week is $538. That barely covers my rent each month.
        YuriNiyazov 11y ago
        So, basically: if you got fired tomorrow, four people would be homeless, and 2 people would be foodless because you don't have any savings, and you consider yourself to be a responsible human. Bravo.
- hoorayimhelping 11y ago
  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.
  - YuriNiyazov 11y ago
    If I saved up to live for six months, there's nothing crazy about taking a three month break and using up about 50% of one's safety net.
    - sleepychu 11y ago
      Particularly if you're unhappy working where you are. I think using rainy-day money when it's sunny and you fancy sitting outside is a dangerous habit though.
    - sleepychu 11y ago
      Particularly if you're unhappy working where you are. I think using rainy-day money when it's sunny and you fancy sitting outside is a dangerous habit though.
- kdamken 11y ago
  Right? You should have at least a 6 month emergency fund, and if you're saving properly then you'll find it's not much of an issue. People love to complain about their money as they spend most of it on dumb things they don't really need. Also - that percentage should be a minimum of 50%. More info on why here - http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/02/22/getting-rich-from-zero-to-hero-in-one-blog-post/ http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/02/22/getting-rich-from-...
- noobermin 11y ago
  10% of my pay check for a year would allow me to survive for two months without a job, baring I don't have a severe accident.
pm90 11y ago
She's probably not, but she did it anyway. I'm guessing that if you're young and without kids and have some money saved up, its definitely reasonable to go for a few months without an income. Especially in tech, you can save a lot.
adevine 11y ago
It is quite possible to live below your means and save up enough money so that if you do quit you don't have to work immediately.
timjahn 11y ago
You and me both. We must be doing something wrong. :)
- gregd 11y ago
  Right? I keep reading these stories of people who up and just quit jobs at dream companies, which I can totally understand. But what I'm absolutely gobsmacked about is, "then I took 13 months off and roamed the country". Da fuq? I've been working since I was in 9th grade and have NEVER had enough money saved up to take 3 weeks off, much less 13 months.
  - frou_dh 11y ago
    What exactly is it that you are feigning surprise over? That people on high salaries can save a significant sum of money? What's counterintuitive or surprising about this?
    - gregd 11y ago
      Because I'm in tech and have yet to see one of these "high salaries". Nobody seems to acknowledge outside help. Does she have parents that she can always go back to live with if shit falls apart? And then there's a shit ton of "you're living beyond your means, if X isn't true for you.."
      - poikniok 11y ago
        Okay so now we get down to the root of your problem. You are underpaid. The 200k+ salaries are out there, it is up to you if you want to go get them.
  - hunterloftis 11y ago
    > I've been working since I was in 9th grade and have NEVER had enough money saved up to take 3 weeks off, much less 13 months. If you save 6% of your take-home income for one year, you'll have saved enough to take three weeks off. So if you take home, say, $500/week, put $30 each week into a savings account. You won't even notice that it's gone. If you want to take 13 months off, the best strategy is to move from high ground to low ground. Eg, take a job in a city like SF, Denver, Seattle, NYC, etc that pays well, get a cheap place, get rid of any vehicles and use public trans, etc. Taking home $75k and socking away 1/3rd each week, you'll end up with $25k in savings - which is more than enough to spend 13 months roaming the country. (In the past few years I've spent > 13 months roaming the country)
johnward 11y ago
I've never been in this position either but I wasn't going to assume "trust fund". A lot of people in the bay ended up working somewhere that got acquired and maybe have some cash in the bank. Or they are just better than me with money. I would never actually quit a job, even if I hated it, without another job lined up.
Kurtz79 11y ago
Do you spend all the money you earn ? My very first objective in my very first job was to save enough money to have a buffer so that I could be autonomous for a few months/year.
spenczar5 11y ago
Here's the recipe: have no dependents, avoid debt like the plague, be young and lucky so healthcare costs never get you. It helps to live frugally, too - especially avoiding expensive housing. It's not a long-term plan but it can work for months, even a few years if you really pare down and live somewhere cheap. > Are you all trust fund kids? That's pretty condescending.
publicfig 11y ago
I am by no means a trust fund kid, but I do work in technology which usually offers a higher than average salary. While I'm not making a lot of money, I am making a decent amount given where I live. I always try to keep up a liquid emergency fund that I'm capable of living off of for 6-8 months. I built this pretty early on by living below my means, because I feel like an emergency fund is one of the most important things you can do to set up financially (followed by paying off high interest debts, then contributing towards retirement accounts). That way if a situation like this arrives, I don't have to constantly fear what will happen to me.
valarauca1 11y ago
If you consider something foolish or brave is really just a reflection of your own biases not the person you're judging scenario.
brnlsl 11y ago
This kinda stuff just drives me nuts. No, they're not all trust fund kids. The OP quit her job at Dropbox(!), and it looks like her previous jobs were at Squarespace(!) and MailChimp(!). I can only assume that she is highly skilled and productive and has been well compensated for it for years. Perhaps she saved up? Some people have good jobs and save money. Is that hard to understand?
- cgearhart 11y ago
