Eagle Eye Advisory comprehensive planning includes travel planning.
The Fiscal Times reports that the 2015 TransAmerica poll found that only 34 percent of American workers are confident that they will be able to retire with a financially comfortable lifestyle, a finding echoing dozens of other recent retirement surveys and reports. That does not mean those visions of retirement travel are just pipe dreams, but it does mean that you will need a plan to make it work. These are some tips that will help you reach your objectives:
Start planning before you retire. Rather than just saying “I want to travel in retirement,” think about what that would actually involve. Our clients need to know how grand their aspirations are, because it will impact how expensive the travel will be”
Plan for the “no-go years.” Consumers over the age 70 told AARP that health concerns are the biggest thing preventing them from taking the trips that they want in the future. It has been quoted that travel in retirement occurs in three phases, “the go-go years, the slow-go years, and the no-go years.” The no-go years travel funds tend to get redistributed to cover health care expenses.
Calculate costs and factor in inflation. Retirement travel requires research and cost calculations. Eagle Eye will help you convert current cost calculations into future cost taking into account inflation factors. The cumulative cost of annual vacations over the course of a long retirement can easily reach six figures. Give yourself a cushion of at least 20 percent and allow for inflation. If you end up with too much money, you can always upgrade your trip.
Downsize early. Funding your travel budget, of course, has to happen after you have met all the non-discretionary obligations in your budget like housing and health care costs, which tend to grow disproportionately to income in retirement. If you do not have enough cash to make that happen, you will need to decide whether travel is worth making big lifestyle changes, such as taking on part-time work or downsizing your home.
Travel while everyone else is working. One of the great things about retirement is that you are not beholden to anyone’s schedule. That means that you can take late morning flights or book a room in the off-season to realize substantial savings. It is usually cheaper to fly between Monday through Wednesday, rather than Thursday through Saturday.