Your longterm 'badass' retirement plan should include travel
Today’s topic is active traveling in retirement. Most of our friends note “you guys travel all the time”; in truth, we travel quite a bit, but we are home considerably. Most of our friends travel far less so they think we have some secret to “traveling all the time”. We don’t; but we do practice basic common sense to allow frequent and exciting travel.
I remember when we were young-marrieds (we’re celebrating our 54th wedding anniversary later this year); back then adults in their 70s were often in failing health, many were mostly homebound, or, worse, chair or bedbound. Virtually almost no one traveled of consequence at that age, back in the day. Consider today. We still know family and friends who are slowly fading away in their 70s. But we know many others who are lively, active travelers.
I call these “bad-ass retirees”; they’re into their 70s or beyond, still traveling, locally and regionally in the United States - and many of them, throughout the world. In chatting with a number of them in the last month, here are secrets to their success in remaining mobile and traveling, locally, or far and wide. These retirees have focused on savings and investments, preserving their health by daily walking or workouts, hanging out in an active retiree group and wise planning for travel by shopping bargains and being a thrifty traveler.
Many were smart enough to work to maintain good health and mobility during their working life, and most are meticulous in attempting to maintain a healthy weight and diet and remain active as they move into their 70s and beyond. Spouse Susan and I have been active throughout our adulthood; today we’re particularly locked into almost daily hiking (or biking), watching our weight and utilizing our health plan to access and take prescribed medications.
We, and many retirees, socked additional dollars into their 401(k) accounts to offer financial flexibilities in their retirement years. If you’re in your 40s and 50s, consider checking your company’s 401(k) plan, most welcome and encourage employee contributions - and a large percentage match employee contributions up to a certain percentage. In our final 20 years of employment, we were socking away almost 20% of our income into such plans, leaving us with a healthy retirement nest egg for retirement fun, travel throughout the US and small ship cruises in Europe. And in our final years of working, we closely managed risk in our investments, moving into more conservative stocks in several dicey economic years.
We, like many retiree friends, actively promote our good health by daily walking or workouts and watching our diet (Susan also preps healthy meals). I am fortunate to live with a spouse who seeks to walk 5 to 7 miles each day (I walk a bit less, but add biking to my regimen). On our local and more distant trips, we seek destinations with scenic hiking and biking options, and pack our hiking gear. We both watch our weight – so many of our fellow retirees moan about bad knees and lack of stamina – usually, those problems mirror an inactive lifestyle resulting in people carrying 25 to 50 or more pounds of weight that make no sense, other than to reduce their quality of life and shorten their lifespan.
We opt to hang out in an active retiree group; both with long-term pals who like to travel, and by getting involved in active-living clubs/groups (the American River Bike Patrol, the local Corvette Club, the Cal State Sacramento Renaissance Society; all three groups have a large percentage of active travelers and offer travel options throughout the year). From such groups, we have become friends with other active adults who like to travel almost as much as we do.
Wise planning for travel bargains is also at the heart of our travel, and that of our friends. We are members of the Affordable Travel Club, which offers overnight stays at the homes of members throughout the US and the world for only $20 per night (and the host offers a free breakfast). The club also presents house sitting options throughout the year. Consider that, in the last seven years, we have house-sat 13 lovely homes in places like Seattle, Vancouver Island and central British Columbia, Tucson, St. George, UT, Albuquerque, suburban Denver and more (some require watching a cat or dog, or house plants, but offer free lodging in wonderful places). Other travel and housesitting clubs offer similar opportunities for creative, active travelers.
For our foreign travel, we do, indeed, look for bargains. Friends introduced us to the European river cruise line Grand Circle (Grand Circle Travel, gct.com) and we will do our fourth river cruise in October, starting with three extra days in Paris, then cruising the Seine River and finishing in Normandy; we got a bargain price by reacting to the “last minute deals” offerings when this cruise line (and many others) are hustling to fill the last dozen cabins on their small cruiseships. By remaining flexible, we can usually depart on a cruise with just 4-6 weeks notice, making us eligible for those last-minute deals. We also scan the web-postings of travel discounters such as “Travels with Alan” and others, occasionally seeing real bargains – for those who can respond quickly.
Finally, we and many of our traveling friends work to be thrifty travelers. For us, we use those suggestions above. Additionally, for lodging on drive-trips, we usually won’t book a motel until late afternoon of the day we arrive, using travel apps like Kayak or Priceline, and net motel rates that drop by 30 to 50 percent late in the day. We sometimes dine during happy hour, as we did at Lake Tahoe’s lovely Chart House restaurant last week, getting two sumptuous happy hour appetizers and drinks for rock-bottom prices. And, while we often dine during non-happy hour times at upscale restaurants, we usually split a main course – what with America’s restaurants’ penchant for serving huge portions, we never leave hungry. Join us as a bad-ass traveler!
Where are you headed; contact Tim, tviall@msn.com. Happy travels!
This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: Your longterm 'badass' retirement plan should include travel
