We just had a Money Snapshot from a lawyer on a career break, and we’ve discussed how to indicate a sabbatical on your resume — but I don’t think we’ve ever had a fun open thread on whether or not you would take a mid-career sabbatical! So let’s discuss: Would you take a planned break? How long would you ideally take, and what would you do?

Hat tip to the readers, who had a great threadjack along these lines several months ago… Here was the original question that kickstarted the discussion:

Anyone ever consider (or actually take) a mid-career sabbatical? I am so burned out from work I’ve been fantasizing about it more than usual lately. In my ideal world I’d take a year off, sell my house and travel in the camper van I’m converting. I am thoroughly into the idea that you shouldn’t wait until retirement to do the things you want to do, and really like the concept of taking a mini-retirement during my working years. Anyone else care to fantasize with me? What would you do if you took time off from work?

Different Types of Sabbaticals

Some jobs allow sabbaticals and even encourage them — certainly in academia, but a number of readers noted that their law firms also allow this. Note that even if it’s allowed or encouraged at your workplace, sabbaticals are unpaid, so obviously you need to have enough in savings to cushion you during those months.

Another way people take a career break is as a long pause between jobs. One reader noted that she was planning one so she could travel to see friends and family:

I am tentatively planning on doing this next year but for 2-3 months. I have elementary-age kids and a partner with a flexible schedule. Our plan is to travel to see lots of friends and family we haven’t seen in years/have never visited and be able to spend real time with them and explore the areas we will visit. I am calling it a sabbatical but really it is a gift to myself after a natural ending point for one job and a respite before I look for/start another. I hope I can actually follow through with the plan!

Can You Take a Career Break or Sabbatical if You’re In a Big Job?

We heard from a number of readers with “big jobs” — Big 4, MBB, and even a small law firm — who noted that they were either planning or had taken a career break or sabbatical.

Another reader noted that she had quit her stressful job and was taking her time to find a new job (and, I’m sure, de-stress and reflect). She was filling her time with fun things:

I quit my job at a Big 4 back in March and I’m slowly taking my time to find a new job. I’ve been spending time on big house projects, visiting family, taking daytime fitness classes that normally do not fit in my schedule, and volunteering. I recently turned 50 and diligently saved for the past 25 years so I could afford to take this time.

Another woman at a stressful job was planning a sabbatical:

Oh my gosh yes. Do it. I’m a young partner at a law firm (small firm) and am tentatively planning a 4- week sabbatical next year. I have flexibility and no issue meeting billable par, but I know my firm will freak, at the same time, I want to do it before my retiring partner actually retires and while my main associate is between maternity leaves.

My dream for a year would be living on a pretty small budget and planning it could take another 6 months to re-enter. I’d probably do a monthly lunch with key contacts for at least 3-6 months at the end to try to make re-entry less painful. I’d absolutely try to take a leave of absence from my job if it was allowed. I’m single no kids so health insurance isn’t crazy expensive but I’d still want to make sure I understood coverage in all the places I’d travel. I can barely imagine a year but I think I would:
– stay home for a month straight. (I get you’re selling but I just crave time at home)
– see my relatives. One surviving grandparent, my retired aunt, etc.
– read so so many books.
– take walks. Get into a doable, consistent workout routine. Take classes at weird times that are smaller sized.
– take up a hobby with my hands for my long term mental health.
– volunteer for something that is way more time consuming than I can usually handle.
– learn to cook. Host inexpensive casual gatherings with a couple close friends every month or so.
– re evaluate whether I want to try to start a part time online business or consulting gig 4-5 months in.
– travel – safe, cheap, but I’d want to plan it after my first month because I just wouldn’t have time to savor anticipation on my way out to start the sabbatical. My pay depends on my work product so I couldn’t phone it in on the way out.

Still another reader from a “big job” chimed in about her experience when she left MBB in her early thirties:

I took about a year off, spent 2 months at a meditation retreat, learned how to kiteboard and did several other bucket list outdoor adventures, including a through hike. It was all pre husband and kids, but a decade later, we’re trying to do something similar with the whole fam.

