Travel Budget

[hnzw_rui]

When we did our first long term (for us) trip outside the U.S. we put our cable and phone on vacation hold, so those expenses really dropped. Gas, electric, water etc were way down since we were away, no mortgage, so we did find our fixed costs drop quite a bit.

Seems quite practical for longer vacations. Not so much if you're just gone for 4-5 weeks. Our gas bill is $15-20 and water is included in the rent. Electricity is the one area where we do save but during winter, our electricity bill is pretty low anyway (summer in the Phils is just way too hot and humid for me). That said, I am considering living there part of the year when I retire for the lower COL. It's also one of my options for LTC.

 

[jkern]

I budget about $2,400 per person per year for vacation/travel.

 

[HillCountry]

I take 6 weeks of vacation every year. One long trip in summer. 20% to 30% of annual expense.

 

[Marc]

Currently while working, travel budget is around $35K per year or a third of spending. When we retire, we have allocated $90K per year or 60% of our total budget after taxes.

Marc

 

[VFK57]

We budget $9,000 per year.

 

[Ronstar]

$8,700 for Dining/entertainment/travel or 13.8% of my budget. DW handles her own finances, but I pay for all D/E/T. More than half of our travel is to our vacation condo. Condo fees are separate from our travel expenses. So our travel expenses don't include much lodging, but includes entertainment and dining even close to home.

 

[48Fire]

$5,000 for travel and $15,000 for second home. If we didn't have the second home, I am sure travel budget would be higher. These are 25% of our budget.

 

[fritz]

We allow $10-$15K per year for travel/extras. This includes wintering in Florida Jan/Feb (5yrs now). Averages 25% of total annual expenses (retired, carry no debt, own home, so annual living expenses are relatively low). Have been ratcheting up the travel/extras amount over the years.

 

[rodi]

My "official" budget had $10k/year. We're a family of 4. We averaged far less than that in the years leading up to retirement... in part because we typically only did overseas trips every 3-4 years... But we always had nice vacations every year.

I put down "official" budget because this year was an exception - we did the trip of a lifetime 9 week tour of Europe. We tripled our official budget allotment, but I'd set aside money just for this trip. Next year we'll be back to our more typical vacation style of a few 2 week trips domestically and probably spend well under our $10k allotment.

In quicken - everything we spent on our big trip was tagged vacation - but there was also nothing tagged for that 9 weeks, in my normal categories: groceries, auto fuel, etc... So, mentally I knew we had some adjustments... and we're still under budget for the year.

Our biggest expense for the trip was the airfare for 4 people... staying longer helped amortize that expense.

 

[shortstop14]

Don't have set budget for it, but since retirement we're between $12,000 and $19,000 a year, between 16% and 25% of total spend. We've been traveling four or five months per year.

 

[Danmar]

About 11% of after tax spend is on travel. If you include travel to our vacation homes it would be about 13%. This includes just airfare, hotels, tour fees, rental cars and meals while away. Our living expenses while at our vacation homes not included. The first 2-3 years of retirement we spent 2-3 times more on travel but this was before we got our vacation homes. If you were to include all expenses of vacation homes the total travel would be about 25% of after tax spending.

 

[kcowan]

We discovered that we save 30% to 40% of our annual budget by snowbirding in Mexico for 6 months and that includes spending a month in Europe so we no longer specifically budget since I would not know what to include.

We just focus on minimizing all transactions costs and what will be will be.

Sent by wifi from Milano

 

[Fishingmn]

First year of retirement is next year. Current budget is $25k/year which is 13% of overall budget. That said, that category will be the first one reduced if we need to reduce expenses. The budget goes up by $15k at age 65 when the house is paid off - at that point I figure the extra budget will be for a winter snowbird set up to escape Minnesota in Jan/Feb.

I already have 2016/17 planned out for trips.

 

[jabbahop]

For those that have been retired a while, do you find that your travel budget goes up or down in later Years? I haven't built it into our budget but can imagine that at some point it will be physically more challenging to travel abroad and or we have whittled down our bucket list.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[ivinsfan]

We're perpetual travelers, and just got home last Friday after 3 weeks in Scandinavia and Russia. I casually ran into my sister and her husband walking down the street in Warnermunde, Germany.

We don't really have a budget, but our trips usually are about $4K including everything. We just travel when incredible bargain trips are spotted online. If we don't find a bargain, we travel to Canada.

My wife only recently got computer literate. Bad move. She's already signed us up for an inexpensive Celebrity cruise from Rome to Greece/Turkey and back to Venice April, 2017. Fortunately, I've located round trip flights for $750 thru London.

We realistically believe we've only got 10 more years of travel left in us. We're seeing the world while we're capable of physically and mentally traveling.

Are these dates correct, I know cruises will schedule that far ahead, but thought that airlines only do booking about 12-14 months ahead, did you book thru the cruise line? Do you buy any trip insurance for these far out trips or simply eat the fees and non-refundable costs if you need to cancel or can't go on the trip?

