NOBODY quits a safe, well-paid job to journey, proper?
RIGHT?
Come on, that might simply be silly…
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I Give up My Job to Journey (for realz)
Uh, hello.
I’m Kat and in February 2018 I stop my job as an air-traffic controller.
Yep, I stop a high-paying and safe job, with completely no backup plan- so I might journey Europe in a motorhome.
We took lower than 7 months to go from ‘hey, possibly we might do that sooner or later’ to ‘Holy crap, I’ve simply left my job and now I’ve no revenue’!
I do know you will have questions.
SO. MANY. QUESTIONS.
Beneath, I’ll do my highest to reply every little thing I’ve ever been requested about quitting work to journey in my 30s, but when there’s one thing you’re nonetheless burning to know, be at liberty to drop a remark within the field on the backside and I’ll reply it for you.
Why I Give up my job to journey (in my very own phrases on the age of 35!!)
In the event you’d like to look at a video of me speaking via my causes for quitting my job and why we selected to vary our life, right here it’s.
In February 2018, I didn’t have a weblog like this, however I did have a Youtube channel. I made a decision to reveal my soul to the folks of YouTube, and I filmed my final days at work- together with my response as I left for the final time.
(If you wish to simply see my response to quitting, skip to minute 19.)
Watching that again is cringy for me.
The way it began…
For everybody who doesn’t wish to watch a (badly-edited) video, right here’s the story.
In August 2017, I discovered myself on high of a mountain in Switzerland, staring in amazement on the Milky Method.
The ACTUAL Milky Method.
I used to be 35 years outdated and I’d by no means seen the Milky Method earlier than. I bear in mind questioning what else is on the market on the planet that I’ve by no means seen, as a result of we’re too busy dashing round, making an attempt to juggle work and little one and life and every little thing else all of us juggle each day.
It was such a magical evening, sitting outdoors our motorhome in the midst of nowhere, simply staring up on the sky in awe.
At the very least, it was till we thought we heard a wolf close by… I’ve by no means run so quick in my life!!!
What if I left my job for a yr so we might journey?
On the five hundred+ miles again to the UK from Switzerland, my husband and I handed the time developing with all types of loopy ways in which we might work extra magical nights like that into our life. We joked and laughed and got here up with wild concepts, like me taking a sabbatical from my job and us travelling Europe in our motorhome.
Till out of the blue, they didn’t appear so wild anymore.
What if I truly DID take a sabbatical?
May we survive for a yr on one wage?
How wouldn’t it work? Is it the best transfer for us? Wouldn’t it give us what we have been on the lookout for?
What ARE we on the lookout for?
Determining if you happen to can afford a yr break from work.
It’s a protracted drive again from the Swiss Alps to the UK- and we tossed concepts round just about the whole journey. We pulled up financial institution statements, added up our spending (ouch!), labored out what we might remove from our lives. We wrote observe after observe on a pad.
Slowly, we realised that we would have the ability to make an unpaid sabbatical work. If we saved REALLY onerous for two years, we might in all probability save sufficient to outlive for a yr with out my wage.
Now THAT was thrilling.
Need to do that too? Right here’s what we did.
- Carry up your final 6 months of financial institution statements (12 months is even higher).
- Write down EVERYTHING you will have spent right into a spreadsheet. E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G. Morning espresso, £3/ day parking, sneaky lunchtime doughnut- significantly, every little thing. Ideally, cease taking money out of your financial institution and spend solely on a card- it makes it simpler to trace the place the cash goes.
- From there, work via the checklist and observe which payments can be eradicated by you leaving work- meals prices/ gas/ childcare/ work clothes and so forth. You realize what you spend to allow you to work.
- Then, determine what you can be dwelling on. For instance, we knew we couldn’t BOTH depart work, however fortunately Mr WB has a job which is usually computer-based and he works for himself- so he might try this whereas we have been travelling. You should discover some choices for you to have the ability to herald some revenue (sufficient to reside & journey on).
