Start a new life

[LubyLoo222]

Dh and i are fed up. We have 2 young kids and 2 standard 9-5 jobs paying for childcare just going from each day to the next. We have about 60k equity in the house and are so tempted to sell up and get off the beaten track. Some exanples of things we have suggested to each other. Run a campsite in france, buy a boat to live on in UK, emigrate to spain, buy a cheap lease to a pub and just rent our house out. We feel we should do this before the kids get tied up in education. Family are supportive of the idea but its such a big thing. We dont want to lose all our money, we want to use it to start something new. So that if we decide to come back and settle down we would at least have a deposit for a house again. We feel like it could be the best thing we ever did, but also the scariest. So just looking for advice, anyone done this sort of thing/ where to start/ what to avoid. TIA

It sounds very brave and exciting! Do you have any other savings? I'm not sure how far you'll get if you've got just £60k and want to keep back a deposit for a house (c £20k?) leaving you with approx £40k, 2 kids and no jobs sorry if I've pissed on your chips there....

I'd start by looking into pub leases/ boat costs and speaking to people that are landlords/boat owners etc to weigh up the pros and cons and get the big picture. The campsite idea sounds very seasonal - unless it's southern Spain.

60k (minus agents fees, legal fees etc) really doesn’t sound enough to both jack in jobs and start a new life, and that’s assuming you can sell the house at all, never mind for 60k more than your redemption figure (which of course might be more than what is left on your mortgage)

Yea thats why we want to use the 60k to be a start and to do something that would provide us with an income eg campsite or pub. Theres always an option for us to get jobs in a new location if it came to it. But yea whatever we did we would like to be able to sell on and get at least 20k back. Unless we loved the new lifestyle and never came back. 😂. DH is facing potential redundacy so he may not be walking away and that money could contrbute to the fund. Its really that situation which has made us re-evaluate life and rather than stress over paying the mortgage we could flip the situation on its head and let something positive come from it.

Do NOT buy a pub lease unless one of you wants to spend all day in the kitchen. "Wet" pubs are disappearing by the minute. But good luck with your adventure

Yes I'm another that would say no to a pub. Hundreds shut down every year. Your children would be parentless every eve/night as you'd be slogging your guts out. Or you'd be employing someone for bar work / kitchen help or basically a nanny to look after them. Factor in the cleaning, bottling up, ordering, same suit day in day out. Don't do it .

same shit *

Sounds like a good idea on paper but I really don't think any of those suggestions would work esp with small kids.

Is it the 9-5 jobs you hate, or the location you currently live in? If it's the latter you could still do something quite radical, like move to a beautiful but cheap part of the UK, where you'd have a completely different lifestyle outside of working hours.

Do you have any particular skills/languages you could bring to a new venture?

Just some ideas for the pot...

Run a B&B .....probably really hard work but you might get to live in a lovely place and grab some work life balance back.

Set up a Consultancy in whatever you or you DH might specialise in? My DH has done this and we have never looked back but.....(there's always a but isn't there!!) you sometimes have to ride some pretty rough storms so make sure you are robust enough to take the rough with the smooth.

Do a course in something that would enable you to work from home and take clients on. E.g. Copy editing or Accountancy. A little boring but at least you would be in control of your life.

Set up a small holding like "The Good Life"!!

Just putting one of my own little dreams out there !

Before you do anything sit down with DH and work out the pros and cons of your life on paper then make a wish list/mood board of what you would like for you and your children. E.g. Is being a high earner important, countryside or city, employed or self employed etc etc. This might just help you focus on which route to take!

Sounds really exciting ... Good Luck in whatever you decide to do!

Yea I did used to manage a pub before i went to uni and it was my least favourable option. @Bibibou thanks for your positivity! We do have skills which would be transferable to any part of the world. I had actually thought of retraining as an accountant but thought my current career path is probably slightly more exciting. No offence to any accountants!! Yes a small holding would be amazing!