My Gutting It Out post must have struck a chord with many of my readers. It prompted numerous comments, re-posts, and questions on the Book of Face. It continues to be one of my most read articles, and it even prompted a fellow Financial Independence (FI) blogger to write an article about my article. That’s pretty cool if you ask me, and a fairly large ego stroke too!

However, as popular as that article proved to be, I don’t want anyone to think that “gutting it out” is the only path I advocate. It’s not. Nor could it ever be, since the entire premise which surrounds my self-described Golden Albatross inflection point implies a choice that someone makes to stay or leave a pensionable job. Thus, if some people choose to stay and “gut out” a pensionable job, it means others don’t or won’t. It’s for those contemplating that alternative that I dedicate this post.

What The Hell Do You Know?

Now, some of my readers may wonder what a guy like me, who admittedly blew through his Golden Albatross decision point without ever realizing it, understands about making the alternative decision to leave. That’s a fair point. My reply is people leave the military all the time without earning their pension.

In fact, the last time I checked, roughly 80% percent of active duty U.S. military personnel leave service prior to earning their pension. Some of those who do might choose to spend enough time in the Reserves or National Guard in order to earn a different type of pension, but many more do not. Indeed, I’ve even helped a few people transition from active duty because it was the right decision for them. More to the point, I’ve observed numerous other people leave the military without earning a pension. As a result, I believe that I’ve developed both an appreciation for the right and the wrong reasons for leaving a pensionable job, as well as some good tips for those that do.

The Good

Let’s talk about good reasons for leaving a pensionable job first. I’ll list my top five reasons, but please understand that depending on your situation, there might be many other factors at play:

1. Your Job Has Proven Bad For Your Health. Take it from someone who’s suffered documented mental and physical damage from their chosen profession — at some point enough is enough. That isn’t to say people shouldn’t try to reconcile health issues through negotiation with their employers, like requesting a change of responsibilities within an organization. On the other hand, it is to say that at some point every person needs to judge for themselves how much of their precious health the compensation associated with their job is worth. That is very much a worth vs. “worth it” decision, much like I described in a previous post. Maybe that’s made easier by a doctor’s diagnosis, or it’s something more subjective. Either way, as far as I can tell, you only get one life and one body with which to live it. Until such time as we get to re-sleeve into new bodies like in Altered Carbon that is…
2. Family. What’s the old saying? “You can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family.” It turns out that may not be the case when it comes to professional versus family issues. You may have a choice, and if you do, you might choose family. For instance, you may want to grow your family. Therefore, leaving a profession in order to bear and raise children may make the most sense. I’ve seen this issue play out in a positive manner first hand with Mrs. Grumpus. She ultimately left her profession because we wanted to have kids. Although it proved rocky at first, it truly proved the best decision.
   • On a more negative note, shit happens. Family members get sick … or die. Parents get old and infirm. Children prove too hard to raise while working. Whatever the case may be, a person may not feel like they have a choice. All I can say to that is in my experience, it’s a rare day when choosing family doesn’t prove to be the best decision.
     

     gone are the days when kids = cheap labor!

   • Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that a young person should sacrifice their hopes and dreams merely because mommy or daddy doesn’t want them to fly too far from the nest. What I’m saying is that if you’ve been out there and proven yourself already, and family issues intervene, don’t regret choosing family. You’ll almost always have more time to work. You won’t ever get a second chance to hold a parent’s hand as they pass away, or help your child navigate those awkward teenage years.
3. Better Opportunities. If Dr. Seuss were alive today, he’d tell you the same thing I’m about to tell you: If you read my blog you are exceptional! OK, so maybe he wouldn’t put it in such self-serving terms, but the point remains. If you’re actively researching career and retirement advice, you’re in an exceptional minority of the working population … at least in the U.S. Don’t let it go to your head, because it’s not a high bar.
   • However, it probably means that you have other exceptional abilities and talents as well. Those abilities and talents might prove so useful to other organizations that they may want to compensate you more than your current employer. Or, alternatively, you may have nurtured those exceptional abilities and talents to the point where it’s time to employ them yourself. Whatever the case may be, don’t be afraid to seize the opportunity when it presents itself, or if you’ve forced it to present itself.
   • As I’ve noted previously, I listen to a lot of podcasts. A number of them recently marked the 10th anniversary of the Financial Crisis and Great Recession. One of them, in particular, pointed out the following disturbing fact. Despite a historically long bull market, and near historic unemployment, the majority of U.S. workers who lived through the 2008 and 2009 Financial Crisis and Great Recession are still afraid to switch jobs! Don’t let that be you, because like Dr. Suess would say, a better tomorrow is on its way.
     

