4 ms·

A sabbatical sounds outrageously stressful to me. I'd immediately have significantly worse health insurance, I wouldn't be contributing to retirement, all the w

A sabbatical sounds outrageously stressful to me. I'd immediately have significantly worse health insurance, I wouldn't be contributing to retirement, all the while I'd be draining away my safety net.

papito 4y ago
That depends on what you do with that. You can also look at this as an investment in yourself that will substantially increase your income later. If you have something to show for it after you sabbatical, you can actually win long term.
- micromacrofoot 4y ago
  > If you have something to show for it after you sabbatical this is also a terrifying concept: what if I don't?
  - papito 4y ago
    It's entirely possible that you take a long break from work and find that you don't want to do anything. That means that you burned out completely. Just say that in an interview - that you needed to take a serious mental break, recharge, find your new orbit, and decide what you wanted to do next. If you look for a job a bit later, it's actually easier than looking for it right after when you find yourself unemployed ;)
adamsmith143 4y ago
If you're a software engineer that has been working for 7+ years and don't have enough savings to survive 6 months off work or are so behind on retirement savings that this would seriously impact your future I think you should work seriously on getting your finances in order.
- jofer 4y ago
  It's less that and more that you're not maximizing retirement savings at that point, which is something that stresses a lot of folks out. Also, even within software, I can't imagine trying to find a job with a 6-month gap on my resume. I'm not in the bay area, and even working remotely, competition is brutal. A gap on your resume is a great reason to get immediately rejected by wherever you're applying to. Not all of us are in the niches of software where jobs are easy to come by. Not everything is web dev.
  - dwaltrip 4y ago
    > It's less that and more that you're not maximizing retirement savings at that point, which is something that stresses a lot of folks out. I understand where this is coming from, but it can be a trap. Maximizing your retirement savings for the distant future at the cost of your current health is not a good tradeoff. All things in balance. One's current needs are just as important as their future needs. "Future you" can figure it out when the time comes. They're pretty smart :p. "Future you" would want you to properly take care of "current you". I say this as someone who has spent most of my net worth -- over $100k -- over the past 2 years of not working as I've taken time to heal and grow and learn how to live life better. It's been a difficult journey for me but it is something I needed to do. I have more hope for the future than I have had in many, many years. > Also, even within software, I can't imagine trying to find a job with a 6-month gap on my resume. I'm not in the bay area, and even working remotely, competition is brutal. A gap on your resume is a great reason to get immediately rejected by wherever you're applying to. This may be a hurdle, but it's probably not as big as you think. You were taking care of your health -- no details required. The matter has since been resolved and you are excited and ready to make use of your skills again. Do they need someone with your skillset or not? Don't project your worry onto them :) They will sense that and that will be the actual issue.
  - samatman 4y ago
