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?!

I would still rent your house out for 12 months , as you can then sell just before you come back, then you will still have the money ready to buy but would have gained rent and paying more off the mortgage and any value increase. Tenants leave, arrange cleaner and painter if necessary from abroad, then get agent to sell it. You could even get the agent to take the photos whilst it has your stuff in now ;some people aren't good at visualising when it's empty)

with that age of children I would possibly do less places too or do an extended holiday now (6 weeks maybe) and longer when they are older and can carry their own bags

The travelling would be fun and a good adventure. I would be struggling the whole time with the anticipation of needing a home and jobs (have it got them already?) to return to. Would you have savings to rent on return or stay with family's

Absolutely go! Once your children are older and settled in schools, it's so much harder to go. Fabulous time spent together. It will be a great experience.

In SE Asia, we visited a few great islands off the East Coast of Malaysia that are great fun and easy to get to from Singapore (though Kuala Lumpur would be a much cheaper base). Google Sea Gypsy and Rawa Island.

Go, have fun. I'll bet you won't return to the UK!

Sounds amazing. I’d keep the house though if possible and sell it when you return, do you have any friends or family who might be looking to rent somewhere?

NO to travelling like this with children as young as yours. You should have done it before having children - like in a gap year.

Ok, Aus but similar property market style. My DB took a year out & went travelling with his DW & DC. They looked at selling but even an agent said to rent it out.
They had a fabulous time but did suffer financially. Having their house to return to was what kept them on stable ground to rebuild their savings. Which they have. Their kids were older though.

If you're coming to Australia for a few months I recommend leasing a car or buying an old one to resell at the end. You really do need a car to get around & road tripping between destinations is where the best places are. You can also stay at much cheaper accommodation that's less central to tourist areas.

All other things aside (and I’m not saying that they are unimportant in any way) this sounds like it is being driven by your Dh’s need to leave work and reduce responsibility due to stress etc. I’m not sure that this could be seen as stress free and if he can’t cope it would leave you managing a lot of stuff on your own in a strange place

We are actually planning on doing just this but with a 4yo and 6mo. DH has travelled extensively and it's been his dream to do this. Luckily he can keep his job and work remotely. I have traveled but not as far flung so have some apprehensions about how we will cope. We've agreed to do a test run for a month or so. Then decide upon returning after this month out if we want to prepare the house to rent out etc but we would only rent out the house, not sell. But we are happy with where we live and the house is a long term one for us. Also if anything went wrong, the stability of having something to come back to is a must for me! Would a shorter trip to test how you'll go be an option?

Oh dear. There are 2 types of people, the ones who take a chance on life and the ones who don’t want to go out of their comfort zone. As a PP said, both are acceptable.

It would be good if we could understand other people’s point of view rather than pushing our own views and values on others.

Really look into what the hospitals and your access to medical care will be like wherever you go. My toddler needed a life saving operation, done by the NHS - how does that work for you as a tourist in Australia or Dubai?

Er, you get comprehensive travel insurance?!

There’s nothing boring or miserable about questioning the wisdom of risking your financial security and the safety of two babies to fulfil a reckless fantasy.

OP, I would estimate that for a year you’d need around 50k for accommodation, plus travel costs - maybe another 20k for 4 of you, then general living costs - maybe another 20k. You’d need worldwide travel insurance beforehand too, plus all the relevant vaccinations.
As soon as you sell your house, the equity will reduce in real terms because the interest you may accrue on the money will most likely be far less than increased value in your house if you don’t sell it. Whereas, if you rent it out, you’ll have a steady income whilst you’re away, it will be increasing in value and upon your return you’ll have either a place to live or further rental income which you can use to rent your own place to live until you’re in a position of being able to get a mortgage to buy another property. (realistically, this would mean at least 6 months of employment upon return, so you’d need to find somewhere to rent in the meantime anyway.)

I have just returned from another extended holiday in Asia & I love to travel. However, I have no dependants & savings.

My suggestions

Rent your property out with an agency
You will need money for agency fees, repairs emergencies, tax on the income. You will need gas & electricity safety certificates in place before you rent out your property.
Speak with agency how much you could rent your property for & their fees, normally 20%.

Get a credit card & tell your bank what countries you are due to visit, so that your card does not get blocked while you are abroad.

Flights are the cheapest, the earlier that you book

Accommodation is cheapest if you organise it while in the country that you are travelling, also trips & things to do, because you pay the local rate. So just book accommodation for the first couple of days, then look around for cheaper options.

Places like Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Cambodia are cheaper compared to UK, but be aware of strict visa requirements.

Places like Australia, New Zealand are very expensive

The temperature & heat was oppressive this time & I am used to travelling. It doesn't get cooler at night, 35 to 40 degrees. Walking around equals 1 bottle of water or liquid per hour per person, just to stay hydrated.

