Q&A: My Dream Job Won't Wait If I Take a Family Gap Year — Do I Quit Anyway?

Paula Pant (0:00)

Joe, have you ever walked away from a job that you loved?

Joe Saul-Sehy (0:05)

No, never.

Paula Pant (0:07)

All right, well, we are going to answer a question today from a listener who really wants to take a family gap year, but in order to do so, has to walk away from a job that she loves, that she will not be able to come back to.

Tough, I mean, you're choosing between two good choices, but tough choices. We're gonna address that, but we're also gonna address some more, that's a life question. We're also gonna address a couple of like, finance, finance questions, some money questions.

Joe Saul-Sehy (0:36)

Oh my goodness, all in one episode.

Paula Pant (0:38)

All in one episode. Joe, where are you right now? Your voice is a little different.

Joe Saul-Sehy (0:42)

I know, I am in Minneapolis, St. Paul, getting ready to go to an event called Camp Fi, which you've gone to Camp Fi's before.

Paula Pant (0:49)

Many, yeah.

Joe Saul-Sehy (0:50)

I absolutely love this, recommend people go to these events. I don't know about you, Paula, but the creator of it, a wonderful gentleman named Stephen Boyer, really had to convince me to come to the first one.

He's like, hey, come to a retreat center that's made for middle school kids to sleep on a little tiny mattress.

Paula Pant (1:09)

One of those flimsy mattresses in like, you know, like on like a not a bunk bed, but like may as well be a bunk bed.

Joe Saul-Sehy (1:15)

Yeah, that's right. I'm too old and too bougie.

So it took him like three years of telling me, please come, please come. So finally I went and I talked at Camp Fi outside of San Diego, the first one I went to. And as you know, Paula, it's wonderful for people. You don't know any of them generally. And by the end of the weekend, they're all your best friends.

Kevin (1:37)

Just a great group of people.

Joe Saul-Sehy (1:39)

So I'm here for this, but I'm on a different microphone. I mean, Chris Luger's house, who has a wonderful podcast called Heavy Metal Money. So thanks for Chris for letting me invade his space.

Paula Pant (1:51)

Yeah. And by the way, for anybody who's new, who's listening for the first time, who's wondering what is Camp Fi, F-I stands for Financial Independence. It's a gathering of people who are interested in the concept of financial independence, interested in having enough residual income, typically through investments, that work becomes optional. So it's a great community. I've been to many, many Camp Fis across, back in Joshua Tree, when they used to hold them in Joshua Tree, they don't anymore. I went to Joshua Tree, I went to Rocky Mountain. And then this year, for the first time ever, I went international. I've been to the Chautauquas internationally, I've been to five of those.

That's a different financial event.

But this year, I went to Camp Fi Italy.

Joe Saul-Sehy (2:35)

Italy.

Paula Pant (2:36)

Italy, yeah. And that was amazing.

Joe Saul-Sehy (2:37)

I've been very close to the one in Italy. I've been to the one in Minnesota. That's international. And I've been to the one in Texas a couple of times. And I've been to the one that I mentioned earlier, which is West, the one that's outside San Diego.

Paula Pant (2:53)

Very nice. So to people who are listening who want to hang out with other...

The types of people who listen to personal finance shows, right? The types of people who really think with intention about how they want to direct... You think with intention about how you want to direct your most limited resources, which are your money, your time, your focus and your attention. And those are the things that you have in common. And what that really means is intentional living, right? Money is a physical manifestation of choices, values, intentionality. It is a physical manifestation of what you find most important. That's why we talk about this all day. It's not about dollars and cents. It's about the allocation of limited resources, which is ultimately like in a world where you can do anything, but not everything. What do you choose?

Joe Saul-Sehy (3:41)

I've heard that before somewhere. Somewhere.

Paula Pant (3:44)

So this is a good time for me to intro the show.

Welcome to the Afford Anything Podcast. This is the show that knows you can afford anything, but not everything. This show covers five pillars. Financial psychology, increasing your income, investing, real estate and entrepreneurship. So the acronym is Fire With Two Eyes, Double Eye Fire. I'm your host, Paula Pant. I trained in economic reporting at Columbia. Every other episode-ish, I answer questions that come directly from this community. And I do so with my buddy, the former financial planner, Joe Salsi. Hi, what's up, Joe?