Should I sell my home and live on a boat

[CrowsInMyGarden]

Me and husband are both 63. He works hard as a roofer and it is getting too much for him, physically. He's totally shattered every day and cannot carry on doing this job for too much longer. It's all he's ever done and he could maybe get another job but it's too late to retrain for one that pays well and any job he could get wouldn't pay anywhere close to what he gets now. I work part time and look after our 2 year old grandchild once a week and a 9 year old grandchild a few days per week in school holidays. Husband has always wanted to live on a boat (narrowboat or maybe wide beam) and cruise the UK waterways. He would like to do another 2 years at work, retire, sell our house, buy a boat and go continuous cruising. I am scared!! We go on holiday on the Norfolk Broads every year which I love. I'm up for getting rid of most of our stuff and living in a small space. We get on well and I think I'd enjoy it. But.....It is such a huge step. The thing I am most scared of is him dying and leaving me old and unable/unwilling to live on the boat but we would save most of the money from the sale of house (less what the boat would cost) and I guess I would be able to rent or buy a mobile home if that happened. We are both low maintenance and have done some sums and once our pension kicks in at 67 would be able to live on that so there would be two years from buying the boat to getting pension that we would have to live off the savings. Does anyone else live on a boat? Especially people in their 60s? I have spent most of today watching youtube clips and there seem to be plenty of older couples doing this. Is it a completely crazy idea?

It looks like a potentially miserable existence if it all goes wrong for you in later years. There are boats throughout the network that would back this up.

Fine if you have enough money to keep a home on dry land which you may or may not need as you get older. not so great living on a boat if your mobility/balance goes and you are effectively a prisoner on your boat which is falling apart because you haven't the money to fix it either... there are boats throughout the network that are testament to this, which is very sad to see...
our last narrowboat holiday last September on the Kenner and Avon, my husband struggled to get off the boat when we had to moor on the grass banks, it rained nearly every day. Despite good waterproof clothing he ended up in hospital with pneumonia a few weeks later which I would bet my bottom dollar started on the holiday. He's been very quiet this year so far about doing another narrowboat holiday, I suspect because he struggled more than he would care to admit. I think we would do better (and he'd be ok) if we went back up to the Midlands where there's better infrastructure and more mooring rings to tie up to, but who knows?

What happens when you both get ill / infirm / poor mobility ? Very romantic notion but practically not sure

Our friends live on a narrow boat. One is now, sadly, in poor health and they have absolutely no back up. And are panicking.
There's a lot of hard work, as people have said. You have to be fairly fit if you're planning on cruising around. There is also a lot of climbing to do.
It's all very well having boating holidays every year and enjoying the life, I've done it too, unfortunately the reality is far different!
All your worldly goods are on board, you are on top of each other constantly, very little storage so anything you buy, even groceries, need to be seriously thought out. Getting things like furniture in is difficult too. (Our friends have taken over a year to find a new sofa that they could manoeuvre into the boat).
The upkeep can become expensive - cratches aren't cheap and you have to periodically go into dry dock to have the bottom of the boat treated. You have annual mooring costs too, which run at about £2000 a year, depending on where you are.
If the engine goes, it's thousands to repair or replace. There's no regulation of temperature like central heating, in winter. You're either too hot or freezing cold.
Believe me, I'm not trying to be the Queen of Doom here, because this was my absolute dream and my plan too. Until I did a lot of reasearch (and then obviously having our friends with the boat).
Having a boat to go to for a weekend and have holidays on is a better idea, while keeping on your home, but then you're maintaining two properties. It's a bloody expensive floating caravan! It's a lot to think about. And having thought it all out, I'm gutted that I've had to abandon my long held dream. 😞

Agreed, but it will be considerably less work than roofing 5 days a week. For someone with roofer level of fitness/strength and handiness it’ll be a breeze.

The bigger question is what will you do when you reach an age where jumping on and off it is no longer easy?

It sounds brilliant .... but ..... if your OH is struggling with the physical demands of his job now, then you do need to factor in that living on a boat makes physical demands. If your knees or hips start to go then the steps up and down and the need to fetch water etc. etc. will be challenging.

