The complete job exit checklist

1. The money checklist

The financial floor of any exit is runway: how many months your spendable savings cover after your paycheck stops. Settle this first, because it determines whether the rest of the plan is even possible.

• Confirm your runway. Run your numbers through the quit my job calculator and check you are in a workable band before committing to a date.
• Build an honest post-quit budget. Add the costs your employer covers today and remove work-only costs, using the budget planner.
• Keep your emergency fund separate. Do not spend the buffer as runway; size each with the emergency fund calculator.
• Check the dates that pay you. Bonus and commission payment dates, vesting cliffs, and any clawback period, so you do not resign a week before money lands.

2. The benefits checklist

This is the step people skip and the one where quitting gets expensive. Four audits, all done quietly before you resign:

• Health cover. Know the exact date your coverage ends and what replacing it costs. US readers: price COBRA and a marketplace plan. Full guide.
• Retirement accounts. Your 401(k), pension, RRSP, super, KiwiSaver, or CPF stays yours, but unvested employer contributions can be lost and some decisions have deadlines. Full guide.
• Unused leave. In some places payout is a legal right; in others it is whatever your contract says. Check the rules.
• Equity. Stock options often come with a short post-termination exercise window; missing it can erase years of value. Full guide.

3. The paperwork checklist

Systems access does not survive sentimentality, so gather what you are entitled to before your account closes:

• Download payslips, tax documents, and any personal files you are allowed to keep.
• Note your employee or payroll ID and confirm where future tax documents will be sent.
• Save personal contacts and any portfolio work you are entitled to keep, and never take anything you are not.
• Review what you signed: notice period, repayment clauses for signing bonuses, relocation or training costs, and any non-compete or non-solicit terms, especially if you plan to freelance.

4. The resignation conversation

Tell your manager first, live if you can, before anyone else at work knows. Keep it short, certain, and warm: you are resigning, here is your last day per your notice period, and you are committed to a clean handover. You do not owe a detailed reason, and offering one invites a debate you have already settled. Follow up the same day with a brief written resignation so the record is clean. Our resignation letter template and email examples cover the wording, including the awkward variants. For the full approach, see how to resign professionally.

Two preparations make it safer. Decide in advance what, if anything, would make you accept a counteroffer, because deciding live rarely goes well. And be ready for the opposite: some employers end access the same day, particularly in sales and finance, so have your personal files sorted first.

5. The notice period

The notice period is the cheapest reputation investment you will ever make. Document your work, hand over generously, and finish what can be finished. Before your last day, get the money facts in writing: final pay date and amount, leave payout, earned bonus or commission status, and benefit end dates. Confirm the practical details too, returning equipment, expense claims, and where your payslips will live once your work account closes.

6. Your first 30 days out

The first weeks have a short, unglamorous list that protects your runway:

1. Replacement health cover active from day one. Not "soon", from the first day of the gap.
2. A decision made about your retirement account. Leave it, roll it, or transfer it, deliberately rather than by default.
3. Your runway budget switched on. Start living the post-quit budget you built, not your old one.
4. Government registrations handled. Whatever your country expects after leaving work.
5. Structure for the time. The difference between a six-month runway and a four-month one is often just an unstructured first month. The first-30-days plan gives you a fill-in version.

The items people forget

The same handful of misses cause most of the expensive surprises:

• Pricing health cover before resigning. The most common budget hole, and discoverable in an afternoon.
• Resigning days before money vests or pays. Bonuses, equity cliffs, and employer-match vesting all have dates.
• The stock-option exercise window. Often short after you leave, and easy to miss in the chaos of an exit.
• Money promises that exist only in conversation. Get final pay, payouts, and references in writing.