When do you plan to retire and first trip

[T-Dot-Traveller]

........... I know, I can afford it but I was raised very poor and I think the stinginess from childhood never left me. I can’t get the cost conscience out of my being......

Here’s the Melacon in PV.

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Frugal -

My wife is 3rd generation Canadian of partly Scottish background .
Her grandmother came to Canada at 16 by herself , about 1910 -from Scotland .
She brought lots of those frugal genes with her.

Good picture of the malecon
PV is top of our list of repeat winter vacations .

 

[pianodinosaur]

I plan to retire in about 6-7 weeks. We have four trips planned already. In January 2020 we will spend a week at The Hyatt Wild Oak Ranch in San Antonio. In May 2020 we will spend a week at Marriott’s a Ocean Point at Palm Beach Shores. In April 2021 we will spend a week at The Trapp Family Guest Lodges in Vermont. We will fly out to Rome, Italy, in August 2020 for a five day stay at the Rome Cavalieri followed by a nine day Royal Caribbean Greek Island Cruise paid with Hilton Honors points and HGVC points. This will be our dream vacation. We could not do such a thing with me working.

 

[VacationForever]

We did buy our retirement home out of state 2.5 years before we retired. We moved and sold our home in California after we retired. We love our retirement home and city and feel like we are in paradise each day.

 

[Krteczech]

We retired exactly two years ago, both at 66. Put house in MN on market in September, loaded Budget truck with few necessities and arrived to out second home in CO mountains on Halloween 2017. No time to rest since we moved. Three trips to CA and UT National Parks, one transatlantic cruise followed by two months in Europe and Morocco. Florida and Minnesota short visits, several week long TS stays in CO, five weeks skiing using TS and ski condo. We are getting ready to take off for 23 days Panama Canal cruise next Sunday. Hiking in RMNP regularly and watching wildlife from our balcony is therapeutic. Retirement as I envisioned it... hope it will last for many years.
Renovations on our house don’t progress at fast as we planned, but there is really not much time we spend at home anyway.
How could I forget to mention our 12 day trip to Taiwan exactly one year ago?

 

[turkel]

We will retire Nov 2020 at 54 for me and 53 for spouse. We then will happily move back home to SoCal. Since we have deferred our 5 weeks of timeshare a year to just 1 week for 2 years we will have a glut of weeks to use. Since we will have 8 weeks expiring by Nov 2021 the current plan is 4 weeks on 2 islands ( Maui and Kauai ) in March/April 2021 and 4 weeks in St. Martin in July 2021. We have waited to go to Europe till retirement. Traveling is the goal and we hope to see many new places.

We like exploring new areas on our own via car, DH can drive anywhere but won’t in Mexico so Mexico is not on our list of places to go. Glad I enjoyed Mexico earlier. We love St Martin but definitely don’t return each year. We will repeat places we enjoyed but at least 3 years apart. Too many places we haven’t been.

I got the travel bug from dear Dad who passed away at 58. Life is too short to not explore the world while you can in my book.

 

[klpca]

Wow - a lot of young retirees! I'm 58 and still working but only part time. My husband is 61 and plans on working at least until 63.5 to be assured that between work/cobra he will have access to health care despite his pre-existing conditions. But we recently started really talking about it and we may just keep on working as long as we can take about 4 weeks of vacation per year. The money is good so why not? We have been traveling a lot for about the last 10 years and have crossed a lot of places off of our bucket list and have started to not enjoy it quite as much as we used to, sad to say. Both of us like our jobs (not love - I wish!) but I enjoy the structure that it provides. No grandchildren yet, and it looks like maybe never, so we're not sure what we would do anyway. I know that when I stop getting paid to work I will just shift to volunteering.

We just got back from France and the trip (husbands bucket list) wore me out. We had no down days for two solid weeks, and on a few days in Paris we walked about 7 miles per day, and a minimum of 3 miles per day on the others. I'm not out of shape at all and it still kicked my butt! The bottom of my feet are still sore from the cobblestones and because we were up for 24 hours on our return day, I am still tired and my sleep schedule is messed up. So for now, Europe is off of the list for future trips. We're going to try staying within one time zone when traveling for the next year or two, just to ease up a bit. So I am thinking that our next trip to Europe will be post retirement.

 

[slip]

I plan on retiring at 62 so give and a half more years. But if things go well I may go at 60 when my wife did. She retired this year at 60. No trips planned, we'll probably just head over to our condo in Molokai.

I'm surprised also by how many here have retired in their low to mid fifties. I'd be very happy at 60.

 

[easyrider]

Been more or less retired since I was 50. Way more retired at 57. Really like Mexico and Hawaii in our winter months. We fall into the snowbird category. Even though we have been going to Hawaii and Mexico for decades it was about 20 years ago that we started timesharing. Our first trip after I realized I was actually retired was Nuevo Vallarta with a group of friends and family.

