22-05-2025
Keke Palmer: I didn't take a vacation for the first 15 years of my career—'all of my travel was business'
Keke Palmer has been her family's primary breadwinner for more than 20 years. That responsibility hasn't left much — or, any — room for downtime, she says.
"I think for the first 15 years of my career, all my travel was business. All of it. I never took a break. I never had a vacation, none of that," Palmer, 31, tells CNBC Make It. "The last three, four years, my family and I have made it a point to vacation at least [one to two] times a year," plus occasional weekend trips with her 2-year-old son.
Palmer has been a working actress since age 9. Her parents gave up their jobs and pension so she could travel for work, making her the family's primary earner at a young age. Having adult-level responsibilities as a kid was time-consuming and 'very, very stressful,' she told The Independent on March 1.
The habits she developed during that time — living frugally, saving money and prioritizing work over vacations — became deeply ingrained. "I learned from my parents very early on because they knew their limitations with money and finances," says Palmer, who's currently working with American Express as a spokesperson for the brand's Business Platinum card. "I believe in saving and frugality ... I don't play around with that."Eventually, her longtime mentor Queen Latifah started persistently nudging her to take some time off, she says.
"Queen Latifah, who's been another mentor of mine for years, would tell me that all the time," says Palmer. "She said, 'Well, if I do movies for the first six to eight months of the year, those last [few months], I'm off and I'm going on some boat. I'm going in some cave.'"
"You've got to really build in those breaks," Palmer adds. "And I've gotten better with that as I've gotten older."
Multihyphenate movie stars and people with standard 9-to-5s alike probably need to take time off from work to curb burnout, protect your mental health and stay productive. Fully disconnecting from work while you're on vacation helps — though 54% of workers in the U.S. say they're unable to stop working while on vacation or don't believe they can fully unplug while on PTO, according to a 2022 Glassdoor report.
If you're still thinking about work while on vacation, try what organizational psychologist Tasha Eurich calls her "2-2-2 Tool": two minutes of taking some deep breaths, two hours for an activity that helps you decompress — like hanging out with a friend — and a full two-day pause on anything work-related.
"Decide what you need in the next two minutes, two hours and two days to get that fighting spirit back," Eurich said in February.
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