If fulltiming goes wrong have you got backup funds ? Forums

artona · Moderator

Hi Sophiesmum

Jessicasdad here Very Happy

We have exactly the same age daughter as you - she will be three in December. Possibly we are older than you - mid forties and we have already brought up our three eldest children who are early 20s.

We fancied fulltiming 10 years ago but with three teenagers, in our opinion it was a no no. I firmly believe that a child is no more a child after he/she is 12 and is on the road to being an adult. From that point they are building life long friends and if they have been used to living in a house to then wrench them away from it would be wrong. In Hannah's case she raises another interesting question - could an estranged father actually stop the mother taking a child on an extended trip around Europe? Obviously if a child sees his/her father every week it again would be unfair but sometimes a fathers sees a child twice a year but still wants to control his ex's life.

When our eldest three all told us they were leaving home in Oct 2006 we saw our chance and put the house up for sale. Prior to that we had been struggling along with a business that had gone bad and life was a real chore.

During the last couple of years there have been major things go wrong. I got within 24 hours of dying - thats what the surgeon told me anyway, having had a hernia explode but do you know what we survived.

The most important thing is to continue to develop your life. We have to work but we do not need so much money now so the pressure is not so great. What we can do is see our daughter every day rather than for a few minutes after work and a few minutes before our work. We have started a few blogs and a young/tiny forum to do with home schooling as this is something we are considering.

What I would suggest is to go into the council waiting list. I got this tip from a friend who sadly died a while a go. He had a heart attack a few years earlier and was no longer able to work. He had a mortgage on his house but was no longer able to pay it. Being over 60 he was deemed vulnerable, as is someone with a child. He sold his house, banked the equity and the council gave him an OAP bungalow. He said for the first time in years he felt relaxed and had quality of life and thats what its all about "Quality of life"

stew

sallytrafic · Southern Rally Co-ordinator

Yes I'm not sure what a young child would learn at playschool etc that they couldn't learn 'on the road'. Lets face it most children of my generation first met school at around five and I had learnt all my numbers and letters as well as being able to read at 'the cat sat on the mat' stage before then, taught by my parents.

(BTW I used to draw of the back of old Bristol Brabazon and the first series of Britannia blueprints they might be worth something now if they hadn't also been used for lighting the fire. Smile

)

As to selling up and going fulltime I think its as well to be realistic and organise some sort of plan 'B' but its not Africa, if you make a bad life choice you are not likely to starve.

(Just re-read the above and should add that you don't have to make bad choices in Africa to starve)

Rapide561

Hello Sophiesmum

I sold the house in December 2006 and took up residence "al la Kontiki" the same day. Since doing this, I actually feel healthier and have not have had so much as a cold. I don't know if this is coincidence or not.

I originally travelled over to Italy - Lake Garda - with a view to making that my permanent home. Sadly, my dog - my travelling companion - passed away and I returned to the UK.

I quickly set about finding a full time job and started work again soon after arriving back in the UK.

I left that job in March, had another short hop to Italy and now work for the Camping and Caravanning Club.

I do have my heart set on Garda though.

So, the moral of my story so far - if things do go wrong - and I felt I just did not want to be away without my dog - you can come back and rebuild.

As for the house, I won't go into figures, but I already owned the motorhome and the house was pretty much mortgage free. I sold it and banked the cash, spreading the money between various building societies. I am now seeing savings rates offering as much as 7% fixed with the likes of the Yorkshire Building Society -

Don Madge

SpeedyDux

Hello Sophies Mum,

My 2p worth:

From the brief initial post it seems you and your hubby haven’t got a definite plan for year 3 onwards. It looks like at this stage you are having a couple of gap years for travel rather than making full-timing your chosen life style. I see no problem with that, unless this is your first experience of motorhoming longer trips, in which case after a couple of months you might find yourself getting homesick for your family and friends, and missing the comforts of bricks and mortar, garden, the local pub, sports facilities, etc.

Do what Don Madge suggests – lots of research into the practical ins and outs of full-timing. The series of MMM articles on the A to Z of full-timing are a must-read.

If I were in your position I would go for it and travel for 2 years, maybe 3 years. There’s so much to see out there and you might not get a better opportunity ever again until you retire. It’s about you – at her age I doubt if Sophie will remember much about your travels when she gets older. Once Sophie reaches school age you might need a more settled lifestyle to allow her to have better opportunities for education and making friends.

Having a UK property to come back to gives you more options as well as a safety net. I would rent it out. Nobody can predict what the property market will be like in 2 years time. If you leave cash in the bank it will be eroded by inflation which is more of a certainty over the same period. If you use the proceeds of sale of your house just to cover living expenses then you risk not having enough for a deposit when you decide the time is right to buy again. As Sophie grows and maybe your family expands you could find you will need a bigger home so slipping back down the property ladder will be inconvenient, to say the least. Meanwhile rents are rising rapidly in many areas of the UK. You might discover that full-timing becomes your only option whether you like it or not!

Good luck,

SD

hilldweller

hannah29

just another few thoughts to all you full timers....as you know we looked into doing a similar thing and travelling europe, one of the things that worried me most was childrens health. you need an address in the uk to have a doctor, we only rent so it was not viable to keep the house on and we couldn't use my parents address as it is a retirement park and potentially with benefits she is claiming could cause some hassle for her. i have used hospitals in spain and italy and been very impressed, however these have been claimed on holiday insurance. how do you get by insurance if you are full timing across europe as most only cover certain length periods. as it turns out my youngest gets major bouts of tonsilitus every 4 weeks or so, so i for one am quite pleased i am here and not travelling at the moment. that said fulltiming in the uk with the odd jaunt into europe would be fine
hannah

sophiesmum

Hi everyone

Thanks for the great thought provoking responses from you all.

So much to think of in all those posts it's definitely making the move seem more of a talking point than just 'suck it and see'.

I'll keep everyone up to speed with what happens as it goes along, although with the speed of the house market at present I don't think that'll be for quite a while yet whichever way it ends up going.

Thanks again everyone,

Cheers, Sophies mum Very Happy