I’m taking a ONE YEAR Mini-Retirement

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Yes yes, I’ve taken the plunge! I’m officially pausing my life in corporate America to take a mini-retirement and travel the world for an entire year! I love typing that out but it also sounds a bit wild doesn’t it?

In this blog post I’ll be talking about why I decided to take a mini-retirement, what I struggled with, how I’m financing it, the math behind my decision and what I’ll be doing my year away from work.

If you want to follow along with my daily travel adventures, my personal Instagram account is @sofi_lyrintzis. I do have an instagram for Saving with Sofi however that will remain daily finance education content, not “I’m living on this Greek island” stuff.

ALSO! For this entire trip I’m only taking a carry on!! So if you want to know what I packed here is a link to a PDF with everything I personally packed!

Additionally, get access to some of my favorite budget templates for google sheets from my resource library! Completely FREE by signing up for my email list! Or you can purchase these budget templates on The Budget Empire.

Let’s get into it!

Table of Contents

Why Take a Mini-Retirement?

I have a post dedicated to what a mini-retirement is. In that post I discuss how life is hard and filled with chores.

I think everyone goes through some sort of existential crisis after entering the workforce and realizing this routine we have will be the same for the next 40 years….

Wake up, get ready for work, commute, work, come home, cook dinner, eat dinner, try to exercise, shower, watch tv for an hour, get ready for bed, sleep, repeat. Doesn’t that sound bleak.

I always say my goal with budgeting is to enjoy life now AND at 65. In deciding to take this mini-retirement year I believe I’m doing just that.

I had a realization. I don’t have kids, I don’t have a mortgage, I don’t have any loans or pets, my only real responsibilities are to my job. Additionally, I have money saved.

That’s when it hit me. When else in life will I have zero responsibilities? Never.

The older you get the more falls on your plate, the more you have to worry about and be responsible for. There are always a million reasons not to do something, however, I think I would regret not taking a year off to travel more than I would ever regret doing it.

So I pulled the trigger. My last day was May 20, 2022.

Struggles Before Pulling the Trigger

Saying “I’m going to take a year off to travel” sounds awesome, but making the decision to actually leave was surprisingly difficult for me. I was worried about what people would think and most of all, I was worried about leaving my job.

I feel a very strong sense of loyalty towards my team members and my firm. In my head it felt like I was letting them down by leaving. Honestly, I went back and forth for months strictly because of this.

I don’t think I’ll manage to get such good quality managers like I had at my firm again. It’s rare to feel like your managers actually have your back.

However, I recognized I might not get the opportunity to travel for a year again, and I needed to take it.

I share this because when I was younger, I never thought leaving my job would be the reason I struggled so much deciding to take this mini-retirement. So I’m very fortunate to be in this situation.

What’s the Plan? What I’ll Be Doing For a Year Away.

Not everything is planned out. GASP! I know. That is not on brand for me at all.

However, the roughly outlined plan is to choose 12 countries and spend one month in each of them. Half in Asia, half in Europe and throw in Mexico!

The goal of the year is to travel slowly and get to know the places I’ll be visiting. Because of this slow travel, I also want to put an emphasis on my hobbies.

This means being more active daily, continuing to work on this blog and maybe even reading for fun again!

The plan is: relax.

How I’m Paying for a Year of Travel

YES the juicy stuff! This section isn’t about how I saved money for travel, moreso this is about logistics and actual numbers.

How much money do I need to travel for a year? I saved $30,000 specifically for this mini-retirement year. (I’ll make sure to update if this is accurate after the year is over!)

I did A LOT of research about traveling for a year, cost of living abroad and how much other people had spent on their travels. Honestly, I was surprised how low the numbers were.

From the research I specifically did, I found other people spent somewhere between $17,000 and $25,000 to travel for an ENTIRE YEAR. Doesn’t that seem like so little? Or is this just my jaded SF living brain talking?

Regardless, I still like a good cushion and decided to go with $30,000 for the year!

I should add, my partner and I will be taking this mini-retirement year together which does help decrease costs, especially when it comes to housing.

To clarify, we each individually saved $30,000 for the year. It will be fascinating to see if we spend it all or if we don’t, how long we could keep going before it runs out! (And yes I will be keeping all my expenses very updated on the blog and my instagram).

The Math Behind My Decision

I claim to be this risk averse person who likes math and lets the numbers drive decisions. So how can I possibly be ok with not saving for an entire year without panicking about my future?

Well, yes that sentence sounds terrifying. But, with the right financial plan, it doesn’t have to be as scary. After all, what is the point of working so hard and saving a bunch of money if we never plan on enjoying our life with it? In moderation sure.

This mini-retirement was contingent on meeting several monetary goals I had set for myself.

Fully funded emergency fund: This was a must have. When the year is up, I might be looking for a job, which means I need to be prepared for that process taking longer than expected, aka paying for my living expenses when back in the US. Besides the $30,000 saved for the year, I have a fully funded 6 month emergency fund.

Save 30k: Obviously for this mini-retirement to happen I needed to be able to finance it.

Coast FIRE: I wanted to make sure I could retire at age 60 with my current investments regardless of what happens. I used this calculator to figure out how much I needed. I want to be able to retire much sooner than age 60 but if things don’t go as planned, I know I’m covered at age 60, thank you compound interest! Additionally, this amount couldn’t include either my emergency fund or the money I would be using on the year off. And yes I know FIRE numbers change and adjust depending on your lifestyle and if you have kids, etc. but just hitting this baseline made me feel better.

Maxing out my Roth: I wanted to make sure I’d be maxing out my Roth IRA every year regardless of the mini retirement.

Maxing out my 401k: Now this goal was incredibly ambitious considering I was at my job for less than 5 full months. However, before leaving I had my busy season bonus (#accountinglife – this is just a bonus you get for working crazy hours for 5 months) and PTO that needed to be paid out to me. I elected to contribute both of these directly into my 401k! If not for this, my 401k would have only hit about half the allowable amount.

So that sounds like a lot of money doesn’t it?

Yes, a mini-retirement takes thought, planning and saving, however, I’m a regular person. My accounting job is my only major source of income and I started with zero in the bank when I graduated college.

If I could save and plan for a mini-retirement year, so can you!

Final Thoughts

I’m extremely excited to be starting this mini-retirement year!! It’s going to be fascinating to see how much everything will cost country to country and in total!

As mentioned before, I’m not special or a trust fund kid. This is my own money I saved from my accounting job. If I could do it, so can you!

If you want to follow my mini-retirement more closely make sure to follow me on instagram on both my personal account @sofi_lyrintzis and @savingwithsofi to see where I am and how much of that 30k is remaining!

Are you thinking of taking a mini-retirement?