     Dr Seuss might also say something like this

   • One word of caution, make sure you calculate the future value of your pension before you leave a lower paying job with a pension, for one that pays more annually without a pension. Depending on the conditions of the pension, it may turn out that the lower paying job’s compensation is actually worth more in the long run than the higher paying job without the pension. If you don’t know how to calculate the value of your pension, don’t worry, I’ve written several posts showing you how to do it. Check out my Pension Series articles at this link.
4. Your Pension Is Not Safe. It should go without saying that if your pension system is in financial trouble, then you should (at least partially) discount the value of your pension from your “stay or go” decision-making process. I’ll leave the decision of how much you should discount it up to you. If you don’t know how to research the safety of your pension fund, you should read Part 1 of my Pension Series. If you don’t know how to factor that lack of safety into a mathematical valuation of your pension, you should check out Parts 3, 4, and 8 of my Pension Series.
5. You Are Already Financially Independent (FI). Disciplined saving, common-sense investing, and compounding money growth deliver numerous advantages to people who can harness those powers. Among them is the flexibility to quit a pensionable career (prior to fully vesting) if they’ve already accumulated enough wealth to live on for the remainder of their years. That isn’t to say they’ll never work again. However, they can certainly afford to work for less compensation and more fulfillment.
   • If you don’t know how to determine whether or not that’s you, don’t worry, I got you covered. Check out my two-part series on testing your retirement plan in my Planning Section.
   • If you are FI, but you find that you’re still working a pensionable job, you should probably ask yourself “Why?”. Any answer less than, “I love this job, it’s my life’s calling, it totally fulfills me, and I’d do it for free” may make examining some alternatives a worthwhile exercise.
     

     “And when I walk, I walk alone”

The Bad

OK, since I discussed several good reasons, let’s talk about some bad reasons for leaving a pensionable career. I’m (hopefully) not going to take the intellectually lazy way out and simply argue the inverse of the reasons I listed above either.

1. You Hate Your Job. In my less than humble opinion, hating your job in and of itself is not a valid reason to leave a pensionable career. A decision to leave a job should be based on facts and valuations, not feelings. Feelings, especially negative ones, are hard to value. And as I stated before, the decision to stay or go is a value decision.
   • As a result, I’d recommend stripping the issue down to the root causes. What specifically do you hate about the job? Is it a boss? Co-workers? Workload? Stress? Company culture? Once you identify the root causes of your feelings, then you need to determine if they can be addressed. Furthermore, you need to actually attempt to address them. At the end of the day, you may not be able to reconcile the issues, but at least you’ll have tried. After you determine whether the issues are reconcilable, then you can make the value decision of whether you should stay or go.
   • As an aside, which answer to the question of “Why did you leave your last job?” sounds better in a follow-on job interview:
     • I left my job because I hated it.
     • I left my job because I couldn’t reconcile the differences between my personal values and the values of the XXXX corporation. Once I started to work there, I discovered that (insert your own negative reason here). Despite repeated attempts to engage my leadership about the corporate culture, I was unable to make any headway. I finally realized that no amount of money in the world was worth my (insert positive reference like “integrity” here). As a result, I decided to leave.
2. You Got In An Argument. I know that almost everyone dreams at some point of singing “Take This Job and Shove-It”, flipping their boss the bird (or the Vs), and quitting. However, I would counsel more level-headed behavior than that. I’d even counsel better behavior than what JL Collin’s describes in his book “The Simple Path to Wealth” (a book which I absolutely endorse BTW) when he discusses the power of “FU Money”. He quit after getting in an argument with his boss, knowing he had enough money saved to allow him and his family to live for years without the need for employment.
   

