How to turn your 20 days annual leave into 56 days of holidays in 2021.

Written by Peter Horsfield

As a financial planner for the last 20 years, planning is now well and truly part of my DNA.

And between you and me, once you know the core fundamentals about money planning; working with numbers, projections, legislations and financial product features all day can at times get a bit dry and dull.

So given that today is a Monday, I’m in Cairns, it’s my first day back and I love to plan and make the most, and get the most from my year.

I thought I’d pause first before rushing ahead into the year and make for some better holiday plans (while still firmly in my roll of planning) and research the following juicy question.

How to take more time off and still be paid for it?

What I discovered is that with a bit of planning, getting your holiday requests in early (before other staff) and a flexible boss. You can easily extend your 20 days annual leave all the way out to 56 days a year, or a 280% increase in leisure time.

The following maximising you leave and holidays is based on for Australian public holidays.

Each state has their own additional public holidays i.e. Queensland has 3 additional public holidays (Labour Day 3^rd May, Show Day (in Cairns 16^th July) & Queens Birthday 4^th October).

Please check your relevant state holidays there as they may differ slightly i.e. different Labour Day, Queens Birthday, Show Day dates etc.

So let’s begin!

• Friday 25 December 2020 – Sunday 3 January 2021:

Requesting leave for 3 days during this period and you can have up to 10 days off.

• Saturday 23 January – Sunday 31 January:

Requesting leave for 4 days of leave during this period and you can have up to 9 days off.

• Friday 2 April – Sunday 11 April:

Requesting for 4 days of leave and you can have up to 10 days off.

• Saturday 24 April – Sunday 2 May:

Requesting leave for 4 days of leave and you can have up to 9 days off.

• Saturday 25 December 2021 – Sunday 2 January 2022:

Requesting leave for 3 days of leave and you can have up to 9 days off.

Annual leave used 20 days. Holiday length (including weekends) 47 days. Plus an additional 3 state public holiday weekends for an additional 9 days. 

Total leisure time up to 56 days in 2021.

Now the only things you have to decide now is what you’re going to do now with your extra holiday time.

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This post was written by Peter Horsfield, as such they are his personal views.