On August 14, 2012, after thirteen years with the same company, I quit my job, with no plan about what would come next. In retrospect it was more than that; I walked away from a career, away from a six-figure salary, and toward something entirely different. Here’s why.  (Part 4 of 7). Missed the start? Rewind to Part 1.

Disbelief

Some of my personal challenges working in corporate America have been around for as long as I can remember. On an off day, when asked “What do you do?” I’d respond nonchalantly “Help banks make more money.” While technically true, yes, I did do that, it speaks to a larger issue – is unfettered capitalism good for all? If you look at the rise of income inequality in America over the last 40 years, and that globally we still struggle feeding the people of our planet – despite having the resources to do so…maybe therein lies the answer.

I was fortunate to have good managers over the years for the most part. They had a knack for reframing the question of what we did in a positive light and would point out the good that banks can do. Banks help people buy things like houses and cars, pay for college, and start small businesses.  That’s all true, and good can come from this. For loans there is also a catch, a debt to be paid, an obligation. From a global perspective, most of you reading this *ARE* crazy wealthy, check out www.globalrichlist.com for some perspective on that.  Despite this vast wealth we have been well trained to believe what we have is never enough, and seek desperately to keep up with the proverbial Jones.

The Good Book also speaks to this at length. A favorite verse on that is proverbial in its own way, from Proverbs 22:7 says, “The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender.” If you just consider common forms of debt, things like carrying credit card debt, having a mortgage, school and car loans, approximately 80% of American adults are in debt to some extent. Slavery, of this sort, is alive and well in these United States. Ouch.

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I was never able to fully reconcile this belief internally. In my mind I was working within a system designed to keep people in the shackles of debt. Over time not being able to come to terms with this cognitive dissonance between what I did for a living – and how it can negatively impact society – wore me down.  Fortunately, my wife and I had been working to remove our own shackles, with a plan that offers freedom from this kind of slavery.

Six months before walking from the day job my wife and I hosted a mortgage burning party. At 36 years old we had done it, paid all debts, no car loans, no credit card debt, no student loans, and no mortgage. Part of this was luck; we’ve been blessed with decent education that led to stable careers. Some of that luck is the randomness of being born at a certain place and time, with skills and interests that society happens to reward financially.

Other parts of becoming debt-free were entirely intentional. We chose to wait later in life to have kids. We set goals of paying down debt, prioritized how to do it, and celebrated each milestone. We don’t live simply, per se, tho we live more simply than many. We dreamed of second careers, retiring early, and just being. When the darkness of depression covered me, there was a viable exit from the pain, one that I understood to be a bad job, of just walking away. Fortunately this walk would allow me the space to get back to living.

Continue on to Part 5 – Resurrection.