Before quitting your job: the four-minute Friday test.
Before quitting your job, find out what else stops when the salary stops. The book's Friday test takes four minutes: four lines for health cover, borrowing, pension and your right to live where you are.
Imagine your salary stops on Friday.
Not a redundancy, and not a crisis. You resigned on good terms, and Friday is your last day. Now write down what else stops. Not what you spend, but what stops.
So use one sheet with four lines. Beside each one, write a number or the word “unknown”.
The four lines to check before quitting your job.
Line one is health cover. If it comes through your job, what would the same cover cost you personally this month? If it does not depend on your job, write “not applicable”.
Line two is borrowing. When does a lender next need to say yes to you? That includes a mortgage, a car, a lease or a rented flat. Line three is your pension, because your employer may add a percentage on top of yours. Also, it is on your payslip. Line four is permission to be where you are, since some visas depend on a job.
Why almost nobody has four numbers.
A salary arrives as one figure, so we remember it as one figure. Meanwhile, the other four were switched on quietly on your first day. So if you have fewer than four numbers, you are not yet ready to judge whether you can afford to leave.
Do the Friday test before quitting your job.
Write the four lines now: health cover, borrowing, pension, permission to be where you are.
Also, put a number or “unknown” beside each. Then turn every “unknown” into a number this week.
From the book.
Imagine your salary stops on Friday. Not a redundancy, not a crisis. You resigned on good terms and Friday is your last day.
I Want to Start a Business but I Can't Quit My Job, chapter 3: The salary is not a number
Questions about before quitting your job.
What should I do before quitting my job?
Price what else stops with the salary: health cover, borrowing, pension and residence. Then deal with each one in advance, not after you resign.
Should I get a mortgage before quitting my job?
If you need one soon, usually yes. Lenders in many countries want about two years of self-employed accounts, so the book's advice is to get the loan approved while you still look like an employee.
I feel worse after doing the test. Is that normal?
Yes. It usually means you priced leaving without pricing staying. The book adds the cost of staying in a later chapter.
Read the whole chapter.
This lesson covers one section of chapter 3, “The salary is not a number”. The book goes further, with the full evidence, the stories and every exercise.