  >Is that hard to understand? Yes. And I don't mean that in a dismissive sense. I have a well-compensated job in a moderate cost of living area. I have tried hard to live thrifty and to save money, but my obligations always seem to scale with income. From shifts in tax burden after marriage & children (AMT anyone?), unexpected health expenses, to rate increases for daycare that scale with income, I have never received a raise that resulted in a net increase in my income. I have a positive net worth at this point (barely), but I still live paycheck-to-paycheck. I marvel at and envy the kind of financial independence that would allow someone to quit a job on the spot. For as long as I've been an adult, I've had expenses (student loan payments, bills & utilities, housing, etc.) that far exceed my ability to pay without a regular stream of income. And my obligations have only increased over time as I built a family. >Some people have good jobs and save money. In my experience that isn't enough. You also need good luck to have good health - a few trips to the hospital can empty a savings account (at least in the US). You also need to live in an area where your skills are not just valuable, but where there is a competitive market for them. I have a number of fairly unique, highly-technical skills -- but they are only valuable to a few employers, and they are located in distinct, remote locations (so there is a high opportunity cost to move between them, and few openings). It also helps to have the good fortune of manageable expenses. In my experience, student loan debt is an anchor on young folks because it drains the very savings that would grant the financial freedom that would let them shop for the best job opportunities. I don't begrudge anyone their success, but I often wonder how everyone else manages to get by at all, let alone so spectacularly as this.
  - gregd 11y ago
    Thank you for this well written and thoughtful response. It's how I've been feeling and what I would have said, if I had taken the time to write it out.
Leynos 11y ago
I've done it before. I used to just hang onto my bonuses until the clawback period was up before considering them spendable. At the time, I was being paid ~2 months' salary as an annual bonus.
kabdib 11y ago
I've done it. Quit a pretty good job at a startup because of burnout and lack of enthusiasm. Spent a lot of time going to bookstores and coffee shops and motorcycling. I don't think I wrote a single line of code. After about nine months, because I was kind of bored, on a whim I went to a "Brass Ring" job fair in Santa Clara. Found myself interviewing and got a job at another startup (which turned out to be an utter train wreck, ugh).
buro9 11y ago
It's called taking risks. I've been homeless, frequently broke, and have started companies, quit jobs, and all manner of things with no safety net whatsoever. It's risky for sure, but meh, avoiding risks appears to equate to living an unhappy life being a slave to wage and not doing something you love. Life is too short. Stop doing the things you dislike, go do something you love. If that means quitting when you barely have 1 month of cash left (or less)... then do it. But don't do it and go hide in your bedroom, do it and make noise and tell the world you're free, approach the people doing the things you want to be doing, just go for it.
tljr 11y ago
No we have principles.
jo909 11y ago
It's called saving. There are many ways to do that, but I prioritised to have enough _liquid_ capital to be able to get me through many many months without earning anything. Of course it might still be irrational, stupid and risky to quit before the next job is secured, and I would also avoid it when possible. But being able to afford risk and to allow for ones own stupidity is a great comfort.
mildbow 11y ago
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 :)
kittenmews 11y ago
You need to learn to save up that "fuck you" money...
djb_hackernews 11y ago
I've done it, twice. (And probably a 3rd time in the next 12 months) And I'm definitely not a trust fund kid. First time I took a year off to ski bum and travel (late 2008 just as the recession started to get rolling) In 2012 I took nearly a year off to start my own thing. I noticed both times that as soon as I didn't have any income, I knew where every dollar I spent went and lived very frugally to stretch my funds. In general, I live way below my means and save as much as possible. I'm early 30s and have always had shared living situations (either SOs or roommates) and that means right now my living expenses are about ~12% of my take home pay, so basically that means even after I max out my 401k I have a few thousands of dollars per month to do what I want with.
hiou 11y ago
I think you are forgetting how much money someone like this makes at their job. We're talking something like 5 or more times what someone at the bottom of the income ladder makes. So technically just saving for 3 months will give you more than a year of runway in a much less expensive lifestyle.
mandlar 11y ago
I'm not a trust fund kid, but I could safely quit my job any minute and be okay for at least a year. I'm 28. I have a net worth over $130k and a $25k emergency fund. I make over $70k (web dev) in a low cost of living area. I am maxing out my 401k and Roth IRA every year and will be opening a taxable account this year to dump more money into. I'm a renter (2BR for $515/month not including utilities), but I am fully supporting my fiancée who is finishing her masters of accounting degree. I still spend quite a bit of extra money on video games and board games and a few other luxuries that I could and probably should cut back on. But I don't eat out (we cook in every night) and I live a mile away from my work. My ultimate goal is financial independence. I want to be able to live off the 4% returns of my investments and not have to work (although I probably would do something, but more for myself than a company). See: https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence and http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/
ryandrake 11y ago
I'm with you on this. The replies you're getting in this thread are mind-blowingly tone-deaf. People with no expenses, making gobs and gobs of money, feign-surprise-bragging "WTF how are you not financially independent??? Doesn't everyone save 20% of their salaries and take months off to go canoeing??" It's really quite ugly. I'd be willing to bet the vast, VAST majority of Americans cannot just up and quit their job because they got a hangnail and felt sad about it. Not having a job tomorrow is my biggest nightmare. It's a nightmare that haunts billions of people on the planet. gregd's astonishment at this article is understandable. If you're socking away tons money into savings each month, you need to take a look at yourself [YES THIS MEANS YOU, person hovering over the "reply" button], stop and look at yourself and realize you are one of a very lucky privileged few who can afford such a luxury. Be thankful for it, and don't pretend to be surprised that everyone here is not equally fortunate.
- gregd 11y ago
  The responses I got were along the lines of "if you aren't saving %#% of your income per month, you're living beyond your means". I've lived paycheck to paycheck my entire existence and I'm almost 50 years old. I've had every job imaginable; built custom cabinets for private jets, managed a laundromat, managed a liquor store, cleaned houses, firefighter, managed a furniture store (sold a million dollars worth of furniture in 2 years, in a town of 16,000 people) and my IT career has spanned 20 years. I’ve worked all types of IT from state governments to one of the largest tech companies in the world. And yet, I still live paycheck to paycheck.

