Hi, I’m Nick, creator of the The Young Professional’s Guide to a Year Off. In 2016, I decided to leave my job to travel the world for a year. It was one of the best decisions of my life, and a decision I’ll never regret.
My story began when I got out of debt and got a great start on my retirement and non-retirement savings. After ending a long-term relationship and wanting more out of my life, I decided to pursue my dream of traveling the world for a whole year. I got a leave of absence approved by my employer, then spent 6 months road tripping around the United States, then 2 months backpacking in Europe, and finally 3 months of exploring in Africa.
After my travels, I returned home to the same job I had when I left. I married my girlfriend shortly after, got promoted twice at work, and started this blog.
The goal of my blog is to inspire you to make the same decision. To inspire you to get out of your comfort zone and take a leap of faith. A leap that could take you all over the world.
Many young professionals in today’s society fall into the routine of graduating from college, getting a job, getting married, buying a house, having kids, working until retirement age, then finally retiring, in this exact order. This blog is for young professionals who want these things, just not in that exact order.
The goal is to create a gap of time while you’re still young to pursue whatever dreams you may have outside of your career.
Taking a Year Off work is fully dependent on saving enough MONEY and creating the TIME away from work. Proper preparation and planning is required to make it successful. Start planning your Year Off today by reading my Plan A Year Off page.
Imagine yourself in a couple of years saying goodbye to your job with a whole year ahead of you to do whatever you want and to explore wherever you want. Imagine the stories you could tell. It takes a lot of willpower and delayed gratification, but I believe many young professionals can do it.
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. ~Mark Twain~