2-4 months off work NO responsibilities - what would YOU do?

OK for those moaning about contradictory financial information.

I have a virgin one account. This is an offset mortgage, which means effectively I never have savings (whilst I have a mortgage), I just put extra into my house, that I can 'get to' at any time.

Whilst I have been contracting I have been putting huge lumps into the house, in fact now the house is as good as paid off.

When I put my cash-card into the wall it says 'Available balance: £158,332'

If I go tomorrow and buy a ferrari/motorbike/trip to aus, I could get the thing EASILY, but it's money off my house not money in some 'super-savings account' so obviously I'd rather not. as immediately away I'm getting back into having a mortgage again with the interest payments etc. but technically I COULD DEFINATELY, EASILY BUY A £100,000 CAR TOMORROW. Just by writing the garage a cheque, job done. Effectively by eating into my house equity. Does this make me rich? Nope. Does this mean I could buy a Ferrari 355 literally tomorrow? Yup :\

So, sorry for the confusion, indeed I feel rich and poor simultaneously. if push comes to shove I could live for YEARS AND YEARS without work as I'd use up my house equity. no I'm NEVER going to be in deep trouble financially.

However when I talk about a motorbike costing £4000 and me not wanting to spend it because I don't have the money, thats also kinda true as I only have it in the form of equity in the house. I don't have some savings account burning a hole in my pocket.

Hope this clears things up a bit, does it?


(ps. robgmun, stop being nasty to me please.)

Whoever asked - I gave up my contract voluntarily as ready (after break) for next challenge .. (been here 11 years contracting after all!)
 
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No-One said:
This thread is starting to get me depressed. In general I'm really fed up. All I seem to do for the past few years is work in the day and spend the evenings/weekends waiting to go back to work. I'd really like to ditch work for a while and go see the world. I'm 29, got more than enough in savings and no debt at all. The only thing really holding me back is that I really don't think I'd want to do something like that on my own. I know of few people in other departments who have gone traveling and the company were good enough to keep their jobs open for them when they got back. But they all went with a small group of their own friends. All my friends seem to have about £20 to their name and thousands of pounds of debt
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How about doing a short trip on your own and then hopefully you'll meet some like minded people who want to travel with you.

I'm sure there are sites for this as well, lookup people who want to go where you want to go and meet them to see if you get on.

It is a bummer when your friends have no money or desire to leave the country, but there are plenty of other people out there who want to travel.
 
Rich_L said:
:D I know exactly what I'm doing because I'm doing this - my last day at work is on Thursday :cool:

Helps that I'll be in California of course, so plan to spend 5-6 weeks surfing and exploring the Southern California area, then spending another 6 weeks doing a road trip around the Southern States. :)
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excellent dude!
 
Travel on the cheap, staying in hostels, catching trains and eating cheap food. I'm doing Europe (again) in the summer and doubt I'd spend much more than £800 for the month.
 
iv had 2months off so far, sadly due to the fact i had a major op on my hip so no getting fit etc.

I'd start with getting fit and doing some DIY, play some of the games you have really wanted to play, and look to go travelling, though try the coast to coast(yes thats its name) and see how you enjoy that, then if you do look to go abroad.
 
regulus said:
Travel on the cheap, staying in hostels, catching trains and eating cheap food. I'm doing Europe (again) in the summer and doubt I'd spend much more than £800 for the month.
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Hostels? Expensive, why not camp? Although there seems a massive oversion to doing so for most people...:confused:
 
you can meet more like minded people in hostels than on a campsite, plus the facilities are much nicer.
Saying that I would be happy enough camping with mates, and getting a hostel once in a while for a weekend in a city
 
Do your DAS, then purchase the following.

1x Motorbike
1x Tent
1x Diary

Then cross the channel without any plan whatsoever other than to return in 4 months time.

If you need someone with a bit of biking experience to travel with then I'm more than willing. You'd more than likely have to finance me through the trip but I've already got my Africa Twin and fully equipped for travelling, and I'm low maintenance.

What are we waiting for?
 
i was in almost the same sitaution as you at the start of last year.

quit my job on the first day back of the new year, and spent three months messing around. i racked up 20 days worth of FM2009 playing in a month... i also decided to get my health checked up, and spend quite a bit of money seeing specialists to make sure i was just being a hypochondriac.

after all this i had no other option but to go travelling. i'd definitely recommend it. unfortunately my savings weren't tied up in property and as they were readibly available to me i blew an enormous amount of money (by my standards anyway) in about 7 months.

the fact that you're money is available to you, despite it being invested in your house is probably a good thing. It means that if you do spend it, you're likely to be more realistic and sensible. if it came down to a choice between £4,000 on a bike or going away, i'd go as soon as possible.
 
Smithy said:
Do your DAS, then purchase the following.

1x Motorbike
1x Tent
1x Diary

Then cross the channel without any plan whatsoever other than to return in 4 months time.

If you need someone with a bit of biking experience to travel with then I'm more than willing. You'd more than likely have to finance me through the trip but I've already got my Africa Twin and fully equipped for travelling, and I'm low maintenance.

What are we waiting for?
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Sounds awesome :)

My missus is heavily preggers :(
 
for me this is easy, i would go down to my caravan in Cornwall and spend that time surfing and walking and star gazing, ah well will be getting a week at easter:)
 
[TW]Fox;16216028 said:
Buy a plane ticket. Fly to Australia. Return in 4 months time.
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This.

And why are you having 2-4 months off work?! I want 2-4 months of work! IT'S NOT FAIR IT'S NOT FAIR!!! :p
 
peetee said:
you can meet more like minded people in hostels than on a campsite, plus the facilities are much nicer.
Saying that I would be happy enough camping with mates, and getting a hostel once in a while for a weekend in a city
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Depends, whenever I have stayed at a hostel they have just been filled with boozing tourists who's idea of travelling is sampling the bars in every country...:p
 
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