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

It’s a year. 12 months. She won’t lose her house if she rents it out. She can get another job if necessary and she isn’t particularly impressed with her life right now. Being a wage slave really does a number on some people.

This is just the January blues. Op could take an adventure without losing her house, life, job.

She was checking it out with HR last I saw. Anything could happen to her bloke at any time, he’s not safe just because he’s going to work every day. Presumably teachers’ pensions still provide for survivors.

No, read the op, it clearly says op can not have a sabbatical otherwise there would be no need for this thread.

Anything could happen to ops dh and then they have lost their only income, not for a year but forever potentially. The reason op is worried is because it IS a risk if she was 20 we wouldn’t be having this conversation!

''@BIossomtoes · Today 19:08

A year out isn’t going to lead to an impoverished old age, it’s one year out of 40 odd in a working life. I can’t believe how timid and cautious so many people are and what little lives they seem to lead. There’s no difference between doing this and retiring a year early.''

I agree...it is rather sad.

I also wonder how people like that would cope if faced by a sudden upset in their life (job loss, illness, relationship breakdown, accident) if they have always only done the boring and safe thing at all cost and resisted any change.

You also need to be able to build resilience and challenge yourself in life I think.

He’s a teacher. It’s a profession that’s haemorrhaging people, and OP has already said he can take a career break. She has been told she’s unlikely to be included in a current round of redundancies which means she could quite possibly get a sabbatical, it would help her employers’ financial situation if they didn’t have to pay her for a year.

Have you thought about working as you travel? In my "yoof" I went off to Japan to teach English in a school - it was great fun. You can work in state schools as an assistant - get paid enough to cover all your living expenses comfortably, and only teach for 16 hours a week. Lots of time off and long holidays - not much lesson prep etc. Probably easily do it in 25 hours a week for c 35 weeks a year. You could get involved in a different culture and community (choose city or country as you see fit) and use the long holidays to travel all over Asia without having to sell up or lose your income. I was very very well treated and looked after with respect by colleagues and didn't really ever want to leave. I did a lot of travelling in my twenties but always worked - never appealed to my lounging around (might do now though...) so maybe think about that as an option?

If you want a comfortable old age, then it needs to be carefully planned and saved for. I can’t imagine what old age on benefits or a tiny pension is going to look like in ten years or much less.

That is untrue because they will both lose their jobs, it may not be just one year - it could be much, much longer. If they can’t secure wel paid work after the year out what then? They could still live for another 30 plus years.

A year out isn’t going to lead to an impoverished old age, it’s one year out of 40 odd in a working life. I can’t believe how timid and cautious so many people are and what little lives they seem to lead. There’s no difference between doing this and retiring a year early.

I truly agree with this. You can achieve something similar without the risk. A year will be great but if it means an impoverished old age you might not think it was worth it in the long run. Many people are living to mid or late 90s. The paid for care will be non existent by then.

I second the suggestion you have to be careful. We are in the same age bracket. In your position I might retrain for a new job and take a shorter career break - or book an extra long holiday with unpaid leave.

You can plan an adventure either way. Many of these posters will be younger, and probably won’t understand just how hard it is to secure employment after a certain age. What if you can’t work again? Or your dh route back into teaching isn’t straight forward or he becomes ill? It is a make or break decade.

Honestly, if you're fed up with work in your 50s, think how you'll feel at 67 when you have to work. Sorry, but I think you need to be really careful with your money.

Why not go away for all of your husband's holidays, while you take unpaid leave where you have to? (And yes, I do know teachers work in the holidays, but when I was teaching I would've been happy to work harder at the end of term if I knew I would be setting off in a camper van the very minute school closed for the summer.)

Do it. So you don't save for one year. That's not the end of the world. Instead you will make your life richer in so many ways

But you have to plan your finances as if you will live to a reasonable age and in comfort, or you may end up in a dire financial state, especially as the state pension age is going up.

It's all very well throwing caution to the wind to fulfil dreams, as long as you've got your finances in order and can forgo an income of £60-70K, for a year, have a good cushion of savings to plug a work-gap when back, and can be sure you'll get back into work, etc etc.

If all those boxes are ticked, do it.

Yeah, what if you have a tiff? There is no where to strop off. You would have to slope back, get back into the campervan and drive off together or be marooned 😬

Look at the worse case scenario and then have a contingency that is double what you think you might need ( inc mortgage cover ) and go for it. You do only live once op. Do this with your eyes wide open though. Hopefully this thread has helped highlight things you didn’t think of - better prepared and all that!

Is this a camper van though or a motorhome as most camper vans don't even have toilets. Motorhomes are much bigger and have facilities

What about asking about a period of unpaid leave so you could trial it in DH summer hols for 6 weeks? You might find the dream is far from the reality! That way you haven’t turned everything upside down for no reason…

Sounds like it can’t hurt to apply though if you decide to quit anyway, nothing to loose there

Oh my goodness DO IT!

Also I am a landlord of 17 years (awaits abuse) and I don't recognize any of the horror stories being spouted here! Get a good letting agent, set it up properly and you're off.

Come back to tell us how it's going!

Old age never happens for some people. Do it while you can.

I would not be so confident about being able to come back to house and job in a year, so would plan on the assumption it would be longer and cost more.