Does anyone else think vacations are not worth the cost? (national, money)
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lol!....I live in a condo building and rarely go outside of the apartment... I have a hard time standing on a patch of grass and can' really walk on any surface that's not 100% level(Falling risk due to advanced peripheral neuropathy)
There's no rocking chair in my place,but I'm already using a wheelchair in the apartment;though I can walk about 100 steps using my cane before I have to stop due to excruciating pain and find a place o sit or lean on for about 2 minutes...then try to walk another 100 steps..repeat.
When it comes to vacation;the best time I recently had was being forced to stay away from work during quarantine...Just watching my movies on DVD..listening to my extensive music collections and browsing my many books...an introvert's dream!
I have been saying that for years. Now if you have someone to split the cost then it's worth it as long as it's still not to expensive. You have memories, time away from everyday routine. It's fun with someone you know you will marry for a while before children come. But soon after about 2 years it's best to do what you said and what I said too. I have family and friends with large homes, nice new cars, even one of those RV's and big pools even a maid. Now with all that why go away except maybe the shore which to me is not so good anymore but Disney is fun with children the right age. Even that is not so much fun anymore and insanely expensive.
Me A maid once every 2 weeks, nice furniture, new stuff in the home like you said new floor, painting. Nicer clothes and if you have a yard a barbecue with family/friends once in a while. You don't have to be married to do that. Save up for a home of your own. I did I purchased one with another and then we split our ways now I live in a condo no barbecues of my own but I could live with that.
I think everybody has their "jam." Wife's brother is a big hunter for instance, spending lots on guns and camo and all that. Others might pay top dollar for good tickets to sports, opera, etc. Some people get a new car every year or need the top of the line truck. I knew a couple who loved to Christmas in Vegas, earmarking money they were going to gamble with (but not go beyond). Whatever floats your boat.
My approach was to research the area, find good but inexpensive places to eat, free or inexpensive things to do, and so on. Some resources:
Interesting question. Honestly, I don't need to travel/go on vacation, but I do enjoy seeing the world. Still, given that I live in a vacation zone essentially (Hawaii), I feel the urge even less so to "vacation" today and would rather spend my money on other things. If I lived in the middle of nowhere with few amenities I might feel different.
if I spend that money on something physical like new flooring or whatever, I get to enjoy that purchase for a long time.
You can buy new flooring later in life, but you can't get the years of your life back.
Also, which is more likely to be lifechanging? You could get a new floor, which would be cool, but not lifechanging. What are you going to do now that you have a new floor? Work, go home, watch netflix? You're going to do all the same stuff, except you have a new cosmetic item that makes your house look pretty.
Travelling to a new place, experiencing new things, seeing people you care about, visiting family, can hit you on an emotional level and can help grow you as a person.
It also depends where you're at financially. If you need to buy necessities, save up an emergency fund or replace old/broken things, then it might be a good idea to forgo the vacation, and buy those things instead.
But at a certain point, you have enough possessions to where buying more luxuries will only make you marginally happier.
Travel expenses are definitely a deterrent to vacationing.
In 1997, I rode a motorcycle around the nation for 2 months. Some 66 days -- all of it in hotels. It was expensive, but I couldn't even begin to imagine the cost today. Gas is multiples higher. Hotels are ridiculously expensive, before all of the taxes and resort fees.
Hotel costs really eat you alive. But even if you own an RV or trailer, hookups that used to be dirt cheap cost more today than hotels used to cost.
I planned on travel being a big part of retirement. Now retired, I just don't have the apetite to spend the big dollars that travel today requires.
It feels like travel is becoming a luxury of the rich.
Of course, the recent soaring inflation that is sapping our discretionary income is starting to compete with all types of leisure and entertainment. If you enjoying eating New York Steak for dinner, there goes your travel budget.
All consumption costs are supply and demand. There are just so many of us today, we are overwhelming the supply. This is causing soaring prices all around. Travel is no different. We have too many people all doing the same things, pushing up prices.
I guess if your idea of a vacation is a week in a small town in North Dakota or Appalachia, then you can economize. Maybe you can spend a week at a hotel watching the trains being unloaded on the bad side of a decaying West Virginia town. That would be a cheap vacation. Any beach, any resort, any amusement park, any good city is going to cost you big time. Hotels, parking, tickets for attractions, valet service, restaurants, transportation.
Maybe some day I will find a source of interesting undiscovered places to travel. It seems that all of the interesting places that are worthwhile to visit and experience, pretty much have been discovered and swamped by so many visitors, prices are sky high.
I remember driving from San Francisco to South Lake Tahoe on weekends back in the early 1980s. There was some traffic. Fast forward to 2010, and it was stop and go all the way with absolute MASSES of people from the Bay Area up to Sacramento, heading for Lake Tahoe every weekened.
There are just way too many of us using the same real estate we have been using since 1950.
Last edited by Igor Blevin; 03-16-2023 at 09:53 PM..
Here in Germany I am looking forward to May 1. That's the date for a new monthly train ticket to start up, Deutschlandticket. I've already got the app on my Smartphone. It will allow nationwide use of any regional or local train or any local transit system for 49 Euro (about $52 USD). The ticket doesn't include high speed long distance trains, but there are plenty of regional express trains that cover a lot of distance in a short time that are included in the ticket.
I'll be staying in Germany until the end of September, and from May to September I'll be taking bicycle and train trips all over the place. Trains allow bicycles to be rolled aboard with bike stash zones in every third or fourth train car.
Our family lives all over, but I really don't consider visiting family a vacation even though we travel to see them often. We just took a long weekend vacation at the beach. We drove. We stayed at our favorite motel, an older building that could use some spiffing up, but to us, it's perfect, right on the beach with a kitchenette so we can cook most meals. It was worth it. It's always worth it. We need a break from work, peaceful time looking at the water and refreshing our souls. We only do this once a year.
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