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No , say it isn’t true.
The op could have just asked how much people spend on travel without starting off with the comment that they retired extremely early which he undoubtedly hopes it morphs into a “how did you retire early” thread .
He’s Frustrated after he got nuked on all his other threads.
He has already posted he doesn’t desire travel and is happy with going to Disney world a few hundred miles away.
Ooh, can we start an "I hate Disney" thread? Please, please?
Ooh, can we start an "I hate Disney" thread? Please, please?
Disney's not my thing but I have a hard time hating them, in large part because they take good care fo all their guests. I've got an old friend in a wheelchair who went to Disney at least every other year because unlike so many other places, they made her feel valued there and not just an annoyance because they'd have to do more work. There were so many places in the world she would never see in person because they were not wheelchair-friendly, but Disney was always there for her.
I said retired early because it makes me young enough to not have seen much. Perhaps seeing more inspires you to travel even more?
Maybe I should be shopping $10k vacations to really get the travel experience that some say I’m missing by staying within 500 miles of home.
No, that would be a bad idea. Like over investing in any hobby as a beginner, you would be wasting the money. As a simple example, I hate cruises. Been there, done that, hated it. I dislike tour groups as well.
That doesn’t mean that cruises and organized tours are bad, it simply means I don’t like them, and would hate every minute of them. I much prefer choosing a region, booking a B&B or two in the area, and poking around for a few days, maybe a couple of weeks. Others would find my informal, unstructured idea of travel maddening.
If you are serious, you need to do 2-3 small trips and see what you like. Book a 3 day cruise, take a fishing charter, do a weekend of shows in New York, take a 4 day tour of Paris, go to SXSW in Austin or the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh. Small. 3-4 days max, and do something you have been curious about. You can do each of the trips I list for no more than $3k, less if you shop deals and stay outside of city centers.
Once you know what you really like and what you prefer when you travel, then you can spend more. The goal isn’t to spend more of course. The real goal is to have a great time doing what you want, in the way that you want it, in a financially sustainable manner. If that is first class to London staying at a world class hotel and eating at phenomenal restaurants, that is up to you. If that is going hiking in the spring in the Tetons and eating freeze dried food over a campfire, that is good too.
It isn’t about the money. It is about the experience.
Quote:
Europe, Asia, Australia...it gets expensive if you start traveling months out of the year.
It sure does. Good thing nobody said you had to travel for months, or always choose places on the other side of the planet. Don’t set up a straw man just to prove to the forum that travel is stupid. It isn’t. It may not be what interests you, and many types of travel won’t. But travel is worthwhile to many.
It sure does. Good thing nobody said you had to travel for months, or always choose places on the other side of the planet. Don’t set up a straw man just to prove to the forum that travel is stupid. It isn’t. It may not be what interests you, and many types of travel won’t. But travel is worthwhile to many.
And there are plenty of places from SE Asia to South America to Eastern Europe that are safe, have many interesting things and are extremely cheap. You can rent a perfectly nice small apartment in Thailand or Vietnam for $200 a month or less. And housekeeping services can generally be arranged for the cost of a few fast food meals. (I know people who retire to Thailand because their Social Security checks go stupidly far there) Use frequent flyer miles to get there and make the per day cost even cheaper.
I try to do one trip a year that is not work related (I've traveled to Malaysia, the Philippines, Japan, and Guam in the last three years, but all for work). Last year I went to Las Vegas for five days. I spent $145 for a rental pickup, $750 for hotel, and $650 on my flight (roundtrip from HNL to Las Vegas), $300 on gambling, and about $300 on food, for about $2,100. That's probably about what I expect to spend on an average travel trip, whether domestically or internationally.
This year, I will probably spend a week in Honolulu or Australia. I'm looking at pricing options now, but I expect to spend somewhere in the same ballpark figure.
I’m someone that retired extremely early - I have plenty of time, but really have no desire to travel much. I’ve been told that I’m mmissing out.
How much do you spend on travel? Do you wish you could travel more? Has spending more on travel opened you up to liking it more?
Probably around $10k, maybe double this year, but airfare is free. It is about the experience. I don't like flying very much, but I enjoy the experience of exotic places.
Husband's retired; I'm not, but have some flexibility with work scheduling. For the past few years we've been spending $12,000-15,000 each year on travel, and that has meant 2 domestic trips and 2 international trips (one abroad in the Americas; the other in Europe or Asia). The trips are usually 7-12 days each, though the larger international trip is around 14 days or so.
Husband is in his 70s, and I'm younger, so this is the time for us to travel together. He has good reserves in his retirement accounts, and I'm still able to save over 25% of my income for retirement, so we don't worry too much about the expense. We're otherwise reasonably frugal, and even when we're traveling, we don't blow through our money too quickly.
The time will come when we both slow down and can't get around too well, and eventually one of us will depart and leave the other behind. So, this is the time to make travel memories. Eventually, we'll probably poop out and focus our energies on less strenuous activities.
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