Jobs and stuff

I'm guessing the punchline....

Oh sorry, just your name and all that! 'Buried deep in my rut' has possibilities.

Yes me!

I saved up 4 months worth of savings (mainly because I didnt have any time to spend any money wth 4 hours commuting a day!), quit my job and now I run, work part time job in a very nice little shop and hopefully have a few others things to do starting soon, like a phd and another job in fitness. I've been full time free for about 4 weeks now

Key things:

Do it!
Make sure you have some idea what you want to do, but dont be snooty, just do whatever pays the bills for a while, you'll find your niche.
Expect to be poor - resize your exepctations for a while
Have fun I have never been so happy

And fucking is rarely dull if you do it well.

yes, i left a boring job - working in payroll inhouse, for an exciting one, working for a payroll bureau

one of my best decisions 

Seven years ago while unemployed, I helped an elderly neighbour with her garden. While doing this I had several enquiries as to whether I did this for a living. Potential then.

Only way to really find out how to do something is go and do it.

I placed an advert in a newsagent window. 'Do you need help with your garden?'

That ad stayed three weeks. The following year the ad stayed just one week.

Never advertised since. Some of the early enquiries weren't too great but over time I've dropped the awkward customers and now only help out the one's I like.

Its a referral business, gardens. If you have the ability to drink tea and chat to old ladies then you're ok. 

Mind you, I'm lucky I live in the suburbs. There's gardens everywhere.

RicF..   that's interesting, and good for you to make a success of it..   there are a few people nera me that do work like that and always seem to be busy...

Changing jobs/career can be a fun and rewarding thing to do and I've done it too, but at a time in my life when I didn't have kids and a large mortgage...   Mrs DV gave up her job to do something different and the very next month the economy went into free-fall and we often laugh about the bad timing of it.    I suppose if you are willing to accept a lower income but potentially a freer way of life then it's a 'must do' thing...

My dad's given up well paid and not so well paid jobs to do something else, always self employed, but has been carpenter, kitchen fitter and now narrowboat fitter/odd job man. Oddly even with the bad economy, he's been really busy, although I think that's because he's very good at what he does, and living on the canals means he's well known.

I'd love to do the change but at the moment I'm not in any financial situation to pay for it and to be able to make that move. We need my full time income to be able to pay the bills and upcoming renovations... I'd love to do something "more" with running and exercise but i'm restricted somewhat by my location/language etc.

6 years ago I was in a job that took all of my time and energy, it was a heart attach waiting to happen, my wife saw this, we sold our house, moved into rented accommodation and gave up work.

it was the best 6 months of my life

it was the little things that amaze you, when I was working and would be woken up by birds singing in the morning was horrible, when I wasn't working it was great to be woken up by birds singing, that and the fact that we jetted off all over the place as a family

after 6 months I had to find work again and got back on the corporate ladder and have slowly worked my way up to the same position but have learned to cope a bit better with all the stress etc.

I gave up a government quango, secure well paid job bit mind numbng job to be a foster carer.  Hardest job I've ever done, longest hours (24/7), slightly less pay and extremely'challenging' but I wouldn't swop it for the world.  

Invariably, there are reasons why people don't just leave their jobs.

Money and commitments mainly.

A contentious area really, a question of 'wants' and 'needs'. 

To me money is only important to have enough to be able to sleep at night.

I left a profession in which I was accellarating rapidly and promoted early, but I woke up one morning and decided to leave.

And so I did.

Everytime I've left a job something else has always come up. What I'm doing now is nothing really to do with my career in day to day terms but I like it.

However I will add that when I recklessly left financial security I was single and childless.

Also now my husband (though soon retiring) is in a stable job, that's always been in the background but we have been through a period of financial shit.

My husband left an extremely well paid, highly stressful and unenjoyable job to go and retrain as a teacher.

DOH!

now he is in a highly stressful job, more work than last job with a third of the salary - wow what a result.

... and he doesn't appear any happier or less stressed than before.  As the supportive wife, sole bread winner, childcarer and house cleaner/cook etc as he retrained with no salary and no time to do anything but study..... bit cross when he says he isn't enjoying it now that he is qualified, working full time and NOW complaining he doesn't get paid enough (like who knew what teachers got paid!)

I have this idea that someone somewhere has packed in a really highly paid job because they wanted to be a novelist or artist or such, and only discovered the financial implications when the usual wad didn't magically appear in the bank.