Lizzy and Lissa break down the hidden costs – financial and otherwise – of sabbaticals. While they can be a source of self-discovery, recovery, or a positive lifestyle change, they can also potentially impact your career and finances. This episode covers the ins and outs of what a sabbatical could look like, and whether they’re worth taking.
Lizzy and Lissa break down the hidden costs – financial and otherwise – of sabbaticals. While they can be a source of self-discovery, recovery, or a positive lifestyle change, they can also potentially impact your career and finances. This episode covers the ins and outs of what a sabbatical could look like, and whether they’re worth taking.
Main Topics
00:00 Introduction to Sabbaticals
01:36 Running The Numbers Segment
03:25 Personal Experiences
05:35 Perceptions and Misconceptions
13:53 Financial Considerations
23:55 The Challenges of Implementing Sabbaticals
25:36 Unique Company Benefits
32:50 How to Plan for a Sabbatical
41:24 20 Cents Segment
References for Statistics
https://gusto.com/company-news/workers-are-taking-more-sabbatical-time
Lizzy: A sabbatical is an extended break from work often longer than vacation or paid time off. People often use this time to study, travel, reset, or focus on personal growth. Sounds great, but there's also the potential that taking a sabbatical...
Lissa: I know it's a lot of words.
Lizzy: Sounds great, but there's also the potential that taking a sabbatical can impact your career trajectory or even your financial progress. So today, we're talking about...
Lissa: Are sabbaticals worth it? Welcome to Net Net with Lizzy and Lissa where we analyze hidden costs and empower you to make your own decisions in life. Each episode covers a different facet of life, and at the end of each episode, we each give our takes on whether we think something is net positive or net negative.
Lizzy: I'm Lizzy, a strategist and consultant with almost 20 years of experience in finance and investing.
Lissa: And I'm Lissa, a personal finance expert and a certified financial planner. We're best friends who talk about money...
Lizzy: And everything else.
Lissa: In today's episode, we are discussing taking sabbaticals. However, this episode is informational and educational in nature and should not be misconstrued as financial advice. We are going to share our experiences to help educate, but you should always consult a professional for guidance as needed. So, are sabbaticals worth it?
Lizzy: First up, running the numbers on sabbaticals.
Lissa: Gusto reports that more workers have taken sabbaticals in the past four years since the pandemic. In January of 2024, that meant that 0.141% of employees were on a sabbatical at a given time, and they defined it specifically as people who took more than two weeks off of paid time in the previous two months.
Lizzy: In their survey, younger millennial workers were the most likely age group to take a sabbatical with 0.19% of workers age 27 to 34 out on sabbatical. In comparison, just 0.11% of workers age 45 to 59 were out on a sabbatical in January 2024.
Lissa: [inaudible 00:02:28] younger people who actually take sabbaticals, like extended periods from work. Well... Why can't we talk today?
Lizzy: I don't know.
Lissa: [inaudible 00:02:37]
Lizzy: [inaudible 00:02:37] day.
Lissa: People often wonder if sabbaticals are paid or unpaid, and realistically they can actually be both. According to a study from WorldatWork, unpaid sabbaticals have been on the rise. In 2021, 29% of US companies offered unpaid sabbaticals up from 18% in 2016. So, you can leave. Your job will still be here, but we're not paying for your time off.
Lizzy: Right.
Lissa: Yeah.
Lizzy: Paid sabbaticals also became more popular. By 2021, 1 in every 10 companies added them to their benefits packages.
Lissa: That feels high to me. I don't hear them about them often, about paid sabbaticals.
Lizzy: Interesting.
Lissa: Well, we know there's more to life than numbers and statistics, so let's talk about it. Are sabbaticals worth it?
Lizzy: Okay. What is your awareness of an experience with sabbaticals?
Lissa: An extended time off from work?
Lizzy: Yep.
Lissa: My only experience on a personal level was extended time off from my job due to medical leave. So, I wouldn't technically call that, I chose to go on sabbatical.
Lizzy: Sure.
Lissa: I felt forced into it and I was lucky and privileged enough to have a paid medical leave, which allowed me for the first time since I was 15, to have an extended break from responsibilities and not have to worry about my financial responsibilities. So, it was interesting because when that happened, the long story short is I was burnt out. I wanted to quit my job. I didn't know what to do. My company supported me going on medical leave, which meant that for, I think for three months it was my full salary. And then for a couple months after that, it was like 80% of my salary, which I still could live on. So, it was fine.