   “Screw you guys, I’m taking ball and going home!”

   • I could list any number of reasons why a person should quit on better terms than in the heat of an argument — from professionalism to the self-serving need to obtain references from your current employer for your next job — but you can Google those reasons if you’re truly interested. Instead, I’ll simply circle back to my previous point: if a person quits on an impulse, they probably didn’t make a value decision on whether or not the job (and pension) was worth it.
3. Or Worse … Someone Called Your Bluff. Be careful of making ultimatums. I get that people’s integrity is important. I score way high on the ethical scale whenever I take those sorts of tests. It’s one thing if there’s some fundamentally shady shit going on at a person’s work, and they confront their boss with “do something or else I’ll quit and let everyone know why on the way out”. However, every disagreement within a workplace doesn’t need to end in “or else”. If a person spoke their piece, was listened to, but then management choose a different direction; then it’s probably time to shut up and row. Or, if you prefer a military metaphor, that person should “choose their hill [to die upon] carefully”.
4. You Refuse to Apologize. Ask Mrs. Grumpus and she’ll tell you, I hate to apologize. I’m a typical meat-eating male military officer. To me, apologizing is a weakness. At least, that’s how I used to view it. My new and improved, post-mental breakdown, touchy-feely side realizes how big a mistake that was with my worldview. I’m trying hard to change, listen more, talk less, and apologize when I’m wrong. Doing so has significantly improved my interaction on the personal level with family and co-workers … well, at least my co-workers. I’m still working on the family part. However, the whole point of that long segue is don’t let an inability to apologize be your reason for quitting a pensionable job. That pension is too valuable, and stubbornness is not.

Other Considerations

I failed to come up with five bad reasons for quitting a job, but that’s OK. Hopefully, you get the point that not all reasons for quitting a pensionable job are good. Nor are they of good value. In any case, let’s move on and assume you’ve got good reasons for not gutting out a pensionable career. What should you do next?

I’m glad you asked because in this case, I have a lot of personal experience from interviewing numerous military members prior to leaving the service. I share just a few of my best nuggets below, many of which will seem like familiar themes from my previous Gutting It Out post.

1. Make a Plan. I’ve published entire articles about the power of a written plan. I also referenced it in my previous Gutting It Out post. That said, any military officer or senior enlisted leader who’s ever conducted an interview with a more junior Soldier, Sailor, Airman, or Marine can attest that the first question we are taught to ask outgoing personnel is “what’s your plan?”. That isn’t a rhetorical question either. All personnel who intend to leave or retire must actually go through a course on how to successfully separate from the service. In order to successfully pass the course, attendees must write down their post-military plan, and have it reviewed by the instructor. Thus, the military literally tries to force that person to transform their idea into words because it knows how powerful writing something down can be.
2. Make a Backup Plan. There’s an old military adage that no plan survives first contact with the enemy. As a result, you should plan for failure for, or at least serious modification to, your original plan. We have numerous names for this including branch planning (like the branches on a tree limb) or prudent planning. Whatever you choose to call it, don’t expect failure but know what to do when it heads your way due to circumstances beyond your control. For instance, are you leaving your current job for a new employment at the tail end of the current business cycle? If so, do you know what your new organization’s layoff policy will be during the next recession? Do they lay-off the newest hires first? If they don’t have a policy, what’s their historical precedence tell you? The bottom line here is that you shouldn’t stake all your fortunes on one opportunity.
   

   What’s the plan when this fails?

