How to Take a Career Break Without Going Broke with Katrina McGhee

What if the real risk isn’t leaving your job… but staying?

This week, we’re joined by Katrina McGhee, a career break and sabbatical coach who helps high-achieving women step off the ladder, reclaim their time, and come back to a life that feels even better.

Katrina shares her own story of walking away from a six-figure career with just $1,500 in savings, and how she turned that bold decision into a 20-month life-changing break.

We dive into what it actually takes to plan a sabbatical, how to shift from fear to strategy, and why taking a break might be the most powerful investment you ever make in yourself.

01:46 Will a Break Ruin You

04:15 Saving for Sabbatical

09:33 Permission and Burnout

12:19 Avoid These Money Mistakes

16:39 First Steps to Start

26:28 Coaching and Break Space

27:40 Nomad Life and Perks

Katrina reminds us that a break isn’t about walking away from your life. It’s about coming back to it stronger, clearer, and more aligned. If you’ve ever felt burned out, stuck, or like there has to be more than just working nonstop… join us for next week’s Money Talks “How to Financially Plan for a Career Break”. Click here to register for FREE and bring your questions!  

Join Katrinas free workshop on May 13th on how to Take a Break Without Falling Behind

Follow & connect with Katrina:

• Website
• LinkedIn 
• Instagram: @kmcgheecoaching

Want to take this conversation one step further? Join us for our next Money Talks, a free 30 minute live session where we’ll dig into a question we hear all the time from women business owners: Budgeting for Businesses to Offer Benefits. Click here to register for FREE and bring your questions! 

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Transcript

PS: Katrina McGhee (MP3)

Maggie: [00:00:00] My cheeks hurt from smiling.

Dr. Barb: That's a good thing.

Maggie: I know. 

Dr. Barb: It's because you're so giddy about what we just talked about.

Maggie: I love to travel. I wanna travel more. And it's silly 'cause I use money as an excuse, which is not great for my community, that I'm empowered to be financially fearless. There's so many different competing priorities. I feel like now travel's become so much easier. But even when you were young and single. You would tell me when you went to Barcelona with your friends and you took yourself on a couple trips too, and I just feel you're still talking about that, right? , These are the investments that keep coming back to you and fun memories and deepened friendships, and.

Dr. Barb: Yes. I'm a firm believer in travel with your family, with your friends in travel experiences. I don't think I could travel the year around the world because I also like to come home.

Maggie: I was like, you love your routine and you're bed.

Dr. Barb: I do, but I don't mind leaving it either and enjoying, travel. But. I love the whole thinking of, just throwing out everything up in the [00:01:00] air and saying, you know what, it doesn't have to be at 65.

You can take a month, two month, three months, and more a year, maybe 20 months, and just continue traveling, right? As long as you make a plan. Plan the work, and work the plan or plan to travel and travel.

Maggie: There's just so many things that are so different. I think when you're young, you have the flexibility and more of the ease and less medication and just all the things to manage where, you can just be so much more flexible at that time.

And yeah, there are big earning years, but they're also a big living years. And so we gotta live it up. And I think so often it's then you get married and you have the kids and you settle down. It's what if I don't wanna settle down? What if I wanna go bing, bang, boom, around the earth? It's a big earth. I gotta see it all.

Dr. Barb: I know, and it's doable. That's the cool thing. It is so doable. We have to reframe that thinking and plan how to finance it. And we talk about all of that on this podcast. Exactly. All of it.

Maggie: Let's not let them wait anymore. Let's just dive in.

Dr. Barb: Okay. It's so much fun.

[00:02:00] Gloria Steinem once said, we will never solve the feminization of power until we solve the masculinity of wealth. Barbara Provost and Maggie Nielsen are the team at purse strings that will help you navigate the ins and outs of financial independence so that you can be financially fearless. This is women in money, the shit we don't talk about.

Maggie: All righty. Today we have Katrina McGhee on the podcast, and we are so excited when we reached out to her as I feel like everyone's living these such long lives right now, and it can't all be work. And then sometimes people hit retirement and we're not like as physically capable to do all the things we wanted to do.

And so Katrina is expert on sabbaticals, and so I can't wait to get into this. So before we dive into all our questions, Katrina, could you introduce yourself to the audience a little bit about who you are [00:03:00] and what you do? 