Get vaccinated before you travel

There is no NHS abroad, so ensure that you have travel insurance for all of you & spare money to pay for treatment at pharmacy, walk in doctor, hospital if necessary.

I would suggest going on holiday for a couple of weeks as a test first

If you have any further questions let me know

Go for it by all means

But selling the house seems odd, just let it out

I think the thought of it sounds nicer than the reality of what you'll deal with. I did loads of travelling pre-kids. To all the places you've mentioned. Took DS to Oz when he was 18m for a long holiday. It was enjoyable - we stayed in air bnb but also had a hire car so essentially all the comforts we'd have at home. He struggled with the heat (Perth summer) and there was a point we had to see a doctor to get a prescription for a bug. Then went to Thailand when DS was 3 and DD was 16m. Again stayed in villas, again ended up having to see a doctor for DD! Travelling around with the DC was hard as they don't really care about safety like we do...there was so much 'faff' in general to deal with...but we had fun. It was just a holiday though. I would have been mentally exhausted after 18m!!

Do you have someone you trust and wouldn’t mind you using their home as your postal address? A lot of officialdom requires us to have an address, HMRC for example. PO Boxes aren’t accepted. You can get virtual post boxes and for an additional fee will open, scan and email post to you. I wouldn’t like that.

If you are looking for escape
Another option is to go camping at weekends or buy a camper van & travel more locally, than worldwide

I have kids the same age and it would be the worst thing I could think of and I love travelling. A friend of mine has rented villas in various places round the world and taken her two toddlers for months at a time. Could you try that? Get somewhere in Thailand, near a nice pool, set up with all the things to need to make your life easy (washing machine etc), do some day trips. Then maybe rinse repeat in different places until money runs out/ the oldest needs to go to school. I'd also go with a very open mind of it this goes badly we come home. I definitely think the always on the move nature of proper back packing would be very unsettling for kids that age.

If you do this, don't expect it to be an amazing experience for your DCs. They won't appreciate views, history, culture. For them it will be just background noise.

Before embarking on this your DH really needs to get to the bottom of his unhappiness. Is it just this job or his career path? When you return is he just going to end up back in the same situation but with fewer opportunities?

What you don't want to find is that his work unhappiness is a symptom of an underlying problem which blows up far from home. Is a period of counselling possible?

We lived in Europe for about 5 years. Moved out when DCs were 6, 2, 1. This was a company move. DCs went to the local school when they were of age and became fully fluent in the local language.

Oldest has lots of memories from this time and is still fluent. The younger two remember very little. They remember the playgrounds, the small domestic experiences.

Ok. I don't think there's a right or a wrong to this, but make sure you have extremely good health insurance.

I do know for sure, however, that travelling for 12-18 month will provide your kids either many things but it will not make the "completely fluent in five languages" fifteen years later, nor will it make them trilingual. It will expose them to other languages, which is nice, but actually being fluent means you can speak, read, write and listen at near native level, and for children, that's rationed to their age. If the can speak fluently every language they come across on their travels while you're there, 6 months after you leave they'll already not be fluent, because native speakers will have acquired a lot more of their language in that time, as they grow up.

You didn't say you're going for that, but Brits are notorious for saying someone is fluent in a language when a) they don't speak the language themselves to know and b) the person is usually between GCSE and AS level at best. Not bad but definitely not fluent! So don't read this thread and get the idea that your kids will come back fluently multilingual and it'll remain!

My partner & I have a camper van too

We have travelled all over UK & parts of Europe

We are not stay at home kind of people !

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You could join some property swap sites for holidays too

A friend did this with three kids. They had a great time and are back now and everything is fine.

if you have the resources, then do it. Life is for living

My concern wouldn't be the actual travel because I think it sounds amazing, but the boring practical side of things.

How would you be able to buy a house in 18 months time when neither of you have jobs or any recent work history? How will you rent with no jobs or income?

If you keep your house and rent it, what's the guarantee you'll be able to get your tenants out in time? What if you want to come home early and you have nowhere to go and no stuff to use?

With a toddler like mine, I personally wouldn’t do it, it would be more stressful than staying at home, but if your kids are relatively easy going, minimum fuss when you go out, happy to change surroundings often, then go for it. My advice would be to stay close to big cities in case of any emergencies and in terms of destinations I have heard that Oz, New Zealand, Singapore are really good for family travels. I would avoid places where you would need to take malaria tablets, etc., as your kids are too young for that.

Yes. I think the OP and are family are the kind of people who want to go and have an adventure. Not go on holiday for 2 weeks. Not go camping occasionally. Go and do something big. It’s ok to do that while still being safe and it doesn’t mean only staying in one western place.
play it by ear. Don’t plan to achieve too much. Enjoy the journey