Alternatives to 'normal' life…

with 15k in the bank and no commitments I’d be buying a one way ticket somewhere nice.

You don’t even need that. I know of at least one couple who funded emigrating with credit cards that they had no intention of paying off.*

You’d have thought that the CC company would have spotted the one-way ticket they bought their dog, and the Canadian immigration lawyer they were paying, wouldn’t you?

*I do not condone this course of action

mook bark

I’m not buddhist and have never totally agreed with this but something about the sentiment always rings true:

A man said to the Buddha, “I want Happiness.”
Buddha said, first remove “I”, that’s ego,
then remove “want”, that’s desire.
See now you are left with only Happiness.

I’m not sure humans can do this but identifying where your happiness comes from is a good start, clearly you and your other half get happiness from each other, but what else makes you happy?

Is it friends / family? Experiences? Sharing knowledge? Recognition and a feeling of worth? Money (very rarely is it money even if you think it is)?

When I travelled I found that all the problems I had at home went with me, a different life / location didnt change that. So before you up sticks make sure you have a grip on what specifically makes you both happy. Then take that with you on your travels.

EDIT: blimey can I bulls**t with the best! lol 😉

On that note, you could follow in Bob Kulls footsteps

http://www.bobkull.org/

I quite liked the book

Edit: Look at the fun you can have; http://www.bobkull.org/Photos/Spring%202001/Pages/62_Tooth_CorCom.html

As others have said you need to have a talk amongst yourselves about what you want.

I have heard of people who:
– Rent out house here and then work for guiding / holiday companies abroad.
– Rent out your expensive UK house and rent somewhere cheap such as Asia or South America. Live cheaply on the difference.

Takes some guts to chuck in a good job, pension or whatever. Not sure I could have done it after daughter was born.

“I’m called ‘the poorest president’, but I don’t feel poor. Poor people are those who only work to try to keep an expensive lifestyle, and always want more and more,” he says.

“This is a matter of freedom. If you don’t have many possessions then you don’t need to work all your life like a slave to sustain them, and therefore you have more time for yourself,” he says.

“I may appear to be an eccentric old man… But this is a free choice.”

from the poorest president link…

I think both my wife and I agree that money holds little value for us. The problem was when we purchased the house we thought money was the route to happiness so we ended up with a property that although modest, was more than we could comfortably afford.

I think in hindsight buying the house we are in now was a mistake and ultimately it left us in a position whereby we had to do utterly soul destroying jobs just to fund it and also in a position whereby the threat of redundancy terrified us because we would be out on our arse immediately. As a result of that anxiety we attempted to buy happiness by buying ‘stuff’ and thinking that products and hobbies were the route to making all the crap in our lives tolerable. It didn’t.

We have both stripped back over the past 12 months and left ourselves with just the things that we hold dear and enjoy doing together, namely our bikes. It’s nicer just having that and we both fee better for it rather than having multiple cars, motorbikes, big boys toys to fund and maintain but I think actually the house is the on thing I personally would like to get rid of. A big downsize or even something alternative (we once looked at living on a barge because we thought life would be more interesting) might make life better for us both.

We are not greedy so we don’t have desires for anything grand, we’d rather just have time together to go cycling, climbing and walking. We are both lucky in that sense that we have each other and enjoy the same things.

I suppose finding an alternative to a crippling mortgage would change our lives ultimately. We could potentially work less or at least less stressful jobs, spend more time together and at least not have the feeling of doom should our financial situation alter just slightly.

I guess it’s just a case of finding that alternative.

Incidentally, thanks all so far for the words of wisdom and suggestions.

Trust me, if you have no kids the world is your oyster, trouble is it takes having kids to realise it.

Sell up and live the life you want, whats the worst that can happen?

On that note, you could follow in Bob Kulls footsteps

Just been reading his CV on his website, awesome..

1980s
Moved to the Caribbean coast and became addicted to SCUBA diving, motorcycle riding
and casual sex.
Wiped out on motorcycle. Spent a year in the hospital; Montreal, Canada. Resulted in
amputation of lower right leg.
Rode bicycle 300 miles along the coast of California.
Shifted from backpacking to canoeing.

i like the bob kull link, reminds me of ‘Into the Wild’, fab film, fab book, interesting life, helps answer some of the questions you have inside yourself but never have the balls to try.

there are barges for sale on ebay!

I feel like this almost every day, this issue is never addressed, I think everyone goes through some sort of Early adult life crisis, where you have a job & a car and getting it together and you realise omg this is sh!t, I have to do this everyday for how many years?!!

IF you sell your house and all your stuff and travel the world, how long for? at some point you will have to come back to the UK and start it all again, afterall, you don’t want to be renting when you retire! and what about that marvellous DVD collection you’ve managed to build up?

so what’s to do?
Live in a teepee in wales? live in sun trap tourist spot working in a bar? you could live in india/indonesia/vietnam etc for quite a few years on 15k, living frugally. but it’d be dirty & hot and you probably wouldn’t get a very good internet signal in your beach hut.

