Getting out ... (whilst you're still alive)
Discussion
Something that has been on mind recently (and follows on in a similar vein to the Life's too short thread).
Has anyone considered (or actually has) getting (got) out youngish, as in selling up releasing equity and buying out right in a cheaper area and becoming a lot more self sufficient.
Obviously if you have LOADS of money is fairly easy but I'm interested in knowing how much money you think one needs as a minimum.
I think the only way I can I could make it work would be to move abroad, buy a flat in the UK to retain some monthly income and a base if I need to return then kit the house out overseas with renewable energy, some out buildings to airbnb & enough land to be able to farm to a limited degree!!
maybe/probably just pipe dreams but...
Has anyone considered (or actually has) getting (got) out youngish, as in selling up releasing equity and buying out right in a cheaper area and becoming a lot more self sufficient.
Obviously if you have LOADS of money is fairly easy but I'm interested in knowing how much money you think one needs as a minimum.
I think the only way I can I could make it work would be to move abroad, buy a flat in the UK to retain some monthly income and a base if I need to return then kit the house out overseas with renewable energy, some out buildings to airbnb & enough land to be able to farm to a limited degree!!
maybe/probably just pipe dreams but...
we considered this when we had our house in Thailand a few years ago now - we had 12 properties rented out in the Newcastle/Sunderland area and it seemed do-able at the time - the Mrs couldnt get away with the idea of living in a non-vocal language speaking nation and she wanted a child at this point too. The biggest issue was that there was a constant stream of non-payment and issues with tenants which needed resolving and proved difficult to do it so remotely (even with using an agent and them taking a hefty cut)
I want to do this in the UK. Sell house in SE of England, buy something oop't north / Wales / Devon with some land. Buy a flat / small house in SE with leftover cash to rent out. Live the life in a big property, bit of farming. If things get tight, do some air BnB stuff.
Children and the wife's friends living locally is the stopper at the moment.
Children and the wife's friends living locally is the stopper at the moment.
Prizam said:
I want to do this in the UK. Sell house in SE of England, buy something oop't north / Wales / Devon with some land. Buy a flat / small house in SE with leftover cash to rent out. Live the life in a big property, bit of farming. If things get tight, do some air BnB stuff.
Children and the wife's friends living locally is the stopper at the moment.
We sort of did this, without the farming or the residual house in the SE.Children and the wife's friends living locally is the stopper at the moment.
We moved to Wales. We'd grown up there (me on a smallholding, my wife on a farm) and still had family there, so that made things very straightforward. Our small 3 bed semi in Kent translated into a large 4 bed detached house with half an acre of garden and a much reduced mortgage.
As has been suggested, I don't think farming is going to make much money, but the self-sufficiency angle is worthwhile. You don't really have to do it yourself. In an agricultural area there's always someone selling half a lamb or half a pig cheap or a brace of pheasants or rabbits to put in the pot. We've got chickens and they're a great addition.
The biggest change we saw in rural Wales was how much the economy had grown locally. This means our careers have continued and kept developing, in way we didn't expect when we left SE England. The employers here have a smaller pool of people to pick from and whilst there may be fewer jobs, the skills and experience you bring sometimes make you a more attractive prospect. It isn't all positive though as the work life balance has probably got worse in some ways, which was part of the reason for coming back. Also, internet shopping and social media have taken much of the perceived isolation away when living here.
What I would say is that our kids have thrived since we moved back, made friends and seem more relaxed without the SE England middle class competitive educational pressure. There's no crime to speak of here and whilst the roads have got a bit busier, they are much quieter. Both my wife and I seem to have a better social circle than before too, so that shouldn't necessarily be an anchor to the current house.
A lot of people do it. Some just retire early because they have enough money to generate a passive income others live a very frugal life so don't actually need much income.
I hope to stop work in my mid 40s and will do a combination of rental property and investments to cover my day to day expenses. Might consider some basic part time work for fun money but we will hopefully cut our expenses down enough where its not needed.
I hope to stop work in my mid 40s and will do a combination of rental property and investments to cover my day to day expenses. Might consider some basic part time work for fun money but we will hopefully cut our expenses down enough where its not needed.
You can get a decent house in rural Bulgaria for £10k. And you can live on £5k a year for 2 people. If you retire at 40 and live to 80, you will need at least £400k to survive (including inflation).
But keep in mind that early retirement often means early death. There is a surprisingly strong connection. The body and mind become worthless to human society and "give up". Early retirement is not as good as it sounds.
