A couple have waved goodbye to their 'WFH rut' and flogged their £300,000 house to travel the world - shrugging off trolls who claim it's a waste of cash as their four-year-old daughter 'won't remember it'. Joe Riley really is now 'living the life of Riley' after concocting the globe-trotting plan while growing increasingly unhappy with working from home as a health and safety advisor during the covid lockdowns.
The 27-year-old's fiancée Rachael Lewis wasn't initially keen on travelling, but the 24-year-old former waitress soon changed her mind after a solo weekend trip to Paris in January this year. The couple then sold their four-bedroom home in Heysham, Lancashire, in May and jetted off to Bali with daughter Melody Riley, before spending the next few months exploring Europe.
Footage shared on TikTok shows the family making once-in-a-lifetime memories as they feed elephants in Thailand, visit breathtaking temples and relax on palm-fringed beaches. Since sharing their travels online, the couple have been inundated with comments from people praising their sense of adventure with a young child in tow.
But others have branded them 'selfish' for removing 'Melody's stability' - even saying it's a 'waste of cash' as she's too young to remember it. But the defiant couple hit back at trolls claiming they were making their 'dreams come true' while saving enough cash to put down a deposit on a house in Australia in the future.
Joe, from Heysham, Lancashire, said: "I really fell into a rut while working at home, so we just looked into how to spice things up and this trip was top of the list. I've travelled with my family and spent some time living in Dubai so I've always enjoyed travelling. We initially had an argument about the idea at first, but when she came back from Paris, she'd caught the travel bug."
Rachael, who grew up on a council estate, said she initially had reservations about giving up her home as it was her 'idea of success'. Rachael said: "I still have dreams about how much I loved the kitchen in my house. It really was a dream house, we were so lucky to be able to afford it.
"I bought it when I was 21. To let go of it was to let go of my idea of success. I came from a council estate - I never thought I'd be able to own my own home, never mind sell my dream home.
"We paid around £200,000 for it originally, and when we sold it, it was around £300,000. We got a bit of backlash on TikTok when we said we sold the house.
"People were saying we were selfish and asking how we could 'take away Melody's stability'. I felt like I had to justify myself and said 'actually, we're quite sensible, we've put enough aside for a deposit on a new house when we get settled'.
"We've both worked since we were really young so we have good savings. After two years of lockdowns and COVID, we were just really excited to have the opportunity to do what deep down we'd always wanted to do.
"We've always wanted to travel, ever since we've known each other. We wanted to move to Australia - that was the goal for us. Joe got to travel a lot growing up, whereas I've only started seeing the world recently. He knew it was a big dream of mine. He'll do anything to make my dreams come true and when he saw the opportunity, he thought 'It's now or never'."
The trio embarked on their first mini-break in May 2022 before bidding farewell to their life in the UK.
Rachael said: "We set off on this journey in May, we went to Milan on May 17 for three days. Melody had never been on a plane before and I was really nervous about how she'd deal with flights.
"I guess it was a little practice. We came back from Milan, had our goodbye parties and then went off to Bali for a month. Bali is a gorgeous place to start. I'd never left the country before I went to Paris and this felt as far away from England as I could get.
"It was a big adventure. When I was in school, I'd always look up beautiful holiday destinations online and Bali would always come up. I would spend hours in photography class looking at these beautiful pictures."
After Bali, the family's travels took them across Europe, where they stayed with friends or rented out Airbnbs. Joe said: "I'm always on the look-out for good deals on Airbnb. There are days where we've been travelling and have had to book something that same day. I can't even imagine how much we've spent travelling the world. It'd have to be up there in the high tens of thousands."
Rachael said: "We've been travelling around Europe for three months. We went to France, Italy, Germany and Switzerland. It was mainly by train so we got to see a lot of it, it was lovely.
"Germany is my favourite country that we've been to so far, we were hosted there by a couple we'd met in Thailand. They showed us all the beer gardens, and we got to see the Alps, it all blew my mind. The people and culture were amazing. It felt amazing to be treated like family - it was very homey."
Rachael is happy that the trio's travels have opened up a lot of opportunities for quality family time. Rachael said: "I think my favourite memory so far has been when we took Melody to the waterfalls in Bali. There was a moment where she jumped into her dad's arms while he was in the water, she was quite scared at first. It was one of those moments I don't think I'll ever forget.
"The fact we were by the waterfalls, she was trusting her dad, I don't know, It made my heart swell. I fell pregnant with Melody when I was 19, it was a happy surprise. I'd only been dating Joe for two months.
"I just got told so many times during my pregnancy that all our dreams would be put on hold. I kept being told how many things we couldn't do. The number one comment I get is 'you should have done this when she was older so she'd remember it'.
"What I want to drive into people's minds is that I don't care if she remembers it or not, I care that she's experiencing it in the moment. She's feeling and collecting all this knowledge, consciously or not. I'll remember all this quality family time we've spent together.
"It's time we wouldn't have had if we were back at home, with me and Joe both working. It's important for me to have this quality time as a family, regardless of whether she'll remember it or not."
Since sharing videos of their expeditions on TikTok, the couple have received a divided response from users. Rachael said: "I just started sharing videos on TikTok to say 'you can travel with a kid'.
"It's not always easy and there are parts that can be difficult, but life doesn't have to be put on hold and your dreams don't have to wait until retirement. We've received a very mixed response on TikTok.
"I get so many mums who say 'I want to do this with my kids'. But then I get some people calling us selfish or asking about our finances. People also asked about Maddy's schooling. She's only four so she isn't yet at an age where she needs to worry about that, I home-school her in the meantime.
"We also get a lot of people saying we're taking Melody away from friends and family. They don't realise that when we lived in Heysham, we weren't geographically close to our friends and family.
"I don't mind answering people's questions if they ask them in a nice way, but I think sometimes people lose sight of what the video is about. It's about showing a little girl the world and having fun."
The couple are looking ahead to the future, where they plan to settle down for a new life in Australia.
Rachael said: "We're going to be in Bali until we can figure out how to move to Australia. Australia has always been the end goal. Whenever I picture the life I want to have it's there, by the beach, with good schooling programs and sports.
"It's always been the place I've wanted to be. We've met a bunch of Australians in Bali and they seem like the nicest people. We're currently in the research stage of piecing together bits of important information. We've got Melody and her future schooling to think about.
"Australia's quite strict about immigration so we're figuring out how to do it properly. We're going to go back home, spend one last Christmas in the UK and then hopefully in the New Year, we'll be closer to getting our visas."
