How much runway did you actually have before you left the job that pays you?

Hannah Lee· Licensed therapist planning a private practice; still at a group practice· Idea stage, Health & Wellness·4w

I'm a licensed therapist at a group practice and I've wanted my own private practice for about two years. The clinical side doesn't scare me at all. The part that keeps me awake is the month where I have no salary and no full caseload at the same time.

Everything I read says six months of expenses. My expenses aren't small: rent, student loans, and I'm the one carrying health insurance in my household. Six months for me is a number I won't have saved until some time next year, maybe later, and I'm starting to resent the wait.

The middle path people suggest is seeing a few private clients on the side, but my contract makes that complicated, and the practice owns the relationship with anyone who came through their door.

So I'm asking the people who already jumped. Did you leave with a real number saved, or did you leave when you couldn't stand it anymore? And if it was the second one, did it work out or did you just get lucky?

I'd rather hear the version where it went badly, honestly. Everyone tells the good version.

4 replies

Dana Kowalski· Open·4w

I left corporate HR with what I thought was seven months and it was really about four, because I hadn't counted my own health insurance or the quarterly tax payments nobody withholds for you anymore. That was the surprise, not the slow start.

What actually made it survivable was having two signed clients before my last day. Not conversations, signed. I'd push hard on whether there's any version of that your contract allows, even a workshop or a supervision arrangement rather than clients. The restrictive language in what you signed matters more than the savings number, because that's the piece you can't fix by waiting more months.

Jen Okafor· Open·4w

Slightly against the grain here. I left with four months and a studio lease, which everybody told me was reckless, and it was, and I'd do it again because the deadline is what made me sell. When I had a cushion I was polishing my website. When I had ten weeks of rent left I was calling every person I'd ever taught.

That said, I didn't have anyone depending on my health insurance. That detail in your post is the one I wouldn't wave away. Fear made me productive. It doesn't make a medical bill smaller.

Andre Bellamy· Open·3w

Both of these are true and they're not actually in conflict. The cushion buys you time, the deadline buys you urgency, and you can manufacture the second one without gambling the first. Pick a date, tell people the date, and let it do to you what a low bank balance would have done. I've watched a lot of people spend a very comfortable year building a website nobody asked for.

Cheryl Dunn· Open·3w

One thing from the tax side, and your own CPA will know your state better than I do. When you're on payroll, somebody is quietly making tax payments for you all year. The month you go out on your own that stops, and the bill turns up later in one piece. I've had two clients in your exact spot treat their first six months of collections as income and get an unpleasant letter for it.

Whatever runway number you land on, move a portion of every payment somewhere you can't see it from day one. The tax calendar here is a decent reminder of where the dates fall.

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