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?

by gregd 11y ago

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?

YuriNiyazov 11y ago

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.

timjahn 11y ago
I'd venture to guess you're single, a renter, and have no children or relevant financial obligations?
- YuriNiyazov 11y ago
  Only "a renter" is true. I have one kid. We have one family car instead of two. The three of us live in a one bedroom apartment. I carry no credit card debt, but I don't buy any toys. I paid off my college loans in the first two years out of college because I worked like a dog and lived with my parents.
- bryanlarsen 11y ago
  Having children and/or other obligations makes it more likely you're living above your means. It doesn't change the fact that if you're not putting money aside for emergencies & retirement you are living above your means. Sometimes it's OK to live above your means. I'd willingly go into major debt for my children. But not acknowledging you're doing so while you're doing it will cause problems.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
mathgeek 11y ago
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).
- mistermann 11y ago
  > We own our home and both cars. Whether that is possible depends a lot on where you live - from what I can tell, outside of a few major cities there are plenty of places in the US where you can buy a house for <$200k in the US, good luck with that anywhere in Canada.
  - brianwawok 11y ago
    But you choose where you live. I do not live in SF, despite the nice weather, because I am not willing to spend a million bucks for a basic house.
    - mhurron 11y ago
      > But you choose where you live Given that it takes money to move, no, you do not always have a choice in where to live.
      - Killswitch 11y ago
        Bullshit. Nobody forces you to live in an expensive city. Nobody makes you buy a million dollar house. You chose your own destiny. Stop putting the blame on others. I lived in Chicago on a $800/mo salary for a year and a half. Yes eight hundred dollars a month, in the city of Chicago. I had no money, but I made it work, then I moved back home to small town Iowa and make a lot more now, and live a better life. Nobody made me do either of those things.
        mhurron 11y ago
johnward 11y ago
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.
- YuriNiyazov 11y ago
  You do. Either that, or (if you are in tech) you are massively underpaid at your job.
  - johnward 11y ago
    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.
    - YuriNiyazov 11y ago
      I completely agree with you that correcting "living beyond your means" is a very hard thing to do.
    - hunterloftis 11y ago
      Definitely. Some types of living beyond means (buying expensive toys, regularly flying to expensive vacations, eating out a majority of the time) are easy to correct. Loans and depreciating assets will be much more difficult.
  - caseysoftware 11y ago
    @johnward More likely you have a lot of optional things that you can trim away. Do you have cable? How often do you eat out? Do you smoke? Do you have a budget that you stick to? It's all about priorities. If you don't prioritize it, it won't happen. It's not easy and emergencies and unexpected bills come up but the freedom is amazing. Check out the Ramsey Plan. We wiped out most of our debt in about 2 years while saving for a house. And that's while renting, 3 kids, and living just outside DC.
nkohari 11y ago
I really have no idea why you're getting such bad feedback on your comment. It's kind of terrifying to see such negative responses to the idea that people should save money.
- gregd 11y ago
  It's because of his assumption that if you aren't saving a specific amount (some arbitrary amount that made sense to OP), then you're living beyond your means.
  - YuriNiyazov 11y ago
    I don't even know where to start with this comment. If you read any "how to plan your life financially" books which are not written for multi-millionaires, but the average "Working Greg", you will see that the agreed upon advice is that you are supposed to save about 25% of your after-tax earnings. I didn't make up 10%-15%, I intentionally lowered the amount from the standard advice because I knew that 25% would elicit responses like yours. Fine, forget the 10% - 15% number. Let's see if you agree with the following: If tomorrow you are fired from your job, and you can't afford to live on your state's unemployment aid for six months (that's not an arbitrary number, most states' unemployment period is 6 months) then you are living above your means.
