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Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs without anything planned. How did it go?

272 points by break_the_bank ↗ HN
This post is inspired by[0]. During the "great resignation" trend there were a lot of posts about people quitting due to burn out or otherwise. I wonder what they did end up doing.

I am not sure what I'd do if I'd quit. Maybe travel for a bit doing nothing and then start my own thing.

[0]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26407560

318 comments

[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 274 ms ] thread
popotamonga
I quit just last week. Saved up 10 years worth of salaries. Currently on the doing nothing stage. Doing more sports, running/cycling everyday, taking my time to cook, more time for kids, so far so good, i have no plans for the future, whatever happens happens. Previously i was working 15 hours a day, i did like my job but was impacting my health severely.
orangepanda
Surely there's a balance between working 15 hours a day to save 10 years of salary versus doing nothing?
echelon
Perhaps it was for a startup that had a substantial exit? You could save up 10 years of salary in just a few. But the demands for those few years could be really steep.
Quindecillion
What job do you like doing 15 hours a day? Genuinely curious...
[deleted]
(comment deleted)
jagger27
Maybe some sort of artist? I’m sure there’s someone out there who likes to live like that.
yetihehe
> I quit just last week. Saved up 10 years worth of salaries.

"Having 10 years worth of salaries" is almost on the opposite side of spectrum than "without anything planned".

MichaelBurge
Money isn't the same thing as a plan. If anything, it's the exact opposite: You have the freedom to do many things, so there's more uncertainty than someone with less money.
yetihehe
Such differences can be called "academic", useful if you don't have a plan, not really useful for people without money. If you have money, you don't really need a plan, so whole discussion is then moot.
puszczyk
Tell it to yahoo.

Money is obviously a great help, and saving money aside is a great hedge against future risks (so you can call it a plan).

I think that the OP had no “career” plan in mind. You can burn through all the money in the world if you are not careful.

But again, having money helps immensely whether you have a plan or not. If possible do put some aside for future emergencies or crises.

robocat
That comes across to me as being thoughtlessly dismissive.

Money helps, but there are a huge number of other factors that are just as important. That is demonstrated by the number of answers here by people that quit without having money, and the variety of stories and outcomes.

I quit my job a few years back, and I believe I have the financial runway to do so, but I am still unsure if it was a good idea.

Not working is weird because most of my peer group works. I have found there are social costs to not working. I find that not working has other significant issues, even though I have had plenty of chance to learn mitigations (I have had multiple job sabbaticals in my life e.g. travelling when I had little money).

I would be happy to work again, if it were a job that invigorated me rather than slowly killing me. Our time is our most valuable asset, and every second our remaining balance diminishes.

There is a certain amount of mystical or wishful thinking while working, about quitting work and relaxing or refocusing for a while. I have found reality turns out to be more mundane.

It is still my ongoing choice not to work, but the consequences of that decision are not quite so clear cut.

selestify
Also, only 10 years of salary means you'll eventually have to start working again... so no plan means that you don't know what you'll do after 10 years
beardyw
If the money is sensibly invested an adjustment in lifestyle might allow you to live on it a considerable time, or even indefinitely.
Archelaos
No necessarily. It depends on a person's yearly expenses. If, for example, she was able to save 10 years salery in 20 years, it would mean that she consumes only 5 % of the total savings per year. This sounds quite sustainable, because you need only to achieve a 5 % return on investment (after inflation) on the savings to live just from these returns not touching the savings at all.
DavidPeiffer
The runway length is dependent on their expenses. If they earned 100k and spent 50k, it would last 20 years assuming no investment returns. If they spend around 4% of their 10 years salary annually, they're very likely to be fine for 30+ years as long as it's invested reasonably.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_study

popotamonga
Left out my wife is still working and its enough for 70% of living expenses.
VRay
Now you follow The Way of the House Husband
snarf21
That much money means you don't need a plan.
andi999
Money is worse than a plan, because until you run out of money you do not need a plan.
ridaj
Practical question: if you're in the US, how do you deal with health insurance?
paulgb
I'm not OP but when I quit my job earlier this year I went with a plan from the healthcare marketplace. It's not cheap, but that's the reality of US health care.

