Wolf Tivy’s essay Quit Your Job is easily the best thing I’ve read on the internet in some time. You should carve out thirty unhurried minutes and go read it. I wish I had been able to write it. If you can read it and action it, allow me to be another voice of encouragement to do so.
That said, the essay will induce real change in only a small percentage of readers as it stands, I think, because most people will peel off when he writes “you already have the ‘fuck you’ money and the privilege to build a better future”. Most people will, at this point, think “oh: he’s talking about someone else. Because I certainly don’t have any “fuck you” money - not enough, anyways.”
Many people don’t realize how close they are to enough fuck you money. I bet that there are huge swathes of the population that are only 3-12 months away from being able to take Tivy’s leap of faith with some assurance that they won’t dash themselves to pieces on the rocks below and have to crawl back to their jobs, tails tucked, within months. I was one of those people, and my circumstance wasn’t that rare, so I know it can be done.
Tivy’s essay just needs a bit of practical guidance in order to reach many more people. What’s needed is just a bit of frugality praxis; a dash of nonconsumer mindset shift; a touch of strategic lifestyle systems thinking.
Slash your Big Three (housing, transportation, and food). Move closer to the things you need to go to, like work and the grocery story, and sell your car. Or, end your lease and live in a van. Move into a smaller house with roommates. Stop eating out and learn to cook tasty food. There are a million unique ways you can cut these expenses.
Stop spending money on consumer goods; commit to a Buy Nothing Year.
Sell some of your toys. You’re building a more meaningful life and won’t enjoy them much soon because you’ll see the inefficiency and waste inherent in them. You’ll get the things you used those toys for - thrills, adventure, novelty, socialization - for far less money elsewhere. You can’t buy the good life, but you can miss a good life by spending too much time working to buy toys.
Stop consuming numbing entertainments - at least stop paying so much for them. Cancel Netflix, Prime, Spotify, and either your cell phone plan, your internet service, or both.
Spend a few hours learning about Personal Finance, so you know what to do with your surplus income. The FIRE community is your resource here - start with the Mad FIentist. (Don’t let any of those folks talk you into thinking you “need” 25x cost of living saved before you can quit your job. You are doing something different than they are.)
Do the above and you’ll be saving well over half of your income. Do that for three to twelve months, reread Tivy’s essay, and then quit your job.