My advice? do nought, the feeling will pass, carry on going to work and buying crap. Drink more or take some drugs & go clubbing to get off your head at the weekend so you can forget about the absolute blinding banality of it all. Spend time with good friends, go out for dinner, go out for rides. Enjoy what you have and think how nice it’d be if you were a millionaire

Here’s some advice which rings true (for me):

If you want to be happy for a few hours, get drunk.
If you want to be happy for a few years, get married.
If you want to be happy for life, take up gardening.

Some mates decided they were sick of their jobs and plotted to emigrate to NZ. They left 2 weeks ago and are currently looking for work.

There’s at least one forum user who has no permanent residence and works for cash on a part-time basis – it works for them.

IF you sell your house and all your stuff and travel the world, how long for? at some point you will have to come back to the UK and start it all again, afterall, you don’t want to be renting when you retire!

After i came home i picked up where i left off, got my old job back, but i was happy because i got the bug out my system. Bought a house, sold it, married a lady with her own house.

My point is you don’t know whats in store for you, with no kids just live for now.

A man said to the Buddha, “I want Happiness.”
Buddha said, first remove “I”, that’s ego,
then remove “want”, that’s desire.
See now you are left with only Happiness.

The problem with that approach is that there’s no ambition in it.

If you do not want anything, then you don’t want to learn, to travel, to love, to have kids, to create something beautiful, and so on.

Divorce your missus and join the Foreign Legion.

I have considered this issue, as you know.

I work in IT, an industry that has lots of contract job opportunities for 3-12 months or more, with good pay.

I wonder what it would be like to live in a caravan and move the family to each new job wherever it was. Maybe get a small house in some remote cheap location just to have a base.

Curently got house sale going through now,will leave us with enough equity to buy house in Eire, work part time and build a buisness around our interests without the pressure of mortgage etc n now to older boys grown up ,just 1 son 13 now to provide for.

Life has had it’s ups n downs ,n cancer has made us realise life’s true worth to us.

My advise would be to get started… You wont be able to plan a “new life” it will just happen one step at a time. Just take the next step, look around, go from there.

Good luck with it.

Live out of your car for 2 years for IMBA.

I wonder what it would be like to live in a caravan and move the family to each new job wherever it was. Maybe get a small house in some remote cheap location just to have a base.

You see, those sorts of ideas have crossed my mind but I rarely mention them to anyone as I convince myself it’s a nonsense idea. But what do you do if you don’t want a big mortgage, you don’t want a high powered, high paying life dominating career and you don’t care about possessions and owning ‘stuff’?

Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a **** big television, Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players, and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol and dental insurance. Choose fixed- interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisure wear and matching luggage. Choose a three piece suite on hire purchase in a range of **** fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing sprit- crushing game shows, stuffing **** junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pishing you last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, ****-up brats you have spawned to replace yourself. Choose your future. Choose life… But why would I want to do a thing like that?

do it

I wonder what it would be like to live in a caravan and move the family to each new job wherever it was.

They’re called travelers and no one wants them anywhere near them, so they spend their lives being endlessly chased by the police from one site to the next and generally persecuted by society.

Doesn’t sound like fun to me….

I wonder what it would be like to live in a caravan and move the family to each new job wherever it was.

lots of travellers do this but face a lot of prejudice.

I felt similar to the OP a few years ago and thought “sod it”. Came back from holiday and resigned from a well paid sales job on the first day back. Nothing to go to, wife not working. That was it, just like quitting smoking, no fannying around. It’s only when you are free of the reigns of the 9 – 5 work conveyor that you can see the light and do something about it.

Now working as a teaching assistant in a village primary school, earning bugger all and happy as Larry.

I look at it as retirement the right way round. No point in slogging away when you are youngish & fit in order to be able to do try to enjoy yourself when old and knackered. My approach is to enjoy life when youngish and when (&if) I’m old I won’t give a bugger.

Just work out how many non-working days you’ve got left if you live to the average age (78). Don’t forget to take a few off for the last few years of ill health etc. It makes for sobering thoughts!

I sound like a doom monger but infact it helped me to put life into perspective and make some great decisions!

They’re called travelers and no one wants them anywhere near them, so they spend their lives being endlessly chased by the police from one site to the next and generally persecuted by society.

Doesn’t sound like fun to me….

The police chase them when they camp illegally and burn cars and stuff* I would not be doing either of those things, of course. Somewhat bizarre of you to assume I would.

* trying not to be prejudiced, the comment is based on the two or three burned out cars that weekly end up by the traveller site in Cardiff

The police chase them when they camp illegally and burn cars and stuff* I would not be doing either of those things, of course. Somewhat bizarre of you to assume I would.

By all means try it, I suspect you’d find that most people would assume you were a Traveler and therefore likely to burn cars and stuff and want you out of there asap. Plus the local police will scape goat you for any nearby crime, so even if you don’t burn out any cars, you’ll get accused of it.

