If you’re gonna do this, go drive a truck in a mining area. (In Australia this basically means WA) They’re often desperate for drivers and the pay is insane.
This is literally the route I took in my life. Entered the workforce in the early 2000s in IT as helpdesk. Worked till I had a resume good enough for the next level up. Lived below my means. Take several months off to do whatever. Apply for a higher level position. Rinse and repeat every couple years until I was in my 40s at a company I intend to retire with.
I always lived in a smaller place than what I could afford. Never owned a new car. My current vehicle is a 2001 pickup truck, purchased in like 2018. So, gotta trade one luxury for another.
2 caveats: IT as a career was not in the state its in now. Much easier to move up and around. I’m also now in my late 40s and looking to buy my first home, since I wasn’t building a nest egg my whole life, and that’s no fun.
Also, it was really important to have some significant achievements on the resume as I left each place to show growth professionally so I could always jump up in role/salary with each move.
My career is solid and I make a great salary for my age, but homes are just insane. My brother is 6 years younger and took a more traditional route and started a family, he was able to score a good home before COVID.
Still, I wouldn’t trade anything material for the life I took and the places I went.
This gets a lot easier if you have somewhere reliable and preferably free to stay when you need to start working again. Even if you have paid off your own place or been given a place for free you have bills to pay on it. I guess you can rent it out while you are away, but that seems less than ideal to me as how do you keep it maintained if you aren’t in the country? It just ends up being another cost.
I would have loved to have done this but the housing situation has always put me off.
How does that work when you don’t live with your parents?
Rents are extremely expensive and would slow down the “build a safety net” part of the cycle.
Live with roommates, stop living with roommates since you’re now traveling, no rent payment.
Boomer here - that’s pretty much how I managed my software career. Do a contract job for 6 mos to a year, then do theatre until I needed to work again. Had to go back to fulltime work once I got married and had kids. I miss those days tho. Also, fuck your tiny stereotyping brain if you think a whole generation has the same likes and dislikes.
Man I love you! (Platonically, of course).
As someone with kids, that’s not happening. Then again, my sibling did this and went on a year-long trip with their kids, and it worked out for them.
This is what my old housemate did, starting in the 90s. Worked out quite well for him. My dad used went round the world with the navy in the 50s and used to talk about how some other cultures did stuff like this.
Tried something like this. Recruiters told me the gap didn’t look good and I should lie about needing that time off for my mental health. The 1st class honours degree I was told would allow me to walk into a job was deemed essentially worthless since I had only around 2 year’s industry experience. Took me months to get another role offered - a 15k paycut and overall a major downgrade - which I had to take to pay the rent. 0/10, would not recommend.
the gap didn’t look good
Yeah, live your entire fucking life to be attractive to that guy.
The only thing worth learning from this is that if there’s so little need for work to be done that “having gaps in the resume” is enough that they’d rather go without, then the work does not need to be done.
It’s beyond time for UBI.
Yeah… I don’t really think anyone really cares about anyone’s education anymore, at least not past your first employer.
I have to spend a lot of time teaching people in their residencies at my job, and where they went school doesn’t really bring anything to the table. In fact, a lot of the people who went to fancy private medical schools were either overwhelmed by having to talk to our impoverished patient population, or didn’t ever develop healthy ways to mitigate interpersonal conflict.
I think the problem might be how quickly you quit to do it. It takes a good year to train a new person to be productive. If they only get about a year of productivity from you after training you for a year (and a junior level amount of productivity at that), then it’s not worth their time and effort to invest in you. If you did it every 5-7 years instead, it would probably go over better. That’s long enough to see whole projects through to completion and then just take a break in between.
There’s also the issue of how long you take off. If you take off 6 months to a year, it’s less likely that new technology comes in and changes everything than if you take off 2 years. Ex: 2 years from today you can expect huge swaths of industries to adopt using AI tools in day-to-day tasks. Another ex: I’m an engineer, not a CS person. I’ve helped design computer systems, but sophisticated coding isn’t the main part of my job. In the last 3ish years I’ve seen every system I’ve encountered switch to containerization.
