A Detailed Look Into Quitting Before My Side Hustles Cover My Expenditure

A response to Dennis De Silva

This is a great piece! I am 21 so I am able to take a lot more risks but this still applies and I agree wholeheartedly.

I think the biggest thing is to make sure you not only plan for the worst-case (complete failure and having to return to work) but also to allow more than enough time for things to get off the ground.

I plan to quit my job in about 3 months with about 1.5 years worth of expenses (potentially more). I don’t have any other income sources at the moment but have about 5 projects I am working on, and how I am going to make money from them. On top of this, these projects are spread across multiple skill sets that I plan to utilise for future business ventures (writing, coding, video production, social media, marketing and fitness) and thus even in the worst case, I come out on top. As long as I can cover my expenses by the end, I have reached my best case - my expenses are very low, about $18,000 AUD or 14,000 USD.

I have alternate routes as well for the scenario that it fails and I can't get a job in time; using services like door dash and Uber Eats as I live just outside the city, clinical trials, freelancing with my skills using my business projects as evidence of my capability, etc.

I have also already been planning on building a robust set of skills for getting a job and re-entering the workforce in case this venture of mine does fail by leveraging my young age and having different jobs in different industries.

I went from a cashier in Retail, to a Call Centre Representative in Transport and Logistics, to a Factory Cleaner in Food Processing. I have experience in 3 different roles in 3 different industries and made sure to maintain a good relationship with each employer, all of which have found me to be a hard worker.

Therefore, due to my low expenditure, I can survive off minimum wage and therefore can either get a base level no-experience job in any of the industries I have previously worked in, or I can get a reasonably well-paying job for my age under the specific job titles I had previously.

If it flops, I gain experience and a better understanding of how long it should take. If it works out... great, I will be self-employed at the age of 22.

I just thought I would write a response giving a detailed look into a person's consideration when quitting a job before the side hustle income is ready to support them.