One Thought

I’ve been voluntarily unemployed for about three months now.  So far, I’ve spent my days pursuing my interests full-time.  Nice, huh?  Yup, it is.

But one thing’s been bothering me.  Having now discussed my situation with a number of people, I’ve noticed a trend: more than a few think that I must be either greatly privileged or very lucky to be taking time off.  I disagree.  Neither great privilege nor great luck is necessary.

Skeptical?  Bear with me.

It’s true, of course, that most people have jobs.  Many of them are bored or burned out and could use some time off.  They long for freedom but think it’s out of their reach.  They think that because they weren’t born aristocrats and haven’t won the lottery they can’t enjoy time off.

Here’s what I’m claiming.  Taking time off is within the reach of many, if not most, people.  Being an aristocrat and winning the lottery help, but they’re not necessary.  Financial sacrifice may be required.  Life is full of trade-offs, and you have to decide what is most important to you.

Before I go further, I want to give some more background on myself.  I’m doing this in the interest of full disclosure, not to hold myself up as an example.  I’m not the best example, anyway.  The short story: though I’ve had some advantages, my background is not particularly remarkable.

Let it be said: I’ve had advantages.  I’ve benefited from them, and, yes, I might not be where I am now without them.  They are:

1. I am male, which means I don’t face sex discrimination.
2. I am a member of the most-prevalent racial group in my country, which means I don’t face racial discrimination.
3. My parents are smart and caring people.
4. My physical health has been good.

My lifestyle growing up was solidly middle-class.  I enjoyed no particular luxuries.  I didn’t benefit from parental connections.  I grew up in Modesto, California, an unremarkable town (or the worst in the nation, depending on who you ask).  I lived in a decent neighborhood.  I attended public schools.  Students at my high school performed worse on standardized tests than average for the state.  I received no help applying to colleges.

Now a little more on my current situation.  I just left a well-paying job.  While I was working, I managed to save a fair amount of money.  Yes, this undermines my overall point: I’m not the quintessential Average Joe.  I have lived cheaply for the past few years, however, and I continue to do so.  I’m not rich, and my time off is temporary.  I’ll be generating income again within a year or two.  I would be taking this time off even with far less money in the bank.  It’s nice to have it, but it’s not necessary.

Earlier I said that taking time off is more possible than many people think.  Though things like rent and food aren’t cheap, they’re not that expensive either, particularly if you’re willing to forsake luxury.  Let’s get specific.  I’m familiar with costs in my home city of San Francisco, so I’ll use them in this example.  San Francisco isn’t cheap.  Housing prices are among the highest in the nation.  Still, it is possible to live quite cheaply here.

The essentials of modern living are shelter, food, transportation, incidentals, and health care.  I’ll take a look at each.  First, shelter.  Rents in San Francisco are high, but you can save money by sharing an apartment.  I’m sharing a five-bedroom apartment, and my rent is $900 per month.  I could bring this down to about $750 if I lived in a less-desirable place.  Shelter also includes utilities: water, gas, garbage, and so on.  I’m paying about $50 in utilities per month.

Now, food.  Food can be quite cheap if you avoid restaurants.  It costs me about $50 to buy enough food for a week, and I’m not particularly thrifty.  That means food for a month is about $200.  I do eat in restaurants about once a week, but right now I’m covering only the essentials.

Transportation.  If you aren’t working, you may have no transportation cost.  I don’t own a car, so I don’t have to pay for gas, parking, or maintenance.  If you want to get around the city by vehicle (and don’t ride a bike), you can buy a bus pass, which is $50 per month.  I don’t own one since I don’t ride the bus often enough for the pass to be worth it.  Let’s assume you do need a bus pass, though.

Incidentals.  These are random necessities like toothbrushes, laundry detergent, and replacement clothes.  This stuff shouldn’t typically be that expensive–let’s say $50 per month.  Clothes are cheap if you buy them used, which I usually do.

Finally, health care.  This is a tricky one.  Health care in the US is too expensive, and policies are weighted against those whose employers don’t provide health insurance (and those who don’t have employers).  For now I’m going to assume you are like me: you’re relatively young, and you have no pre-existing conditions.  If you do have pre-existing conditions, that sucks: you might need an employer just to afford health insurance.  What a dumb system.  Though I’m on COBRA now, my (brief) research indicates that decent health insurance for someone in my position can be had for $200 (or less) per month.

Let’s use my numbers to calculate the cost of basic living in San Francisco.  The cost per month is: $750 (rent) + $50 (utilities) + $200 (food) + $50 (bus pass) + $50 (incidentals) + $200 (health insurance) = $1,300 total.  The cost per year is $15,600.  In reality, I’m living on about $22,000 a year right now.  I would cut back more if I needed to.

Now let’s see how much income is necessary to maintain this spartan lifestyle.  First I’ll look at minimum wage, which is a (relatively) high $9.79 per hour in San Francisco.  A full-time job at this wage yields about $20,000 a year in income, assuming no overtime.  After taxes, this ends up being about $15,500.  That’s slightly less than the amount required by my already-minimal budget.  It’s hard to live in San Francisco on minimum wage, and, clearly, you aren’t going to save much money without multiple jobs or substantial overtime.

But let’s be a bit more ambitious.  The median personal income in California was about $35,400 a year in 2006.  This becomes about $26,600 after taxes, which is well above the minimum requirement.  $11,000 above it, in fact.  (And this calculation assumes you’re paying the full cost of your own health insurance.)  Say you live simply on this income and save $10,000 per year.  At that rate, after 3 years of work you’ll be able to afford almost 2 years of time off!  Not bad.

Yes, there are caveats.  Unless you’re rich, time off requires sacrifices.  You’re not going to raise children on the spartan budget I outlined; time off becomes more expensive when you have dependents.  And if you have health problems and can’t afford your own health insurance, this won’t work either–I’m sorry.  If you want a nice car or vacations in the Bahamas, your costs will go up, which means you’ll need to save longer and more to take time off.  You have to decide what’s most important.

I hope I’ve convinced you that you need not be greatly privileged or very lucky to take time off.  Yes, privilege and luck help.  And I’m not saying anyone can follow the plan I’ve outlined.  But the bar is not that high.  If you’re willing to accept the trade-offs, time off may well be within your reach.