Wanting to Quit my job and travel for a year or so?

[TheAverageSo]

Hi All - I have a question I'd like some feedback on.  My fiancee and I are currently both working full time and get paid an average wage.  Combined we make approximately $150k/year.  We are both sick of the companies we work at.  Not that we don't like the work, but more so the politics and the people at work.  We both have about $260k saved up in savings/investments.  I have a home appraised at about $950k with a $300k mortgage left. I also have a car loan (I know, stupid but I got it before finding the mustachian way) at $18k. 

We were both discussing the other night what to do about our futures and our careers.  She's on board for hitting FI and retiring early, but both of us love travelling so the idea came up about quitting and leaving our careers to do some slow travelling around Asia for about a year and delaying our FIRE path.  I work in the engineering/construction industry as a civil technologist, my fiancee works in the marketing industry as a client service manager.  I believe even after coming back from travelling, we would be able to find a job relativity quickly (about 2-3 months). What we would do with our home would be to rent it out, and sell the car at a loss?  So what do all you mustachians think?

[life_travel]

If you sell your house would you be FI and close to RE? That's a lot of money tied up in that equity .
Btw that's what we are planning to do too but for a bit longer and we are probably older :)

[TheAverageSo]

If you sell your house would you be FI and close to RE? That's a lot of money tied up in that equity .
Btw that's what we are planning to do too but for a bit longer and we are probably older :)

I've been reading and lots of people are saying that a house is a money pit.  I know further down the road, the fiancee and I would like to own a home and start a family in a home.  I don't know if we sell now, if we'll be able to buy into the market again.  I got the home about 5 years ago at $450k, so it's more than doubled.  But if the market calls for even higher home prices, we will be screwed.  And btw, I'm 37.

[life_travel]

Ok I can see your predicament now. If you are yet to start a family then I would keep the home unless you can buy something cheaper ? Is it an option in your area or are you in very HCOL area?
If you are to sell your car tomorrow , how much short you'll be?
I'm also somewhat concerned about your ages , unless your GF is younger ... If you take time preparing then travel for a year then try to get pregnant , the age might work against you.
Is there an option to take 4-6 months sabbatical instead ?
We took 4 months in 2015 and it was great ( without quitting our jobs).

[wanderin1]

We are both sick of the companies we work at.  Not that we don't like the work, but more so the politics and the people at work. 

First thing to do is to figure out whether 1) you’re in especially toxic work environments, or 2) the two of you just don’t have much tolerance for what’s typical in the workplace.

If it’s #1, then by all means change jobs—and some time off traveling beforehand is probably fine.
If it’s #2, maybe consider moving into consulting vs. salaried work. From your description, it sounds like you’re both in fields where that would be possible. Sure, there can be downsides to consulting, but dealing with the same toxic people and office politics for years on end, aren’t usually among them. A move to consulting would probably make the immediate travel a bad idea, but it could set you up for much more flexible future schedules.

[TheAverageSo]

thanks life_travel, we thought about selling and getting something smaller and a little closer to family and friends, but the closer we get to them, the higher the cost for homes and the crummy'er and older it gets, unless you're willing to pay a large sum for a re-built. 

Car wise, I think I'd take about a $5k loss, maybe more?

As for the fiancee, she's 28 - maybe she'll get prego's during the year away? I am wanting children but we also want to be in a good spot financially so we can provide for them without worry.  I wouldn't be opposed to having children while living abroad.  Maybe even find a job where ever we end up?

I would love to take a sabbatical, however, as mentioned, I am not liking the place I'm working right now and the higher ups management style is not conducive to growing and learning, let alone just doing the work properly.  It feels like a high school environment and favoritism runs rampant at least on the project I'm on, and seems like the same on other projects from people I've talked to. 

Wanderin1 - I am pretty tolerant to peoples behaviors, but when they directly affect me and my work it takes a toll.  Especially when most try and  pull power and rank over what actually needs to be completed.  I'm sure it happens in every work place, but to date, this has been the absolute worse I've been in.  Good idea on doing consultancy, I've never done that on my own, and am a little afraid to do that.  Do you have any pointers on how to start off?

[Tay_CPA]

You should absolutely go travel for a year if that's what you want to do! If you know you have x number of years to work until FIRE, you don't have to work all those years now. You can take a break and go back to work later, especially if you have enough cash saved up to travel for a bit now :)

I don't have any advice on the house part as I'm not a home owner, but I too want to eventually take a mini-retirement to travel. My boyfriend has done just that - twice! He's taken two separate year-long mini-retirements to travel the world. Both times he returned back to the US and easily got a job again (construction management, engineering background). I don't think he has any regrets whatsoever about taking these mini-retirements!

If you're interested in reading about some of his travels/advice, his blog is http://lifereengineeredblog.com/

Feel free to contact him (Brandon) through his site if you have any questions about quitting work to go travel! He's definitely been an inspiration for me :)

Good luck!

