Customer Reviews

SIX MONTHS OFF: How To Plan, Negotiate, & Take The Break You Need Without Burning Bridges Or Going Broke

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If polls are to be believed, nearly 70% of people with incomes of $40,000 or more a year (that's tens of millions of people out there) fantasize about taking time off from work (besides the standard 2-week vacation). Well, my wife and I were two of those people just a few years ago, feeling tired and burned out after almost 10 years in our jobs, and just basically in need of a break big-time. Plus, some friends of ours had taken a year off to travel the world, and we thought that would be awesome, since we both loved to travel and wanted to do a lot more of it before we "settled down" or got too much older. But how? I'm not saying it was simple or for everybody, but it CAN be done, and Six Months Off helped show us how.

Actually, my wife and I ended up taking MORE than 6 months off (by 2 months, to be exact). During our time off, we were on "Leave Without Pay" from our jobs, which we negotiated with our employers, but were still covered by health insurance. Mainly, we traveled: around Central and South America, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East. We also took immersion Spanish classes and lived with local families in Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Ecuador, took some time to travel the United States (mainly through Kentucky, Tennessee, and down the Mississippi River to New Orleans). We rented out our condo, put our stuff in storage, called the IRS to find out what we needed to do as far as taxes were concerned, and found someone (my father) to handle our finances/personal affairs while we were gone. In all of this, Six Months Off was a great help in planning, as well as in knowing what to expect in terms of expenses and a million other things, including adjusting back into the "real world" when our sabbatical was over! Budgeting (we didn't go broke) is important, of course, as is health care, insurance, and having a job when you get back (although some decide to just wing it and look for a job after -- or more accurately, IF -- they come back).

Basically, we probably could have figured most of what we needed to do on our own, but Six Months Off (and other resources, like friends) were extremely helpful in making things go more smoothly. Many people dream of taking time off to pursue a dream, but very few actually do it. Six Months Off shows you how you CAN do it, and leads you through it step by step. I strongly recommend this book, and I strongly recommend taking Six Months Off if at all possible! What an amazing experience!

I found Six Months Off to be a phenomenal help in planning a sabbatical. The book gave me an an entire, but concise, philosophy or way of thinking about my sabbatical. The book also gave me a concrete and useful strategy for planning the sabbatical, covering ALL the bases from how to tell my boss to how to save money to places to help plan the actual time off and, then, finally for how I could re-enter the work force again. Truly phenomenal. The authors, led by Hope Dlugozima, have hit a home run with me.

Six Months Off is an extremely inspiring and informative book. Once you start reading this book, plan on having travel fever! The authors do a great job explaining why you should take a break from your boring, dull, repetitive job and expand your mind and grow as a person by taking time to traveling the world, write a novel, go to cooking school, or attend some other educational program. Not only do the authors convince you to do these things, and list great programs to look into, but they also describe HOW to do it, in realistic terms. The book is full of case study examples of people from various backgrounds and income levels (including very low income levels) who found the ways and means to accomplish a sabbatical and return back to their former lives afterwards (for those who wanted to return anyway). Don't doubt that you can this. The authors show you how step-by-step. The sample programs and opportunities listed in the book can't be overlooked either. Not only am I looking into some of them now, but I also plan to use this book in the future for other great adventure ideas. Live is very short, and this book will help you make the most it.

After reading this book I started planning my six months off. I spent the last six months of 1998 on vacation and in three months of training for a career change. This book helped make the journey possible. Read it ahead of time while planning for your time off.

I was impressed. My girlfriend has been trying to get me to get out of the country for an experience that wasn't available here. I was given an opportunity to go on an archaeological dig in Peru and after fighting the negatives of leaving for 3 months, I was given this book and within 24 hours of finishing it I was in my bosses office with my initial proposal to go. It was great. If you want to know how the Leave went...I will let you know in August.

Thumbs up.

Not that I was expecting an earth shattering revelation, but the content of this book is mostly obvious information presented in a very inspiring and a delightful way. People on various occasions get an urge to take a long unpaid break from work/city/chaos and see the world in its raw form. Most of them know the benefits of such exercise but rarely do they act of this urge.

This book serves as a kick in the a** that can get you motivated to do something about your desire to travel.

I haven't yet acted on it, but nevertheless, a good read.

This book is a must read for anyone planning a sabbatical. We've used this with a number of clients wanting to take some extended time off. This book will help you plan out your request, devise a budget and make your sabbatical a reality.

We attended a one-night seminar put on by one of the authors and immediately began plotting our get-away with the help of the book. While we were on our trip, people all along the way kept asking us the same set of questions about how we escaped. Being retired, we didn't have to get the time off, but there were a myriad of other questions that weren't really addressed elsewhere -- so we wrote the perfect companion book to "Six Months Off" -- we titled it "Live Your Road Trip Dream - Travel for a year for the cost of staying home". If you are serious about doing this -- get both of these books!

But most importantly - go live your dream - life is short, figure out a way and do it now.

I was interviewed by the authors back in 1994/95 as they were writing this book. When the book was published, I was blown away at what a great job they did accumulating and organizing the information. If you are dreaming about taking some extended time off, buy this book and you'll see how easy it is!

This is a practical presentation of the logistics of planning a sabbatical from work. It's full of ideas that will make this more realistic- such as arranging for your own temp replacement, arranging a house swap with someone from another part of the country, presenting your sabbatical to your boss as a smart business investment, and getting a "memo of understanding" about the terms of your sabbatical in writing. Furthermore, this book is full of checklists which will help ensure your time off is well-prepared. Especially useful is the chapter on negotiating with your boss. One concern- though the author strongly encourages asking for pay during your sabbatical, I think it's highly unlikely you'll get it in today's marketplace.

My only major criticism is that this book isn't as broad-minded as it could be about the possibilities of what you can do with a sabbatical. For example, the authors claim you'll save money by staying at home, when in fact you can often live much more cheaply abroad. The case studies are much more inspiring, and include examples of families that successfully enrolled their children in schools abroad.

I'm kind of surprised there isn't a new edition of this book. Though the listing of resources are outdated (and predate widespread use of the web), the book's foundations are still relevant.