3. Don’t Wait To Execute Parts Of Your Plan. This one gets a little tricky for government workers since often times there are ethical guidelines to the type of post-public service employment we can take upon exit. That said, within reason and federal, state, or local law; do what you can to execute your plan now. Certainly, if you’re leaving for other employment, make sure that it’s secure. If you’re leaving to start your own business, start it as a side hustle and make sure it’s sustainable. Whatever the case may be, don’t wait until your current paycheck stops before putting that plan into action … unless the law forces you.
4. Take Full Advantage Of Current Training Opportunities. Many employers offer employees opportunities to better themselves, or their skill sets, while on the organization’s time. This is something you as an employee should be doing regardless of your intent to stay at your current organization or go. However, if you know you’re going to leave, why not take advantage of those opportunities prior to your exit? I’m not advocating that you use your department’s entire travel budget to attend training that you need for your new employer. That wouldn’t be ethical, and as I said, I score high on ethics tests. However, if your employer allows it, and there’s an opportunity to do so, why not get your Lean Six Sigma® certification? Or bone up on those spreadsheet skills? In this day and age, especially in the private sector, there’s an expectation that a company will experience a certain amount of attrition amongst its work-force. Despite that, they still offer in-house training opportunities to anyone who wants to attend. I’m just saying …
5. Depart On Good Terms. This will seem ironic for someone who just advocated for people leaving their current employer to take advantage of training opportunities prior to the exit, but make sure you depart on good terms from your current employer. In fact, if I had to rank the previous point I made with the current point I’m making; I consider an amicable departure from your current employer far more important than taking advantage of training opportunities.
   • I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve written an endorsement for a previous military member who served with me, or under my leadership (i.e. I’ve done it a lot). That said, I can tell you the exact number of times I’ve either politely declined, or intentionally ignored, those requests. It should come as no surprise that the manner in which that person ended their service had a lot to do with the decision I made. Bosses are people after all, and people tend to remember their last interaction with a co-worker, and not their co-worker’s entire work history. Whether or not that’s fair is immaterial for this discussion.
     

     Leave on better terms than these folks …

BEST. PLAN. EVER.

Prior to ending this post, let me tell you the best plan for leaving military service I ever heard. After I returned from Afghanistan, but prior to transferring to Europe, I was sitting in the personal property office of my local base trying to arrange the move of my household goods. I happened to sit down to a young E-5 who was probably ending his initial four-year commitment. We struck up a conversation and I asked him what he was waiting for. He told me he was arranging his final move because he was leaving the service, so like all good leaders I asked him about his post-service plan.

Now, I fully expected him to tell me he was going [back to] school. In my experience, that’s the average answer I get from someone at his age and rank who’s decided to leave the service. That’s not the answer I got at all. It was yet another example in my life of how misleading it can be to judge a book by its cover.

This particular E-5’s answer was that he and his wife were moving back to the area in which they grew up. That’s not the surprising part though. The surprising part was that he had already accepted an offer of employment at a local gas turbine power plant. Those were the skills he’d acquired while in the service. Much to his credit, he’d directly translated those to immediate employment in the civilian world. He further revealed that his starting salary would easily double his current salary in the military — not to mention the rapid opportunities to make much more money.

This E-5 was understandably excited, and to tell you the truth, I was excited for him. I told him that was by far the best plan I had ever heard of, and I meant it. I only wish I had offered the opportunity to keep in touch, just to see how his life turned out. However, I like to think he’s making bank, loving his job, providing for his family, and all without the requirement of a college education. BEST. PLAN. EVER.

Conclusion

That’s it for this post. I’ve droned on far too long. I hope you enjoyed this counterpoint to my previous post about gutting it out. Hopefully, this proves just as helpful for those who’ve decided to leave a pensionable job, as my previous post did for those who’ve decided to stay. As always you can let me know what you think in any number of ways including leaving a comment at the bottom of the page; emailing me at grumpusmaximus@grumpusmaximus.com; Facebooking me @grumpusmaximustoo; or Twittering (or is that Tweeting) me @maximusgrumpus.

— GM