Katrina: Yeah, absolutely. I am a career break and sabbatical coach, so I like to say that I help people who've chased the gold stars and climb the ladder, get off so that they can reclaim their time, take some rest, have some fun, live a life, and come back to a version of life that feels a hundred times better.

 I am a corporate survivor myself. I had my first career as a healthcare actuary. Left that to go get my MBA, switched careers to market research. Worked at a really big company, out in Minnesota and had like a moment of, of conscious awareness that I was not on the right path anymore and I wasn't doing what I wanted to do, so I ended up taking a life changing career break that lasted 20 months.

I came back and landed five jobs in five weeks, and that sort of paved the way for me to do the work that I do now. 

Maggie: So let's just like start right there. 'cause the first time I read that I was like, most of us can't even five job offers right now, it feels like. So first of all, 20 month break, that's a long time wouldn't ruin your career? I mean, I even see like a lot of moms who step out of the workforce and you [00:04:00] know, have to explain that break much less just wanting to see the world, which we love by the way.

Like no shame on that, but like how do you explain that to the corporate blah. 

Katrina: A lot of it comes down to our belief. I like to tell my clients, it always starts with us first. I'll be super transparent, I was scared, excited, right? That's a word I like to use. That describes I think, a lot, the energy of taking a break or taking any really big risk.

You're terrified and you're also really freaking excited for this upcoming change. And so I wasn't a hundred percent sure what would happen, but here's what I knew, the cost of not answering the question. Like what would happen if I quit my job to do the thing I really wanted to do, which is travel around the world?

Like the cost of never answering that question felt so much bigger and it would haunt me so much more than like any disappointing outcome if I tried to do that thing and it didn't work out the way that I wanted. So I basically like decided to, to like be honest and be transparent in that within myself, and I looked at what I had, right?

I love to look at the facts. [00:05:00] I'm smart. I went to a really good undergrad. I went to a top 20 MBA business school. I have people that love and support me, which is my network, right? I had done a successful pivot in the past, so. I think it's really important that you look at the assets that you have already in place as you think about, could I be resilient?

Can I figure this out? I really believed in my ability to figure it out, and it just felt like, I don't wanna have this unanswered question of like, I'm I'm like 90 years old and I'm like, well, it would've been nice to travel around the world for a year, but I was always too afraid to try. Like, I didn't want that.

 To be my story. And so I didn't know for sure, but I really believed in the base and the foundation that I had, and I was like, I found a career when I had no work experience when I was just a little 21-year-old undergrad with a math degree that was like, I don't know what actuarial science is, but I guess I'll give it a try.

Right? So I was like, this girl can do that. She can do a lot of things. 

Maggie: I love that. And sometimes we do have to look back and be like, well, I've proved it to myself time and time again before so [00:06:00] I can trust myself this time.

Dr. Barb: Sometimes we have to ask, answer the question, what's the worst that could happen? You could go back and get a job. 

Katrina: Exactly. And even if it's a job you don't love as much as the one you had, like jobs you can change, right? You could do that job for a year, then find a better job.

Maggie: And so since this is a money podcast, like how did you see that you had the money to do this? You know, where did that come from? Did you have a good savings? Let's get into kind of the nitty gritty on that. 

Katrina: Maggie. LOL is is my answer to that because I had no money when I decided I wanted to do this. What I did have is about 50 something thousand dollars worth of MBA student loans. I had a townhouse that was underwater because of the housing market and the impacts of that.

So I was renting it out. I owned it. I was renting it out. In Atlanta, but I was like losing money or breaking even every month. And, and basically I had a great paying job, but I had $1,500 of savings in my bank account. So once I had the realization that I really wanted to do this, like, it kind of hit me like an [00:07:00] epiphany.

'Cause I had been working with a life coach trying to find like a third career that's gonna make me feel happy and fulfilled. And then it's like, no, I just want a break. I wanna go see some things and do something and live a life, you know? And once I had that burning desire, I had to look at the facts and I was like, I don't know how a girl affords this because this is not my reality.

So I did what I could do, which is figure out how much money do I actually have to save to take a break, which at that time I thought it would be a one year around the world trip. I did the math, I love spreadsheets. Former actuary $38,000. So okay, I have to come up with $38,000. How am I gonna do that?

