To consider selling our house and travelling the world with two toddlers?

It won't be a holiday, it will be going to exist in another place without the comforts of home

I would have thoughts that the exact reason for doing it

This sounds like madness. Take a two week trip to Europe for starters and see how much fun any type of travelling with toddlers is with no break.

I've travelled to and from Australia and the world but only for up to one month at a time except for one three month trip, for 16 years with kids from aged 3 months onwards. They remember little of it until they were about maybe 8.

It won't be a holiday, it will be going to exist in another place without the comforts of home.

Yes OP life is too short for 'what if's' . I have back packed all over the world and my first husband is SE Asian so also travelled there a lot when they were little. Super easy as got so much help from everyone .

My neighbour took hers aged 2,3 5& 7 sailing around the world for 5 years. No formal education. Just learned a lot about life. The eldest smashed his GCSEs and Alevels and goes to one the countries top universities. So please don't believe that the absence of formal education is going to be a massive detriment in most cases such a huge improvement upon the education to see how the rest of the world lives. All the kids are mature on their years and super polite intolerant. The eldest is about to embark on another world of adventure.

The thought of being unable to recover financially would give me sleepless nights, but perhaps that doesn’t trouble you.

what sort of sector are you both working in? Will it be easy to find jobs when you get back?

can DH cope with the job one more year before taking the plunge? Kids would be a bit older, you’d have more savings and perhaps coujd start looking for that dream house you want to buy to have a more clear picture.

please please do not sell your house!

and finally, why Dubai? With so many other amazing places.

Do you have backup in the UK for afterwards or if you need to return suddenly? I was thinking parents or other close relatives? If you do and there’d let you move in for a short while to find your feet when you return that’d be a lot easier. Otherwise you could end up burning all your remaining money at the end if you can’t get jobs/ mortgage quickly.

I think it's selfish if I'm honest.
Your kids will have little memory of it at that age, so this is all definitely about you and DH.

I'd be making really good use of holiday time. Move house, find a new lifestyle and do this travelling later in life.

I have been to Singapore a few times & recently
It is very expensive !
But very clean
Another very hot place !

I voted Yabu because it is MAD to sell and rebuy in that short a period.
legal fees and stamp duties would surely wipe out ANY benefit.
Rent it sure thing but sell???? It’s a no from me.

i think going away for a block period of time is fine. But you have 2 children and I think it’s irresponsible not to have a proper employment plan or failing that, significant financial cushion when you come back.

Separately…. If my DH was driving this and was the high earner I'd also be quite concerned about him enjoying the trust fund baby lifestyle a bit tooo much… coming back to the Uk will be a bump back to reality.

A night wake, hunting everyone up and out from 7-9 then working 9-6 thennnn enjoying kiddie chaos for 2 hours before bed doesn’t seem much fun vs lounging on a beach.
it might be an adventure but it might also be an escape plan…If it’s the latter it will come back and bite you at some point

It sounds absolutely amazing! What a wonderful adventure ✨️ I'd do it in a heartbeat if I had the finances to be able to. Our children DS6 and DD3 would have loved this. Our very happiest times since they were born have been spent on holiday/travelling together.

Did you get to travel much before having children? I can see how doing this before the 3 year old starts school is good in that you couldn't do it after he starts. On the other hand, the two children would need to be oases of calmness for it to be enjoyable. My kids really needed routine at that age.

Yes. I think the OP and are family are the kind of people who want to go and have an adventure. Not go on holiday for 2 weeks. Not go camping occasionally. Go and do something big. It’s ok to do that while still being safe and it doesn’t mean only staying in one western place.
play it by ear. Don’t plan to achieve too much. Enjoy the journey

With a toddler like mine, I personally wouldn’t do it, it would be more stressful than staying at home, but if your kids are relatively easy going, minimum fuss when you go out, happy to change surroundings often, then go for it. My advice would be to stay close to big cities in case of any emergencies and in terms of destinations I have heard that Oz, New Zealand, Singapore are really good for family travels. I would avoid places where you would need to take malaria tablets, etc., as your kids are too young for that.

My concern wouldn't be the actual travel because I think it sounds amazing, but the boring practical side of things.

How would you be able to buy a house in 18 months time when neither of you have jobs or any recent work history? How will you rent with no jobs or income?

If you keep your house and rent it, what's the guarantee you'll be able to get your tenants out in time? What if you want to come home early and you have nowhere to go and no stuff to use?

A friend did this with three kids. They had a great time and are back now and everything is fine.

if you have the resources, then do it. Life is for living

My partner & I have a camper van too

We have travelled all over UK & parts of Europe

We are not stay at home kind of people !

‐----

You could join some property swap sites for holidays too

Ok. I don't think there's a right or a wrong to this, but make sure you have extremely good health insurance.

