OT: Quitting the Rat Race

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So let me revise my original question. How can I quite the rat race for just one year? I really don't want to stay in the I.T. field even though the money is good. I just don't enjoy it. So, I'd like to take a year off. I want to spend 6 months of it thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail and the other 6 months just riding my bike, decompressing and "finding myself." I still don't know what I want to do with my life. Anyone else out there in their 40s and still not know what they want to do for a living? It's embarrassing and frustrating!

li10up, you can do it, but it will be hard. No doubt about it. It depends upon how far you are willing to step over that line out of your comfort zone.

I spent about 10 months skiing and riding and generally doing whatever I felt like doing expecting to have some kind of ephiphany. Surely "what I should do with myself when I go up" would come to me, right? I enjoyed the time and skied some wicked powder, but the ephiphany never came. I had this vision of being on the chairlift and having a giant "ah ha!" moment.

We had saved money in anticipation of me taking time off (approximately 25% of my annual salary), so while things were very tight, we learned to adjust. It helps that we were already a little unconventional: no TV, no expensive cars, small house with no storage, no kids, and no desire to be one of the Joneses, so to speak. Giving things up was really pretty easy. That's not to say that we didn't make some mistakes. It takes a while to adjust to the new lifestyle, that is for sure.

When I realized the "ah ha" moment wasn't going to come I actually had to apply some logical thought. How much was I willling to work and how much was I willing to sacrifice? How would it affect my spouse? What would he be comfortable with? How would it affect our lives 10-20-30 years from now?

So I started looking again for a "real" job (I was working a PT extremely low paying job at the time that had a great schedule but hated being treated like an idiot and it just wasn't working out). I ended up in a job similar to my old one but I was able to negotiate a part time schedule and the ability to take leave without pay without hassle. When I tell my new coworkers that I only work 4 days a week they get that "why didn't I think of that?" look on their faces. I may stay there a year or 10. I don't know. But I think that's OK. My life is still centered around my family and what I do outside of work. I never plan to work full time again.

Review your finances, decide what you can live without (it's a lot more than you think), how you can make changes, and go for it. Don't expect the ephiphany, but if it comes, great! Make sure you have a "back up" plan as well; it may be drastic (such as drawing on your retirement funds), but it helps to know that it's there. I never came close to needing my back up plan.

Better to do it now than to spend the rest of your life wondering what would have happened had you done it.

Good luck. What killer shape you will be in!