Are you Retirement Ready and Ready to Travel?

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Are you retirement ready? Are you ready to travel? You’ve hit all those important milestones: attend a good university, scored a great job, met the partner of your dreams, married and had a few kids.  You’ve been busy bringing them up, working hard and paying the bills.  As they graduate from college, you pray they land a perfect job … a good job. Okay, you’ll settle for any job – as long as they launch their independent lives.

Then it dawns on you: you officially, have fewer years until you retire than years left in your career.  Boom. There it is. The truth-bomb that is having about 10-15 years left in your nine-to-five to accumulate a nice little nest egg.  Fifteen years until you start to consider travelling just a little bit more, working just a little bit less. There I said it out loud:  It’s time to start getting retirement ready.

🏡 Where to Stay: Top Accommodations
🥾 Explore: Tours & Experiences
🚙 Hit the Road: Car Rental Deals
🛫 Get Away: Find Flight Deals
🎒 Shop: Travel Essentials

Admittedly, some of us have been fantasizing about getting a smaller house (less work, fewer expenses … less everything). As a woman and an entrepreneur, I know that I don’t always worry about the bigger financial picture but I can plan a killer travel itinerary. That’s what I’m good at – I’m a professional travel writer – financial planner, I am not.

I know that I needed to speak to a financial professional that had an unbiased view of my future.  I wanted to get a better feel for what I needed to get on track for retirement without neglecting all the other stuff.  With this task in mind, I’m officially on the road to becoming #RetirementReady!  

Retirement Ready

There is so much to take into consideration when you want to retire but travel is part of the goal. Do we keep the house, sell all our possessions and retire in a different country? Which country do we retire in or do we move to a warmer state?

Is the plan to take a few vacations a year or to slow-travel and stay for a few months in one location? Is renting out our home a way to finance part of our travels in retirement? How much will it cost for us to be away from home? What are the tax implications? So many questions, so few answers.

I found myself searching for a solution. Do I go to my bank? A financial advisor? A broker?  I needed some advice so I reached out and ask a few independent financial planners how they can help me become retirement ready to travel. I asked two questions about planning for retirement with travel as the ultimate goal.

How early should I start planning for retirement? Is it too late to start?

It’s never too late to plan for retirement! Many people are so anxious that they don’t do any retirement planning until after they actually retire! Perhaps that’s for the best, as planning for such a radical change can be stressful. However, starting earlier can help in lining up finances to goals. Lining up finances is where many people stop.  We have basic goals, such as not running out of money in our lifetimes, that need to be addressed. However, planning life is more than just about finance. 

Planning retirement life is also about digging deep and figuring out what you really want to do for the next 20 or 30 years, maybe through a Life Planning process. And then plan the finances.

My ultimate goal is to slow-travel – be away for a few months at a time – how do I plan for this?

With some practical tips: 

“First, convert US dollars to foreign denominations before you travel. Conversion kiosks are often available at airports for a fee. If you contact your bank a couple of weeks before your international travel, you can purchase foreign denominations at a better exchange rate.   

Second, search for a credit card with no annual fee and no foreign transaction fees. Some credit cards will provide cash back or additional travel rewards.

Third, use your special travel credit card for as many of your travel purchases as possible and carry as little cash as possible.  This allows you to easily reference one card to track your spending and determine if you stayed within your travel budget.”
Marianne Nolte, CFP™, Imagine Finanial Services

The lessons I am garnering from Chen and Nolte is there are both long-term and short-term goals to get retirement ready.  Before it is time to transition, figure out what you want to do for the next 20-30 years and then figure out how to finance them.  On a more practical note, you need to plan, organize and budget for your travels.  

I know I will have to provide a fuller picture of our finances, savings and future income. Sitting down with a certified financial planner and an advisor will help, no doubt about it.

Looking at our retirement goals and then break them down so we have a better idea of what we will need to accumulate to finance those trips to Europe or that RV road trip across the country.  Lesson learned: it’s never too late to start saving and start planning now to make travel part of our retirement.

 🥾 Explore: Tours & Experiences
🏡 Where to Stay: Top Accommodations
🚙 Hit the Road: Car Rental Deals
🛫 Get Away: Find Flight Deals
🎒 Shop: Travel Essentials