Heigi Jeong had a great job, a great paycheck, and a healthy work-life balance. She quit anyway. Now she's testing what happens when you trade a steady salary for the unknown — and one month, that meant earning just $6.
Quick Take
- Heigi Jeong left a $173,000-a-year product design job in Toronto in June 2026.
- She quit to focus on writing a book and doing content creation, not because of burnout.
- In July, her content creation income was just $6 due to a payment delay.
- She gave herself one year to try self-employment before deciding whether to return to corporate work.
- She says she doesn't regret the decision, even though income now swings wildly month to month.
A Good Job, But Too Many Jobs
Jeong moved from Korea to Toronto in 2020 to work as an in-house product designer. She built mobile apps and websites for a tech company. The pay was $173,000 a year. That's a lot of money for a job that only asked for about 40 hours a week.
She wasn't burned out. She wasn't in crisis. She actually liked the work. It let her make logical decisions and then explain them to coworkers through storytelling.
But she was also doing content creation on the side. Then she signed a book deal. Suddenly she had three jobs squeezed into one life — design work, content, and writing.
"It would have been like having three full-time jobs."
Something had to go. She picked the safest one to cut: her design job.
Why She Chose the Book Over the Paycheck
Writing the book mattered most to her. Content creation would help her promote it once it came out. The design job, while stable, didn't fit alongside the other two.
Still, quitting scared her. She had a lot of anxiety in the weeks before she resigned in June 2026. Would leaving a steady paycheck during uncertain economic times be a mistake? Could she even get back into the job market later if she wanted to?
To manage the fear, she made herself a deal. She'd try working for herself for one full year. After that, she'd decide if she wanted to return to a company job.
She knows she might not land the same salary or the same employer if she goes back. But she still has a strong resume full of design work to show for it.
From $173,000 to $6 in One Month
Since leaving her job, Jeong's days look different. She works out in the morning, then writes from noon to 5 p.m. She squeezes content creation in around that. She hopes to travel while she writes this year, too.
She says she feels less rushed and more present in her daily life. But the money side has been rough.
In July, a delay in the content creation payment system left her with only $6 for the whole month. Some months she earns zero. Other months, she says, she earns more than her old salary. That's the trade-off of self-employment: no predictable paycheck, just ups and downs.
| Income Source | When Steady Job | When Self-Employed |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly pay | Consistent, ~$173,000/year | Ranges from $0 to more than her old salary |
| Work hours | About 40 hours a week | No fixed schedule, work can bleed into all hours |
| Stability | High | Low, but flexible |
"I've had to mentally adapt to inconsistent pay... seeing it as the reality of self-employment."
The Hardest Part Isn't the Money
Jeong says setting limits on her own time has been just as hard as the money swings. As her own boss, there's always more work she could do. When she had a regular job, she'd shut her laptop and be done for the day.
Now her mind stays on work even after hours. She's had to force herself to take real breaks.
Three months into her year off, she says she's mostly confident she made the right call. Sometimes online critics shake that confidence for a bit, telling her she made a huge mistake. But it passes.
Why It Matters
Jeong's story shows that walking away from a six-figure job doesn't have to be about hitting a breaking point — sometimes it's about making room for something else you want. She may return to corporate work when her year is up, or she may not. Either way, she says the experience of choosing the unknown over comfort is a lesson worth having.