I'm just gonna start shifting my values to really align my spending and what I say I value are gonna come together. And I just revisited the way I was spending money and I started slowly saving a couple hundred dollars a month, then 500, then 700, then a thousand, then 1200, and it just started snowballing and I saved $40,000 in 18 months.

And I put my student loans into forbearance, some for deferment. [00:08:00] Depending on what the loan was. And then I went and I traveled around the world and I spent most of that money. I did have a buffer and a cushion for like if life happened, which it did happen while I was on my break in several different ways.

 But for me it was like I have to create the means to do this because like. I need this. And so I was very motivated and I really used my math skills and my spreadsheeting to help me figure out a plan to make it happen. But I made really hard choices or big choices during that time, like I was in my early thirties.

Very successful like six figure salary. And I moved in with a roommate, right. I let my very posh, wonderful apartment in the uptown area go. I moved into a nice, a very nice condo, but I had a roommate and you know, that cut my expenses down, but I didn't feel super grown up for doing that. Not that there's anything wrong with it, but it, but it was like I was making

sacrifices and trade-offs that were so in alignment with this bigger goal. And that really helped me make momentum towards my goal. And then I [00:09:00] came back from that break and I paid off all my student loans, which some of my peers still haven't done. I paid off all my MBA loans in less than two years, taking a pay cut, right?

So I took a pay cut from where I left, halfway through because I wanted to work for this startup, and I thought it would be really fun. And so my salary coming back was about at parody, but then a year later. I took that pay cut to switch and I still paid off my loans in less than two years, and it was because of the skills I learned while I was saving for my break with that burning desire that I was able to apply those same skills to.

Wouldn't it be so amazing to be debt free? Wouldn't it be so amazing to not have to work in corporate ever again if I don't want to because I have financial freedom in my own context and and definition of it to just. Not have to be spending hundreds or thousands of dollars every month paying bills for things I made decisions on in the past.

So it really served me not only to get on the break, but then to become debt free a couple years later. 

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Maggie: Well, I love the transparency. I appreciate that, and that it's not just like you had this epiphany and the next day you bought your flight. Like no, you put in 18 months to that which is. Uh, the days are long. The years are short, right? And so I know that time you're probably itching like just to get out to do the thing, but it is, sometimes you need that, that driver to get you there because I know sometimes it's like paying debt, being debt free isn't as invigorating.

Like, what's that next thing that's gonna get me? Because just paying on the debt is not like getting me up in the morning. Actually, once you have that goal, then everything was like, then I can make it happen, you know? But if the goal's not titillating enough, then you're like, Hmm, I'll get there when I get there. 

Katrina: Yeah. You gotta have a real crystallizing why? You've gotta be clear on the [00:12:00] why, and it has to be something that like makes your soul speak to you, like it makes your heart sing.

Dr. Barb: I am amazed. So when you do your coaching, just side note, do you teach people how to budget and save so that they can do what they want? Is that part of your coaching? 

Katrina: It's something I can do. It's not formally part of it because, I mean, it's, I've learned this, right? I've been doing this now for almost nine years, and I've learned a lot of people that are at a place where they wanna invest in a one-on-one coach. Probably have some savings already, right? So they're like, I'm ready to make that investment.

So I think it's a biased subset of people that make their way to do consults with me and hire me. But I have offered resources in the past. I have the tracker that I actually used to figure out what the budget was, estimate the cost, and then like make that saving that $40,000 happen. And even in my book, taking a Career Break For Dummies, I have a whole entire like section on how to get the finances in order, because that is a big part of it for some people, but a lot of people actually.

Can't afford it at the time that they wanna take it, but they really struggle to give themselves permission [00:13:00] to invest in the break. They view it as a really crazy expense irresponsible, sort of like like, I'm just gonna let it all go and flush it down the toilet. And so it's reframing it even as an investment and understanding what that would, would do for them, to help them justify spending that money.

Maggie: Yeah, I'll pay you back tenfold. 

Dr. Barb: yeah, with layoffs and burnout, which is real, right? People are struggling a lot. How do women shift from panic mode to strategic mode when facing a career break?

Katrina: Yeah, so you know, if it is voluntary, right? That's one thing. You get to plan for the success and kind of be intentional about how you're gonna do it. But if you are landing yourself. An involuntary, sort of layoff situation. I like to say you might not have chosen the start date, but you can still own this experience.

