Giving up work ???
 

What do people do about work commitments when they are planning any extended trip? Do they all have jobs they can go back to / work in any country - or are people just selling up and making a massive life change / starting again? I so desperately want to do this, but there are niggles in the back of my mind about any consequences (financial etc) ...

I suppose it depends on what you want to do, if you want to return to your current country/job, then see if your employer will grant Leave Of Abscence, mine had agreed to 3 months unpaid leave, some will give more.

Finances are down to what you can afford, we have been saving for a couple of years and have equity in our house to cover us i needed.

If you are going on a really really really long trip, then either rent out your house or sell it and use the money for your trip.

Best of Both worlds
 

Hi There Stevie

Obviously I can only talk about what we are doing....but here goes

Me and the wife are 1 year into saving up for 3 years to do a trip of a lifetime, and also change our lifestyle altogether.

At the end of the 3 years we will have saved up enough money to travel overland in a Land Rover to Australia for one year. And a little bit for when we get there. Once we get there we are going to look for work for a couple of years and then try and continue onto South America. We may not take this option, depending on the circumstances. We are both fully prepared to quit our jobs forever, but we are in the lucky position that both our companies have branches in Sydney, so when we do quit we are going to try and get a 'transfer' to these braches. Maybe that will work maybe it won't.

If it doesn't then we will look for other oppotunities out there. I work in IT and the wife in television/engineering.

We are going to rent our houses (her old one and our current one) whilst we are gone, moving the mortgages to interest only. We currently do this for one house, and have it fully managed by a letting company, which is expensive but worth it, as they do a great job. Currently the rent pays the mortgage and the fees and thats about it. But hopefully, if our luck plays out, in the future we may get a small return also.

Our long term plan is to leave our office bound jobs behind us, but currenty they are a handy tool to get money.

One thing to point out is before we developed the plan, we were just your average people turning up to work each day, not really thinking about the future. Now we both feel we have purpose, and it has actually made working more bearable as there is a reason to it. Not bearable enough to want to do it forever though !! :)

Hope this gives you some food for thought

Cheers

Stevie, The niggles will always be there, but so will a job.
If you are really worried take the longest leave your employer will give and start with that.
My plans have been to work and save for five years then quit, rent the house and go.
It is much easier the second time...
Cheers

Hi Cameron ! You talk about the "second time" Have you already done a big trip - what did you do with your work / what do you do. A lot of people who've replied seem to have transferable skills, or work for companies with offices worldwide. Although I finished University OK, I ended up working with the police, and have worries about working again if I pack this in (I am 40 just now) - I hate it with a passion anyhow. What do you think?
Cheers, Stevie

You gotta do it
 

Hey Stevie, if you really do hate it with a passion my advice would be to do it whatever! The one life you have should not be spent doing somehting you hate surely?

As a policeman I would guess there are plenty of transferable skills, even if not in the safe job.

I may have transferable skills, but the long term plan is to get out of my business and do something I like. Or at least something that I find rewarding.

Perhaps spend the next few months reading some blogs, either attached to the HUBB or from elsewhere. You soon realise there are plenty of people in your position who are out there doing it. All it took was that brave decision at some point. But that seems to be the hardest step, once you do that its easy.

Obviously I haven't actually left yet, so perhaps its all hot air? I won't know for another two years, but I've never felt so positive, so enthusiastic as I do now. And that's purely because I made that decision.

Good luck and use the force!

If you are good, your employer will want you back - at any time.
Any employer - the same.
Think positive about your abilities, including selling them, then get on the road!
That road may not be there in the future - employers will always be.
Enjoy.

Hi Stevie,
The last time I had to quit my job as they would not give me a long enough leave of absence.
My wife and I did a "quick and easy" one year RTW. Europe to Turkey, South East Asia. Aus, and NZ.
On our return she went back to her work and I did odd jobs for a year or so and then went back to my former employer.
We will quit again in five more months, and will be travelling to Central and South America.
The problem is that motorcycle travel is VERY ADDICTIVE...and once you start your views on working center on how to fund the next trip.
Tony, Cornish, and Bruce are all correct. This website has answers to most of your questions, check the blogs and Ezine. Attend a HUBB Rally and Talk to people there. You will be amazed at how much they want to help.
Good Luck

giving up work
 

hmm... I´m a bit like you! In one hand I am terrified of giving up what I have worked so hard for, namely building a (lucrative) career, and getting out of my bleak childhood council estate, via working like hell through university and then building (with tremendous difficulty and via emigration!) a career.
In another hand I do realise that I have one life and I´d better make the best of it before it is too late. It´s a tough call.
I´m giving up work in 2 months time. Turning my back on what have been so incredibly difficult to build will be really tough, but work or money will never give me what I need right now. The only thing I can hope is that when I come back 1 year later I will be able to sell myself for a decent price either to my former company or any other.

