[Closed] Downsizing & living off the profits - anyone done it?

Depends what you're retraining for, or whether you'll just end up spending your life driving slowly out of Mid-Wales to work.

Other devil's advocate stuff - because you are living off your equity, if circumstances change and you have to move out of Mid Wales, you'll find it hard.

We did something similar once, and while I don't regret it, moving to an area where onward job opportunities were pretty limited for both of us eventually made the situation untenable.

We're now settled in a 'halfway house' type market town rather than full rural, which on reflection is better for the kids and us.

TLDR: Be very sure you can make it work for you.

You sound like me OP!

I moved to a house in Austria. I downsized a lot.
The most important thing if you move to another country is to ensure you respect the people around you. Try to integrate into the local community, you will enjoy it a lot more.
I can speak decent German now. Your kids will be taught Welsh, you should try and do the same.

me and the wife are putting plans in place. house is more than we need now.
selling it and buying a 2 bed terrace. she retires in October, and I am going partime.

light at the end of the tunnel.

Depends what you’re retraining for, or whether you’ll just end up spending your life driving slowly out of Mid-Wales to work.

this is a biggie. My BiL lives on the borders. It's a beautiful village but his 16 mile commute to Hereford every morning can take anything up to 90 minutes!

I haven't downsized, but on the "training for something else" thing, I've done that. I wouldn't underestimate the challenge of getting a qualification in something new and finding a job in it - even at entry level - if it's a desirable line of work. Having been in a higher-paid role previously, this can be quite demoralising.

So hopefully the house move cash will mean you don't have any pressure to start something new to bring in income - but longer term contracting in the old line of work might be fine, of course.

Thanks all, food for thought there.
Would probably be moving to something that will be lower paid - which again have discussed with wife.
As long as we can pay the bills and have a bit for savings and a holiday we should be good.
It's more about balancing work/life/stress/happiness.

Very much depends upon what "around 2/3rds of the price" would leave you (don't forget such delights as stamp duty).
Don't underestimate the cost of children as they grow up - I'm amazed at how much my girls are costing me now (they're 19 and 17).

My BiL lives on the borders. It’s a beautiful village but his 16 mile commute to Hereford every morning can take anything up to 90 minutes!

That's a fair commute by bicycle, respect.

As above - does '2/3 the price' leave you with £50k or £250k?
I'd love to do the same - if we sold up and payed all the debts off it would enable us to buy a smaller place somewhere rural with either no mortgage or a very small one.
However, i like where we live, (Bromley, Kent) and have concerns about us being lonely/isolated in a rural setting - this concerns me more for my wife, as i work away a bit, and am happy without human contact when i'm home alone anyway.

I think after paying everything off and stamp duty/moving we should have about £60k.

Do you have your pension sorted, at least partially? Always worth trying to save a bit more for the future once you reach a certain age!

Yes, sold our bungalow in the midlands for 425k and bought a temporary property for 250k in North Wales which we are doing up to sell. We have now found a gem of a bungalow for 130k which requires 50k spending and this will be our permanent home.
We are mid fifties and it's bloody fantastic not having to kiss arse, i think it's as close to living the dream as you can get.
There is plenty of work here if you are of a practical nature folk are crying out for general building and repairs.

I keep thinking the same but my girls are still quite young (9) so I still have quite a bit of parenting to fund. When they go off to uni / work or whatever then I really want to do it. By then we should have about 85% equity in our house so we could afford to downsize, buy a motorhome and still have a pretty decent fund to live off. However I am slightly at odds with my wife as she wants us to retain the big house so the girls have a larger inheritance but I think we should spend our money on us and enjoy our later years - the girls would still be in line to share a decent pot from the sale of the smaller property.

We have recently moved from Leeds/Bradford to north Shropshire Welsh Boarders.

It’s a stunning part of the country, quiet and great countryside.

But, I had the opportunity to move and do any job I wanted. Pay is very low for everything. The bigger employers in the area have very little staff turnover.

