Episode 9: How to Take a Break In Your Career with Carmela Tran

Acquania Escarne 0:00

You are listening to The Purpose of Money Podcast Episode Nine: How to Take a Break in Your Career with Carmela.

You are listening to The Purpose of Money Podcast, a podcast where we talk about ways to build wealth and create more freedom in your life today. I am your host Acquania Escarne.

Hey guys! I hope you're enjoying the episode. I just wanted to take a break to share with you one quick tip on how I am creating more free time in my life today. I'm a busy mom, entrepreneur and a 9-5 employee. And I have to be honest, I used to use trips at a grocery store as an opportunity to relax and go up every aisle and take my time and sort of have "Mommy Me Time." But since I've taken on more responsibility and extracurricular activities, I just don't have that time to go grocery shopping anymore. So I've embraced Instacart, which has helped me save hours of my life and get the grocery shopping done without me having to step into a store. Instacart delivers groceries from your nearby grocery stores right to your home, and saves you hours on shopping. You literally can do everything online or even from your mobile phone. And most of the time, they can deliver the groceries within an hour. So you get the food that you need, you save time, and you create more freedom for you to do other things, which is what I love. Check out Instacart for yourself. I have a code that allows you to earn $10 off and a free grocery delivery on your first purchase. My code is AESCARNE14C or check out the show notes where I have a special link. I'll include the code there too, just for you. Hope you try it out, and let me know what you think.

Hey guys, welcome! Today we have our special guest Carmela. She's going to share her story about how she was able to leave her nine to five in order to pursue a mini break. Today's episode is all about mini breaks, mini retirements while you are pursuing financial independence, and how you can make it possible by maximizing your income in your high paying job. Carmela and her husband Jimmy decided a few months ago that they were stressed out from working too hard for somebody else and they wanted to take a break. Today's episode is going to talk about how they planned for it and prepared and what they're doing now, as they are fulfilling some of their dreams that they had as a couple to travel, spend more time with family, and pursue other hobbies. So Carmela, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for being here.

Carmela Tran 3:08

Thanks so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.

Acquania Escarne 3:11

I would love for you to tell our listeners a little bit more about yourself.

Carmela Tran 3:16

Sure! So I am a former Investigative Analytics Senior Manager at a big four consulting firm, where I analyzed white collar fraud and supported companies in analyzing their financial data. I lived in the DC area for 12 years including my time at Georgetown University where I also met and married my husband.

Acquania Escarne 3:38

That's awesome! I met my husband in DC too. And that's one of my favorite things about moving to the city, which I initially was not going to do.

Carmela Tran 3:49

I didn't think I was planning on staying there for that long either. So it's definitely been a great city. I loved it for all 12 years I was there.

Acquania Escarne 3:57

Awesome. So those who listening, I guess DC is where you come find your spouse if you're looking! So let's dive right into the "How To" because I actually learned about your story from my husband. And I was really intrigued by how you were able at this time in your life to plan for taking a year off. Is that correct? You and your husband had decided you were ready to take a break. So how does someone financially prepare for a year off?

Carmela Tran 4:30

Yeah, so I think it's kind of been a work in progress for a few years. First, I graduated with a ton of student loans coming out of Georgetown. So immediately coming into my job, once I had a full time job, anytime I had extra money, say a bonus for that year, I'd actually use 50% of it to pay off and pay down my student loans in addition to my monthly payments. I take 25% of that and also put that in my own personal savings so that I could at least start making that stock and then 25% of it I kept so that I could actually spend it on what I wanted. So that was my little shopping shopping spree there.

Acquania Escarne 5:14

I like that. And I like that you're highlighting, you gave yourself a little bit of money to celebrate your bonus and the fact that you earned it, but then you really power down on some of your financial goals. But at the time you were doing that, was this with the mindset of being able to take a break or were you just trying to get out of debt fast?

Carmela Tran 5:34

At that point, that was definitely just getting out of debt as fast as possible in order to even think about what I could do next. That was really the point always in my head of getting a full time job was to pay off that debt.

Acquania Escarne 5:48

Okay, awesome. It was it a lot a lot of debt. You have a estimated figure?

Carmela Tran 5:54

I ended up with a little bit more than $50,000.

Acquania Escarne 5:58

$50k. That's the significant amount to have money to have to pay off, especially now that you've gotten the education. It's expected that you start paying six months after graduation. So were you able to get a job right away at least?

Carmela Tran 6:12

Yes, I was definitely very fortunate to come out of school with a job. That was also another one of the motivators. I knew I had some debt was school and I was in the business school. So I took advantage of all of those info sessions and, you know, trying out as many interviews as I could get.

Acquania Escarne 6:29

Awesome. So that's another good tip. Start applying for jobs before you graduate, graduate with the job if you can, and then you started knocking out debt with bonuses. So we really like that. Those are the kind of financial tips we like to share with our listeners. So whose idea was it first to take a break from your job and why did you even feel like you needed a break and what was it about your job that kind of brought this on?

