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Food $650
Entertainment/Travel $433
Hobbies/Clothes $216
Emergencies $303
Total $1,602
That is per month! For us that would be per year! No, just joking, but we certainly don't spend that much per month. Food is about $200-$250. Clothes, hardly anything when you are retired--we shop sales, go to the outlets, buy it online if we need anything. Jeans, chinos, casual shirts. Biggest expense is good quality shoes because you don't want to wreck your feet.
Our travel consists of camping in the summer up in Maine and attending a theater production, and driving down to Virginia to stay with my sister for a month in winter or down to Florida to take a cruise. Probably $1500-$2000 per year.
This year we skipped the Virginia and Florida and are going to England instead. Tickets, purchased well in advance were $400 each, car rental isn't much in England either. We stay at Travel Lodges or a few charming but sort of old fashioned lodging places/hotels because we are not impressed with American style "luxury" hotels and we hate throwing money around. Food is at pubs, English style, or we have a big breakfast in the B&B type place where we are staying and buy some fresh fruit and sandwiches at the grocery store to eat later. If we feel like it, we'll eat at a sidewalk cafe.
You can adjust your travel style so that you are not hemorrhaging money. My ex always had to stay at "the best" places because it suited his ego or something. Many hundreds of dollars per night. But if the place is clean and quiet and has comfy beds, that's good enough for us. You can get amazing hospitality at many of these family owned places and you get more of a taste of what the country is really like. We are that kind of traveler.
I guess, to answer the OP, it would be very difficult to travel in luxury or to stay at a resort on our income. In my case, I don't want that sort of experience anyway. I like to really see the country and be among the people. I also was brought up to be careful with money and to me it's almost fun getting good deals, kind of like a game. For a big trip I apply for a cc with no foreign transaction fee, cash back points, and money back for spending a certain amount in the first three months. Then I just pay it off with zero interest.
In my case, I've accepted the fact that I am never going to be able to visit the exotic places I used to dream of. I did the Europe thing and the USA thing years ago so now, thankfully, it's only the UK and maybe a trip south in winter that needs to be done, bucket list things.
But if you want to splurge and take luxury vacations it will probably be more difficult on a fixed income. It all depends on what your priorities are. (P.S. Don't ask how much I spent on gifts to take to the grandchildren in England!!!!!!!!!!!!)
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Travel budget will be VERY different based on what is important to you, whether you want to be a tourist or local centric.
About 50% of our time and budget is for travel during agility and early retirement (pre-age 60), by age 80 I expect travel will reduce to 10% of time and budget.
Our preference is experiencing the travel and people as the priority and not doing it in luxury, so we are very flexible in accommodations and transit.
We did a one yr extended RTW last yr for well under $40k. Rental cars and Campervans were the high expense, so we have plans to mitigate that for our next RTW. (will buy and resell in some locations, and take a Euro Delivery purchase and resell when it returns to USA).
We started with a one-way ticket to Australia, then did NZ and Oceania region from there. Future legs were determined by preferred weather and discounted routes. No route / destination / return in mind when we left, just a few 'must sees' (New Years Eve in Sydney, Tulips in Holland, Botanical Gardens at prime season, following the sun / LONG days and short nights...).
For extended travel, we found it far preferable to be in one location for a month+ and use it as a hub to explore the region. You can rent furnished flats / guest homes outside of major cities ~$300/month, in our case we volunteered at Vocational Boarding schools in resort locations. It was worth a few hrs work to get acquainted and travel on weekends with international students, share meals, and attend lectures from guest speakers. We also use guest hospitality homes to enhance relationships and local travel, as have had our fill of 5 star sterile and lonely hotels.
For luxury...Relocation cruises can be had for well under $100/ day.
Regional airfare is currently very cheap. <$50USD
We live, shop, transit, and eat like a local (fresh markets, grocery, buses, trains)
We are now starting to talk about a trip to Alaska during the early years of retirement. We'll go on the cheap - take the Alaska ferry on the way up and then drive the Alcan highway on the way back, camping most of the way. Not something we'll be likely to do when we're in our 70s, but during the early years, we'll be early 60s, and probably doable (camping for a month). When we're a bit older (mid/late 60s), we might explore the east coast, but staying in hotels then, which will cost more.
I'm not sure that we have a "budget" for travel at this point, though - some of it is squishing the numbers around and deciding what we want to do. I agree with the previous poster - you can travel comfortably and not be spending horrible amounts. Rick Steves has some good ideas about how to travel inexpensively. We will probably use some of his ideas...
We retired in our early 60s and love to travel. We have been to Europe each of the last five years. We try to keep a four week trip around 4-5K. Three of our trips have used repositioning cruises (always under $60/day)for one way and then two weeks of independent travel using trains and rental cars. Buy train tickets months in advance for best deals. Rick Steves and fancy travel company brochures for ideas and itineraries.
Also used the Iceland Air stopover deal for the U.K. Trip. This summer we are taking a river cruise Amsterdam to Budapest (Black Friday sale!) followed by 2 weeks exploring Salzburg,
Bavaria and Switzerland. We are budget travelers, usually at least half the trip is with friends.
The retired librarian in me loves the research and the frugalista in me loves the challenge.
We live within our travel budget. We have modest pensions, own our home and years of living below our means have paid off. Now if only domestic travel were so inexpensive. Visiting grand babies in Chicago and Boston at least four times a year has really put life in perspective...