The length of time that you're actually on a break will vary by your comfort zone, your desire for what you wanna do for this time, but also obviously your finances, right? But even if you can only take a month or two months, I really encourage people to use a [00:14:00] break, especially if you find yourself there involuntarily to think about and reflect on.

Who am I today? What do I actually even want? I like to parallel it to dating, right? Like if you are in a place where you're just desperate to find a partner and you're like, I'll take anyone. Just, do you have a pulse? Will you not like like scream at me, like I'll, I'll date anyone. I just don't wanna be alone.

Like when you're going up to people with that energy, no one wants to date you. It's like, why? Like it's the desperation, right? Versus. If you like got broken up with and you weren't expecting it, and you go inward and you do the reflecting and you realize like, I am like worthy, I am valuable, I am grounded.

Like I don't have to prove my worth. Like I am clear on it. Now I got recalibrated and I'm also clear on who I want to be with and what a good partner would be for me in the season of my life. You can show up to dating with the energy of like, yeah, I'm confident. I'm excited. Like, let me get to know you and figure out if this is a good fit.

And so I encourage people, right? Especially if it's an involuntary situation, to be able [00:15:00] to give themselves the space for the equivalent of that to be like, think about the skills I have, the network, the interest, the strengths, but also what do I want for my career and how my life and career kind of blend together.

Because how you show up in an interview will be so much more powerful. And how you represent yourself in conversation will be so much more powerful if you're sold on yourself and you're clear on what you want, and you're very directed in that versus like a pray and spray type of situation where you're just desperately trying to find something. 

Maggie: Really with that same energy, you could probably get more money, more of what you want 'cause that same energy you are on being sporadic. You just send to figuring out who you are and what you want and really being direct. And so what do you find is like one of the biggest financial mistakes women make before taking a sabbatical?

Katrina: Yeah, so I would say there are a couple, I can give you three pretty basic ones. One is not building in a buffer for emergencies, right? So if you're in the saving and planning stage where you're saving for it or you're planning for it proactively, it's gonna be a voluntary thing. You [00:16:00] just wanna make sure that you're thinking about those emergencies, unexpected cost, and also leaving yourself in today's job market, just in case, right?

A longer runway towards reentering. Right? So just having enough set aside for a reentry period so you don't have to switch from, I had an amazing break and now I'm super desperate because the break is over and I have to get a job in a week. So I definitely recommend thinking about that, having a buffer for that.

Number two is considering talking to your. Advisors or whoever, like if you need to, but, but considering low income and no income tax year benefits. So again, if you're proactively planning for a break, thinking about things like Roth conversions, capital gains just potential benefits that might come to you from having a year where you have lower income or no income, and being proactive about that.

And the third one kind of swings to the other side of thinking about the permission to spend money and the reduction of money, panic. It's helpful to set kind of a red line number in your mind [00:17:00] of when you wanna hit the panic button, if you choose to go on a break. So I had a red light number for myself.

 It was really low. It was probably like about $10,000, but it's like when my savings gets to this number, I need to reassess where I'm at on my break. I need to ask myself, like, do I have clarity? Am I ready to reenter? Am I clear on what that would be? And if I'm not ready. Do I have to get ready?

Because like, this is a threshold where the discomfort suddenly becomes, it's like the like everything starts shaking in the car. It's like, this is where the, the wheels feel like they're gonna start to come off. So let me reassess. What happens is a lot of times, right, like you'll be on your break and the money will be going down, down, down, and you're not making any to replenish it.

And your brain will start freaking out because for so long you might have been saving and you might see the number go up, up, up. And it can be hard to actually pour into the things you said you wanted to do on the break that are ultimately what are gonna create the. Best version of you coming out of the break that can crush it in the job [00:18:00] market and crush it in the interviews, right?

So it's, it's like you wanna invest in fulfilling the purpose and the themes of why you're taking this break. And so having that red line number can be very helpful when your brain starts to get really activated and panic about spending money. And it's like, no, no. This money actually has a purpose. It's an investment.

I'm fulfilling my purpose in themes, but when it gets down to X, whatever your X is, I will reassess and if I need to reenter, I will start applying for jobs.

