By the time Pablo Slough and Karen Gilchrist walked away from their corporate jobs in mid-2024, their plan to quit had been simmering for a year.
Over two decades of working in demanding roles managing teams around the world had taken a toll.
“I worked straight out of college, and then it was one job to the other job,” Slough, 53, told Business Insider. “It was always fast-paced, high stress.”
For Gilchrist, turning 50 last summer drove her to reflect about how she’d spent her time and what she wanted to do moving forward.
“I joke sometimes that my maternal instincts kicked in late,” Gilchrist told Business Insider. “But it felt like the right moment to dedicate more time to my family than to work and climbing the corporate ladder.”
This story is part of our Adult Gap Year series, which highlights stories from people who have taken extended breaks to reset, explore, and reimagine their lives.
Read more:
- My husband and I left our jobs to travel full-time in our 30s. Transitioning back into the workforce has been hard.
- I’m an empty nester and spent 6 months on my own in 3 countries. It helped me figure out what I wanted next.
Their oldest son, Luka, 18, is in his senior year and plans to head off to college in the fall. The other two, Mateo, 15, and Joaquin, 12, aren’t far behind.
Planning for a career break
Taking a gap year would give the couple a chance to step away from work, travel with their kids, and figure out their next steps.
But they didn’t jump in immediately. The couple, based in Boulder, Colorado, hired a financial advisor a year in advance to make sure the plan was financially feasible.
“We also decided that we’re going to rent our house out while we’re traveling, so we could get some income,” Slough said.
They involved their kids in the discussion
As their plans to quit became more concrete, the couple talked through everything with their kids. Funnily enough, it was their sons who seemed unsure at first.
“We were a bit surprised that our parents would actually do it because they have always been very focused on their careers,” their second son, Mateo, told Business Insider.
But one of the reasons the couple wanted to do this was to show their kids that life isn’t just about work, Gilchrist said.
“It’s about life. It’s about balancing things. It’s about family,” she said, adding that they hoped the experience would show their kids that life doesn’t always have to follow a fixed path.
The couple considered it a career break, but the plan was not to travel the whole time.
“We didn’t want to disrupt school,” Slough said. “So we just thought we’ll come back for school, and then whatever free time we have, we’ll travel.”
The family spent the summer of 2024 traveling around Europe, a trip planned around their eldest son’s three-week business course at a university in Barcelona.
Their travels began in Turkey, before they hopped on a cruise through Greece, Croatia, Malta, and Montenegro. After dropping their son off for his program, they explored Spain and Portugal before reuniting and heading to Colombia. They were back in Colorado a week before school started.
This year, their summer took them to Asia, with stops in Hong Kong, several cities in Thailand, Vietnam, China, and finally Japan.
“We all wanted to go to Asia, so we were really excited about it,” Luka, their oldest son, told Business Insider.
To budget for their trips, the couple created an Excel sheet to track their daily expenses.
“We had an average spend per day that we wanted to aim for. It meant that in some places, we splurged because we wanted a really nice hotel. And in other places, we were a little bit more frugal,” Gilchrist said, adding that they would update their expenses in real time to see if they were within their budget.
Looking back on the trips, the family says they loved every moment.
“It felt like our parents were more present and flexible with us,” Joaquin, their youngest, told Business Insider. “We also learned more about each other’s preferences, from the experiences and foods we enjoy to how each of us likes to spend our free time.”
Next steps
During the months they weren’t traveling, the couple spent their time at home doing things they rarely had time for before, such as exercising together, reading, and going to the movies every week.
“Now, we have this objective of cooking something completely new every day,” Gilchrist said.
The couple says they feel less stressed, sleep better, and have genuinely enjoyed spending more time together.
“We’re like, ‘OK, we’re going to be together all day long. What is that going to look like?’ And truthfully, I think it’s been amazing,” Gilchrist said.
But the biggest benefit of taking time away from work has been having the space to reflect on what they wanted to do next, Slough said. He started teaching three days a week at a local university.
“It’s something I’ve always wanted to do,” Slough said. “And then it just happened to come my way.”
Had he been working full-time, taking up this offer would have been out of the question, he said.
They also realized they didn’t have to return to their corporate jobs to live comfortably. They could earn a portion of what they once made and still maintain their lifestyle.
Working with a financial advisor helped them identify areas where they were overspending and set a goal to cut their regular expenses by 30%. Before that, the couple had never closely tracked their finances.
“We were spending so much that we thought we needed really high-paying jobs to be able to continue,” Slough said.
Kyle D. Dennehy, a financial advisor at California Financial Advisor who wasn’t involved in the couple’s planning, told Business Insider that the first step in preparing for a career break is to create a detailed budget that outlines all income sources, expenses, and savings goals.
“Once you have your ‘normal’ budget, estimate how each specific category will shift during an adult gap year, but keep your long-term goal savings like retirement contributions included in the gap year budget,” Dennehy said.
Once the difference between the regular and new budgets is clear, a plan can be created to regularly contribute toward the updated savings goal, Dennehy said.
Now, the couple is exploring whether to buy and run a small local business rather than slip back into corporate jobs. Gilchrist said they might never have considered entrepreneurship without the break.
“We joke, and we say that this time has also been a research and development phase for us on, ‘OK, what does being productive over the next 10, 20 years look like?'” Gilchrist said.
Of course, there are risks that come with taking an extended career break, but careful financial planning has helped them manage those uncertainties.
“Plan it properly. It can’t just be like, ‘Oh, I quit my job this weekend, and we’re going to travel for a year.’ It will not work,” Slough said.
Do you have a story to share about taking a career break? Contact this reporter at [email protected].
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