Travel is our single greatest expense behind taxes and healthcare.
Just to add to our (my) travel dilemma is where to live in the early years of our retirement- to accommodate traveling. It is a given that we need to get out of NJ- The property taxes alone (@8k per year) would pay for a VERY nice trip (or 2) every year- but My husband wants an acreage in a southern state and I'm asking him how the heck are we going to maintain a big place if we frequently travel?? So many decisions..........
I feel like we are in a catch 22 situation- we want to front end load most of our travel plans into the first 5-10 years of our retirement while we are still young and flexible enough to get squashed into coach seats while on the other hand- putting off collecting SS until late 60's-70 while closely monitoring 401K withdrawals. Something has gotta give.
It’s a good idea to take the more physically challenging vacations early in retirement. For us, we have the finances, but lack the stamina for walking, or even flying more than 4 hours. I wanted to take a Rick Steves tour, and I had a chance to talk with him. Even his trips require hiking, walking up stairs in hotels and sight seeing. At age 76, I may be able to keep up, but not so much for my wife.
Food $650
Entertainment/Travel $433
Hobbies/Clothes $216
Emergencies $303
Total $1,602
That is per month! For us that would be per year! No, just joking, but we certainly don't spend that much per month. Food is about $200-$250. Clothes, hardly anything when you are retired--we shop sales, go to the outlets, buy it online if we need anything. Jeans, chinos, casual shirts. Biggest expense is good quality shoes because you don't want to wreck your feet.
Our travel consists of camping in the summer up in Maine and attending a theater production, and driving down to Virginia to stay with my sister for a month in winter or down to Florida to take a cruise. Probably $1500-$2000 per year.
This year we skipped the Virginia and Florida and are going to England instead. Tickets, purchased well in advance were $400 each, car rental isn't much in England either. We stay at Travel Lodges or a few charming but sort of old fashioned lodging places/hotels because we are not impressed with American style "luxury" hotels and we hate throwing money around. Food is at pubs, English style, or we have a big breakfast in the B&B type place where we are staying and buy some fresh fruit and sandwiches at the grocery store to eat later. If we feel like it, we'll eat at a sidewalk cafe.
You can adjust your travel style so that you are not hemorrhaging money. My ex always had to stay at "the best" places because it suited his ego or something. Many hundreds of dollars per night. But if the place is clean and quiet and has comfy beds, that's good enough for us. You can get amazing hospitality at many of these family owned places and you get more of a taste of what the country is really like. We are that kind of traveler.
I guess, to answer the OP, it would be very difficult to travel in luxury or to stay at a resort on our income. In my case, I don't want that sort of experience anyway. I like to really see the country and be among the people. I also was brought up to be careful with money and to me it's almost fun getting good deals, kind of like a game. For a big trip I apply for a cc with no foreign transaction fee, cash back points, and money back for spending a certain amount in the first three months. Then I just pay it off with zero interest.
In my case, I've accepted the fact that I am never going to be able to visit the exotic places I used to dream of. I did the Europe thing and the USA thing years ago so now, thankfully, it's only the UK and maybe a trip south in winter that needs to be done, bucket list things.
But if you want to splurge and take luxury vacations it will probably be more difficult on a fixed income. It all depends on what your priorities are. (P.S. Don't ask how much I spent on gifts to take to the grandchildren in England!!!!!!!!!!!!)
During our 50’s, we did Europe for a four week vacation. We rented a car in Frankfurt and drove thru Germany, France, Austria, Switzerland and northern Italy. We hiked the mountains of Germany and Switzerland without any problems. We never made a reservation, stayed at B&B’s along the way, and had a fantastic time.
This year we are thinking about a 15 day river cruise thru Europe. But I hate the thought of flying from Texas to Europe.
I feel like we are in a catch 22 situation- we want to front end load most of our travel plans into the first 5-10 years of our retirement while we are still young and flexible enough to get squashed into coach seats while on the other hand- putting off collecting SS until late 60's-70 while closely monitoring 401K withdrawals. Something has gotta give.
Sorry, but I had to laugh when I saw this. We are 87 and 79 and still traveling at least 4 times a year - to foreign countries and in the US. We aren't cruise types so none of that is sitting on a deck chair catching the sun while the ship does the work. We still cram into economy seats (complaining mightily of course) and stress ourselves looking for the hotel shuttle from the airport, etc.etc. We still find the local buses and take them when we can - I don't think we are THAT unusual.
So you will have years and years to do all that travel - no need to rush around doing everything in the first 5 to 10 years! Take your time, save up, and enjoy it!
We are now starting to talk about a trip to Alaska during the early years of retirement. We'll go on the cheap - take the Alaska ferry on the way up and then drive the Alcan highway on the way back, camping most of the way. Not something we'll be likely to do when we're in our 70s, but during the early years, we'll be early 60s, and probably doable (camping for a month). When we're a bit older (mid/late 60s), we might explore the east coast, but staying in hotels then, which will cost more.
I'm not sure that we have a "budget" for travel at this point, though - some of it is squishing the numbers around and deciding what we want to do. I agree with the previous poster - you can travel comfortably and not be spending horrible amounts. Rick Steves has some good ideas about how to travel inexpensively. We will probably use some of his ideas...
Taking the ferry is not going on the cheap. From Bellingham to Whittier you can easily spend over $2000.
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