The more qualified version would be keep your day job until you can afford to do without it. Writing and performing poetry or songs is not necessarily the most lucrative career. Let’s take a look at a few examples:

• David Tamulevich - David is one half of the Ann Arbor, Michigan-based Mustard’s Retreat. He and his partner write and perform poetry and songs. David’s “day job” is as owner of Tamulevich Artist Management representing other singers in booking them into venues around the country.
• Michael Hough - The other half of the folk duo called Mustard’s Retreat, Michael is a professional photographer.
• Les Barker - Les was an accountant for many years before he was able and willing to take the leap of making a full-time living out of poetry.
• Joel Mabus - Joel, like Les, has gone full-time with writing and performing. For many years he worked at a music store. Although his “day job” was related to his writing and performing career, it was not time spent directly in those two pursuits.
• Robert Jones - Robert has had a musical career for many years being paralleled by other occupations, including: associate minister and later senior minister, director of a story-living program for a museum, and working for a public radio station.

One thing that you might note is that many of these people are either self-employed or have very flexible jobs that allow them to set their own schedules for writing and performing.