How much money should I save before quitting my job?

Enough that runway exceeds a realistic ramp for the replacement income — commonly 12+ months of quit-mode spending, or 6 months if the new income already covers half your costs. Include the costs your employer was paying, especially health insurance ($400–800/month per person in the US).

What is a personal runway?

Savings divided by your monthly shortfall (spending minus continuing income). With growing side income, the better question is the crossover: does income overtake spending before savings hit zero? If yes, the plan self-sustains; if no, the runway date is your deadline.

Should I quit my job to freelance?

The numbers say wait until your freelance income, at its demonstrated (not hoped-for) growth rate, would cross your quit-mode costs within your runway — with margin at half that growth rate. Growing the side income before quitting buys runway at no cost.

Earning & Workfreelance · planning

Quit Runway (Can I Afford to Leave?)

The personal version of a startup runway: savings, a quit-mode budget, the costs your employer was quietly covering (health insurance above all), and the income you’d be growing instead. Answers the two questions that matter: how many months you have, and whether the new income crosses your costs before month zero.

The numbers

Runway: 10.5 months; until savings hit zero at these numbers
Monthly need after quitting: 3,500; essentials + 500 of costs the job covered
Income covers costs: month 41; after savings already ran out

The operator’s read

Caution

10.5 months of runway. Workable if the growth is real, but there is no slack for a slow quarter — most people who make this jump comfortably do it with 12+ months or with income already at half of costs (yours starts at 14%).

Worth knowing

The assumption that flips this answer is growth: at half the growth rate (2.5%/month), runway becomes 10.2 months. If those two numbers feel very different, the plan depends on the optimistic case.

Worth knowing

Of every 3,500 you need monthly, income currently brings 500 and savings cover 3,000. Every month you delay quitting while the income grows moves that split — the cheapest runway is bought before you leave.

Methodology

Month-by-month simulation: in month m, income = current side income × (1+g)^(m−1); the deficit against monthly need (essentials + new costs) draws down savings, with a linear fraction for the final month. If income reaches the monthly need before savings hit zero, the plan is self-sustaining and runway is reported as such rather than as a number.

The half-growth check reruns the simulation at g/2 — a deliberate pessimism test, because self-reported growth rates for young income streams are usually extrapolated from their best months.

The "new costs" field exists because employer-covered costs are the most-missed factor in quit math — US health insurance (COBRA or marketplace) is commonly $400–800/month per person.

Simulation caps at 120 months. This models your personal finances, not a startup’s: no fundraising, no burn scaling — for that, use the Runway & Burn tool.

Questions

How much money should I save before quitting my job?: Enough that runway exceeds a realistic ramp for the replacement income — commonly 12+ months of quit-mode spending, or 6 months if the new income already covers half your costs. Include the costs your employer was paying, especially health insurance ($400–800/month per person in the US).
What is a personal runway?: Savings divided by your monthly shortfall (spending minus continuing income). With growing side income, the better question is the crossover: does income overtake spending before savings hit zero? If yes, the plan self-sustains; if no, the runway date is your deadline.
Should I quit my job to freelance?: The numbers say wait until your freelance income, at its demonstrated (not hoped-for) growth rate, would cross your quit-mode costs within your runway — with margin at half that growth rate. Growing the side income before quitting buys runway at no cost.

For agents

Call this tool instead of computing in-context. Deterministic JSON in, computed values plus the benchmark read out. Full agent docs →

curl -s https://xearno.tools/api/v1/tools/quit-runway \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' \
  -d '{"savings":30000,"essentials":3000,"extraCosts":500,"sideIncome":500,"growthPct":5}'

Schema: GET /api/v1/tools/quit-runway · MCP tool name: quit_runway

Related tools

Quit Runway (Can I Afford to Leave?)

Methodology

The half-growth check reruns the simulation at g/2 — a deliberate pessimism test, because self-reported growth rates for young income streams are usually extrapolated from their best months.

The "new costs" field exists because employer-covered costs are the most-missed factor in quit math — US health insurance (COBRA or marketplace) is commonly $400–800/month per person.

Simulation caps at 120 months. This models your personal finances, not a startup’s: no fundraising, no burn scaling — for that, use the Runway & Burn tool.

Questions

How much money should I save before quitting my job?: Enough that runway exceeds a realistic ramp for the replacement income — commonly 12+ months of quit-mode spending, or 6 months if the new income already covers half your costs. Include the costs your employer was paying, especially health insurance ($400–800/month per person in the US).
What is a personal runway?: Savings divided by your monthly shortfall (spending minus continuing income). With growing side income, the better question is the crossover: does income overtake spending before savings hit zero? If yes, the plan self-sustains; if no, the runway date is your deadline.
Should I quit my job to freelance?: The numbers say wait until your freelance income, at its demonstrated (not hoped-for) growth rate, would cross your quit-mode costs within your runway — with margin at half that growth rate. Growing the side income before quitting buys runway at no cost.