Would a Mid-Career Sabbatical Stress You Out Too Much?

Still other readers noted that a mid-career sabbatical would stress them out too much, especially if they were just taking a career break after quitting their job. One reader noted that a sabbatical “feels like a pipe dream. I get the midlife and midcareer burnout, believe me.”

Another reader shared her tips on what to do instead of a career break:

…I can’t imagine wanting the stress that comes with getting a job, house, etc., again. The key is figuring out how to create balance in your own life. For me, that’s really understanding that my job isn’t my value in this world, it’s what I do to live the life I want and my employer’s stresses are not mine to take home.

Stock photo via Stencil.

The post Fantasy Open Thread: Would You Take a Mid-Career Sabbatical? appeared first on Corporette.com.

For today’s Money Snapshot, we’re talking salary, net worth, debt, and more with reader Lisa in the Washington, D.C., area, who’s on a career break. She noted, “I paid off six figures of law school debt in my second year as a lawyer,” and explained, “I grew up thinking that if you didn’t pay your debt on time, you’d go to jail. Suffice to say, I don’t keep a lot of debt.”

We got a few requests from readers to launch our own “money diary” series, so we’ve asked willing readers to fill out a form with lots of details about debt, spending, saving, and more! If you’d like to fill out the form and be considered for a future personal money snapshot, please click here to submit your response! You can see a PDF of the questions if you want to review them ahead of time. See others in the Personal Money Snapshot series here.

Please remember that this is is a real person who has feelings and isn’t gaining anything from this, unlike your usual friendly (soul-deadened, thick-skinned, cold-hearted, money-grubbing) blogger — so please be kind with any comments. Thank you! — Kat

Name: Lisa
Location: Outside Washington, D.C.
Age: 37
Occupation: Former MediumLaw layer on a career break
Income: $20,000
Net worth: Rounds to a million but on the lower end
Net worth when started working: 22, a few thousand
Living situation: Single; renter ($2,000/month)

Note: Lisa submitted her Personal Money Snapshot back in 2021 (eek), and unfortunately it got lost in the shuffle! (Shall we blame the general craziness of the pandemic?) However, we had to share it because it’s quite different than our average Money Snapshot! Thanks so much to Lisa for her patience.

Debt

How much debt do you have currently?
$0

How much money are you spending each month to pay down debt?
$0

What does your debt picture look like?
I grew up thinking that if you didn’t pay your debt on time, you’d go to jail. Suffice to say, I don’t keep a lot of debt.

How did you pay for school?
My parents paid for college. I worked and saved up for four years before law school, using the money to keep my loan payments down. I also worked a few part-time jobs during law school.

Do you own or rent? How much do you pay monthly?
Rent, $2,000

Home debt: Share your theories and strategies with us (including any that lead you to rent rather than own). 
I rent. I’ve always wanted to own my own place but I’m enjoying the freedom, the beautiful “what if” that I can leave town whenever I want.

Have you paid off any major debt? 
After graduation, I had $112,000 in student loan and credit card debt (0% interest), which I finished paying off in my second year as an attorney in a medium-sized law firm.

Have you ever done anything noteworthy to avoid or lessen debt?
I took out $60,000 from my 401k to pay for law school. The jury’s still out on whether that was a good or bad idea. Granted, I went to school in 2009, when the stock market was hitting bottom, but I think I was invested poorly because the stock that was left didn’t seem to rise that much.

Savings, Investments & Retirement 

How much do you save each month or year in retirement vehicles like 401Ks, Roth IRAs, and others?
I max out my Roth IRA every year and I contribute a few thousand to a simple IRA.

How much money do you allocate to other tax-savvy investments/accounts like HSAs, 529s, FSAs, and others?
I contribute a thousand to a 529 every year, because of wishful thinking. =D I max out my HSA every year.

How much do you save outside of retirement accounts?
I don’t do a lot of saving because my income is so low currently. I’m cashing out stock to support myself as needed.

