Pack in the job, rent out the house, get in the camper van, fuck off

Do it. You may have to budget for NI contributions to keep your pension topped up. I paid voluntary contributions for years, it’s easy to arrange.
There are also lots of opportunities for housesitting, pet sitting to cut down on campsite costs. Look at a site called MotorhomeFun.

Adding to my previous post -

You're too young, he doesn't like his job anyway - so who wants a 'jaded' teacher reapplying for jobs in his 50s? Unfair on the students for a start. And your savings are meagre.

This could wait for another 5 years or more.
60 is not old nowadays.

I would do it (and have done similar with kids) though might consider shorter trip as sabbatical because your mortgage might not allow you to rent out and being a landlord is a massive hassle. We did a shorter trip and didn't bother rent out the house because although the money would have been nice most would have gone in tax and the hassle and risk outweighed it. Appreciate you might not be able to afford this - maybe go over summer and Airbnb house and if you love it then maybe plan a longer trip after that

If your hubby can get a career break, it's a no brainer really. Life is very short. Make sure you get good insurance though.

Have all the 'go for it!!' people had experience of being a landlord? Have had to evict people from their home? Had to live in a vehicle?
Moved back to your home country with no job, no home, unable to get a mortgage?
What are the enjoyable aspects to these things?

@Porkyporkchop I think you mistyped there “I think about this daily because I have young children”

😉😂

I did this aged 35 before I had DS (albeit not in a camper, just travelling and casual work around the world) and fully intend to go again once DS leaves home. I've never heard of anyone regret travelling more!

Do it! Figure out a way to make a small income while on the road. You could drop ship, make and sell items, work online, the possibilities are endless. I did similar while making and selling jewellery. Made a fortune in the tourist spots!

Personally, I wouldn't pull the trigger on big dreamy plans like this in January, the most miserable and darkest of months, when the temptation is to make grand knee-jerk decisions just to shake off the short term perma-gloom.

I'd say go for it..

A decent letting agency would cover absolutely everything for you..that's how they run a profitable business by taking a nice cut of the rent.

I wouldn't sell until you return, then think about selling and downsizing to get some funds behind you.

This is Mumsnet, so people will get all worried about pensions etc, but the number of people that have waited for the luxuries of retirement then have encountered ill health or very aged parents that stop them enjoying it is a concern for me.

Life is for living, you have each other, go for it!

It's do-able but...I think you are both quite young to pack in work for a year.

Personally, I think you are overestimating how 'tired' you might feel if you did this later and were older.

The couples we know who do this are early 60s or post-65 and retried. They are still 'young' and energetic.

Have you looked at the impact of taking time out on your pensions? Presumably your H will have a good pension being a teacher.

Why would he want to go back to it if he finds it unfulfilling now?

Your savings sound quite meagre if they are just 5 figures. That's just into the £10K region? It's not eve enough to tide you over for long if you both lost your jobs for any reason - redundancy or ill health.

In comparison, at your age, we had savings well into 6 figures.

Renting your house out- you need to be aware that tenants have a lot more protection now and if they don't want to leave you would have the hassle of getting them out via the courts.

Airbnb might be a better idea but you'd need to pay for the cleaning etc and have all of the out sourced.

My personal take on this is your H uses his teacher's summer holiday and you take holiday, make it 6 weeks and see how you like it.

We did something similar albeit working abroad. I would echo considering selling the house prior to taking off. We didn't and even with a letting agent, maintaining the house and worrying about making sure tenants were in place was an ongoing stress, which did take some of the fun out of the experience. Plus when we returned we couldn't settle back into the old house/neighbourhood, so ended up moving on relatively quickly anyway.

True.

If you go op, don't go expecting everything to fall out of view. You'll still need to attend to your affairs and be in touch and sorting things out...

But if you don't expect any different I'm sure that's manageable if you're happy to take the risk.

So long as your tenants come with well checked references you will be minimising the risk. Don't skip checking the references - and make sure your agent doesn't, I know someone whose agent didn't bother and... Well, it was not good.

Do it now! We left the uk for Spain at 48yrs old and live off rent. It’s epic, liberating and fun! No regrets! X

I know a couple of people who thought vanning would be wonderful and quickly found that van life is pretty demanding — and not as cheap as people expect it to be. And that wild camping comes with all kinds of surprises, like parking in a lovely quiet spot for the night, only to be woken in the early hours by locals banging your van and telling you to drive on or they'll puncture your tyres.

Have you checked what you need to do to your house to make it let-worthy? You have to have an electrical certificate and an EPC of D or above. And given proposed changes to tenant rights you may not be able to get your home back again until the tenant decides they're ready to move out.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but we've done the camper vanning thing ourselves and it's not as easy or idyllic as it looks.

Another thought (& how we plan on funding our travels) if you have a decent chunk of equity & able to downsize, why not do that now? Buy somewhere cheaper and use some of the equity to find the trip and stick whatever is left into your pension pot.

Do it, if you go with a letting agency they will screen your tenants or you could sign up for something like sabbatical.com and find someone that way - generally academics who move around and who have public profiles so really not in the business of trashing houses and ruining their reputations.

You won't have any household bills, just the car, fuel and food, and there is so much to see, just do it is my advice. I did something similar, moved overseas for five years, looking back I would not have done it had I known how hard and stressful it would be, equally it was the happiest time of my life, so really you don't want the regret of not doing it if you've got itchy feet.

We used letting agents! Letting agents can’t force people to pay, nor can they force them out of the house or pay hefty boiler replacement bills! They oversee the ‘small stuff’ with a capital S - at best.

Well, they could just up and drive somewhere cooler then. Also, insulated vans don't get as hot as you'd think, IME. It was in the high 30s in S. France and N.Spain last year, and I never felt too hot in my van with the windows open a crack.

I did this for 2 years (another form of transport though, not campervan.) Schengen is a complete PITA, but there is Turkey and most of the Balkans as an outlet by land. I saw lots of EU/UK campervans and motorbikes crossing to Turkey so that is very doable.

If you don't do it there will come a point when you are no longer able to, and you will wake up one day wishing you had.

Sounds fabulous. Do it.
Life is for living! Enjoy!

If it's something that would make you happy, go for it. Life is for living

Do you mean a campervan or motorhome, I doubt you could live easily in a campervan for any length of time, I struggle for a week

Do it! I wish I could too but I have too many responsibilities and not enough money! Do it while you can. You can’t really predict what life will look like in 5 years time. Also I know too many people who put things off until retirement and ended up too weighed down by elderly parents, ill or sadly too dead to enjoy it. Now is the perfect opportunity.

People complaining about being a landlord, there are Lettings Agents out there!

Bloody hell @BeAzureAnt with seven figures in the bank, no mortgage or debt, great pensions, and no kids or parents.....you wouldn't see me for dust! No way would I still be a slave to work at 60 I'd be getting out in the world whilst I still had health & energy to see it.