Take the year off isn't a bad idea. I have done it many times over the years to ski, dive, sail or flyfish the planet ....well mostly 3-4 months here and there, but your reason that there is little area in the markets to make money and the market is in neutral is false.
There are tons of opportunities and areas to make money. Many stock sectors (airlines today?)are going up and down nicely every day despite the markets being in a funk and not having much direction at the moment.
Also that can change in a blink and down or up we go for the overall markets.