    - gregd 11y ago
      You are still not understanding me. You know nothing about me or my living situation. My state's unemployment maximum amount per week is $538. That barely covers my rent each month.
      - YuriNiyazov 11y ago
        So, basically: if you got fired tomorrow, four people would be homeless, and 2 people would be foodless because you don't have any savings, and you consider yourself to be a responsible human. Bravo.
hoorayimhelping 11y ago
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.
- YuriNiyazov 11y ago
  If I saved up to live for six months, there's nothing crazy about taking a three month break and using up about 50% of one's safety net.
  - sleepychu 11y ago
    Particularly if you're unhappy working where you are. I think using rainy-day money when it's sunny and you fancy sitting outside is a dangerous habit though.
  - sleepychu 11y ago
    Particularly if you're unhappy working where you are. I think using rainy-day money when it's sunny and you fancy sitting outside is a dangerous habit though.
kdamken 11y ago
Right? You should have at least a 6 month emergency fund, and if you're saving properly then you'll find it's not much of an issue. People love to complain about their money as they spend most of it on dumb things they don't really need. Also - that percentage should be a minimum of 50%. More info on why here - http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/02/22/getting-rich-from-zero-to-hero-in-one-blog-post/ http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/02/22/getting-rich-from-...
noobermin 11y ago
10% of my pay check for a year would allow me to survive for two months without a job, baring I don't have a severe accident.

pm90 11y ago

She's probably not, but she did it anyway. I'm guessing that if you're young and without kids and have some money saved up, its definitely reasonable to go for a few months without an income. Especially in tech, you can save a lot.

adevine 11y ago

It is quite possible to live below your means and save up enough money so that if you do quit you don't have to work immediately.

timjahn 11y ago

You and me both. We must be doing something wrong. :)

gregd 11y ago
Right? I keep reading these stories of people who up and just quit jobs at dream companies, which I can totally understand. But what I'm absolutely gobsmacked about is, "then I took 13 months off and roamed the country". Da fuq? I've been working since I was in 9th grade and have NEVER had enough money saved up to take 3 weeks off, much less 13 months.
- frou_dh 11y ago
  What exactly is it that you are feigning surprise over? That people on high salaries can save a significant sum of money? What's counterintuitive or surprising about this?
  - gregd 11y ago
    Because I'm in tech and have yet to see one of these "high salaries". Nobody seems to acknowledge outside help. Does she have parents that she can always go back to live with if shit falls apart? And then there's a shit ton of "you're living beyond your means, if X isn't true for you.."
    - poikniok 11y ago
      Okay so now we get down to the root of your problem. You are underpaid. The 200k+ salaries are out there, it is up to you if you want to go get them.
- hunterloftis 11y ago
  > I've been working since I was in 9th grade and have NEVER had enough money saved up to take 3 weeks off, much less 13 months. If you save 6% of your take-home income for one year, you'll have saved enough to take three weeks off. So if you take home, say, $500/week, put $30 each week into a savings account. You won't even notice that it's gone. If you want to take 13 months off, the best strategy is to move from high ground to low ground. Eg, take a job in a city like SF, Denver, Seattle, NYC, etc that pays well, get a cheap place, get rid of any vehicles and use public trans, etc. Taking home $75k and socking away 1/3rd each week, you'll end up with $25k in savings - which is more than enough to spend 13 months roaming the country. (In the past few years I've spent > 13 months roaming the country)

