Joe, you've taken a couple of sabbaticals in your day, haven't you? I have. I just call them extended vacations. How long do they last? The longest that I've ever taken off is a month, but not like you taking off six months or taken off a year. I've never done that. A month is great. Yeah, I enjoy what I do too much, but getting away for a month, generally two weeks into it, I feel itchy. I want to get back to work. But then along about week three, I forget about it again. Like, you know what I mean? It comes and goes. But then generally, after a month, I'm ready to get rolling again. Nice. Well, we're about to answer a question from someone who is on the verge of taking a sabbatical. In doing so, she needs to make some decisions about how to handle her savings, where to put it, how to manage it. We're also then going to go one step beyond that and talk to somebody who is going to early retire a permanent sabbatical.

Permanent. Yes. So we're going to start with sabbatical. Then we're going to early retire a permanent sabbatical. Permanent.

Yes.

So we're going to start with sabbatical.

Then we're going to have a high-level philosophical discussion mid-show.

And then we're going to end with early retirement.

Wow.

All in one show.

All in one show.

Welcome to the Afford Anything Podcast, the show that knows you can afford anything,

not everything. The show covers five pillars, financial psychology, increasing your income,

investing, real estate and entrepreneurship. acronym is fire with two eyes. Double I fire. I'm your host,

Paula Pant. I trained in economic reporting at Columbia. Every other episode ish, I answer questions that come from you. And I do so with my buddy, the former financial planner, Joe Sal C-high. What's up, Joe? Wow, that's me. That is me. That's you. How are you? I am amazing. I'm loving 2026 so far. Knock-on-wood. Knock, knock, knock. This should be a great year. I think so, too. I think we're going to make it a great year for three people right about now.

We absolutely are.

And our first question comes from Gene.

Hi, Paula.

Long-time listener here and first-time caller.

Thanks so much for all the years of amazing advice.

I'm calling in looking for advice on how to save up for a mini

retirement. In the next three years, I'm planning to take a self-made sabbatical of sorts. I'm a

freelance creator, so I expect that I will be doing work during that time, but I really want to

only do work that I enjoy and not worry about my living

...