Around Australia in my own time

Rent the house out and in a year or few you will still have your house when you are tired of it .

Crawl before you walk.

If you can't afford to go now without selling the home, take much shorter breaks often and closer to home while you get in a financial position to go for good while you keep the home.

Just my opinion.
Trevor.

I don't know about where you live but real-estate generally is on the up and up. If you sell now and try to buy later you will have to put a lot more money in to get the same standard. Also worst case - what if you have a serious injury and need a base to come back to for recovery - for me anyway it is a comfort to know I can do that.

John

The advice re keeping your house is right.. but, you only live once and who knows what adventures, options and opportunities you might find on the road.

While I would probably try to keep the house, it after all, is just a 'thing'.

Living life and not worrying so much about houses, cars, money and other financial things is probably the most important thing.

As a bloke said to me in the Alice one day, "Mate, you don't see many hearses towing caravans".

Enjoy life with whatever decision you make, and have no regrets.

Banjo (WA)

Hi John,
If you have some equitity in your house you can borrow against the house. Now that we have nearly paid the house off the bank is nearly falling over themselves to give us more money. Also remember houses double in valvue every 7 to 10 years so the sooner you get a house the sooner you will be debt fee
Cheers Pete

John, these are all good ideas to think on.
We understand your pain, but don't throw the baby away with the bathwater.
Being crook in a strange part of Oz is no fun, especially if you don't have a home to come back to. None of us know whats round the corner.
The rat race is a curious thing. We hate it and can't wait to get away, but it provides the means to do so.
My short term solution would be to pick somewhere challenging that you'd like to see. Research it throughly and then start planning a shorter trip. Take time off or whatever if you must. By then you should have enough money to experience life on the road.
Complete the trip and see what you think then. In another couple of years you might have different ideas about flogging your main asset that you cant easily replace.

Hows it going John ,

You havent given us enough info , if you have a fair bit of equity in your house if you sell it , you may be able to fund your trip .

You could take a bit to travel with ,invest the rest , maybe do a bit of work along the way.

You dont say your main reason for wanting to leave, if you have the right reasons and are in the right financial position dont be afraid to sell your house , with the right advice you could make more on the share market than on a poorly positioned property.

Glenn.

All good advice.

Be careful though renting the house because rental can devalue the property very rapidly. The landscaping goes down quickly and of more concern is the dingy look that lack of care of formica, tiles and fitings can bring to a previously nice house. Again, a loan on your residence to purchase a van will result in non-deductable debt.

Chat to some friends who have sought and profied from investment advice. Good advuce is fee for service (ie you pay) because I don't believe all of the alternatives and the Centrelink and taxation effects are known by you as yet.

For example, maybe your next stage of life could involve a unit where independent living and some care are available. Plan forward taking reasonable stock of your aspirations. We all know people who are asset risch and income poor and are living hand to mouth while wishing they could afford to make something of their lives.

hire a van and try out the lifestyle first by all means. I know couples who sold out, invested their dough (with some leverage and growth) and are living the high life travelling in a medium sized RV.

John,
I divorced in '95 and sold everything because of it because the 'law' is you have to share (yawn) yeah you get to keep the dog L0L.

I've been living in a camper trailer and van since then... Have seen some dam beautiful places and met some really terrific people.
I had a high profile management job and now wear thongs and shorts daily L0L

My thoughts would be to rent out your present home through a Real Estate Agent, they have to be responsible for the upkeep of the property and collecting the rent, sure they get their fair share but that's their job and if they fail they can be held responsible.
When (if) you return you have a home worth double today's price and you still own it, the rent will go towards paying for some fuel money as well.

Talk with a few of your 'local agents' and get their ideas on contracts and fees.

It costs not a lot to 'cruise around' because if you travel short distances each week and get a bit of work occasionally you will get by.
There is plenty of work available for the asking, I know because I worked a few years back and again this year L0L.

Indications are that the WA housing boom has peaked . Rents haven't increased in proportion to the value of houses , most Perth rented houses make about 1% return . Property booms come around about once every 14 years . All this means that this is a good time to sell your house .

If you feel that you are in 'the rat race' , two conditions probably apply . One , you do not enjoy your work , and two , your pay doesn't compensate for the grind or permit you to improve your financial position to make changes . From personal experience I can recommend seeking a fun job , even if the pay is relatively low , and then work hard at investing to make up for the low pay .

I sympathise with the forumites who advise holding onto the house . Housing is an investment we all understand and we all see the absolute necessity of owning a house on retirement . However , there are some situations where it is better to rent [ or tow ] , invest , and buy later . The financial logic behind these situations can be adapted to your case . If you wish to keep an investment in real estate , and there are good reasons why you should , have a look at managed trusts such as Australian Unity's Property Security Growth Fund . This fund would index you to real estate values so you can't be left behind if values soar , and historically returns an annual income in excess of 12% .

Seek advice from an authorised financial planner .

Go for it!!! We had been slowly renovating a house for 7 years and had always talked about travelling around Australia. Lifes circumstances made us realise that you don't know what is around the corner so we fast tracked the completion of the house, sold it, bought a 24ft bunk van (to accom us and our kids 4 & 2yrs) then set of from Melb with no real plan other than to go the whole way around Australia in approx 12 months. It was the best thing we have ever done in our lives and although we have ended up back in melb and we kept an open mind incase we found the perfect place along the way. Our experiences and friendships made is something precious that will remain with us always.

On the financial side - like you we tossed up whether or not to rent out or sell but money would have been tight if we rented and also for us everything in the house was brand new so it was our best chance for an optimum price - you never know if a tenant is going to cause damage. We wisely invested our money and had good financial advice from our accountant. I am a tradesman and when we got to Perth I obtained work whithin a few days - we ended up staying for 5 months, I also worked for 3 months in Darwin (which is the place I loved the most). Work is abundant in this country of ours and you don't have to be a qualified tradesman like me. We met all kinds of people who found work either in their field or outside the box - basically if you are willing to give something a go there is always someone willing to let you. We lived on our savings and spent nothing from our house sale - in fact earned a nice packet of interest. We ended up travelling for 15 months like that. We kept an eye on house prices and although they did go up in the area we chose to buy back in (app $50K) we have no regrets whatsoever and would do it all again in a flash. We also sold our van as soon as we returned and in the two years that we had it only lost $2k. We did meet people who had done the same thing and had not made good choices regarding their finances - they lived off the profits from their house sale, they are now struggling to get back into the house market.

You will always get differing opinions from people as to what to do but as long as you do things wisely you wont go wrong. We wont die wondering that's for sure!!!