NYT: To Escape the Grind, Young People Turn to ‘Mini-Retirements’

[wonkette]

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/10/us/young-people-work-mini-retirement.html?unlocked_article_code=1.-k4.8E80.fnItSlI3gwlx&smid=url-share (hopefully this is a gift link)

Enjoyed seeing this article on the front page of nytimes.com this morning amid all of the uncertainty about tariffs. I wonder if any of these folks are lurking here. Dr. Kira Schabram are you out there?

This mini-retiree was very interesting and somewhat emotional. I hope she is able to find happiness again!

[Sandra De La Cruz was 25 when she took about four months off work in 2015. She was an assistant project manager in the construction industry at the time, and had saved about $12,000 while living with her parents.

Her parents thought she could put that money toward buying a home, but Ms. De La Cruz, who was born in Peru and now lives in Hartford County, Conn., wanted to travel to South America instead. “This might be the only period in my life that I could just pick up and go without really hurting anyone,” she thought to herself at the time.

After paying about six months’ worth of her student loans in advance, she went to Peru to see her relatives for a month and then hopped around hostels in South America.

“There’s been a few times in my life that I felt that happy,” Ms. De La Cruz, now 35, said. “You don’t dread waking up and having to go to work. You just wake up and see where the day takes you.”

She was careful not to burn any professional bridges, and said her parents were willing to cover her student loans as a last resort if she ended up using all her savings. She found a job back in construction a month after she returned.]

 

[LaineyAZ]

I worked for years at a firm which gave lawyers 3 month paid sabbaticals every 7(?) years or so. 
Staff were jealous because although we got the usual vacation and sick day benefits, having 3 months off with pay was only a dream. 

I think mini-retirements are great mentally and emotionally, but not financially feasible for most workers.   

There are some professions where, as a taxpayer, I'd support paid sabbaticals - police officers, fire fighters, child welfare professionals - these are jobs with mental pressures that need some downtime for a mental reset.  It's only fair that we allow that as part of their pay.

[GuitarStv]

So . . . 'mini retirement' is what we're calling vacation now?

[LaineyAZ]

In the U.S., paid vacation time is usually on an "earned" basis - typically you get 1-2 weeks paid vacation during your first year of employment, and after 5 years another week, and at 10 years another week.
So you only get a month paid leave after working full-time for 10 years.  And that's only if your employer feels like offering that benefit - there's no law that they must provide paid leave. 
Even our federal Family Leave law is just employers keeping your job for you while you take un-paid leave, which is a max of 12 weeks.

If you're a temp worker as so many are these days, forget it, you're on your own. 

[GuitarStv]

Ah.  So 'mini-retirement' is what used to be vacation, but now no longer exists.

[spartana]

I think of voluntary unpaid breaks in employment more as sabbaticals - long (years) or short (months) - then anything like retirement.  It's pretty common for younger people to take long work breaks/sabbaticals to go off adventuring. It's basicly how I started my FIRE journey. Around the MMM forums some people call them FIREbatticals. Harder to do once "life" happens (kids, aging parents, finances, pets,  partners no onboard, etc) and of course it doesn't feel anything like real early retirement but it's a nice way to try out some of your dreams while young and not tied down.

[twinstudy]

I'm self-employed and I give myself breaks from work all the time, usually 1-2 weeks every 2 months with a longer 4 week break every year and an 8-12 week break every 2-3 years. I don't call it a mini-retirement though. It's a holiday.

I worked for years at a firm which gave lawyers 3 month paid sabbaticals every 7(?) years or so. 
Staff were jealous because although we got the usual vacation and sick day benefits, having 3 months off with pay was only a dream. 

I think mini-retirements are great mentally and emotionally, but not financially feasible for most workers.   

There are some professions where, as a taxpayer, I'd support paid sabbaticals - police officers, fire fighters, child welfare professionals - these are jobs with mental pressures that need some downtime for a mental reset.  It's only fair that we allow that as part of their pay.

Surgeon, psychiatrist, trial lawyer would be other jobs that require downtime for mental resets as well.

[Sanitary Stache]

Jillian Johnsrud calls it mini retirement and writes many words on what that means for her. She has a book deal for a book titled Retire Often. I think the concept she writes about is more nuanced than a sabbatical or a vacation. Though those words are probably encompassing enough to describe what happens in a “mini retirement”.

I hiked the Appalachian trail for 5 months in a similar way to Ms. De La Cruz - saved up $10,000, put my bills on auto pay, had family support - but I don’t think of it as a mini retirement. More like a mini taste of freedom from societal expectations.

[Idlewild]

So . . . 'mini retirement' is what we're calling vacation now?

Twenty years or so ago, it was known as a gap year. Young people backpacking and exploring the world.

[FireLane]

These young people are wise. I hope this sabbatical/mini-retirement trend catches on.

When I was in the workforce, the advice I heard was that your resume should have no gaps - or if it did, you'd better have a good explanation for them, or else risk being unemployable. ("I wanted to take a break from work" didn't count as an adequate explanation.)

I always thought that was Protestant-work-ethic bullshit designed to maximize wealth extraction from the working class. It's good that more people are seeing through it.

[couponvan]

I call them “smoke breaks” on the path to FIRE.

Took 6 weeks to backpack Europe, 1 year between kid 1 and 2, then 5 years with kid 3, then 4 years after cancer. I’m 54 and hope to do my final FIRE a next year when DD graduates college and we’ve paid her tuition/living expenses. I enjoy breaks and occasional working to pad the savings and fund travel, but I like part time and lots of vacation time. There have been some unpaid LOAs in there during working-it never hurts to ask-and unpaid LOAs don’t need to go on your resume as a gap. I have never had an issue getting hired with my gaps. I’ve returned to prior employers three times. Just don’t burn bridges when you leave and give plenty of notice.

Having a parent die at 58 makes you want to seize and enjoy the earlier years. Having a still alive grandparent of said 58 year old deceased parent makes you want to ensure you have enough to last until 105!

[314159]

The article sort of describes my wife. We moved out of our apartment and became digital nomads starting last August. (If you want to follow along, read my journal!) In October, she quit her job without anything lined up, not out of a desire to go travel (we were already doing that!) but because it was a crappy job and her boss was not good at being a boss. Relying on the Mustachian Position of Strength, were confident she'd be able to get a new job after a break.

Well, it's been about six months since she quit, and since then she just got her first job offer this week; a solid one which she'll likely accept. We do joke that she's retired, just as we joke that we're retired on the weekends, or after quitting time on a weekday! But in seriousness I do think sabbatical is a more useful term that better describes the situation. Ours is quite a bit different from those described in the article since I am with her, still working full time remote, and our spending is less than my salary alone, so there is no pot of savings which is going to run out. Still, it's fun to read about other people's adventures!

[J.P. MoreGains]

I took a mini retirement from 18 to 40 and never got serious about work or career. Now I'm doing FIRE to catch up for all of the "lost" years.

I have mixed feelings... I wish I would've know about FIRE in 1998 if that was even a thing back then.

I think I could've had nearly as much adventure if I would've been more responsible and got ahead of things early on.

I think in the end it won't matter once I get my money squared away and I won't really have any regrets.

I've been at my current job for two years and I already feel like taking a year off or something. But I can't do it... Got to see this through.

Overall I think the idea of taking sabbaticals is a good thing overall.

[J.P. MoreGains]

Having a parent die at 58 makes you want to seize and enjoy the earlier years. Having a still alive grandparent of said 58 year old deceased parent makes you want to ensure you have enough to last until 105!

This 100%. Have to find a way to get the most out of life while also being responsible and realistic enough to plan for the future!