Minimize vacations to retire early?

[mh]

My 25 years old daughter wants to retire early but she is fond of going on expensive vacations. (Skydiving in Dubai, Dog sledding in Alaska to see the Northern lights, etc)



I then asked her a question on which path she would take....



(1) Minimize vacations expenses to retire early or

(2) Take great vacations and retire later.



She prefer option 2 because she is in her 20's and she wants to enjoy life. She also claims that at age 40 or 50 she will be "too old" to enjoy these things in early retirement.



Any comments on which option you would take?



A video of her Dubai vacation is at:

Splitting the difference makes sense to me. Just try to cut costs on the travel expenses. Research and use cred cheap flights. Use hostels , eat street food , etc...

 

[Gumby]

I think that there is a middle ground. I took lots of great vacations and still retired early. The key, for me, was paying myself first and investing it, then budgeting vacations and other luxuries out of the remainder.

I agree wholeheartedly. Life is for living both now and in the future. I have always been aware that if we skimped and saved in the present, we could retire much earlier and skimp and save after retirement. I didn't want to do that. I wanted a nice, fun life now and in the future. So, we have taken a lot of fun vacations over the past 30 years or so, and after I retire at the end of May, we will continue to take a lot of fun vacations. In fact, we'll be able to double our current spending after retirement if we choose. We worked until we were 60/58 to make that possible, but we have no regrets.

 

[YVRRocketSurgery]

+1 to the comments about balance.

And to be honest, as 50 starts to loom large on the horizon and various parts of the body starts to ache more, I do regret not being a bit more travel adventurous when younger. It doesn't necessarily mean spending piles of cash either.

 

[cathy63]

I do not regret for one minute taking time during my 20s, 30s and 40s to enjoy life and have fun with my husband, daughter and other family. We probably worked a year longer than we would have if we had never taken a vacation, but we still retired early. If I had it to do over again, I might even travel more and retire later.

 

[Bamaman]

I've been traveling internationally since going to college in Austria the Summer of '70. We've traveled all over the world scuba diving and snow skiing. Now that I'm of real retirement age, I'm still traveling heavily but not doing adventurous things.

We seem to keep finding real travel bargains online, and only travel when we get real bargains. We're flying to Madrid in May round trip for about $500--a bargain in today's travel world. We spend less in 2 weeks in Europe than our friends spend going to the Gulf Coast and renting a condo for a week. I did cringe yesterday when I made reservations in Paris for $200 a night--twice what we usually spend on the road.

As far as the daughter and her adventure travel: Good for her. Save 10% in a 401K and save enough to pay cash for her travel--not using credit cards. She should just continue to live below her means and keep on enjoying the world.

 

[chris2008]

We have always spent at least 4 weeks/year travelling. We are 60/67 now and ERed 5,5 years ago.
DH has health issues since app. 10 years, some of that not treatable.
We just had to cancel 5 weeks in NZ for the second time for health reasons.
We will travel again, but we are glad for each trip we have taken so far. Sometimes life is short, so better enjoy it along the way.

 

[exnavynuke]

I'm going with option 3 - retire not quite as early and take good vacations.

Moderation in all things, including moderation. - Oscar Wilde

I'm 42 now and take ~3-4 international vacations per year (mostly tropical diving, sailing, etc). I could go farther, fancier, or longer, but I get enough enjoyment to satisfy my desire for those experiences while minimizing the costs (May's trip will run me about $2k for the week of diving on a boat, while doing that same week on a fancier boat on the other side of the world would cost me at least three times that amount).

 

[Aiming_4_55]

My 25 years old daughter wants to retire early but she is fond of going on expensive vacations. (Skydiving in Dubai, Dog sledding in Alaska to see the Northern lights, etc)

I then asked her a question on which path she would take....

(1) Minimize vacations expenses to retire early or
(2) Take great vacations and retire later.

She prefer option 2 because she is in her 20's and she wants to enjoy life. She also claims that at age 40 or 50 she will be "too old" to enjoy these things in early retirement.

...

How does she define early?

I believe interests change from age 20's to 40's and 50's, so its just not all about "too old" however the body will give you signs of changes too.

If she lived in CA all her life, it's great she wants adventure to explore. I say this as I never had the chance or income for such vacations in my 20's so I would splurge for 1 - 2 trips for my kids as a graduation present so they can enjoy more in life as I can't take the $$ with me.

Now as I approach FIRE in my late 40's/early 50's, we as a family traveled 7 times last year, taking 6 weeks off work while the prior year was about 6 trips. Perhaps it impacted my OMY, but I'm enjoying the family time and experiences.

