Scaling back lifestyles

[WanderALot]

Don't get me wrong. I thoroughly enjoy traveling. But when w*rk is piling up and I can't get away for real, a few episodes of Globe Trekker help me realize how broad and diverse our little blue planet really is.

I like watching Globe Trekker, but it only makes me want to go travel more. I see your point though, it definitely does wet the appetite.

IMO, most of what we call travel is synthetic. If you are traveling as a couple you are unlikely to meet many people who are not trying to exploit you in some way or other. If you travel alone it is different- there you just need to be aware of the microbiological environment. And carry cash if you are male.

Travel is only synthetic if you make it such. DW and I used to travel with friends before we met each other and now travel quite a bit with each other. We expect that having kids will significantly slow/stop this urge at least till the kid(s) are older. Why so jaded about having people try to exploit you? I've definitely been exploited by the locals, especially in the 3rd world, but the positive experiences have far outweighed the negative ones. The different cultures and customs are an absolute pleasure to observe or even take part it! The connections made to locals and other travelers are one of things that make traveling so much fun for me.

Travel is one of primary reasons for me to want to ER.

 

[Joss]

I think "travel" is a rather simple term for a very complex range of activities, that mean very different things to different people. Perhaps it is variations in the amount of "immersion" that makes it so. Are you the water bug that only skims the surface or a fish, fully immersed? Somewhere in between?

Without immersion, though, your travel is really not much more than a trip to a "reality" art musem... only 2-diminsional, seeing only the surface. I can understand that a person that imagines this as "travel" would be unenthusisatic about it.

The problem is, if you hope for some level of immersion in an unfamiliar place, that you either need a guide or a significant amount of time there. And sometimes you need both.

I am looking forward to trying some of the Elderhostel trips that offer the "guide" to involve you intellectually. An example would be a week learning about the boroughs of NYC.

 

[donheff]

The problem is, if you hope for some level of immersion in an unfamiliar place, that you either need a guide or a significant amount of time there. And sometimes you need both.

I am looking forward to trying some of the Elderhostel trips that offer the "guide" to involve you intellectually. An example would be a week learning about the boroughs of NYC.

When working my vacations were of the skimming sort - mainly getaway breaks. But when DW ERs we plan more in-depth trips. One of my employees and his wife retired the same day as I did. They immediately left on a three month vacation through India and the far east and wrote a blog about their adventures. They used guides almost everywhere they went and had wonderful experiences. The value add of the guides convinced me of how helpful they can be.

 

[WRBT]

Seeing Ian from Globe Trekker marvel at Angor Wat with all the camera angles they throw in is one thing, standing in front of it appreciating the scale and detail is completely different. The former made me think "hey that's pretty cool" while the latter brought a lump in my throat and chills down my spine.

The connections made to locals and other travelers are one of things that make traveling so much fun for me.

Yup Some of our fondest memories are simple things like a rock-paper-scissors tournament with kids in Saigon or sitting on the steps of our little hotel in Beijing drinking beer and doing DUI sobriety tests on each other with staff. It's the little silly things with locals that fill in around the memories of the big tourist attractions.

 

[Traveler]

This is something I'd given some thought to in the past and then lo and behold my staff position at a TV station was eliminated at the end of December. So now I have a one-year contract as an IC that will take me through 2007 and then....who knows? We'll probably hang it up by then. (Boyfriend is fully retiring from his TV reporter job in November '07.)

Biggest change will be to stop the high-end travel. Since we were travel writers/reporters for many years we have no desire/need to go overseas anymore. As one poster put it, if you wait long enough in one place the world comes to you. And since we live in Sedona the world does come to us.

We've also cut way back on eating out. Not only to save money but to better control what we eat. Boyfriend is on low salt/low carb regimen (doctor's orders) and I'm calorie-counting. Easier to do at home. And when we do go out it's a real treat.

One thing we have done since moving here two years ago is to get all the big work done on the house that we needed to before the regular paychecks stop. Now everything we do is cosmetic and really not necessary. We can do it ourselves and save a lot of money. Plus it gives us something to do.

Probably the biggest change is that we buy everything we can on sale or at box stores like Costco. We usually did that before but now we do it all the time. The impulse buying has been nixed.

 

[A854321]

Interesting.

1. I never go to Costco- too much chance for big-league impulse. I look for specials on basics at my local store. Honestly, the savings from buying toilet paper in bulk at Costco are destroyed by one impulse purchase there.

2. I never ever go to Ebay now. I used to use it as entertainment. Well, when I tallied it up, it ended up being more expensive than anything else I did, including some travel.

3. I throw away ALL catalogs and Travel brochures.

4. I got rid of ALL my magazine subscriptions except for one. Too much temeptation in Oprah, or Sunset, or home magazines. Their job is to sell you stuff, remember. On a rainy dull day, I spend an afternoon at my local public library catching up, but I don't have that glossy magazine staring at me from my coffee table anymore.

5. Other purchases: I only buy something that I would take with me if I moved. That eliminates about 90% of the clothing or accessory purchases.

As mentioned, it is the impulse spending that has been nixed. I finally looked at my impulse spending flaws and eliminated them, one by one.

 

[SteveR]

Back to the topic of scaling back (in or near) ER.

We are selling our cabin. Have already sold off the "toys" and cleaned out most everything except some of the furniture. We will sell the pickup truck too since we won't need a 4X4 truck once we no longer need to get to the cabin in the mud an snow. The proceedes will fund the mortgage payoff and some other projects around the house and what is left will go into the MM for expenses later this year.

Losing the cabin will reduce our monthly and annual spending by quite a lot. We won't have to pay the mortgage, taxes, water, propane, electric, insurance HOA, snow removal fees, road fees, fire prevention fees, and maintenance costs. This will allow us to live well on our small pension income and our investments while still being able to travel and RV on extended trips. We plan on keeping the house for a while and will start the process of scaling back the "stuff" in the house so we can downsize to something smaller in a couple of years. Until then, we have plenty to keep us busy and family on both coasts to see for extended periods.