Picture this, you have just finished working somewhere between 3 to 5 years as a physician assistant. You go to work, come home, go to sleep, and repeat daily for 50 weeks out of the year every year. Sure you take those two vacations a year but are they actually vacations? Are you truly relaxing? Or are you thinking about all the work and phone calls that are piling up when you get back to the clinic?
Here’s the thing, I’m tired. I know you could sense it just from those first few sentences. Yes, I love my job and I am so beyond thankful to be able to do what I do. I feel like I am making a difference in my patients’ lives. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t exhausting doing the same thing every day.
My husband is active duty military and we are moving to a different state in less than a year. While researching where I could be working next, I came across the concept of taking a mini-retirement as a physician assistant.
A mini-retirement as a physician assistant is when you take an extended amount of time off work (think 6 to 12 months). This could be with the intent to return to the same job or a planned break in between different jobs. I have made a list of reasons this could be beneficial to just about anyone.
Why you should take a mini-retirement as a physician assistant
Reset and rejuvenate yourself.
Pursue other hobbies or passions that you previously did not have time for.
Spend more time with loved ones, whether that is children, aging parents, or your spouse.
Focus on your health. I am not just talking about your physical health but also your mental health.
Start or finish that home project you’ve never gotten around to.
Volunteer with an organization that’s close to your heart.
Travel. See the world.
Determine how you want to design your life for when you go back to work.
How you are going to afford it
You may be thinking to yourself, “All this sounds great but how in the world am I going to afford to take 6 months off work?” The answer is you create a plan and you stick with it. It’s not going to happen overnight and it’s not going to be super easy. It may require you to be stricter with your budget than you were previously.
What I have been doing for the past several months is saving approximately 50% of my income. Some months it is a little more. My monthly expenses are somewhere in the realm of $4,000-$5,000 a month. This is my half of everything, including my half of the mortgage and my car loan. I have fortunately been able to pay off all of my student loans so I no longer have to worry about that burden. Learn more here on how I paid off $130,000 in student loans in 12 months.
If I am planning on taking 6 months off and I have a monthly budget of $5,000 per month then easy math tells me I need to save $30,000. This will only work if you intend to keep your spending the same month-to-month as you currently do. I would also recommend a buffer of at least one month’s expenses for emergencies.
If you plan to travel during your time off
If you plan on traveling then you may require a slightly higher budget. On top of saving money, I have also spent the past year collecting credit card points. This could be redeemed as cash but it can also be redeemed as free flights or hotel stays. I plan on accumulating as many points as possible so that during my mini-retirement I don’t have to worry as much about travel expenses.
The other aspect of traveling during 6 months off is that you can find much more affordable flights that leave in the off-season or the middle of the week. If you avoid popular times to travel (think spring break or long holiday weekends) then your money and your credit card points will go a lot further.
My plan for my mini-retirement
Back to my intentions on how I am going to use my mini retirement. I have always romanticized the idea of being a digital nomad. Having the flexibility to travel and work from anywhere has always sounded appealing to me. I know of course there are both pros and cons to that lifestyle. Unfortunately, as a PA there isn’t an option to allow you to be a digital nomad unless you find a telemedicine job. The closest thing I have found to that lifestyle would be working as a locum tenens PA, which you can read more about here.
With my 6 months off I may try out the digital nomad lifestyle and see what it’s like. While I am writing these blog posts for free at the moment, with my time off I could try to monetize it. It would also allow me to structure my day how I want. The thought of no longer having to get my workout in at 5 am and instead being able to do it in the early afternoon sounds nice.
Along with trying to make money online, I have always wanted to take up photography. I may use that time to take a photography class and learn the art. I could learn to cook, take a language class, start Pilates, or spend a month in a low-cost foreign country. My point is the opportunities are endless.
An important thing to note, before I start my 6 months off I do plan on having a job lined up for when it is over. You could line it up ahead of time or you could find it while you are on your mini-retirement. Since I am a planner and the whole point of this mini-retirement is to decrease my stress and try new things, I don’t want to spend my time off worried about finding my next employment. If I have it set up ahead of time then I know exactly how and when my next source of income is coming.
Why you shouldn’t wait until actual retirement age to take a break from work
What if you have every intention of starting a bunch of hobbies when you retire (at your actual retirement age), but then find out you don’t like any of them? A short time off work, when you’re young and able-bodied, allows you the freedom to try new things without the pressure of having to find your reason for getting up every morning.
Plus, if you do it right you’ll have the money saved up to allow yourself to test out different hobbies. My runway to save up this amount of cash and in the same breath lower my current expenses is approximately one year. By the end of that year, I will have been working as a dermatology PA for a little over 4 years in total. I don’t have children yet and of course, if that situation changes, then my intentions for how I am going to use my 6-month mini-retirement will also change.
At the end of the day, I am going to be giving myself a break from the regular 9-5 (or in my case more like 8-5:30) and am going to force myself to try new things. The anticipation of having that freedom and also no major responsibilities is exciting. I much rather save my money for something like that than 2, 1 week vacations every year.
Is this something you would do? Comment below and let me know your thoughts on the idea of a mini-retirement!
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