[capoevename]

This post may be relevant:

https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/post-fire/early-retirement-vs-serial-mini-retirements/msg1137262/#msg1137262

[wanderin1]

As for the fiancee, she's 28 - maybe she'll get prego's during the year away? I am wanting children but we also want to be in a good spot financially so we can provide for them without worry.  I wouldn't be opposed to having children while living abroad.  Maybe even find a job where ever we end up?

Wanderin1 - I am pretty tolerant to peoples behaviors, but when they directly affect me and my work it takes a toll.  Especially when most try and  pull power and rank over what actually needs to be completed.  I'm sure it happens in every work place, but to date, this has been the absolute worse I've been in.  Good idea on doing consultancy, I've never done that on my own, and am a little afraid to do that.  Do you have any pointers on how to start off?

For advice about consulting, a lot of people on MMM turn to the pointers and journal of Axecleaver. That's a good place to start.

From your brief mention of what you do for a living, you could be a great candidate for an international consulting career. Not so sure about your fiancé, but given her profession, maybe she can do remote consulting work for US employers. Your professional associations, or international versions of them, would be good places to start that research.

Of course, traveling overseas--even the vaunted "slow travel"--is a whole different thing from living and working as an expat. You'd have to do your homework carefully to make sure that expat life would be for you.

[life_travel]

If GF is only 28 then you have plenty of time for babies :)
Then I would take that one year off , but save for the trip ,sell the car , pay off the balance and have money to buy cheap car when you get back .

[JackieTreehorn]

I took a year off and traveled with DW. Sounds like we were in a similar situation to you. We had around 500k saved up but we were renters so no mortgage.  We did have a lease though (very HCOL area) and were able to AirBnb our place out for at least some of the time we were gone to help offset the rent.  If that's something you're open to it might help ease the cost of paying the mortgage while you're not in the home.  We found it to be a great experience and had no issues whatsoever with the people we had in our place.  We even ended up letting one guy stay a couple weeks extra when we got back, he was so easy. We didn't have a car so no issues there.  And I was able to take a year sabbatical from work and ended up returning to my job a couple months after we returned from the trip.

We traveled to Europe, SE Asia, New Zealand and all over the US and I would definitely recommend it to anyone considering it.  It was challenging in it's own way and although I didn't have any wonderful revelations about what I wanted to do with my life the travel alone was worth it.  If I had one thing I could change it would be that I wouldn't have worried about money so much while I was gone.  Now after being back at work for a year we have way more money than we did when we left and I wish I would have spent a few extra bucks here and there to experience a few extra things while we were traveling instead of pinching pennies all along the way.  The travel hacking/credit card churning thing was a big help too in saving money while also getting to stay in some really awesome hotels for a few nights here and there. 

Definitely do it!

[itchyfeet]

I'd go!

When I was your age DW (fiancée at the time) and I planned to throw our jobs in and travel. We sold our house, moved in with my parents for a few months to save a bit more.... and then I got cold feet, worried about not having a job when I came back.

So, I asked my employer for 3 months off which they agreed to. 3 months was awesome. (DW had no trouble getting the time off as well). We travelled through SE Asia and spent hardly anything.

When I got back I started looking for a new job and resigned a month or 3 later from the employer who had graciously granted me 3 months leave. So much for loyalty. Lol.

I did the same thing about 5 years later with the next employer. I got sick of the job, asked for 3 months off. They agreed to 2 months. We travelled through Sth America. When I got back I worked for about 3 or 4 months before finding a new job and resigning.

Both those trips were great, but I still itched for a longer time abroad, so I negotiated an international transfer with the Megacorp I now work for. We have been an expat for almost 3 years now.

We should FIRE in 2018 or 2019 aged 41 and 46, so all this travel hasn't been too disruptive. We plan to travel a lot more post FIRE too.

If I had thrown in my job and travelled for a year in my late 20s who knows how my career might have played out. I am glad how it all worked out, but am still a tad disappointed I got cold feet all those years ago.

[smisk]

This post may be relevant:

https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/post-fire/early-retirement-vs-serial-mini-retirements/msg1137262/#msg1137262

Wow, that's a very helpful thread. I've pretty much decided I'm going to leave my job early 2018, and am strongly considering taking a 3-6 month sabbatical. This should give me time to decompress, brush up on some skills on my resume, and travel a bit.
My stache is not as large as I'd like, ~$100k, but hopefully I can do this cheaply. I'm also debating whether I should move out of Northern VA. I have friends and family here, but I think I'm ready for a change of scenery. I visited Portland recently and loved it, so I may look out there.

[JoJo]

As someone who has traveled long term at age 31-32, 40, and now 44, I say do it while you're younger.  I'm feeling on the high end of the age spectrum of backpackers/flashpackers and definitely noticing less energy.