In that span, I felt like the first few months was still me, my brain not shutting off. I still felt like I had to be productive. I had to get up early, I had to be doing things all the time. And it wasn't until the end of it that I kind of got some clarity and focus as to what am I doing in life? What do I actually want to be doing? And that's when I really kicked off my plan to leave that job eventually. But in the meantime, I was able to go back to work feeling refreshed and able to do the work even though I knew I was going to leave there at some point, but it was not prior to the sabbatical where I felt like I didn't even want to be there. I could withstand it because I knew that I had a plan out.
Lizzy: Right.
Lissa: So, that was my experience on a personal level. I've never said like, "Hey, I'm saving a bunch of money. I'm going to put this aside. I'm going to take two months off from work or six months or a year off." But I've seen other people do it.
Lizzy: Yeah.
Lissa: Yeah.
Lizzy: And just to be clear about your experience, while there are similarities between a medical leave and a sabbatical, I suppose it's not like you were just out there living it up. You were navigating a lot of mental health challenges and it was a serious decision.
Lissa: Yeah. That's why I differentiate. I didn't say, "Oh, I want to travel the world." Or "I want to just take a break for a couple months." I felt forced into it. I felt like I couldn't even function at work anymore. That's how burnt out I was to where I just told them, I was like, "I'm not getting anything done. I can't do anything. Fire me if you want to." But they had a good system where it was like, "We suggest you go on leave first and take some time off."
Lizzy: There were procedures in place for this.
Lissa: There were procedures in place. Yeah. I wish in hindsight that at some point in my corporate career I proactively thought about a sabbatical, but there's the downsides to it too.
Lizzy: Sure. And out of curiosity, did that job offer benefits for sabbaticals or do you know anyone who took one?
Lissa: I don't know if I had to guess. Maybe they did or do now, this was at Google, so they're usually ahead of the game when it comes to things like this. I don't know exactly. So, let's say they did. It wasn't even top of mind for me to think about doing it. I thought it could impact my career trajectory and that kind of stuff. I do know, I remember in my first couple of years of working there, I remember a colleague who was probably a few years older than me, but of the same age range. I remember that she made the decision to travel with her husband for a year. So, they both left their jobs. She was going to not be an employee anymore, so this was like she was actually taking the leap. I guess they had saved money or they had money from something, traveled the world. I would see it on Instagram. And then when she was ready to come back to work a year later, there was a role she applied, she knew people already and she got hired back into the same company.
Lizzy: Oh, cool.
Lissa: Yeah.
Lizzy: Okay.
Lissa: Maybe a different role, but I thought that was cool and that was the first time I saw that. Oh, wow. It doesn't have to mess up your career trajectory.
Lizzy: Right, right.
Lissa: I think there are elements where it could, but yeah. So that's one of the big costs in my mind is it can impact your career.
Lizzy: Yeah, absolutely. I think for me, even just the word, I feel like hearing that when I was younger and knowing what it meant, I feel like it was always used in reference to someone who had a mental health, a breakdown and had to go, but there was this connotation to it.
Lissa: I thought it was a religious thing.
Lizzy: Oh really?
Lissa: I don't know why. My brain...
Lizzy: It's probably related to Sabbath.
Lissa: Yeah, maybe.
Lizzy: Interesting. I never thought of it that way, but that was kind of always my association of like, oh, it's like, oh, they had to go take a sabbatical Cool. Not a choice, an optional...
Lissa: Yeah, someone couldn't hack it. They had it.
Lizzy: Exactly.
Lissa: So basically, what happened to me...
Lizzy: That's what my understanding before I really thought about it more deeply. Though now that I think I know a few people who have taken a year off or so to go travel, I don't think in the examples I can think of the people that I know that they came back to a role. I think they left their job but prepared to go, like, one went to South America for a year. The things that I think of in terms of costs are yes, your actual career trajectory in terms of putting a job on hold or basically having a gap in your resume if you leave the job or certainly any complication if you do stay at the company but are gone.
And to that extent, the opinions and perceptions within the company, because I still think it can be seen as like, "Oh, well that's good for you." And it's like how people hate on something they wish they could do themselves. And so, instead of being bold enough to make those choices, they're going to be like, "Well, that's nice, and then perceive you as not being dedicated." I think that's my fear of that has always been.