If you are both fighting fit, then go for it - but if not think carefully. You need some future proofing built in somehow.

Or, downsize now to a small flat releasing enough to buy the boat, rent out the flat and live in the boat for 6 months initially and see how it goes.

Could you afford to rent your house out and continuously cruise?
selling your house outright seems like a risky thing to do.
down sizing could work if you need to release capital to buy boat .
but living on the boat with no option of returning to land is a worrying idea.

i know a man through work who is in his 60s who was a soldier, he has a manual job that means a lot of travel and staying in hotels or bunkerbins on site.
he has a narrow boat moored in a marina near Manchester or somewhere. Where he goes between jobs. it’s lovely .
its cute. And well furnished.
it has a wood burning stove.
But it is a cold cold life in winter.
he describes how he has to hibernate in winter. The boat is ok. But he can’t leave the boat easily in winter as it will get so cold, and take time to warm up, he uses a battery and generator for electric stuff, which means limiting use of things that need that. He has to move all the coal and wood he uses for power. He has to empty the loo. Etc etc.

he is reaching the very end of his capacity to do the job he does.

and until recently he has always extollled the joys of his boat.
but the glee he exuded when he told me that he’d been awarded a flat because he was a veteran was so pure.
the boat might have been ok. But really he is really happy to have a flat.

do you want to permanently cut off your access to warmth, to regular access to a gp, to easy grocery shopping, fuel and amenities.

It's a very different lifestyle and it's COLD! So cold. That alone would put me off.

Basically permanent camping except you have to move all the time and it's more maintenance.

Maybe have a look round a busy canal and see the types of people that make living on a canal boat work. Do they look like you?

Living on a canal boat is a lot of hard work. A relative did it for a year. He said it was damp, cold and hard work. He didn't sell his house fortunately, so went back to it. You could downsize to release money allowing him to retire earlier. If he's hell bent on doing it, I'd buy a flat and rent it out. It will increase in value and be an option to live in.

Like @gettingolderbutcooler we lived on a barge before kids on a permanent mooring, so we had mains connections which eliminated some of the stresses around pumping out etc. Absolutely the most amazing memories of when we were in our 20s and basically spent all summer on deck having bbqs on the long summer evenings, going boat to boat seeing friends and making music and singing, and pinching ourselves that we got to live aboard with this wonderful life...but never again. My parents lived on it for a while once we had kids and loved it too, but also ended up going back to dry land when the fun wore off.

It was very, very, VERY cold in the winter unless we were in the boat all day keeping the fire going and even then, the cold would cause problems like gas and water lines freezing solid - we once were frozen into the boat and couldn't get to work when all the hatches froze shut and then blew our electrics trying to warm the boat up enough to melt the ice and open the hatches! Everything smelled damp all the time including all our clothes. We had some plug-in heaters but it was never enough. We'd come home from work, light the fire and then get into bed with hats and bed socks and dressing gowns while the boat was heating up. It was better on weekends if we stayed home the whole time and keep the fire going, and then it was very cosy, but you're not going anywhere or the boat will get cold again.

Lots of DIY and fixing the previous owners' bodged DIY, impossible to find any tradespeople who know much about boats, tonnes of painting and worrying about leaks and rust and plumbing and bilge pumps and the electrics blowing. Organising a tow for dry dock and getting hull surveys was expensive and annoying as suddenly our home and all our stuff was hours away from where we usually lived.

The other boats around us were an odd mix of young people like us working full time and having a lot of fun going from boat to boat having drinks on weekends, crusty hippies growing weed on deck, trustafarians with silly posh nicknames who pretended they were hippies and against the system but lived off their parents money, retirees that we called the Meerkats as they would pop their heads out of their boats and glare at you at the slightest noise, and a few very fragile people who were quite vulnerable and we worried about them a lot (one of their boats sank one day when they were out, they couldn't afford the maintenance and refused to accept any help - they lost everything).

It's also pretty physical climbing on and off and around the boat, lifting and carrying, mooring up, stacking wood, heaving around smokeless fuel bags, swapping around gas cylinders etc. If you're cruising that's even harder operating locks and finding moorings that might not be that accessible and stressful moving all the time (we had an address and postcode, paid council tax etc).