Ok well maybe I´m just going through "mid-life crisis" !

I don´t have any answers, the only thing I know is that I have always tried. Sometime I´ve failed. Well guess what? When I failed, I cried, then picked up the pieces and tried harder. I did not give up. And in the end it did pay! One of my brothers has NEVER tried anything hard, paralised by fear of failure. Result is...., well, not great.

Failing is hard, but not trying is even worse!

My 2 cents!

Good luck,

Plan ahead
 

If you plan the trip a couple of years ahead, your current work environment suddenly has a different purpose and seems more bearable then before. It gives you something to look forward to and the extra time may also serve to acrue long service leave or holiday pay. I am self employed and I have the advantage that my business partner looks after things for trips of up to several months in duration. For longer trips I will have to investigate employing a "manager" and accept that I can only draw a retainer wage.
As for the house, my first preference would be to rent my property out if the rental income goes somewhere near meeting the repayments. If you sell the house and want to buy again after say a five year trip then you end up back on the exact same roundabout of working to repay loans.

Clear as mud eh! It's like stepping off the edge into the unknown, but a life style change is good, make the decision, stick to it and enjoy the trip to the max!

Glen

If you have the chance, do it!

I'm looking forward to when my children will be big enough to live on their own. Then I want to make some real long trips.

I have five children. One is married now and the other four (ranging form 11 to 20) live at home and go to school etc. My wife and I work very hard to pay for schools and everything else they need so going on a realy long bike trip is not possible now, but every year I get on my bike for two, three or four weeks and leave on my own. (Unfortunately my wife is not very enthousiastic about long motorcycle trips and rather stays at home)
If I wouldn't take that few weeks trips I would get crazy. It helpes me to be able to cope with the long days work and the stress of four adolescents at home. I enjoy those trips so very much, a few weeks without worries. Riding my bike, enjoying the scenery, meeting interesting people and seing nice places. I can look back at some very nice trips and I'm looking forward to the next.
I'm giving my wife and children what they need and also I enjoy riding my bike to interesting places every year. That is not to bad isn't it.

What I want to say, make the best of your life within the possibilities you have.

I have to say you should just go for it!

When we went away we were both in good jobs which we jacked in, we owned a house which we sold, owned cars which we sold and anything that was left after that was put in storage. Had an awesome trip which is the best thing we have ever done.

How has it effected us now... Well we both have a much more adventurous and confident outlook on life. I was always pretty confident in myself but it bordered on cocky, now its just a calm inner confidence and nothing really phases me nowI'm back at work. Work has changed completely - I have set up my own consultancy doing what I did before but for myself. I now earn more in a month than I used to earn in a year and it comfortably tops 100K so I have not lost anything. But it was the trip that gave me the confidence to get out and do it.

If you are in a position where you have to sell up etc then just do it. If you are not then whats stopping you? Jobs are two a penny and can be got easily when you get back. Life's for living not sitting in a stupid office!

GO FOR IT!!!!

Stevie

Now you have got the message !!!!!! GO.....



Grant and Susan

This thread is so positive throughout, even inspirational, it should be given greater promenence.

Im 26 now and planning to go away on a 6 month Pan America in 2008

Iv taken 3 years saving to clear big debts I accumilated in Uni and lavish adventure holidays and im just getting somewhere in life with a job thats starting to open doors for me.

Im now planning to save madly for the next 16 months and then to travel for 6. Ill come back home with nothing.. not a penny or a place to live. My old job will fill my place within days so Ill be starting at scratch again with my thirties approaching.

Am I shit scared ?? YES, VERY

Then I think of my job. Sitting at a desk doing pointless tasks watching to clock go round with me with it. Its not a life that I like or dislike, its just the same comfortable job day in, day out.

Im hoping that I either find something which attracts me on the road away from all this boredom and pointlessness or gives me a kick in the arse to go and truely find something that is meant for me...

So ill be 30, skint, jobless and not really any skills that are easy to make money from.

But so what !! Lifes for living. Why age and crumble in an air conditioned, white light office when there are such wonders in the world that we only see on TV.

Think you job as a cage, which in reality it is.

Ill see you on the road, you owe me a beer.

Listen whacker, forget the beer, if you ever jack it all in, stop talking about and actually DO that trip, I'll buy you a case;)