Who doesn’t own a house and isn’t bothered?

[Horcrux]

We are trying to sell our house and we have very little intention of buying another. We have 2 children and jobs and plan to rent as it’s cheaper in our area. But it will also give us more freedom to travel.
Is this totally stupid?

@f00k I could have written your post! Good luck with you're saving, were aiming for a similar timeframe!

Rogue apostrophe

I think you are rather naive. I knew many yachties in the past. Many of the boat deliveries are fronts for moving drugs around the world. I know people who have arrived in the US delivering boats and boat was stuffed with drugs. The Caribbean in a major drug departure point for yachts headed to Europe, one of my relations was arrested with a huge amount of drugs there an was put in a squalid prison, no prisoner’s rights there. He was drug trafficking across the Med before.

How will you buy boat fuel, food, mooring fees, boat maintenance etc?

The sailing plan is wonderful and I think you should do it. Maybe plan for a year or two and then reassess? (I know lots of people who do this or have done this)

I would be wary of a plan to stay on the boat on your own with kids while your husband goes away with work - you would need to very aware of the safety of where you were at that time.

I would invest in a buy to let. Normally I don't advocate this as I dont like the buy to let culture but in your case it would make absolute sense as it would give you a home to live in if/when when you return.

When you say "£8000 was on interest" you are forgetting that £5000 was on the capital. And as time goes by two things happen - the amount of interest reduces so the amount you are paying off the capital increases. And salary rises etc (even if they just track inflation) mean that the amount you are paying is less of a % of salary.

But I think you mainly resent it because you would like an adventure. So you are using (flawed) maths to justify that.

A buy to let with a management company sorting the issues will allow you to have your adventure without compromising your options in the future.

Can't comment on the boat thing as I have no experience.

Owning a home isn't for everyone and some people will never be able to afford a mortgage.

However, for me it has been a good investment. Our mortgage is paid as things change, salaries increase and we paid it off early. I am not yet 50 and this means we have both security AND money to do what we want. If shit happens we can always sell and take the money out which isn't something you can do if you rent. I also think of a mortgage as an enforced savings scheme. Renting and saving is hard but paying a mortgage means long term investment of a guaranteed roof over your head.

It sounds like you hate the restriction so rent if you hate it so much. I would be concerned about how your young children may feel when they are older and have lived on a boat but then who knows they may love your carefree attitude or rebel against it .

This is a really interesting thread! I'm going to lay my cards on the table and say I can't think of anything worse than living on a boat. However that's not the point. You are obviously passionate about your idea and it s There are a couple of other things that concern me too. People who get free social care when they are old cannot choose the home they live it - it's restricted by the amount the local authority chooses to pay and some homes are pretty basic. It's the people with their own funding that have the choice and it's bloody expensive. Secondly you cannot assume that your children will inherit anything from their grandparents. My grandmother was a wealthy woman before she went into a nursing home at the age of 92 and nearly £400,000 went on her care before she died nine years later. It's also not realistic to think you will live on the boat until you die - you will need to return home at some point when you both become too frail to sustain the lifestyle. Also what will happen if your children dislike the lifestyle as they get older and want to return to the UK? You are actually following your dream not necessarily theirs but it's going to massively impact on them. What will your children do to build their own lives and financial security when they've been home educated on a boat? I don't meant this to sound negative but I think (and I don't mean this rudely) you haven't thought this through. Apart from the sabbatical idea have you considered waiting until your children are older and have finished their education before you and your other half go travelling?

A few questions:

• where will your DH be resident for tax purposes and what constraints will that put on you?
• do you anticipate being permanently anchored in one country or peripatetic?
• how will you access good medical and dental care, and how will you pay for it?
• how much life insurance does he have? he has a risky job
• how much pension provision do you both have? Bearing in mind that if you aren't paying NI, no state pension
• where will you be if the two of you split?
• what will you do if he gets injured? He has a physical job - as he ages the chances of a career ending injury will go steadily up
• what qualifications will your children sit, and how?

Oh, and:

• what's your plan B for if the inheritance gets left to someone else, or the donkey sanctuary, or eaten up in care fees?

The boat thing isn’t a whim. We all know how to sail. Dh is a professional commercial skipper, I am an instructor. My dc have sailed from a young age. We know what we are getting ourselves in to, my dc are all aware and keen.
Yes they’re young and have no idea what it means long term. But it’s an adventure.
We will not be ferrying drugs

Boats depreciate in value a lot quicker than houses

People think that having a mortgaged property is more secure. It's really not.

^Speak for yourself. I’ll have a house I own at the end. What do you have?