Maggie: Yeah, that's a great idea to have. Especially having that red line. And I think a lot of people also in retirement kind of have that fear of like, we've been our whole lives trying to fill up this bucket that when you start taking it out, you get really anxious and it's like, actually that's what you worked your whole life for and, and really we worked our whole life to.

To go see the world and have these experiences. And so I feel like those are very, similar. Did you like pick up any odd jobs while you were traveling? Did you earn any income while traveling at all?

Katrina: Not at all. Oh, actually I had a fun, it was not a job, but I did pick up like a thousand dollars. But it's a [00:19:00] very odd wave, I will tell you, 'cause it's kind of funny. When I was on the road trip portion of my career break, I did a three and a half month road trip through the US in a big circle. My then boyfriend, we are no longer together, but he was a really great supporter.

He came along for that road trip portion of my break, and I love, like slot machines. Not like a, I am not a gambling addict, but like, it's always was fun to me to go in and see the lights and like, do I get the bonus round? You know, like it's just, I just like, it's like entertainment. And so we had this system where when we were driving, if we saw a billboard for a casino and they had a player's club, which is where they'll sometimes give you like $10, $20 to like start, you know.

Get the membership and then start, we would go and we would never spend the money that we want and we would just put it into a pot. And so we went around the US and three months later, I think it was like something like $1,200 that we had just made, like collected. And I was like, this is great. So that was a really fun thing.

But outside of that, no, it was just me being on a break. I never really picked up any side income outside of that.

Dr. Barb: Wow. Yeah. Sounds like fun. So [00:20:00] someone's listening to this and they're thinking, I wanna do that. I wanna go do that, but I'm really scared about my finances. What's the practical first steps she should take?

Katrina: Yeah, I mean, first of all, know what your number is. Focus on the facts. A lot of times it feels overwhelming. It feels too expensive, too far away, too scary. Like what would your version of an ideal break cost you. That's really important because once you start with that, if it's really high and you're like, I'll never get there, you can walk it back down.

You can say, okay, well I would love to do six months. That is not gonna happen, but what would a three month break look like? Or you know, I thought I wanted to travel Europe. I. But it's really expensive, but maybe I could make this work in Southeast Asia. And so there are ways that you can sort of like narrow in, but you gotta start with actually knowing that number and also understanding your finances, right?

Knowing exactly how much money you have access to, and then figuring out where the gap is between what you have and what you think you need to take [00:21:00] this break. And understanding like your monthly expenses and those ongoing expenses. So I think having like a factual sort of snapshot of those key indicators.

That's critical. And number two is be able to articulate the purpose and the themes for the break. Because when you can back to the why, right? Like Maggie mentioned, like having a really strong compelling why will absolutely unlock creativity, ingenuity, and resourcefulness. And so you've got to connect to why would I even take this break?

And what would be the three to four things like pillars, themes that I would focus on to fulfill the purpose. And when you have that picture, suddenly you see the bigger deal that is like really at stake for you taking this break. And it's like, oh yeah, like I gotta make this happen. And so it can really help you know, kind of like calm some of the fears.

I won't say all of them, but it can really start to like bring a clear picture of what would make it worth it. Right?

Maggie: So how did you start to guesstimate how much your journey might [00:22:00] cost you with? I mean, if you go to Thailand, that's gonna be very different than if you go to the south of France or something like that, you know? Or if you're going. All these flights versus just driving in a car around the United States.

So how did you start making that plan or guesstimating the cost? Because everything could be all over the place.

Katrina: Yeah, absolutely. And you know, even my clients have like very different types of breaks. Some stay at home, some have partners who can like, contribute to the household. Some of my clients are breadwinners and so like, it looks very different for the family when they're not working. So there are all different ways to do it, but for me.

 You know what I did and what I recommend, I broke it into chunks. So to your point, you know I'm doing a road trip. Okay? I'm doing a road trip through the us I have friends, but I also am gonna have to do some hotels. So I'm mapping out my stay and I'm trying to guess like, okay, if I'm doing a big circle about what percentage of the nights would be with someone that would just host me versus on my own for hotels.

