When to QUIT your job (6 RULES)

There's one question I keep getting asked and it's Nisha. When is the right time to quit my job? I quit my job after nine years in corporate and two months before a six-figure bonus and I did that whilst taking almost zero financial risk. Fast forward three years and it's turned out to be one of the best decisions I've made but that is only because I followed these six rules first. And rule number one is don't quit just because you hate your job. Quit because you've made it possible to leave. Because after a horrible week at work or when your boss says something that just pushes you over the edge, most of us have had that moment where we think that is it. I'm done. I'm handing in my notice. And in that moment, it sounds like the best idea ever because there's no more annoying emails that you're going to have to deal with. No more Sunday night anxiety. No more waking up on Monday wishing you were somewhere else. But what we don't think about is the possibility of fast forwarding a few weeks where you're sitting at home, you've got a rent or mortgage to pay, bills coming out of your account and suddenly you're thinking, wait, how am I going to pay for all of this? And that freedom that you were so excited about doesn't feel quite so freeing anymore because now maybe you're having to rely on your partner financially, which you don't want to do. Or you're dipping into your savings every month and you're feeling stressed out and now you're wishing that you probably hadn't quit in the first place. And eventually you start thinking, maybe I should just go back because what you've done is swap one type of stress for another. So before you quit, you want to make sure you can actually afford to live without that salary coming in. And there are three ways you can do that. Which one you go for really depends on your personality and financial situation. So option one is cash. Work out everything that you actually need every month to survive. I'm talking about your essential expenses like your rent, bills, groceries, insurance, debt repayments, things that you genuinely have to pay for. Then multiply it by six and multiply it by 12. That range, you want anything between that range saved up depending on how cautious you want to be. And you might be thinking, why are you recommending six to 12 months? That's quite a lot. Isn't your emergency fund only meant to be three to six months? That's what you say in your other videos. Well, my answer is your three to six months of emergency savings is there for the unexpected. If you suddenly lose your job or you have an unexpected expense, it gives you enough time to get back on your feet without immediately panicking about money. But when you're choosing to quit your job, you're probably not going to get a redundancy package and you're probably not planning to start applying for another job the very next day. You're quitting because you want to take some time to do what comes next, whether that's starting a business, whether that's changing careers, whether that's creating something on the side or just simply taking a break. And if that's what you're doing, I want you to have enough money so that your lack of savings doesn't become the thing that you're thinking about every single day and that eventually forces you to go back. You want enough money behind you so that you can actually focus on the reason that you've quit in the first place. And if you're watching this video and you're thinking that is going to take me forever to save up, well, that's where option two and three comes in. And I did option three. So option two is having another source of income that can cover just your essential expenses. I'm not talking about everything, just the same number that you've added up in option one, your fundamental expenses. If you go for this, you don't necessarily need six or 12 months of expenses sitting in cash if you already have that money coming in somewhere else. Maybe you've started a business on the side, maybe you freelance, maybe you have rental income or investment income coming from your stock portfolio. The point is that your salary isn't the only thing that you have to rely on to keep yourself afloat. But this is important. I wouldn't count on this just because you've had one good month. I wouldn't say, OK, I've got one month of proof that I'm going to quit. I'd actually want to see that income consistently cover my living expenses for at least three months in a row, because that tells me that that isn't a fluke. It might not be a guarantee that my income is going to last forever, but it does give me a better indication that I've got something built that I could actually reliably rely on. And the more predictable that is, the less cash you need sitting on the sidelines because you can confidently still walk away from your salary without thinking, how am I going to pay for my basic living expenses? And then option three, and that is a combination. So I had some cash saved around nine months of my living expenses, and I had enough money coming in through my YouTube channel and my investment portfolio to cover my living expenses. So I had the security of knowing that even if things didn't work out immediately, I wasn't going to run out of money and didn't need to rely on anything else. And honestly, that feeling of just knowing you have a financial buffer behind you of some sort and a proof of concept, which I'll talk about in a moment, that idea can make such a difference to how