'Mini-Retirement': Why Young Workers Are Taking Career Breaks Instead of Planning for Retirement
If you’re a member of Gen Z or a millennial, your retirement is something that’s likely decades in the future. Despite that fact, everywhere you look, you’re being told to save for your retirement now, to work long, hard hours so you can potentially rest and relax in your golden years.
For many younger workers, waiting until retirement to take time for themselves doesn't make sense. Instead, they're taking mini-retirements now, in their 20s, 30s and 40s, and building careers around them.
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The Mini-Retirement Trend
Reuters recently reported on the "mini-retirement" trend and referenced a 2025 HSBC Quality of Life study. The study revealed that younger workers with at least $100,000 in assets, specifically those in the Gen Z and millennial generations, are increasingly opting for mini-retirements. These are a planned, extended career breaks, typically lasting one to six months, taken intentionally during a person's working years rather than waiting for traditional retirement at the end of a career.
This stat reveals a structural shift in how an entire generation thinks about work and rest, rejecting the idea of deferring all rest and travel to until retirement. It's worth noting that $100,000 in assets is a real barrier. Most Americans under 40 aren't there yet. But the behavior is spreading beyond the asset-wealthy, driven by something harder to quantify than a savings account balance.
"Gen Z and younger millennials have spent a large portion of their young adult years in uncertain times," said Liz Delia, founder of Sabbatical Studio, a resource dedicated to helping people plan meaningful career breaks. "A global pandemic and general economic uncertainty collectively unleashed desires to live life as fully as possible.
"Mini-retirements allow you to have a taste of 'the good life' — time freedom, creative pursuits and more — many times throughout life, rather than in one defined period at the end of it."
What Does a Mini-Retirement Look Like?
Reuters spoke with Ali Rosli, a 33-year-old interim finance lead, who has taken two mini-retirements in the past decade. After burning out from 80-hour weeks as an assistant audit manager in Malaysia — earning $18,815 a year — Rosli took two months off in 2019, traveling from Beijing to Europe on his savings. He returned recharged and landed a senior management role at a London financial firm at $114,234 annually. Six years later, he took a second four-month break, traveling back to Malaysia before settling into independent financial contracting in London.
"From my personal experience, [mini-retirement] will actually supercharge your career rather than pull you back," Rosli said.
And he plans to continue with mini-retirements every four or five years.
How Feasible Is a Mini-Retirement?
Not everyone has Rosli's outcome or his savings cushion. So, how feasible is this for the rest of us?
“From a purely financial perspective, this can certainly be viewed as risky – especially because it often involves leaving your job,” Delia told MoneyLion. “But from my experience talking to early- or mid-career breakers, they’re weighing risks to well-being and happiness in tandem with financial risk. These folks are often considering questions such as: What is the cost of staying in a job I’m unhappy in? Why should I wait until traditional retirement age to travel the world or check off bucket list items?”
However, as attractive as such a lifestyle might be, it requires planning and a reliable amount of savings.
“Many folks who take mini-retirements plan for them in advance, cutting costs where possible,” Delia added. “During these breaks, they might move or travel to locations with a lower cost of living, to allow their money to go further through geo-arbitrage.”
Mini-Retirement vs. Traditional Retirement
The core difference isn't just timing — it's philosophy. Traditional retirement is a single, terminal exit from work. Mini-retirement treats rest, travel and personal reinvestment as recurring line items in a career, not a reward at the end of one.
For younger generations, betting everything on a single retirement finish line has never looked less appealing. The question for them isn't whether they can afford a mini-retirement. It's whether they can afford to keep waiting.
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This article was provided by MoneyLion.com for informational purposes only and should not be construed as financial, legal or tax advice.
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