When You’re Ready, Here’s How to Quit your Day Job
Find your bar and create your scenario, so you can make a plan.
Photo by Melissa Walker Horn on Unsplash
At some point every writer starts to think about the dream: quitting their day job and just being a writer.
In reality, most writers who write fulltime are able to do it sometimes. They get a contract or a good freelance gig and they can quit their day job. Then the money runs out and they start applying for jobs again.
I’ve been on a good run lately. I haven’t had a day job for three years.
I think that everyone who does this kind of work has a number — the minimum amount they need to earn before they need to start thinking about gainful employment.
My number is $24,000 a year. If I can do that with self-employment, I don’t need a day job. But really? I take it month-by-month. If I can make $2,000 a month as a writer, I don’t need a day job.
In simpler terms, if I can’t pay my rent next month, I’ll go look for a job.
But everyone is different. I was struck by how true that is during a recent conversation with my husband’s aunt when she laid her number on me: $3,000,000.
That’s three million.