Man, you ought to lose that expensive car anyways
I'm glad that you posted this. I always have similar thoughts when people talk about "throwing it all away". Why not wait until you get back to sell the house and all your stuff? If you've been living at least somewhat frugally, you should be able to keep up on your mortgage, etc for 6 months without going into debt. Especially if you were working at a "good" job for X number of years.
You may find that you don't want or need that stuff when you get back, or you may find that you really do like a high standard of living.
I don't think it has as much to do with age as you claim. I think it has more to do with the choices you make and the kind of life you want. There are a number of posters in this thread who enjoy their responsibilities to their families, and enjoy providing a high standard of living for them. If you are providing for a family who demand a certain standard of living, you really can't just take off like that. On the other hand, I personally know some folks in their 50's who don't mind eating granola in log cabins
That's an exaggeration, I don't know anybody who lives in a log cabin, but there are people who lead happy lives on monthly incomes not much more than double what jbrecon pays for his car each month... Personally, I would not be comfortable living that meagerly, but it can be done and people do it.
Apparently you and your husband are not that kind of person. Nothing wrong with that, I'm not really that kind of person either. I think your advice is good. If you aren't 100% sure that you want to take the plunge into simpler living, it might be better to rent out the house and store the stuff rather than getting rid of it all.