Quitting a job is a delicate act – you’re trying to move onto something better without burning bridges at your old employment. If you’re curious about how it can be done, here are some practical tips to help.

Before You Quit Your Job, Set Yourself Up For Success

If you want to make sure you have some sort of financial safety net in place before you quit, start preparing now. You don’t want to be stuck with no job and bills to pay. What can you do to make it work?

• Get a second job. Working on the side part-time while still working your full time job can keep your finances on track as you make the leap to your next job.
• Remove the junk. Review all the clutter around your house and see if you can sell your junk and get some decent money to help you when you quite your job.
• Lower expenses. Before you give your two weeks’ notice, give yourself a test run and start trim unnecessary expenses. Any money saved can be used to help with the job move or with another career goal.

What’s a Freedom Fund?

The best way to think of your job freedom fund is as a career emergency fund. Should you need to jump ship, you’ll want to have something saved up to help you make the transition – such as moving cross country or take a necessary course to get certified. 

This is about investing for yourself. You don’t want to pass up on a once in a lifetime career or opportunity, because you didn’t have a safety net for yourself and/or your family.

How Much Money Do You Need?

There are a few factor you’ll need to consider to determine how much you need in your job freedom fund:

• How quickly can you expect to find another job in your industry? Some careers right now are stalling because it’s hard to switch over to better jobs. When answering this question, please be realistic with your estimates. It can help
• Do you have a job offer already? With many people a bit more cautious before jumping ship, many wait until they have a comepeting offer. That makes sense – you don’t need as much to money with the transition.
• Do you have to move to find another job? We had to move for a job opportunity ourselves a couple of years ago.

Everyone’s numbers will be different. You can’t be comparing yourself to others with the amount. It’s something you have to calculate for your situation.

How to Save Money Each Month

For us, automating deposits into savings has been a huge help for us. We try to keep our savings as a bill, meaning it is a part of our budget. We incorporate it as if it was non-negotiable. With that mindset, we have been able to achieve certain saving goals for our family. We start with a goal and then break it down to monthly deposits.

Don’t be discouraged if you can only allocate a certain amount each month, it’s better to start small and build from there than just wait for a raise to help you put down more money.

If you need ideas on day to day savings, MD has a great post on that exact topic. You may surprise yourself with how much you can save in one year.

Make sure whatever bank or credit union you choose that it has some important features to protect your savings:

• Covered by FDIC/NCUA
• No monthly maintenance fee
• $0 required minimum balance
• Earn a reasonable interest rate

While higher earning interest is a great goal, the main focus is to have the fund ready to use when you need it. That’s why I recommend not keeping it in a certificate of deposit (CD) or investing it in the stock market in hopes of getting a higher return.

Thoughts on Quitting a Job

How did you know it was time to quit your job? How did you prepare to make the transition? How successful were you? Are you deciding if it’s time to quit? Don’t forget to check out last week’s post on signs that you should quit your job.

Photo Credit: alancleaver_2000

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Good Morning Everyone! Yesterday was my first day at a new bank branch.  After 5 years of working at my previous bank branch I was proactively transferred to a branch closer to home.  Although I have been working for my employer for many years I was both excited and nervous about my first day at work.  Starting at a new bank branch was just like starting my first day of work with the company…minus the training.

The bank world is very small and there is always someone in one bank branch who knows someone else in another branch.  The world of Financial Planners is even smaller.  I very often run into the same small group of Financial Planners at training sessions, seminars, and events. All this to say that it is very important to make a good first impression because before we even start our new job (if we transferred) people have probably already heard something about our work habits, our personality, and our track record.

Here are Some Helpful Tips on How to Make a Good First Impression on Your First Day:

Be 5 Minutes Early. It is better to leave your house early and arrive 5 minutes early at work than it is to arrive exactly on time or take the risk of being late.  However, try not to be more than 10 minutes early because that is also noticed.  I actually once had a former manager make a comment when I was 15 minutes early on my first day.

Keep Smiling. The first day at a new office or a new job can be tough.  The unfamiliar is always uncomfortable, but we just have to keep smiling.  A positive attitude can definitely help us fit in with our new colleagues and it can also help advance our career in the future. Nobody likes a negative person.