Then I'm setting a budget for that, right? I'm saying I don't wanna spend more than $75 a night on a hotel on average. And then [00:23:00] I'm gonna track that and sometimes I can spend more, but then sometimes I've gotta use points to spend less, right? And kind of make that average work. And then when I'm going to travel, I'm doing Europe as an estimate, and then I'm doing Southeast Asia as an estimate.

And I did South America as its own estimate, right? So buckets of time, Europe, probably two months. What do I think the main things, travel, lodging, food, entertainment, what do I think those things are gonna cost me? Same thing for Southeast Asia, right? I did book a ticket to, to Southeast Asia using points, which really helped reduce some of that cost as well.

I think it was 80,000 points I used on Delta to get there, but that was really wonderful that I could do that. And then I was at home for months of my break and that was a very different financial picture. My mom was like you can keep, I sold most of my things. I had a Toyota Corolla and what would fit in that car I brought with me, so I just shoved it into a closet.

Mom was like, you can come home, you can hang out here. I use that time to reflect, decompress, be at home for the holidays, and so financially like that was a really great time. Right Then. It's just my life [00:24:00] insurance, my car insurance, like it's. The very basic maintenance things, but it wasn't the added expenses.

And so I basically broke it up into these different portions where the cost would be really different, or, or really variable from one another. And I just tried to estimate for the length of time, like what I thought that picture looked like, and then I just would round up to the nearest, you know, 1000, 2000 and then I added a buffer in case I was wrong, right.

In case I was off on something.

Maggie: The key is the buffer.

Dr. Barb: Did you hit your target?

Katrina: I did, that is how my 12 month break turned into a 20 month break. I was eight months in and I was tracking what I was spending in my little spreadsheet, and I was like, holy crap, I have so much money left. Like, I thought I was gonna be close to broke right now. And then I was like, what do I do with this?

Do I pay off my loans? Do I go back to work? Do I like, I don't. And then I was like. I'm just gonna keep traveling. And then I did and it turned into 20 months and I do not regret it, you know? But that was why I got to turn a 12 month break into a 20 month break is because I was doing such a good job.

Like I overestimated and I was just becoming really good with spending [00:25:00] money doing things I wanted, but like being very thoughtful about where it was spending my money.

Maggie: It's not very often we overestimate and spend less. So that's such a nice turn of events right there.

Katrina: Yeah. Plot twist in a good way.

Maggie: So what does kind of a career break reveal about how a woman values herself and not just her paycheck? Because I feel like you just learned so much about you and have so much growth personally.

Katrina: I mean, I definitely did. It was life changing, and I think that is always my goal for anyone that comes in contact with me, whether they work with me or just happen to like be in my world. I want them to see it as an opportunity to change their life for the better. I think what it signals, right, when a woman is like, I'm ready to like do this thing.

Like what am I signaling instead of thinking about the negative that people associate, like, I'm irresponsible or I'm just throwing it all away. I think it's the opposite. I think that it's signaling. I prioritize my own wellbeing. It's like a middle finger to the status quo that says, as a woman, [00:26:00] everyone else comes first.

Like, I come last. Does everybody else have what they need before I focus on myself? Like this is about you prioritizing your wellbeing. It's about saying and demonstrating, Hey, I'm worth an investment. Where the ROI is about who I become and how I experience my life versus some like financial return on paper.

You know, like those are the only ones that get to make sense. Is it gonna boost my career immediately or is it gonna like return my finances? It's like, yeah, but also me, like my wellbeing, my happiness, my fulfillment. And I think it's also a symbol of believing in your own potential. You have to believe like I did, right.

That I have the tools I need to come back even better because I see the value of what I have created and what I've done for other people and other companies, and I believe in the potential that I can be even more. And that pouring into myself and getting really freaking excited about my life and getting my spark back and doing some stuff and resting and recovering, like the potential of who that version of [00:27:00] me is, is even bigger and better

Dr. Barb: I love that. Giving the finger to the status quo. Good for you.

Yeah,

Maggie: And I've gotta ask, how much of this travel did you do alone?

Because I feel like that's a big thing for women is like that's a big step, is like doing an alone trip. A lot of people say like this is the first time I've been outta the country by myself or doing it by myself. Which I think is another even added just growth and value of like, I could be independent.

I can take myself out to dinner, I don't meet these others and I can meet people. Right.

