“A bad manager can take a good staff and destroy it,
causing the best employees to flee
and the remainder to lose all motivation.”
Last time, I talked about a major decision my husband had to make: Quit his job and let our savings rate take a hit, or find less toxic employment. His job was slowly killing him, and our quality of life was suffering. He didn’t like either of the options we discussed, so we created a third option: Buy a second laundromat.
But having him quit prematurely is a bit risky. The whole thing could fall apart, our savings rate would tank and our early retirement plan would be in jeopardy.
But we realized it is no longer about early retirement, or savings rates or laundromats. It is much bigger than that.
He needs his life back.
But as I promised, I wanted to get his perspective on this whole quitting thing, and what finally pushed him from…‘I can last a few more years’…to…‘I can’t last another day’.
Let’s dig in.
Me: So, it seems like your job sucks. What went wrong?
Mr. Nickels: Have you seen the movie “Horrible Bosses”? That title alone should clue you in. Plus, working 50 to 55 hours a week is taking up too much of my life. And I have no time to have a normal life. I could deal with the hours and the shift, but combine that with the dismal working conditions and it’s no longer worth the money.
Me: If you quit your job, what are you most looking forward to?
Mr. Nickels: Regaining my life.
Me: What scares you?
Mr. Nickels: Being responsible for the destruction of our early retirement plan. I am basically retiring, but I don’t want to delay your freedom.
Me: What do you miss the most with your current job?
Mr. Nickels: Well, since I’m married to you, I have to say spending my evenings with you. I hate going to bed 4 to 5 hours before you do. I feel like I miss a lot of family time.
I also miss running. Before I took a job starting at 3am, I would run in the mornings before work. You know I love running on the American River Parkway. It’s less than a mile from our house, so many trees, and of course views of the river as I run. I can’t safely run at two in the morning and by the time I get home, I am usually exhausted. How many times did you catch me dozing off while on my computer? (Me: That is true. You know those cute videos of kids falling asleep at the kitchen table, and they face-plant into their spaghetti? Replace the spaghetti with my husband’s MacBook and you can imagine what I’d witness on a daily basis.)
Me: Why are you so worried about our early retirement plans?
Mr. Nickels: With a second store, we can pretty easily replace my income, but originally I wanted to use the extra income to build our retirement accounts that much faster. I just don’t want our plans to be in jeopardy. I do believe we will increase our income even more when we start advertising, but as with anything financial, it’s not a sure thing.
Me: What caused the shift from ‘I can last a few more years’ to ‘I can’t last another day’?
Mr. Nickels: It was actually a few things, really.
We had just come home from our cruise to Alaska. It was Sunday night, and I was dreading going back to work. Actually, there isn’t a word I can use to really describe it. ‘Dread’ is the best I can come up with and I felt it all the way deep down in my gut.
I’d spent a week of quality time with my family; no stress, no boss, no early hours. Just knowing I had to go back to work was giving me a dull headache.
The feelings were starting to creep in…
…then within a few days of being back to work, I read the post “Yo Ho, Yo Ho an FI Life for Me” by a buddy of mine over on 1500Days.com.
He described how he was closing in on the finish line. He’d reached his million-dollar mark and was getting ready to pull the trigger and quit his job. He was looking forward to what the next chapter of his life would look like, and how he planned to spend his work-free days. He’s only 41!
And while his post made me deeply envious, it was also severely depressing. Don’t get me wrong; he’s my friend and I couldn’t be more happy for him. But it highlighted my own situation, making me think…“I can’t do this for another 5 years. It’s not fair to my wife, my health, my kids.”
I decided to comment on my friend’s post:
His reply “…and I’ll bet it arrives sooner than you think it will…” turned out to be almost prophetic. We didn’t know it at the time, but he was right.
So…with a taste of freedom, a job I hated, and a friend’s announcement of imminent retirement all occurring within a 72-hour window, I couldn’t take it anymore.
Something needed to change.
So I quit.
I gave my two-week notice, and on Friday, August 28th, I turned off my computer, pushed in my desk chair, and left work for the very last time.
The purchase of the second laundromat continues, and we should be closing escrow in a few weeks.
We’re taking a leap, and I couldn’t be happier.
Congrats on this huge decision. It sounds like you already have 1 laundromat so replication another successful one doesn’t seem very risky to me. And you’ll be able to gain your life back.
Thanks! We are pretty confident we will be able to replicate our success, but I wavered back and forth quite a few times before I finally turned in that resignation letter.
“We’re taking a leap, and I couldn’t be happier.”
I have a feeling that you’re going to look back in a couple years and think that this leap was one of the best things you ever did. Maybe you’ll wish you did is sooner? Not like I’m one to talk!
I know it’s only been a week, but how is life on the other side? Perhaps you’re not even fully decompressed yet, but have you had a chance to run by the river? What else?
I hope that you and Laura are loving life more than ever.
Congratulations friend!!
No, I’m not decompressed yet. Sadly, I still find myself thinking about what needs to be done at work. Then I snap out of it and remember that I don’t care. I’m still waking up way too early too. My mind needs to be retrained to accept this new freedom. I’ve actually stayed pretty busy with a lot of stuff I didn’t have time for before and Laura keeps promising a looooonnnng “honey do” list is on the way.
No running yet. I told myself I would take the first week to totally relax (yeah, that didn’t happen!). Heading to the river Monday morning for my first run in over a year.
Thank you for the inspiration buddy!