johnward 11y ago

I've never been in this position either but I wasn't going to assume "trust fund". A lot of people in the bay ended up working somewhere that got acquired and maybe have some cash in the bank. Or they are just better than me with money. I would never actually quit a job, even if I hated it, without another job lined up.

Kurtz79 11y ago

Do you spend all the money you earn ? My very first objective in my very first job was to save enough money to have a buffer so that I could be autonomous for a few months/year.

spenczar5 11y ago

Here's the recipe: have no dependents, avoid debt like the plague, be young and lucky so healthcare costs never get you. It helps to live frugally, too - especially avoiding expensive housing. It's not a long-term plan but it can work for months, even a few years if you really pare down and live somewhere cheap. > Are you all trust fund kids? That's pretty condescending.

publicfig 11y ago

I am by no means a trust fund kid, but I do work in technology which usually offers a higher than average salary. While I'm not making a lot of money, I am making a decent amount given where I live. I always try to keep up a liquid emergency fund that I'm capable of living off of for 6-8 months. I built this pretty early on by living below my means, because I feel like an emergency fund is one of the most important things you can do to set up financially (followed by paying off high interest debts, then contributing towards retirement accounts). That way if a situation like this arrives, I don't have to constantly fear what will happen to me.

valarauca1 11y ago

If you consider something foolish or brave is really just a reflection of your own biases not the person you're judging scenario.

brnlsl 11y ago

This kinda stuff just drives me nuts. No, they're not all trust fund kids. The OP quit her job at Dropbox(!), and it looks like her previous jobs were at Squarespace(!) and MailChimp(!). I can only assume that she is highly skilled and productive and has been well compensated for it for years. Perhaps she saved up? Some people have good jobs and save money. Is that hard to understand?

cgearhart 11y ago
>Is that hard to understand? Yes. And I don't mean that in a dismissive sense. I have a well-compensated job in a moderate cost of living area. I have tried hard to live thrifty and to save money, but my obligations always seem to scale with income. From shifts in tax burden after marriage & children (AMT anyone?), unexpected health expenses, to rate increases for daycare that scale with income, I have never received a raise that resulted in a net increase in my income. I have a positive net worth at this point (barely), but I still live paycheck-to-paycheck. I marvel at and envy the kind of financial independence that would allow someone to quit a job on the spot. For as long as I've been an adult, I've had expenses (student loan payments, bills & utilities, housing, etc.) that far exceed my ability to pay without a regular stream of income. And my obligations have only increased over time as I built a family. >Some people have good jobs and save money. In my experience that isn't enough. You also need good luck to have good health - a few trips to the hospital can empty a savings account (at least in the US). You also need to live in an area where your skills are not just valuable, but where there is a competitive market for them. I have a number of fairly unique, highly-technical skills -- but they are only valuable to a few employers, and they are located in distinct, remote locations (so there is a high opportunity cost to move between them, and few openings). It also helps to have the good fortune of manageable expenses. In my experience, student loan debt is an anchor on young folks because it drains the very savings that would grant the financial freedom that would let them shop for the best job opportunities. I don't begrudge anyone their success, but I often wonder how everyone else manages to get by at all, let alone so spectacularly as this.
- gregd 11y ago
  Thank you for this well written and thoughtful response. It's how I've been feeling and what I would have said, if I had taken the time to write it out.

