Short answer: Quit your job when you have the right reasons to do so. And when you have those valid reasons (which I’ll share with you in a few), quit immediately and don’t wait another day.
Long Answer:
Well, first let’s discuss the reasons why one would like to leave a job. There are actually many various reasons for doing so, including:
- Burnout
- Wanting to find another job with higher pay and better environment
- Boredom
- Too much pressure at work
- Exhaustion
- Health reasons
- More time with family
- More time freedom
- To quit the job for good and find passive sources of income
I want to focus on the final two (2) items in the above list: quitting a job to gain freedom and to find passive sources of income. Because in my mind, those are the only two reasons why one should quit the job field for good (except retirement).
And when I say that, I mean totally quitting FOR GOOD, never to apply for a job again in this lifetime.
The other items in the list are all valid reasons to quit too, but sooner or later, when the problems that cause the resignation goes away, you will soon find yourself needing a job again. And that’s not what we want to talk about here.
Gaining Time Freedom
If you’ve worked for many years and you crave the freedom of not having to wake up to an alarm clock everday, congrats. You are starting to grow enough to fit into big man pants (or skirts).
When you find that your desire for time freedom is greater than your fear of not being able to pay the bills, that is a sure sign that you should quit the job.
It means something inside you is struggling to get out — it could be genius, an entrepreneurial mind, and massive potential. Don’t kill your potential by holding on to that job for a few more years.
Develop a plan for quitting as soon as possible.
But time freedom is directly tied up to money freedom. So before quitting, you have to make sure that you are properly transitioning to the next step:
Build Passive Forms Of Income
Unlike salary income, passive income is something you earn without working 8 hours a day or being paid per hour. Passive income is what you earn from assets that you build and own, such as:
- Income from business/es
- Income from investments such as stocks, real estate, crypto
- Income from royalties – from creative or literary work, patents, video channels, affiliate commissions, Adsense, etc
- Pension or inheritance income
- Interest income – from lumpsum of assets you have deposited somewhere
- etc.
So if you already have a clear plan for making money in any of the above sources, then it’s time to quit your job.
I don’t recommend going cold turkey and quitting a job BEFORE you’ve built sufficient passive income (that’s what I did), or at least have a very clear plan for doing so. Not everyone has the emotional capacity to deal with that kind of risk.
If you can do it, fine and good. If not, no pressure. Wait until you have enough assets built out and a nice regular passive income stream going.
The key is to invest in your mind so that you open your eyes to many different ways of making money ASIDE from working in a job.
The truth is, there are many ways to make money. A job is the poorest way to earn income because you’d have to trade your most valuable asset – your time. And last time I checked, time is a very limited commodity.
Life is short. So best to aim for more freedom, happiness, wealth — not on benefits, holidays, bonuses, and tedious meetings!
So there, we’ve answered the question “when is the best time to quit your job?”
- When your desire for freedom is greater than your fear or losing a salary
- When you have enough assets built out that pays you ongoing income, or when you have a clear, confident plan on how you plan to earn passive income.
You know yourself best and your risk appetite. Don’t let anyone, even me, dictate you into doing major moves that affect your future.
