The idea of taking a long break first occurred to us in 2006, when some mindless channel surfing led us to the TV show, Radical Sabbatical. Each 30 minute segment would tell the story of someone who had suddenly woken up to realize they hated their career, life was passing them by, and they needed a change, fast.
While reality shows are generally crap, watching how these people worked to make their dreams happen provided much of the inspiration we needed to get moving on our own dreams (well, that, and Jerry’s illness).
Neither Jim nor I had ever taken an extended break. In my 20s, my friends went backpacking around Europe after college, but I had student loans to pay, so I took the first dumb job that I could get. By the mid 90s, I was handing over my paycheck to student loans and credit card debt. And as for Jim, well, he’s always been too responsible to slack off.
Now that we had paid some dues in life, we became giddy at the thought of reverting to slackerdom. But the more we thought about it, we knew we couldn’t just split without some kind of goal in mind.
budgeting templates, I was able to put together a budget that works for us. In short: we came in under budget, and the money we’ve saved will enable us to continue to live this lifestyle for at least the next year if we choose to.