I do know for sure, however, that travelling for 12-18 month will provide your kids either many things but it will not make the "completely fluent in five languages" fifteen years later, nor will it make them trilingual. It will expose them to other languages, which is nice, but actually being fluent means you can speak, read, write and listen at near native level, and for children, that's rationed to their age. If the can speak fluently every language they come across on their travels while you're there, 6 months after you leave they'll already not be fluent, because native speakers will have acquired a lot more of their language in that time, as they grow up.

You didn't say you're going for that, but Brits are notorious for saying someone is fluent in a language when a) they don't speak the language themselves to know and b) the person is usually between GCSE and AS level at best. Not bad but definitely not fluent! So don't read this thread and get the idea that your kids will come back fluently multilingual and it'll remain!

If you do this, don't expect it to be an amazing experience for your DCs. They won't appreciate views, history, culture. For them it will be just background noise.

Before embarking on this your DH really needs to get to the bottom of his unhappiness. Is it just this job or his career path? When you return is he just going to end up back in the same situation but with fewer opportunities?

What you don't want to find is that his work unhappiness is a symptom of an underlying problem which blows up far from home. Is a period of counselling possible?

We lived in Europe for about 5 years. Moved out when DCs were 6, 2, 1. This was a company move. DCs went to the local school when they were of age and became fully fluent in the local language.

Oldest has lots of memories from this time and is still fluent. The younger two remember very little. They remember the playgrounds, the small domestic experiences.

I have kids the same age and it would be the worst thing I could think of and I love travelling. A friend of mine has rented villas in various places round the world and taken her two toddlers for months at a time. Could you try that? Get somewhere in Thailand, near a nice pool, set up with all the things to need to make your life easy (washing machine etc), do some day trips. Then maybe rinse repeat in different places until money runs out/ the oldest needs to go to school. I'd also go with a very open mind of it this goes badly we come home. I definitely think the always on the move nature of proper back packing would be very unsettling for kids that age.

If you are looking for escape
Another option is to go camping at weekends or buy a camper van & travel more locally, than worldwide

Do you have someone you trust and wouldn’t mind you using their home as your postal address? A lot of officialdom requires us to have an address, HMRC for example. PO Boxes aren’t accepted. You can get virtual post boxes and for an additional fee will open, scan and email post to you. I wouldn’t like that.

I think the thought of it sounds nicer than the reality of what you'll deal with. I did loads of travelling pre-kids. To all the places you've mentioned. Took DS to Oz when he was 18m for a long holiday. It was enjoyable - we stayed in air bnb but also had a hire car so essentially all the comforts we'd have at home. He struggled with the heat (Perth summer) and there was a point we had to see a doctor to get a prescription for a bug. Then went to Thailand when DS was 3 and DD was 16m. Again stayed in villas, again ended up having to see a doctor for DD! Travelling around with the DC was hard as they don't really care about safety like we do...there was so much 'faff' in general to deal with...but we had fun. It was just a holiday though. I would have been mentally exhausted after 18m!!

Go for it by all means

But selling the house seems odd, just let it out

I have just returned from another extended holiday in Asia & I love to travel. However, I have no dependants & savings.

My suggestions

Rent your property out with an agency
You will need money for agency fees, repairs emergencies, tax on the income. You will need gas & electricity safety certificates in place before you rent out your property.
Speak with agency how much you could rent your property for & their fees, normally 20%.

Get a credit card & tell your bank what countries you are due to visit, so that your card does not get blocked while you are abroad.

Flights are the cheapest, the earlier that you book

Accommodation is cheapest if you organise it while in the country that you are travelling, also trips & things to do, because you pay the local rate. So just book accommodation for the first couple of days, then look around for cheaper options.

Places like Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Cambodia are cheaper compared to UK, but be aware of strict visa requirements.

Places like Australia, New Zealand are very expensive

The temperature & heat was oppressive this time & I am used to travelling. It doesn't get cooler at night, 35 to 40 degrees. Walking around equals 1 bottle of water or liquid per hour per person, just to stay hydrated.

Get vaccinated before you travel

There is no NHS abroad, so ensure that you have travel insurance for all of you & spare money to pay for treatment at pharmacy, walk in doctor, hospital if necessary.

I would suggest going on holiday for a couple of weeks as a test first

If you have any further questions let me know

There’s nothing boring or miserable about questioning the wisdom of risking your financial security and the safety of two babies to fulfil a reckless fantasy.

OP, I would estimate that for a year you’d need around 50k for accommodation, plus travel costs - maybe another 20k for 4 of you, then general living costs - maybe another 20k. You’d need worldwide travel insurance beforehand too, plus all the relevant vaccinations.
As soon as you sell your house, the equity will reduce in real terms because the interest you may accrue on the money will most likely be far less than increased value in your house if you don’t sell it. Whereas, if you rent it out, you’ll have a steady income whilst you’re away, it will be increasing in value and upon your return you’ll have either a place to live or further rental income which you can use to rent your own place to live until you’re in a position of being able to get a mortgage to buy another property. (realistically, this would mean at least 6 months of employment upon return, so you’d need to find somewhere to rent in the meantime anyway.)

Er, you get comprehensive travel insurance?!