Carmela Tran 6:55

So, I think it was closer to my idea of taking a break. My husband and I are both from the New York New Jersey area. And we've been living in DC for a long time. And we've always thought about moving back. And so to move back, we thought about potentially continuing with our jobs, but also recognized that it was a huge transition. And so that's when it started coming up as an idea of, well, if we're going to transition cities, why don't we also take a mini break and do this transition on our own terms, instead of also trying to work. And thankfully we were fortunate that we were financially prepared to do that.

Acquania Escarne 7:33

Okay, that's cool. And when you were working, were there like a lot of travel or any opportunities where you could potentially save money on any expenses too?

Carmela Tran 7:46

Yes, definitely. We both traveled a lot for work and I traveled almost 50% of the time and when I traveled, it'd be Monday to Thursday. So I'd save a lot of money and gain some points by traveling through work, but on and so on top of that, whenever I was saving money, I would try to save about 15%-20% of my monthly income and put that into savings as well just we were at the time trying to buy a condo, just kind of starting off trying to save for those future milestones.

Acquania Escarne 8:20

Yeah, that's a good point. And real estate in the DC, Maryland and Virginia area is quite expensive. So the fact that you were focused on saving for purchasing something is also a huge goal, but a good one to have, especially as a married couple. So let's get down to the details. You convinced your husband that you guys should take a break and you both were working long hours are traveling a lot, correct?

Carmela Tran 8:46

That's right. Yep. We were both consultants.

Acquania Escarne 8:48

So what was your first step or the steps that you took to kind of prepare for that transition?

Carmela Tran 8:54

Sure. So some of the steps that we started to do was, in terms of long term steps, when we did buy our condo, we really made sure that it was a smaller mortgage payment as then only one income would be necessary to pay for it, in case we were going to stagger our breaks. That was one idea. Then when we actually made the decision to go, we took a couple tactical steps. The first one was the typical pack more lunches and cook more dinners. Also, as a consulting couple, we would tend to go out more on the weekends because that's when we were home together. But decided we should start bringing lunches, more cooking, more dinners at home. That would save us a lot of money. Cut out the coffee runs. We both had coffee machines at home and at work. So we stopped trying to do that. And then the real big one, I think, was how we finally made this plan where basically as we finalized our plan to take off, I actually as a data analyst, reviewed all of our finances for three months, pulled out any recurring expenses, compiled that and then added some of our future new expenses. For example, healthcare would become a new big expense once we were unemployed and kind of created a monthly total living expense that we would have to consider each month we were not working.

Acquania Escarne 10:28

Okay, that's awesome. So you were able to look at the numbers and tell this is what we actually spent. So you had real numbers. Well, listen, guys, this is important. You can't guess. You can't estimate. You got to really look at the numbers and figure out, "What do I need to every month make ends meet?"And I'm so glad you brought up healthcare because that's actually something I've blogged about before online where healthcare for entrepreneurs or those who want to leave their job is the one thing that keeps people in jobs because they're not really sure how they're going to cover it. So you were really proactive and kind of budgeting for that and preparing for that, which is awesome. And I like the fact that once you had your number, you made a spreadsheet or what did you do? Like, tally up a goal? How did you guys focus on that number?

Carmela Tran 11:20

Yes. So once I determined what our actual living expenses were each month, I also used our same numbers of how much money have we saved in terms of cash? I took out what we needed as a savings that you should have. I read somewhere that you're supposed to have six months of savings in your income. I did eight because we were both gonna be unemployed. So took that money out and then compared what was left against what was necessary per month and counted how many months could we take off, both with our condo rented and our condo not rented.

Acquania Escarne 11:59

Awesome. You had a plan A and a plan B.

Carmela Tran 12:18

Yep!

Acquania Escarne 12:01

I like the way you think! You're very, very analytical. But I think that's important because some people assume, "Oh, I have this awesome property in the right location, I'm gonna move out and get a tenant right away." And that doesn't always happen depending on the year. The time of year that you put your house on the market for renting or what's going on locally will determine how quickly you rent. So how long did you guys, once you decided to move, have to wait for a tenant?

Carmela Tran 12:34

So ours ended up having a couple of things happen before we could get a tenant. We did move out and planned on using the first month to just pack and move so we knew that was a lost month. The next month, we realized we needed our HVAC replaced.

Acquania Escarne 12:49

Wow.

Carmela Tran 12:50

And so living in the New York, New Jersey area we were working with our home warranty company to get our HVAC replaced and that took an extra two months before we can even list our condo. So in the end, we were very lucky when we listed it, we got a tenant within two to three weeks. But it was ended up being three months of nobody renting our condo, right? So we were responsible for...