If she is working and not carrying a credit card balance or expecting parents to fund the trips, you raised a wonderful daughter. Enjoy the smiles with her.

PS. I see some kids in their 20's never traveling but rather spending the money on cigarettes, weed, and alcohol with no savings toward retirement. Which is better?

 

[donheff]

I took a lot of vacations when I was younger - skiing, windsurfing, diving. Might as well have a life. I'm with her. Nonetheless, there is a fair chance that she will find that life after 50 is the best part of her life.

 

[cooch96]

Yes, travel and do adventures when young and passionate. My best advice is to find activities that are affordable alternatives. In her case, would it have been cheaper to travel to Dubai for the cultural experience and skydive near home?

Other examples: take up archery instead of shooting; disc golf instead of regular golf: race bicycles instead of motorcycles.

 

[athena53]

I agree on the middle ground. I made a couple of trips to Europe in my 20s but "benched" myself after I had DS and was married to a spendthrift. I could either save for retirement or travel, but not both. After I divorced the spendthrift and started dating the man who would eventually be my second husband, travel became a priority again; he and I got to Europe at least twice a year. We still saved by making judicious use of FF miles and hotel rewards and spending very little in areas that were less important to us (cars and restaurants).

When we married DH as 65 and I was 50 and I knew that waiting for all the great trips till I retired would be dicey. We created a lot of wonderful memories before he died at age 78. I retired at age 61 and am still thoroughly enjoying my travels at age 66.

 

[Chuckanut]

I'm going with option 3 - retire not quite as early and take good vacations.

+1 Life is about balance.

We could all fill this site with war stories about people we know who put off the 'fun' in life to amass more money, buy even bigger houses, etc. Only to find themselves 6 feet under, or very sick and unable to benefit from all that sacrifice.

OTOH, you don't want to hit the 50's, 60's and 70's, been in good health, have plenty of time, but find that the only travel you can afford is 3 nights at a cheap condo near the beach during the off season when the pool isn't heated and the day's high is 54.

 

[jjquantz]

Heck, when I was 25 I had a 2 year old and BigOil was giving me all of 2 weeks of vacation each year so that all went to visiting family at the holidays. I agree that there is a broad middle ground, but I would have no problems with her taking option 2.

Certainly both of my daughters have had many more adventures than DW and I did at their ages. Still, my younger daughter (32) and her husband have been more option 2 and my older daughter (36) and husband have been more option 1. They both have done some great saving and they seem happy with their choices.

 

[2177V]

Most people seem to lean toward option 2. When i mentioned to her about the rationale of some people advocating option 1, she smiled at me and stated: "I am not going to sacrifice my youth for any financial gain".

She has already made some sacrifices: Modest wedding (It is not the wedding, it's the marriage), Used cars (A used car gets her to point B as well as a new car), Townhouse instead of a single family home (no backyard for a dog, sorry Fido), mostly eating at home (her husband used to work at a Suishi restuarant), modest clothes (she shops at discount stores), etc.

The ONLY things she refuses to sacrifice are: (1) her adventure vacations in her youth and (2) education for her kids when the time comes.

She claims that she can retire only 3 to 5 years later than people who sacrifices their youth in an all out attempt to reach FIRE.

 

[dcoy]

Option 2. No better time to enjoy life than RIGHT NOW!

 

[RunningBum]

Well there you go. She's not oblivious to needing to save for retirement, and not splurging on everything, just making choices and prioritizing. Sounds reasonable to me. Some here do, but not everyone sets ER as the #1 priority.

 

[marko]

I tend to view experiences (memorable vacations) like one would a stamp collection.

One experience is nice but if you're able to string together a bunch of them, the total value is greater than the sum of the parts. You end up being a better person all around because of them; I believe these things change you.

Otherwise you end up like my oft-mentioned grandfather who wouldn't spend a dime on an airplane seat if his life depended on it. He died an extremely wealthy but cranky, sick old man with a very narrow view of the world; what for? (well, us heirs are happy)

Live for today but prepare for tomorrow.

 

[ziggy29]

Sounds like she understands and accepts the tradeoff, then. And she's not a profligate spender elsewhere, so I'd simply call this a case of prioritization.

Live for today but prepare for tomorrow.

That's how I see it. I would not neglect tomorrow, but I would still enjoy today because there is no guarantee I will have tomorrow, or be healthy enough to enjoy it.

 

[FireFool]

Retiring early is a matter of math and economics. Save more earlier and you can retire earlier. People can make the choice.

