The goal of the sabbatical calculator is to help you change variables in your income, expenses, and length of sabbatical and see the impact on your finances. This calculator helps you find ways to tweak those variables to make a sabbatical possible.
Income during sabbatical year
Total usual yearly income: Use the income you make from active work. Don’t include passive income or income you plan on continuing during the sabbatical.
Usual yearly profit sharing for retirement: What you usually have added to your income by your job for retirement. This will be zero for a lot of physicians.
Length of sabbatical: Feel free to use decimals if you’re going for 2.5 months for example.
Income during sabbatical: Take a reasonable guess. Many remote work opportunities for physicians land in the $100-150/hr range.
Extra work income prior to sabbatical: You probably have a pretty good sense of how much extra money you can make before you leave by picking up extra shifts.
Rent from primary home: Use zillow or call a local rental agent to ask how much a reasonable rent would be. Keep in mind that the dates might not line up perfectly. If it’s a short-term rental, remember to include the fees your town charges.
Other income during sabbatical year: Include passive income like real estate or dividends here.
Total income during sabbatical year: The sum of your income while you’re home plus any extra work you do, plus rental income, plus income while you’re on sabbatical
Effective tax rate: Use the link to determine the effective tax rate for your income. That assumes a pre-tax retirement contribution of zero; you may have to revise this if you find you can contribute to your pre-tax account.
“Home” expenses during sabbatical year
Usual yearly expenses: Make sure this is realistic, not aspirational
Usual expenses while not on sabbatical: This will be calculated for you based on how many months you’re not on sabbatical during your sabbatical year
Rental income: If you’re renting your house, put your expected rental income for the entire trip here
Vacation savings: many people won’t take their usual trips if they’re taking a sabbatical. They’re about to leave for a chunk of time and don’t feel as compelled to get away as they might otherwise. However much you usually spend on vacations, subtract that here (make it negative).
Car storage: You’ll probably pay for this in which case it should be negative. If you manage to make money on your vehicle while you’re gone, enter a positive number.
Other new costs for home/property: You may have to pay for snow removal or lawn care if you have renters while you’re away, for example.
Sabbatical expenses
Do some research and figure out approximate costs for your desired location. I like budgetmytrip.com to get a rough sense of comparative costs. Although it’s focused more on vacations, it can help you get a feel for how expensive a location is likely to be.
All these should be entered as positive numbers and should be for the entire sabbatical, not a monthly basis
If you’re wanting some quick estimates, use:
Housing $2000/month
Travel insurance: $200/month
Airfare: $750/person
Local transit: $500
Activities: $2000
Schooling: $500/kid/month
Food: $150/person/month
Take home pay: This is the amount you’ll take home after taxes including taxes for Medicare and Social Security. If you want to be more specific, You can run a specific payroll calculator once you have your income number and enter that number into the appropriate spot.
Retirement
The calculator assumes you are not making retirement contributions in order to fund your sabbatical. If that’s the case, leave the “sabbatical contribution” line at zero. Otherwise, enter your likely contributions.