You’d have to find a job that pays enough for this lifestyle. And with the kind of resume this produces, it’s a pipe dream.
Nah, you just need to adjust life styles. I’ve been doing this exact thing for five years now in the IT industry. I rely on contracts for full employment for 8 months and relax for 4 months.
“Sounds like we’re paying these guys too much”
Only works if you are not working a shitty job and living paycheck to paycheck. Good fucking luck in most economies greedy billionaires are keeping this from happening.
Yeah wtf jobs is she getting where she builds up a safety net in 1-2 years? I’ve been at this shit for a decade and have 3 digits in my bank account
Edit: I should disclose the fact that I have been making minimum wage this whole time. That said, most people I know make nearly average wages, and still have 3-4 digits in their bank accounts at all times
Living with parents probably (/gen, non-derogatory)
There’s a thing called lifestyle creep. You may not necessarily be living paycheck to paycheck on the bare minimum. Going out with friends, having the latest phone, having hobbies, if you cut out all fun you may be able to save up significantly. You can also live like a bum in the least accommodating space you can stand. Being comfortable is expensive, but not everybody wants to be uncomfortable for long stretches just to fuck off to the Bahamas for a month every few years. That or credit card debt.
I think current ‘lifestyle creep’ for many is getting used to things like ‘health insurance’ and ‘something other than beans and rice’. Hard to give up simple human dignity once you’ve had a taste of it.
people living like this don’t think into next week much less health insurance
these are the dudes social safety nets and medivac helicopters support
That is for sure a thing, but in my case it genuinely is having little income
Been making minimum wage for way too long, and at this point I’m too old and don’t have the skills to get a significantly better job. My retirement plan is
If you’re making minimum wage, what do you really have to lose by improving your marketable skills?
One’s heart. Perhaps you are unaware, but improved skills can cause havoc on one’s cardiovascular health. Improved skills are a leading cause of death in the United States.
It’s a pretty neat trap, you see I can’t afford to take any time off work to even look for another job, let alone any unpaid training
I’m sure if I locked the fuck in and pulled myself up by my bootstraps and got extremely lucky, I could jump ship into a better position, but that target is like 5 feet wide and a hundred feet away and surrounded by homelessness on all sides
You obviously have the internet. I doubt you worked 24/7. Use some of that internet to study.
Do you have any internet-based resources I can use to study in any way that would help me get a different job?
Well sure if you never got out of minimum wage jobs then it’s no wonder you can’t accumulate a safety net, the majority of people don’t keep working minimum wage for decades though (median income is above minimum annual salary).
Live with a group in a LCOL area, eat rice and beans, no other hobbies.
I mean almost anyone with a stem education is able to do this.
Before you say: “buh have you seen the job market?”
The point of the plan isn’t to get stinking rich off of each 1-2 year stint, it’s to make just enough money that you can travel around and reset to nearly 0 after not working for a few months to a year
The biggest problem I see with this is staying current and sharp with your tech skills and also explaining those gaps. It’s definitely possible though, especially if you’re able to live frugally.
Most industries do not move that fast. And yeah, I’m including software in those industries. Really, how much changes in 2 years in Accounting, HR, plumbing, or electrical engineering?
As for the gap -
Them: “Can you explain this gap in your resume?”
You: “Yeah, I was travelling.”
Them: “Oh, that’s cool. You know, I wish I’d done that when I was younger.”
explaining those gaps
“I didn’t feel like working” is perfectly acceptable. Any job that takes offense to that is not worth taking.
Any hiring manager who hears that is going to hear it as “this employee will up and leave us without warning at any time”
Not saying they’re right, but that’s what it is. Most people are looking to hire permanently if possible, you’re telling them straight up that you are not going to be a permanent employee.
Or more cynically, “that guy just stayed long enough for ppl to figure out they’re useless and then quit just before getting fired to go travelling”
Yeah, but depending on the industry, that can be ok.