We know what we like so I think Europe , Asia and Africa are not on our lists. Neither are the beautiful deserts. We like warm weather,palm trees and beaches next to the Pacific Ocean. If I have a " thing ", it is staying at resorts on the ocean. These next couple of weeks my view is the Pacific Ocean through fluttering palm trees and flowers. This morning I had coffee with a dove on the other side of the deck table. I have to be careful because I could get used to this, lol.

Bill

 

[jackio]

I will retire in June 2021 at age 62. Looking forward to an Alaskan cruise and then getting out of cold winters. Nor being tied to the school schedule anymore will make traveling much easier and way less expensive.

 

[VacationForever]

I never thought I would retire at 53 as I loved working and wanted to work for another 9 years until I am 62. My husband who is a little older than me was tired and wanted to retire many years before. Our compromise was to sell the business so that he could retire and for me to take a year off to see if I could adjust to not working. In the first 18 months, there were times when I thought of going back to the work force. Now I am "heck no, I am not going back to work".

 

[CalGalTraveler]

Similar to @klpca we are not retired but started traveling a lot in the past 5 years. We still have places to visit on the bucket list but because we are able to fly to NYC, Asia and Europe for business frequently, we often mix business with pleasure because it's nice to have the airfare for one spouse and some of the hotels covered by someone else so we can add a week of vacation.

 

[Luanne]

Just to add to my "story". We retired when I was 62 and dh 67. He retired and we moved from California to New Mexico the next day. That was November 2012. I worked through the end of the year. Dh's idea was that we would both need to get part time jobs in order to stay busy. We haven't worked a day since retiring and moving. Too much to do. We love where we live now, there is alot to do and see just in our area. We plan to stay home during the summer because that is when a lot of the activity is. The last few years we have been going to Maui in March for two weeks and then NYC and another city for two weeks in the Fall. We usually manage at least one other trip out of state. This year it was Carmel, CA, next year we're planning to go to Seattle.

 

[controller1]

I retired seven years ago when I was 55.75. Had planned on retiring at 58 but circumstances caused me to pull the trigger earlier. I haven't looked back and I don't regret it. My advice is retire as soon as you can afford it! I see too many people retire with great plans but either die or become disabled prior to achieving any of their retirement plans. We travel for a week or more every other month through September (during the fall we have college football). In 2020 we have scheduled a 23-day South American cruise, four weeks in Maui (two trips) and 10 days in Colorado.

 

[turkel]

I think health insurance is a large obstacle for most people who desire to retire early. Although I have saved diligently since starting my career at 26 it is my current husbands pension and retire healthcare that is enabling us to retire next year. DH could have gone at 50 but loves his job. I pester him incessantly about retiring, 2020 is the date whether I like it or not.

I have to admit my fathers early death and his family history have made me acutely aware that retiring early was really important to me.

We plan on long trips to Europe so no running around non stop. We have even talked about living abroad for 6 months to a year and seeing that side of the world at our own pace. My mother went to Europe 2 years ago at 76. She said never again. The pace was too much for her and she was aghasted long after.

 

[Passepartout]

We plan on long trips to Europe so no running around non stop. We have even talked about living abroad for 6 months to a year and seeing that side of the world at our own pace. My mother went to Europe 2 years ago at 76. She said never again. The pace was too much for her and she was aghasted long after.

I agree that in Europe, one MUST pace themselves. When we started going, my DW would research to the n'th degree what to see and museum hours and how to avoid lines, etc. etc. She honestly layed it out with a clipboard full of notes and maps and schedules and brochures. I carried a video camera and tried to capture it 'for the future when we were old and couldn't travel anymore'. After a few of these trips, I said ENOUGH! I was tired of seeing the sights through a viewfinder, and running willy-nilly to make it to the next site. We would come home exhausted and sick as often as not.

So now, we still go on extended trips to faraway places a couple of times a year, but no clipboard. And no video camera. And we build in some relax, enjoy the place and bond with the local culture time. Learn some of the language. Shop the local market- not so much to buy stuff, but to rub shoulders with local people. Eat what they eat, drink what and where they drink.

Funny thing, slow down and see more. Travel is so much more than seeing one more museum or ancient church.

Off shortly to a liesurely jaunt through Japan, Taiwan and China. we have carved out some temple and garden visits, but it's mostly a cultural exchange.

Jim

 

[Sugarcubesea]

I’m retiring at 65, basically because of medical insurance. It will eat up too much of my 401K if I go out sooner.