Katrina: Absolutely. I had only, I did study abroad my last semester in business school in Barcelona, but you know, you're with a cohort of people and a bunch of other students and so you're doing things with them, even like the traveling to other countries in Europe, within Europe you're doing it with them.

I had only taken one trip by myself. And that was getting from Barcelona to Belgium, and traveling in Belgium for like a long weekend and then, and I think in Brussels and then coming back. That was it before I took my break. So I absorbed at that time Instagram really wasn't a thing.

There weren't like vlogs and things like that. [00:28:00] It was basically travel blogs and books. And so I was reading, reading, reading and just absorbing all this information to psych myself up and feel like I was packing and preparing as best I could. But it was really scary and really hard. Whenever I thought about doing it as a solo female travel.

But I just knew I didn't, again, want that to be, I didn't want fear to be a thing that stopped me from living the life I wanted and getting to experience what I really wanted to experience in life. And it was life changing. So I did have a boyfriend at that time. He came with me on the road trip through the us, which is where we're both from.

So that didn't feel so hard, for me, but then we were apart. He did come visit me for a couple of weeks in Argentina. But outside of that, when I was living in Argentina, when I was in Columbia, when I went to Europe, when I spent four months in Southeast Asia, like all of that was solo me by myself, I do have a lot of clients, even like solo females who do travel. But I'm finding that for a lot of people, the version of a break that they want and need today involves some travel, but it's also some [00:29:00] downtime. It's decompression. It's not all just like this one way ticket to go around the world and like backpack your way around.

It's like, I wanna go somewhere and be in a different environment that like brings me alive and like feels fun and just really switches up the mindset and the routine that I've been in. But then I also wanna come home and I wanna like. Take a course on this. I wanna do a Pilates like class. I wanna go to the pottery studio.

I wanna have community. I wanna spend time with people I care about. And so I'm finding it's oftentimes a mix of those things for a lot of people that I'm working with today.

Maggie: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense is sometimes we just don't even relax at home. You know? I know some people they're like, finally I could like maybe do that project I've been thinking about or cook a meal that I've been wanting to try or just something relaxing. You know? It can't always be go, go, go.

Dr. Barb: Mm-hmm. For sure. Your story is really amazing. And tell us a little bit about the coaching that you do.

Katrina: Yeah, well, I'm a certified life coach. I just believe that breaks are catalyst for a better life. They're like a portal, right? The break itself won't change your life, but who you get to [00:30:00] become through that experience can really change everything.

And so I work with people in a one-on-one way when they want their handheld and they wanna do some really deep, reflective work about who am I now and how do I design this break so that it gives me everything I need. To come out of it on the other side, really excited, maybe even rethinking how life and work fit together.

And then I also am a co-founder of the Break Space community, which is a place where it's a global community where people come together whether they're thinking about a break, planning a break, or actually on a break, and they get to see each other's little faces on the screen and share best practices.

But I have found there's nothing quite like seeing like 30 other human's faces on the screen that are in the exact same place that you're at when you're in this. Very unconventional, sort of like scary, exciting place of wanting to take a break. And so I think it's really important to have a sense of community to be able to wrap around that.

 So yeah, those are the two ways that I help people on the journey. In addition to having a book and a podcast all about like nerding out about all things career break.

Maggie: [00:31:00] I love it. And so what's your kind of sta is this just then your full-time gig now and you do your nomad as well now? So like traveling has now become the career.

Katrina: Yeah, I'm like a slow mad. I just sort of wander around. A lot of times it might be even work related where I'm just sort of like, Hey, there's something to speak at, or like something to do over here. So I'll just extend my trip to California. I'll see my friends in Seattle, like that kind of thing.

 But yeah, I've been doing this full time since 2020, and it's been really amazing and it's really like grown. I mean, it was, I gotta be honest, it was really crazy and out there to be talking about sabbaticals and career breaks in like 2017. I don't even know how I had the courage to do it, but like it is so much more of a thing now than it, than it ever was and I just see it continuing to grow.

But yeah, I do this full time. I love it. I'm super passionate about it. And then I do travel sometimes for fun, a lot of times for work. But I just kind of move around, roam around.

Maggie: And so where's the next trip to?

Katrina: Australia. So I've never been, I'm like excited to [00:32:00] go, but my business partner, my co-owner of Break Space actually lived in Amsterdam, but she is an Australian citizen, so she and her family moved back to Australia officially. I've met her in Amsterdam several times, but I've never been to Australia.