Some fields have companies that will hire and fire en masse based on projects that start and stop. At that point, they aren’t just paying you to show up to work, they’re also paying you to leave.
If I was looking at a hire who only gives a year I’m thinking that’s a big investment to get them up to speed on our tech, train them, and start getting them projects only to know they’re going to bounce. Not to mention provisioning tech and tools for them. I think experience and a company willing to hire you becomes the issue if you do this too often.
Stem jobs aren’t a spot where you want to be losing your talent every year, it’s hard to push forward with that. I see companies avoiding those hires honestly.
Also, how do you advance and make more, if that’s what you want, without working somewhere long enough to grow. Self education helps, but practical experience is needed.
If I were them, just be a freelancer. It gives you the freedom and you’re your own boss.
That’s the key, you don’t tell the company you’re working for that you only plan to stay for a year or two. After you’ve done it twice maybe your resume will start to show a pattern, but at that point you’ve been doing this for 4-6 years, and I can think of plenty of lies to tell corporate that will make for a good excuse.
As for making more, your progress will definitely be stymied by taking breaks, but you’re not taking breaks in order to advance your career. It’s just a difference in life goals, clearly you value climbing a corporate ladder to increase your salary. Besides, it’s well documented that changing employers is one of the best ways to increase your salary so if your goal is making more money you would want to change jobs every couple of years no matter what.
clearly you value climbing a corporate ladder to increase your salary
That’s not at all true, and I feel like people with this very casual stance on a career think that everyone else is that way. We’re not. If anything I feel like we just can think beyond the short term.
Let me ask you, this person that lives this life, are they still working at 70? How much do they really have left to invest with these breaks? What if the market has a down turn when you’re on vacation and you come back to a job market you can’t get a foothold in? How is your 401k really looking with all these breaks?
My goal is to not work a day after 45. I have taken many vacations and enjoyed my life while working but I plan to never answer to anyone after 45, just live my life for me. The rest of my life without worry and with security. That’s what I work for, not climbing a ladder. Security and an exit plan.
Not in the US, if you have any medical conditions or if you don’t want to gamble with the possibility of getting injured, or if you have a spouse or children who need your insurance.
Yes, fear is a major factor for why people don’t do risky things for potential rewards.
As for having a spouse and children or a pre-existing medical condition, you’re correct that only a certain portion of the population is able to do this. We already cut it down to people with something like a STEM degree that are able to do this.
Ah yes, for all those 55 year old Gen Z’ers with a couple kids and a heart condition.
Sorry to say that Gen Zs are up to their mid-late 20s now, and:
- Plenty of people have or develop medical conditions in their 20s.
- Plenty of people have kids in their 20s
- Plenty of people get injured in their 20s.
- Spouses can be just as dependent on insurance as children
Do you think young people can’t have medical issues or kids? What is this?
You know, you can pay for private health insurance if you don’t have a job. And if you have an emergency fund or (micro) retirement fund, it should include funds for health insurance.
As long as you line up your micro retirement with open enrollment (which, coincidentally, lines up with the winter and the holidays and therefore one of the most expensive time to travel) andAs long as you can afford to suddenly add anywhere from two to ten thousand dollars to your micro retirement plan depending on your health needs, and as long as you live in one of the few states where the most affordable plans are offered.
Take a look at each plan in the link below, and notice under “Pros and Cons” most of the affordable ones are offered in less than half the states, and still cost thousands of dollars.
Keep in mind, these list average plan costs under the ACA, but I specifically pointed out the issue of having conditions or injuries or spouses or children that would put you above average: https://www.forbes.com/advisor/health-insurance/best-affordable-health-insurance/
(Edit - also keep in mind, I’m specifically responding to a comment that said almost anyone with a stem education can do this. Some can, sure, but no, almost anyone with a stem education cannot do this.)
Leaving your job qualifies as a “life changing event” and allows you to sign up for private insurance under ACA. You don’t need to wait for open enrollment.
