Pack in the job, rent out the house, get in the camper van, fuck off

[GotTheBug]

WIBU to do the above?

We have a house with a small mortgage, stable but unfulfilling jobs, a camper van and itchy feet. Some savings (but not a huge amount!) No kids at home, one ageing but currently still independent parent nearby. Both of us early 50s and healthy.

We have talked about doing this for years and I'm increasingly starting to think that we should do it now before we get any older - also I'm aware that my DF may need us around more in the years to come. I guess I'm worrying that if we leave it another 10 years/wait until retirement we'll have missed the window.

Obviously leaving the job and renting out the house are massive steps and that scares me - so much to potentially go wrong. But at the same time, life is for living, right? We could rent out the house easily I think - seaside location, an hour from London on the train - and the rent would pretty much cover our travel expenses. DH could take a career break for a year or so much more easily than I could, though, and we'd be pretty skint on our return.

Would we be mad to do this, or mad not to?

I truly agree with this. You can achieve something similar without the risk. A year will be great but if it means an impoverished old age you might not think it was worth it in the long run. Many people are living to mid or late 90s. The paid for care will be non existent by then.

I second the suggestion you have to be careful. We are in the same age bracket. In your position I might retrain for a new job and take a shorter career break - or book an extra long holiday with unpaid leave.

You can plan an adventure either way. Many of these posters will be younger, and probably won’t understand just how hard it is to secure employment after a certain age. What if you can’t work again? Or your dh route back into teaching isn’t straight forward or he becomes ill? It is a make or break decade.

A year out isn’t going to lead to an impoverished old age, it’s one year out of 40 odd in a working life. I can’t believe how timid and cautious so many people are and what little lives they seem to lead. There’s no difference between doing this and retiring a year early.

That is untrue because they will both lose their jobs, it may not be just one year - it could be much, much longer. If they can’t secure wel paid work after the year out what then? They could still live for another 30 plus years.

If you want a comfortable old age, then it needs to be carefully planned and saved for. I can’t imagine what old age on benefits or a tiny pension is going to look like in ten years or much less.

Have you thought about working as you travel? In my "yoof" I went off to Japan to teach English in a school - it was great fun. You can work in state schools as an assistant - get paid enough to cover all your living expenses comfortably, and only teach for 16 hours a week. Lots of time off and long holidays - not much lesson prep etc. Probably easily do it in 25 hours a week for c 35 weeks a year. You could get involved in a different culture and community (choose city or country as you see fit) and use the long holidays to travel all over Asia without having to sell up or lose your income. I was very very well treated and looked after with respect by colleagues and didn't really ever want to leave. I did a lot of travelling in my twenties but always worked - never appealed to my lounging around (might do now though...) so maybe think about that as an option?

He’s a teacher. It’s a profession that’s haemorrhaging people, and OP has already said he can take a career break. She has been told she’s unlikely to be included in a current round of redundancies which means she could quite possibly get a sabbatical, it would help her employers’ financial situation if they didn’t have to pay her for a year.

''@BIossomtoes · Today 19:08

A year out isn’t going to lead to an impoverished old age, it’s one year out of 40 odd in a working life. I can’t believe how timid and cautious so many people are and what little lives they seem to lead. There’s no difference between doing this and retiring a year early.''

I agree...it is rather sad.

I also wonder how people like that would cope if faced by a sudden upset in their life (job loss, illness, relationship breakdown, accident) if they have always only done the boring and safe thing at all cost and resisted any change.

You also need to be able to build resilience and challenge yourself in life I think.

No, read the op, it clearly says op can not have a sabbatical otherwise there would be no need for this thread.

Anything could happen to ops dh and then they have lost their only income, not for a year but forever potentially. The reason op is worried is because it IS a risk if she was 20 we wouldn’t be having this conversation!

She was checking it out with HR last I saw. Anything could happen to her bloke at any time, he’s not safe just because he’s going to work every day. Presumably teachers’ pensions still provide for survivors.

This is just the January blues. Op could take an adventure without losing her house, life, job.

It’s a year. 12 months. She won’t lose her house if she rents it out. She can get another job if necessary and she isn’t particularly impressed with her life right now. Being a wage slave really does a number on some people.

How does she pay the bills when she returns? She said her career will be over….

No she doesn’t. She says she may have to leave her job - which she doesn’t like anyway. Maybe she’d come back and find one she likes better. Downsizing to buy outright was also mentioned. If you want to do something enough in this life you can almost always find a way to make it work.

I think you should objectively assess your pensions first. Not saying don't go travelling, just ensure you won't increase your retirement age.

Umm just finding a job isn’t that easy pushing sixty!! Fgs I feel like some people really do not have the first idea what the real world is like.

If op has built up a secure life for many decades, a financially viable future of comfort and travel, a good pension - a lovely house. A good set of friends and a secure future she would be misguided to throw it all away for an extended holiday in a caravan. That’s all we are saying. Given she said there is no chance of returning to work.

Therefore delaying her actual retirement considerably doing a job she likes a lot less than the one now.

Given she said there is no chance of returning to work.

You just made that up. Along with most of the rest of that post. The real world doesn’t have to mean pounding the treadmill for 40+ years.

The real world is pretty shit living in abject poverty in old age. Most people know this. If it was so simple op would have resigned by now.

Everyone knows that but taking one year out of a working life of 40+ years isn’t going to result in an old age of abject poverty. We’re pretty comfortable in retirement and both of us had enforced time out of work between contracts.

Op you need to calculate how you will manage if you can’t find a decent job when you return. Your pensions need to be adjusted and you need a large financial safety net for unforeseen circumstances. If you can make it work, then go, or just book an amazing extended holiday.

Some people have very little to lose and will encourage you to go. Others that are further down the line might tell you to proceed with caution.
None of us know your financial position in detail so we can’t really speculate what is best.

'Abject poverty' is not on my horizon - at least certainly not as the result of going off travelling for a while!

I do genuinely appreciate some words of caution but this is getting a bit daft now.

I think I've taken everything I need from this thread so will bow out before some posters have me begging on the streets.😂

Even though you have been told off the record it’s unlikely it also depends on what others do. They were shocked when DH applied, he was head of dept but as most of his colleagues were quite young, well under 55, not enough others applied so they reluctantly accepted his application. His dept had to shed X posts and save X amount and they had to make those savings.