Finances review with the aim of leaving nothing behind!

Alicante6

Good afternoon, I am a 60 year old male, single with no dependants. I am a practical person and realise I probably have 20 good years left. I plan to retire in 5 years time and enjoy my hard earned retirement by travelling and spending time in different countries. I can't decide whether to sell my house to help fund my travels or is it better to have a home to eventually come back to? It is too big for what I need and renting a flat, when I return from travelling, may be a better idea. 
Here are the numbers:
Royal London £200k
A J Bell £200k 
House valuation £150k 
Premium Bonds £20k
Savings 50k
Vanguard ISA £5k 
Half share in a second property £70k 
Scottish Widows (work pension) £15k (contributions £3k incl employer)
State pension from 67 & reduced due to contracting out circa £7k
Mortgage remaining £8k
Credit card £2k 
Interested to get people's thoughts. 
Thank you 

DireEmblem

Do you have any other pensions?

My first thought would be to lump as much as you can into a SIPP or similar, get some tax relief back from the government.

Alicante6

Thanks for your message. I just have the Scottish Widows, A J Bell and Royal London pensions. 

pphillips

I think the answer to your question depends on how long you will be travelling,  as it's really not a good idea to keep a property unoccupied for a long period of time. Another way of releasing capital and discharging the mortgage would be downsizing to a smaller property.

Notepad_Phil

Selling the house before you go and then purchasing when you get back could mean problems for you should there be a sudden burst of house inflation which your money hasn't kept up with, and personally I'd hate to be at the whim of a landlord with the high possibility of ever increasing rent eating into my pension income and maybe having to look for new accomodation every few years or so.

I've no intention of doing the kind of thing that you're planning, but if I was then personally I'd start looking at what would be involved in purchasing some rentals that could bring in some income and allow me to sell when I got back to then purchase whatever type of house/flat I then wanted.

kidmugsy

I can't decide whether to sell my house to help fund my travels or is it better to have a home to eventually come back to? It is too big for what I need and renting a flat, when I return from travelling, may be a better idea.  ...
Half share in a second property £70k ...
State pension from 67 & reduced due to contracting out circa £7k

(i) Have you looked into the possibility of increasing your State Pension by making extra contributions?

(ii) If you were contracted out, is one of your pensions Defined Benefit e.g. based on Final Salary?

(iii) Would you expect to let out your house while you are away?

(iv) Would you expect to sell  your half property before you go?

xylophone

State pension from 67 & reduced due to contracting out circa £7k

What exactly does your state pension forecast say?

https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension

If your existing property is bigger than you need, had you thought of buying now the kind of property you anticipate that you might need post travelling?

You could be mortgage free and free up capital which would enable to to increase your pension contributions?

newatc

If you like living at your current place. why don't you keep your home but get some equity release money. It matters not to you that the house may not be worth a lot when you depart this world.

pphillips

Mickey666 said:

If the OP considers they have 20 good years left, I wouldn't be contemplating wasting 25% of them working and would be looking for ways to retire asap.

Much depends on the OPs travelling ambitions and the likely costs.  I'd suggest this side of the plan needs to be addressed before deciding what to do with the current assets.

One thought about the house is equity release.  I know such things are generally frowned upon as bad deals but as the OP has no  dependents presumably this is of less importance.

The other thought is that the OP is really looking at a two-part plan; how to fund 15 (perhaps 20?) of 'good' living travelling the world and what will be needed from around 80 onwards, ie somewhere to live and a reasonable pension income.  perhaps work backwards from the requirements at 80 and then consider how to best utilise what's left for the world travels?

Working backwards will bring up the question of to what extent the OP is planning to make provision for their future care, but perhaps that is not their priority.

Alicante6

Wow, thanks to everyone for your comments, some real food for thought. Much appreciated. 

Yorkshire_Pud

Remember there may be times when you need to return to the UK for health care. Long periods abroad equals high insurance premiums for health cover. Especially as you get older and always the risk of being on your own far from home.

You need to maintain a UK address or your state pension may get frozen depending on which country you live in, maybe other things too that we take for granted.

Travelling ALL the time can be very tiring and life can be boring with nothing ‘real’ to do, hobbies, listen in to travellers tales it’s all we missed the train, we got upgraded to first class, we got a great deal on the room, we got ripped off in the hotel, the food was great the food was terrible, we need new dentures and shoes, etc etc. Then turn to alcohol to alleviate the stress and boredom?

Not saying this is you but I’d say it’s best to have a trial period of say a year away and see how it goes, or six months here and six months away each year, don’t burn your bridges unless you have unlimited faith in the future elsewhere. Although staying in the UK can entail lots of the same boredom and frustration!