you approach the next thing. So if you want to know how I kept my living expenses low at the time when I made this decision, I've got a video here that breaks it all down and how much I spent in a week. And if you want to know how I built my investment portfolio so that it could cover my living expenses and I didn't need to rely on a salary, I've also got a free workshop happening this Sunday. All the details are in the description. It's 45 minutes and it's completely free. Now, moving on to the second rule, and that is a quiet quit to reclaim your time. So when I started this YouTube channel, I was still giving my job in banking my absolute all. I was trying to exceed expectations. I was trying to go above and beyond and be the best employee I could possibly be. And in hindsight, I wouldn't have done it that way. So I started creating content in December 2021. But until August 2022, my job was still the priority. And whenever work got busy, creating content on YouTube was the first thing that suffered. So I'd go weeks, sometimes months without posting or without doing anything creative. And I felt so guilty about doing anything less than 100% at my work that I'd rather let my passion project suffer. Eventually, I realized what I actually needed was more time and uninterrupted focus. So I went through multiple interview process, got another job just so I could take some time off in between to be able to focus. Now, if that same thing happened to me today and I was in that same position, I'd approach it slightly differently. I wouldn't overinvest in a career that I already knew I didn't want long term. And I probably wouldn't waste energy applying for new jobs. Instead, I would quiet quit, meaning I'll do the minimum that I need to do. So I'll still protect my reputation because you never know who you might end up working with in the future. But I would stop giving the company all my time and energy. And I'd use that saved energy and time to focus on what's next. Because really, if you've decided you want to quit your job, then your job should really be funding your next move. It shouldn't be getting in the way of it. And that is where we move on to rule number three, which is, and I cannot emphasize how important this is because it might sound a bit inconvenient when I say it. And you might have to give up some of your personal time to do it. But it's so important. And that is test what is next. One of the biggest mistakes you can make when quitting your job is assuming that whatever you do next will automatically be better. Because sometimes you don't actually want to quit your job. You just want to quit the current situation that you're in. What do I mean by this? Say you hate your boss. You're burnt out. You're bored. You're unfulfilled. You're underpaid. And suddenly you're thinking, maybe I'll start a business. Maybe I'll become a creator. Maybe I'll completely change careers. But just because something is different doesn't mean it's better than the thing you have right now. So before you quit, test it. If you want to start a specific business, start it while you still have your salary. Get a customer. Make your first one pound or one dollar. If you want to change careers, talk to people actually doing the job of the career that you want to do. Find out what their day-to-day is really like, including the parts that they hate. And if you can, find a way to actually shadow them or try the work before you commit to it. If you want to become a creator, start creating. Don't wait until you've quit your job. Don't wait until you've bought that camera that's fancy and announced your new career to everyone. Just start making the videos now with your phone and see whether you actually enjoy creating and whether anyone enjoys watching them. I'm not saying you need to prove that your new life will definitely work, but you do just need some proof of concept, something that makes you think, I've tested this for myself and I know that there's something there. And if it doesn't work, you try something else and then you try something else and you try something else and you try the next thing. You just don't want to quit your job and then discover that the thing you thought you wanted isn't actually what you wanted at all. And the beauty about doing it this way is you're experimenting while you're still getting a salary. Number four, calculate the total cost of saying. There's this quote that you've probably heard of and it's, if you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life. I don't believe you need to love your job, but I do think you need to ask yourself, is the money I'm earning worth what I'm giving up to earn it? So when I was deciding whether to leave my job, I knew I was potentially giving up a lot of money. At the time, I thought my side hustle was going to pay me around $3,500 equivalent a month and my day job was paying me over $20,000 equivalent a month. Both of these numbers are pre-tax. So financially, on paper, that looked like a really terrible trade. I was potentially giving up more than $200,000 a year to do something that I had no idea whether or not it would become anything big. But for me, at that point in my life, it was totally worth it because I got a completely different kind of fulfillment from teaching people about personal finance. I enjoyed making the videos. I enjoyed having an impact. I enjoyed the freedom of doing my own thing. And I could see myself being much happier doing this than spending another year in