- After you have these choices and know roughly how a lot revenue can be every month, you should take a look at what payments will nonetheless stay. Car mortgage funds, mortgages, meals, insurance- all of the issues which CANT be eliminated. Do NOT underestimate these figures- you’ll get your self into bother in a short time.
- After which, you should work your butt off to shut the hole between what you at the moment spend and what restricted cash you can be bringing in. This bit is the HARDEST part- altering habits and saying ‘no’ to mates or household or stopping shopping for things- it’s all onerous. Solely you’ll be able to resolve what’s most vital to you.
As soon as again at dwelling in our regular routine, we performed with the numbers once more.
Simply to make certain.
It was a bit tight and we’d have to vary our spending habits a LOT, however I utilized for a sabbatical from work anyway, to begin in September 2019. My work didn’t truly comply with it- they stated they’d ‘take a look at it nearer to the time’, however we determined to behave as if it was a particular deadline.
That gave us two years to avoid wasting and plan.
Need to create a life you LOVE?
Whether or not it’s quitting your job to journey, downsizing, or dwelling in a van full-time, altering your life and dwelling ‘outdoors the norm’ might be scary. To assist, obtain our FREE 5 steps to Freedom mini-guide on the way to create a life you LOVE
Easy methods to Give up your job and journey for a yr
We began altering issues straight away. We stopped spending on extra ‘stuff’. I used to be shocked to find that, after years of dwelling frugally on boats, we had develop into ‘shoppers’.
We had rented a giant home (partly to take care of my mother-in-law when she was unwell, however partly as a result of we’d by no means HAD a giant house- and we might out of the blue afford it.
With a giant home got here furnishings, garments, automobiles and STUFF.
So. A lot. Stuff.
I used to be horrified after I realised how a lot we’d spent within the 4 months that we’d owned a property- all that cash wasted.
It was one of the crucial eye-opening intervals of my life.
So we stopped spending and began saving.
And saving some extra.
I learn books about monetary independence, early retirement and cash administration. It was an entire new world I’d by no means actually paid consideration to earlier than and I used to be completely hooked.
The second of realisation
Two months later, we’d completely modified our spending habits. Though we nonetheless handled our daughter and household, we’d stopped spending on issues for ourselves. We had new priorities.
At this level I sat down and realised one thing momentous; at our present price of saving, we might pay for all of the issues we wished to (like clear bank card payments and improve our motorhome) and nonetheless have sufficient saved for our yr off inside 4 months.
FOUR MONTHS!!!
On high of that, we’d modified our way of life so dramatically that we have been now solely dwelling on my husband’s wage- and saving most of mine. We removed the home, moved again onto our boat and continued to remove something which wasn’t important or vital to our plans.
This was the place issues obtained actually wild.
I began to develop a bizarre sleep situation. (I used to be waking up in the midst of the evening unable to breathe. Enjoyable…not!)
I had all of the assessments accomplished for sleep apnea, but it surely wasn’t that. No-one might determine what was improper. I briefly misplaced my air visitors licence whereas they did the assessments and was spending my work time in an workplace.
I HATED it. Severely, I’m unsure I’ve ever been extra depressing at any job, ever. It was horrendous.
With no clear approach of getting my medical again (as no-one might determine what was improper) and no finish in sight, sooner or later I broke down and sobbed on my husband.
Leaving a high-paying job to journey
Wanting again, it’s unhappy that our triumphant second didn’t occur with rays of sunshine and a choir singing uplifting music. However no, our second of realisation occurred in a pit of despair, tears and snot.
There was loads of snot.
As soon as once more, we obtained out the pens and pads and began throwing numbers round. We didn’t truly NEED me to be in work anymore- we have been saving all my revenue anyway. Would the cash we saved within the subsequent 3 months be sufficient? May I truly simply stop my job and journey?
Like, LEAVE depart?
No turning again? No job as a security web if issues didn’t work out?
The concern was virtually OVERWHELMING.
NOBODY does this. Or not less than, no one I knew.
No one leaves a high-paying, revered job… to go travelling.
My mother and father thought I used to be loopy. My bosses thought I used to be loopy. Heck, I secretly thought I used to be loopy. I used to be 35. What on earth was I DOING?