I’ve been lucky and only taken a £6k pay cut. I’m doing a job in Finance I did 15 yrs ago, which is ok but it doesn’t stretch me or excite me.

I love the romantic idea of moving to the country and finding an easier job etc, but I don’t think it exists so far.

Luckily my wife has a very well paid job with a local employer (the reason we moved)

We are just about to move in to a house we could never have afforded to buy in Leeds/Bradford area.

However I am slightly at odds with my wife as she wants us to retain the big house so the girls have a larger inheritance but I think we should spend our money on us and enjoy our later years

I know that one... my response of "if he's not got a good job by the time i die, then tough" apparently isn't appropriate 🙂

I think after paying everything off and stamp duty/moving we should have about £60k.

How long will that last?

I would do a budget for each year from now till death and work out how much you need to live on and where it is coming from (eg job, savings, state pension, private pension) etc.

I know that one… my response of “if he’s not got a good job by the time i die, then tough” apparently isn’t appropriate

🙂 It's a tricky one though as my parents kept the big house so I got a decent inheritance from them and my wife's parents still have their very big house and (as far as we know) intend on keeping it for the same reason so I am at odds with everyone around me.

We fully intend to downsize at some point. I guess the next house will be a bungalow. Some of the excess money we'd add to savings, some will likely go to my daughter. She'll still have something to inherit eventually unless it's all soaked up in care home fees.

Yes, then Madame got an unhoped for pay rise.

Why go and live in poverty in West Wales (that was what I left) when there are so many places in the world where you can make a good living in a pleasant climate. If you like cold horizontal rain ignore me, but that's my abiding memory of working in Dyfed.

+1 Edukator, I'm a softie southerner but Mrs dB is all for moving to Scotland, much as I like visiting such places, living with midges and sub zero temps is not for me, I've got my eye firmly on somewhere warmer

60k is not a lot. Especially for a family of 4.

I left a decent job 16 years ago and must have missed it about 5 times in all those years. Be realistic about your living costs though, as said above do a cash flow of sources of income. I reckon anything interesting pays peanuts.

Good luck btw....tapping away on my sunny terrace.

60k is not a lot. Especially for a family of 4.

But the OP isn't wanting to retire on it - simply pay off the mortgage and make a career change.

But the OP isn’t wanting to retire on it – simply pay off the mortgage and make a career change.

How much is the per year salary hit, £5k, £10k, £15k?

That's what he £60k has got to cover, assuming the OP already has enough in their pension to cover retirement....

How much is the per year salary hit, £5k, £10k, £15k?

That’s what he £60k has got to cover, assuming the OP already has enough in their pension to cover retirement….

But he won't have a mortgage to pay and council tax may well be lower too.

Dickyboy

Subscriber
+1 Edukator, I’m a softie southerner but Mrs dB is all for moving to Scotland, much as I like visiting such places, living with midges and sub zero temps is not for me

Man up. It's not like you get both at the same time!

The £60k would just cover the interim while I retrain or take some time off.
I intend to get something else but appreciate that 'interesting' work will be lower paid.

We have recently moved from Leeds/Bradford to north Shropshire Welsh Boarders.

FunkyDunc, have you discovered all the great riding yet?

i quite fancy selling up in a few years and buying a wide beam canal boat. £130’000 should do it then live off about £200’000 equity topped up with part time local electrical work i reckon could see me right for most of my remaining years....it’s not for folk in their 80’s or anything but i’m not sure i want to get to that or have the funds so as long as i pop my clogs before then it might not be the worst thing in the world. Otherwise i’m working full on till i die i reckon.

Yep we did it but in slightly different circumstances (kids at university). We had a decent amount of equity in a large house and moved to a tiny place by the sea. Wife took a much lower paid job with nicer people to work with and we are a lot more careful with money than we ever were with big house and bigger earnings. Every week we go to the pub and smile our little faces off in smugness at having no debt and a simpler life. I started my first business with £10k and neither of us working. I'll never regret it as we ended up here. £60k could go a long way if you are careful and disciplined but you both HAVE to want to do it. No point dragging or being dragged into it with misgivings.