Sabbatical Reflections

[WalkaboutStache]

I started my sabbatical in October last year, and thought it may be a good idea to put down some reflections here for those who are thinking about it or who are just curious.  Selfishly, I also hope that answering questions might spur me to think through next steps and re-adjust.

This is actually my third break from work.  The first one went poorly, as I did not have enough savings and a very poorly conceived plan.  I actually thought I was going to end chronically under-employed, but got lucky to get back on the horse.  The second one was just a much needed break, and I had every intention to go back to my job, which I did.  I am taking this one really close to the time when I can pull the plug completely, and it brought up all kinds of interesting issues.

First, it is entirely possible that if I had buckled down and continued to work away, I would be about a year away from FIRE now, if not less.  On the other hand,  I don't think my mental health would have held up.  This was a good time to do it and I feel infinitely better than I did before.  I did go through a really rough decompression phase where my anxiety refused to abate.  There were no trumpets and the universe did not shower me with opportunity and bliss.  I just had time to travel a bit in my home country, spent more time with my family there, eventually adopted a dog and gradually fell into a little routine. This stuff takes time and taking a break to get yourself back to ship shape is as good a reason as any. 

I thought my expenses might go down a bit since I was going to a lower cost of living location, but I was surprised to find that they did not.  Part of it was that I had to do a good deal of deferred maintenance on my vacation rental so tools and materials were a regular drip drip drip of unexpected expenses.  I tricked myself into thinking that one you have a routine unexpected expenses are rare, but I found that there is always some kind of one-off thing that pops up pretty much monthly.  Good lesson to learn and it was not painful, just a little annoying.

There is value in having an emergency fund.  Like everyone, I saw the value of my portfolio take a huge hit, but I was absolutely not worried.  That was not money I needed to touch.  At one point I roughly calculated how long my uninvested savings would last and found out that the period was very comfortable, so I am ok with it.

I think the big question I had was whether I was at a point where I could retire.  The answer was what I expected: a vague "no, but...".  I can't become a gentleman of leisure yet, but I have some options. (a) I can take on projects at my desk job (I am a legal consultant/contractor) just for long enough to cover my expenses for a year, rinse and repeat and not touch my capital appreciation.  (b) I make a bit of money on a side gig that involves my hobby/passion and withdraw the shortfall from my investments while staying under my SWR.  In the end, I decided to do both.  I told my employer that I am ready to take on projects and made a substantive investment on equipment so I can ramp up my side gig.  The market is slow right now, so I think that will give me a chance to work on the side gig for the rest of the year.  I am welcoming the mental break and the easing into my old working life, and hoping the side gig really takes off.  I don't think it will be lucrative enough to sustain me fully, and in a sense that is just as well.  I don't want to ruin my passion by turning into a job.

I think what I am taking away from this experience is that the wisdom in these forums is true.  You need a safety net.  Decompression takes time. When you stop the grind, other opportunities will come up.  The market can and will take downturns, but the longer you are in it the faster your investment recovers.

If you have a chance to take a sabbatical, I highly recommend it.  Plan for it to be longer than you planned so you don't get anxious on the tail end of it and just pull the trigger.  If you are laid off and have sufficient savings, maybe this is your chance (assuming your emergency fund is solid).  Happy to answer any questions anyone may have, and would love to hear from others who have taken time off or are in the middle of their break right now.

[IslandFiGirl]

I think you are smart to take sabbaticals along the way.  Mental health is worth a lot more than we give credit for and if we can do anything to preserve it, I think it's worth it. 

Like you, I found it surprising that my expenses didn't go down much after leaving work.  If you own things (like a house) things break, they'll always break and you'll always have those kind of expenses.  It's SO frustrating! 

I also was a bit disappointed with the decompression period.  There were days I didn't want to do ONE SINGLE THING, and I didn't understand why things weren't suddenly perfect.  I finally realized that I only took one stressor out of my life and while that was very helpful, any other responsibilities I had were still there.  Wherever you go, there you are, right? 

You sound like you are in a good place, what an awesome thing to be able to take time off of work for extended periods of time! 

[Nangirl17]

I am currently on a year-long sabbatical. I can identify with a lot of what you have written. The main motivation for my sabbatical was family related (helping out extended family as well as spending more time with my own), with a writing project being a secondary motivation. I was also wondering if we'd be close to a lean fire and this would be a good opportunity to "practice" being retired.

I kept in cash what my expenses were at the start of the year, and have also been surprised to find that my expenses have not gone down as much as I thought. Turns out that when I turn my attention elsewhere, I spend some more money there too! =) I was happy to have the cash around so I could not worry when the market dove (and actually threw some money in).

I'm actually not sure if we're close to lean fire - my strategy for coping with the crash was to ignore keeping track of my investments (for the most part!) and not spend energy on analysing it. I suspect I have a couple years or work left, since my expenses haven't taken the hoped-for nosedive.

"Wherever you go, there you are"... boy, is that the truth!! There was a part of me that was hoping for an "easier" life. In lots of ways, my life is much less stressful - no more alarm clock, rushing to work in the morning, pager going off in the middle of the night, long hours, I can go to bed whenever I feel like it, etc. BUT I still struggle with the things that all humans struggle with, AND there are other challenges - after the month of euphoria from the 'freedom' I struggled immensely with motivation, and some of that had negative repercussions with my family, adding extra stress. It has taken me months to get into a bit of a rhythm where I'm happy with what I'm accomplishing. (some of this may have had to do with the changes from the Pandemic too).

I have 6 months left. I'm glad I opted for a year long leave, since I just feel like I'm getting the hang of it . Of course, I know that means a bigger adjustment when I go back, but for now, I'm happy, so I'm just going to ignore that until November when I have to start getting all my certifications back in place, and will try to plan for a smooth transition back. I'm curious to see if I'll quickly revert to enjoying the external motivation.