Mother sells family home to travel with young son

Mother sells family home to travel with young son
'It was the best decision of my life'

Ruth Johnston, an Australian mother, took the difficult decision to sell up in order to fund her travels, even though she has no idea where she and her son will live on their return.

That was two years ago when the boy was seven. The pair have been on the road ever since and are now in their third year of travelling, currently in Greece. So far they have managed to explore 40 countries.

Ms Johnston claims not to regret the decision and says she has no idea yet when their adventure will end.

“It was the best decision of my life,” she said. “I was working two jobs to pay off a house and spending no time with my son. I had no funds left over at the end, and no time to be with him. It was all work and so the house needed to go.”

“It also needed renovations and upkeep which I couldn't afford,” she added, “so once I made the decision, it meant I only had to work towards affordable repairs and tidying up to put it on the market.”

The pair live off between $60 and $100 a day and spend a lot of time house sitting as a way to earn money and get to know locals. Ms Johnston’s son is “world-schooled”, she said, while also spending a lot of time reading, whether it is a chapter of a novel in the car (even keeping his nose in a book as their 4x4 climbed the side of a volcano) or at night.

“The hardest thing is keeping up with books in English,” she admitted. “He does use Kindle on his iPad too though.”

But Ms Johnston’s decision was a risky one, fuelled mainly by the desire to spend every day with her son.

“I get to teach him and show him the world,” she said. “I want to encourage single parents that it is more affordable to travel than to pay for a home and all its associated expenses. To live life simply and with less possessions, means less to worry about.”

She said the sacrifice has definitely been worth it. “We focus on random acts of kindness as we travel. So we get to bless and encourage, and give to others along the way to. The more we give, the more we want to give.”

Long-term travel in later life is becoming more appealing according to recent surveys, either as a retirement option, for empty-nesters looking for a new challenge, or for those recently made redundant.

Ms Johnston blogs about her experiences abroad at exploramum.com.

Win one of 40 holidays worth £800,000
Telegraph Travel Awards 2014: vote for your favourite destinations and travel companies for the chance to win one of 40 luxury breaks worth a total of £800,000. Closes on October 27, 2014.

Travel Guides app
Download the free Telegraph Travel app, featuring expert guides to destinations including Paris, Rome, New York, Venice and Amsterdam

Sign up to our weekly email newsletter
Follow Telegraph Travel on Twitter
Follow Telegraph Travel on Facebook
Follow Telegraph Travel on Pinterest
Follow Telegraph Travel on FourSquare

License this content