I Saved 3.8M Won a Month for 5 Years to Build My Resignation Fund—Should I Quit Now?
Last year I hit my resignation fund goal of 50 million won. I'm 31 now, and because I enjoy reading e-books and writing, I've been thinking about spending a year living as a 'recorder'... but lately I keep going back and forth on this decision.
I don't have much yet, but the fear of not taking a chance at 31 and regretting it at 40 feels stronger. Of course, I don't have a solid business idea or revenue plan, but I've set up a 'minimum living cost frame' that lets me live on under 1 million won a month for a year, and I already have experience doing freelance writing and two online lectures.
For anyone who quit and had a career break, I'm curious about how you prepared and what your experience was like. Especially, I'd love to hear vivid stories from people who resigned within the last 5 years.
3 answers
Agreed. If you don't do it now, you'll regret it for the rest of your life.
I also quit my job four years ago at 30 with 40 million won saved up. Instead of a one-year plan, I shortened it to six months and did freelance work while pursuing what I wanted. I ended up getting re-employed a year later, but that experience changed me a lot. That said, the minimum living cost framework is really important, and if you have teaching experience, use it to generate at least some income. The longer the career gap, the harder it is to return, so I recommend keeping the period short.
Well, at 31 you're not exactly old, and 50 million won is enough, but... living as a 'recorder' with no business idea or profit plan sounds pretty vague, doesn't it? Liking to read e-books and write is different from making money. If you have freelance writing + teaching experience, you should have expanded on that first and built a revenue structure before quitting. If you spend 1 million won a month for a year, that's 12 million won gone, and that one-year gap could be a hurdle when you look for a job again. Maybe you should run the numbers a bit more specifically.