Or become a middle class Traveller and get a narrow boat.

Well I wouldn’t be in a layby would I? I’d be on a campsite. That is, if I could find someone willing to let me stay for 6 months. And I’d assume the police would be able to differentiate between members of the traveller community and a middle class family in a caravan, if they wanted somewhere to apply their prejudice.

All this is lovely and nice and all that, but you can only do it* because most of the rest of the folk don’t.

I had a conversation with a raggedy traveller man who thought he had found the one true path to happiness by giving it all up, turning his back on the rat race, being a free spirit.

I had the conversation in a hospital, after he had his appendix out.

He couldn’t grasp the essential irony of him telling me to follow in his footsteps after his life had been saved by a healthcare system….

* It being running off and chasing your dreams, not moving your family around in a caravan Mr molgrips sir 😉

…and molgrips, look at what people say about Army Brats… Kids who get moved about a lot develop certain personalities. Just saying.

Well, as both of you feel the same way then just go for it! You don’t get a medal for taking a conventional path through life.

After all, who wants to look back on their life and think they’ve wasted it? And, yes, as a middle-aged person I have regrets.

Good luck. 🙂

I’d have to consult the family of course before I did anything. Which I guess means waiting a few years til they are old enough to think and talk about it.

Having wussed out of chances to go to Canada for a year on work Canada (wasn’t really going to work that much though) and the chance of working in a lovely Chalet in Italy for the winter. I’d say if your missus is on that page – go for it.

I work in IT…I wonder what it would be like to live in a caravan and move the family to each new job wherever it was. Maybe get a small house in some remote cheap location just to have a base

my uncle (unmarried at the time) did this in order to fund his true love, learning to fly a helicopter. He’s now one of the few air ambulance pilots not to come from a military background, pulled Hammond out of a rocket car and Chris akrigg off a cliff, and loves his work. Has a family and other interests too, but went through years of financial hardship to retrain and fullfil a dream.

Some mates decided they were sick of their jobs and plotted to emigrate to NZ. They left 2 weeks ago and are currently looking for work.

I deal with people who do this all the time, moving halfway round the world really doesn’t tend to solve very much !

@NZCol

Depends on your mindset, I’ve know quite a few that have gone somewhere or come to the UK with the mindset of. Not bothered what I do, just looking for a bit of adventure in life. They seem to love it.

One lad in particular has spent 15 odd years just working in Hostels and is damn happy about it.

Those that go with the expectation of a ‘better life’ job/house/social in the classical getting on/being succesful in a Capitalist society. I’ve known a few of those too and they don’t seem so happy. That’s not a bash at Capitalism/consumerism by the way. Just an observation, and a pretty small scale one at that. #sitsonfence

Up until the time that I met Mrs Yunki I was pretty much a member of the feral underclass..
I viewed the middle classes as a type of cattle..

Any creature that prostrated itself into a life of dull and painful servitude, destined to live out it’s days in slavery, fearfully following the herd and obeying the instructions barked at it through the idiot box, and through the glossy advertising leaflets and propaganda laden news rags that it worshipped seemed like a lower life form to me.. Less intelligent and with fewer morals than the food on my plate..
As such, they meant as little to me as farm animals and I had no qualms whatsoever about using them to support my lifestyle, preying on them like a benevolent hunter, in tune with my surroundings, never taking more than I needed in order to preserve a sustainable eco-system..

Like a modern day native american indian carefully tending my bison herd..

A friend suggested that as an experiment in personal growth and development that I might try a little harder to understand my flock, that I should attempt to communicate with them, maybe to befriend one, and this is how I met mrs yunki
Since then we have spent many happy but challenging days teaching each other about the ways of our respective tribes, compromising and adapting to forge a new way that encompasses elements of each culture..
Hopefully our little half breed children’s panoptic upbringing will see them more fully equipped to deal with the problems that the world will undoubtedly face in the future..

I just thought that I would share that with you..

If you want a challenge get your other half to spit out some kids..

Failing that, simplify, strip back your lifestyle to the bare bones, take a few years to visit some places where this is the norm, try to eliminate some of the inherent problems of modern society from your lifestyle.. investigate some forgotten systems and use the new found time to explore your taboos.. 😉

Back in 2000 we sold our house and business and set off with a touring caravan with no real idea where we’d end up.
Worked in France and Spain on campsites,before actually settling in Spain for the past 9 years.We’re back in the UK and are slipping into mediocrity so looking at getting another ‘van.We still have the house in Spain,mountain village,and if the wife said sell the house here and go back i would.
Friends with a motorhome work on campsites in the UK in summer then head off to Spain or Portugal for the winter.A couple down the road with a motorhome worked for Canvas this year at Interlaken in Switzerland.Really enjoyed it and are doing it again next year.£1200 a month part time,with just food as overheads.
Its hard to explain but when you’ve done a fair bit of travelling about, seeing new places and meeting new people, it gets under your skin and itchy feet set in.

@ the OP… she is right mate.

best of luck with it.