Episode 3 - Financially Prepare For Quitting Your Big 4 Job in 5 Steps

In today’s episode, we’ll going to talk about your finances and how to financially prepare for quitting your big 4 job.  

Find the full show notes for the episode at RecovingCorpholics.com/3 and don't forget to jump over to Apple Podcasts and hit the subscribe button and leave a rating or review.

Ok so let’s dive in!

If you’re listening to this episode, that means you are ready to call is quits. But being ready doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re prepared to leave your job. 

You may be dreaming of telling your boss that your leaving (queue in the famous half-baked movie scene), but before you tell everyone to FU, FU, you’re cool, I’m out, - it’s so important that you have your finances in order. 

I get it, you may be working on another boring project, with a terrible team or are working 100 hours weeks and just need a break- but whatever the case may be, let’s take a step back from how were feeling and get prepared. 

Although it is tempting to just quit and have that huge weight lifted off your shoulders, what may be more stressful is trying to figure out how you’re going to pay your bills or having to move back home if you make the move to soon. 

So, if you must quit your job in order to job search or just want a break now, here are 5 steps to help you get financially ready to quit your Big 4 job.

Step #1 – Know what you spend money on

This is key, you need to track your spending. Even if you weren’t going to leave your job, this is oh so important. You may not realize just how much money you spend on things and when you look it all up, you might be quite surprised. 

That $5 latte you get every day? Well, that’s $100 a month, or $1,200 a year. Now if you go to Starbucks, you’re probably spending more than $5 but you get what I’m saying. And $1,200 may seem relatively small compared to your salary but this is just an example. 

Think about how much you go out to eat, or if you’re spending on new clothes, gadgets, whatever– everything adds up! And being used to making a big salary, you never had to think about these things but let me tell you, the sooner you do this, the easier it will get. 

And I want to caveat this step by saying this is not about saving money, this is all about budgeting and setting expectations on the lifestyle you live.  

You all know how to do this. You all are smart – you have to be if you’re working at a Big 4 so you know this isn’t something new. And I stress this because working at a Big 4 long enough, you get comfortable. 

You know the money is always coming in. You know you're always going to get a bonus but when switching jobs that’s outside of this world, or if you want to save for a house, etc., it’s time to get real with your finances. 

Step #2 Analyze your expenses

When you’re going through your finances, the first thing you want to look at is all of your fixed monthly expenses. This would include your rent or your mortgage/insurance, car payment, utilities, student loans, phone bills, etc. 

These are the most important to go through as they are not going away, You can choose to not get your latte everyday but you can’t just decide not to pay your rent. Total that up and keep it to the side. 

Then look at how much you are spending on other expenses each month, such as groceries, eating out, going out, purchases, etc. 

Also look at those sneaky monthly subscriptions as sometimes we forget about them - I’m taking about Netflix, Hulu, LinkedIn Pro, More apple or Google storage space, iTunes, Spotify, you name it! 

 Find the Full Show Notes here.