Lissa: Yeah, I see the other side of that because since taking the leap, we've talked about this all the time. We've both done it and I'm currently running my own business, but I'm not making hardly any money right now while I'm building it. So, I've taken this major pay cut, but I've never been happier. I get to wake up when I want to, I get to organize my day. I love it when it's time to get on the computer to start working on things. It's like I don't feel anything that I used to feel before when I felt beholden to a job, so I'm much happier.
But oftentimes, when I won't say I poke the bear, but sometimes with friends who work or workaholics all say things like, "Yeah, don't you ever wonder whether life could be different? You don't have to do that commute. You don't have to." And I do get those comments a lot. "It must be nice. I wish it would never happen for me." And I'm just like, "No, I could. It's just takes a different, you have to have a strategy and a different approach."
Lizzy: Yeah. And we've talked about this on a prior episode on what was it working for yourself or owning a business owner?
Lissa: Business owners.
Lizzy: Yeah, business owner episode. It's hard. There's a lot of sacrifice that comes with it to have those freedoms and those benefits. But I think for me personally, it's not something I ever really seriously considered beyond. I've thought about I'm going to take a month off and I guess I have within my own business where when I was navigating really serious mental health crisis, I didn't take on any new clients. I didn't completely stop working, but pretty close for me for maybe a month or six weeks or so. And I've thought about, I went to Paris last year for a few weeks and I thought a few times, "Okay, maybe I'll just take a month off." And for whatever reason, I just chose not to.
I have had unlimited vacation time in a role before and that's kind of its own conversation, but I think that's an interesting thing to navigate because some of these things can be a benefit that feels like it's really boosting your benefits package. And then culturally within a company, there's an expectation that you don't use it.
Lissa: Yeah. So, it feels like a mini version of the sabbatical, right?
Lizzy: Yeah.
Lissa: There's a perception if you're using too much of this unlimited vacation time...
Lizzy: Right.
Lissa: Maybe you're allowed to, your manager approves it, but because of that you end up producing less work, less output, which can harm your future earning potential. And that's the same as taking yourself away from the workforce for an extended period of time, a few months, a year. It's that same perception that, well, you didn't provide anything, you haven't grown in that year that you were gone, which is false. You can do a lot of growth outside of...
Lizzy: Oh, absolutely.
Lissa: The work world.
Lizzy: Yeah, I think it's actually critical to have outside experiences and I have a background in a creative field, so I would think about this in terms of something as simple as in the middle of the workday, going and taking a walk, having something external that fuels you as necessary to be creative, but also just creative in a sense of productive, to have output to contribute, you need inputs. So, I think that is absolutely false that these experiences don't grow you.
Lissa: Yeah. Well, the big thing we haven't mentioned yet, but a big cost for a sabbatical is depending on how you choose to approach it, is the financial cost because it's going to cost money. If you're not actively earning money, you need a source of money somewhere. So, unless you already have assets that are cash flowing your life or some money saved up or in investments or some means of survival, then yeah, it can harm your financial progress, your safety net, your cushion.
Lizzy: Right. And it's also important to know that that's okay if you're aware of that and you plan for that. Say you have, I'm making up a number, $100,000 saved up, it's not necessarily a step backwards to spend half of that and use and to use it for something that is a once-in-a-lifetime experience additive to your life. You don't necessarily have to feel guilty about that, just because it's not going to have the same balance it once did.
Lissa: And that's why I try to tell clients overall long-term in life, if you really want financial security, your goal is to increase your net worth over time. That doesn't mean that in a given year or two you go backwards, you use up 10,000 or a 100,000 or whatever. Depending on your wealth level, you could use up a couple million, right?
Lizzy: Yeah.
Lissa: It's relative to what you have and what your basis is, your foundation, but that's life. The point is to be able to experience those things. And so, I'm very, very curious in the world, actually, I haven't told you this, but I'm thinking of taking my financial planning route and business towards a model where I'm specifically helping people and women specifically navigate major career transitions and sabbaticals because I feel you need a financial plan to do it...
Lizzy: Absolutely.
Lissa: In order to have peace of mind doing it.
Lizzy: I love that. That's awesome. And we know a few people who have been in similar situation as you. Again, not exactly the same, but similar financial circumstances and even coming out of that period can be challenging, right? Let's say you've left your job, how long is it going to take you to find a new one? How long can this last? Do you have to change your living situation?