Ah, thanks for the correction. I thought it had to be an involuntary job loss.
Move to a better state. If you are already quitting your job to travel, you can just list yourself as living at a friend’s house or whatever on paper, and then apply for health insurance.
That’s fair, I forgot to include “or as long as you are willing to commit fraud”
I mean, I don’t see how it’s possible if you’re only going to have entry level skills… You’re not really building up a wealth of marketable skills if you quit all the jobs after a year.
It works if you can build up the relationships and reputation, which will depend heavily on the industry and the job.
I know two people who do this, and they have jobs that allow them to.
One is an emergency room physician. His shifts are staffed through a middleman at 3 different local hospitals, and the nature of the work is that he just does work during the shift and doesn’t bring any home with him or continuing onto the next shift he works. He gets paid very well when he’s working (average annual salary of an emergency physician in the U.S. is about $375,000 per year). And occasionally just lines up a long sabbatical, does volunteer work overseas (Doctors Without Borders/MSF), and takes time off for himself and his family. He basically budgets a $200k lifestyle and takes unpaid time off. But his pathway basically required him to just dominate school, from kindergarten through a bachelor’s degree and 4 years of medical school, and then put in his time as a resident.
Another friend of mine works as an electrician and lighting crew member on TV shows and movies. He always has to line up his next project after the current one ends, but occasionally can line something up in the future so that he can take a calculated 3-6 months between projects. He’s got a good working relationship with some producers and directors, so he basically knows he can find a job anytime with whatever production those people happen to be working on. Whenever he has enough cash, he can go and travel, timed out to where he’s not paying rent for an unoccupied apartment. Then he lines up another gig, signs a new lease, and then continues working. I think he lives very frugally on the job (I think stuff like food is covered when filming on location, so not a lot of out of pocket expenses for food/drink while working), and saves money that way.
With that, I think there are a few opportunities to think through which careers might actually allow for this.
Project-based jobs, where people work for a few months or a year towards a particular project completion, might be good for intentionally taking gaps between projects. I wonder if construction and similar industries would allow for this. Academia often has formal sabbatical policies, too, but that’s relatively late career.
Personal independent gigs can do this, if you can earn enough money doing it (so, like, not Uber and Doordash). Some people do contract design work, create independent art, write essays and op eds for different publications, etc. If you’re paid by the job, taking a break doesn’t really hurt your “resume,” so to speak. Even some who are expected to publish on a defined schedule can get ahead of the curve by producing a bunch of work for publication on that schedule (some webcomic authors and social media influencers are known to do this).
Jobs where you are employed by some firm but actually work for a client that hired your firm might also be a good candidate, if you have the seniority and flexibility and credibility to just take unpaid time off while still being on the books and website as an employee. I know people who took off a year of parental leave as lawyers, but it really depends on practice area and firm culture whether that will permanently hold them back on career growth.
Jobs that are basically shift work are designed so that no one person is totally indispensable or non replaceable, which gives the worker the flexibility to leave without hard feelings, and come back whenever they’re ready. My emergency medicine friend probably fits in this category. But also, maybe any kind of 24/7 coverage job sorta fits this category, too, in health care, IT, critical infrastructure, etc.
Yeah and if the job market sucks and you’re out a job
If you’re ever on the backpacking circuit you’ll meet people like that. They work just long enough to save up for their next trip.
But also, they travel frugally, not having a luxurious lifestyle between earning higher than average wage.
I wish. It takes me around 6 months and hundreds of applications to get a job. That strategy isn’t sustainable for me.
I’ve got a buddy who does a variation of this. He’s got a little shack pretty close to town. He’ll work in the oil field for a few months, come hang out with everyone, and live a “normal” life. Then when he’s saved up enough he rolls out and lives in the woods with his dog hunting and fishing and growing veggies. We go by and check on his place every so often to make sure no one has broken in and it’s not rotting to the ground.
When he no longer has the money to stay in the woods he comes back. I say that, but he’s got the skills to feed himself out there. I think he gets bored after a year or two and wants to be around people for a while.