I’m going back to Maui for 3 weeks. Then I will be in my new retirement home of Florida

 

[VacationForever]

I’m retiring at 65, basically because of medical insurance. It will eat up too much of my 401K if I go out sooner.

I’m going back to Maui for 3 weeks. Then I will be in my new retirement home of Florida

Have you bought your retirement home in Fl? If so, congrats!

 

[isisdave]

We retired in early 2015 at 66-ish [delayed entirely by cost of health insurance], and ran away. https://seniorgapyear.wordpress.com/ We're currently on a 2-week drive around New Zealand after cruising here. There'll be pics on the blog in about three weeks.

We still have a house, but its days are numbered.

 

[WinniWoman]

I agree that in Europe, one MUST pace themselves. When we started going, my DW would research to the n'th degree what to see and museum hours and how to avoid lines, etc. etc. She honestly layed it out with a clipboard full of notes and maps and schedules and brochures. I carried a video camera and tried to capture it 'for the future when we were old and couldn't travel anymore'. After a few of these trips, I said ENOUGH! I was tired of seeing the sights through a viewfinder, and running willy-nilly to make it to the next site. We would come home exhausted and sick as often as not.

So now, we still go on extended trips to faraway places a couple of times a year, but no clipboard. And no video camera. And we build in some relax, enjoy the place and bond with the local culture time. Learn some of the language. Shop the local market- not so much to buy stuff, but to rub shoulders with local people. Eat what they eat, drink what and where they drink.

Funny thing, slow down and see more. Travel is so much more than seeing one more museum or ancient church.

Off shortly to a liesurely jaunt through Japan, Taiwan and China. we have carved out some temple and garden visits, but it's mostly a cultural exchange.

Jim

I so agree. People think I am crazy when I say if we ever get to Italy we are staying in one place for a week or two and traveling out from there as a base. Maybe it will be Tuscany or Cinque Terre- not sure. I hate crowds and lines and big cities. When we went to Scotland for the first and only time that is what we did also.

And we do the USA states that way also.

I am into the somewhat slow travel. I like to get to know a place (as much as you can in a week or two). Sure I would love to see everything. But- you cannot see a whole country in a short amount of time and I don't want to anyway. I want to feel like I am on vacation because I am. I don't want to come home exhausted.

 

[geist1223]

As for Health Insurance I did my 20 years on Active Duty and Reserves for the Military Health Insurance that kicked in at 60. Then at 65 Medicare as Primary and Military as Secondary. So we do not have to worry about all the Medicare Supplement Plans.

 

[controller1]

As for Health Insurance I did my 20 years on Active Duty and Reserves for the Military Health Insurance that kicked in at 60. Then at 65 Medicare as Primary and Military as Secondary. So we do not have to worry about all the Medicare Supplement Plans.

AND thank you for your service!

 

[bizaro86]

I so agree. People think I am crazy when I say if we ever get to Italy we are staying in one place for a week or two and traveling out from there as a base. Maybe it will be Tuscany or Cinque Terre- not sure. I hate crowds and lines and big cities. When we went to Scotland for the first and only time that is what we did also.

And we do the USA states that way also.

I am into the somewhat slow travel. I like to get to know a place (as much as you can in a week or two). Sure I would love to see everything. But- you cannot see a whole country in a short amount of time and I don't want to anyway. I want to feel like I am on vacation because I am. I don't want to come home exhausted.

I agree with this plan. We spent 5 nights in Venice on SPG points (5th night free) and spent 80% of the time wandering around, eating and browsing the shops. I could have done another week of the same easily. Many people I talk to are aghast - "you can see the sites in 2 days easily!" I always say that is true but not relevant - if my goal was to compile a bunch of pictures of famous sites, I could do that online from my house and save the cost of travelling...

 

[Fredflintstone]

I agree with this plan. We spent 5 nights in Venice on SPG points (5th night free) and spent 80% of the time wandering around, eating and browsing the shops. I could have done another week of the same easily. Many people I talk to are aghast - "you can see the sites in 2 days easily!" I always say that is true but not relevant - if my goal was to compile a bunch of pictures of famous sites, I could do that online from my house and save the cost of travelling...

Totally agree. Vacationing is about forgetting the clock for a change.

Loved Venice but loved Firenze more.

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[rapmarks]

I’m retiring at 65, basically because of medical insurance. It will eat up too much of my 401K if I go out sooner.

I’m going back to Maui for 3 weeks. Then I will be in my new retirement home of Florida

Did you find something?

 

[Sugarcubesea]

Did you find something?

Not yet, but I will be looking at the complex’s I’m very interested in when I’m down in December. I’ve meet with my financial planner and I’m on track to be able to retire at the end of the year of my 65th birthday.

I’m hopeful that all goes as planned. I plan for the worst and hope for the best.