Lissa: So, you're worried the entire time. So for me, this is something I failed to mention when I was out on medical leave and I mentioned the amount of time it took to rewire my brain, even just a tiny bit, that you don't have to be productive and you don't have to worry about the next phase And in order to plan for that, otherwise, if you, let's say you have enough money to take a six-month sabbatical, you quit your job and then in six months you're going to start looking for another job. You don't know what the job market's going to be like, how long it's going to take you to ramp up. So, it's like how much do you have to save to give you a runway to find a new job? So now, you're having to plan for more money, but also however long your timeframe is to transition back into the work world can be...
Lizzy: Can be counterproductive.
Lissa: It's counterproductive, it's stressful. The whole reason was to reset, have a new perspective on life, do some things that you haven't found time to do, spend time with people that you've been putting off and it's like, but during that, how do you want to feel during the sabbatical? You want to feel confident and secure...
Lizzy: Calm.
Lissa: And calm. Otherwise, you're just like trading one stressor for another stressor.
Lizzy: For sure.
Lissa: That'd be a major downside of doing a sabbatical the wrong way.
Lizzy: Right.
Lissa: Yeah.
Lizzy: Okay. So, there's a financial cost of the cost, the living expenses and the cost...
Lissa: For an unpaid sabbatical.
Lizzy: For an unpaid sabbatical. Yeah. There also is the cost of whatever you might be doing. A lot of people do that to travel...
Lissa: Which costs even more money than your normal day to day.
Lizzy: Exactly. Depending. One thing that I've seen a few people do, and sometimes people do this as a gap year between college and work or they'll go travel internationally and set aside a certain amount of money and then pick up small jobs or a waiter job in this country and then move around and navigate it that way so that there is that flexibility to extend and be adaptable. But yeah, certainly if you're going to travel or let's say you have a mortgage, you're not necessarily going to sell all your assets, but you may also need rent somewhere else. So, it can be complicated.
Lissa: Yeah. I just remembered that we have a friend who took a month's sabbatical sometime last year. His company I think offers it when you work there a certain amount of time, I'm just going to make this up. Let's say you've been at a company five years, you have your normal vacation time, but now you've hit this milestone, they give you a month's sabbatical. And I remember when he was getting ready to take it, he was so excited. It was so great. He had all these plans of the things he wanted to do. I think during the sabbatical he did a lot of those things, which was get on a better sleep schedule, see friends, clean up his, organize some things just day-to-day things that you don't want to feel pressure doing as soon as you get off of work, you're too tired to do it, just reset.
And I just remember, and it was great, he had a great sabbatical, but at the end of it and when he went back to work, it was absolutely like, man, that flew by. It was too short. And so, I do think there's also an element of what is the goal of your sabbatical and what is the time that a realistic amount of time to achieve that goal.
Lizzy: Right.
Lissa: Because I personally don't think if part of it is you're burnt out and you just want to break, I don't think a month is enough. I think three months is even not enough. I think because like I said, at least for me having lived through it, you have to, you're still in survival mode. If that's the case, you need time to chill out and then you'll have more time to discover what it is that you're looking for after that.
Lizzy: Makes sense.
Lissa: So, I think there's like, yeah, it's not just immediately cool, I got three months off. It's like you have to transition out of your current routine and then build that new routine and then as soon as you start getting used to that new routine, oftentimes it's like sabbatical's over.
Lizzy: Yeah, it brought up a couple of thoughts for me. One, you get that Sunday scary, it's like, "Oh, I have to go back to work." You don't want that to kick off halfway through. If you have too short of an amount of time, you're going to feel that stressor.
Lissa: Exactly.
Lizzy: It makes me think of teachers have a built-in sabbatical or maybe different school districts or whatnot work differently. But for my mom, my sister, for example, they elect to get paid every month. You can do it only during the months you're working and then you get two and a half months off in the summer. And even with kids, I remember thinking by the end of the summer you're bored. You're done. You're ready for the next thing. So maybe that is a decent guideline of, especially assuming you're not crazy burnt out. We're mostly used to that rhythm from our upbringing a few months to just reset. And then you're re-energized for the new year.
Lissa: Which is crazy that in the schooling system here in the US, that's how it is. There's summer or whatever system you're on. When I was in middle school, it was like a year-round system, so...
Lizzy: Oh, I didn't know that.
