What’s Your Quit Number?
I've been writing for a while without asking you fine people a question, so I thought it necessary to reach out and see who out of over 200 subscribers would respond.
What is your Quit Number?
That is, what is the amount of money you need to make on a recurring basis from affiliate marketing in order to either quit your job or never have to start working? For me, it works out to about $25,000.00/month profit for three months, assuming it was a steady stream. That might seem like a high number for some but if you do the math, it works.
First of all, my current job provides excellent PPO insurance on medical/dental/vision and I have other great benefits. It also includes a paycheck as well as vacation hours, sick hours, holidays, etc. All of this is on a stable basis that I can depend on. Plus, I have a wife and a kid so all these things are necessary for their security. Then, we have to save money to reach certain goals. I didn't even touch on all of our bills, but those pretty much go without saying.
All things considered, my number is 25,000.00/month. What's yours?
Popularity: 4% [?]
February 18th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
I don’t have a family to think of, so I would say my magic number would be $6,000/month in profits, and here is why:
Right away, my regular job’s pay is covered, the next thing to think about would be covering myself medically. My job has excellent benefits, so I don’t want to quit until I can provide the same level of insurance on my own.
Now, by quiting I would be able to devote a lot more time to running my websites and marketing, which I hope would further increase my profits.
February 18th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
For me it would be around 10k.
February 18th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
I’d have to make at least 5-8k a month steady profit before I’d consider quitting my day job. Even then, I wouldn’t have to. I’d probably just milk it as long as I could.
February 18th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
I’m unemployed and living in South America so if I could make $5000 a month doing this I could live like a king!
February 18th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
I need $4,000/month average($40,000 anually) profit after taxes by May 2010 so I never need to work in “The Real World” but ultimately I’m aiming for $10,000 a month or more by that time, hopefully by the end of this year if possible.
February 18th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
Wow 25k per month would be huge! If I could hit 4-5K per month steady I would be out of the rat race for good. Of course I would be moving back to Thailand (my wife is Thai) where money stretches quite a bit further. If I didn’t have child support to consider I could probably quit at around 3K/month.
February 18th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
I quit my “job” a long time ago so for me this question is easy to answer. Essentially my ideal answer is whenever I feel comfortable enough to just get out and not deal with the job (which is what I did) so this isn’t really a matter of putting a number down. However a number I think base on my spending habits and expenses (including bills and stuff) would have to fall around at least $15,000 a month.
While I can understand your justification, $25,000 a month really is to just live super comfortably before having to quit a job. To me its more about upkeep and I think $15,000 is at a point where I feel I can do that.
February 18th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Depends, where i live the cost of living isn’t expensive. I could live just fine off 2-3k a month.
to have a nice house, car and insurance i would be happy with 5,000 a month. Its up to you wither you want to stay in a high expensive area for living like California Where just a basic nice 3-4 bed room house goes for a million or two, here you can get a 4-5 bedroom house on top of the mountain thats like 5,000 squarefeet for a million dollars.
Even if i had the chance and the money to move to california right now with global warming, earthquakes, etc. Right now California right now seems like a disaster waiting to happen.
Buy a vacation home elsewhere. Pay it off right away with your income should only take 3-5 years so if something does turn sour you can leave and you know your financially secure and have a home to fall back on just incase the online world turns sour. I’d actually look into real estate right now. They say its a bad time to buy but house prices are falling and people are selling there homes left and right. You would be surprised what kind of deals you could get right now. 2 story 5 bedroom house here for 160,000$ in a rich neighborhood. Thats a steal!
February 18th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
I’m 21 living with my dad. I already quit my job. $150 day made me quit my part-time job I had for 2 years.
$10,000 a month is good enough, but if I can make that I’ll make $50,000 a month. Currently I am at $150/day which is $4,500 a month
February 18th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
I have already achieved the quit number but I wont my day job due to other benefits like you explained. You get to attend meetings with top people, party and meet new people. I am not married as well so that might be another reason
February 19th, 2008 at 12:41 am
I don’t know if I would ever feel secure with something that is so volatile. For me, my “quit my job” number is $1 million total in the bank. I could live on the interest and any day-to-day money would be extra.
February 19th, 2008 at 1:25 am
for me I would have to be making at least $4000 a month. I am 22, still live at home with no expenses. So that would be a good starting figure!
February 19th, 2008 at 1:34 am
You are forgetting of course that a lot of people enjoy their work. Even if they complain, they would miss it.
Personally, $4k/m and I would be fine. It all depends how many hours your working on this. I am the kind of guy who works in bursts. I may work all day and night for 3 days then do nothing for 3 days – but that is ok. If you have to work non stop to make this money then the benefits are kind of lost.
February 19th, 2008 at 9:11 am
@Tom: I would miss it, but not enough. You know what I’m sayin’? :]
February 19th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
In short, 15k/month would be great. However, do realize that this number would have to carry me over through an entire calendar year. I’ve made 5k in a month before and contemplated quitting, but I honestly wouldn’t quit until a). my campaign was so overwhelming that I had to quit or b). my one year average in profits was at 15k/month. Anyone who has a hint of affiliate marketing experience knows that your campaign can go from amazing to shit in less than a week, so why settle for anything less than a number 3x your monthly paycheck?
That would be my rule of thumb. Being able to cover your financial BEE-hind (rent,mortgage,utils,car payments,hometown buffet runs, etc.) 6 months after you quit your job would be nice.
Anyhow, be sure to check out my upcoming posts about affiliate marketing and what the experts fail to tell you.
-Vu
February 27th, 2008 at 2:09 am
After having all short term debt paid off such as cars and credit cards and and 2 years of my normal wages saved up and 5000 a month or better over those two years then I might consider it.
March 22nd, 2008 at 10:22 pm
[...] you quit. In fact, “when to quit” is such an interesting question that I asked it a while back with What’s Your Quit Number? If you noticed, my ‘quit number’ is high due to everything I’ve mentioned in this post. For me, the [...]