I asked him about retirement once and he’s got another shack right on a lake that’s been paid off since the 90s. His plan is to go there and fish and not come back.
This only works without kids.
I mean there’s a whole bunch of assumptions
First, you’d need to make enough money to work 1-2 years to be able to save up enough that it’s more substantial than a two week vacation, which for many isn’t possible.
Second, you’d need to have a type of career where it’s just fine to stop working for awhile and then come back like nothing happened. Most careers don’t let you just leave for awhile and come back when you feel like it, and applying for a new job every year or two years sounds fucking miserable.
Third, you’d need to have some place you can live during those 1-2 years you are working. Either you’re rich enough to just already own a home or condo or keep paying rent, or you have kind friends or family that let you live with them. Otherwise, again, you’re searching for housing every year or two, which sounds awful.
Fourth, you still need medical care when you aren’t working, so you need the money to pay for private insurance.
As you said. Pets, kids, an SO with a stable job that doesn’t want to do this, all non-starters.
To me this screams “I have a trust fund and I mean that I want to save up travel money while my apartment is already paid for.” And where that’s not the case, I imagine it’s someone in a very lucrative field, where working two years nets them a significant amount of money.
Though the top comment certainly shows an example of where this does work (though it requires all the assumptions I outlined above)
My friends and I basically do this. None of us have trust funds.
My friends:
- Park ranger, climbing guide, liftee, etc. Do enjoyable seasonal work, take off seasons you wanna have fun.
- Remote worker. Live in a van, work normal hours, but travel where ever you feel like.
- Rope access technician. Make 6 figures in 6 months, winters off.
- Engineer/Software Dev/Normal Office Worker. Do good work at a no-name mid-sized company for a few years to build up good working relationships and tribal knowledge. Leave on good terms with a handshake agreement that you can return in a few years as long as they still have room for you. Call it a “sabbatical”.
- Contractor/Carpenter/Trades. Make 6 figures in 6 months, or just take off whenever you want. Someone always needs a staircase built.
- Accountant. Work 3 months for tax season, then fuck off.
- Travel Nursing. Pick up 3 months stints basically whenever you want.
- Teacher. Summers off.
- Nannying. Build up a string of good references, then take off when you feel like it - you can always find another gig.
- Any job where you can make around 6 figures after a few years in the trenches. Live cheap, save up, invest in passive income streams, retire forever.
Some of them have pets. Some of them have kids. Some of them have partners (who they chose in part for their openness to this lifestyle). Some of my friends were born into stable middle class families. Some were born into poverty with drug addicts. Some were drug addicts who spent years in and out of jail. Literally the only thing they all have in common is that they cared enough about having flexibility in their lives to make it happen.
Edit: for additional context -
Where do they live? They tend to live in their cars or in tents in nature, or else in hostel-like environments when abroad. No rent helps a lot. They will rent out their homes when they are gone if they own. Or sublease their rental if they want it when they come back. Or simply have no home base other than maybe a storage unit. Not owning much, and having little attachment to material possessions helps a lot here, too.
For healthcare - best option is to be from somewhere with a good healthcare system. Lots of my friends are Canadian. I’m from Colorado, and the state subsidizes your health insurance premiums based on your income. You can also use travel insurance, and set your home address to be somewhere where you don’t intend to go near, like a parent or friends home. Or you can simply spend all your time in countries where healthcare is cheap or free. Finally, one friend was simply uninsured and said his plan was to throw his wallet out the window on his way to the ER and give them a fake name and address.
That’s pretty cool. How do those with kids or a “home base” manage to just leave for an extended period of time? Do they seek new housing or just have someone take care of their property while they are gone?
Also when you say “invest in passive income streams” please elaborate, as this often leads to buy property and be a landlord, grift others, etc.
One friend who has kids is a teacher. His ex was a school administrator. Now that they are divorced, he’ll take the kids for one month in the summer, and she’ll take them for the other.
