I am floored by how thoughtful and helpful everyone's responses have been. Thank you so much for sharing your perspectives. I'm going to go for it.
Ask HN: Thinking about a year off from work to travel. Am I making a mistake?
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Re: Ask HN: Thinking about a year off from work to travel. Am I making a mistake?
#42Work on your side projects on your downtime during travel. Learn docker and kubernetes, learn functional programing and perhaps elixir, learn vuejs or react and redux, learn asp.net core and spring boot or some machine learning and data science using python. When you get back you will pretty much be able to jump back into any type of enterprise job or startup
Re: Ask HN: Thinking about a year off from work to travel. Am I making a mistake?
#43How about a compromise. Travel for one month. Instead of unplugging for one year, you go on a nice long vacation. After the month is up, you come back home. If you are ready to work again, then you go find another job. If you want to keep traveling, then you end the lease on your apartment, and hit the road again.
Re: Ask HN: Thinking about a year off from work to travel. Am I making a mistake?
#44I did this, at 33, similar situation.
While it took me about a year to find work after coming back, I still don't regret it. I was travelling for about 15 months in total. After returning, I did a bit of contract work, but took almost a year before I started full time work - but I am now living in a different country, and sorting out a visa took about two of those months of the year in limbo. To be honest, a part of why I took so long to return to work was my own resistance towards it, but now that I am working, I'm learning the stuff I want to learn.
Before you go, perhaps set yourself a limit. I had a budget in mind - about half of my savings - where I decided I would pull the plug if I reached that point and go home. I ended up returning before that point.
As many have said here, having a long sabbatical on your CV won't necessarily be a red flag. My current employer was very enthusiastic to bring me onboard.
Re: Ask HN: Thinking about a year off from work to travel. Am I making a mistake?
#45I am floored by how thoughtful and helpful everyone's responses have been. Thank you so much for sharing your perspectives. I'm going to go for it.
GL op!
Hope it's a blast.
Re: Ask HN: Thinking about a year off from work to travel. Am I making a mistake?
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
and spending what?
Put down the smallest downpayment allowed by law. Start writing off bills like cell phone, internet, printing, write off a management fee. Basically using the property to lower your tax foot print (money saved is money earned) Ideally buy a triplex or fourplex so it cashflows and generates a small, few hundred dollars a month. Save the profits for a year or two. Travel. I took that approach because I would rather wai…
Yea blowing 20 grand (or more) on a round the world trip is terrible financial advice. If I would of bought that house in Palo Alto instead of traveling I'd have much higher net worth. But all the financial things eventually worked out (house, college, savings).
So blowing your savings in your 20s or 30s on a cool trip is not financially traumatic. It's just not financially wise. But wtf ... its the greatest time in the history of the universe to be a nerd. If you are reading HN, you have been gifted the amazing ability to abstract. Which means you can earn a decent living. So why not travel while you can? All that responsibility shit will still be there waiting for you!
Re: Ask HN: Thinking about a year off from work to travel. Am I making a mistake?
#47[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Thinking about a year off from work to travel. Am I making a mistake?
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
Put down the smallest downpayment allowed by law. Start writing off bills like cell phone, internet, printing, write off a management fee. Basically using the property to lower your tax foot print (money saved is money earned) Ideally buy a triplex or fourplex so it cashflows and generates a small, few hundred dollars a month. Save the profits for a year or two. Travel. I took that approach because I would rather wai…
Yea blowing 20 grand (or more) on a round the world trip is terrible financial advice. If I would of bought that house in Palo Alto instead of traveling I'd have much higher net worth. But all the financial things eventually worked out (house, college, savings). So blowing your savings in your 20s or 30s on a cool trip is not financially traumatic. It's just not financially wise. But wtf ... its the greatest time in…
It would take me about 30 years of traveling to spend the down payment on a house in Palo Alto...
Re: Ask HN: Thinking about a year off from work to travel. Am I making a mistake?
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yea blowing 20 grand (or more) on a round the world trip is terrible financial advice. If I would of bought that house in Palo Alto instead of traveling I'd have much higher net worth. But all the financial things eventually worked out (house, college, savings). So blowing your savings in your 20s or 30s on a cool trip is not financially traumatic. It's just not financially wise. But wtf ... its the greatest time in…
It would take me about 30 years of traveling to spend the down payment on a house in Palo Alto...
Good luck with that, there's a reason I choose to live in an affordable city. Wouldn't want to be an indebted slave my whole life.
To each their own.
Re: Ask HN: Thinking about a year off from work to travel. Am I making a mistake?
#50You might try life of digital nomad. You can work from everywhere in tech industry now. And staying in some new place for several weeks might the best way get to know country culture and people. This way you will feel more like a local, not a tourist.