But keep in mind that early retirement often means early death. There is a surprisingly strong connection. The body and mind become worthless to human society and "give up". Early retirement is not as good as it sounds.
We sold a two bed flat in Clapham and moved to a 3 bed semi in rural Devon, 10 miles out of Exeter. (My wife and I were 33 at the time.) Our mortgage went from 60% LTV to 20% LTV.
My earnings definitely halved, maybe as much as thirded. I now work 9-5, not 7-7, the stress has gone down a lot, but my manager doesn't like me calling it my retirement job. My wife never returned to work after maternity leave ended.
We left London when our eldest was 7 months old, he just started school. We've had another since then, who will go to school in a couple of years.
My commute is now half an hour each way by bike on rural roads, instead of the same time on the Northern Line. I lost around 20% of my bodyweight by doing the cycle commute.
We left behind a tiny yard, and now have a manageable garden that the kids play in, which looks out onto a cow field. We had a great crop of cucumbers this year, some tomatoes and a few peas. The carrots never appeared.
I've kept the V8 estate car we had in London, but the insurance was cut by a third. I think this is because we went from a postcode in the "Refer" part of the world, to "A".
Do it. I've never looked back.
My earnings definitely halved, maybe as much as thirded. I now work 9-5, not 7-7, the stress has gone down a lot, but my manager doesn't like me calling it my retirement job. My wife never returned to work after maternity leave ended.
We left London when our eldest was 7 months old, he just started school. We've had another since then, who will go to school in a couple of years.
My commute is now half an hour each way by bike on rural roads, instead of the same time on the Northern Line. I lost around 20% of my bodyweight by doing the cycle commute.
We left behind a tiny yard, and now have a manageable garden that the kids play in, which looks out onto a cow field. We had a great crop of cucumbers this year, some tomatoes and a few peas. The carrots never appeared.
I've kept the V8 estate car we had in London, but the insurance was cut by a third. I think this is because we went from a postcode in the "Refer" part of the world, to "A".
Do it. I've never looked back.
Placing a marker on this thread as its broadly along the lines of what I am hoping to achieve. Only slight flaw is that the UK house isn't the best of rental propositions in that it gives a poor yield relative to its value. Transactional costs in "swapping" it for a more suitable rental property put me off. Plan still is to get that mortgage free shortly and then buy in Spain and commute between the UK and there - albeit still working as no interest in retiring.
Yipper said:
But keep in mind that early retirement often means early death. There is a surprisingly strong connection. The body and mind become worthless to human society and "give up". Early retirement is not as good as it sounds.
The correlation is poor though, as many people who retire early do so for health reasons. There's also the fact that by definition those that retire at 65 haven't died in their 50s which also skews the correlation. Personally, I'd risk it
I ventured into NP&E earlier in the week and there was a fella there looking for a starter home. A one or maybe small two bed flat in SW London for £8-900k. Although I get the appeal of the big city and the like I simply couldn't get my head round that sort of outlay. You could buy a huge house with massive garden in any number of towns up the East coast mainline for 40% of that and still be in London within 80 minutes on the train. To each their own and all that but it baffles me.
For the record, I live in Doncaster and have a customer in central London so I'm up and down the rails on a regular basis and it's no hassle at all. I can work on the train if needs be which I can't do on my hour each way drive into my office near Leeds and I can have a beer on the journey home if I like. No bother whatsoever.
I'm far from wealthy but live in a decent-sized four bed detached house in a great area and our mortgage is £700pcm. Ok, I'm bound to be biased being born and raised "up North" but it's a no-brainer for me.
For the record, I live in Doncaster and have a customer in central London so I'm up and down the rails on a regular basis and it's no hassle at all. I can work on the train if needs be which I can't do on my hour each way drive into my office near Leeds and I can have a beer on the journey home if I like. No bother whatsoever.
I'm far from wealthy but live in a decent-sized four bed detached house in a great area and our mortgage is £700pcm. Ok, I'm bound to be biased being born and raised "up North" but it's a no-brainer for me.
DRFC1879 said:
I ventured into NP&E earlier in the week and there was a fella there looking for a starter home. A one or maybe small two bed flat in SW London for £8-900k. Although I get the appeal of the big city and the like I simply couldn't get my head round that sort of outlay. You could buy a huge house with massive garden in any number of towns up the East coast mainline for 40% of that and still be in London within 80 minutes on the train. To each their own and all that but it baffles me.
For the record, I live in Doncaster and have a customer in central London so I'm up and down the rails on a regular basis and it's no hassle at all. I can work on the train if needs be which I can't do on my hour each way drive into my office near Leeds and I can have a beer on the journey home if I like. No bother whatsoever.