a job that I'd grown to hate. And that job, despite it making me way more money, was now costing me in pursuing other opportunities. It was costing me my relationships. It was costing my health, my energy, and ultimately the life that I wanted to build. That doesn't mean this is the same decision. That is going to work for you. And in fact, I have some friends making over $200,000 to $300,000 a year now, and they absolutely hate what they do. But that money is paying for the beautiful home that they've bought. It's paying for a full-time nanny. It's paying for incredible experiences with their family, for financial security, for opportunities for the children that they didn't have growing up. So for them, the trade-off is worth it. They're willing to give up some fulfillment and fun and maybe some freedom in exchange for the things that money enables them to have, because those things are what they value more. And neither is right. Neither is wrong. But you do have to ask yourself, what is this job costing me? And is the trade-off worth it? If you're watching this thinking, I'd love to start a business one day, chances are you probably already have an idea. The part that is stopping you is everything that comes after. Building a website, setting up payments, managing inventory, shipping orders. It can feel very overwhelming and has definitely kept me overthinking for far too long. When I started my business with Shopify, it took away all of those constraints. It handled the technical side so I could focus on what I actually enjoyed, which is creating content, building a community and a product. Having one platform that streamlines the setup and the backend is such a huge unlock. Whether you're selling online or in person, Shopify has everything you need to help you do that. And it grows with you as your business grows, whatever stage your business is at. So if you haven't already, sign up at Shopify.com forward slash Nisha. That's Shopify.com forward slash Nisha. Number five, be really aggressive with your money right before you quit. Because the months before you quit are not the time to start spending more because you're thinking, I'm miserable, I hate my job, so I might as well enjoy the money whilst I'm here. I would actually, and what I did was the exact opposite. I got extremely disciplined with my money and really cut out any unnecessary spending. I would pay down any debt. I would massively build up my cash reserve. I'd cut back on all the things you want but don't actually need. Because every extra you save now is money you don't have to earn or think about immediately after you leave. And you'll be very, very, very thankful when you're on the other side of that decision. Because that discipline that you really had up until the time that you quit, maybe it gives your business another six months to work. Maybe it simply means you can say no when the wrong opportunity comes along. Maybe it means having another month off and you don't have to live in this extreme disciplined place forever. You're just creating a temporary period of financial intensity so that when you leave, you have as much freedom in that part of your life as possible. And number six, I have here follow the law of least regret. You can do everything I've talked about in this video and still not feel ready. You can have the savings. You can have the plan. You can test what's next. And you can still think, what if I make the wrong decision? And when I got to this point, I used the law of least regret. Ask yourself, which decision am I least likely to regret? So imagine yourself 10 years, 20 years from now. You stayed. You made good money. You were comfortable. Maybe your life was pretty fine, but you never found out what could have happened had you left and given that thing a go. Now, imagine the other version. You left. You gave it a shot, whatever that thing is that you wanted to do. Maybe it paid off. Maybe it worked brilliantly. Maybe you had the best time of your life. Maybe it didn't. Maybe you eventually had to get another job, but at least you know you tried. Which version would you least regret? So for me, the answer was super clear. If what I was creating on the side had never taken off, and today I was still in banking, I don't think that I would be that upset. I'd be able to look back and say, well, I tried. It didn't work, but at least I gave it a shot. Now I'm really grateful that I have this job because I've tested the alternative, and I'd rather have a salary and something that I can rely on. But if today I was still in banking, looking back at my life, and I thought, what could I have built if I'd just given myself the chance? That would be a position that I would really regret. Most failure is recoverable. You can get another job. You can make more money. You can change direction. But some opportunities, they are time-bound. They don't always come back. You might only have a certain amount of time, or energy, or freedom, or appetite for risk at any given point in your life. And if you keep telling yourself, I'll do it one day, you might eventually find that that one day has passed, and it's not coming back. So if you're at a place where you're at crossroads, ask yourself, which of these decisions would I most regret 10 years from now? Thanks so much for watching. If you like this video, you might enjoy this video, which is all about how life is so short, and how to spend it wisely, and how to take some risks. Thanks so much for watching. See you later.