Also remember you have to buy in cash or personal loan as you're unlikely to get a mortgage on a boat, and it doesn't increase in value so financially it's more like buying a motor home or a car than a house.

All of the above was easy to cope with when we were young fools in love in our 20s. But I certainly wouldn't do it in retirement!

Wow. Thank you so much everyone for your answers. My head is spinning and I was up until the early hours working out finances of all different scenarios. I think we would be able to buy a small flat and a narrow boat so could rent the flat out and then have somewhere to come back to when/if we get old (we may well drop dead before we get too old I guess). I am sure my husband could manage the hard work of boat life for years yet - he is so knackered at present as he gets up at 4am, has a long journey to start work in the cold and rain by 8am and then he does not stop all day - no break, nothing. He's just had enough of it. I'm averagely fit - there is room for improvement. I am not high maintenance at all and wouldn't mind the bad weather, cleaning out the toilet containers etc. but I am struggling with the things I'd miss. Grandchildren, for sure - but hopefully would still be able to have them in school hols but even silly things like the robin I hand feed in the garden. Who will feed Robs? and I do love my garden and allotment.... I just don't know. Husband is going to carry on working for a few years, we will go to a big boat show in May and spend a lot of time thinking, planning and saving. He really wants to do it but has said he won't pressure me. Thanks once again for all your help.

I’ve lived aboard part-time, and the big thing I noticed is that small upgrades make life calmer. Stuff like round boat fender covers helped keep the hull from getting scuffed when we were moored, which saved me worry and repairs. You might want to try renting a boat for a few weeks first to see if the pace, space, and maintenance feel right for you both before making the leap.

I remember turning up for a spot of amateur ship repair - as you do and one of the crew bellyaching because the ice in the dock started breaking up at silly o'clock right next to his head as he tried to sleep.

Also The Government seems to want to phase out the use of diesel on canal boats - you can no longer use 'red' diesel in the engine but you can use it for heating and the generator AND there is greater emphasis on enforcing 'smoke control' on solid fuel heating on boats

Boats are expensive and will probably go down in value. Had an elderly can driver who explained he was still driving because biar life is expensive. That said, if you can afford it go for it.

God, sorry for typos. *Cab driver, boat life.

You'd be crazy to do this, OP. It's a depreciating asset and you really don't need that at this time in your life. Why not downsize and use the spare money to rent boats for holidays?

I don’t think it’s true about the red diesel. You have to declare what percentage of fuel is used for domestic (heating, travelling to water and services) and how much for travelling; but most people charge batteries and often heat water by running the engine, so you can’t say don’t put it in the engine.

Only if it is in the Mediterranean, and even there, January and February can be cold and wet. We used to have a boat just off the Rhone, and in the coldest winter, the canal froze and the ice was so thick it crushed the hulls of eight (old and poorly maintained) boats. From March to the end of June and end-September to Christmas is lovely most years, but July and August in a steel hulled boat when the temperature is over 40C most days is not enjoyable.

It's very cold on a boat in winter (my DB had one in his early 20s, and didn't last the whole winter IIRC).

Be careful about renting out, the new renters rights act could make it very difficult to get back into the flat should you need to and take months to go through the courts if they don’t want to leave.

I know two couples who did that. One bought a campervan to travel in that ended due to ill health. Another couple sold the house bought the flat and a yacht sailing around the world. Worked for a few years until one got cancer came home for treatment but died.

Frankly you'll get a few good years at your age if you're lucky but there could be health issues.

Thinking about it and there is at least one solar powered canal boat the fall out from the situation in the Gulf could be interesting in terms of diesel and the 'post conflict'price

Might be better to hang on

Having owned a boat and lived aboard for 10+ years, no. I wouldn't, for a number of reasons. I have now bought my own home and miss the boat, but it was very hard work and a lot of stress.

The best day of our lives was when we bought the boat.
The second best day of our life? When we sold the boat. ;)

It's not the first time time I've heard that quip. But yes, it is generally true.