    This is well worth replying to, it surfaces some culture/class things which are worth making explicit. Being responsible about the future is important, but let's phrase the goal as "savings upon retirement", rather than "retirement savings". A sabbatical can help with that in a few ways, but first let's talk about the gap. A sabbatical is not a gap in one's resume, it's a sabbatical. What's done with that time is open-ended, but one of the things it does is provide a useful line item. This is in fact a class thing. People of independent means will take time off to improve their careers. Real talk, I can't stress this enough: don't buy a sabbatical, or a Porche, if you can't afford it. They don't put this on their resume, but rather, on their C.V. I'm not from those people, but growing up in a university town, one gets to know them. A sabbatical is good if: you can write an open-source library in your niches which solves a problem, if you expand the breadth of your expertise, if what you're doing has a significant philanthropic angle. All of these can set someone up for a higher tier of job, something with better prospects. It's good to have a comfortable nest egg, and it's even better if when you do, you have the kind of respect and stake in your field where you don't actually retire. Emeritus is a wonderful Latin loanword. May we all merit emeritus.
- micromacrofoot 4y ago
  I'm on track with retirement and savings, but do you know what would put me immediately off track? an unpaid sabbatical with bad health insurance.
  - adamsmith143 4y ago
    Well obviously if you are so sick that the only way for you to survive, financially and literally, is to have employer paid health insurance then ok don't take a sabbatical. This is of course a US-centric problem and would be absurd to basically anyone outside the US.
    - micromacrofoot 4y ago
      You don't even have to be "so sick"! for a family of 4 health insurance from a state exchange costs $1,000 a month and can come with a $7k per-person deductible. That's a minor car accident away from $26k in healthcare costs ($14k family deductible + $12k in annual premiums)...
- DawsonBruce 4y ago
  Agreed. Currently I am on a 3-month sabbatical after being laid off from my previous position of 7 years. While I could have opted for a longer duration, I’ve been happy with the time off thus far, and my efforts of saving and investing over the years has made finances a non-issue during this time. I also set up my next gig in the weeks immediately following layoffs, which I’ll be starting in November, so I’m excited to know that there’s financial security at the end of this experience. It’s been a much needed break.
ncr100 4y ago
Obvious for me to say: there's a point in time when you're going to stop working and you're going to be draining away your safety net regardless, because you're retired. So with a sabbatical now, just think that you're making time now so that you can have a better retirement later because you'll be ready for an enjoyable retirement as opposed to needing to take two or three or five years of your retirement, just calming down from your crazy career. It's definitely not an easy thing to consider. Do evaluate with an extended pros and cons list and weight each item in the list. Burnout for me weighed extraordinarily heavily.
- micromacrofoot 4y ago
  Understood, but to an extent retirement isn't a choice. At a certain age I will find it harder to get a job and harder to do most things. You also have the concept of compounding interest. A year of savings at age 30 is much more valuable than a year of savings when I'm 60.
  - ProZsolt 4y ago
    You can say the same thing about health. A year of less stress at age 30 is more valuable than when you are 60.
    - micromacrofoot 4y ago
      Is it? I'm more capable of physically managing stress at 30. At 60 it could kill me.
      - roguas 4y ago
        If you develop serious conditions during 30s, you're going to enjoy them longer. I think the aim overall should be balanced life oriented towards future. If whatever I am doing now seems unsustainable it's not gonna be sustainable in a year (I will just learn how to ignore it).

