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

I wouldn't do it because

a. I have a risk adverse personality

b. Low 5 figure savings doesn't sound like much.

C. Renting out house sounds at worst like a nightmare (tenants from hell etc) and at best immoral (renting out house to potentially move back in x months to sell on return - this would be someone's home).

D. You have a good salary. An exit would be a one way ticket. I've done that already. Have a decade of regrets...

MIL died suddenly at 55.

My mum got a horrible cancer at 50 (she's still alive but living a very different life due to ongoing health issues and travelling around is not possible).

My paternal grandad had a heart attack at 60.

My maternal grandma had a stroke at 56.

So yeah, do it.

Definitely do it! Life is short. You don't know what is round the corner. You're more likely to regret not doing it than doing it. Live some life.

Do it! Life is too short, fucking well enjoy it.

Eh??? There are plenty of responsible tenants around. Use a good letting agent who will check credit scores and references and arrange insurance in case the worse happens.

I haven’t read the whole thread, but have read all your posts, @GotTheBug . I’m not really into telling others what to do, but, fwiw, this is my experience:

I re-mortgaged and then rented my house (single parent of adult kids) in my early 40s, when I had far less than five figure savings and lived on a narrowboat, travelling for much of the year and working temp jobs over the winter and when needed. Three years on, I sold my boat at a profit, and emigrated for a few years. My house was not trashed. I did use an agent, so factor that cost in, but I think that was thoroughly worth the fees. When I came back, in my early 50s, it took me three months to find a job, and three more before it started, so, again, I just did temp jobs to tide me over. Zero regrets and some fabulous memories and friends from those days.

When I was 59, and by then married, my husband was diagnosed with a life-limiting illness, and we realised that if we wanted to do more longer-time travelling, it should be soonish. So a year later, we sold our house, downsized to get rid of the remaining mortgage and give us a financial buffer, cashed in one of my husband’s pensions, and sodded off backpacking round the world for two years. When we came back, our house was slightly damaged (about a thousand quid’s worth) and we had to stay with friends for three months before the tenants left. I’d planned on early retirement, but was bored, so after six months or so found a job in a new-to-me field on an initial two year contract, which led to other roles with the same employer, all the way through to retirement in my late 60s. No real regrets, but cashing that pension may have been a mistake, as my husband (given a 2 - 5 year prognosis 10 years ago) is still alive!

My mum died when she was younger than I am now, very shortly after she retired, and since I retired I’ve had a couple of injuries and a failed corrective surgery, which limits how active I am. Similarly, although my husband is still alive he’s now less mobile (and travel insurance for a long trip is prohibitively expensive - we recently had a quote for a continuous year of travel that was £8k!) so we are glad we made the choices we did.

One thing I did do was to pay voluntary NI to cover missing years, so I get a full state pension. My other pensions took a hit obviously, although when I was working I paid extra in when I could, but it’s worth factoring that into your planning. It was still worth it though.

You already have the camper van so that means you don't need to buy one and have experience/know you like it. You could leave your job and perhaps find occasional work, Airbnb your house (you said seaside location) for every school holiday or DH does bank teaching every now and then for a year as an initial trial. I would go for it.

Would love to do it, if it makes financial sense go for it

@AlwaysPeterPan are you a teacher?

I agree that "life is for the living", but the months and years once you return from your potential trip are also "life" and it's worth being careful that these will be of decent quality too (as much as any of us can, obviously elements of this are outside of our control).

You haven't answered questions on the state of both of your pensions, which is fair enough, it's a public forum and you don't have to share, but does make me wonder if they're quite small.

Renting is a roll of the dice, as you can see on this thread it's worked out for many but some have broken even and there is the potential for a tenant that will be difficult and cost you much more than you expect.

If you're selling/downsizing don't forget solicitors fees, estate agents fees, stamp duty (can be v expensive), the cost of storing your furniture and belongings or paying to buy new.

Again, I know I sound quite negative about it, but I'm just highlighting some of the areas that "go for it!" doesn't cover.

Also for those saying "my friend/brother/aunt etc did it" are overlooking the fact that their financial situation is likely to be completely different to yours. Some might have substantial pensions, be sitting on bug inheritance or have a portfolio of investments or savings and so on, and so the level of risk involved for them would be completely different.