Talk to us about investments. Do you have a financial advisor or planner?
I don’t have a financial advisor. My 401k and most of my brokerage account is in index funds. Then I have a bunch of stocks that I invest in for fun. I’m terrific at buying stocks but I sell a lot of winners too soon (see Apple, Tesla, Netflix, Amazon, Costco, Target, Disney — most of which I still own but I could have rode those puppies for longer).

Do you have an end goal for saving or are you just saving for a rainy day?
I’m 37, single, and childless. I might have a child but I’m ambivalent. If I do, I would like the option to stay at home. Most of my savings have been so that I could leave my law firm job (which I did in 2019) and take a lower-paying job. I’m still looking for the job! But the money cushion has been a huge help for my psyche.

When did you start saving seriously? How has your savings strategy changed over the years?
I’m a first generation immigrant, so saving and sacrifice is just built in. When I compare myself to my parents, my life will always look extravagant, no matter how much I save. Still, there was a time when I was paying down my debt when I rather aggressively planned to pay it all off in a year. I had moved into my apartment and I had no furniture. If I forgot my lunch, I would just skip lunch to avoid going out to eat.

It just seemed too extreme for me, and I gave myself a break from that deadline. I bought furniture for my apartment and I went out to eat sometimes. I realized it wasn’t the end of the world if I still had debt for another six months. And still, I paid off my debt faster than most.

What’s the #1 thing you’re doing to save money, limit spending, or live frugally?
I’m doing what everyone is doing — staying in because of COVID.

Have you ever made a big money move or investment with savings in mind, such as rolling over an older IRA into a Roth IRA or superfunding a 529?
I took a COVID 401k rollover.

Do you have an estate plan in place? A trust? What lessons did you learn going through the process?
As an attorney, I think estate planning is really important (though this is not my area of law). I remember one time I was talking with an older friend about my estate planning and a young woman interrupted to ask why I would write a will when I wasn’t old yet. First, none of us know our last day, so today is just as good as any other day to get started. Updating doesn’t take nearly as much time as creating. Second, it’s not as if old people have a monopoly on accidents or health problems. A deer hit my car just the other day — if it had jumped a second faster it would have gone through my windshield.

Last year I finished working with my parents over their estate plans (I’m the executor). And I have a will, but most of my assets will transfer through the beneficiaries listed in my account. I wrote out a Big Book of Everything. My social media is set to destruct after a period of inactivity.

Planning for the worst is an act of love. I’m also very mindful of the Swedish act of death cleaning and I am trying to pare down my stuff for myself and in case it’s a burden for someone who has to sort it later (and I’m also cleaning out my parents’ house because they’re moving). This is all stuff that, should the worst happen, my family will thank me for. And it gives me peace of mind making it easier on them.

How much do you have in cash that’s available today?
$50 in wallet

How much do you have in cash that’s available in a week? 
$40,000

How much is in your “emergency fund,” and did you include it in the previous question?
I consider my checking, savings, credit cards, and brokerage account to be my emergency fund (though I would only access the brokerage in the event of a huge crapstorm). This would be about $300,000 (including the $40k from earlier). I could max out all my credit cards and take the money out of my brokerage account to pay for it, if I needed to.

How much do you have in retirement savings?
~$300,000

How much do you have in long-term investments and savings (CDs, index funds, stocks) that are not behind a retirement wall?
~$300,000

If property values (home, car) are included in your net worth, how much are those worth?
My car is worth a few thousand dollars, generously. It’s 21 years old and has a deer indent on the side.

Spending 

How much do you spend on the following categories on a monthly basis?

Groceries: $150
Restaurants, bars, takeout, and delivery: $100
Clothing and accessories: $60
Transportation: $30
Rent/living expenses: $2,000
Entertainment: $10
Other major expenses: Charity = $200/month now, used to be a lot more when I was working
Health care – premiums and other costs: $100/month, $500/year out of pocket last year but that was high

What’s your spending range for these things? What’s your average?

Vacations – Range: $100–$3000, I went to South Africa last year for a wedding
Vacations – Average: $300

Charity – Range of donations: $5–$100/month/charity
Charity – Average donation or giving amount: $50/month. Between $2,000 –$10,000/year.

