Can I Afford to Quit My Job?
Test a career break against your savings and monthly expenses — and how big the runway really is.
Quitting to change direction is only affordable if your runway is long enough. This calculator compares your savings against the months you plan to live without a salary.
At a glance
- What you enter
- Savings available, Monthly expenses, Months you plan without pay, Other monthly income (optional)
- What you get
- Your savings runway, Covers the plan (1 = yes), Still needed to fund the plan, Readiness score (0–100)
- Formula shown
- Yes — every step, right below your results.
- Cost and privacy
- Free, no account needed, and nothing you type is stored.
See worked examples ↓ Read the FAQ ↓ Share this calculator ↓
Results are estimates for general information only — always verify with a professional or official source before acting on them.
How to use the Can I Afford to Quit My Job?
- 1 Enter Savings available
- 2 Enter Monthly expenses
- 3 Enter Months you plan without pay
- 4 Enter Other monthly income (optional) — Gigs, partner support or passive income.
- 5 Press Calculate. You get Your savings runway, Covers the plan (1 = yes), Still needed to fund the plan, Readiness score (0–100), and every intermediate step stays visible under “How is this calculated?”
- 6 Change one number at a time to see what moves the result — that is usually the most useful thing a calculator can tell you.
Worked examples
Real numbers run through this calculator. Open any example to load it into the form above and change it.
Six months off with $24,000 saved
$3,000 of monthly expenses and no other income.
You enter
- Savings available
- $24,000.00
- Monthly expenses
- $3,000.00
- Months you plan without pay
- 6
- Other monthly income (optional)
- $0.00
You get
- Your savings runway
- 8.00 months
- Covers the plan (1 = yes)
- 1
- Still needed to fund the plan
- $0.00
- Readiness score (0–100)
- 100
The runway is 8 months against a 6-month plan, so it covers the break and scores 100 with no gap. The extra two months are the margin for a slower-than-hoped job search.
Six months off with $9,000 saved and some side income
$3,200 of monthly expenses offset by $500 of other income.
You enter
- Savings available
- $9,000.00
- Monthly expenses
- $3,200.00
- Months you plan without pay
- 6
- Other monthly income (optional)
- $500.00
You get
- Your savings runway
- 3.33 months
- Covers the plan (1 = yes)
- 0
- Still needed to fund the plan
- $7,200.00
- Readiness score (0–100)
- 56
Net need is $2,700 a month, so the runway is only about 3.3 months against a 6-month plan. The calculator shows a $7,200 gap and a score of roughly 56 — the side income helps, but it does not close the shortfall.
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Frequently asked questions
What counts as “other monthly income”?
Only money you will reliably receive while you are not employed: a partner’s contribution to shared bills, freelance or contract work already booked, rental income, or a steady passive payment. Entering an optimistic figure is the most common way a runway looks longer than it is — if the work is not signed, leave it out and see how the numbers look without it.
Why is the runway based on expenses minus other income?
Because only the shortfall has to come out of savings. If you spend $3,000 a month and receive $500, your savings only have to cover $2,500 a month, so the runway is savings divided by the net monthly need rather than by total expenses. That is why a small, reliable side income extends a break far more than it looks.
Why can a plan that is not covered never score above 90?
The scoring is deliberately blunt: savings that cover the whole planned break score 100, and anything short of that is scored proportionally to how much of the plan is funded, capped at 90. So a plan 90% funded scores 90 and one 50% funded scores 50. The cap stops a near-miss from looking like a pass — if you are short, the gap figure tells you exactly how short.
What does the runway calculation leave out?
Tax on anything you withdraw, one-off costs like continuing health insurance or buying equipment, a job search that takes longer than planned, and any final pay, unused holiday or severance you will receive. Treat the runway as the pessimistic baseline and add the money you know is coming separately. A break is safest when the plan works even without it.