The Early Retiree Travel Thread

Sea_Shell

1. How much is your retirement travel budget, split between:
a. Domestic vacations
b. Long-haul / international vacation

Probably somewhere in the region of £3000-£4000 pa, but it's not fixed in stone. We'll play it by ear.
Our plans mainly revolve around the UK, we have no burning desire to see the world. We might seek some Winter Sun, in those years where we feel we haven't seen it in the UK, but at least now we can make the most of the nice weather we do get here. Flying just seems more and more hassle these days.

2. Do you anticipate spending more in retirement that before you retired?

About the same, as we did alot more short-haul "sunshine" holidays when we were working.
We plan to get a National Trust membership too.

3. Will you make significant changes to the way you travel (e.g. perhaps upgrading to premium or business, or maybe spending longer on each vacation?)

We plan to do little and often, maybe only 2-4 nights away at a time, but more often, maybe once or twice a month (March-June, Sept-Nov). Mainly by car, as you have the freedom to "load and go". We'll consider room/accomodation upgrades where appropriate/available, but definately NO CAMPING!!! I've not retired to have to "flip-flop" to the toilet block of a morning!!!

4. Where are you going and why?

General sightseeing / walking / taking in the sea air

MallyGirl

shinytop wrote: »

Definitely no business class; it’s still 12 hours in a metal tube with 300 other people and a slightly bigger seat sitting next to richer people doesn’t really help. My approach is to keep as fit, slim and supple as I can so that I fit in a standard seat.

I am tall, but not excessively so, but any flight in economy leaves me with an imprint in my knees of the pattern of the pocket from the seat in front. In the worst cases my knees actually go numb from the constant pressing in. Being shorter would be more comfortable

zagfles

MallyGirl wrote: »

I am tall, but not excessively so, but any flight in economy leaves me with an imprint in my knees of the pattern of the pocket from the seat in front. In the worst cases my knees actually go numb from the constant pressing in. Being shorter would be more comfortable

If you just need a bit of extra legroom most airlines let you book the emergency exit row or the front row, usually for an extra charge, but nowhere near the charge for upgrading to business!
I'm 5 foot 11 and never have a problem. Long haul you tend to get more leg room than short haul and certainly more than Ryanair and the like.

System

On my last pension statement i might get a few days in Weston once a year the joys of having my FS ripped from under our feet many years ago and a miserly 5% paid by my employer into my DC scheme which isnt worth the paper its written on . Yet many people i know retired early some having 3 plus overseas holidays a year rolling in money i obviously went seriously wrong somewhere, what really fires me up thou is when they dont shut up about their travels

zagfles

Nikond4 wrote: »

On my last pension statement i might get a few days in Weston once a year the joys of having my FS ripped from under our feet many years ago and a miserly 5% paid by my employer into my DC scheme which isnt worth the paper its written on . Yet many people i know retired early some having 3 plus overseas holidays a year rolling in money i obviously went seriously wrong somewhere, what really fires me up thou is when they dont shut up about their travels

You don't need loads of money to travel, you can get Ryanair flights to places far cheaper than the UK for a tenner! I know someone who retired to the south coast of Spain, because he says he can't afford to live in the UK! (I reckon the weather was a factor though ). He knows British people who spend 6 months of the winter in Spain, getting dirt cheap rents on places usually rented out as summer holiday lets, and even with the rent they spend less than in the UK due to the lower cost of living, heating bills etc.

Others get long term rents in places like SE Asia and living out there for 6 months+ is so much cheaper than the UK that it'll likely pay for the flight costs.

Loads of people travel on a low income, I did when I was a student. If you want to, you will. If you don't, ignore travel threads!

agent69

Nikond4 wrote: »

the joys of having my FS ripped from under our feet many years ago and a miserly 5% paid by my employer into my DC scheme which isnt worth the paper its written on .

Lots of people have never had the benefit of being in a FS pension scheme.


I too was in a FS scheme that was closed many years ago, but I didn't moan about it. I accepted that it wasn't financially viable for my employer to continue it, so I put maximum contributions into the new DC scheme. As a consequence I have retired early and travel the world (but promise not to mention it again).

System

Friend of mine works in the avation busniess he told me they were asked by the employer that if they wanted to keep their FS scheme they would have to contribute abit more themselves however as a form of compensation they would be annually given vouchers to spend of their named hobby. His vouchers this year have equated to £500, and he tells me the extra hes having to put in to keep his FS scheme which hes been in for 30 years plus is less than the voucher cost work that out. I had mine pulled in 2008 . It doesnt help either not having a pay rise in 11 years now and the company forced to take on staff on more money than the long servers because they cant get staff, I know one ex plod retired some years early of course 4 big overseas holiday a year

bugslett

I never had any sort of employer pension. At the age of 26 I started working for myself and made pension contributions of 25.00 a month. Even in 1991 that wasnt a lot! That increased over the years mostly because I didn't go on holiday and trade up to a bigger house.

FS pensions are something lots of us never experienced and until recently, lots of firms didn't pay any pension. It's up to you to do something to secure your future.

DT2001

Marine_life wrote: »

1. How much is your retirement travel budget, split between:
a. Domestic vacations
b. Long-haul / international vacation
2. Do you anticipate spending more in retirement that before you retired?
3. Will you make significant changes to the way you travel (e.g. perhaps upgrading to premium or business, or maybe spending longer on each vacation?)
4. Where are you going and why?

.

Thanks MarineLife for another interesting thread. It didn’t evolve quite as I thought.

My guesses to your points are :-
1. Any ‘natural’ income my portfolio produces in excess of our basic requirements. In a good year it could be £20k+. We have house swapped regularly and tended to wait for people to ask us rather than decide where we’d like to go. So the split between U.K. and abroad is difficult to assess however our holiday costs are mainly travel to and from.
2. Probably less if we travel without children!
3. No, OH always loves deals!
4. Anywhere we haven’t been before and we’re offered swaps. Spain for sun and chill breaks. The French Alps for skiing. If I manage to sell it really well, a barge on the canal du midi, as love the Rick Stein series. SE Asia as OH loves it.

To respond to a few points brought up, at a tangent to the original questions.
We try to reduce our impact on the environment. Solar panels, growing veg, planting trees, recycling, repairing, small engined cars etc
Our children have travelled and seen the ‘real’ world not just the tourist areas. I hope their education will mean a more responsible attitude than our generation’s appears, to many, to be to climate change etc.
In response to the post inferring that these holidays are funded on FS/DB schemes I’d guess 20% of our retirement income will come from those and 35% + from SP. we are not HRT payers but have helped build our own houses and done more than 1 job at a time to achieve our aims. We have been lucky however as Gary Player (a top class golfer from the 70’s and 80’s) said the harder I work/practice the luckier I seem to be.

JoeCrystal

Nikond4 wrote: »

On my last pension statement i might get a few days in Weston once a year the joys of having my FS ripped from under our feet many years ago and a miserly 5% paid by my employer into my DC scheme which isnt worth the paper its written on . Yet many people i know retired early some having 3 plus overseas holidays a year rolling in money i obviously went seriously wrong somewhere, what really fires me up thou is when they dont shut up about their travels

It is still cheaper to go aboard for a holiday. I mean, you can get the £35 return to Warsaw for example! It is feasible to have four foreign holidays a year if you budget carefully for it although I wouldn't be too sure if the plane tickets will still be cheap in thirty years or so.