Another is currently working on outfitting his camper van to be family-ready, plus building out a trailer to function as a home office. He works as a therapist while his wife works remotely for a nonprofit.
Another friend just had a daughter out of wedlock irresponsibly young, and now just does odd jobs under the table in his 40s when he wants money.
Friends with home bases do a number of things. Some rent them out - this is easier if you hire a management company or have someone nearby to help out if things go wrong. Some actually do make enough money to just leave them sitting there for a while. One friend has a “home base” that is literally his friends well water pump shed. A few friends have raw land that they park their vans on, which they are constructing more permanent homes on at their own schedule.
Passive income streams for everyone I know of are landlording or index funds. This is what I personally do. I have two properties - one is a big house in the city where I rent by the room. The other is a mountain cabin vacation rental. I do pretty much all the maintenance and management of these places myself. Just today I was pulling weeds in the gravel driveway, and the next time I have a gap in guests I’ll be restocking the soap and coffee and TP at the cabin. This summer I’ll be getting dirty and sweaty doing fire mitigation and landscaping. You can say it’s a grift, but all I see is that I’m offering affordable rent to people who recently moved to my city, often giving them a community in the process; and then helping families enjoy the beautiful mountains when they have a week or a weekend of vacation off. Of course, I am profiting simply from the fact that I bought the land at a particular time - for more on that, I’d recommend reading about Georgism, the most fair and efficient taxation scheme you’ve never heard of. But at the end of the day, the system is what it is, and I’m unlikely to change it. So why leave the opportunities around me just sitting there (where someone else will scoop them up anyway) out of some kind of impotent moral outrage?
What about retirement? Not continuing to save for retirement during your 20s and 30s is a recipe for absolute disaster for long-term stability. What about saving for a down payment for a house?
“Boomers” don’t like this because it seems incredibly short-sighted.
My retirement plan is sponsored by Smith and Wesson.
I mean, there are plenty of boomers who also didn’t save for retirement. It’s not like this is a kids-these-days thing.
Some of my friends, I assume, are not saving for retirement. I don’t know what they plan on doing. Others I assume are sensible enough to contribute maximally to their retirement plans while they are working, so they’ll have some healthy funds to live on later. I, personally, always maxed out my 401k and IRA before I put any money in my other funds. And I bought 2 houses which I run as investment properties. Frugality can get you a long way.
I was curious. I knew software dev would be in there and it’s my wheel house.
Engineer/Software Dev/Normal Office Worker. Do good work at a no-name mid-sized company for a few years to build up good working relationships and tribal knowledge. Leave on good terms with a handshake agreement that you can return in a few years as long as they still have room for you. Call it a “sabbatical”.
So he worked for a few years first. Not the 1-2 years this has talking about. His value is relationships and tribal knowledge, neither help him get a job at another company if the no name company goes under. Left that company with nothing but a promise that you might be able to come back… And if he can’t, welp that’s going to be rough.
This seems line a VERY unstable future.
Also if these people are making 6 figures in 6 months I don’t see the govment helping them with Healthcare. And living in a van it doesn’t seem easy to have a network. Raising a kid like that also seems kinda messed up, they don’t get to develop those social skills…
If you want a stable future, I guess you would not pick that lifestyle. And if you worked for 5-6 years, taking a year off for personal reasons is not too unheard of. That is long enough to be trained, work productively and hand over your tasks to the next guy. Also, you could always make something up like “I had to help family members” or “I built a house/family member’s house” or whatever.
My buddy does this with 3 kids. Hes been a contractor all his life for start up. Regularly gets equity in the start up. Builds it up, then cashes out.
Works for him as a contractor because he can make his own hours and they home school their kids, so they travel all the time too
Those kids are going to be miles behind everyone else when they enter the workforce.
He had first year of state tests this year and his oldest tested an entire grade above where she should be. They are enrolled in so many activities (sports, music, cooking classes, etc.) That they get plenty of social interaction and develop their social skills.
I appreciate your uninformed opinion tho
