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Old 01-31-2016, 10:51 AM   #61
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Strictly I count expenses that I would not incur if I stay at home. And my home expenses do not stop when I travel. So, travel expenses are extraneous luxury items that I can cut during economic hard times.
This is generally our approach as well. We allocate the expense of travelling to and from our various homes as an expense of those homes. If an expense is incurred only because of that home, it gets allocated to that home. Any expense that transcends a specific location, eg cell phones, clothing, health care, general travel,etc gets allocated to the general section of the budget. This way if we ever dispose of a property we know what the expense impact would be. It also facilitates periodic reviews of whether a particular home is "worth" the expense.
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Old 01-31-2016, 11:35 AM   #62
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One week in January in China, one week in March in Costa Rica, and two weeks in Barcelona and Venice in May for the first half of 2016. We will probably have two more trips in the second half of 2016. Travel spending is likely to be $10K ~ $20K per year in retirement, but we would like to spend more in the next few years. We never had any serious budget for anything, we just spend what we want and save the remaining, under the condition LBYM.
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Old 01-31-2016, 11:53 AM   #63
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When we travel in our RV we don't count food because I cook just like at home except for eating out 1x/week. WE have found that if you want to stay somewhere for a month the RV sites are much cheaper then if you have to pay the daily rate. HOwever, last year we wanted to be on the move for a month so paid the higher cost but most people we met did the monthly thing. With 4 dogs and 2 people in a 27 ft RV I did not want to be gone longer then a month. I am actually surprised at the number of people that live in them full-time.
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Old 01-31-2016, 12:24 PM   #64
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My best guess is that we spend $25K on travel. So that probably means it is a little more than that. Living expenses and travel expenses can be a blurred line at times.

As for day to day expenses...if I had my druthers we would pack up the rental condo into a container and travel independently for another seven months or even better 12 months.

It is so liberating to leave all of your monthly expenses behind (and they really do add up) and just deal with travel and travel expenses. Alas, DW is tied to her friends, our daughter, and grandchild.
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Old 01-31-2016, 12:28 PM   #65
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I could never live in one-even if it was bigger. My hubby would like to go for 3 months at a time but I need my sanity. HIm & the dogs probably wouldn't survive the trip)
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Old 01-31-2016, 08:29 PM   #66
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When we were living in our RV, constantly on the road, we did not count travel expenses separately. When we resumed living in a house, we also resumed our travel budget.
To elaborate - when living and traveling in our RV we were grocery shopping, cooking at home, etc., just like when we lived in a house. So the "travel budget" disappeared. Camping, motorhome:maintenance and fuel:motorhome were new items in our budget, however.

When we bought a new house we resumed our travel budget because now we had items in our travel category like car rental, airfare, hotel lodging resume. Things we didn't spend on when we were living in the RV.
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Old 01-31-2016, 09:05 PM   #67
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... One of the aspects of retirement that I just love, is not having other people deciding what I should do with my precious time. That includes travel. It's nice that after being dragged around the world for most of my childhood, and then having to travel for work later on, finally I am the one who gets to decide how much I travel.
Not just how much, but also where to.

Our business travel rarely took us to where we wanted to visit. A lot of times, it was just the same places, the same plants, and staying in the same motels. Who would want that?

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I could never live in one-even if it was bigger. My hubby would like to go for 3 months at a time but I need my sanity. HIm & the dogs probably wouldn't survive the trip)
Yes, I like RV travel, and have gone for longer than 2 months in a 26' class C. No pets though. But I would not want to live full-time even in a big diesel pusher. I am a homebody when I do not travel, and need room for my "stuff". I love my 2 homes.

However, if the market ever crashes and does not come back and the world ends up in turmoil, living in a small RV is still very much superior to living under a bridge.

By the way, because the RV is for me a means to travel, not for full-time living, I am quite happy with a smaller class C. I may even downsize to a B for better mobility.
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Old 02-01-2016, 07:03 AM   #68
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Our business travel rarely took us to where we wanted to visit.
I had to laugh when I read that. My business travel frequently took me to places I thought desirable, but I was never able to take extra days to explore them. So now I sometimes find myself going back to those cities just because they're still new and interesting to me. It's also fascinating to see the changes since my first visits long ago.
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Old 02-01-2016, 08:34 AM   #69
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Occasionally, I went to a convention conference center in places like SF or DC, but these are the places that I had visited multiple times earlier for leisure. Most of the times, as our work was project oriented, we got to "enjoy" multiple return trips to places like Clearwater, FL, Irvine, CA, or Armonk, NY, or Almaden, CA. I do not mind going to any place once, but half a dozen trips to the same place? I guess a traveling salesman would get to go to more interesting places than we did.

I now recall in the early 80s, I got to spend 2 weeks in Montreal for a project. That was the first time I went there, and my wife even arranged to spend 1 week there with me. It was OK, but as I was working it was nothing like spending 1 week of vacation. We have since been back to Montreal 3 more times.
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Old 02-01-2016, 08:51 AM   #70
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I had to laugh when I read that. My business travel frequently took me to places I thought desirable, but I was never able to take extra days to explore them. So now I sometimes find myself going back to those cities just because they're still new and interesting to me. It's also fascinating to see the changes since my first visits long ago.
Yeah, business travel <> leisure travel.

My routine business trip . . .

