They’re breaking every retirement rule to be off now, not later

“If I keep working myself to the bone until 60 years old, I might physically never be able" to hike the 2,650-mile Mexico-to-Canada trail, she said.

Saperstein is among a small number of workers in their 20s and 30s borrowing years of freedom from their future selves to enjoy some of their retirement while they are still young.

Unlike followers of the FIRE movement, short for “financial independence, retire early," those seeking microretirements say they aren’t looking for a shortcut to retirement by saving aggressively and living frugally. Their early retirement comes in the form of shorter breaks for travel or other pursuits.

Though such career breaks are rare, more workers appear to be thinking about them. Nearly 80% of recent college graduates expressed interest in taking time off from paid work to volunteer or for personal projects, according to a survey from Handshake, a job-search app for college students.

Pausing your career during prime working years can slow the growth of a nest egg. But the chance to backpack the globe or take a series of mini-retirements is worth it, say those who have done it, even if it means delaying buying a home or having to work longer later to fund retirement—at a time when many fear a comfortable retirement is difficult to achieve.

Saperstein paused her retirement savings while on the trail. Her fiancé, Ben Pecher, invested $800 a month. They suspended their car insurance and covered most of their $2,450 rent by subletting. They spent $700 a month on health insurance.

The couple cut their spending to save $60,000 for their adventure but allowed some indulgences.

“We only kept Paramount+ because we love Survivor," she said. (They kept watching it while hiking.)

Landing full-time jobs after finishing the hike in October took longer than they expected. Meanwhile, they freelanced. Pecher found a job in February as an account executive at a printing company. Saperstein got an offer from her old firm a few weeks ago.

They plan to pursue more career breaks throughout their lives. “We would rather prioritize the experiences and spending our money and time that way than buying a home and then being tied to it," she said.

Delayed retirement

Putting a career on hold usually means losing ground on retirement savings, along with salary and health insurance. Since money put in a 401(k) compounds over time as investments grow, the effects of a career break can be felt decades later.

Take a 30-year-old with a $90,000 salary who receives a 5% raise each working year and plans to invest 15% of their pay into a 401(k). If they take off a year once a decade and return to the workforce at the same salary they had when they left, their investment balance at age 65 could be about $600,000 less compared with someone who had kept working, said Julie Everett at Financial Finesse, a financial-coaching firm.

People who take mini-retirements should take steps to offset the financial consequences, she said, such as saving more than 15% for retirement earlier in their careers and making up for lost income with higher pay when they are back on the job. Boosting retirement contributions can also help savings get back on track.

Taking a sabbatical might delay retirement. In Everett’s scenario above, three yearlong breaks over three decades might mean working up to three years past your planned retirement date, depending on how much you contribute to retirement accounts.

That can be harder than it sounds: People often retire sooner than they planned to, studies suggest.

In 2018, Lisa Rosenblum quit her six-figure sales job to travel the world for a year. She saved $20,000 in about two years by not putting money in her 401(k) and shaving spending from her New York life: taking the subway over Ubers, painting her own nails instead of salon manicures and bringing lunch from home.

She spent a year traveling through South America, Australia, New Zealand and Asia. She tried to pick places where the U.S. dollar would go the longest, booked travel with credit-card points and stayed in hostels to save money. She worked on a eucalyptus farm with a family that took in orphan kangaroos and attended a surf camp in Australia, jumped down waterfalls in Bali, and went on a safari in Sri Lanka.

“I feel very lucky that I’ve been able to go to all the places that I have been," said Rosenblum, now 34 and living in St. Petersburg, Fla. She doesn’t plan on taking another gap year anytime soon. Instead, she is focused on keeping on track with her financial goals.

Earlier this year, she bought a $250,000 condo. She has about $70,000 saved for retirement and is working with a financial adviser to maximize her returns, she said. She recently started a new job with a raise and additional benefits.

According to guidelines from Fidelity Investments, someone who plans to retire by 67 should have twice their annual income saved by age 35.

The DIY sabbatical

Sabbaticals are rare outside academia. Cady North, a financial adviser and author of “The Art of the Sabbatical," said client interest in them rose during the pandemic.

About 6% of employers offered paid sabbaticals while 8% offered unpaid ones as of this year, according to the Society for Human Resource Management.

Financial advisers said those wanting a career break should pay off debt first. If you don’t have a guaranteed job after the break, your savings should build in a buffer of a few months for a job hunt.

Aaron Asai and Liana Best, married 28-year-olds from Pasadena, Calif., said they are willing to delay retirement and purchasing a home to take a career break involving a year-long road trip.

They saved $60,000 by moving in with relatives to save money on rent, selling one of their cars and cooking meals at home. Asai picked up a part-time job on top of his 9-to-5.

Having quit their jobs and purchased a van, they started their trip in mid-August. Their plans include exploring Wyoming, Nevada and Oregon.

“It was worth it to make these sacrifices to have the experiences we’ll have," Best said.

Write to Oyin Adedoyin at oyin.adedoyin@wsj.com