Couple ditch the UK and ‘retire’ in their 30s to travel the world with their two children for just £60 a day

A couple who ‘retired’ in their early 30s have ditched life in the UK to travel the world with their two young sons – claiming they can live comfortably on as little as £60 a day.

Ryan Blackley, 35, and wife Jess, 34, left Britain for Thailand with sons Noah, six, and Bodhi, four, in February. 

The couple had already visited 27 countries together before having children and say they always knew their future would ‘lie outside the UK’.

Now, they are travelling around Asia while living on an average of £1,800 a month – around £60 a day – for the family of four, funded by the £2,500 they make each month from renting out their properties back home.

Their monthly costs are also lower than when they lived in Britain, where their mortgage, bills and food came to around £2,286.

The pair originally planned to move to Portugal and travel around Europe, but changed their minds after deciding Asia’s warmer winter climate suited them better.

They packed just two suitcases and a backpack each before making the 5,800-mile move to Chiang Mai on February 24.

Ryan, originally from Cambridge, said the couple had always planned to use property as a way of creating enough financial freedom to leave the UK. 

He said: ‘We had a plan basically of how to get out of the UK and that was through property.

‘But I think we obviously had a good life in the UK but it got to a point where I guess we felt that the UK wasn’t the right place for us to live and bring up kids.

‘We’ve got two boys and at some point, they are going to want to go out on their own and we don’t feel the UK is a safe country anymore because knife crime is massive and I don’t want one of the kids being a statistic of knife crime anymore.’ 

He added: ‘The cost of living is insane.’ 

At the age of 20, Jess had purchased her first flat for £120,000 and rented it out. 

After saving while travelling and working abroad, the couple bought a second flat for £145,000, later selling it for £183,000 before buying another two-bedroom property for £190,000.

They eventually bought their four-bedroom family home in 2021, with the properties now rented out through Airbnb or to private tenants, bringing in around £2,500 a month.

Ryan said: ‘We both class ourselves as retired because the property work requires minimal upkeep and effort.’ 

The couple are also world-schooling their sons, with Ryan saying they wanted to escape what he sees as an outdated education system.

He said: ‘The school system is a very outdated system. For us the whole concept of life is backwards because you’ve got to go to school, work, and then enjoy life when you’re 68-years-old.

‘Who knows one, if you’ll be alive then and then two, health-wise what that will be. 

‘This way we’re teaching the kids everything. They know how to read, write, maths, English etc, and then learn the skills they don’t get taught at school.’ 

Jess said she had become frustrated with the monotony of school runs.

‘Every time I’d pick Noah up from school I’d ask, “How was your day? Blah, blah, blah,”‘ she said, ‘He’d say, “These kids were naughty today,” or “These kids got their names on the board,” and I never heard positive things.

‘I thought, “What’s the point?” I feel like a lot of the school day is spent controlling the class and troublesome kids. How much is actually spent learning?’

Since arriving in Thailand, the family have visited Chiang Rai, Bangkok, Udon Thani and Kanchanaburi and are currently in Koh Samui, with plans to visit Malaysia and Singapore next.

After their 60-day tourist visa expired, they crossed the border into Laos and applied for a five-year Destination Thailand Visa, allowing them to live there while working remotely.

The family rarely plans far ahead, often booking their next accommodation – a mixture of Airbnb’s, apartments and hotels – just days before moving on.

Ryan said: ‘We’re quite fine with the simple life like eating Thai food. We don’t drink alcohol or go to bars or fancy restaurants.’

Ryan also says leaving their family home behind has also made them realise how little they need.

He said: ‘It’s crazy we lived in the house and all we travel with is two large suitcases and a backpack each. It makes you realise you don’t need much in life.’

Although they admit leaving family and friends was daunting, the couple say they have no plans to return to Britain permanently.

Ryan noted: ‘We’ve done nearly six months already and I don’t see us every returning, not in a living capacity but literally just to visit the family.

‘Obviously we still have the house in the UK and if this all fails, we’ll simply go back. 

‘The plan still is to travel the world but having a base in Asia makes it easier. We’ve basically got freedom and don’t have to be anywhere by a certain date or time.

‘It’s just the four of us and we pretty much go with the flow. It’s just nice being free.’ 

He added: ‘I can understand it can be scary because it’s going into the unknown and going away from your family and friends, home comforts and everything.

‘But if you don’t try it out how do you know you’re not going to like it. 

‘We were everyday people, just a normal family who had a dream to get out and travel the world and give our kids a different life.’

The family share their travels on Instagram and YouTube at @blackleysabroad and on TikTok at @travelwiththeblackleys.