Lissa: Yeah. So, it wasn't necessarily the summer off. It depended on what track you were on. There was a different season that you had off. Either way it's the same. You have a couple months off and then you go back for the school year, you're a little more energized. It's like new stuff, new things. And it's funny that that's the same through college and everything through college overachievers we're going to take summer school, we're going to do things like that. But theoretically, you don't have to and you can take time off. But then when we get into the work world, the very next year when you get your first full-time job, there is no that, right? You actually start off with less vacation time when you start a new job...
Lizzy: Way less.
Lissa: Or zero, right?
Lizzy: Yeah, exactly.
Lissa: So, it's like why do they do that? Why is that the system?
Lizzy: That reminds me, my uncle's a principal at a school in Arizona and they recently elected to have a unique schedule. It's four days a week, so they go for an extra hour each day and have three-day weekend every week. But then they do, I think it's six weeks on, two weeks off all throughout the year.
Lissa: Oh, wow.
Lizzy: That would be amazing.
Lissa: A reset every quarter or less every two months.
Lizzy: Yeah, I would love that. Wouldn't that be fantastic?
Lissa: Yeah. I mean, I don't know if this is a time for it, but I have all these grand ideas. Should I ever run a big company that can support it financially, but offering the year-long paid sabbatical, right?
Lizzy: Yeah.
Lissa: Not maternity leave. I'm talking about you want to explore taking a class or traveling or whatever, send your pitch in or whatever, and you've been doing great performance at work, your job will still be here when you get back, right?
Lizzy: Right.
Lissa: Obviously, in a capitalist society it's hard to even imagine that that could be a thing...
Lizzy: Right.
Lissa: Unless you're a billion-dollar business with huge margins, but I feel like how wonderful would that be? You'd have loyal employees who are happy to be there. We'd go back to the days when people stayed at companies for their entire career and the company's happy, the person's happy and...
Lizzy: Yeah. I mean, I understand. Like you mentioned, I understand the challenges logistically and practically in implementing something like that. Or even just if you ever transitioned out of a role, thinking of a teacher, again, if you ever have to have a substitute come in, someone to cover you for a while, even if you just go on vacation, preparing for that is sometimes so much work or leaving creates more work when you come back. So, businesses have to keep moving forward in your absence.
Lissa: You need to have the best operations, onboarding, offboarding.
Lizzy: It's just challenging.
Lissa: Yeah.
Lizzy: But at the same time, if you can build in enough redundancies that things can move on without you or that people can fill in gaps. And I think that's another part of the challenge within a firm is people are going to feel like they have to pick up slack to cover you or there's a temp...
Lissa: Unless the business is built like that, right?
Lizzy: Yeah.
Lissa: A team of six people and one at a time is off for two months, right?
Lizzy: Right.
Lissa: And if it can run consistently, I don't know.
Lizzy: Right, right.
Lissa: I do not know. This is my utopian issue.
Lizzy: There are certainly ways to manage around that. There will probably be at the expense of something because nothing is free.
Lissa: Business revenue or operational costs.
Lizzy: Exactly. But if you can account for that and still make everything work, then why not?
Lissa: I'm telling you, mark, my word, if this could happen, I might run the business that does stuff like this. I had heard, oh, I'm blanking now. There was a company, a pretty big company that I heard did some kind of sabbatical program that made them one of those top 100 companies to work for.
Lizzy: Really?
Lissa: Maybe it was Zappos or something. There was something,
Lizzy: I want to say Yelp has one.
Lissa: Or something like that. There was something where they offer these very unique benefits that are intended to be for the well-being of the employee. So, I'm glad that's still out there. And it's not even in tough job markets. There are some companies still holding onto their benefits that relate to that kind of well-being.
Lizzy: For sure. It makes me think of, there are artists in residency programs. A lot of them are essentially a grant or they're sponsored by a museum or something where you are a creator of some kind and you have a cool idea, but that sometimes is in conflict with supporting yourself financially, right?
Lissa: Yeah.
Lizzy: And so, they will offer to support you for a year to give you the space and freedom to make your thing. Or business incubators kind of do the same thing sometimes. It'd also be cool if you had as a business, here's these 10 different things we offer. One might be a four-week survival course or and they're kind of vetted and approved and we have a system, go pick one.
Lissa: It's like, I didn't know about this until I personally, maybe I was aloof to it when I was in college, but I used to mentor college students over the last three, four years and they would tell me about applying for these rotational programs at big companies like Microsoft or wherever. So, if you get accepted, you do rotations like six weeks with sales, six weeks with marketing or whatever. And then at the end of it, ideally you get a role that's a full-time job.
