What Happens When You Quit Your Job Without a Plan?

I had one year to make it work, without knowing what I was working towards.

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Ever since receiving my first full-time income, I had been putting money aside. Not to save up for vacations.

Every once in a while, I destroy everything and start afresh. This time, the plan was to save enough money for one year and use this year to figure out what the next step would be.

Despite earning minimum wage at my first full-time job (around $1250 net, so it’s nothing to brag about), I was able to save half of it by religiously tracking my expenses. I lived in an affordable room in a shared flat. The startup I worked at offered its employees a free lunch every day. This made a massive difference in my budget. Whatever was leftover, we were free to take home. I generously made use of this offer. My other remaining essential costs were groceries and my public transportation card.

I stayed at this job for nearly a year to save money. Afterward, I switched from startup to corp and increased my salary by almost $300.

That might seem like I moved forward, but this was not really the case. There were no free lunches at this company. Most of the increased salary went towards food. In the end, I saved the same amount I did at the…