COBRA is also an option for a limited amount of time after leaving.

mxuribe
The cost of healthcare in the U.S. is the only reason that I don't take (often higher per hour paying) contract roles. Also, i'm a great wingman for sales but not great as sales lead or generating sales, else I'd have gone into business for myself. (And, no, skipping health insurance is not an option at all for me.)
mgkimsal
I understood that mentality, somewhat, in the past, but what is preventing you from purchasing a plan under ACA?
corysama
That's what I did when I took a couple years off. If you think of health insurance as disaster coverage, the "cheap" ACA coverage has a better worse case than the premo platinum offerings.

Under https://www.coveredca.com/health/coverage-levels/bronze/hdhp... coverage for an individual 40 year old making $150K/year will cost you $6k/year with an out-of-pocket max of $7K/year. Not great on either end. But, not disaster either.

But, if your income is $30K/year, the cost drops to $0.0 to $1200 per year.

yardie
Move abroad and get an international health insurance plan. Price of 1 months premium covers the annual premium for an international gold plated plan.

If I didn't have a child in school I'd be on a plane to the Caribbean so fast.

rokhayakebe
Do they have good schools in the Caribbean?
CrazyPyroLinux
I'm looking into crowdhealth or a health share. I'm young(ish) and healthy; ymmv.
walktheplank
In my situation, I used COBRA.
cweill
Same here. Too bad it only lasts 6 months.
walktheplank
In my case, COBRA was available for 18 months after resignation. It is certainly expensive comparatively.
Ken_Adler
ACA (ObamaCare) is available. Your monthly cost for top tier coverage can be as low as ~$5 a month for a family of 4.

The qualifying income cap is based on you anticipated "Modified Adjusted Gross Income". They don't count assets. This means that if you may have losses that bring your income for the year down to the income limits, then you can honestly say that and get subsidies. If you currently don't have any income, but you can imagine yourself earning the minimum income in the calendar year, then you can claim that. (If you are lower than the minimum for ACA, you will get MediCal for free)

For example, in California, for a family of 4, if you can honestly estimate that after potential losses and potential earnings, your modified adjusted gross income would be between $39,750 - $53,000, you can get top tier coverage for ~ $5 a month, no co-pay, very low prescription costs.

If your situation changes (you start working again) you just notify the state and either pay a higher rate or cancel and use your new company's plan.

Search for "2022 ACA Income limits [your state]"

Here is the 2022 chart for California: https://www.coveredca.com/pdfs/FPL-chart.pdf

ridaj
Thanks for the very informative answer!
f0e4c2f7
May I suggest that if there is a book you've always wanted to read now might be a time you could really enjoy it!
turnsout
I think that's called retirement?
moeadham
I did this in 2010 and I now run a profitable software company with 45 employees.

Do it. There is literally no downside. If things don’t work out, you can just go back to the company you left. They will take you back!

elcomet
> There is literally no downside

If you have suffient savings.. Which is definitely not the case for most people

xwdv
Literally no downside?

I can think of a few: there’s a good chance it doesn’t work out and you find yourself running an unprofitable business working harder to make much less than your old software engineering job.

otachack
OP probably has in mind that you can always go back to your previous employer, or find a job in the hot market.

I worry people keep thinking it will always be hot. I personally have been listening to podcasts of veteran people in the tech world and many lived through the dotcom crash where the "hot market" went all of a sudden cold.

Hot or not, they did live through it and made remarkable things along the way. My advice, make sure you have runway to live off your savings for the duration you initially want and save for 2-3x that. Life is too short to be grinding until retirement, though I imagine paths where if you have a high salary you may hit retirement earlier than other generations.

zikduruqe
> There is literally no downside.

Lack of medical benefits for a disabled family member. Lack of house. Lack of food. Lack of electricity.

Nope, can't see any downside.

samcolson4
I quit just before lockdown hit in the UK. Had planned to walk Lands end to John O'Groats and then get another job in a similar field, but obviously COVID put a stop to that.

I had saved up a lot, so I just gave myself a lot of time to think and re-assess what I wanted to do with my life. Ended up becoming a developer. So overall, very positive experience and I couldn't imagine going back to my old job now.

smarx007
What was your previous trade?
xoac
I was very much burnt out from work and had some other Life Stuff happen so I sort of had to do it. I have some savings so I'm taking it slow to get back into looking for work etc.

