Funny

If you're gonna do this, go drive a truck in a mining area. (In Australia this basically means WA) They're often desperate for drivers and the pay is insane.

This is literally the route I took in my life. Entered the workforce in the early 2000s in IT as helpdesk. Worked till I had a resume good enough for the next level up. Lived below my means. Take several months off to do whatever. Apply for a higher level position. Rinse and repeat every couple years until I was in my 40s at a company I intend to retire with.

I always lived in a smaller place than what I could afford. Never owned a new car. My current vehicle is a 2001 pickup truck, purchased in like 2018. So, gotta trade one luxury for another.

2 caveats: IT as a career was not in the state its in now. Much easier to move up and around. I'm also now in my late 40s and looking to buy my first home, since I wasn't building a nest egg my whole life, and that's no fun.

Also, it was really important to have some significant achievements on the resume as I left each place to show growth professionally so I could always jump up in role/salary with each move.

My career is solid and I make a great salary for my age, but homes are just insane. My brother is 6 years younger and took a more traditional route and started a family, he was able to score a good home before COVID.

Still, I wouldn't trade anything material for the life I took and the places I went.

How does that work when you don't live with your parents?

Rents are extremely expensive and would slow down the "build a safety net" part of the cycle.

As someone with kids, that's not happening. Then again, my sibling did this and went on a year-long trip with their kids, and it worked out for them.

This gets a lot easier if you have somewhere reliable and preferably free to stay when you need to start working again. Even if you have paid off your own place or been given a place for free you have bills to pay on it. I guess you can rent it out while you are away, but that seems less than ideal to me as how do you keep it maintained if you aren't in the country? It just ends up being another cost.

I would have loved to have done this but the housing situation has always put me off.

This is what my old housemate did, starting in the 90s. Worked out quite well for him. My dad used went round the world with the navy in the 50s and used to talk about how some other cultures did stuff like this.

There's a sea shanty to that effect.

Boomer here - that's pretty much how I managed my software career. Do a contract job for 6 mos to a year, then do theatre until I needed to work again. Had to go back to fulltime work once I got married and had kids. I miss those days tho. Also, fuck your tiny stereotyping brain if you think a whole generation has the same likes and dislikes.

So many people talk about doing this but few actually do.

I've done something similar involving working holidays. I'm tired now and Covid fucked up my plans and my career is going to be hell to get back into, but I want to change anyway. Just hope I got enough experience and education and brains to climb up the ladder, I just don't know where yet.

I'm glad I did it but it isn't for most.

You'd have to find a job that pays enough for this lifestyle. And with the kind of resume this produces, it's a pipe dream.

I wish. It takes me around 6 months and hundreds of applications to get a job. That strategy isn't sustainable for me.

"Sounds like we're paying these guys too much"

Boomers were trying to ruin it for us.

[off topic]

I am a fan of the Travis McGee novels by John D. MacDonald. Introduced to them in childhood and still worth a re-read.

Travis was a 'salvage consultant' who would rob loot back from criminals, and then retire for as long as the money lasted.

Honey, that was a lifestyle boomers actually lived once. Though it's more of a silent generation lifestyle

Didn’t know this phenomenon had a name. That’s what I’m doing right now however. I want to have enough money to be unemployed for a year or two.

I kinda love it and kinda hate it

Tried something like this. Recruiters told me the gap didn't look good and I should lie about needing that time off for my mental health. The 1st class honours degree I was told would allow me to walk into a job was deemed essentially worthless since I had only around 2 year's industry experience. Took me months to get another role offered - a 15k paycut and overall a major downgrade - which I had to take to pay the rent. 0/10, would not recommend.