Leynos 11y ago

I've done it before. I used to just hang onto my bonuses until the clawback period was up before considering them spendable. At the time, I was being paid ~2 months' salary as an annual bonus.

kabdib 11y ago

I've done it. Quit a pretty good job at a startup because of burnout and lack of enthusiasm. Spent a lot of time going to bookstores and coffee shops and motorcycling. I don't think I wrote a single line of code. After about nine months, because I was kind of bored, on a whim I went to a "Brass Ring" job fair in Santa Clara. Found myself interviewing and got a job at another startup (which turned out to be an utter train wreck, ugh).

buro9 11y ago

It's called taking risks. I've been homeless, frequently broke, and have started companies, quit jobs, and all manner of things with no safety net whatsoever. It's risky for sure, but meh, avoiding risks appears to equate to living an unhappy life being a slave to wage and not doing something you love. Life is too short. Stop doing the things you dislike, go do something you love. If that means quitting when you barely have 1 month of cash left (or less)... then do it. But don't do it and go hide in your bedroom, do it and make noise and tell the world you're free, approach the people doing the things you want to be doing, just go for it.

tljr 11y ago

No we have principles.

jo909 11y ago

It's called saving. There are many ways to do that, but I prioritised to have enough _liquid_ capital to be able to get me through many many months without earning anything. Of course it might still be irrational, stupid and risky to quit before the next job is secured, and I would also avoid it when possible. But being able to afford risk and to allow for ones own stupidity is a great comfort.

mildbow 11y ago

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 :)

kittenmews 11y ago

You need to learn to save up that "fuck you" money...

djb_hackernews 11y ago

I've done it, twice. (And probably a 3rd time in the next 12 months) And I'm definitely not a trust fund kid. First time I took a year off to ski bum and travel (late 2008 just as the recession started to get rolling) In 2012 I took nearly a year off to start my own thing. I noticed both times that as soon as I didn't have any income, I knew where every dollar I spent went and lived very frugally to stretch my funds. In general, I live way below my means and save as much as possible. I'm early 30s and have always had shared living situations (either SOs or roommates) and that means right now my living expenses are about ~12% of my take home pay, so basically that means even after I max out my 401k I have a few thousands of dollars per month to do what I want with.

hiou 11y ago

I think you are forgetting how much money someone like this makes at their job. We're talking something like 5 or more times what someone at the bottom of the income ladder makes. So technically just saving for 3 months will give you more than a year of runway in a much less expensive lifestyle.

mandlar 11y ago

I'm not a trust fund kid, but I could safely quit my job any minute and be okay for at least a year. I'm 28. I have a net worth over $130k and a $25k emergency fund. I make over $70k (web dev) in a low cost of living area. I am maxing out my 401k and Roth IRA every year and will be opening a taxable account this year to dump more money into. I'm a renter (2BR for $515/month not including utilities), but I am fully supporting my fiancée who is finishing her masters of accounting degree. I still spend quite a bit of extra money on video games and board games and a few other luxuries that I could and probably should cut back on. But I don't eat out (we cook in every night) and I live a mile away from my work. My ultimate goal is financial independence. I want to be able to live off the 4% returns of my investments and not have to work (although I probably would do something, but more for myself than a company). See: https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence and http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/

ryandrake 11y ago

I'm with you on this. The replies you're getting in this thread are mind-blowingly tone-deaf. People with no expenses, making gobs and gobs of money, feign-surprise-bragging "WTF how are you not financially independent??? Doesn't everyone save 20% of their salaries and take months off to go canoeing??" It's really quite ugly. I'd be willing to bet the vast, VAST majority of Americans cannot just up and quit their job because they got a hangnail and felt sad about it. Not having a job tomorrow is my biggest nightmare. It's a nightmare that haunts billions of people on the planet. gregd's astonishment at this article is understandable. If you're socking away tons money into savings each month, you need to take a look at yourself [YES THIS MEANS YOU, person hovering over the "reply" button], stop and look at yourself and realize you are one of a very lucky privileged few who can afford such a luxury. Be thankful for it, and don't pretend to be surprised that everyone here is not equally fortunate.

gregd 11y ago
The responses I got were along the lines of "if you aren't saving %#% of your income per month, you're living beyond your means". I've lived paycheck to paycheck my entire existence and I'm almost 50 years old. I've had every job imaginable; built custom cabinets for private jets, managed a laundromat, managed a liquor store, cleaned houses, firefighter, managed a furniture store (sold a million dollars worth of furniture in 2 years, in a town of 16,000 people) and my IT career has spanned 20 years. I’ve worked all types of IT from state governments to one of the largest tech companies in the world. And yet, I still live paycheck to paycheck.