Individual items of clothing – Range: Free to $150 (most expensive thing I ever bought is sneakers)
Individual items of clothing – Average: $20

Apartment or house – Range: $1,700–$2,000/month
Apartment or house – Current main residence: $2,000

Car or other vehicle – Range: $0–$5000
Car or other vehicle – Current main vehicle: I haven’t owned a vehicle younger than 15 years old in the past decade. My parents bought my car used in 2002. It was top of the line back then and even came with a car phone!

Any other large personal expenses?
I pay for a life coach. I’ve worked with her for years, and it’s part therapy for someone who doesn’t need to pay a psychiatrist, just to talk and part goal planning.

Fill in the blank on this question: I could save _____ if I stopped ______, but I don’t because _______.
I could save all my money by living with my parents, who live 20 miles away, especially while I’m not working. I had originally thought I would live with my parents after graduation and while paying off my debt, but on my first night I was already googling apartments.

It’s better for our relationship and my mental health for me to have another place to be. I could also move far away to a cheaper area, but I live where I do because I want to be close to my family. My sister and brother (and my nephews) also live in the area and it’s worth all the money that I get to see them grow up and that I can see my family during the pandemic.

How has your family provided financial support in your adult life, if any? (Or, do you provide support to them?)
My parents paid for my college and they gave me a few thousand dollars for law school so I wouldn’t have to take out another loan.

Does your family provide any non-financial support? 
I stay with my parents for about a week out of every month. I eat my mom’s cooking and my dad checks my car. They’ll pay for little things like if we go to the grocery and I want something or, recently, I needed staples, and my dad gave me a box. They would be so upset if I went out and bought stuff that they had to give to me.

Money Strategy 

Do you have a general money strategy?
I like not to worry about money. For me that means spending far less than I have the means to. This means I have plenty of money to not let the desire for money dictate my career goals or lifestyle.

Time vs. money — do you spend money to save time (e.g., cleaning service)? Do you donate your time instead of money? What else does this phrase mean to you?
I used to have a cleaning service but typically just a few times a year before parties. Now that I can’t have anyone over [COVID], and I’m in my apartment all the time, I’ve just tried to become neater.

What are your favorite resources for personal finance?
I’ve met so many wonderful people in the personal finance world like StoppedIroningShirts.com, PFGeeks.com, and ChampagneandCapitalGains.com. I read GetRichSlowly a lot and I was obsessed with The Billfold (RIP).

What advice would you give your younger self about personal finance?
You’re doing just fine, don’t stress so much about it. Maybe get married.

Icons via Stencil.

Want more posts like this? These are some of the latest Money Snapshots…

• Money Snapshot: A Tech Marketer Shares Her Thoughts on Health, Retirement, and Travel
• Money Snapshot: A Lawyer on a Career Break Shares Her Thoughts on Debt, Savings, and Living Frugally
• Money Snapshot: An In-House Counsel Shares Thoughts on 529s, Avoiding Debt, and Past Money Stress
• Money Snapshot: An In-House Counsel Shares Her Thoughts on Expenses, Retirement, and Outsourcing Chores
• Personal Money Snapshot: Corporette Edition

The post Money Snapshot: A Lawyer on a Career Break Shares Her Thoughts on Debt, Savings, and Living Frugally appeared first on Corporette.com.

Have you heard of “strategic volunteering” — and are you doing it? Do you do it at a high level (board member or committee level)? How did you get started doing it — were you interested in the organization, did you purposely do it for networking, or did you somehow fall into it? We’ve talked about this in the context of making new friends, as well as pondering what professional organizations you should join and how to get on a board— but we haven’t really talked about strategic volunteering.

I’m way under the weather today, so I’ve been lying in bed catching up on reading, watching TED, and playing Candy Crush. (I honestly can’t remember the last time I had a sick day!)  One of the articles I’m trying to catch up on (if the NYT didn’t have a huge banner ad that pops up right in the middle of the text) is the recent one about how “the opt out generation wants back in.” Anyway, I was particularly interested to hear about the role that volunteering played in returns to work:

Among the women I spoke with, those who didn’t have the highest academic credentials or highest-powered social networks or who hadn’t been sufficiently “strategic” in their volunteering (fund-raising for a Manhattan private school could be a nice segue back into banking; running bake sales for the suburban swim team tended not to be a career-enhancer) or who had divorced, often struggled greatly.

