Work is a fact of life, and some people start working even before they leave school. After years spent at work, it’s no surprise that people yearn for long and exciting sabbaticals. But as revealed in a ‘Society for Human Resource Management’ survey on Forbes.com, only 16% of companies offer sabbatical leaves in America, with only 5% offering some form of payment during them. Another survey showed that three-quarters of American workers would actually like an extended career break, even if their workplaces didn’t offer sabbatical leave.

Whether your employer supports sabbaticals or not, taking a sabbatical can be one of the most rewarding things you can do. You’ll finally be able to work on all your passion projects and cross off places from your bucket list. Take a cue from these people who stepped out of their comfort zone and took a break from their careers to see the world, funded by unconventional methods:

Felix Weis

Originally a tech programmer, Felix Weis invested in Bitcoin in 2013. Two years later, he packed up his bags for a long journey around the world – promising to only spend Bitcoin. That didn’t limit him to just Bitcoin-enabled countries, he even went to Cuba and 26 other countries, living off Bitcoin. In countries where they only accepted cash, he would do peer-to-peer Bitcoin exchanges for local currency.

Bitcoin has soared in the last half-decade and Weis’ gamble paid off. Cryptocurrency is a computer code that allows people to store it and spend it online. And for it to retain value, its supply needs to be monitored closely. This is why you need to have a strong grasp of cryptocurrency trends if you’re looking to invest. It’s also essential for you to observe the general interest in each type of currency, so you can match it to the supply and current circulation. When you think about it, Weis’ trip around the globe was funded by a computer code whose value was dictated by people’s interests.

Dale Philip

In 2010, Edinburgh IT employee Dale Philip quit his job to play online poker full-time. He raked in a little over $14,000 per month. Relying mainly on his poker earnings, he flew halfway around the world to Thailand, which he used as a base. He would spend weeks at a time accumulating funds that led him to places like Australia, Hong Kong, Spain, and Cambodia. His only requirement for each place was a stable internet connection. He would play online poker on these trips, aiming to earn more money than he spent on travel costs.

If this is something you’re looking to try, then all you need is an internet connection, a laptop, and good poker skills. According to Poker.org’s beginner’s guide to poker, the easiest poker variant to start with is Texas Hold’em. It’s the most popular type in the world, both online and offline. Poker is a fun and exciting way to fund a career break, and with it being online, it’s easy to find digital tables as you travel. If you intend to live the life of a digital nomad, playing poker or something else, then it might be worth looking at our article ‘The Top Travel Tech Gadgets’ to make sure you have all the bits you need.

Fu Ye

Long breaks from full-time work require intricate financial planning. For many, this means that they need to have a financial cushion to make their breaks sustainable. This was exactly what concerned Fu Ye, an alternative lifestyle advocate. Fu talked about becoming a backpacker in Argentina and earning money by working on education projects online. Fu was able to generate a stable source of passive income through selling online courses on remote work and teaching English.

Fu banked on her existing specialities and packaged them into online products to help other people. As nearly everyone has one thing, they’re exceptionally good at, this is an extremely feasible way to establish an income stream. All the work is done at the beginning and then you just sit back and enjoy the cash flow coming in.