 

[Bamaman]

Are these dates correct, I know cruises will schedule that far ahead, but thought that airlines only do booking about 12-14 months ahead, did you book thru the cruise line? Do you buy any trip insurance for these far out trips or simply eat the fees and non-refundable costs if you need to cancel or can't go on the trip?

Excuse me. Finger burp. April, 2016 is when we're going on the cruise from Italy to Greece and Turkey.

The best website to watch for cruise schedules and prices is VacationstoGo.com. The repositioning cruises are incredibly good values for those (1) with the time to spend 2 weeks at sea and (2) those that are experienced cruisers. I wouldn't suggest them for a first time cruiser. Most repositioning takes place late April and in October of every year. No, I don't buy trip insurance as my wife and I are in good physical shape

Someone mentioned staying in Europe for an extended time after taking a repositioning cruise. Don't forget that the Schengen Agreement only allows Americans to stay in the European Union for 90 days out of a 180 day period without a Visa. Visa's are very difficult to get if you're not a full time college student. You can duck into the U.K. which doesn't count toward the 90 day maximum, however.

We flew Norwegian Air Shuttle on our recent trip from Orlando to Copenhagen for about half the normal airfare. They have an extensive network of budget flights within Europe for ridiculously low fares. Just be ready to picnic as food and drink is optional. And their one way fares allow those to fly back to the U.S. cheap. We often use EasyJet.com to get us around Europe after we get to London Gatwick Airport--about $100 each leg.

 

[Davis65]

Bamaman, can I ask why you would not recommend a repo cruise for first-timers? Thanks.

 

[Nemo2]

Bamaman, can I ask why you would not recommend a repo cruise for first-timers? Thanks.

Showed Bamaman's post to DW, whose first ship experience was a westbound repositioning cruise Barcelona-Florida; she enjoyed it so much that we took a second one, some 4 weeks later, Civitavecchia-Florida.

 

[BBQ-Nut]

When we did our first long term (for us) trip outside the U.S. we put our cable and phone on vacation hold, so those expenses really dropped. Gas, electric, water etc were way down since we were away, no mortgage, so we did find our fixed costs drop quite a bit.

You got your lender to stop your mortgage payments while you were away

 

[Meadbh]

Bamaman, can I ask why you would not recommend a repo cruise for first-timers? Thanks.

I haven't yet taken my first repositioning cruise, but I suspect there are two reasons.

1. The middle of an ocean is a long way from anywhere. If you discover that life on board bores you silly, you are stuck until you reach the next port, which could be a week away.

2. The middle of an ocean is a long way from anywhere. There be storms, sometimes. And you have no choice but to hunker down.

 

[Nemo2]

There be storms, sometimes. And you have no choice but to hunker down.

But, but......that's the fun part of it.

 

[imoldernu]

Darn!... One more calculation to add to my budget... Pretty much limited to the fuel cost of going back and forth to the lake... 25 miles each way. I don't include the 1/4 mile trip to Aldi's... Should I?

 

[Meadbh]

Darn!... One more calculation to add to my budget... Pretty much limited to the fuel cost of going back and forth to the lake... 25 miles each way. I don't include the 1/4 mile trip to Aldi's... Should I?

Heh heh, I think you're overanalyzing this!

 

[CaliforniaMan]

You got your lender to stop your mortgage payments while you were away

Yes, after we paid it off for they stopped asking us for monthly payments
If you pay rent or a mortgage it would be difficult to reduce expenses with long term stays in lower cost areas such as SE Asia as we found we were able to do.

I have one question though for those that spend a lot of time living in different areas. When you are at one, do you miss the other? I was enjoying our summer so much in San Diego, that it was difficult to think about spending so much time away. Then we left for 3 months for our home in SE Asia.

But after I got into life there I didn't want to come home. After our three months were up, I really wasn't ready to leave. I had started making new friends, and found places we liked to go, things we enjoyed doing. We were just getting started, and then we had to come home.

But then after being home again, I got into things here, enjoying the summer, spending time doing the things we enjoy here, seeing friends and family, which I will miss when we leave again.

But I want to go, I love the experiences of travel, I love it when I am traveling. Am I weird? I want to be TWO places at once!

I am like a very young kid I saw who ate their first hot wing. They took a bite and then cried. Then took another bite and cried again. They could neither stop crying nor stop eating the spicy hot wings. That is how I feel sometimes.

 

[Danmar]

We took a repo cruise across the Atlantic. Early May, weather was perfect. Smaller ship, Regent, really enjoyed it. Highlight was their Cordon Bleu cooking school. Lots to do on the ship. Very good pricing. We often don't get off at ports if the tours are mundane. Always seem to be waiting for "Aunt Matilda" to get back on the bus. Haven't done a cruise for a few years. We find the mainstream large ships too mass market for us.