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Mini retirements: like a sabbatical, but much smaller

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Re: Mini retirements: like a sabbatical, but much smaller

#51

Post by KptMarchewa »

mystifyingpoi wrote: post #25
yreg wrote: post #13

It's no revolutionary idea, but the comments here are dishonest when they compare a 3-month leave to standard european vacation. I would say most middle class europeans take like 10-14 day long vacations. I sometimes travel for a month and that is already abnormal.

I second that, EU here. Most of my colleagues take either 5 days (which creates 9 days free in a row effectively, when combined with weekends) or 10 days (which creates 16). Any normal vacation over this requires special approval and I know only 1 person that even wanted that. The only cases when someone is away for longer are medical leaves after severe accidents (in practice unlimited) or parental leaves (could me…

Three-four weeks can happen, at least here in Poland. They are pretty rare but I know bunch of people who did this, myself included. Usually for prolonged vacations in far away regions - Japan, South America, Australia etc.

Re: Mini retirements: like a sabbatical, but much smaller

#52

Post by KptMarchewa »

duskdozer wrote: post #37
antonymoose wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Leaving a job is a “life event” so couldn’t you then go out and get a simple marketplace plan? Last I checked it was only a few hundred dollars per month for a single individual?

They mention having kids, so presumably it's more expensive. And on top of that, if you have nontrivial medical needs, the cheap marketplace plans often don't cover a lot of medications or treatments, or will make you redo things like step therapy before covering them. Or they'll have high deductibles which will leave you on the hook for most/all expenses if you're not on the plan for long enough to fill up the deduc…

While I understand the idea of american private health insurance, I don't get how do you have to pay for kids. Do you have to pay for primary school too?

Re: Mini retirements: like a sabbatical, but much smaller

#54

Post by herbst »

KptMarchewa wrote: post #49
sam_lowry_ wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In-between jobs you are stressed to find the next job, that's not a good background for vacation.

It's not in-between, it's unemployment. What the OP likely meant, is leaving a gap between leaving a job and starting next one. It's usually easier to push employment date by a month than getting a month-long vacation after starting the job.

This is what I ment. But I also realized that most people don't have the luxury of unemployed money which makes changing jobs way less risky generally.

Re: Mini retirements: like a sabbatical, but much smaller

#55

Post by fuzzfactor »

nonick wrote: post #39

Retirements imply a regular payment called a pension, either from the government or from a private fund that you contribute to during employment years. It doesn't seem to be the case with the author.

Plus with or without a generous retirement fund to rely on, one of the other major features is the way you may want to be even more active professionally than before.

Perhaps not right away and often taking the opportunity to do something completely different going forward, and on your own terms more so than ever.

All of which can be out-of-the-question without a realistic mind-set of retiring from "something", in the extreme case ending up doing almost none of the routine tasks that were so critical to career development and maintenance up until then.

Re: Mini retirements: like a sabbatical, but much smaller

#56

Post by beej71 »

antonymoose wrote: post #29
jawns wrote: post #26

Here in the U.S., the idea of taking even a few weeks off between jobs as a way to refresh oneself is a real luxury because of the way health insurance is tied to employment. I have wanted to do this each time I've left a job, but a lapse in health insurance would have been too risky for my family, and COBRA is too expensive to be anything other than an option of last resort. So, the most time I've had between jobs o…

Leaving a job is a “life event” so couldn’t you then go out and get a simple marketplace plan? Last I checked it was only a few hundred dollars per month for a single individual?

I was able to do this a while back in my late 40s. Took 7 months off or so, and insurance was $42/month (bronze). I had enough savings for the gap if I needed it, and it was just me, unlike the OP. Ended up getting a job sooner than expected and had to pay back the subsidy in full at the end of the year. :) So be ready for that. But at least at the time, it was good for cash flow.

Re: Mini retirements: like a sabbatical, but much smaller

#57

Post by duskdozer »

KptMarchewa wrote: post #52
duskdozer wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They mention having kids, so presumably it's more expensive. And on top of that, if you have nontrivial medical needs, the cheap marketplace plans often don't cover a lot of medications or treatments, or will make you redo things like step therapy before covering them. Or they'll have high deductibles which will leave you on the hook for most/all expenses if you're not on the plan for long enough to fill up the deduc…

While I understand the idea of american private health insurance, I don't get how do you have to pay for kids. Do you have to pay for primary school too?

You pay for private health insurance for everyone covered. Usually this is either just for yourself, for yourself and a spouse, or for yourself and a spouse and children. Each costs more than the last.

Public schools are generally paid for via property taxes at a pretty local level.

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