Lizzy: Oh, that's awesome. Okay.
Lissa: And so, I feel like yeah, transitional programs like that where try something new and then we'll get you back in a role that fits the business needs as well as your needs and likes. I just feel like it's possible to do these things. It's just how do you do that capitalist economy where profit is the motive and why would you spend on these extra things unless you knew that it would actually bring you more profit in the long run.
Lizzy: Yeah. Or consistency and that kind of thing. This is not the same, but it does have some similar benefits. You got to go work internationally.
Lissa: Oh, yeah.
Lizzy: And so, some companies offer that if they're like a multinational company where you can go do a certain period of time in this office.
Lissa: Yeah, I forgot about that.
Lizzy: And you're still working. You still have responsibilities, but you do get a lot of the benefits of exploring a new place.
Lissa: So, I did a month in Japan. It was one of the best experiences ever. I had applied to that program three, four times. They would pick other people that I knew and I'd be like, "Dang it, what does it take?" And then one quarter, this was right before the pandemic, they picked me and I was like, "Oh my god, I get to go work in Japan." My particular team had a few colleagues in the Japan office and in the Tokyo office. And so, it was cool because I could still work on what I was working on, but the expectations of my job actually lessened.
Lizzy: Right.
Lissa: My manager understood that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity, enjoy it, work on these few things that we outline and that's it. You don't have to overwork...
Lizzy: Which is awesome.
Lissa: And I got to explore the city. I had friends come visit, Liz came to visit and explored with friends and had an opportunity to have a fully paid housing while I was there.
Lizzy: Yeah, that's amazing. And that is maybe not a full step to a sabbatical as a benefit, but something that...
Lissa: Closer in the middle.
Lizzy: And that I think a lot of companies could offer and very easily justify from a team relationship standpoint, from a loyalty standpoint, that kind of thing.
Lissa: Yeah, we've talked cost of a sabbatical. You need to plan financially or have a plan, especially if it's an unpaid one, the potential effect to your negative impact to your career trajectory or perception of others. But let's talk about the key benefits. We've alluded to resetting, refreshing, but what would you think if you were to take a sabbatical, what would you get out of it?
Lizzy: So what I think, I have this kind of dream, this is something I maybe have mentioned, but what I'm always working towards is build up a certain amount of assets, whether that's through selling a company or something like that, to where then I don't have to do anything and I can spend my time being creative without that pressure and trying to do art for money and probably would be the goal still, but...
Lissa: Do art for passion and for fun.
Lizzy: And so, that is the thing I think of is having the time and the freedom and lack of those kinds of stressors, financial stressors and pressure to devote my energy into something that I'm passionate about, and that could be art. I love to paint and kind of create things, but it also could just be spending my day a certain way, your health, putting your energy and your time into a routine that really benefits you mentally and physically.
So, I think that's the key things I think about are that breathing room, that space and freedom. I thought it brings up for me, and I wonder if you experienced this, did the lack of structure prove challenging for you at any point? Because I know for my mental health, I need a reason to get it. I need structure even though I sometimes push back against it.
Lissa: I think a little bit because like I said, I had to get up at a specific time. My brain did that even though I had no alarm on. But I feel like over time I appreciate it so much more that I can build the structure. I can time block my calendar and do it how I want and I can provide my own structure.
Lizzy: Right.
Lissa: But finding the motivation to do that part, you have to find within yourself...
Lizzy: Within yourself.
Lissa: And not guided from a job or something else.
Lizzy: I think some people think if I did that, or even when they retire, "I just want to sleep all day." Or "I just want to sit on the couch and watch TV." And when you haven't had the freedom and the time to do that, that maybe sounds really appealing. I think it's very easy to fall into a depression when you're not leaving the house and you're not getting sunlight when you're not being active. But the key is probably finding that routine and structure for yourself and what you desire versus what you're required to do.
Lissa: Okay. If you were to take a sabbatical within the next year, how would you go about planning for it?
Lizzy: Literally in my current position right now?
Lissa: Yeah. Let's say you wanted, we said three months sounds like a good starting point. If you wanted to take a three-month sabbatical in 2026, what would you do to lead towards it?
Lizzy: So, the first thing I would probably look at is my budget, my safety net. What do I have liquid? And assuming that's not where it needs to be, how can I save more? How can I cut back in order to prepare for that? And so, then that I'd probably work from there to find my timing. So, I assume I'm going to need approximately this much. Here's where I'm at, how long will it take me to get there? And so, then I can do it in 12 months or something like that. And then because of my current role in my company, I'm a co-founder, I can't just...
