54, had enough of the daily slog so I'm not going to do it anymore....

[erikbloodaxe]

Well I have plan at least.

1. Sell this house
2. Buy little house
3. Give notice at current job.
4. Find remote PT job
5. Earn enough to cover outgoings (no mortgage thankfully)
6. Spend my time doing what makes me happy.

I'm not spending what time I have left bloody working full time. The time between now and retirement will just be wasted years.

Wish me luck! Adventures here I come

I wish you well @erikbloodaxe It sounds marvellous

The word boomer didn't even feature in my post, and pretty much nothing in either of yours makes sense.

My sons and I have just spent a very productive (and very hot) couple of hours going through the loft. 30 years of stuff up there, many memories but mostly just stuff. The skip is 2/3 full, hopefully another session on Sunday should do it.

We've cleared the garage too.

Anyone like a snowboard? 🤣

every generation has had the rough with the smooth just different pluses and minuses. It's all given different generations choices which is important as life is short and there isnt a re run

@Netcam - I love your micro caravan. Any chance of an internal pic? How much did it cost? I have caravan envy!

It's a Silver Mini Freestyle 290 here:
www.threeshiresleisure.co.uk/new-trigano-caravans/
We didn't get ours from Three Shires Leisure but had it serviced there recently, they seem like great people.
Ours is a 2022 model, a bit different to the one pictured there as we have a shower and shower tray. I think they have changed the UK spec for 2023 a bit.

@Tudorfish, more info here:
www.threeshiresleisure.co.uk/new-trigano-caravans/
And some more pictures we took when we first got it, before we filled it with stuff!

Thanks @Netcam - it looks fab! I'm going to be perusing their website this weekend. We're going to be empty nesters soon and need A Plan!

Sounds exciting. We have one off to uni and one off to 6th form in September. But we can go away when they stay at their dad's. Then in a couple more years we should have freedom to use it more regularly.

What we loved about this caravan when we found it, is that it fits in our small garage and also has hot water and a washroom. It was the only one we could find that fitted all of those requirements. Others were either too big for the garage or didn't have the hot water/washroom.

We love it, it suits us really well. It is light so we can push/pull it in and out of the garage ourselves and quite easy to tow as it is so small. It really only just fits in the garage with a 10cm gap one each side of the doorway bit we still always manage fine getting it in and out. We did have to clear out the whole garage first which took about a year as it was completely full of stuff!

We are both quite short, I am 5'3 and DH is 5'6. If you are much taller you would probably find the bed in this model too short, but there are other models that have bigger beds.

Do let us know if you end up finding something. And please ask if you have any questions. What kinds of things would you like to do when you have more free time?

has hot water and a washroom.

That is appealing!

DH wants to go camping (no way) or buy a caravan but I think the latter would be too cumbersome.

I love the idea of storing a micro caravan in the garage and taking off for a weekend or a week into the countryside to fill the void our lovely DD will leave.

Yes, it is a great compromise between camping and a full size caravan. It is definitely much more comfortable than camping, we have 2 layers of mattress toppers on the bed (one memory foam, one wool) and a duvet and pillows. It is like sleeping in a proper bed and having our own flushing toilet makes a huge difference. We don't bother turning the bed into a table and sofas, but you can. We just have a tray each on the bed when we eat inside.

The fridge is also excellent with a mini freezer and it has 2 hob rings so we can make a reasonable meal. We bring a kettle, little moka pot for coffee and small toaster. We have a little Smart TV so we can watch Netflix in the evening. We can charge all our devices as there are 3 plug sockets and 2 USB sockets.

I would say it has all the main basic comforts of a caravan but it is much more compact and more basic. What it doesn't have are some of the luxuries of big caravans like full central heating (there is a small gas heater and we also bring a tiny fan heater), or oven/grill (we bring a little electric camping griddle we use outside sometimes). A shower has to be quick as the hot water tank is only 5 litres, but it is enough to wash hair and body. And there is only really enough floor space for one person at a time to do something, so one of us has to sit on the bed when the other is getting dressed/cooking/washing up. But all of that is outweighed by the advantage of having something very small we can tow and we can store in our garage, even if it takes up the whole garage!

For us it is great and even on our 3 week trip last summer we were happy and comfortable. Not sure I'd want to go away in the winter with no central heating as I wouldn't want to use the gas heater or fan heater at night. But for Spring/summer/autumn it's fine.

More pictures for you.

I think we've found a house. Seeing it at 12 so fingers crossed. We woke early so are off for a hike for a few hours. I'll update about the house later.

I often wonder what it must feel like to have such power.

The 50-70 age group are so powerful as a voting group, yet they are doing the exact thing the govt doesn’t want. Tightening the labour market, not filling their pensions any higher, even in some cases downsizing putting downward pressure on the property market.

All Ponzi schemes fail eventually I guess.

@ThankmelaterOkay as the Labour Party have pledged to reverse the Tory decision to remove the lifetime allowance on pensions, a lot of people in their 50s who are close to their limit have probably decided it's not worth topping up their pension any more. It's the law of unintended consequences...

@erikbloodaxe How did the house viewing go? Very exciting times!

I would love to do this. The thing that puts me off is how much bloody work our house would need to make it saleable - and the fact that nothing at all is selling around here.

If we could actually downsize then I could (possibly) afford to stop doing so damn much.

The house itself was fine but very exposed and I'd like a polytunnel which I don't think would stand a winter there. Onwards and upwards.

I did this. Its excellent. I sacked off my high pressure job in London, sold my place and have a tiny mortgage on a tiny place now. I work shifts I want to in a care home, low stress, lovely environment. Excellent local music scene. Definitely enjoy life much more now.

It's very interesting to watch, if nothing else.

Thanks for the photos and info @Netcam - lots of food for thought.

The 50-70 age group are so powerful as a voting group, yet they are doing the exact thing the govt doesn’t want. Tightening the labour market, not filling their pensions any higher, even in some cases downsizing putting downward pressure on the property market

Most 50-65 year olds I know are working full time.

Jolly good.

Update if anyone is intetested......

The house will be on the market next Thursday and I'm off to the Isle of Skye at the weekend. I will be 55 on Saturday. I'm hoping this time next year my plan will have come to fruition.

Wow @erikbloodaxe go for it!

Congratulations xxx best of luck with it all xx

So glad you posted an update - I did what you are doing. There may be the odd moment you think ‘what did I do?’ And then your heart will say ‘I did what I needed to do and it’s all new and exciting’

I have no regrets - life has been different, challenging, rewarding, fun
Meet lots of new people and did lots of new things

Welcome to the rest of your life - and happy birthday 🥳