While working with clients and discussing their retirement dreams, the subject of travel almost always enters the conversation. One of my standard recommendations is to travel as soon as you can. It’s a lot easier to travel on younger legs than older ones.
Whether you’re trying to do several small trips in a year, or you are planning on one luxurious vacation, you will always want to get the most out of your money. There are many areas one can save money when planning your trip, the biggest one being the location. When you are picking your location consider places off the beaten path. Places that attract tourist are generally expensive and not authentic. Think of countries and places that are not that popular yet or visit a small town near a major popular tourist destination that you can use has home base and commute from there.
If you are retired you probably have more options to travel during the off season. In general, cold weather climates are more expensive during the summer and warm weather climates are more expensive in the winter. Also, stay away from holidays.
The easiest way to save money is to stay close to home, or just travel to a neighboring state. Consider saving money on hotels by going camping. Or just visit historical sites or go to the beach.
Finally, don’t forget about package deals. Very often vacations are less expensive when one puts transportation and housing together. I like looking for packages on Groupon. Our family has saved lots of money on “packaged” vacations. If you can find a destination you like in a package deal, it can be a timesaver by making the planning process much easier.
No matter what your vacation plans are, make sure you create a budget and stick to it. We recommend that you never spend more than 8 percent of your income on vacations. The only time you might consider spending more is if your investment portfolio has had a better year than expected then treat yourself to another trip or longer one. But always remember there will be times when your portfolio returns less that projected, so it would be prudent to leave most unexpected gains un spent.
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