Math, economics and PREFERENCE. To the OP don't force your preferences / goals upon your children - evidently she's living life as she desires. Having a brother die at age 37 I very much understand a perspective of living life while you can. As long as she's saving something for a "normal" retirement and not going into debt there's no room to second guess the choices she's making. Early retirement is great for the time it gives you to enjoy life, but it looks like she's able to make time now to enjoy life now. More power to her.

 

[joeea]

Most people seem to lean toward option 2. When i mentioned to her about the rationale of some people advocating option 1, she smiled at me and stated: "I am not going to sacrifice my youth for any financial gain".

YOLO!

She's young, and doesn't know any better.

 

[ncbill]

And don't forget opportunities to use OPM.

Oldest kid spent a paid-for undergraduate summer in Spain via his school.

Youngest will be spending this summer in Asia, paid-for by the DOD.

 

[fasteddie911]

Option 2 for me. I have a family member who put off vacation until retirement, hated work and counted down the days. Fortunately they've stayed healthy and traveled well in retirement. Unfortunately, I've seen a few young acquaintances not make it past 40. I think everything has to be in balance and moderation, including moderation itself.

 

[EastWest Gal]

I think that there is a middle ground. I took lots of great vacations and still retired early. The key, for me, was paying myself first and investing it, then budgeting vacations and other luxuries out of the remainder.

+1

A few expensive vacations, a few cheap ones. As a kid, it was all cheap, but we went camping and living in the west, kind of amazing-Yosemite, Yellowstone, Lassen National Park, Crater Lake, British Columbia, an amazing 5 week camping trip from Northern CA to British Columbia when I was 8. Kings Canyon-my mom signed us up for a night hike by flashlight. Amazing.

As a physician, taking more than two weeks off was nearly impossible, not so for my dad in Megacorp.

Great travel doesn’t need to be skydiving.

 

[Sojourner]

When i mentioned to her about the rationale of some people advocating option 1, she smiled at me and stated: "I am not going to sacrifice my youth for any financial gain".

She claims that she can retire only 3 to 5 years later than people who sacrifices their youth in an all out attempt to reach FIRE.

It is not a binary choice. I didn't "sacrifice my youth" in order to achieve FIRE in my mid 40s. I took plenty of interesting vacations and had many fun adventures in my 20s and 30s. Yet I still saved 20-50% of my income every year and sought to maximize my earning potential wherever possible. The LBYM mentality and philosophy—which is critical to achieving FIRE for most people—will automatically ensure that one doesn't spend exorbitant amounts on luxury/exotic/adventure travel during the accumulation phase. If that type of expensive travel is extremely important and cutting back is unthinkable, then LBYM dictates that offsetting amounts will be cut from other areas of discretionary spending. In other words, one either has the LBYM mentality, in which case FIRE is very possible and achievable, or one doesn't, in which case it's extremely unlikely.

 

[Starsky]

Balance in everything. I took moderate vacations, diving around the world, probably more than most. But I didn't take them every year, more like every several years. So, now that I'm 53 and retiring in a few months, I have 50% of my annual retirement budget set up for EXPERIENCES. Ask your daughter how she'd like to be able to spend $50K or more annually in retirement on travel, beginning at age 45 or 50!

Starting serious accumulation for me didn't start until age 33. Had I started at 25, I might have retired at 45 or 47! At age 23, I didn't save at all for retirement, as I thought I'd never live to see 50!

This^^^^^ (was my choice). I was realizing today how little I spent on my hobbies and other indulgences during my career. I always considered our retirement savings untouchable, so I guess I never felt like we had much of a cushion for non-essential expenses or luxuries like a nice car. I trained myself to feel poor, and live accordingly, by focusing almost completely on my work. I probably didn't miss vacations much because I was traveling a lot for work. My wife and I didn't start to take real vacations until I was almost 50. Before that, they would be homegrown and frugal, but fun. Things like backpacking and staying with family.

It's funny that only in retirement, that attitude has almost completely reversed itself; and I feel like we should do what we want at almost any cost, since that's what we were sacrificing for all these years. The future is now. Sometimes my wife thinks I've gone crazy; but we're completely on, or ahead of plan financially. (It only took one long business-class flight to Asia to get her on board. )

What should your daughter do? Whatever she wants. It's her life and she is plenty young to make her paper for RE. My DW and I grew our own net worth from less than $100K to over $2M in just over 10 years, between the ages of 42 and 54, thanks to us both hitting our stride in the right jobs at the right time. We weren't necessarily working harder, or more hours, than in years past; but we were smarter, more mature, and getting paid much better for our experience. (We stopped just as soon as an inheritance put us in total command of our long-term retirement needs.)