NC for this one.
DH and I are thinking about a BIG life change - effectively sell up out of London and have a “mid life retirement” so we can enjoy the next 10 years focused on kids and then come back to work in future when they are at an age that they aren’t as interested in spending time with parents anymore.
As background, I grew up in Cornwall (dairy farming family on my dad’s side originally although farm is now sold). Only my mum still around and we don’t get on at all. DH grew up in Pembrokeshire although his family now lives near Stratford-upon-Avon. (So we are used to rural living!) Both first generation to attend university with little family support and have worked hard/been lucky to now be in a very comfortable position. Although work very hard and long hours!
Since having a little girl in the last year we have had a bit of a realisation that there is more to life than just working and don’t really like the lifestyle here in the southeast. We would rather spend more time with our DD, our dog and each other. More time outdoors, learn some more practical skills etc. Have more babies that we can spend the time with rather than working to pay for nursery fees! I used to do a lot of charity volunteering pre-DD as well and would love more time to do that again.
We are 35 and have a small mortgage left that we could clear in the next two years naturally or use savings and clear it sooner. House would sell for around £1.1-1.2m. We are still working on the maths but thinking we could spend £500k on a house, up to £100k on renovations (which we would look to do largely ourselves - I’m a good decorator and DH has taught himself how to tile recently and constructed a built-in media unit etc). That would leave £500-600k to live on. We can’t see that overheads would be more than £30k a year so that would easily cover a 10 years mid-life retirement plus plenty of contingency and would invest the rest.
The big question is where to go! We would want to be within 2-3 hours of Stratford-upon-Avon. Somewhere where our £500k would buy a decent size detached house with a small bit of land 0.5-1 acre (planning some chickens or ducks and growing veg). Would want to be within 30 mins drive from a large town and good state schools. Asking the hive mind for some ideas! We had been thinking north Suffolk or Cambridgeshire but very much open to thoughts and suggestions as we are still in the “does it work on paper” stage!