I am planning to retire in 4 years time at 57. A ripe old age compared to some of the posters, but I actually quite enjoy my job, I live in a beautiful village in the heart of Somerset in a great house that I have spent years extending and developing and see no mad rush to disappear over the blue horizon.
My plan then is to sell up and buy a fairly large boat, as my wife suffers a little from claustrophobia and I would never get her on something confined below, do a leisurely circumnavigation and then live aboard in various places around the world. My wife will not do the oceans, but she wants a motor home to explore Europe in while I and the boat are anywhere out of sight of land.
We will not be particularly well off, but I will not need to worry if I want to go into a marina or eat ashore occasionally.
I do not see it as an escape, but just the next adventure. I have travelled widely, both by sea with 8 years in the merchant navy and to remote parts of the world particularly the Himalayas and Andes. A lot of people seem to see a life living aboard a boat as somehow opting out of the pressures of everyday life. I just want to enjoy the experience. I am not being critical and I hope that those who do liveaboard and those who hope to liveaboard find what they expected and hoped for. I also hope that it will be up to my own expectations.
Best of luck to all of you.