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Retire early and often is my motto. I've now been through my third (fourth?) sabbatical. My advice: keep yourself busy but allow for spontaneity, you don't have

Retire early and often is my motto. I've now been through my third (fourth?) sabbatical. My advice: keep yourself busy but allow for spontaneity, you don't have to pack it all into one sabbatical, and multitask in your actions (i.e. you can choose activities and locations that fulfill several fun things you've been meaning to try). Realize that it's not a picnic and even if you sit at home it's going to be tough; you don't go through personal growth without some pain. For ideas (and possibly even inspiration) of what might be possible in a few sabbaticals: I took a year in Denmark between high school and college, learned Danish, how to paint, and toured Germany with an orchestra playing the clarinet (which I had also just learned). I also developed a taste in music by going through an entire library's worth of records in alphabetical order among other adventures, including backpacking on my own for some months. I took a year between my undergrad and my Master's, in which I worked for a software project I was passionate about, traveled the Middle East, taught programming in Jerusalem to Palestinian high school students, and studied Arabic and Topology at Harvard. I took a year between my Master's and beginning my PhD, in which I worked as an astronomer in Switzerland, founded a startup in the bay area, and did a ridiculous amount of traveling stateside. In addition I've taken a few month(s) here and there... moved to the Arctic to work for a startup, to Egypt to scuba dive and study Arabic, etc. Think positive and big! Best of luck in your adventures! BTW I am not rich or independently wealthy, just was very creative out of necessity at finding external funding sources. All of the above were self-financed in this manner.

keeptrying 16y ago
Hi, Could you elaborate. I'm sure a lot of people would find the information you have useful. How did you make money? What tips do you have for people who are about to do this? How did you deal with the loneliness of solo travel? Or is this just in my head?
- _corbett 16y ago
  Sure, for my first adventure I found a loophole in some money I was getting as the result of my father's early and tragic death (when I was 6 leaving my mom destitute) wherein it would continue as long as I was in high school. When I did an exchange year in Denmark as a highschool student, even though I had already graduated in the states, the money kept coming. It wasn't a lot (on the order of $10k/year) but enough as I stayed with a host family in Denmark who largely covered my living expenses (room and board). For my second gap year I got two companies with great projects in a bidding war, negotiated a signing bonus and a later starting date to help me make my choice, then traveled on the time and the bonus. Other ones have similar stories, finding some scholarships, funds, loopholes, using one project to fund another etc. I didn't always travel alone, although I've done my fair share of travel on my own. I deal with it by mixing it up and being pretty self actualized. Denmark was the toughest, I've been watching the Big Bang theory recently and having some flashbacks to how socially awkward I used to be. I'm still awkward but going through lots of traveling, meeting new people, etc has made me a lot more of a well rounded person. My biggest tip is to think holistically, this will help with not only financing but using your time well. For example, when I decided to move to Egypt on no funds I first made a mental list of why and what I wanted to do there. One of the things on the list was to learn Arabic, and my funds eventually came from a scholarship directed at that, although I used the funds to finance everything on my list.

keeptrying 16y ago

Hi, Could you elaborate. I'm sure a lot of people would find the information you have useful. How did you make money? What tips do you have for people who are about to do this? How did you deal with the loneliness of solo travel? Or is this just in my head?

_corbett 16y ago
Sure, for my first adventure I found a loophole in some money I was getting as the result of my father's early and tragic death (when I was 6 leaving my mom destitute) wherein it would continue as long as I was in high school. When I did an exchange year in Denmark as a highschool student, even though I had already graduated in the states, the money kept coming. It wasn't a lot (on the order of $10k/year) but enough as I stayed with a host family in Denmark who largely covered my living expenses (room and board). For my second gap year I got two companies with great projects in a bidding war, negotiated a signing bonus and a later starting date to help me make my choice, then traveled on the time and the bonus. Other ones have similar stories, finding some scholarships, funds, loopholes, using one project to fund another etc. I didn't always travel alone, although I've done my fair share of travel on my own. I deal with it by mixing it up and being pretty self actualized. Denmark was the toughest, I've been watching the Big Bang theory recently and having some flashbacks to how socially awkward I used to be. I'm still awkward but going through lots of traveling, meeting new people, etc has made me a lot more of a well rounded person. My biggest tip is to think holistically, this will help with not only financing but using your time well. For example, when I decided to move to Egypt on no funds I first made a mental list of why and what I wanted to do there. One of the things on the list was to learn Arabic, and my funds eventually came from a scholarship directed at that, although I used the funds to finance everything on my list.