papito 4y ago

That depends on what you do with that. You can also look at this as an investment in yourself that will substantially increase your income later. If you have something to show for it after you sabbatical, you can actually win long term.

micromacrofoot 4y ago
> If you have something to show for it after you sabbatical this is also a terrifying concept: what if I don't?
- papito 4y ago
  It's entirely possible that you take a long break from work and find that you don't want to do anything. That means that you burned out completely. Just say that in an interview - that you needed to take a serious mental break, recharge, find your new orbit, and decide what you wanted to do next. If you look for a job a bit later, it's actually easier than looking for it right after when you find yourself unemployed ;)

adamsmith143 4y ago

If you're a software engineer that has been working for 7+ years and don't have enough savings to survive 6 months off work or are so behind on retirement savings that this would seriously impact your future I think you should work seriously on getting your finances in order.

jofer 4y ago
It's less that and more that you're not maximizing retirement savings at that point, which is something that stresses a lot of folks out. Also, even within software, I can't imagine trying to find a job with a 6-month gap on my resume. I'm not in the bay area, and even working remotely, competition is brutal. A gap on your resume is a great reason to get immediately rejected by wherever you're applying to. Not all of us are in the niches of software where jobs are easy to come by. Not everything is web dev.
- dwaltrip 4y ago
  > It's less that and more that you're not maximizing retirement savings at that point, which is something that stresses a lot of folks out. I understand where this is coming from, but it can be a trap. Maximizing your retirement savings for the distant future at the cost of your current health is not a good tradeoff. All things in balance. One's current needs are just as important as their future needs. "Future you" can figure it out when the time comes. They're pretty smart :p. "Future you" would want you to properly take care of "current you". I say this as someone who has spent most of my net worth -- over $100k -- over the past 2 years of not working as I've taken time to heal and grow and learn how to live life better. It's been a difficult journey for me but it is something I needed to do. I have more hope for the future than I have had in many, many years. > Also, even within software, I can't imagine trying to find a job with a 6-month gap on my resume. I'm not in the bay area, and even working remotely, competition is brutal. A gap on your resume is a great reason to get immediately rejected by wherever you're applying to. This may be a hurdle, but it's probably not as big as you think. You were taking care of your health -- no details required. The matter has since been resolved and you are excited and ready to make use of your skills again. Do they need someone with your skillset or not? Don't project your worry onto them :) They will sense that and that will be the actual issue.
- samatman 4y ago
  This is well worth replying to, it surfaces some culture/class things which are worth making explicit. Being responsible about the future is important, but let's phrase the goal as "savings upon retirement", rather than "retirement savings". A sabbatical can help with that in a few ways, but first let's talk about the gap. A sabbatical is not a gap in one's resume, it's a sabbatical. What's done with that time is open-ended, but one of the things it does is provide a useful line item. This is in fact a class thing. People of independent means will take time off to improve their careers. Real talk, I can't stress this enough: don't buy a sabbatical, or a Porche, if you can't afford it. They don't put this on their resume, but rather, on their C.V. I'm not from those people, but growing up in a university town, one gets to know them. A sabbatical is good if: you can write an open-source library in your niches which solves a problem, if you expand the breadth of your expertise, if what you're doing has a significant philanthropic angle. All of these can set someone up for a higher tier of job, something with better prospects. It's good to have a comfortable nest egg, and it's even better if when you do, you have the kind of respect and stake in your field where you don't actually retire. Emeritus is a wonderful Latin loanword. May we all merit emeritus.
micromacrofoot 4y ago
I'm on track with retirement and savings, but do you know what would put me immediately off track? an unpaid sabbatical with bad health insurance.
- adamsmith143 4y ago
  Well obviously if you are so sick that the only way for you to survive, financially and literally, is to have employer paid health insurance then ok don't take a sabbatical. This is of course a US-centric problem and would be absurd to basically anyone outside the US.
  - micromacrofoot 4y ago
    You don't even have to be "so sick"! for a family of 4 health insurance from a state exchange costs $1,000 a month and can come with a $7k per-person deductible. That's a minor car accident away from $26k in healthcare costs ($14k family deductible + $12k in annual premiums)...
DawsonBruce 4y ago
Agreed. Currently I am on a 3-month sabbatical after being laid off from my previous position of 7 years. While I could have opted for a longer duration, I’ve been happy with the time off thus far, and my efforts of saving and investing over the years has made finances a non-issue during this time. I also set up my next gig in the weeks immediately following layoffs, which I’ll be starting in November, so I’m excited to know that there’s financial security at the end of this experience. It’s been a much needed break.

ncr100 4y ago

Obvious for me to say: there's a point in time when you're going to stop working and you're going to be draining away your safety net regardless, because you're retired. So with a sabbatical now, just think that you're making time now so that you can have a better retirement later because you'll be ready for an enjoyable retirement as opposed to needing to take two or three or five years of your retirement, just calming down from your crazy career. It's definitely not an easy thing to consider. Do evaluate with an extended pros and cons list and weight each item in the list. Burnout for me weighed extraordinarily heavily.

micromacrofoot 4y ago
Understood, but to an extent retirement isn't a choice. At a certain age I will find it harder to get a job and harder to do most things. You also have the concept of compounding interest. A year of savings at age 30 is much more valuable than a year of savings when I'm 60.
- ProZsolt 4y ago
  You can say the same thing about health. A year of less stress at age 30 is more valuable than when you are 60.
  - micromacrofoot 4y ago
    Is it? I'm more capable of physically managing stress at 30. At 60 it could kill me.
    - roguas 4y ago
      If you develop serious conditions during 30s, you're going to enjoy them longer. I think the aim overall should be balanced life oriented towards future. If whatever I am doing now seems unsustainable it's not gonna be sustainable in a year (I will just learn how to ignore it).