How to financially prepare for a career break

Each week the NZ Herald's Cooking the Books podcast tackles a different money problem. Today, it's how to make a career break financially possible. Hosted by Frances Cook. <br /><br />Taking a career break sounds like a luxurious treat for the millionaires amongst us, but actually, it's more common than you realise. It also doesn't have to be financially ruinous. <br /><br />There are lots of reasons to take a break, and research from Hays recruitment in 2019 gives us an insight into that. <br /><br />They found that 64 per cent of women and 49 per cent of men take at least one career break in their lifetime. <br /><br />For women the biggest reason for a career break is having a child, coming in at 41 per cent, followed distantly by travelling, at 14 per cent.<br /><br />It's quite different for the men, with travel being the biggest reason at 25 per cent, followed by studying or retraining at 21 per cent. <br /><br />Whatever the reason, a career break can be something you turn to your advantage, or it can hurt you. <br /><br />Sometimes you need a breather in order to work out the next best step. Otherwise you can get so deep in the weeds of day-to-day life that you don't take the time to strategise your next best move, and miss out on opportunities that could be better for you than what you're doing now. <br /><br />But it can also be tricky getting back to work after a gap, and you also don't want to totally torpedo your finances while you're away. <br /><br />For the latest podcast I talked to Kate Reddington from Sorted. <br /><br />If you have a question about this podcast, or question you'd like answered in the next one, come and talk to me about it. I'm on Facebook here <a href="https://www.facebook.com/FrancesCookJournalist/" rel="noopener">https://www.facebook.com/FrancesCookJournalist/</a> Instagram here <a href="https://www.instagram.com/francescooknz/" rel="noopener">https://www.instagram.com/francescooknz/</a> and Twitter here <a href="https://twitter.com/FrancesCook" rel="noopener">https://twitte