After a lot of hard thought and sleepless nights, we decided six weeks ago to get a life!!
I have worked for the past 25 years, lately as a senior manager. Trouble is always away from home, a great deal of stress and endless aggrevation, too much to do in too little time and many, many hours on the road :-(
No use for me, Gus or our dogs.
I am now to embark on a years career break, campagining our Finnish import to the max and enjoying home and family life again.
No dosh, but I think a better lifestyle is better ;-)
What do you think!!

Go for it !
I would love to do this :D

I think yes!  I was off work for most of last year through an illness and went back to work part time.  Now I've adapted to less money and a better life for me.  Money's not everything.  I have been able to get a dog for instance (!!) and you just buy less things that you don't even need.  I think you've done the right thing and I hope it all works out.

CG

My Oh had a nervous breakdown 8 yrs ago and I was the a stay at home mum. We are now self-employed and work from home. Although I didn't think it at the time it was probably the best thing to happen to us. We have all benefited especially the children. Money is not everything and we earn enough to live on.

I hope it works out and you are happier, I know we are.

Well done for having the guts to do it!  I think you'll probably love and hate the idea of going back to work at the end of the year. 

I would love to stay at home, but as a single mum with a mortgage I can't financially.  So I envy you your time off.

Enjoy it!!

Good for you and as others have said money isnt everything.  My nannas motto was if you dont have love in your heart and no family life then money was nothing.  I  hope you enjoy your time at home.

Michelle :)

Sounds fab!  There is more to life than work and money.  We relocated last year with my husbands job and had to make do on one wage.  We are extremelly happy and are enjoying life with less money.  As it happens, I got a contract job working next to my husband for 3 months so we do have more money than we did.  You never know what is round that corner.

Live life, that's what it's there for.  If you can get out of the "rat race", fantastic :0)

Helen

Sounds wonderful and well done you for having the guts to do it
           Enjoy every minute

you're so right to do this - like you I was on a real work treadmill - I was the head of a unit for children with special needs and worked from 4 in the morning till 11 at night and all weekend, trying to fit in work, campaigning my dogs and raising two teenagers- eventually my hubby - bless him - sat me down and said " enough" - I was very reluctant to 'down shift ' but we made the move to  the country - I now work 'non-contract' as a behavioural specialist for several  special needs schools ( which equates to 3 days a week) and have A LIFE. I could so easily slip back into the old ways and accept more and more work but I'm determined not to do so. Enjoy your new life.

Yvonne

My OH has just decided with my support to give up work as a website and graphic designed and to go to university to do an art degree. He is incredibly talented and has just sold his first picture exhibited to the owner of the gallery! :) We are having to really juggle our finances, but it will be worth it because we will both be so much happier.
As i said to him, what is the point of having a really nice house in an area we have always wanted (ie closer to the Forest) if we are both unhappy and you are working every day in a job you hate? :)

Lindsay
X

Good luck to him (and you too, of course!) Life's too short to spend being miserable.
:)

Last June, having got the hump with my job, and commuting to and from Kent to London for the past 10 years for different jobs, I decided to leave and look for something local - within a month I was working from home for an agency, typing.  Can't get more local than that! Its mind-numbingly boring - just typing all day, but brilliant at the same time - i was a health and safety assistant in a university before so lots of running around and stuff, now I don't have to think!  I get out of bed when I want, have a leisurely breakfast, have lunch sitting in the garden, take the dog out in the afternoon etc... I can put the washing on in the daytime, do a bit of housework etc....before I would be out of the house 7am-7pm, have dinner, go to bed, get up, same routine, and spend weekends washing, cleaning, shopping, ironing ready for Monday morning again.

Everyone thought I would be so bored working from home at 28 years old, but a year on and I'm still loving it - I don't miss that stress one little bit!  I would put 'puppy' on my christmas/birthday list every year from the age of 5 until 28 (yeah, I still write them for a laugh!), but last December, due to being at home, I was FINALLY able to have a dog, yay!

I don't earn a fraction of what I used to, but then I don't go out much, don't need many new clothes, I don't have to buy all the christmas and birthday presents, I don't walk around in my lunch hour buying crap I don't want because I'm trying to fill an hour before going back to the office...

I'm loving every minute of it.  However, if I had to go back to work now, I could quite easily because I've had that year's break and I feel refreshed and able to cope whereas before I was running myself into the ground, which isn't a good place for a 28 year old to be at! 

Good luck, you will love it, and you will feel great once that year's up!

Thanks JG - it's quite scary but a bit like going on an adventure together..... ;)

Lindsay
X

Two years ago I was a director of a corporate law company, working all hours god sends, coming home and being narky with the kids and the husband. I earned more than my husband, who worked in the same industry, and I was under constant intense pressure.

After a two and half week holiday, I finally said enough. It was scary at first and I found it difficult to adjust, but I could pick the children up from school, something I'd never been been able to do. I could go to net ball matches and cheer my daughter on, I could do all sorts of things and to be quite honest I am now at a stage where I wonder how on earth I ever had time to go to work.

We don't have as much money, and yes a little more would be nice, but we've found the dog scene which has given us so many friends, and so much enjoyment. I now work part time and it is the best of both worlds for me. I choose my hours and I am very up front about what I am willing to do and what I won't do, unlike before where I was stretched to the limit.

This type of opportunity also gives you time to find out who you really are. A lot of people identify who they are by what they do, and this is the label they carry around with them, allowing them no scope to investigate who they really are, and what makes them tick. Throwing away this label is a very brave step, but one that must and should be rewarded. So I would say go for it.