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A young woman who has taken 30 "micro-retirements" to travel all over the world said these experiences have transformed her from a shy, retiring teenager into a confident, self-assured woman.
Lauren Kirby, 21, a childcare worker, said she's saved over $12,500 to travel to 30 countries since she started working at age 18, news agency SNWS reported.
So far, she's visited Portugal, Mexico, Estonia and the U.S., among other countries, and she even lived for six months in Australia, she said.
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These "micro-retirements" have made her better at her job, the British woman said, because she's been able to pick up childcare techniques from different cultures, such as taking children out for walks during all seasons throughout the year.
Micro-retirements have become a trend on TikTok, SWNS noted, with Gen Z workers taking periodic breaks from their careers to pursue other interests.
Kirby, who is from Maidstone, Kent, told SWNS, "Once you go on a micro-retirement for the first time, it literally changes your life."
"It's all well and good for [people of] older generations to travel once they hit retirement age. But, even though it sounds very morbid, you never know if you're going to get there."
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When she took her first micro-retirement from work at age 18, she returned a totally different person, she said.
"Now, I've hit 30 countries, and I'm working my way through the rest."
She said that, at age 18, after she saw an advertisement on TikTok for a childcare rep, she decided to go for it and flew out to Corfu, Greece, for three months.
A travel company paid for her accommodations, flights, food and bills, she said. It also paid her minimum wage, or $988 a month.
It meant she was able to save $3,130.
She used that money to fund her travels to Portugal, Finland and Mexico.
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In 2023, she took a part-time job in a nursery closer to her home.
She then saved up her long weekends and annual leave to travel to 26 additional countries. She said she even flew out to the East Coast of Australia in March 2024 and stayed until September - for which she saved $5,000.
"I went out there, worked the first five months at a resort, then spent a month traveling," she said. "With the money I'd earned, I could just quit - and saw all the highlights of the East Coast, like Sydney and Byron Bay."
Kirby said it was the COVID lockdowns that inspired her to take regular "micro-retirements."
She said she saw how quickly everything closed down.
She feared she might never be able to go abroad again when the borders closed, she told SWNS - and said that even now she thinks about how "things can change in the blink of an eye."
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She said that among today's younger generations, "there's a lot more knowledge now of moving abroad, temporarily, to work - and [we're] taking advantage of this."
She said that being well-traveled has benefited her in her work.
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She's been able to bring back different childcare tips and techniques to her own work in the U.K., she said.
For example, in Australia, she saw the benefits of bringing young children outside for 30-minute walks in all sorts of weather - and now encourages her own class of kids to do this, too.