I would say it's not going great, but my hand was forced a bit.

noolryvfr
Would also love to know, sometimes I feel like to really change paths, I can't do the whole interview and switch thing while employed, but I'm scared of "falling off the train" if that makes sense. Also I do take other's experiences with a grain of salt, but in general appreciate seeing things from others' points of view.
dempseye
> I can't do the whole interview and switch thing while employed

Why not?

osrec
I quit my investment banking job in 2017 and set up my own SaaS. Very tough for the first two years, making little to no money (but I had a good amount of savings). Four years since quitting, I'm better off (many times over), both financially and in terms of how much time I have to do the things I want to.

Not for the faint hearted, but I definitely recommend it.

thegypsyking
How did you know what to build?
osrec
I had an idea cooking away in the back of my mind for a few years, but never really managed to build it, as my job demanded too much of my time.
shnock
What is your business model?
osrec
We have a standard "fremium" model, and then do custom deployments for larger clients. 95% of our revenue now comes from the larger clients.
randomopining
So SaaS is just some online app that does something that somebody pays you a monthly recurring fee for?
osrec
Yes, but not always monthly. Sometimes we have 1, 3 or 5 year contracts as well.
hericium
I tend to have 2-3 months of new hobbies picking between jobs. It is easy to unnotice burning out but harder to pick oneself up after it happens. A start of a burnout has always been the main reason for me to move away/forward from a job.

I find vacationing between jobs more rewarding than during a job. My mind is clear and I have increasingly more willingness to try and do new stuff. It's easier for me to pick up new hobbies where there is no unpleasantness that I have to go back to soon.

I have a comfort of working in a field where landing a job is easy enough not to worry that quitting will result in homelessness.

xyzzy21
1. Have savings

2. Have your resume always up to date

3. Have a network of people who can hook you up

4. Take a deep breath, commit to leaving but do it on YOUR schedule - quitting on the spot is emotional, not rational - avoid doing that if you can.

Back in the day I learned something that my employer was doing that I knew I could not abide by. I did #4 but I had #1, #2 and #3. Within a month I had a job offer and so I THEN quit and took the new jobs. In the exit interview I told them exactly why I was leaving; and not surprisingly they didn't care. Decision validated!

ramraj07
I always hear have your resume up to date, how hard can it be to update your resume ? It can’t possibly take more than an hour or two?
millzlane
Not hard to update. But if you've been at a place for ten years in multiple roles. And haven't updated once...It's practically a rewrite, at least in the objective, skills, and employment duties sections. I'm going through this now and scrambling for job descriptions.
break_the_bank
I think I have #1, #2 and #3 sorted out. I am not sure if another Big Tech job is an answer for me. Its either doing an indie business, starting a startup or joining one, but yeah #1, #2 and #3 help. Definitely need some time to decompress before I make the move to working hard again.
[dead] myaccoun90
> 3. Have a network of people who can hook you up

This is easier said than done. When I had my company I could hire people on the spot (and did once).

What I've found is that most other people are big hat but no cattle. So, many might be surprised to find that their network of people are quite less connected in practice. Plan accordingly.

bil7
It's really nice to have an extended break where your return to work date is mutable. As long as you have some savings, surely you have recruiters messaging you enough on linkedin to find something quickly when you want to.
kevmo314
I quit Google after five years and moved to NYC right before the pandemic started.

Working on my startup now. Pays infinitely less but makes me a lot happier. I love getting put in situations I would've never dreamed I would be in.

My biggest lesson so far was that I should've left Google earlier. I didn't need nearly as much saved as I had expected. The only thing I could wish for is more friends who did the same. I do miss having coworkers.

break_the_bank
Did you stay the five years to see the initial grant / refreshers vest?
kevmo314
No otherwise I would've left after four. The hardest part to leave was my team. I did really like the people I worked with.
0xy
Alphabet stock is so high chances are he was still wearing golden handcuffs when he left due to stacked refreshers at a significantly lower price.
yawnxyz
I was laid off five years ago, and I never found another job. Ended up spending a month doing the Camino de Santiago in Spain, and doing more stuff like swing dancing.