I had fought my butt off to get my ATC licence; handled the bullying, the imply women, the politics and all the opposite issues which occur in a room stuffed with Kind A personalities. (You’ve seen “Pushing Tin”, proper?) Was I actually going to surrender every little thing I’d labored so onerous for, for the unknown? REALLY?
This was doubtlessly essentially the most silly choice I’d ever made- and I’ve dangled myself OVER the sting of one of many tallest towers on the planet!
But, mentally, I used to be accomplished.
The second I noticed the figures on paper, and seen we might make it work, was the second I mentally left my job. I didn’t want it anymore. I didn’t need it anymore.
And THAT was big for me. Realising that my targets had modified, that what I wished 10 years in the past wasn’t the identical as what I wished now. That my goals had modified. For some motive, I’d stopped excited about my new goals and targets and was simply going via the motions of day-to-day life with none actual ambition.
And, after I stopped to consider it, I realised my new ambitions had NOTHING to do with my job. Or cash. They have been all to do with household and journey. Not shopping for ‘stuff’ or getting promoted.
Easy methods to inform your boss you’re leaving to go travelling…
So the following day, I simply DID IT.
I typed out my resignation letter (utilizing an internet Google template as a result of actually, who is aware of how to try this?)
After which I went to throw my life down the bathroom hand in my discover.
Which is likely one of the funnier components of the story- as a result of there was NO-ONE there at hand it in to.
I’d psyched myself up, walked as much as the administration flooring… after which spent 20 minutes going from workplace to workplace looking for somebody, ANYONE to take this silly letter.
In the long run, a poor lady (I feel she was on work expertise) agreed to go it on to her supervisor when he returned.
So, my precise quitting was… anti-climatic. I’m unsure what I anticipated… however actually NOTHING modified. I nonetheless had a 3-month discover interval to work (though with vacation it got here right down to 2 months) and I instructed just about no one I labored with what was taking place.
I’d simply made one of many greatest choices in my life, and just about no one knew.
What’s it truly like to go away your job?
Okay, actual speak time.
You prepared? Right here it’s…
NOBODY CARES.
All these folks you’ve labored with for years, they don’t care if you happen to’re leaving. Individuals are solely actually keen on issues which have an effect on their lives instantly, and also you with the ability to depart work simply doesn’t have an effect on them.
Even worse, you’ll discover many individuals both jealous or indignant that you simply’re DARING to do one thing outdoors of the norm, particularly if they’ll’t. Sadly, it should in all probability result in you shedding contact with many individuals you used to treat as mates.
And that’s okay. It’s not their life, it’s yours. You should do what’s best for you, not for them.
However DON’T anticipate sobbing and pleading and begging you to not go.
On the plus aspect, as you stroll out of the constructing for the final time, you’ll really feel like a badass who can conquer the whole freaking WORLD. It’s fairly awesome- even when no-one else is watching.
May YOU stop your job and journey?
In case you are contemplating altering your individual way of life, my recommendation is that this:
- Assume it via REALLY rigorously. This isn’t a game- it’s your life. You’ll NEED cash/ revenue/ new targets.
- Don’t examine your journey or decisions to anybody else’s- not mine, not somebody on Instagram or Youtube, no-one. It’s YOUR life. Do what’s best for you and your loved ones. Even if you happen to’re travelling alone, there’s a great deal of folks doing solo vanlife.
- Don’t let concern cease you. You’ll be scared- altering your life is at all times scary. However if you happen to can, do it anyway- you’ll at all times remorse it if you happen to don’t not less than strive.
For us, we’re now 18 months in and haven’t starved but. We’ve been travelling round Europe in our motorhome and having a blast. It’s not all been sunshine and roses, but it surely’s not been a horrible slog both. It’s been an journey!
Need to create a life you LOVE?
Whether or not it’s quitting your job to journey, downsizing, or dwelling in a van full-time, altering your life and dwelling ‘outdoors the norm’ might be scary. To assist, obtain our FREE 5 steps to Freedom mini-guide on the way to create a life you LOVE
