Realistic budget for travel and health in retirement?

[Safire]

If a couple intends to travel domestically (4/5 times a year) and internationally (once a year) in retirement, how much should they budget for travel?.

Also, if the couple FIREs in their 50s, how much should they budget for health insurance for 3 (including one disabled adult)?

Please share realistic estimates for in today's dollars.

Thanks!

 

[Scrapr]

How much you got? That's almost enough

For some $500/ trip is enough. Tent camping in state parks. For others $5k/trip is just right. Staying at resorts

What is your travel style?

 

[NW-Bound]

Yes, only you know your travel style.

For a ticket to Europe, a coach seat may be $500, while premium economy is $1300, and business class is $3700. Hotel room at 75 euros/night, or 300 euros? What size car to rent (for travel outside the cities)? Taxis or the metro? Meals at a neighborhood restaurant or a Michelin-rated one?

The above costs can be checked out online nowadays while you do your trip planning. For domestic travel, it's even easier because you already know the cost of living here.

For health insurance, you can find out the cost with ACA (Obamacare) online. Due to the subsidy, your premium varies greatly with your income. The more you make, the more you pay. It also depends on what insurance plan you sign up for. Gold, silver, or bronze plan? What deduction level? It can be all over the place, and is highly dependent on your unique situation and choices.

 

[DrRoy]

We travel just like that on a regular basis, spending $30-35K/yr. That includes a nice cruise, first class for the international flight, and pretty good hotels.

 

[Dtail]

Depending how you travel and what hotels you stay in, I would guess somewhere in the 15k to 25k range.
As for medical costs, have you checked out the Healthcare Exchange to get some estimates, as it is dependent on your income levels.

 

[bobandsherry]

Too many variables to even get a reasonable answer. I can spend a few hundred once and several thousands the next trip and then more than that the next time. Depends on what, where, when and why. Kind of like asking what's a reasonable amount to spend when going out for a meal. McDonald's is fine for some occasions, a Prime Steakhouse for another and then a unique dining experience the next time could be in order.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

Also, if the couple FIREs in their 50s, how much should they budget for health insurance for 3 (including one disabled adult)?

Thanks!

For Healthcare costs...

Go to the healthcare.gov website. Enter you're ages, zip codes, gender, and smoking status. If you're in a state that has its own healthcare exchange, you will be redirected to that website where you can enter the same details.

You do NOT have to create an account first. So look for the link or button to simply review the plans available to you.

At some point, you will be asked to estimate your income. Enter the entire household income. This will help you determine if you qualify for federal subsidies to help pay the premiums.

You will be presented with specific plans to review that are sold in your location and the prices you would be paying. You can drill in for coverage details.

The plans/pricing you see now are for 2022 and will be the same for the entirety of 2022. On November 1 of each year, you can view plans/pricing for the upcoming new year.

 

[FANOFJESUS]

For many folks on this site my guess is 20k-40k for both. I have heard several couples on this site spend 20k for health insurance alone. Unless you are a cheapskate like me.

 

[flyingaway]

If I plan for a $100,000 annual spending in retirement, I would plan for $20,000 for health cost (a couple) and $30,000 for travel and entertainments.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

Healthcare is easy, as PaunchyPirate pointed out. But I don't think you really want "realistic estimates" to project theoretical spending, I think it's more helpful to have ACTUAL spending, as a few have done.

And that's been helpful to me, as I budgeted $24K ($2K/mo) once my Fidelity planner hit a score of 150+ (100 or over is supposed to represent 90% success rate), and more recently upped that to $48K/yr to lower my score back down to 109.

Will we actually spend that much? I have no idea, but I would like to try some destination dining, like Noma, Per Se, Central...along with street food in many world cities, so I could do it on widely varying budgets. I'll have to try some of the nicer places and see if it feels worth it. I can tell you that a $5K Glenlivet single malt scotch is very good, but it does not feel like it's worth 50 bottles of quite good scotch to me!

 

[RetiredHappy]

Our travel budget is $20K (non-international) to $30K (include 1 international) a year, and that is utilizing alot of timeshare, airline miles and hotel miles. We used to cruise once or twice a year and that budget would go up when we do so, but we don't foresee doing cruises for a long time to come because of COVID. Someone above posted about entertainment - that is an entirely different bucket where we include dining out and shows, and that can run another $36K a year. I am not yet 65 and pay full price for health insurance as I don't qualify for 8.5% max of MAGI. At 59, my health insurance premium is $12K a year and co-pay and drugs run another $2K. My husband is on Medicare and pays about $8K a year, including Medigap premium and drugs.

 

[Magus]

Depends on if you go in season or not, what cabin flight you take, what quality hotel/airbnb, how many nights you stay, how many tours you take while you are there and if you play the credit card point game or not, how much shopping you may do, etc. My wife and I did 7 nights in Paris for $2,000 total combined 3 years ago - airfare, hotel, tours, food, wine, etc. We went in April in coach on a good cash flight (~$350/person) in a 3.5* hotel. You could easily spend $20k with same trip if you wanted to, though, especially in the summer. Booking early helps, booking late will either cost way more or be very cheap usually.

