My husband just quit his job in December with nothing else lined up. We're in our mid-twenties with his student loans to pay off and have a major goal of mine to save up for over the next few years, and joint finances. The job had dangerous work lined up, and didn't have my husband's best interests at heart, nor admin support (moving refund took 6 months! W-4 change takes 3-6 weeks!). So he really wanted to quit, we talked about it one night, and he put in his two weeks. I was actually encouraging him to not go back. My income covers our basic expenses and 10% for retirement rate; but no extra savings. We discussed how long we would wait for him to find an ideal job before he went looking for any job just to have work. I was concerned a bit about income, but really about him not being around the house all the time! It was starting to drive us both a bit bonkers.
So, he got a beginning position at his new job. It's in his new chosen career field. It's part-time and a 50% pay cut, but half the commute. And he gets along with these coworkers really well, and gets to participate in company decisions. He's downright joyful nowadays in comparison to how he felt before. Totally worth it for us. For me, it's worth every (lost) penny to see him happier and driven.
And with the lower income, and even before: if we did separate finances, well I would be living large and he would scrape by. That's just how our separate career fields pan out income-wise. He also brought student loans and small other debts into our marriage; splitting household costs 50% would have eaten 75% of his income, plus his student loan payments. So I could save 40% or 50% towards retirement, while he couldn't even manage an EF. And we can forget vacations that he would go on. So yes, in some views I "subsidize" his life. Or we, together, have a balanced life based on what we both bring to the table, b/c marriage is a partnership. So we jointly agree on a budget and amounts of personal "blow" money.
Also, I plan to own a farm one day. That has major ups and downs of income. We are going for that ride together, most definitely.