Hey all,
I am a 30 year old male turning 31 this year. Over the last few years I have become increasingly discontented and am strongly considering taking some time off work to try and realign and figure out what I want going forward. I don’t hate my job but I don’t really enjoy any part of it either. It is in financial services and while the money is great (I am on 100k a year) I struggle to find any meaning in it.
Due to the pandemic I have been able to save a substantial amount of money over the last few years and so could comfortably maintain my current lifestyle of 18-24 months before needing to look for work again if I want to. I have also started driving for Ubereats etc for some supplementary income/time-filler for if I were to stop working.
I don’t have any dependents nor a relationship. I would like a relationship but part of what holds me back from pursuing women is that I feel a lot of the time (especially at this age) they see the 100k salary and are more interested in that than in me. Which is fair enough to an extent as money is a part of life but it honestly really bothers me as it makes me feel like any relationship will be built on a house of cards of me continuing in a line of work I don’t enjoy.
My plan for the time off would be:
– Spend time relaxing and unwinding from the tension I have placed on myself
– Stay healthy through exercise & clean eating (I am a good cook but work takes up a lot of time so I often eat out)
– Pursue some of my passions (writing in particular) and hobbies.
– Volunteer to meet some new people
– Deepen relationships with friends and family
– A small amount of travel to places I have been putting off due to the pandemic
In terms of getting back into the workforce after the time off I am not really too worried because I am very adaptable and good with learning/using software which is a key skill in many office jobs these days. And tbh as I don’t have any dependents and don’t really need a fancy lifestyle to be happy I am not really worried about not looking like a baller without the big bucks.
I’m curious if anyone here has taken time off work in their 30s or a sabbatical? How did you find it? Was it worth it? Any regrets or things you would do differently?
Any advice or suggestions would be much appreciated.
3 comments
If I can add something to do long-term, you could likely do a small stint (3-6 months) in Mexico City/Costa Rica. Your money would go so much farther!
You could also use the experience to learn a new language if you don’t know Spanish.
I haven’t done this, and don’t plan to. But I think if the opportunity is there, then take it!!
Yea I took a year and a half off, it’s actually quite stupid. I didnt travel anywhere. I was a software engineer about to get fired because I was working on really old technology that I am not keen to work on, so I took a year and a half off to self study and worked on my own project. I’m working for a remote company and I am reasonably happy now, but back then alot of people were shit talking me saying why not study while employed?
I was crying, every single day. It was not worth it. I lost about $10,000 just surviving without a paycheck, but it’s okay.
100s of 1000s of people did this due to layoffs in pandemic.
It’s cool, for about a month. Maybe 2.
Then you get bored.
Plenty of people you know probably went through this. Talk to them about it.
Otherwise traveling is a lot of fun when you take a break. I have a friend that works a couple years, then will travel for months and years sometimes.
Then he works again to build up funds to repeat. This is an outlier cuz most people like healthcare or stability.
Your goals listed are very small. As in you could take a vacation and make efforts to your time management to accomplish them while still working. Think much bigger if you’re going to bail from the workforce.
Anyone you know at your age is probably with spouses or children. Hence your feeling of what is it all for?
So again, identify your wildest dreams. And literally map out the next months/years on how to get there using the money you get from the job you don’t like.
Your career does not need to be your identity. It can be a paycheck.