To liquidate everything when I get to 60 and live in luxury hotels until the cash runs out

Not in the eyes of the law. 7 years before you die is deprivation of assets and of course she will get what she’s entitled to from the government. If you have no assets they have to provide your care. They aren’t going to leave an old lady out on the streets. She will be entitled to help with housing and pension. Plus shell have her own pension. Just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean it’s not true. She’ll be entitled to the same as someone who has never worked and always claimed benefits. Only difference is she’s paid in and they haven’t

I have a friend who did this. Not the hotels bit, but the liquidation of assets. She blew through it all and is totally screwed now. Failing health. Stuck in a tiny upstairs flat. Is totally miserable.

I'm intrigued as to how old you are now OP and the value of your assets. I think plans for retirement would be different without DC, much less reason not to move somewhere nicer. It's a shame Brexit has messed up the chance of spending more time in southern Europe that a lot of people were hoping for. Is your plan to stay within the UK or to travel ? I get the idea that 60 is a long way away for you though, most 60 year olds are far from thinking of care homes.

Yes, sadly if she has actually blown all her money it is the rest of us who will have to pick up the tab for her. A basic state pension and just enough Pension Credit to keep her alive in a manner to which she is not accustomed, followed by an uncomfortable couple of dying years in a bottom of the pile carehome. Not what I would want.

I'm coming up to 60 and I would love to be able to do that OP. I had a major heart attack last year and I am under no illusions about living until I reach State Pension age and would love to just enjoy life without the mundane stuff while I can. Sadly I have nothing of value to sell, so I will probably be working until I go toes up....could even be at work when that happens.

That's not the same a living in a luxury hotel until your money rubs out.

Having been to Delhi, good luck to them.

Trust me - from somebody who lives near a canal and knows a number of canal boat dwellers... it is not the cosy, lovely, rustic, bohemian life you think it is. It's fucking hard work.

Seriously. I've known people crumble under this life, and then have to sell the boat, and go into private rented accommodation. You have to be really tough and give up lots of luxuries. And winters are brutal as fuck! Canal boat living is not for the faint hearted.

I‘m not sure your maths is mathsing here. Obviously I don’t know how much your home is worth, but say £1m plus a further £200k in assets. £1.2m sounds a lot but that’s £60k a year for 20 years. That’s £164 a day. Not many luxury hotels are £164 a night, bearing in mind you’d have no kitchen so need to buy food etc. It might buy you premier inn or best western living but I don’t think that’s what you meant…

In my area, there are amazing privately funded care homes, stunning surroundings and excellent care. No way does the council fund them.
You'll be in the cheapo one down the road. Which admittedly might also have a few private residents, but let's not pretend social services funds the posher ones.

Also the threshold for funded nursing hone care is extremely high. They will try everything to keep you in the community first. Even if your care package consists of carers coming in several times a day to nurse you in bed.

If you have care needs on that scale you'll have a much longer wait if you think room service will sort it for you

Nope. You’re kidding yourself. Most self-funders are receiving the same care as people who have paid.

I’m talking generally here, of course, based on my own experience, and experiences of people I know and on here. I’m sure there’s the odd fabulous home here and there with the most wonderful level of care available, but they’re for the rich.

You moan about dodgy care home owners but intend to screw over tax payers and pensioners who have provided their care. You are no better than a dodgy off shore care home owner
Following your logic, anybody who spends their money for leisure when claiming any sort of benefit from the state is no better either.
What is the difference between the people who spend in their 30s without a care for the future and OP doing it in her 60s?

It is absolutely a deprivation of assets. If the OP thinks she is going to blow everything. Hundreds of thousands of pounds - in the next six or seven years to travel around the planet and then come back and live off the state, she's mistaken. She will not get a penny Except a very basic state pension. Probably won't even get housing benefits if she needed it.

But who would care for you in a hotel if you ended up like that?

Have you actually crunched the numbers? ! How do they look?

Two wrongs...

What's the difference between their moral compass and yours? Curious as you are so disgusted with their immoral behaviour.

I hanker for selling up and buying either a canal boat (the wider ones) or a small yacht - 33ft long would be plenty big enough. Or even a caravan and travelling round the UK and Europe

Can't see it ever happening and I'm somewhat past 60

Sounds like a great idea. I have kids. But hope to cash in at a similar age. Give them their inheritance early so they can actually utilise it. Wouldn’t be deprivation of assets as I’d hope to live past 70. Then blow the rest on expensive travel. Once it runs out I’ll come home and live off the state. Never claimed as much as £1 in benefits so it’s about time I got back something from everything I’ve put in

Would you live in one hotel or travel and live in lots? What if you run out of money before you qualify for state funded care? Not everybody ends up qualifying for a state funded care home, you may stay in good enough health to live independently in which case what do you do when the money runs out? Also what happens if whilst living this life you get a diagnosis such as cancer which means you are no longer able to live nomadically moving between luxury hotels? Suddenly you need medical equipment or visits from a nursing team etc which means you can’t stay in a
hotel but you are too well for hospital and don’t need enough care to qualify for a care home, where will you live then? It seems madness to give up the stability of a home to live nomadically between hotels when you don’t know what the future will hold. I can understand wanting to downsize and spend the leftover money on luxuries but it seems madness to give up a stable home in favour of living nomadically between hotels when you don’t know you will stay well enough to live that lifestyle. The state won’t fund a care home if you don’t qualify for needing one but there is definitely a level of health between being well enough to travel and live in hotels and having care needs high enough to go into a home and it’s unlikely you will go straight from being well enough to live in a hotel straight to requiring a state funded care home.

I'd do it, my husband passed away suddenly at 6. Just because you're only 60 it doesn't mean you'll get old unfortunately.

@SerendipityJane I didn't go to school in the UK and we never read any Maugham at school, more's the pity! But I have read everything he has written and am a particular fan of the short stories, each of which I have read many many times. What they don't tell you about human nature isn't worth knowing! I read The Lotus Eaters in my early 20s and it made a particular impression on me.

I mean the OP can do it until they get bored, want to do something else. Just because today they feel it’s their retirement plan doesn’t mean things won’t change as they go along. I think plan for it, go for it and be flexible if things change/you change etc.

It's up to you what you do with your money. I am 75 and have virtually no savings but own my home and live quite well on my pension, I never worry too much. I hope I don't go into a care home, neither my parents nor my in-laws did. If I do my home could be let to pay for it, or sold, but my idea is that if I do need care, I will have carers come to my home. Obviously somebody who develops dementia needs more than that but why worry about what might never happen. I show no signs of that so far though of course I don't know what is around the corner.

An aunt of mine was in a care home for about four years. She really could not walk, was wheelchair bound. She hung on as long as possible in her bungalow but in the end had to accept the inevitable. She had no children but my cousin and I visited her often and took her out. It was a beautiful place with very good care, efficiently run, lovely, kindly snd properly trained staff. The food was very nice too. Her room was lovely, she had her own toilet and wash basin. The home was owned by ordinary people who wanted to provide the best for the sick/disabled elderly, having cared for relatives themselves. If they managed to squirrel away some money from the Inland Revenue, I don't blame them, they paid enough tax in their lifetimes. However that was their business and I know nothing of it.

Enjoy what you have but be sensible, you are not yet sixty (I think), so could be around for a long time. Being old is not all bad, I am content, secure and cosy and there is still life in me.

Yeah, 100% this. OP sounds like one of the 'lotus eaters' with every passing post!