A Month off of Work

I’ve written before about how taking a job as a flight attendant was a 6-figure pay cut for me.

This was 100% worth it, because I went from being stressed almost all the time, to rarely ever being stressed. It’s hard to be happy when you’re stressed, so this career change was a huge boost to my happiness.

I also had made really good financial decisions up to that point, and since I’m married and my husband was able to take over as the primary breadwinner, it was/is okay financially for me to make very little money.

It does make my relationship towards work a little funny though. I often say “I’m in it for the layovers!” meaning, I feel I get paid so little that I’d rather work trips with good layovers than trips with more paid hours. I’ve written before about how being a flight attendant is the best job in the world, as long as you don’t need a job.

All this to say: I have some guilt for bringing in so little money to the family, but also feel I’m paid so little that it’s not worth taking time away from my family to work. It’s a strange dynamic.

This dynamic was made more strange when my company offered 1-3 month-long leaves for flight attendants in January, February, and March.

There are a couple reasons I decided that taking a leave in January made sense:

1. Travel plans. As a new hire, it’s really hard to get the days I want off from work. I had a 1-week trip to Paris planned for January, and taking a leave guaranteed I’d be able to go on my trip.
2. Alleviation of stress for Saign. When I’m working, I’m away from home probably 45% of the time. L goes to school on the weekdays and is also reliable to be left alone in the house while Saign works, but it’s still hard for him to manage school drop-off and pick-ups and the daily care of our child with his work.
3. Saign had a class scheduled. Saign loves teaching week-long workshops, and he had one scheduled for January. Me staying home meant he could go without us having a relative come and care for L.
4. Home reno prep. With this big old pay cut, using our home as an asset would be a really good idea. We hope to one day turn our basement into an apartment. The only problem? It needs to be cleaned out. Staying home gave me time to work on cleaning out the basement.
5. Monkeyshine season. January is the best time of year for a Tacoman to be home. I’ve been getting rogues every single day! (No glass yet). Many may think this is a silly thing to factor in, but I’m living a real-life Mario Brother’s life, collecting coins as a run through my town. It’s so fun!

With all these factors in play, I took the month of January off. Do I think my family benefitted? Possibly. Did I miss working? Maybe a little. Is the basement cleaned out? Absolutely not.

One thing did happen though: I’ve been part of the financial independence movement for over a decade now. The whole point of financial independence is to make work optional. This was just one small step for our family in remembering that we’ve reached a level of financial freedom that affords us the ability to work a little less. Saign plans to retire in 6-7 years, and when he does, I look forward to taking these one-month leaves to travel with him. I’m not sure I’ll take another month-long leave before that point, but it was pretty cool to try it out.