I'm far from wealthy but live in a decent-sized four bed detached house in a great area and our mortgage is £700pcm. Ok, I'm bound to be biased being born and raised "up North" but it's a no-brainer for me.
I don't disagree with you (typing this from my Leeds office), but your post on this topic highlights the options open for those who do have the cash cow that is a London property. For the record, I live in Doncaster and have a customer in central London so I'm up and down the rails on a regular basis and it's no hassle at all. I can work on the train if needs be which I can't do on my hour each way drive into my office near Leeds and I can have a beer on the journey home if I like. No bother whatsoever.
I'm far from wealthy but live in a decent-sized four bed detached house in a great area and our mortgage is £700pcm. Ok, I'm bound to be biased being born and raised "up North" but it's a no-brainer for me.
The cost is eye wateringly ridiculous and the disparity (given the UK is a small country) is bizarre. However, see it like a 25 year savings pot (added to any rise in house prices) and you find yourself at the end of it with a £1.5m pot to swap that 2 bed Fulham flat for a 4 bed house in Doncaster, a 4 bed villa in Spain, a £100k Sunseeker to park outside the latter and a few supercars on hand to blast across the Moors.
My son has the right idea and he has been incredibly lucky. His long term girlfriend decide to teach english as a foreign language in Mexico. He decided to go with her and quit his job (he is the chief editor of a newspaper). Then he thought that maybe he could still do what he does but from Mexico rather than central London (the paper is pretty much on line now). Chatted with his employer and bob's yer uncle, he's off to Mexico at the end of this month with a mobile phone and broadband connection and will do exactly what he does here but from the Pacific coast of Mexico! Only a youngster could sort that out without any feeling of 'this may not happen' going on!
JM
JM
Shnozz said:
DRFC1879 said:
I ventured into NP&E earlier in the week and there was a fella there looking for a starter home. A one or maybe small two bed flat in SW London for £8-900k. Although I get the appeal of the big city and the like I simply couldn't get my head round that sort of outlay. You could buy a huge house with massive garden in any number of towns up the East coast mainline for 40% of that and still be in London within 80 minutes on the train. To each their own and all that but it baffles me.
For the record, I live in Doncaster and have a customer in central London so I'm up and down the rails on a regular basis and it's no hassle at all. I can work on the train if needs be which I can't do on my hour each way drive into my office near Leeds and I can have a beer on the journey home if I like. No bother whatsoever.
I'm far from wealthy but live in a decent-sized four bed detached house in a great area and our mortgage is £700pcm. Ok, I'm bound to be biased being born and raised "up North" but it's a no-brainer for me.
I don't disagree with you (typing this from my Leeds office), but your post on this topic highlights the options open for those who do have the cash cow that is a London property. For the record, I live in Doncaster and have a customer in central London so I'm up and down the rails on a regular basis and it's no hassle at all. I can work on the train if needs be which I can't do on my hour each way drive into my office near Leeds and I can have a beer on the journey home if I like. No bother whatsoever.
I'm far from wealthy but live in a decent-sized four bed detached house in a great area and our mortgage is £700pcm. Ok, I'm bound to be biased being born and raised "up North" but it's a no-brainer for me.
The cost is eye wateringly ridiculous and the disparity (given the UK is a small country) is bizarre. However, see it like a 25 year savings pot (added to any rise in house prices) and you find yourself at the end of it with a £1.5m pot to swap that 2 bed Fulham flat for a 4 bed house in Doncaster, a 4 bed villa in Spain, a £100k Sunseeker to park outside the latter and a few supercars on hand to blast across the Moors.
louiebaby said:
We left London when our eldest was 7 months old, he just started school.
Bloody hell, he must've been bright.I'm lucky enough to have a 4 bed detached house in the London suburbs. Mortgage free. Could live like a king if I moved out of London, and never work again. But I like living in London. Can't really imagine myself leaving. Plus I'd have to be going be back and forth all the time to Stamford Bridge. I suspect eventually selling it and buying a flat is the only option, but at the moment my 2 adult sons still live at home. Which I love, and I'll miss them when they eventually go.
I think about this a lot. Worked hard most of my adult life and sick to death of IT. Now, aged 46 wife and I are making good money, have decent equity and own a holiday home outright. I want to move into that, get a dog and go for walks on the beach. I'd get a low stress job, doing something I enjoy but my wife says NO. Something to do with kids, responsibilities and paying for education..or something.
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