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Anon saves up
(sh.itjust.works)
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this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2025
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as a heads up, if you can save enough money to take a sabbatical, you should. It was the greatest time of my fuckin' life.
Someone talked about how his company was willing to give someone a six month sabbatical to keep this other dude around but the guy didn't take it. I was like that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard, just take it and then leave when it's over or whatever. And the person telling me this explained how he wasn't like that and wouldn't take advantage of the company. It just felt really weird. I don't experience true jealousy often but this was one of the times I have. Companies have never treated me well like that. The idea that people would just act like a 6 month sabbatical is something normal is fucking insane. I even told him that's crazy and I heard of and he said no, it's something a lot of places do. It's such an insanely privileged take to talk about it so casually.
Just to put it into perspective, the sabbatical isn't meant to be frequent and usually you're not meant to be paid, just have a job to go back to after. If it's available, it's somewhere where you're quite senior and been working there for a long time.
For my sabbatical, I just straight up quit; I wasn't even playing to stay in the same country after it was over.
I know, but I'm talking about someone being offered a sixonth paid sabbatical.
I'd love to but all the logistics are overwhelming for me. What made your sabbatical so good? Was it easy to finance?
I mean... yes and no? I earned about £35k+ per annum between between 2013 ish and 2017 ish, and didn't spend much money on hobbies and such and being frugal. So I was saving money without trying that hard, and figured that about £16k was enough to take a year out to try to learn spanish and slightly change careers, if I spent about £1k a month.
The complete freedom, living on my own, being able to work on daily and long term goals. I lived in a town that was near london, so it was (kinda) cheaper, walkable, 1 h away from london so I could visit from time to time, and had a climbing center nearby.
I took the time to get regular exercise, work on my mental health, learn spanish and just live at my own pace. I even travelled a little (I had a holiday I booked in 2017 for 2018 that I was going on anyway to visit LATAM, and Behold The Arctopus was playing live gigs again for the first time in 5 years, and obviously they were not coming to europe, so I went to NY for like 5ish days (3 days + 1 night + 1 morning). [EDIT : I also returned to my country of origin for a month to save money/drop off sentimental value things/visit family, and en route away from europe I visited Denmark to be with a friend for a week for the last time in ages]
What logicistics are causing you issues? I stayed in the same place I was in while I was working, and all I had to do was quit my job. There's not much to do... oh. You must be from the US? Healthcare? Good luck with that shit.
I have questions. How were you able to live for a year on 16K? Even if we disregard healthcare, that wouldn't even cover my mortgage. Let alone food, or especially travel and fun. You Were able to afford a phone? Utilities? Did you have any extras, like streaming services? I'm guessing you have the luxury of public transportation, so I can understand no car payments or gas and maintenance costs.
Granted, I do live in the US. But I can't imagine everything is that much more expensive here. £16K is like, $20K right now, I'd live for maybe 2 months on that.
Let's see...
16k is about 1,300 a month. I paid about 700 for rent, and 2018 was before the current inflation wave, so 1,698.95 in today's pound sterling, leaving me with about 600 a month
I was on calorie restrictions as part of my "get/stay in shape" , and usually ate pasta, rice, eggs and protein powder, with vegetables whenever , small amounts of cheese and condiments/hot sauce. My usual goal for food budget was £10 a day.
Other expenditures were internet, electric, water and climbing gym membership. That's it. I think I was buying CBD vapes at the time for my anxiety as well, but that was a more occasional expense. I can't remember how much those things were, maybe 40 for internet? I can't remember my mobile phone plan.
No car, no subscriptions, or other recurring costs. NHS for healthcare.
You spend 10k a month?? I currently earn somewhere between 4-5K dollars , what do you spend that money on?
I was thinking wrong. I was going off my salary rather than my take home. After taxes, health insurance, and retirement, it's about $6k.
$1360 for my mortgage, which is really quite good as it's only 3.25%. Im pretty stuck in my house with current interest rates. $516 for one of my cars. $343 for one of my watches. About $300-400 for electricity in the summer, $80 for natural gas. $368 for car insurance. $168 for phones. $87 for internet. And $309 on a loan for some renovations. $30 planned parenthood donation. Typically about $40/week for gas.
Amazon prime, Disney+, Spotify, Netflix, Paramount+. Idk what else. I guess the rest is just groceries, eating out, and hobbies.
That's just the stuff I pay from my income, my wife and I never got joint bank accounts. She takes home about 3k, and she pays for our other car, which is $327, her student loan, which is $300, and childcare which is $295/week. Plus she puts money in the savings account.
This discussion is making me think about the number of subscriptions I have, and the amount of expendable income I waste.
yeah, I have no idea why you're spending 343 on a watch every month. Also, this just re-validates my perspective that a car would just ruin me financially, and would have done so my entire life.
Well, I could have just bought it. But it's a 0% interest loan. Same thing I did with my other two luxury watches, and it's almost done. Having a two year commitment to it definitely keeps me from looking at any more! I really like watches. It's probably my last one for a long time, anyway. Kids are expensive. $8600 for a watch over two years is cheap compared to $15k a year just in childcare. That's just one kid.
You can have a car for a lot less, but we have relatively new cars and I opted for a lot of insurance for my own peace of mind. If we had any public transit options, we could get by with one car for sure. But there is nothing here. There is a city bus system that primarily caters to the low income, which is a great start. But it really only goes to like, the grocery stores and the urgent cares. Nowhere near our daycare, and definitely way short of the 30 miles to my office. We also have a shuttle bus that you can call for, that's only $3 a ride, but thats really just for the disabled and elderly. I'd say we have better transit than a lot of metropolitan cities I've been to, but obviously our society is completely car-centric.
Weird thing to wonder about how he can get by with 16k when you obviously have an insanely unnecessary consumption ¯_(ツ)_/¯
"with my other two luxury watches" rofl