EP 492: Retire Often: How Mini-Retirements Can Boost Your Career and Your Happiness

HerMoney with Jean Chatzky

Jean Chatzky Her Money

Investing, Entrepreneurship, Business

4.8 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 10 September 2025

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Have you ever dreamed of walking away from your job — not forever, but just long enough to breathe, explore, rest, or chase a big, bold adventure? This week, we're talking about a radical reframe: What if we didn’t retire once at 65… but instead took many retirements throughout our lives? Jean sits down with Jillian Johnsrud, author of Retire Often: How Anyone Can Take Multiple Career Breaks To Unlock Adventure, Advance Their Career, and Find Financial Freedom. By 40, Jillian and her husband had taken more than a dozen mini-retirements; all while raising six kids, building a real estate portfolio, traveling the world, and staying financially afloat. 💡 In this episode: What exactly is a mini-retirement, and how is it different from a vacation or sabbatical? How to afford time off even on a normal salary The 6.5% savings trick that could fund a lifetime of breaks How to negotiate a month off from your employer Why taking time away from your career could actually make you better at it If more financial confidence sounds good to you, then you might want to try… ⁠4-Week Coaching Program⁠: Identify and understand your spending, build a strategic plan, and take control of your money. ⁠6-Week Pre-Retirement Program⁠: We’ll help you prepare financially and emotionally for this exciting milestone. 📈⁠InvestingFixx⁠: Learn, connect, and start investing—your first month is completely free. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Before we dive into today's episode, I want to tell you about a completely free webinar we're hosting
0:06.0	to help you close out the year with clarity and confidence around your money.
0:12.1	Join us on October 8th at 8 p.m. Eastern for a powerful no-cost session designed to help you
0:19.0	build better financial habits right now. Why wait till January
0:23.3	to get serious about your money goals? We'll walk you through practical, actionable steps to
0:28.9	take control of your money and set yourself up for success before the ball drops on 2025.
0:35.8	You'll leave with a clear plan to stay focused, build momentum, and head
0:41.0	into 2026 feeling confident and in control. Register now at portal.financefix.com and click register
0:51.5	on the free webinar. Hi, this is Ava from Vanta.
0:55.9	In today's digital world, compliance regulations are changing constantly,
1:00.4	and earning customer trust has never mattered more.
1:03.2	Vanta helps companies get compliant fast and stay secure,
1:06.7	with the most advanced AI automation and continuous monitoring out there.
1:10.7	So whether you're a startup going for your first SOC 2 or ISO-27,001,
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1:17.4	Banta makes it quick, easy and scalable.
1:19.7	And I'm not to say that because I work here.
1:21.6	Get started today at banta.com.
1:25.7	This isn't so you can pay your water bill when you're 70.
1:29.5	This is for something that's going to happen really soon.
1:32.3	So you might be like, okay, so I'm going to trade like my Chipotle Burrito Bowl that I have every Friday at lunch.
1:39.2	Because next year I'm going to be eating street tacos in Mexico.
	...

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