We live overseas in a country where 95% of people rent. It is completely normal here. The UK does seem to have a fixation on home ownership.

If I asked my eight year old if he wanted to travel round the world on a boat rather than go to school I'm sure he'd jump at the opportunity - it doesn't necessarily mean it's the right decision for him though! I know a lot of people are asking you a lot of hard questions on here but they're good ones. I can sense you don't like it but I can also sense your passion to escape from the daily grind which I respect. However there may be alternative ways of escaping the rat race that also address the genuine issues that posters have raised here.

We sold our high maintenance home and made a choice to rent rather than buy.

It has been a revelation. Saving a lot as our mortgage was high. We live in a much much bigger and better house.

Our savings are growing at a higher rate than our house was appreciating. It is a win win.

No regrets at all.

Having a house is more secure though.

If you privately rent you are at the mercy of your landlord. It’s so hard now to get a HA or council property.

Yes there is the risk if you have a mortgage that you will get sick or a partner passes away but you still have that risk when you rent.

We will be residents of the UK, which we will have to return to every 3 months due to fucking Brexit. My dh can fly out to work from anywhere around the world. He also works for European sailing companies. My quals are recognised in the EU/NZ/AUS and US.
We have private healthcare from DH’s work which covers us in many countries.

Dh plans on not working on rigs in the next 10yrs... The plan to to be contracted with a delivery company rather than freelancing for one. Which is doable as the quals he has are very few and far between.

I owned a house, dad made it clear it was important.

Roof broke, £10k bill
Boiler broke £2.5k bill
Windows needed replacing, £1.5k
4 trees needed removing as roots pushing up wall, £5k including fixing a wall.
That was in 5 years.

Sold up, rent a place, £450 a month and no roofs, boilers, windows , walls... All sorted by landlord.
What finally pushed me into selling up and renting was my dad. He paid his mortgage off after 50+ years of being mortgaged. 68 yeas old. Took ill at 70, house taken, sold, paid for 3 years of his care, then he dropped dead.

50years slaving for mortgages and bills gone in the blink of an eye. What a waste of a life.

Our dc would sit their GCSE as normal (if they’re still going by then) this can be done remotely, or at a local centre close to my mum.
If we split then we reassess... we both have family who will put us up if needed.

The idea of using half of our equity to buy to let is sound more sensible

I would give anything to never have to deal with landlords and their agents ever again! I hate renting more than I can possibly explain but have no choice.

Took ill at 70, house taken, sold, paid for 3 years of his care, then he dropped dead.

I would much prefer to sell my house and have a choice with my care than be reliant on what the state wants to provide.

Yes @Horcrux
I lost my dad at 35, he killed himself due to stress. I lost my stepdad at 54 to cancer... he was a yr off paying his mortgage off. He and his wife were going to retire at that point. He’s dead now. Yes my brother has done well financially out of his death, but he lost his dad at 22!

I guess it's different mind sets, I want a long term plan. One that includes the fact that at mid 40s, my super fit (competing at international level sports fit), is beginning to find muscle niggles that dont just go with one physio appointment and a good nights sleep - that can cope with one of us dying or getting seriously injured some how.

A mortgage can be insured. If you struggle to make the payments, it is a hell of a lot harder for a bank to repossess than a landlord to get you out. And frankly, not paying is the only way you'll lose your home, most people i know in rented property who have been given notice it's down to the landlord wanting/needing to sell, not because they did anything wrong.

I would look at ways to keep a rental property of some sort to keep you on the property ladder - frankly if in a few years time you realise the nomadic lifestyle wont work for your dcs secondary education, you will have had tenants paying your mortgage for you for the inbetween period, building equity for you.

Once you've stepped off the property owning ladder and spent your equity, it will be very hard to go back, and most retirement plans assume you will have property to fund it.

Op I think your situation is different. Some people will never be able to own their own home and that is fine. If I was in that situation I would make peace with it. But if I already owned my own home, there's no way I'd give it up.

I think that you would be leaving yourselves very financially vulnerable indeed if you didn't keep a property foothold in the UK, and all it's going to take is one unexpected incident to bollocks you up good and proper.

Sure, it's a grand adventure to do this for a few years with a property foothold maintained. But it's very likely to prove wildly impractical on a long term/permanent basis.

Maybe I lack imagination but it is your children I worry about. How will they socialise, get regular exercise, pursue hobbies, get a full education if they are being floated around the world in a boat for years. I think you and your husband will be okay. If you end up impoverished pensioners then there is a basic safety net. I just wonder what sort of life it is for your kids as they go through their teenage years and how it would impact on their adult lives and available choices. I think you should wait until your youngest is 18 and sell up and sail then.