About DH quitting his job

[Goostacean]

DH is considering leaving his very well paid job to do a start up programme. It's a 9 month programme (Sept - Jun) with a stipend that will cover living expenses and housing, but not childcare - and we have DC2 on the way at Xmas. He would almost certainly be able to return to his current role after the programme, if the start up didn't work out, but obviously doesn't particularly want to hence looking elsewhere. I'll be on mat leave Dec - Aug, and my salary won't cover childcare for 2 when I go back.

Should he do it? What should we take into account? I'm sure this will end up being a drip-feed (if anyone replies!) because there are so many elements to take into account, but I didn't want to write an essay in the first post...

If it’s running until June then that gives him 2 months before you go back to work to get work sorted so I would say go for it, especially if he’ll be able to go back into his current career if it all goes wrong.

Is now the time for him to make such major change? Brexit, new baby, etc. Can he wait a year or two before taking on this training? If he really hates his current job could he get another instead of giving up work for now to train on a stipend?

Well you can't afford it without getting into debt, so what's to decide?

Either take out a whacking great loan to cover expenses in the medium term or put off the idea until you have enough savings to cover the deficit.

Start ups have a 90% chance of failure....

He should have done this before you had kids if that's what he wanted to do. I wouldn't be happy with this.

We do have enough put away to cover childcare etc, but I personally don't think we should be using them for that. I view the savings as "capital" and not for "avoidable"/day-to-day spending (but he and I differ on this point).

Agree re Brexit, and start up failure rates- but I imagine programmes like this have a higher chance of success. I don't know the stats though.

But Sep is now?
Is he contracting currently? I’m wondering otherwise how he can just sack off his well paid job at a moment’s notice.

If he can almost certainly get his job back, then for me it would depend where the start up would lead. If come Jun he won’t be earning enough, that’s an issue.

He (you together) should certainly have been saving from his well paid job enough already to give you some confirm over this.

What's the program (if it's not too outing?) They publish success stats online. I work in this area a bit. It's not just the risk, people in start up programmes work very, very long hours. There's a reason why they're stuffed full of childless youngsters...

Yeah, Sept is now, can't say I'm enthralled by the idea of such abrupt change...

He has a 3 month notice period but essentially in his industry people are usually asked to leave as soon as they resign, rather than work the notice, because nobody wants them in the office doing commercially sensitive work at that point.

Sorry folks, I knew it would be a dripfeed!

If he’s asked to leave now rather than work the notice period then he will be paid for those 3 months surely?

As an example, I have a friend who has a 7 year old and a 3 year old and she’s gone back to uni. It’s meant they have had to engage wrap around care for the 7 y.o and nursery for the 3 y.o. They’ve had to budget and things are tighter than they’d be otherwise but she’s loving the course and she’s going to make an amazing midwife. Her dh works full time btw

@Lanurk he may well be placed on "gardening leave", so will be paid. It's pretty common. If I was to resign tomorrow morning, I'd be out and gone by lunchtime at the latest.

You sound very stressed about it and I don't blame you.

I asked and apparently he wouldn't be paid for those months. Tbh a big risk is that they don't just let him go, and he has to work the notice- and then he can't join the programme later this month. He's going to ask the entrepreneurship programme what contingency there is, if anything, in place in case of that situation arising.

Yeah, I am a bit stressed about it. Trying to be supportive for someone to follow their dream, but it all seems so sudden!

Is this a one off opportunity or can he defer a year?

Normally when you're let go straight way you're on gardening leave and still technically employed so you normally have t come to some arrangement and get written agreement to start work somewhere else?

It's not just a year you need to worry about. Typical pattern is

Yr 1 - pre-incubation / incubation MVP / incorporation (no revenue or income for directors)

Yr 2 - seed investment, product to market (minimal income for directors)

Yr 3 - early stage investment (minimal income for directors)

Yr 4-6 - growth stage (slightly less than minimal income for directors, growth in equity stake value)

Yr 6+ - maturation / exit - income or cash out depending on strategy.

So you might be looking at a 5+ years wait for a decent income again.

Is it just a dream or has he sat down to look at the cold hard facts?

Just wanted to update briefly; DH has decided against quitting in a rush and potentially leaving a reasonable amount of bad feeling, for an opportunity that probably isn't quite right in some ways, with Brexit uncertainty (still) looming and baby on the way. Thankfully!

He's got another opportunity that he's still interviewing for and is really excited about, which would also give us a lot more stability and has a better timeline, so I've got everything crossed that works out instead. If not, he'll keep looking and I'm sure things will work out :) Thanks for your support and comments!

No.

Absolutely not if it were me. What a massive, stressful risk with the worst timing in the world and with little to gain and a lot to lose.

It's a no brainer.

Wow I missed that update.
Sorry I didn't read that one, OP. I'm usually good at reading the thread before posting.

Best of luck with the future.