Eat in the Lunch Room. I know that our first day at a new job can be overwhelming; and the thought of spending our lunch hour alone to decompress can be tempting.  However, this is a big mistake.  As awkward as it is to sit in a lunchroom full of people that we don’t know, we will never get to know them if we don’t spend time with them and break the ice.

Ask Intelligent Questions. Even though we may not know our new colleagues yet, the one thing that we all have in common is our employer.  We should ask questions related to our work in order to break the ice and open the doors of communication with our co workers. Generally people like to be needed, and talking about something that we have in common is always an easy way to start communicating with others.  Be careful not to ask too many questions, and don’t always ask the same co worker; we definitely don’t want to become annoying.

Be Professional. We definitely do want to talk with our colleagues, but we should keep the talk to a professional manner, at least for the first week.  Subjects such as previous work experience, how we applied for the job, why we chose our current employer, and the interview process are all very professional discussions.  How we dress and present ourselves is also very important.  Our clothes should always remain professional.  If you aren’t sure if your outfit is professional or not, the odds are that it is not; so we should leave it at home.

Photo by Senekin

As we near the end of our discussion on entrepreneurship, it’s only natural that we look at the other side of the equation, which involves remaining an employee within your company. With the lack of objective definition it’s easy to become unhappy in the workplace. Everywhere you turn you see pieces on quitting your job and becoming self-employed. Today I wanted to look at some ways that you can become a happy employee and not worry about leaving your work any time soon.

Set an objective definition.

It could be the lack of goals or objective definition that’s holding you back from being happy as an employee. Do you have an end goal? Have you set short to medium term goals? Do you have a long term plan? I find with being an employee that you need to set goals for yourself because at the end of the day you work for ME Inc. Nobody will ever care about your financial situation as much as you do. The only way to secure a strong future financial situation is to set specific goals for yourself. Do you want to move into management in the future? Do you want to use your current employer has a reference for a dream job when you’re older? If you set some clear cut objectives you’ll find yourself more happy and motivated as an employee.

Try to work your way up the ranks.

Entrepreneurship is popular, but why isn’t intrapreneurship common? Rarely do we see pieces on moving up within a company and leading a team. You can easily become a leader in your company by undertaking challenging projects and motivating others. You’ll become much more happier as an employee once you see your peers are looking up to you and taking direction from you. If there’s a lack of growth opportunities in your current place of employment, it’s time that you switch to a new job so that you can experience what it feels like to be a happy employee once again.

Learn from others.

Whenever I start a new job or anything new in life my goal is to try to learn from others. At one point we will be a beginner at something and someone else out there will be at the advanced level. I find it to be exciting trying to go from beginner to advanced, in any area of life. This is the same as investing for beginners and getting started with your new life. When you start with your company you might just be the intern or hold some mundane job. The thrill comes in moving up the ranks and learning from others. Some will just complain and moan about their position. Those that are truly ambitious will do whatever they can to learn from others and improve their position.

Once you do everything you can to improve your experience at work you can try out some other ideas at home to ensure that you’ll remain a happy employee.

Work on side projects.

I suggest that you try to keep yourself busy with projects that inspire you. Your 9-5 job can be your source of income. Then when you get home you can work on your side business or projects around the house that you really want to get done. When you have money coming in, it becomes much easier to invest money in yourself and side hobbies. You can also become a much happier employee when you realize that your full-time job is allowing you to enjoy other areas of yourself.

Take care of yourself.

Finally you need to start taking proper care of yourself. Working out and eating well will make you feel happier overall. The reason that you hate your current job could be caused by something as simple as your poor eating habits or lack of proper rest. Don’t let these hold you back from enjoying your job.

At the end of the day I want to stress that being a happy employee is possible and realistic. Too many people are jumping on the self-employed bandwagon and bashing 9-5 jobs.

Where do you guys stand? Are you a happy employee or do you want to try out the world of self-employment?

If you enjoyed this piece then I strongly urge you to check out the other articles in this series:

Being a Freelancer Pros and Cons
Being An Employee Pros and Cons
How You Can Moonlight Your Way to Success
How-to Start Your First Business

(photo credit: working word)