using a budget to quit your job

This is the first in what hopefully becomes a series of "How To" posts.  These posts aren't intended to tell you how you should do something, though.  Rather, the intent is to show you how I did something, and explain what I would have done differently.  Because everyone's situation is different, all advice needs adjustment in order to work for you.  Especially unsolicited advice!

The most common reaction of other associates when they found out I was quitting was to say something like, "I wish I could quit too," so I thought I would write this.  My hope is that by showing how I did something, maybe the next person will realize it actually is possible.  I was able to quit my job not because Kathy made boatloads of money or because I have a trust fund or because I have no obligations.  I was able to quit my job because I thought, planned, made sacrifices, and had some good luck. 

One caveat -- this plan assumes a dual income or that you will still have money coming in from somewhere.  This budgeting plan will work if you are going to take severance, if you are going to take a lower paying job, or if you are going from being a two-income family to a one-income family.  If you're going to live off your savings for a lengthy period of time, obviously you will need to save for much longer.  But I think the basics remain the same -- you just need to stretch it out over a year, two years, or three years, and be willing to watch your hard-earned savings gradually dwindle.

Because I have actually learned something from my last two months of budgeting, this is part "what I did" and part "what I would have done in a perfect world."  That means it's on a 6-month timeline, which is how I would have done things in an ideal world, and if my firm had not offered severance when it did.  Because I had to quit when I did in order to get the severance, my timeline was actually much more condensed than this.**  But before we go to the step-by-step, can I just say this:  DON'T BE INTIMIDATED BY USING A BUDGET.  It is not hard or scary.  Even if you are not mathematically inclined.  You can use a calculator, this isn't high school algebra class.

**Since I am a lawyer, after all, please be aware I have absolutely no training in financial planning or anything like that. I am just a person who likes to be reasonably responsible with money, and recently found a way to save enough to quit my job.  So this is not intended to be financial advice.  K, thanks.