Acquania Escarne 13:20

I'm very glad you had that cushion in your analytical analysis, because it turns out you needed it. So before you took a break, what did you guys plan to do and what are you doing now?

Carmela Tran 13:33

Yeah, so before we took a break, we knew we wanted to travel a bunch. We were able to do that. We were very fortunate. We went to New Orleans and Miami domestically. We explored Australia, thankfully, a little bit before the wildfires. And we made it to Iceland. Both with family trips, so we took his dad to Australia and my parents and...to Iceland.

Acquania Escarne 13:59

That's awesome. And look, you didn't have to worry about vacation time or being on a particular schedule, you were able to enjoy this time with family and see places you are most interested in. So that's really awesome. And I'm sure that was a part of your calculations, including money for travel?

Carmela Tran 14:18

Oh, yes, definitely. In that cash calculation, I also budgeted out how much we wanted to spend for each of these trips, and added an extra buffer because you're can never really stick to a great budget on vacation. But we added that as part of the monthly calculation.

Acquania Escarne 14:37

That's pretty good. That's pretty good. It's true. I mean, once you're already in Australia, do you want to not enjoy yourself because you didn't plan well financially? Or do you just give yourself a buffer and do the things that you probably won't get to return and do anytime soon? So I think you made a good decision and I think you planned really well for that. So now that you have traveled a few places and spend time with family, what's your next step? Are you planning to go back to work? Are you going to continue to your vacation/ mini break? What's up?

Carmela Tran 15:12

Yeah, so we're entering month four. So it's pretty exciting. We're going to-we've decided to not travel, at least, not in the immediate present and spend a little bit more time with family and kind of getting into a routine. Basically the routine that we said we didn't have while we were working. So going to the gym more often, reading more books, learning to cook new recipes that we never learned when we were too busy working. So that's what we're kind of doing in this next month or two, and then we'll be going back to work eventually.

Acquania Escarne 15:50

Okay, is there anything that you're going to do differently based on your previous work experiences working a lot of hours, traveling a lot versus now that you've had time to take a break? Are you going to go back to that same kind of high driven job? Or are you going to adjust some things?

Carmela Tran 16:07

I think I'm planning to go back to something a little bit less hectic, a little bit more local. And I'm even still open to a career change. Definitely going to take some of this time to do a little bit of retraining, reading more books and seeing something that's hopefully not Monday to Thursday travel a little bit more, go to the office and come home.

Acquania Escarne 16:33

I like that idea. It gives you a little more flexibility. So last couple of questions. What is the one thing about your mini break that was a surprise to you? It could be good or bad. And then what's one of the things that you loved most about it?

Carmela Tran 16:52

I think one thing that was a surprise was after the second or getting into the third month, we were actually looking for a little bit of that mental stimulation. We'd been traveling for two and a half months at that point, and it was a lot of fun. But we were suddenly just thinking about, "Oh, can we do something with our brains?" And we started reading a lot more at that point and just finding little challenges here and there to to work on. That was interesting, because we didn't think we'd miss work. Not that we missed work, but sort of that mental stimulation on regular basis, right?

Acquania Escarne 17:36

Or so soon. I mean, you...

Carmela Tran 17:37

So soon, yeah,

Acquania Escarne 17:39

You were planning for a year. And you're only on month four and you're sort of talking about going back to work. So I could see that being a little earlier than you expected.

Carmela Tran 17:48

Definitely.

Acquania Escarne 17:48

And then what about the fun surprise that you've enjoyed most about it?

Carmela Tran 17:53

I think the thing we've enjoyed the most about it was getting that extra time with our family. We have a bunch of younger nieces here in this New York area. Getting to spend time with them and actually build more of a relationship than us being so remote in DC, as well as even just more time with our parents. I'm finally learning some of these Filipino recipes I never learned because I wasn't near my mom's kitchen. So that part has been really great to finally get to learn and understand where I was making my mistakes.

Acquania Escarne 18:29

Okay, I like it and being close to mom and family is not a bad thing. Hopefully no freshman 15 will come.

Carmela Tran 18:37

That's where the gym is gonna come in handy!

Acquania Escarne 18:42

It's a good good thing to think about, especially with the New Year-New Year, New You. So, this has been really awesome. I really appreciate you sharing your story and I wish you and Jimmy the best as you continue to figure out your next steps. If you ever want to check back in once you finish your mini break and let us know how everything turned out, I'd love to have you back again to give an update. But thank you again for being on the Purpose of Money.

Carmela Tran 19:02

Thank you so much for having me.

Acquania Escarne 19:06

Thank you for listening to The Purpose of Money Podcast. For more resources and information, check out my website ThePurposeofMoney.com. And while you're there, please sign up for our newsletter, so you'll have the latest information on new episodes and blog posts. Until next time, keep building generational wealth $1 at a time.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai