Why wait to retire? These Canadians are embracing the adult gap year instead

Nick Thompson and his wife, Melanie, love to watch their kids swim in the river near a waterfall on the property where they live in southern Ecuador, on the edge of the Amazon rainforest.

"It's the land of eternal spring, so it never gets below 16 [C] and never gets over 27," Thompson told Cost of Living. "It's sunny every day and there's no bugs because we're just high enough in elevation. So it's kind of like this really cool Goldilocks zone."

Right in their rented backyard, in an area referred to as the Valley of Longevity, they have chickens, mango trees, avocado trees, passion fruit and seven different kinds of bananas, he says. 

The couple left their home in rural Ontario's Norfolk County a little over a year ago with their four kids, ages five to nine, in tow. "We're on a mini retirement," Thompson said.

Human resources professionals say Canadian companies are seeing more employees asking for permission to take longer absences from work than standard vacation time allows. Some call it a mini-retirement; others refer to it as an "adult gap year."

"We hear from clients that they have more and more employees asking for unpaid leaves of absence," said Cissy Pau, an HR consultant from Vancouver.

Philippe de Villers, chair of CPHR Canada, an association that represents HR professionals across the country, said while there's no hard data to quantify how many people are taking longer leaves from work, "it's definitely a trend" he's seen.

"Generally people are more burned out post-pandemic…. That's been documented," said de Villers, who lives in Brossard, Que.

Pau said she, too, thinks the COVID-19 pandemic is part of it. "Post-COVID, we are certainly hearing more requests than before. They don't want to wait 40 years until they retire to go travelling."

She said the sentiment is "might as well go hike Machu Picchu when I can, not wait for [some] time down the road." 

That describes Nick Thompson's philosophy, which he attributes to his mom dying at age 58. 

"It was like one year before my dad was going to retire, and then they had all these plans to travel the world. And then she passed. So … I'm not doing that. I'm not waiting till I'm 65." 

The couple, both 38, have settled into a routine of working hard for three years then taking a year off, usually spending time in an interesting but inexpensive place while renting out their farmhouse while they're away. To save, Thompson will work a conventional job 40 hours per week, and spend another 20 hours a week fixing up a house to sell or rent out, he said.

This isn't an option for everyone — in the middle of an affordability crisis, taking long breaks from paid work is simply out of reach for most Canadians. A Leger survey conducted online in September found that 47 per cent of Canadian respondents were living paycheque to paycheque.