I wouldn't want to spend a year in a campervan worrying about my future. I would want to feel confident that I was coming back to a decent lifestyle.

The sensible method would be to pay off your mortgage fully first. Then rent out your property

I believe that everyone can access their personal pension at 55 & take 25% tax free
Investigate this as a way of paying off your mortgage

We have a camper van & go for shorter trips
Some campsites ate £40 per night with facilities, some are free

Buy camper van breakdown insurance

This is so true.
You don't necessarily see it creeping up either, and then you're stuck in place for a good while (still got kids at home and a sick Mum who needs me for as far into the future as I can predict)...
I'd say do it OP - one life and so much to see and experience😃(...early 50's and realising I haven't really seen much yet but hope to one day) in the relatively short space of time we get being free of obligations.
Good luck with your decision/planning etc!

In the last 12 months i have lost 3 friends, had 2 more diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, another 2 diagnosed with cancer, one has had a stroke, one with a heart condition and i myself have had 2 heart attacks. One was 63 the rest are/were in their 50s. You are not promised tomorrow so rent the house out and go before you can't.

If you do sell your house, don't sell it in a rush if you can avoid it. Get it looking really good, sell it when the garden is looking it's best and make sure it doesn't look like a rushed sale because you're keen to get going. It's tax free income you can then invest so you want to get the best possible price for it.

I was thinking that or airbnb?

Do it. I've lost family in their 50s. Life is for living.

Watch By the curb and people like that on YouTube.

We’re planning on a 3 month sabbatical to do route 66 for DH’s 50th which is in 5 years time. We know we won’t be able to do a year but totally would if we could!

I’d do the van thing over a Scottish croft, lol - and I’m Scottish. You can romanticise Scottish weather when you are not living in it, lol.
In your position I’d do it. You can rent out the house, and at least one of you has a job to come back to. The longer you leave it, the less likely you will do it and we regret the things we haven’t done in life rather than the things we have op. Look into it more and plan, plan, plan! Keep us posted too.

Scotland isn't some playground and besides, there are rules about crofting (having to actually work the croft). People buying up houses in Scotland and leaving them empty half the year is having major negative impacts on rural economies. Locals get completely priced out of the housing market and businesses become unviable when there isn't a year round local population using them and working in them. It's the modern day Highland Clearances.

You mistake my point, most tenants are good tenants but at some point you will run into the bad kind.

If you assume everyone is fair and reasonable like you were, you will be appalled by their actions but nevertheless powerless to do anything but follow the costly and extremely long winded legal process.

Have a contingency plan, seriously so not underestimate this.

It's what you wrote. If you want to be more accurate, then people won't misjudge you.
What comes over is that you've not given very much thought to the finances and practicalities. If you had, you'd not need to ask.

Yup, I had a friend die at 60 of pancreatic cancer. It was so quick...about 4 months from diagnosis to the funeral. He was a workaholic, and that promised retirement with his wife is not happening. She looks utterly lost.

Given you are mortgaged, you need your lender's permission to let out your house (some lenders used to be difficult about this,ours was) and would probably also need to convert to a buy to let mortgage.

There is no guarantee that a tenant will leave when notice is served, they don't legally have to until a court orders them out. Yes you can get a letting agent to manage everything but that doesn't absolve you of your legal responsibilities as a landlord and many amateur landlords are pretty clueless about their obligations. But selling and then rebuying later is also risky.

Where would you go and is your van comfortable to live in not just spend a few weeks in and is it well insulated and shaded? I see you already know you can only spend 90 days in any 180 in Schengen so you would have to dip in an out of Turkey or similar.

Do not underestimate the difficulty of finding a job when you're a woman in your 50s with a gap in your CV. You will probably be competing for minimum wage work with people much younger than you. I speak from experience.

stable but unfulfilling jobs,

@Rhinostone OP's first post- 'unfulfilling jobs'

That's a sad admission for a teacher.

I'm just posting from experience of friends.

DH has friends who do this but they are mid 60s and retired. Fit, healthy, etc. House paid for, lots of cash in hand.

Other friends of mine did this in their early 40s- no kids- and they were self employed, so could do some work 'on the road' using the internet.