Do you want to travel during retirement?
Do you wish you had a time portal to travel anywhere in the world? The reality is no one has a travel portal yet. If you want to travel during retirement, then build it into your retirement savings and your estate plan.
Here are four things that the experts say you can do to travel more during your retirement.
Number one, start saving before you retire.
Not saving enough is the biggest reason experts say folks cannot take their dream vacation. Sounds obvious, doesn't it? Experts say that you should have two goals for savings. One is to create and maintain an emergency fund and for repairs around the house.
The second is growth - investing your money or growth. Part of that investing for growth should include a subsection for traveling, so you can travel the world.
And I should stop here and say that on the extreme end, do not try to save so much money that, well, you never retire. Talk to a financial advisor, talk to an expert.
Tell them that one of your goals, one of your main goals is to travel during retirement. Figure out where you want to travel and how often you want to go. Put together a long-term plan and a strategy for saving up for that dream vacation to Italy, Dubai, or my favorite Costa Rica.
That brings us to number two.
Find cheap or inexpensive places to travel. You can find some very inexpensive places to travel to, like Laos, Cambodia, or even Vietnam. Unfortunately, prices in many countries are not that much different from the United States.
Many places have the same retail and restaurant chains that we have here. Even Taco Bell, KFC, McDonald's, and Starbucks. Guess what?
The prices at Starbucks in San Jose, Costa Rica are the same as Starbucks in your neighborhood.
There's no difference.
People do not realize how expensive travel can be nowadays. Just turn on the TV or open the newspaper and see all the troubles people are having with the expense and headache of travel. Once you are in a foreign land on vacation, always check to see if there are less expensive alternatives for doing the same thing.
This is especially true with transportation. On a recent trip, the cost of a taxi from the airport to my hotel was over $50. And that was only if I agreed to pay in advance.
I checked out Uber and it was less than $9 for the same trip. I saved $40 and I used that money to eat where the locals eat, not at expensive risk traps.
Do your homework before you travel.
If you still want to take that extravagant vacation, well, do it. Just plan for it.
Number three, stop spending so much money.
Stop buying everything you see, especially when it comes to credit cards to do it. Experts say that credit card debt and student loans are the biggest hurdles to saving money.
Make a budget and get a hold of your savings.
Decide how much of your salary you can devote toward paying off that debt. Experts say to start paying down the debt with the highest interest rates first. Once those are paid, then start working, especially if you have student loans, on all those federal loans which have much lower interest rates.
Get your debt under control so that you can start saving more money for travel and the essentials during retirement.
Number four, downsize.
Why do you need that big house where you raised your kids? You don't!
One of the first things we see with our estate planning clients, after they sign the revocable living trust-centered estate plan that we create specifically for them, is to downsize and sell their family home.
Once they have a solid estate plan in place, a spark is lit and they realize that a three or four-bedroom home is really not needed anymore.
Some people love their big homes. And you know what? Like everything else, if you can maintain it and still travel and do the things you want to do, then keep it.
The number one reason people keep their family home is for when the kids visit. However, if the kids are only visiting once a year for the holidays. It's probably cheaper for them to stay at a hotel or maybe even on the couch.
Sell that big home and start traveling the world.
The bottom line, save more money now. Travel more later.
Talk to a financial advisor to grow that vacation savings plan to grow your savings.
Talk to an estate planning attorney to protect you and your partner during your lifetime.
Start traveling.