Later on I met someone at a swing dance that I worked on a "side project" for a long time that became our current startup, which has been more meaningful to me than any job I've worked previously. (We're doing health and biotech and save people from horrible infections, but I'm a UX/full stack engineer).

I think that having had a tech job with tons of savings (and living in a cheap city in the South) really helped. Also, for many years I thought that a job was like air, and if you quit or lose your job you start suffocating, but the opposite has been true.

Lhiw
Would you recommend doing the Camino?

My wife and I are thinking about it.

hardlianotion
i certainly do. The Camino has routes from all over Europe and a fantastic set of traditions. The countryside is amazing and ever-varying. I walked sections in September, through Southern France, and at that time, the hostels were full of people with wonderful stories of how they arrived on the trail and what they planned to do next.
agomez314
Awesome story! I've been needing an excuse to do el camino. What route did you take and how was it?
gamerDude
I did a section of the Camino del Norte. And it was fantastic. In my.mind you've got two choices. The cheap route, which is staying at the hostels where the most people on the Camino go. Or you can live it up, as you'll be jumping into a new town at the end of everyday. We did a mix of both and it was a blast!
random42
I left my job in July, and took a bit of break to introspect, focus on my health, spend time taking care of my family members, did a few investments, read up a lot and figuring out what I want to do next.

I have just started to talk to people wrt to different jobs, although I am not sure I want to take up another job. will figure it out in due time.

brianf0
I did this. Started a drop shipping business with friends. That didn’t pan out. Then tried to build a startup. That didn’t pan out either, so I started consulting. It was fine, but consulting and full time employment are really two sides of the same coin. I figured I might as well get the benefits and equity that come with full time roles. Since quitting I have more than doubled my previous salary, and gained a ton of front end knowledge I never would have learned just by working at my old job.
lvl100
I think it’s important to have detailed plans (daily schedules etc) to keep yourself busy albeit at leisurely pace. More importantly have specific goals. It doesn’t have to be career-oriented goals. It can be something simple like “learning to play an instrument”. If you’re planning on going back to the same field, have a side project going (doesn’t even have to be successful) to keep up with the latest technologies (toolings, trends, etc). This is especially important now because things move rather fast.

Don’t burn any bridges and keep regular contacts with people from your prior work. Do not completely unplug. Lastly, do focus on your mental health. I am assuming people who do this are burnt out and have worked stupid hours for years on end. It takes longer than you think to recover from all the physical and mental stress. Focus on yourself!

nettleseyeball
I worked at agencies for about 8 years and always wanted to go freelance. I handed in my 1 month notice with nothing lined up, created a LinkedIn, made a CV, sent some emails. I started my first freelance contract a week after my last day at my old job.

Honestly I thought I was going to take a while to get the ball rolling but nah it was super easy. Best choice I ever made. My life is 10 times better now. If you're thinking about it make sure you've got a bit of money saved just in case but otherwise go for it. Life is short.

cobertos
Not too bad, I'm still riding it a bit.

I went part-time at my coding job before the pandemic due to stress/anxiety from some unknown work-related source. I then quit during the pandemic from constant erosion of salary and quality of work life.

I ended up kinda floating undecided for a couple months. Tried a couple game jams and realized my dreams of game design were not my life-long calling.

Then needed money so ended up starting to freelance. I didn't really market myself, so I didn't have many clients, but I had one big one through a friend that paid well and I did a couple really big things for them.

I'm now doing a contract that's 3x my previous salary (but also 1099 so more taxes) and struggling to figure out if I'd ever want to be W2/full time employee again.

I also got about 6 or so months of near full-time work on a personal project, and it's been very enlightening to get that much effort behind something of my own for once. Also isolating socially

cko
I did this, with a passive income cushion from some investments. I live very simply. I found travel pretty boring after a few weeks. I found whatever I was doing outside of work (YouTube and mindless browsing) filled up all my free time after I quit.

I started learning web development but haven't had any ideas that stuck. I mean I had a lot of ideas before quitting but perhaps lack of motivation or discipline killed them all.

cobertos
Same feeling with the passive time being filled with YouTube. Hard to avoid as their app captures you at every interaction point. I just want to watch YouTube videos from friends...
bellyfullofbac
Try NewPipe if on Android: https://newpipe.net . You can disable comments and recommended videos, at night I just do a search on some of my favorite channels (despite everyone moaning "please like and subscribe" I think I have one channel I subscribe to, I guess I do miss a lot of things) to see if they have new content.
rootsudo
I've blocked Youtube, it's a bit easy via a HOSTS rule, or firewall level (littlesnitch on OSX is great) or such. The HOSTS rule is probably too much but the later isn't.

ublock also can remove comments, the front page of youtube, etc.

