{"id":32742,"date":"2020-10-05T22:52:57","date_gmt":"2020-10-06T03:52:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/?p=32742"},"modified":"2020-10-05T22:56:55","modified_gmt":"2020-10-06T03:56:55","slug":"you-always-need-enough-money-that-you-can-quit-when-its-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/?p=32742","title":{"rendered":"You always need enough money that you can quit when it\u2019s time"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Everybody knew Kent wasn\u2019t going to last long. He had been hired as sports editor of a small daily newspaper \u2014 and he was a disaster from the beginning.<\/p>\n

I watched it all happen because I was managing editor of a small weekly in the same company. I had friends in the daily paper\u2019s newsroom who were telling me everything as it happened. In his first week on the job, he and a local high school football coach were talking privately about a star player for an opposing team who had been injured in a shooting a couple of years before. A bullet had been left in his head after the shooting because it was too close to his brain. It was a miracle that he had returned to play football.<\/p>\n

Kent and the coach were talking about the player and were jokingly referring to him as \u201cBullet Brain\u201d in their private conversation, but Kent didn\u2019t have the judgment to know this wasn\u2019t something to be made public, so he quoted the coach \u2014 in a story that ran in the paper \u2014 calling the opposing player \u201cBullet Brain.\u201d<\/p>\n

He wasn\u2019t fired, but he clearly wasn\u2019t going to work out.<\/p>\n

After he had been there a few days \u2014 maybe a few weeks \u2014 everybody came back from lunch one day and noticed that Kent had left a note taped to his terminal. He had gone to lunch \u2014 and the note explained that he wasn\u2019t ever coming back.<\/p>\n

From that time on, the code phrase at that newspaper for quitting was “going to lunch.” We all joked about doing what Kent had done. At different times, we all wanted to. (I was promoted to be Kent\u2019s replacement, but that’s another story.)<\/p>\n

Everybody needs enough money set aside that he can \u201cgo to lunch\u201d one day and never come back. At some point, everybody needs to quit.<\/p>\n

Everybody ought to have \u201cI quit\u201d money \u2014 or “going to lunch” money, in our old terms. You need to have enough money set aside \u2014 at least six months of living expenses \u2014 that when you really feel the need, you can say \u201cI quit\u201d to wherever you\u2019re working. (More than six months would be even better.)<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t have a cushion of at least that much, you\u2019re going to feel trapped when you inevitably realize you need to leave a job \u2014 and you\u2019re probably going to step into a less-than-ideal situation instead, just out of desperation. Or worse, you\u2019ll stay where you know you shouldn\u2019t be.<\/p>\n

When I worked in politics, I had the freedom to “fire” my clients any time I decided they were more trouble than they were worth. Why? Because I had plenty of money. I could get rid of any client and I still had plenty of other work. And even if I had dumped every client in one day, I had enough money laying around to survive for several years without income.<\/p>\n

Today, I don’t have that freedom. If I decided I couldn’t take another day or week at my job, I would have to grit my teeth and find alternative income before walking out. Even though I have a great relationship with the owner of my company, there’s a lot less freedom when you feel you can’t leave. And I find that constricting \u2014 all because I don’t have “I quit” money. I can’t “go to lunch” if I need to.<\/p>\n

A job can be like a jail for many of us. I know from long experience that I ultimately need to work for myself, for reasons that are too complicated to get into here. Last winter, I had decided I was leaving my company this past summer \u2014 to pursue filmmaking instead \u2014 but the pandemic hit and changed the economics of everything. So I’m still there.<\/p>\n

Having money set aside is like having a “get out of jail free” card. You don’t necessarily have to use it, but knowing it’s there gives you the confidence and peace to know that you don’t have to put up with something which makes you miserable.<\/p>\n

I can live on far less today than I could 10 years ago. The money I need to pay for six months of living expenses is chicken feed by my old standards. If I had understood how important it was to always have such cash available, I would have made different decisions 10 or 15 years ago. I would have enough money today to give myself that option.<\/p>\n

We’re about to embark on an expansion at my company that could let me make even more than I used to make in politics. If that works out, I’m not going to spend it. I’m going to stay in my cheap little house and drive my cheap little car \u2014 and I’m going to set aside enough money to live on.<\/p>\n

I need enough money set aside that when I need to leave something \u2014 a job, a partnership, any situation \u2014 money will never be a consideration.<\/p>\n

The day will come when I need to “go to lunch” and not come back. You need to be prepared for such a situation in your own life, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Everybody knew Kent wasn\u2019t going to last long. He had been hired as sports editor of a small daily newspaper \u2014 and he was a disaster from the beginning. I watched it all happen because I was managing editor of a small weekly in the same company. I had friends in the daily paper\u2019s newsroom Keep Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-32742","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1x9iR-8w6","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32742"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32748,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32742\/revisions\/32748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}