PaceHow long will your savings last during a career break?
Free career break and sabbatical calculator. Start with your savings and monthly costs, or check a length of break you already have in mind.
Build my monthly break budget
Review an itemized worksheet, then apply its monthly costs, extra payments, income and protected savings. Your current savings and chosen months stay in place. Applying replaces the four reviewed amounts.
Review totals to see an answer for these amounts and currency.
Your amounts stay in this page. Printing and export produce a local copy you control. Nothing is sent to Pace or another page.
Put the break in context
See what a pause could change.
Pace for iPhone lets you explore an income pause alongside your wealth, spending and debt payments, then compare it with your current outlook. Its editable assumptions are different from this fixed-money estimate.
Your web inputs stay here. They are not transferred to the app.
How this estimate works.
With 18,000 in usable savings and living costs of 2,500 a month, savings cover seven full months, with 500 left in the break budget. A part month is never rounded up. If you keep 6,000 untouched, only 12,000 funds the break: four full months, with 2,000 left. That remaining 2,000 is separate from the protected 6,000.
Break money = savings − money kept aside − one-off costs.
Full months covered = break money ÷ monthly draw from savings, rounded down.
Check any starting shortfall first. If monthly income covers monthly costs, there is no savings-based end date in this model. Estimates stop at 120 months.
Already know how long you want away?
Use the whole period you need to fund, including any extra time before pay returns, and your monthly living costs. Six months at 2,500 a month use 15,000. With 18,000 in savings, that leaves 3,000. This first estimate assumes no income, no one-off costs and no money set aside. Add those details only if they apply.
From savings each month = the greater of (living costs − continuing income) and 0.
Savings target = one-off costs + untouched reserve + (amount from savings each month × months).
Gap = the target minus available savings, when the target is higher.
If you add details to that example, continuing income of 500 leaves 2,000 to cover each month. That is 12,000 over the break. Add 1,000 in upfront costs and a 6,000 reserve: the starting target is 19,000. With 18,000 available, the gap is 1,000. All figures use the same currency.
What if pay returns one, two or three months later? In the chosen-length mode, the stress test adds those months with no income, while the original period keeps the income you entered. At 2,500 a month with no income and no extras or protected money, six months needs 15,000; seven, eight and nine months need 17,500, 20,000 and 22,500 respectively.
The reserve is part of the target and part of available savings; it is counted once on each side. It stays separate from the break budget. Future surplus income never reduces the initial reserve or upfront-cost requirement. Money is calculated in whole currency units for JPY, thousandths for KWD and hundredths for the other choices, with no investment return or inflation. Extra decimal places are rejected, not silently rounded. Months are whole planning periods, not calendar or payroll dates.
What this calculation misses.
A monthly average cannot show whether an insurance premium is due before the next payment arrives. Put known start-of-break bills in one-off costs; include other irregular costs in your monthly estimate or reserve, without counting them twice. A delayed return to work can change both the length and cost of the break.
For example, six months off plus two months until the next paycheck means eight months without pay. At 2,500 a month and no continuing income, that needs 20,000 before other costs. With 18,000 saved, the gap is 2,000. You can include those two months in the planned duration or keep a separate return-to-work amount untouched; do not count the same money both ways. Plan for the gap between returning and being paid.
Enter income after tax and check whether it actually continues. The tool does not calculate tax changes, employment benefits, health cover, pension contributions, debt interest schedules, exchange rates or investment sales. It does not decide how large your reserve should be. For long breaks, changing prices make a fixed-money estimate less reliable.
A target of zero means the entered costs and reserve need no starting savings in this simplified model. It does not mean a break has no risks or that bills will always be covered.
Check the plan before relying on the number.
- List the bills and debt payments that continue. Check annual renewals and replacement costs against actual records.
- Separate a planned break budget from money reserved for surprises and the return to work. Choose that reserve deliberately.
- Try a longer break or lower continuing income. Compare the savings gap, without treating either scenario as a prediction.
- Check employer arrangements, payment dates and any benefit or insurance changes before making a commitment.
Sources and method.
The arithmetic above is a cash-budget identity, not a forecast of markets or employment. For input preparation, the CFPB spending checklist explains looking back for less frequent costs. Its emergency-fund guide distinguishes money set aside for unexpected expenses. These budgeting principles inform the checklist; neither source endorses this tool or sets your personal break budget.