So, ladies — are you strategic in your volunteering? How much time do you devote to volunteering in general? If you were to try to do strategic volunteering, what would you do?

{related: unconventional ways to build your network}

Updated images via Stencil. Originally pictured: Fundraising in the dictionary, originally uploaded to Flickr by HowardLake.

Psst: These are some of our favorite books if you’re considering changing your career:

The post Strategic Volunteering: Do You Do It? appeared first on Corporette.com.

How do you indicate a sabbatical or other gap on your resume, whether to smell flowers, travel, write, or more? Reader M wrote in, wondering:

So: any recommendations for indicating a sabbatical/career break on the resume? I am taking this time to volunteer (and travel some, but will emphasize volunteering) and I am proud of that. Face to face it has been easy for me to explain this. My job wasn’t working out, I had some savings, had always wanted to volunteer, and so I quit. How do you think I should indicate this current volunteering time on the resume?

Great question, because I think more and more people are taking sabbaticals. I’m curious to hear what the readers say, but some notes from poking around the Internet:

What is a Sabbatical?

“Sabbatical” can mean a lot of different things to different people, and hiring managers will raise an eyebrow at it — apparently some people have lied and used “sabbatical” to indicate time spent job searching or even incarcerated. 

From a recent thread on Ask a Manager, you can see that some people think “sabbatical” only applies if it’s an academic pursuit or you are “still employed by your place of business and on their payroll;” other people thought it meant you are leaving your current position for a period of time but that you plan to return to it.

{related: why you should apply to jobs even when you don’t meet the job “requirements”}

Meanwhile, over at Oprah.com, they define a sabbatical as “a planned, focused job pause in which an individual takes time to rest, travel, volunteer, learn a new skill or fulfill a lifelong dream before returning to work,” which would have been closest to my own definition before I started looking around.

So where possible, either expand “sabbatical” to include a few sentences about what you were doing, or use a more precise phrase than sabbatical.

{related: how long your resume should be}

How to Indicate a Sabbatical On Your Resume

In this case, if the rest of your resume has positions listed as [Job Title], [Company], I would put “Volunteer, [organization through which you volunteered]. If you’re learning relevant skills to your next job (or your next career), I would use a sentence or two (or a few bullet points, whatever fits best with your resume style) to describe which skills you gained and how.

Try to use strong words like “managed,” “researched,” “taught,” etc. Yes and Yes has a few more suggestions for what to say on your resume.

I’m curious to hear what readers would put if they were just traveling for an extended period, though — I might put “Travel, Jan. 2013 – May 2013: Countries A, B, C, D, E, and F” in a one-line spot, probably with “other experience” or “other interests.”

Ladies, have you taken a sabbatical — and how is that time represented on your resume? Have you ever interviewed someone who had taken a sabbatical, and what did you think?

{related: the easy way to keep your resume updated}

Psst: These are some of our favorite books if you’re considering changing your career:

The post How to Indicate a Sabbatical on Your Resume appeared first on Corporette.com.

20210 Update: We still stand by these SAHM career tips, particularly for lawyers turned stay-at-home moms — but you may also want to check out some of our more recent stories on stay-at-home parents, including what you need to know about strategic volunteering, and what to consider when you’re thinking about not returning to work after maternity leave. 

Reader R writes with a question about how women who choose to stay home with their kids for a while can keep career paths open to them…

I’m hoping you and the lovely Corporette commenters will be able to offer some guidance. (as surely I’m not the only one who has faced or will face this dilemma).

I’m an ’08 law grad and spent two years in biglaw before accepting a government position last fall. Now I am pregnant and due this fall. I’d originally moved to government thinking it would be more amenable to family life, but have since decided I’d like to stay home full time, at least for a little while. If we end up having more than one child, I suppose it could end up being as long as 3 – 4 years.