Lissa: You can't just disappear.
Lizzy: I can't just disappear. So, I would approach this very early on with my co-founders and my colleagues and say, "This is really important to me for X, Y, Z reasons I am planning to do this. Here's how I'm going to make sure that things function in my absence." And really ingrain those things ahead of time. Probably similarly to how someone who's going on maternity leave would approach this. And it's interesting how this is not to say that maternity leave is a sabbatical or some go relax type of thing in any way. But it's interesting how there are similar challenges to that where colleagues may have a perception or it may feel like it sets you back, but at the same time it is generally accepted. And if I were someone who chose not to have children, why would it be any less worthwhile for me to take time for myself? Why is that any less valid?
Lissa: Just because of cultural norms and perception for sure.
Lizzy: Interesting.
Lissa: But yeah, I think I can see that fully. I think for me personally, I'm just at a point in my life where I'm going to own that shit. And If people can have their comments of must be nice or wish I could, but good for you. But I think I'm in my era of owning it and doing it so that people can see that it is possible. Like I said, when I saw that coworker years ago, this was like 10 years ago, do that, and she wasn't too far off of age for me. And back then, I used to still think like, "Oh dang, she must make way more than me. She has a lot of money. Maybe she has family money or stuff too."
Because at that point, I didn't have the money to do that. I was so dependent on my job. I was paycheck to paycheck even though I made decent money, I was still paycheck to paycheck. Lifestyle had inflated, but however she managed the money of it, it worked. And so, I saw that it was possible to leave, to do your thing, enjoy life and come back and everything would be okay.
Lizzy: Right.
Lissa: So now, I'm in that world and that mindset where I'm just going to do me and I do my YouTube channel, and it's grown considerably in the last year. And I know people are like, "Man, I have this. I wish I had started this YouTube channel before." And I'm just like, "I think you just have to do it." But then when they see it, what it can bring, then I think it's more so it motivates others as opposed to having them feel like envy or jealousy or something. So that's where I'm at in terms of perception.
Lizzy: I think there's this interesting balance that to some extent, for some people it is absolutely a privilege to be able to do that.
Lissa: Oh, yeah.
Lizzy: Especially in a class job or struggling to get by, not everyone can feasibly do this. At the same time, many people can if they want it bad enough and plan accordingly. It might be something you have to save 10 years for, but if it's worth it to you, and so it must be nice. Yeah, I made choices and set myself up in life to be able to make this or sacrifice where needed.
Lissa: Yeah. Because a realist too. And I'm very empathetic towards all class levels, just it's the nature of how our society operates and our economy operates. But something I think of is even if you have a relatively lower income and you're in a high cost of living area, so it's hard to make ends meet, you find one other person who's going through the same thing as you and you all move in together, all of a sudden, you've cut housing costs in half, but no one wants to do that. You don't want to share a space. You want a certain amount of space that you're used to. Whereas the amount of space we have in LA, we complain about how small it is, but go to New York. Go to London, it's half that.
Lizzy: Right.
Lissa: And so in the Bay Area, so it's really all relative. It's like you really have to find your trade-offs and what's most important to you. So yeah, everything you said in planning for a sabbatical, that's exactly how I would help people plan for it. But I'd also do the, I know you did this too, but you just didn't mention it, but do the goal setting part of it, of what is it you want to achieve with this sabbatical and how will you go about doing it? You don't have to over plan for it, but having that top of mind so that you get the value out of it. You are doing all this work to plan it, get value out of it.
Lizzy: Right.
Lissa: And then for me being a worst-case scenario type of person, I'd also have a backup plan to the backup plan, to the backup plan of, all right, after I'm going to enjoy the sabbatical fully. And then I'm still going to have another three-to-six- month period where in that period I know I'm confident I can get a job or start a business. And also, I'll save more for that leeway too. That's what I'll do.
Lizzy: And mine would be like, okay, and worst-case scenario, I could probably get a fast-food job. I'm or not saying that those are just a job, but I could just get not a...
Lissa: Part-time.
Lizzy: A part-time or not, or aligned with my career path job to have some income. So then, okay, what would I need to supplement for those months if I was really feeling stressed and needed to go that way?
