'Sell up, go traveling, just rent a room as a base' - or that was the plan...

[Keyryder]

So I finally decided to take the plunge and sell up (partly because I want to do some traveling). I love my home. But I recognised I was stagnating here.

Was planning on just renting a room somewhere for a while. But oh.my.gosh - one week left to go and I have messaged 35+ people about a room (seen hundreds of adds but many were just for students ect) over the last 2 months and only had 4 responses! 2 didn't suit me (and trust me, I was not being picky haha) and the other 2, i didn't suit them.

So, instead of an adventure, I'm now faced with a horror I never even imagined - moving back home with my parents, at 34 years old. In my childhood hometown, which, I hated and couldn't wait to leave. Adventure? More like a horror story!

Anyway, I just wondered if people thought it might pick up once the students stop looking for rooms? Any words of encouragement to help stop me freaking out that I've fucked my life up, more than welcome xD

Spend some of your money on driving lessons and buy a second hand car.

That way you can drive to places you want to see. How were you proposing to get around Britain?

I am excited for you! Go for it! But learn to drive in the UK now, like immediately. You will have so much more opportunity travelling if you drive.

Why would you sell your house? Why not rent it out to finance your travelling?

@Keyryder
Hi OP, sorry if I've missed this, I haven't slept properly for weeks, insomniac at the best of times and the heat isn't helping.

What happens after the travelling? How/where will you live. Your plan is exciting and I know I am viewing this from my obsession with security, but won't you be skint with no home, having spent all your money travelling?! I realise I am a total wuss and may be over thinking...

Have you actually exchanged? If not, pull out and get a lodger instead.

I suggest you do everything possible to pull out of the sale. Take in a lodger. Do your travelling, what you're proposing isn't what most people think of as travelling, they'd think you're packing a rucksack and going to live on a shoestring budget in SE Asia where your money will go a long way.

On your current plan your money will run out pretty quickly and you'll have lost a lot of money by stepping off the property ladder.

Another option is to take a lodger and get a job that gives you a complete change and lots of travel. I know someone who was fed up with it all and joined the merchant navy.

It sounds like she has exchanged @eurochick . I read your updates OP - I think I’d find somewhere cheaper in the UK or a friendly destination abroad. Or housesitting between destinations, as I said above. I did this when younger and wouldn’t go home for weeks at a time.

I think it's a great idea and that your really brave. I wish I could do it.

It's not the best idea and I say that as someone who sold up and went backpacking for over 2 years! We went to super cheap places, India, Asia etc came back with debt and had to work hard to get out of it. I'd buy a flight to Asia if I were you and live on the beach for a year dirt cheap, write your book, get yourself a bar job out there to stop burning through your capital.

Bugger. Was typing replies there and bloody screen on phone skipped and I touched a button navigating away haha xD

I'll not quote you all but

Parents great, more than happy to have me. But dad is rather...old fashioned in his world views shall we say. And there's no changing it. So I think we'd clash living together longterm. But they're still fantastic and happy to help all they can.

Lol not having a bipolar episode, well, not unless they happen once every decade xD because that's about the last time I did anything remotely impulsive haha. Maybe it's a midlife crisis though! But I'm generally a boring bastard. But I took a trip recently and just realised I want more from life and if I don't get out of here...it'll just, be gone. So I'm putting on my big girl pants and doing something out of character.

No it's not a lot of dosh but hopefully enough that if I earmark some for travel, I can still buy a cheap flat too. Perhaps I better use the time I'm in the UK to start flat hunting now.

@Stomacharmeleon Thanks! Haha I keep telling myself to just be brave and keep forging ahead. It might be stupid but well, we only live once I suppose! So yeah let's go with 'brave' as opposed to 'nuts'.

Truthfully your plan sounds very short sighted and not very well thought out at all. Never mind the room now (although that is a worry) but what are you going to do when the money runs out?

Honestly if you haven't already exchanged I wouldn't

Work wise I actually fractured my arm earlier this year and couldn't so I packed it in. It was just retail and it was a bit of a toxic place so tbh I was glad for the excuse to get out haha. But yeah I think some ppl may be put off a roommate who isn't working. I expect to rent a whole flat I'd have to pay 6 months up front too.

I would also have thought 'manic episode' but you say not, so okay.

Why not go abroad to rent for 6 months if the plan was to go abroad anyway. Just go somewhere unusual, off the beaten track.

Or stay in the UK but house sit, which I can see other people have suggested as well. Essentially, use your flexibility to do something more than just rent a room in a UK city. What a boring mid life crisis that would be.

Intending to budget so that it doesn't.
I'm not planning on blowing at all at the slots in Vegas haha.

Of course, you never know (about the money lasting, not the slots lol). But I'm aiming to keep at least 2/3 back to buy a new place (downsizing). Will keep it separate so that I'm not tempted to touch it. And set up an emergency account for rent and essentially only too. Just incase.

*essentials

Sorry another OP saying Why did you sell?!

I have done similar to you (a million years ago) but I closed a bank account - insane idea!!

I don't understand why you need to rent a room to use to book things from? Surely this is a waste of money?!

I have looked at cheaper little fixer uppers in Spain and France online in the past and always liked the idea of that. So that might be a possibility. My Spanish is rusty and my French non existent but that's what rosetta stone is for! :)

I don't necessarily want to be out of the UK the whole time. As I need to look for a new place to buy. I also want to start my trip with London for example so I figured I would be less hassle to do that from here first.

If the sale hasn't completed, pull out now. It's madness to sell your flat to go travelling.

Was also hoping to take a few weekend breaks and coach trips around the UK so...it just makes sense to have a main base here and take the odd week/month abroad/travelling outwith UK.

But of course I could reconsider it maybe and skip the base and just go all out. Outwith the UK. But I have a feeling I'd blow cash willy nilly that way. Its best to have a fixed place to plan out things I advance from.

'Going travelling' is v different to UK coach trips/weekends away - the latter doesn't make selling up any sense!
Why can't you use your parents as a base or even a long term cheap travel lodge type stay?

Tbh the travel part is all up on the air atm. I'm just spitballing ideas. As I've said, I've been busy as fuck moving stuff and selling up and room hunting and all that jazz before I can get into the fun stuff.

I can use my parents as a base. I just don't want too. Travel lodge might be a good shout.

Cash in a bank account won't grow as fast as the value of property.

So your plan to hold a smaller amount of proceeds back to buy at some point in future will be worth even less than your current downsizing option. Prices will have gone up, your small pot of cash won't.

And buying a caravan that will depreciate in value and be scrap after 25 years is an even worse plan than leaving cash in the bank. There is a reason that lifestyle is marketed for retirement not people who will need a home for another 60 years.

Torpedoeing the next 60 years of your life so you can have a footloose 6 months now is one of the most terrible ideas I have ever heard. That's not seizing life that's sabotaging your life.

If you're not working anyway, and want to remain based somewhere local in the UK that you already know, so you can basically go on more day trips and little holidays than you would while working - why does that necessitate making yourself homeless?

Pull out of the sale while you still can

This is what I was thinking.