Take mini-retirements

Inevitably, you will find yourself in between projects as a 1099.

Being without an income is scary, but if you have been saving enough, you should be able to afford to take a few months off.

I read The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss after college and found the whole idea of lifestyle design so compelling it still, to this day, influences a lot of my thinking.

The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, And Join the New Rich

In the book, Tim writes about the concept of "mini-retirements."

Instead of working for 40 years and only then taking a break, he advocates for taking shorter sabbaticals of several months or even a year.

In the government contracting world, this idea is quite radical. Most employees are conservative and even aspire to be government employees, where they diligently show up every day for decades until they can take their pensions.

This makes it hard to against the grain and take time off yourself, even if you wanted to.

But as a 1099, I guarantee there will be times where you have several months in between projects.

So why not take advantage of it?

You could travel, hang out with the kids, get in shape, pick up a new hobby, whatever.

I plan on taking the next summer off after we move to the Pacific Northwest to explore our new home.

I worry about eating into savings, but I still think it's worth doing.

If you know that as part of your 1099 career, you will have long blocks of time without work, you might as well adapt to it, rather than try to fight it and feel sad you're not "succeeding."

Want the full playbook? Check out Going 1099.