Source
r/personalfinance•
BadKeyMachine

Living temporarily off of a lump sum

Budgeting

Hey guys, I'm in a place where I've been considering this option and haven't found much to read about it on the internet.

Basically, I'm pretty decent with money and save a lot. I don't need much, I'm a bachelor and I live by myself, I'm not a big spender on much of anything and my job pays decently so I've bee taking home some 15k or so on a yearly basis that I save. Now in previous years I've invested that, I've bought a car with it(2013 Hyundai Elantra, fully paid off), I've bought a home and then refinanced on that home putting more down on it(I have about 30% equity now). Don't have any debt except for my mortgage.

All that said, I've thinking more and more about basically...taking time off from the job market. Literally not working, at least not in any hired, scheduled employee capacity. If I did this today(which I'm not, but just for the thought experiment), assuming no changes in lifestyle or financial disasters, I'd have just enough for about 2 years. During this time I would go to school, probably full-time, and attempt to get my computer science bachelors(from my current associates).

There are a ton of reasons why I'm considering this, I could probably list out dozens if I sat down and did it. Changes to what I think I do want(to do something that helps people), what I'm sure I don't want(to climb the corporate ladder so I can be a little bit richer than everyone else), frustration with the direction I feel the company I work for is headed and my opportunities there, changes in politics, an increasing fatigue and disdain for the corporate world and lifestyle. I want to pursue 100 things, old interests that I've let fall and new things I would like to try out. Get back into playing music, do volunteer work, try doing 'freelance' IT work, writing about games and music, set up a gaming stream on Twitch.tv, travel, network, read, explore, work out, hang out, have fun :P. Everything, basically. I wouldn't pursue these things with expectation that I could make a living off of any this, although at the end of this 'break' of sorts I could take inventory and see what I wanted to do with the following years, and whether I had an opportunity to stay off of the the 9-to-5, if I even want to then.

Call it a quarter-life crisis, perhaps. In any case, here's the crux of it: Is this a terrible idea? How will it affect my taxes (beyond the obvious)? What am I overlooking? Will I regret this? Is financial stability more important than personal freedom? What questions should I be asking that I'm not here?

Posted Jun 15, 2015, 2:55 PM UTC

23
Doremi-fansubs•

Go for it, but if you only have 2 years of "fuck it" money it's not going to be worth it.

Basically you want to go full NEET mode using a limited budget? Good luck with that.

1
BadKeyMachineOP•

Technically not NEET, as I would be in education

1
Phoenix-Jones•

Basically you just said this:

I don't want to work, and I might want to go to school, but I dunno. I can survive for 2 years.

If you were a parent and your child said that to you, you would probably smack him in the face.

It's a bit harsh, but your talking about dumping income, a lack of healthcare and savings, excessive spending on school and supplies, and a loss of work experience.

If you can do the school thing, do it.

Ultimately the issue you are having is that you hate your job. Find a new one or at least, a pet time one while you go to school.

If there are exceptions to this thinking, I'd enjoy hearing it. If you are going to do it anyway, set clear goals, have a backup plan and have some backup support for when bad crap happens (because there will probably be some small disaster that happens around that time).

If you are firm on it, the Internet can't sway you, but don't just quit life and try to live like a bohemian with no safety net, you are smarter than that.

1