Margaret Quan is downsizing her lifestyle to find her purpose in life through an encore career. Photo by Thomas James Hurst for The Seattle Times.

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Margaret Quan started her encore career early. At age 44, the Seattle resident quit her six-figure job as a software product manager to work for Doctors Without Borders, a medical humanitarian group that assists people in about 60 countries.

She had grown weary of business travel and being tethered to her BlackBerry, and she longed for the types of experiences she had while taking annual backpacking trips to countries such as Peru, Cambodia and India.

“I made the conscious decision to live the second half of my life with purpose,” Quan told The Seattle Times.

Quan still has to go through a final interview with Doctors Without Borders. If accepted, she will be deployed to a conflict zone in February, and receive a stipend of $1,300 per month. If not, she plans to take an extended unpaid volunteer vacation in Central or South America.

She’s getting ready for the transition by working with a financial planner who understands her desire to seek a job with greater meaning. Quan has already salted away enough savings to allow her to take a sabbatical for up to five years and has dramatically downsized her spending.

“It’s pretty amazing. I am in a really good position to do this. I’m not making money per se, but I’m hopefully not going to lose money,” Quan told reporter Michelle Archer.

Either way, she figures she’ll learn a lot about herself, and the type of work she was meant to do.