Lissa: And worst, worst, worst case scenario, what support system do I have who could help me through this transition? And who's supportive, who's not supportive in my life?
Lizzy: Right, yeah. And to your point about making the necessary moves, and that's fair. If you don't want to go move in with someone in order to do this, then you don't. But that's another thing. If you have a family network, move home for a little while to be able to have some of those freedoms or there are a lot of moves that can be made for many people to facilitate these things and it's a means to an end if you want to have this break.
Lissa: But I'm glad you pointed out the privilege part, right? I was once in that boat where I just assumed that is well beyond me and my income level and my whatever. I could never, it's nice for them. I could never, I do think that let's acknowledge that that is a privilege if you're in the position where you can even consider taking one and plan for one.
Lizzy: Yeah, absolutely.
Lissa: But I also want to show that it is possible to do and it could be a transformational time in life, right?
Lizzy: Absolutely. Yeah. And I think it's important to note in your experience, you spent so long thinking it wasn't possible until you literally had no choice but to take a break because you worked yourself to being sick. And so, the benefits of taking time and making the effort to take time before you get to that point.
Lissa: Yeah. As with many things in finances, you'll think yourself later if you can be proactive about them when you're not in a crisis versus having to be reactive in a crisis, you'll thank yourself. But it's so much harder to do because you have to find the motivation. You're not being forced into it and backed into a wall. You have to find the motivation and be consistent. And then later on when you have an opportunity come your way or some crisis comes your way, it's going to be so much easier to deal with. So yeah, 20 cents?
Lizzy: 20 cents.
Lissa: 20 cents is the segment of the show where both Lizzy and myself, Lissa, each get 60 seconds to give our 2 cents on today's topic. Whether it a net positive or a net negative. Where does 20 cents come from?
Lizzy: Because you get the opinion of two dimes.
Lissa: Two dimes. All right, Liz, for you right now, in this moment in time in your life, are sabbaticals worth it?
Lizzy: This is tricky because I don't have any intention of taking one in the near future, but I have very positive opinions of them in general. So, I'm not totally sure how to answer it. I think I view it more in terms of planning ahead for myself to take a break from work completely in terms of transitioning out of a role and that I'm sure will happen at some point in my life. Not right now. I'm firmly in build mode. So, I guess I'll say net negative at this point in time. But generally, I think it's a great thing.
Lissa: Yeah. Cool.
Lizzy: What about you, Lis?
Lissa: As you were saying your answer, I should have been more focused on it, but as you're saying it, I was thinking in my head, "Oh yeah, yeah, I'm going to be positive. No, no, I'm going to be negative. I'm going to be positive." So, just so you all know, sometimes these ratings, we don't think about this ahead of time.
Lizzy: No, we don't think about this ahead of time.
Lissa: This is what I'm rating right now.
Lizzy: This is live.
Lissa: Today, live, I'm going to also go net negative only because I'd say in the foreseeable future next few years, I do not see myself slowing down on the work side. And that's because I've chilled out the last few years. I'm so refreshed, energized, I don't actually feel a need to recharge and reset. I feel the need to build, acquire assets, and then build for maybe future sabbaticals or mini retirements later. So that's where I'm at today. But maybe in two years, ask me again and I'll be full force trying to plan a sabbatical.
Lizzy: Yeah, I mean, low key. I'm in build mode for...
Lissa: The future, future sabbatical.
Lizzy: four, five years from now, not have to work.
Lissa: Yeah, give me a whole couple of years of not working. There'll be more passive income streams. So, I'm with you. Interesting.
Lizzy: All right.
Lissa: I say most of this episode was...
Lizzy: Very in favor of.
Lissa: Very in favor of, and then here we hit you with a net negative.
Lizzy: But again, not for us right now, but can be a great thing for someone else for different timing of our life.
Lissa: And no one can make that decision but you. So, what do you think? Are sabbaticals worth it for you?
Lizzy: Hit us up. Let us know what you think. DM us on Instagram at NetNet Podcast or email us at hi@netnetpodcast.com. And if you want to follow us individually, here's where you can find us.
Lissa: I'm about to hit you with my line. I'm at Wealth for Women of Color on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram.
Lizzy: And I'm @liv_well_lizzy on Instagram and TikTok.
Lissa: All references, statistics, and resources mentioned can be found in our show notes. This podcast is for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only, and should not be constituted as financial advice. Remember to always do your own research, consult a professional as needed, and feel empowered to make your own damn decisions.