Florence Poirel was incomes about $390,000 a yr in Zurich, Switzerland, as a senior program supervisor at Google when she determined to stroll away in 2024.
The now-37-year-old wasn’t sad with her job. “By the time I left Google, I was absolutely not in a position of burnout,” she tells CNBC Make It. “The team was pleasant. The work was pleasant enough as well.”
What pushed her as an alternative was readability. “I realized how much quality time with the people I love is the most important,” she says.
That included her companion, Jan, a fellow Googler who’s 17 years her senior. After assembly him in 2017, she realized she needed to rethink traditional retirement. “I could not just wait for retirement to enjoy my time with him because he would be much older at that time,” she says.
Florence Poirel exterior her residence in Thalwil, Switzerland.
Gabriel Pecot | CNBC Make It
Poirel had at all times been a diligent saver, however the realization impressed her to begin following the FIRE movement — quick for “financial independence, retire early” — which emphasizes saving and investing aggressively to depart the workforce early.
“That’s when it hit me that I didn’t need to keep on climbing that ladder. I had reached the point when it was just enough — and I was happy and free to do something else,” she says.
By January 2024, she had saved up about $1.5 million, and in April of that yr, she and Jan quit their jobs. Poirel calls her break a “mini-retirement” — setting apart sufficient money to cowl 18 months — though she has no agency plans for when, or if, she’ll return to full-time work.
“I’m not particularly antsy about going back to employment,” she says. “I thought that would be by now, but I really enjoy the daily life that we’ve created in this mini retirement.”
Following her personal path
Poirel’s willingness to make massive adjustments is not new. In 2013, she was in a advertising job in Belgium she did not like. On the way in which residence after an extended week, she informed a colleague she felt unfulfilled, and he replied with the French phrase “qui ne tente rien n’a rien” — he who dangers nothing has nothing.
The phrases stayed with her all through that weekend. Poirel says she realized she wanted the “courage to do something different” to be completely happy.
The following Monday, she quit. She determined to maneuver to Dublin, Ireland — a tech hub in Europe — with no job and no connections. Soon after arriving, she landed a contract function at Google incomes about $60,000, working in content material security and moderation, which started her profession on the firm.
Poirel’s threat paid off. She spent greater than a decade at Google, rising steadily by way of new groups and promotions. In 2017, she transferred from Dublin to Zurich, the place she moved into challenge administration and ultimately senior management roles, elevating her wage to $390,000 by 2024.
Choosing a ‘mini-retirement’
Once Poirel had reached her purpose of $1.5 million in financial savings in January 2024, it was only a matter of deciding when to make the leap. For somebody who describes herself as “risk-averse” in relation to cash, it wasn’t straightforward to stroll away from her high-paying job.
“Saying no to this kind of income can be daunting, for sure,” Poirel says.
Florence Poirel with her companion, Jan.
Gabriel Pecot | CNBC Make It
But she hasn’t regarded again. In mini-retirement, she spends her days swimming in Lake Zurich, offering profession teaching for ladies and touring overseas with Jan. “I thought I would get bored very easily. But now, it’s been a year and a half and I still haven’t [had] a time of boredom,” she says.
While she may return to work, it will likely be on her phrases, whether or not that is working part-time or solely doing what she finds fulfilling. Either approach, she feels lucky that she saved sufficient cash to make that alternative.
“Life is too short and life is beautiful and it’s too sad to spend most of that time spending it at work when we can spend it in beautiful nature with friends, family, loved ones, and doing things that make us truly happy,” she says.
All quantities are in U.S. {dollars}, transformed from Swiss francs on the OANDA trade charge of 1 CHF to 1.22 USD on May 31, 2025.
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