Micro Retirement Planner

---
name: micro-retirement-planner
description: "Plan a deliberate career break — 3 to 12 months off between chapters — with honest runway math, the re-entry story rehearsed before you leave, health/visa/pension admin by country flagged, and kill criteria for coming back early. Use when someone says 'I want to take 6 months off', 'micro-retirement', 'sabbatical planning', 'quit and travel', or 'can I afford a break'. Produces a runway budget, a break charter with kill criteria, and the future-interview answer written in advance."
---

# Micro Retirement Planner Skill

The new generation isn't waiting until 65 to be free for a while — the
mini-retirement between chapters is now a normal career move. What separates
the break that becomes a great story from the one that becomes a panic is
planning three things *before* resigning: the real runway (spoiler: your
monthly costs don't drop as much as the fantasy says), the re-entry story
(written now, because "what did you do in the gap?" is coming), and the kill
criteria — the pre-agreed line where the break ends early without shame.
This skill plans the break like the project it is, without killing the point
of it, which is that it isn't one.

## What This Skill Produces

- A **runway budget**: honest monthly burn during the break (including the
  costs that *appear* when employment disappears — health cover, pension
  gaps), a buffer, and the re-entry cushion nobody budgets (2–3 months of
  job-search burn AFTER the break)
- A **break charter**: what this break is for in one sentence, what "worth
  it" looks like, and the kill criteria for ending early
- The **re-entry story**, drafted before departure: the interview answer,
  the LinkedIn line, and the one-per-month habit that keeps it true
- An **admin flag-list** by situation: notice timing, health insurance gap,
  pension/social-security contributions, visa rules if abroad — flagged for
  verification, not asserted (rules differ by country and change)

## Required Inputs

Ask for (if not already provided):
- The dream: how long, doing what, where — and the one-sentence *why* (rest?
  a project? travel? caregiving? burnout recovery? — the why changes the plan)
- Money truth: savings, monthly costs now, fixed obligations that continue
  (rent/mortgage, subscriptions, dependents), any income during the break
- Career context: field, seniority, how fast their skills date, and their
  honest read on re-hiring demand
- Country/citizenship for the admin flags, and health-cover situation today

## Framework

1. **Runway math with the multiplier.** Break burn = current monthly costs −
   commute/work costs + health cover + break activities (travel months cost
   MORE, not less) → × months → + 20% buffer → **+ re-entry cushion of 2–3
   months' burn** (the search starts when the break ends, not a job).
   Show the equation; the answer is a date, not a vibe: "your money supports
   X months of THIS plan." If X < the dream, present the menu: shorter,
   cheaper geography, partial income, or save longer — not "stretch it."
2. **Charter the break in one sentence.** "Six months to [the why], and it
   was worth it if [observable thing]." Breaks without a charter become a
   long weekend with anxiety attached. Rest is a valid charter — "recover
   until rested, measured by [sleep/dread-of-inbox test]" counts; charters
   aren't productivity smuggled back in.
3. **Write the re-entry story NOW.** The future interview answer, drafted
   before leaving: "I took a planned break to [charter]; I [one true thing
   per month-ish]; I came back because [pull, not push]." Then the
   keeping-it-true habit: one small monthly act (a write-up, a course
   module, a kept skill) — chosen to serve the story without colonizing the
   break. Planned-and-owned reads completely differently from gap-and-
   apologetic, and that difference is manufactured in advance.
4. **Set kill criteria without shame.** Ending early is a plan feature:
   savings floor touched (the floor is sacred — it IS the re-entry cushion) ·
   the why gets satisfied early · a can't-refuse opportunity · health/family.
   Pre-agreeing these converts "I failed at my sabbatical" into "the plan
   executed a branch."
5. **Flag the admin, don't bluff it.** Notice period & timing vs bonuses/
   vesting · health insurance from day 1 of the gap (the uncovered month is
   the classic error) · pension/social contributions during the gap ·
   visas/tax residence if abroad · references lined up while warm. Each
   flagged with "verify for your country/employer" — the skill's job is the
   checklist, not fake legal certainty.

## Output Format

```
## The break, chartered
[One sentence: length, why, worth-it-if]

## Runway math (shown)
[Burn equation → months supported → verdict vs the dream · the menu if short]

## Kill criteria (agreed while calm)
[The savings floor · the early-success case · the can't-refuse case]

## Re-entry story (drafted today)
[Interview answer · LinkedIn line · the monthly keeping-it-true habit]

## Admin flags — verify each
[ ] Notice/vesting timing … [ ] Health cover gap … [ ] Pension/contributions …
[ ] Visa/tax if abroad … [ ] References while warm

## Departure checklist & dates
[Resign by · cover starts · break starts · re-entry search starts]
```

## Quality Checks

- [ ] The runway includes health cover, the +20% buffer, AND the re-entry
      cushion — all three, itemized
- [ ] The verdict is a number of months of the actual plan, compared against
      the dream, with a menu if short — never "should be fine"
- [ ] The charter fits one sentence and rest-as-charter is treated as fully
      legitimate
- [ ] Kill criteria include a sacred savings floor equal to the re-entry
      cushion
- [ ] Every admin item says verify — zero country-specific rules asserted as
      fact

## Anti-Patterns

- [ ] Do not romanticize the math — travel-month costs and the job-search
      tail are where break budgets die
- [ ] Do not turn the break into a productivity program; the charter
      protects the point of it
- [ ] Do not write the re-entry story as an apology — planned, chartered,
      owned
- [ ] Do not assert visa/tax/insurance rules — flag and route to
      verification
- [ ] Do not skip kill criteria because the user is excited; excitement is
      exactly when floors get set too low

## Related

[[fire-number]] for the permanent version's math; [[relocation-planner]] if
the break moves countries; [[the-time-capsule]] — seal one to open on
re-entry day; [[resignation kit|pip-responder]] neighbors in [plugins/pm-resignation](../../plugins/pm-resignation/)
for the leaving itself.