I don't block youtube now, but I don't have "mindless" browsing, it's like the front page of google.com. I search for exactly what I want, and no ads.

BlueTemplar
You can spend all your time in "mindful" rabbit holes too : consider Wikipedia...
sumtechguy
I did it accidently about 5 years ago, structured layoff and wildly good severance package. Had enough for 3-4 years of coasting. What I found for myself personally is that I did just that, coast. I did not have any great plans to do anything. I went back to work because I was bored. Days of YT, video games, and coursework can be interesting and all but after awhile it wears thin and I personally wanted to work on something a bit more interesting. But I had no 'interesting' ideas of my own. So I got a job and borrowed someone's. I lasted about 7 months before I was ready to go back to work and started applying anywhere. Would I recommend it? Not really. It may be time to jet from this place though.
cko
I actually lasted exactly 7 months myself, then went to work for 1 year. Quit again and now it's been almost two more years of coasting. I think it's time for me to get a job.
Svperstar
I was really sick of where I was living, I quit my job, drove across the country. Took one week off to relax, unpack, etc. Put up my resume on the usual sites and started getting calls 9 am the next day. Had a job in a week.
tunnuz
How do you make sure you don't get survivor bias from the responses to this post?
ajkjk
Great. I took three years off after the first three of my career, until my savings ran out. Easy enough on regular tech salary if you don't live extravagantly. I didn't use the time particularly well (I wish I had traveled a lot more, and for longer), but it was still good.

It's so strange that we expect adults to work continuously until they are too old to do so. Do whatever you feel like and can reasonably make work. If you don't want to work for a while, don't. Make it happen. Go make some art or start a band or hike across the country or live in the woods or make a video game or play sports or party a lot or get in great shape or read a lot of books or do a lot of volunteering or have a garden. Whatever. it's your life.

onion2k
I did this about a decade ago. I spent a couple of years just helping other people with web things (sort of consulting / freelancing, but more from an advice perspective than writing any code), and then some friends and I founded our first startup. It didn't work out in the end, but I had a fun 5 years or so learning a lot and helping people take their businesses online in ways that would be better than if I'd not been there. The startup, raising a couple of rounds, and closing down was quite fun too. I'm back being a proper developer again now.

If you have the resources to do it without too much risk then I'd definitely recommend it. You'll get a lot from it in terms of personal development and skills, but you'll probably end up with less money than you went in with. You can always make more money though.

getty
I saw burnout happen to a few guys around me, the work was pretty interesting but constantly moving goal posts caused a great deal of undue stress at work. I was also preparing to undergo a big change in my personal life too so decided to quit with a month’s notice. I’ve been off work since mid September and did a week long silent meditation retreat, walked/solo wild camped the Pennine Way for 16 days and spent some time in Rwanda exploring at my own pace.

In between i’ve been cycling, reading and working on things I neglected for the past few years. I feel much better for it

Today I’m going to polish my CV up and have started letting my network know I’m keen to work again. I have a better sense of what I want to do this time and tools to prevent as much stress in future

Aeolun
Depends on how much money you saved up. Did it once with barely any savings (<1 month) due to the toll it was taking on my health, and it was ultimately the right decision, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

Spend 4 months doing interview after interview and failing miserably (not in the bay area). Until I finally found my current position.

TOTG2
I quit my job early this year with no plan on what to do next. I had reached a savings milestone, and so had enough to feel secure with no plan.

In that time I travelled with my wife, found and nurtured a passion for guitar, and in retrospect it's been one of my favourite and most satisfying years in memory. I say in retrospect because I find it incredibly hard to recognize "happy times" in the moment. The hard parts of life always seem more apparent day to day. Also, it took me about a month to start feeling anything other than emptiness after I quit.

Having savings was SUPER helpful. It's taken a lot longer to find a job than I thought it would. I have a new one lined up, but at the moment I'm a little worried it's too soon.