Burnt Out at 29 with $800K: Should I Take a Sabbatical or Push for Financial Independence?

A 29-year old Reddit user is eager to achieve financial independence and retire early. However, he is also feeling very burned out at his job and is not sure if he should pause on his savings efforts and take a sabbatical or if he should push through and try to achieve his goals for financial independence at a young age.

So, what’s the best option for the poster? Let’s take a look at his goals and his current financial situation to find out. 

Is the Reddit poster in a good position to take a sabbatical?

To make a fully informed decision about whether a sabbatical is a good idea or not, it’s important to look at the poster’s current financial situation. 

He said he has been working very hard towards his goal of achieving financial independence since leaving college six years ago. Right now, he has around $800K invested, including $500,000 in a brokerage account and $300K in retirement accounts and a health savings account. He describes himself as being very frugal but says he does enjoy life and splurges on things that matter. He just doesn’t go out of his way to spend money. 

He’s working a remote job right now that pays him in the mid-100K range, and he ends up doing less than 25 hours of work per week since he’s improved his efficiency. He isn’t driven at work, but he gets good performance reviews. His goal is to end up with $4 million so he can enjoy retirement while maintaining a safe withdrawal rate, and he figures it’s going to take him at least another decade to get to where he wants to go.

Unfortunately, since 2022, he’s been feeling burned out, he dreads the idea of work, and he feels like early retirement can’t come fast enough. So, he’s wondering if he should take a sabbatical and stop working so hard towards his goals so he can stop feeling so annoyed about work all the time. 

A mindset shift may be better than a sabbatical 

Burnout is obviously not a good thing for anyone to experience, and the Reddit poster obviously shouldn’t devote another 10 years of his life to doing something that makes him miserable — especially since no one ever knows how many years they have left.

At the same time, as many commentators said, the poster’s job really doesn’t seem all that stressful unless there’s information he didn’t mention in the post. A remote job that pays him over $100K and requires him to work around 25 hours a week seems like it’s a pretty good deal. It should provide him with plenty of time to engage in hobbies he likes and do things that make him happy. It also seems like a job that would be hard to replace if he were to quit to take a sabbatical.  

Rather than giving up such a cushy gig, starting to draw down his savings (which definitely isn’t big enough to retire on), and likely delaying his efforts to retire early, the poster should find a way to enjoy the present since he has a lot of time to do it.

This could mean easing up a little bit on how much he’s saving to do some of the things now that he’s hoping to do in the future — like traveling and dining out. Still, easing up a little to get more pleasure now is a lot better than giving up his job entirely and starting to eat into his nest egg.

A financial advisor can help the poster to create a plan with both realistic spending now and a clear goal for when he’ll retire. His advisor can also help him decide how much he needs invested to get there, and what his income will look like once he’s left work.

With this plan in place, and with a commitment to enjoying the present rather than just waiting for the day early retirement arrives, the poster can hopefully continue to grow the generous nest egg he’s already started so he can truly enjoy his retirement life when the time comes — while enjoying today as well. 

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