And she's like, okay, well we got a house on the beach. They live on the beach. I mean, across the street from the beach, but like at the beach. And I'm like, oh my God, this is gonna be so good. So we're gonna do like a work retreat and I'm gonna go out there for a couple weeks and travel around. And it'll be really fun.

So that happens in about, six weeks. So I'm looking forward to

Maggie: Oh, and do you splurge on like a first class ticket for a long flight like that

Katrina: Oh, Maggie. Okay. So the universe loves me is what I've decided.

My sister. Love her. She actually works for a major airline and she decided several years ago that I get to be her companion because she really supports the work I do and the mission I'm on. And so I've been her companion for like six years, and so I actually will get to fly to Australia.

I will have to fly standby, but I will get to fly for just the taxes and fees. So I'm guessing that will probably be like [00:33:00] $300 or something, but it will be a very affordable flight.

Maggie: I gotta get a new sister.

Dr. Barb: Or tell your sister, forget this doctor stuff. Go go work for an airline.

Maggie: Yeah. Go work for an airline. I could use some flights. I could be your companion.

Katrina: Well, my sister was a PA so she actually was like a medical professional and she's just like, I wanna live a life of freedom. And so that's one of the two jobs. She does some health stuff on the side, like very like eastern meets western med consulting, but she does have the airline job for the flight benefits.

I'm like, thank you

Maggie: Ugh,

those are benefits for 

sure. 

Dr. Barb: here's a mom question. How much does your mom worry about you?

Katrina: Oh my gosh. My mom has like a worry track that I don't think I could ever fully mute. But her level of worry, I mean, 'cause I started my career break in 2013, so I've sort of like inoculated her and sort of like numbed her senses. I've like worn her down. So after 13 years. You know, she's just like, please tell me where you're going.

And then she's like, okay, please tell me when you think you'll be back. But I would say her worry, like if it was a radio dial, was like at a 10 right when I was traveling [00:34:00] alone for the first time, 10. And then over time, like every year it comes down like a half a notch to a notch. So she's probably like a four to a five right now. 

Dr. Barb: Okay. 

Maggie: such a mom

question.

Dr. Barb: It is, but I get it. I mean, you'll get it someday maybe. I don't know.

Maggie: So Katrina, this has been so much fun, but there is a question we like to ask all of our guests. And so after building your entire career around helping women take intentional breaks, what does financial freedom mean to you now?

Katrina: Yeah, it absolutely means not letting money stand between me and my dreams, self care and my biggest desires, right? So being able to have a financial situation where I don't let money be the thing that stops me from living the life that I wanna live. I'm a good steward of my money, and I also believe in my resilience and ability to make more and figure it out.

And so for me, like having achieved financial freedom and like encouraging my clients to go for that, it's like what do you need your life to look like? So that money is not the thing that holds you back from your [00:35:00] life.

Maggie: I preach it, girl. I love it. Thank you so much for coming on today and sharing the story and sharing your expertise. I thought it was very inspirational. I know our community's gonna love it and I just think this is exactly what you said. You know, women put everybody else first and so I think this is a great opportunity for them to put their selves first and also not wait until we're 65, 70, 75 to do these things, but do it when we are capable and we're young and, it's just such a different experience I think at that time.

Not like I'm 65 yet. I'll let you know when I get there, but we appreciate it, Katrina. This has been awesome.

Dr. Barb: Yeah, it's been fun. And we'll put your book and your podcast and all your links in the show notes so everyone can get ahold of you and, keep on doing what you're doing. And I hope women listening out there step out on that skinny limb where you're a little bit scared, but talk to Katrina and live the life of your dreams.

Maggie: Until next time, be financially fearless.

Outro: You've been listening to Women Money, the shit we don't talk about. Now it's time to take what you've learned and make bold moves towards financial independence. [00:36:00] Stay in the know by joining our newsletter for exclusive tools, resources, and updates that keep you financially fearless. Head to PurseStrings. co and sign up today. Need a financial professional who gets it? Turn to PurseStrings Curated Directory, your go to resource for financial experts who know how to put you first. Love this episode? Leave us a review and help us empower even more women to own their financial power. Until next time, be financially fearless.