To consider selling our house and travelling the world with two toddlers?

[travellingwithtoddlers]

DH have been discussing the possibility of doing this for a while. DH is incredibly unhappy with his job at the moment and is considering quitting and having a break to de-stress. I am a SAHM and we have two toddlers aged 1 and 3.5.

We don’t need to sell our house to use the money to travel (we have savings we could use). We are considering selling our house, lots of our possessions and our cars in order to reduce our responsibilities here at home and putting things that we want to keep into storage.

Ideally we would spend some time in SE Asia, Australia, the Middle East and perhaps return home after 12-18 months. We would then look to buy a house again upon our return.

Is this idea great or am I just swept up with the excitement of planning the trip? We can afford to support ourselves for the trip, but it would use all of our savings. We would be returning purely to a deposit for a house (from the sale of our current house) which would be approx 40% of the value of the sort of house we would like to buy (if this makes any difference!).

Also - does anyone have any tips on places to visit?!

If I were in his financial situation - which he definitely didn’t achieve by being a manchild who can’t deal with the adult world - I’d want to do exactly the same. There’s nothing noble about drudgery.

The idea will not work with such very young children.
Just their health is one of many concerns.

It's a great dream.

Do you think your DH could return to a similar paying job after a 12-18 month career break?

It was actually my idea.

I think so. Even if he couldn’t, the absolute worst case scenario is that he would have to drop down a few levels, but the salary would still be £90k per year.

Is your DH unhappy with his current position, or his industry as whole? If it’s just his current position and he’d be fine with something new in the same industry, that makes it easier.

You could always return to work too if your industry is fairly easy to reenter.

Oh come on now. Nomadic tribes and gypsies travel in whole communities of extended families. Not literally just two parents, one possibly depressed, and their two under 5s...

I'm the poster who's been going on about this being isolating for the kids. Gypsies do this very very differently

It’s not a terrible idea but the problem with stepping off the property ladder for a couple of years is that you can find you’ve dropped down a few rungs. At least by renting the house out you can pay towards the mortgage and maintain the asset appreciation. Unless you feel very confident in investing the £600k

No. Definitely the man’s fault.

I spent some years travelling, but really wished I had rented out my house before I went. As for places to go - Thailand, Laos, Taiwan and possibly Vietnam - miss Dubai, ugly place full of pretentious people - Australia - northern territory/outback is an amazing experience, gold coast is lovely for families, Perth is lovely but really cut off, Sydney is amazing.

Do it! You won't regret it.

Also- renting out your house- especially for a short period, is not that simple. We've done it during a temporary period overseas and first everything needs to be legally up to scratch (of course), not all tenants are problem free, and then you'll need it to be vacant to sell it. Not guaranteed. If you are overseas you'll need a decent agent to look after it- and no one I know is pleased with their agent. I'd sell it and bank the money in a high interest account.

If you go over to Living Overseas you'll probably get more positive thoughts. There are some Facebook groups as well- Our Tribe Travels has some families doing similar.

Oh god don't go to the UAE though, it's awful. Oman is probably the nicest country in the gulf. Normally I'd say go to Jordan but I'd keep a watching brief on the security situation at the moment.

Indonesia (not Jakarta, skip it) has a lot to offer, and Vietnam is wonderful.

We were ex-pats in a rather volatile African country when the DTs were tiny. We considered renting out our home but actually decided to leave it empty so that we had somewhere to return to at short notice if necessary. There is no way, in your position, that I would sell up.
I would embrace the adventure with the children though!

I'd worry about vaccinations and good medical care.

Toddlers are restrictive. You'll be doing a lot of turn taking. The trip would be better chunked up into amazing summer holidays when they are older IMO.

Each to their own and I say this objectively and not nastily but it sounds like you are both just overwhelmed and looking for a break which might be better addressed by a few weeks at a top notch all inclusive followed by a week near your families and a long weekend together without kids. X

I would 100% do it! You'll never get this time back whilst they're young. Although I'd consider renting the house out, but that's the only thing really. So jealous, wish this was a possibility for me but we just do a couple of one month trips a year instead

That is quite the drip feed.

I wouldn't blow 150,000 on bogging around in an air b'n'b in Australia, or stuck in Dubai with two toddlers. I can't imagine how this would be enjoyable. But whatever.

@mysteriousspiderbite Ive never been to Dubai but I agree that it doesn’t appeal at all. Far too hot and I think it’ll be boring after a week. SE Asia is far more interesting, imo.

We sold our house because we’re planning to live out here for the long term. I really don’t want to go back to the U.K. I wouldn’t have sold if we were just here for 18 months, I must say!

Also, I second going to the Living Overseas board. You’ll find likeminded people there!

Lol, you are such a joy. Open to new ideas and tolerant of all ways of doing things.

Many many many people would LOVE to do this. It's really not that hard to understand.

I don't know why people are banging on about stamp duty, you'll have to pay that anyway when you move.

Honestly that age is great to travel with if you take it slow and keep flexible and move with the weather (i.e. no middle east in August!). All of the places you list have good medical care, some much better than in the UK. With 2 adults you can always take turns having some down time. I'm very jealous! So much harder once they start school.

Now that will be a shock to the relationship!
Having said that, you've got plenty of funds to change mind and return at any random point (and buy two houses if need be... )

I wouldn't feel free and footloose and fun travelling with two small children, I'd feel a prisoner to circumstances and extra stressed as a result.
Also, when my DS was little, he was prone to travel sickness exclusively abroad and/or on the way there. Planes, taxis, hire cars, trains - all were "fun". #makingmemories

Though I'm sure I could spend a massive savings pot on some sort of project or adventure that would be someone else's idea of hell.

This thread is interesting. People convincing themselves that putting their children in an endless cycle of paid childcare and going to the park and never missing a bedtime is somehow giving them some kind of unassailable advantage over kids who’ve seen the world?

I would absolutely do it OP. I’d skip the Middle East and I’d suggest getting a campervan and driving down the east coast of Australia rather than an Airbnb. Australia has reciprocal healthcare for UK citizens btw.

Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia would offer some amazing experiences.

I mean she's not wrong. The fact there's a fuck load of money involved makes a huge difference to the advice! If I had those resources I'd 100% do it. Sadly I need to slave on month to month under barely tolerant stress levels like most other people. And yes I'm very jealous.

How old are you? If over 40 I would not purely because age discrimination looms its head pretty early nowadays. You are confident he will come back to a very well paid job but it could well be he struggles. Then what will you do? We have similar savings and I wouldnt consider it unless it was an agreed sabbatical from work and you both had jobs lined up to come back to.