- Wake up at 4:30 AM to get to the airport for the first flight of the day to, say, Boston.
- Arrive in Boston and taxi immediately to a breakfast meeting.
- Taxi to two more meetings at different offices until it was time for . . .
- A lunch meeting.
- 2 or 3 more afternoon meetings before I finally get to the hotel, drop my bags, take a shower and get ready for . . .
- Dinner with clients
- Entertain clients until they were ready to go home to their families (um, very late)
- Day 2 repeat the same schedule, except I get a few more hours of sleep because I don't have to go to the airport
- Day 3, wake up early to catch first flight back to NY and taxi immediately to the office.

Business travel blows. Leisure travel is awesome.
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Old 02-01-2016, 08:53 AM   #71
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Our upcoming 12 day trip St. Maarten - Barcelona, oceanview cabin, base price & taxes, but not including 'mandatory gratuities', works out to $29.13 US, p.p. per day. (It'll be our third time on this ship and we love it.)
Can you share when and which cruise line? Is this tied to any program such as casino club?
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Old 02-01-2016, 09:07 AM   #72
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Yeah, business travel <> leisure travel.

My routine business trip . . .

Business travel blows. Leisure travel is awesome.
A while back I started a thread on this very same subject: http://www.early-retirement.org/foru...vel-54490.html.

It's not just the lack of time to look around and to enjoy a place when you are on business travel. No business travel has ever taken us to any national park.
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Old 02-01-2016, 09:12 AM   #73
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Can you share when and which cruise line? Is this tied to any program such as casino club?
See post #57 upthread.......Croisières de France sails from St. Maarten March 28/16.....not tied to any 'programs' that I'm aware of (never heard of Casino Club)......we booked our three trips through Jean-Luc at VTG, it's trip #12105 on their site and currently appears as 'Sold Out', but that may (or not) be 100%.
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Old 02-01-2016, 11:06 AM   #74
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First year of retirement - our budget is $20-25k but certainly travel is one area we would reduce if expenses go up or assets go down.

2016 Plan - 8 days in Costa Rica with kids (Jan), 2 weeks in Western US National Parks (May), 1 week at inlaws cabin in MI (July), 1 week in Siesta Key (Oct) and small trips like DW to Phoenix w/ girlfriends, NYC with sisters and my golf trip with guys in August.

2017 - 1 week Carib cruise + 1 week island (Feb), 10-14 day driving trip to Carolina's to visit friends (May), 2 weeks in Italy (Sep/Oct) + the assorted long weekend trips.

Kind of like planning trips
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Old 02-02-2016, 11:34 AM   #75
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Business travel blows.
+1 Loved your description of it! Perfect.
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Old 02-02-2016, 01:37 PM   #76
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Still in planning stage, but our projections are for >50% of our spending during the first two years of retirement (will be 57/56 when pull trigger in '17). Nearly all of that will be international dive and trek travel.

Will be great to have the time to do long trips....

E.T.A.--for raw numbers, DW's task will be to bring us in at less than the lower end of Danmar's range.
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Old 02-02-2016, 05:25 PM   #77
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Business travel blows.
Yes it does. I've done plenty of it and after a very short time it all looks the same. I never see anything but the airport, the back seat of the cab, the law firm conference room, the court room and the hotel, where I'm cramming for a court appearance or deposition the next day and eating crappy room service. And it's all the same everywhere. I've been to many cities, but never actually seen them.
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Old 02-02-2016, 05:59 PM   #78
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I was fortunate to have a better experience with business travel. I got to see a great many places across Canada that I otherwise would never have visited, both large and small. The nature of my work meant that I got out and met local people. In addition, I participated in many conferences at interesting locations at home and abroad (mostly at my own expense) and there was almost always an opportunity to take some time to explore. I have been thinking recently that I may never visit many of these locations again. But it's all good, and I'm glad I had the opportunity.
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Old 02-02-2016, 07:19 PM   #79
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On the subject of food/meals while travelling. I count them. I also count some at-home but travel related expenses. Bortadella shot for the dog so I can kennel him - yep. Kennel - yep. Passport renewal fees - (kids needed this for this past trip) yep. If I buy new luggage or something - it gets billed against the trip I'm buying it for.

I look at meals while travelling similar to fuel for the car while travelling... If I'm on a road trip, it makes sense to count the gas for the car as part of the travel expenses... even though I'd need gas for the car if I were home, also.
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Old 02-02-2016, 07:34 PM   #80
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+1
10% of budget allocated to travel and having a hard time spending it. Sometimes I think that budget item is there because I feel "I have to" because every retiree is supposed to just love to travel. Typically don't like international travel until I get there. Lately come to realize there aren't a whole lot of places I want to visit. Some people like external adventures; I like adventures of the mind. It's amazing how many books I've read since I retired.

We'll see. Maybe after a few years I'll just get that RV and be done with the whole subject.
I am not sure that people think that retirees are "supposed to love travel". It's just that for people who do want to travel, retirement is when they have the time for extended travel. People with offsprings are also old enough to be empty nesters, and that frees them to do what they want. And if they plan things right, they are also financially established to have more disposable income to allocate to this activity.

If a retiree does not like to travel, he/she can use the free time and the extra money to pursue other leisure activities. That's what retirement is all about.

We traveled quite a bit even when we were working. A big part of it is that both of our extended families are in town, so we did not waste vacation time to take the kids to visit their grandparents. People commonly lose 1 week to go visit each side of the family each year, and that's terrible when you have to be at a place 5 or 10 years to get vacation days increased from 2 weeks/year to 3 weeks. And as our parents were in town, they even watched the kids when we wanted to take off on our own.

So, we did not have to wait till retirement to travel. There was a time when we did 2 trips abroad plus 2 domestic trips each year. My wife had 30+ years with her megacorp so she had more than 4 weeks/year of vacation, and I worked sporadic consulting job and could go whenever I wanted. It was great!
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