35 years old and earning $11,400 a week in passive income: the three things I asked myself prior to leaving my day job

 Ryan Hogue was able to leave his full-time job as a senior web developer at CharityEngine, a nonprofit organization, and as an adjunct web developer professor at George Mason University in northern Virginia after two years of earning enough money from his side projects. Hogue earned over $117,000 annually from his full-time jobs, but he began building passive income businesses on the side in the hopes of making money for travel, leisure, and starting a family in the future.

His full-time income was outperformed by those enterprises in 2018; he made about $135,600. The following year, the same event took place.

He continued to work despite his increasing success, in part because leaving would have been uncomfortable for him. According to Hogue, 35, "my parents' understanding of money was kind of imposed on me." They are savers. They were unable to imagine living without a 9–5 work.

In 2020, Hogue finally resigned from his position as a web developer. He claims that CharityEngine's request to move into a new capacity was a sign for him to make the change. After the fall 2021 semester ended, he resigned from his position as an adjunct teacher.

He continues, "Looking back, he could have done both sooner." You may generate more money by investing more time in creating passive income streams.

Ryan Hogue and his wife

During CNBC Make It's SXSW panel in March, Hogue stated, "Life was good, but I was directly trading my time for money, and I knew it wasn't going to get me where I wanted to be." "By the time I quit my day job, I had probably been waiting for more than a year."

Hogue currently earns $11,400 a week, primarily from passive sources, according to papers that Make It examined. Here's his take on when it makes more sense to continue in your full-time work and when to quit in favor of a side business. 

When to quit your job that is 9 to 5

Because he could respond "yes" to each of these three questions, Hogue says he felt comfortable quitting his full-time jobs:

• Do you have more than one source of income from your side project?
• Does your side business bring in more money each day than your regular work does?
• Is the day job keeping you from expanding your side business?

Hogue advises waiting and hanging onto your day job for as long as you can. "You'll know when to quit when working a 9–5 job is impeding the expansion of your side projects."

Asking yourself if you have the will and financial resources to weather setbacks is another crucial question from Kathy Kristof, whose blog Sidehusl has evaluated over 500 various side occupations.

For Jamie Inlow, the reasoning was straightforward: Establishing a side business while working a full-time job was demanding, and she had greater enthusiasm for one than the other.

Inlow worked two and a half years as a property manager for Be Still Getaways in addition to her responsibilities as a higher education consultant and a part-time student program administrator in Virginia.

When she observed she was starting to behave differently and realized she could afford to pay herself a wage — in her case, $72,000 per year — she felt it was time to quit her previous employment and manage Be Still Getaways full-time.

According to Inlow's statement to Make It last year, "I knew I was ready to quit my job when the demands of working full-time and working for Be Still Getaways was starting to affect my mental health and my ability to be present for my family.”