I hear you on toxic work environments. I left my last company because of a horrid manager and I’ve been really happy this last 18 months. However, our schedule still sucks, and we’re thinking of bumping up our mostly funded lifestyle change to 2017 and just deal with the consequences so we can have an overall better quality of life. I totally understand where you’re coming from.
Good for you for having the guts to go through with it. Can’t wait to see how it turns out, but like 1500 days pointed out, you’ll probably wish you’d done it sooner.
“…just deal with the consequences…”
That’s pretty much how we feel about it. How bad can it possibly be? Especially since Laura will continue working a few more years (her job pays very well and she works from home…it’s what some would call ‘cushy’).
Her income covers all of our living expenses (which are low), plus maxes out her 401k, both of our Roth IRAs and yet there is still some left that goes into our brokerage account. When I was working, all of my income went straight to our retirement accounts, so now the laundromats will be providing those retirement deposits instead. But even if those deposits drop a bit, or the second laundromat falls through for some reason, we’re not going to lose any sleep at night.
Congrats on the move! I wanted to quit two years earlier than I did, but was afraid of losing so much money.
After seeing folks get laid off with a severance, a light bulb moment went off where I asked “why not me too?” That’s when I did some research and figured out how to negotiate one and finally left on 2012. The severance was the catalyst to take a leap of faith because it provided for years of living expenses.
The first year was kinda scary, but also exciting too.
GL with your plans!
Sam
Thanks Sam! At one point I thought I might be one of those ‘one-more-year’ guys, and be afraid to pull the trigger. But my job sucked so much, that turned out not to be a problem for me. But I think it will be scarier when the Mrs finally quits too. No more corporate job safety net.
And that’s great that you were able to negotiate a severance, since you were leaving anyway!
When you hit the 6 month mark..I’d love a financial update (per monthly average of course!) for the Laundry Mat.
Are you reading my mind, Joan? 🙂 I’ve already got a draft started for one of my next posts… ‘The Laundromat: Our First 6 Months’. Now I just need to find the time to pull all of the financials/calculations together and actually write it!
This is a great post. Congrats to both of you. My wife and I are discussing additional sources of income and I talked about your site. Luckily neither one of our jobs is dreaded, but we would like more free time for the family.
Thanks! And yes, you’re lucky that neither one of you dread your job. (Randy’s job was toxic, but I could last for quite a while in mine). Randy is definitely enjoying that quality time. It’s great to have him around, and awake while he’s there!
Congrats both of you! Hopefully my turn will come soo too! Articles like this make it so much easier for the rest of us to take the leap. Thanks, as always, thanks for the fun and honest post.
Thanks Uncle for the congrats and for the virtual thumbs up. I see it as simply paying it forward. We read many financial blogs ourselves, which gave us the confidence to get out of debt, save money like madmen and take leaps like laundromats and quitting jobs. The least I can do is provide the same foundation for others, and hope that it gives them that same confidence.
“Being responsible for the destruction of our early retirement plan”
Well I’m finally back online. Since I’ve been retired (a few years now), with no work computer access and with my home computer having packed it in a few months back (the mother board fried), I’ve been awol, computer-wise.
Anyway, just now catching up on my blogger friends’ posted activities.
Now, having worked (full-time) for a dozen employers over the years and having gone through what Randy has just been going through, here are a few thoughts, for what their worth to anyone:
I’ve worked both in the lower ranks as well as in management, for both good and toxic bosses (there’s no other word for them as they’re not leaders and probably hate their own jobs, as well as being insecure).
I’ve once been involved in a major company “right sizing” as well as left employment to get ahead career-wise. And I’ve also quit once to keep my sanity, my health, and for the sake of my family’s happiness.
So consider this Randy. At least you left on your own timetable, not pushed out based on that of the company’s. At least you aren’t worried about income for day-to-day living expenses as you guys have other income sources – an income producing business as well as Laura’s income stream. A lot of other folks are way worse off.
Step back a moment though and look at the big picture. Your quality of life and that of Laura’s takes priority. That you realize. Whether you guys manage to retire early or not (and perhaps a little later than planned) really isn’t life or death, if you seriously think about it. At least one day you both will retire! My wife retired 10 years before me (to care for her aging mom, who eventually passed away with dementia in her last years at 95). Whereas I chose to retire not early, but at age 66, because I was enjoying my last few years at the job and earning beacoup bucks for our retirement enjoyment. No regrets whatsoever.
So you’re not retiring just yet, just changing employers and working for a better boss – you. Who knows, you guys might never “retire early” but instead prefer to keep your “hand in the game”, employing others to run the day-to-day business details while you manage the overall family business of multiple cleaning establishments. One never knows. Look at Col. Sanders – he started his Kentucky Fried Chicken business in his 70’s, long after most of us old farts have grabbed our rocking chairs! 🙂
Thanks for the great comment, Rob. We’ve missed you while you were AWOL! He’s not ‘technically’ retired I guess, but it sure does feel like it. The laundromat takes so little of his time, we can’t quite call it a ‘job’. (How’s that for grey area?)
And our early retirement plans are still going strong, we plan to sell the laundromat(s) at the 6-year ‘due date’ and have me quit as well. (But I agree it would not be the end of the world if it didn’t happen on schedule.)
And right now I’m in a bit of a blogging funk. I’m so busy these days, I’m barely keeping up with the reader mail/comments, let alone actually writing something. One of these days though…
I hear ya Laura and understand your situation. Blog whenever you can as I love reading about how you guys are doing.