So, my question is, knowing I’d like to return to the legal field one day, what can I do during my career hiatus to ensure that I am still marketable/relevant when I return to work and to help make that transition back easier? I’ve already made up my mind to stay home, so I am not really interested in a suggestion that I continue working. However, advice on how long is “too long” to be out of work would also be appreciated.

Congratulations on your pregnancy! I think you’re really smart to be thinking about this now — and not, say, in four years when you’re looking to get back in the workforce. I have no experience with this personally, so I’m really curious to hear what the readers say.

{related: how to take a career break from work}

– First: Network NOW. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: it is easiest to build relationships with people when you are not asking for anything. If your baby isn’t due until the fall, you have several good months ahead of you that you can fill with breakfasts, lunches and dinners. Get to know your current colleagues better, as well as your supervisors and yes, even your subordinates. Go back to your previous jobs and reconnect with people.

Your goal at this point should be two-pronged, I think: first, create (or rejuvenate) friendships — you never know where people are going to be in four years. Second, especially for people who have children or are older, ask them for their advice on juggling work and family. You don’t necessarily need to show your hand re: your SAHM plans, but the work/life juggle is a problem for everyone and they will have tips for you, both for when you get back to work as well as how to make the transition back to work, whether it’s from maternity leave or a SAHM position. When you’re looking to get back in the game, these are the people who will, hopefully, hear of jobs and think of you, or be able to connect you to other people who may have jobs.

Pictured above, 5 great books for working mothers, L-R: one / two / three / four / five 

– Second:  Make it easy for you to keep track of people in the years that you’re at home. If you aren’t on Linked In, get on there — you can even set it so you get a weekly summary of who’s changed jobs and more. You may also want to set up Google alerts for companies or a few key people you’ve worked with. It doesn’t take a lot to write to your ex-boss and say “Hey, I saw you quoted in the newspaper — congrats! How are things going with you?” or to that ex-subordinate “I noticed you changed jobs — congrats! How’s the new place?”

– Part 2b: Stay up to date on your subject matter. For example, if you have a legal specialty, sign up for newsletters, magazines, and more that will help you keep abreast of the topics. This could also be a good time to dream a little: in a perfect world, what would your ideal job be? Then, keep track of that industry (whether you’ve worked in it or not). Over the months and years that you’re home with your child, you’ll see the names of companies, the fluctuations in the industry (tip: bad sign if everyone’s filing for bankruptcy), and even the names of some of the key players — when you’re starting to look to get back to work you can call the company and ask for an informational interview, or use social networking tools like LinkedIn or even Facebook to see if you have connections to those companies or that industry.

– Third: Don’t have an all-or-nothing mentality. After you get settled in with your baby, you may realize that a very limited amount of work would be a pleasant intellectual change. If you have colleagues or friends who are writing books or articles, offer to help — in exchange for a byline. Depending on your line of work, you may want to connect with your old boss(es) and offer some time here and there if they need an extra hand on projects. Even if it’s just 10 hours a week or less, it still gives you something to put on your resume and talk about in interviews.

– Finally: If you’re in a career (like Reader R in law) where continuing education is necessary to maintain your professional status, stay up to date on your credits. If money is an issue, your old employer(s) may offer to let you come and sit in on their continuing education classes — if you’re more interested in conferences and the like, be judicious about which ones you go to and why (see above re: your ideal career). When you go, look professional and be friendly. You may even want to have business cards made for yourself (I’ve used Vista Print in the past with good results) that have your name, number, and email address. It may not be a bad idea to set up an online resume/website now (before you’ve even given birth!), so you can put the URL on the business card; otherwise a link to your LinkedIn profile should work fine.

Readers, what are your tips for staying in the game while being a stay at home mom? What have you seen work, what have you seen fail? What are your best SAHM career tips?

Psst: These are some of our favorite books if you’re considering changing your career:

Picture via Stencil. (Original image (2011): Open Doors, originally uploaded to Flickr by *Fede*.)

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