Leverage Maps #3: How I Was Able To Afford My Sabbatical

I didn’t invest aggressively because I knew I’d take a sabbatical.

I invested to give myself options, and eventually, one of those options became my self-directed learning sabbatical. Here’s how it played out.

Over the last year:

I put 12% of my income into my 401(k) plan that was focused on an S&P 500 index fund. That added up to an investment of $10,200, not including employer match.

I put 22% of my income, $18,700, into a high-risk portfolio: Bitcoin, mutual funds, and a few individual stocks.

This wasn’t FIRE. It wasn’t YOLO either. It was quiet optionality. It was a way to build up leverage while I had momentum through steady cash flow.

When it came time to step away, I didn’t need everything to be figured out. But I did need a plan.

Here’s how I’m making it work:

I boosted my high-yield savings account to cover 3 months of expenses to be my emergency fund buffer.

I’m gradually selling from my brokerage portfolio, just enough to maintain that buffer.

My conservative financial runway is 9–12 months, depending on asset market conditions and how lean my expenses are.

I check in weekly to make sure I’m staying within my floor.

And I cut my burn rate ahead of time:

• Paid for my used car in cash
• Knocked out lingering medical debt
• Moved into a cheaper place
• No internet at my apartment (I hotspot)
• No TV, no expensive furniture
• Just what I need, some simple pleasures, and nothing more

The goal was intentional simplicity to create space to explore my career on my own terms. The goal was to have financial optionality to be able to pivot as needed.

When I talk about Leverage Maps, this is what I mean. It's not one big moment, but small, steady moves, financial, psychological, logistical, that make you more flexible than you were yesterday.

And when you string enough of those moves together, you start to see opportunities where others see walls.

That’s where leverage lives.