Comments on: Breaking up with your career …

By: FreeUrChains

FreeUrChains — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 19:50:30 +0000

At least in this day and age we can divorce our careers without being killed, unlike the British Royal Navy back in the day…

By: fetu

fetu — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 01:06:58 +0000

I like the analogy very much. I went dancing out the door.

By: chris

chris — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 21:13:50 +0000

I agree with Kelly…it is a fun analogy.I kept going back and forth between my career and my past relationships. Wow…some unfinished business there. That’s gonna take some thinking. I hope I can put off the current relationship (career) for enough time to think it thru.

The current career really does limit what I spend my time thinking about. My current plan is to semi retire (work half time so I can keep the health insur for my family of 5.

Anybody currently doing that? How is it working for you?

By: Kelly

Kelly — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 19:56:59 +0000

That’s a fun analogy. Let’s see…after 15 years together I finally broke up with ‘my job’ because 1) I didn’t like having to spend most of my time with their (unpleasant) friends, 2) they expected me to always organize my life around their needs, 3) they forced me to do things that made me lose self respect, and 4) they were so demanding there was never time to pursue my own dreams. Actually, they left me and said I could transfer to another part of the country to stay with them but I chose to let them go. Gee, when I put it that way I kind of feel a little guilty about the nice alimony (severance) I got. The few things I miss (security, travel, job training, blackberry) are slim compared to the freedom I have now.

By: deegee

deegee — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 13:09:40 +0000

Because the commute was what I found the worst thing about my job of 23 years, I would compare it to a “long-distance relationship.”

After 16 years of “marriage,” I switched to part-time work at the same place before getting my “divorce” 7 years later (2 years ago).

Don’t miss it one bit. Will never get “married” again.

By: LifeAndMyFinances

LifeAndMyFinances — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 10:33:58 +0000

I just made a job change (same career) and that was tough enough in it’s own right. I can’t imagine how tough it would be be switch careers!

By: Steve

Steve — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 05:09:32 +0000

I walked away from my career over a year ago. I still have dreams of the things I would like to say to my boss and fellow workers. It wasn’t a good break. Even though I do not have the stress that once was there I do feel better. I think sometimes things happen for a reason and I need to find mine. Being 55 and no 401K or savings this is very interesting in trying to live and make some money. I like your blog.

By: mingus

mingus — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 23:23:22 +0000

I’m breaking up with my career over the next couple of months and I have to say the first 2 weeks have been sad, painful and exhausting. I’ve been unhappy in the “relationship” for several years, but it took being cut from the budget for me to really begin to let go. My gut feeling tells me it’s fear of the unknown that is causing me all this break-up stress. Maybe it’s also because I’m being dumped, instead of being the one initiating the break-up! If I hadn’t searched for this website, I wouldn’t know there are so many other people being successful at retiring early. Thank You, Jacob.

By: Get Money

Get Money — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 20:41:14 +0000

what’s the direction and purpose of this blog now?

is it really about “early retirement”? or is it more about just being frugal?

By: Jacob

Jacob — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 00:08:31 +0000

@em – It seems to be very field dependent and even employer-dependent. The unspoken bridge-burning fear as a retention strategy seems to work well. The best thing is probably to find someone and ask them. I did and apparently my fears were overblown.

By: em

em — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 22:38:14 +0000

Any thoughts on how to break things off with your current career, to pursue current career’s sister (same career, different field), while still maintaining good relationship with current career, and not burning bridges?

By: Rendell @ BrandlessBlog

Rendell @ BrandlessBlog — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 21:03:21 +0000

Oh my, I think it is not a good idea to categorized career like a marriage, because having a “mistress” will never turn out fine.