This upcoming year to Scotland for my wife and I for 12 night, the flights will be around $120/person (using points/miles from CCs), and lodging about $600/person (7 nights @ Timeshare, 5 nights airbnb in Edinburgh).

US trips I rarely pay anything more than $40-$50/night for the hotel/resort with rewards and using the HGV timeshare system to the fullest. Flights I usually get for close to free with airline miles or will pay cash if under $200/person.

 

[COcheesehead]

We budget $30,000 for travel.
We pay $828/month for two people, gold level plan, so just under $10k per year.
$500 per year for dental
$500 per year for eye care/glasses

We don’t always spend that much, but that’s what we plan for.

 

[brett]

How long is a piece of string?

Depends on how you travel, where you travel, when you travel.

We travel, pre covid, internationally twice a year. Eight weeks each time. We stay at no stars, six stars. Costs really vary. Plus some last minutes in between. We could spend 5K on an AI or 2K. Depends on so many factors.

 

[aaronc879]

Too many variables to say what it should cost for travel or health insurance. I didn't spend a penny for travel or health care in 2021 while others spent $10K+ for each. I could take a week long domestic trip for under $1K while others would budget $1K+ per day. Spend what YOU can afford. It is different for everyone.

 

[tmm99]

Like everyone is saying, too many variables. It depends on which country, which state, how long, what kind of hotel, etc, etc.

Why don't you plug in some dates and locations with rental car/hotel costs for each location you may want to visit using Travelocity or Expedia or something like that? You can easily get the feel of how much each trip will cost.

 

[RobbieB]

How much? I dunno. Maybe what keeps you in the 5% range?

 

[Sojourner]

Our annual travel budget is roughly $20-25k (for me and DW). The $25k is a "reach" number, where we fly first-class internationally and stay at higher end hotels and Airbnbs. As others have said, though, this can and does vary tremendously based on your specific travel wants, needs, and resources (money, time, etc.). I personally know people who spend over $50k/year on travel (a ski buddy of mine and his wife) and who spend less than $2k/year on travel (my elderly dad).

 

[Teacher Terry]

I booked a 11 day trip to Ireland which includes airfare for 4200. It’s a tour through go ahead tours.

 

[1242Vintage]

Health care for wife and I is running $2k per month.

Also I saw mention of a disabled adult. Our youngest is disabled and in addition to social security received financial help from our state Dept of Rehab. She is now fully employed and off SS and Dept of Rehab assistance.

As far as travel goes we (wife really) tend to be bargain hunters. But travel to and stay in nice places, but always looking for a “deal”. We’ve been traveling an average of a week per month and spendings $2.5k per trip. Our travel tends to be either to see our kids (Ohio, Nevada, Wisconsin), Central America (Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Columbia, Cuba) in the winter and British Columbia and Alaska in Summer.

 

[skyking1]

This thread has been useful, as the range of 20~30K for that kind of travel is the real world spend for many of you, and sort of what I was figuring for.
Thanks again, I love this place.

 

[jkern]

Our mid-tier travel costs are approximately:

Local/Drive: $300 to $400 per day per couple
Domestic/Fly: $500 to $700 per day per couple
International: $800 to $1000 per day per couple

 

[brett]

Thailand is less expensive than Australia when we do a combo snowbird trip for the winter. It simply averages out.

Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Sicily, and southern Europe is much less expensive than the UK and northern European countries.

Mexico, Costa Rica, and South America are less expensive than the Caribbean, Florida or Hawaii.

This is even before you price out different types of accommodation or shop for air.

We have paid $750 return to SE Asia. We have also paid $2300. And various price points in between. Same for Europe. In some instance we have a lower airfare to fly to Bangkok or London than what we would pay to fly across our country.

 

[Sunset]

Pre-Covid:

Our International travel to Europe was ~$10K per trip.
One trip was a river cruise for 15 days, including flights, etc.
Other trip was for 30 days total, flight to Barcelona, 10 days in Barcelona, 10 day Med cruise, 14 day Transatlantic cruise, overnight train from NY->Chicago.

Within USA/Canada I always figure $250/day for hotel, food, gas.

I would include Canada in the road trips, as the exchange rate favors USD, do need passports to enter, leave guns at home, limit booze to 1L each upon entry.

 

[NW-Bound]

When I started my retirement, thought I could spend $20-25K/year on travel.

It turned out we spent 1/2 of that. As much as we love to travel, I am getting old and cannot travel as much as when I was younger but was still working and did not have time.

For the few years prior to Covid, we settled into a routine of 1 long trip each year, alternating between international and domestic RV trips from year to year. Seemed to work out well.

Then, with Covid, no travel at all for 2020/2021. I am ready to spend more money, at least on airplane seats when we resume travel. I also have a lot more money now than in 2019.

Darn, I am getting older and more tired all the time, and this Covid thing just keeps dragging on.

PS. The plan for 2020 was a long RV trek to the Great Lakes region. Then, Scandinavian countries in 2021.

My wife was saying we may do the Great Lakes in 2022. Will see.