Unplanned Career Break? My Honest Advice For Funding It.

We cover:

How Are You Feeling About Work Right Now?

You find yourself suddenly wanting to leave your job, without having another one lined up. You actually want to spend time just...not working.

So, what steps should you take to be able to finance a career break that you aren’t quite prepared for, but need to take that pause? 

Let’s try this analogy. Let’s say you need to drive to another city, or another part of the country, that is for example, 24 hours away. Most of us who are used to long-duration driving will know that you will need to schedule or plan for breaks in advance. 

However, especially if it is a new route though, you might find yourself exhausted at unexpected junctures. If you keep driving through, you might reach a point where if you don't take a break, it might lead to worse scenarios, such as getting into an accident when you're tired or when you fall asleep at the wheel. If that’s where you are, take that break. Rest.

Unexpected Reasons For A Career Break

Life doesn't always go according to plan, and there are factors beyond your own control that affect the timing of your job departure. Sometimes you just have to take a career break, for external factors. There are women who made the choice to leave their jobs so as to take care of their loved ones, like aging parents or children with special needs (and yes, it shouldn’t only be women who have to take the helm of care-giving!).

Or perhaps it is an internal factor for you. You might be experiencing long-term chronic stress that constantly wears you down. You feel like you're at the breaking point, even though deep down you think that you ought to, or should, keep your job for financial reasons.

Giving Yourselves The Permission To Pause 

If that’s you, I hope my stories will help you to give yourself permission to take a break if you need it. There is no need for guilt and shame if you have to take care of yourself and your family first. If you are burnt out, take the time that you need to heal.

I’ve traveled the spectrum from work readiness to work weariness a few times now. Trust me, there will be that moment when you are raring to go again.

Assessing your overall holistic wellness, taking a career break might still be the right thing to do in that season of your life. 

Steps To Survive An Unplanned Career Break

If you find yourself financially unprepared for a career break, here are a few steps that you can take that will enable you to finance one. 

#1 Be open to your friends and family that you are taking a career break

Telling other people that you are on a career break could be liberating. There is a huge sense of freedom.

However, I know that telling others about your abrupt job departure can be challenging for some people. I can still remember the backlash that I received from several people when I shared my intention to leave my job without another one. When you experience resistance from others, it makes you feel emotional discomfort. 

As hard as this is, being transparent and honest is the crucial first step. 

If the career break is an abrupt move for you, you might already be feeling confusion, doubt, and uncertainty. You really don't need to pile on the guilt of keeping things a secret or having to make up white lies. 

Being open about your career break to others offers an opportunity for them to manage their expectations about how their own normal routines might be affected. We may be able to make our own sacrifices or cut down our consumption. However, when those changes in our lives impact others, it becomes more challenging to navigate, because so much of what we do is based on social norms. Change can be unnerving to other people around you.

For example, your family might be used to dining out in restaurants, and eating together as family is important to you. You can explain to your family members that they would need to eat at hawker centers or eat home cooked meals more frequently for the duration of your career break. 

I love this phrase “pick your pain”. It is challenging to handle people who you know will be resistant to your career break. At the same time it's also equally, if not harder, to keep up with the pretense. 

Sure, there might be blowback from some about your job departure. Still, allow the opportunity for other people to give you encouragement. You might just be surprised at the support you will receive.   

For example, your circle of friends and family love to take trips. If they understood your situation, it allows for more creative responses from your loved ones - such as taking nearer trips, or mixing up paid and free activities during the trip. A career break doesn’t mean memory-making opportunities need to pause.

#2 Find Opportunities to Save

Downsizing (or what some people might say, right sizing?) your lifestyle is going to be painful at the start. You would already be accustomed to a standard of lifestyle, financed by the salary you used to get.

If you are an Asian, a drop in lifestyle can sometimes be accompanied by a “loss of face”, so that can be challenging for some.

And yet, there is beauty in evaluating your current lifestyle. Elevate what would bring most value to your life and discard the rest. 

You can get an overview of your spending habits through using an expense template (a blank template is provided in the free Confident Career Breaker Guide).  

Expenses can be divided up into flexible and fixed spending. Which categories constitute as flexible, and which are fixed will differ for everyone. 

(A) In cutting the costs of your lifestyle, let's start with the low hanging fruit of your flexible expenses.

In the list that I provided above, I would consider dining out, and clothing and accessories, under the category of ‘flexible’. You don't have to eliminate them, but you can reduce the frequency of these expenses, so that you might feel the pinch but not feel deprived. 

Perhaps you don't have to upgrade your phone this year. Or you might repair your clothes, so that they last longer. You may try satisfying your inner fashionista through buying thrifted clothes, instead of buying new ones. You might want to cut down on your streaming subscriptions. 

(B) Next comes the more challenging part, that of reducing your fixed expenses. 

There are expenses that you cannot run away from. For example, I'm paying conservancy fees for my current home, and that's not something that I can eliminate or reduce.

However, there are other fixed expenses that you can minimize. Yes, we need electricity in our home. We need our mobile service to keep in touch.  However, it is possible to find a lower electricity supplier, or a new mobile service operator. It might be worth shopping around to find a new provider, especially since these are recurring charges. 

The expense tracker sheet also includes three different categories; minimalist, moderate and maximalist. It's worth knowing what is the minimal amount that you can spend for your lifestyle on a career break without feeling deprived. A moderate level of expenses could be similar to your normal pre-career break spending, while maximalist is the dream no-holds-barred lifestyle that you envision. 

I’d think that if you are embarking on an abrupt career break, you will need to cut your spending down stat, so you will need to keep your expenses on the minimalist side.

Whenever you feel down on yourself or deprived, keep reminding yourself of why you went on a career break. Remind yourself of what you gained during the career break, rather than focusing on the drop in lifestyle that you are experiencing because you went on an unplanned career break.

#3 Find Opportunities to Earn

Saving by cutting expenses is challenging enough. However, just saving is not enough for you to afford a career break, especially if it was something that was abruptly embarked on, rather than something that you had the runway to save for. At some point you will need to find opportunities to earn.

On my second career break, I set up a sole proprietorship, where earnings from my gigs and side hustles went into. I  was previously in the teaching service, so I tried to find opportunities that leverage my experience. This is where being candid with other people that you are on a career break will come in handy. People in your network will have you in mind when there is a gig that they find you suitable for. 

You might be thinking that working, even part-time, is the last thing that you want to do when what you really want is a career break. I definitely can relate to this. 

On my first career break, I practically bullied and convinced myself to go back to full-time work before I was truly ready. So for my second break from full-time work, I worked on my money anxieties and personal finance skills. I designed it such that I was able to sustain a career break for several years. In the meantime, I was mentally ready to find and take on assignments and gigs that kept me afloat. 

I get that sometimes you're just not in a place of being able to work full-time yet, for several reasons. Especially if you find yourself in a position of needing to take that career break before something breaks, I want to remind you that this is a time to be gentle and kind to yourself.

When you do feel ready, put yourself out there, doing things that make you come alive. Put yourself out there doing things that you are drawn to. That way, people can see you at your best using your natural strengths, talents and sense of curiosity. When you're naturally enthusiastic about something, that is an attractive quality to others in the field.

I did a lot of volunteer work  such as  nature guiding, because I genuinely loved being out there in nature anyway. I also took on many learning opportunities such as workshops related to things that touched and inspired me. I was really intrigued by improvisational theater, art classes, and diversity-themed dialogues.

Following that thread of curiosity unexpectedly led me to opportunities to earn by taking on gigs related to writing articles on education, facilitation for teachers in training, and adjunct teaching.

If you find yourself in the position of needing to embark on a career break without already having saved up for it beforehand, I still believe that you can gift yourself that experience. Firstly, you need to be honest and transparent with other people no matter how resistant you know they are going to be. Then, you need to find opportunities to save, and to earn.

Change is never easy, but the benefits a career break can bring to you is well worth it.

Let me know if these tips resonate with you, and if you have further questions. I’d love to help you design your career break, in a way that reduces your financial anxieties and sets you up for a much better financial standing in the future.