Well, I guess if a Senior has a nice retirement income, they can do that. I have some high school classmates who are retired teachers and some that retired from major companies and they spend a lot of time traveling with their spouse. They post pictures on Facebook. One guy has a Bachelor's Degree and retired from Northrop Aircraft. He has posted photos of him and his wife having cocktails at a very expensive hotel in Hawaii. Another classmate, and her husband, just returned from a trip to Ireland. He is part Irish. And yet another classmate, whose husband passed away a number of years ago, flies down to Florida (Gulf side) and spends a month with retired friends there, during the winter in Indiana. And, on top of this nice retirement income, these classmates seem to stay healthy as can be. The way I see it, some Seniors were lucky to, one........get a major college degree and two...... stay at one job for years and get a nice retirement income. And, for some, add that nice retirement income onto a monthly SS payment........that equals a nice juicy income. Then there are those, like wife and I, that, along with some savings, will have to survive off of SS during our retirement years. We are so jealous of the others, though.
And then there are those like me who invested in their kids and now it's paying off, lol. I'm just teasing but I only have widows benefits and I travel and live comfortably. You reap what you sow... This is not a serious reply so I don't want to debate it. If I didnt have my kids I still wouldn't be jealous of others. My trip to Maui 2 years ago didn't cost me a dime. Son paid for airfare, room and all my meals and it's not cheap to eat in Maui.
I think all of the forum members know that your kids help you financially. Not a bad thing, when a person has kids that can, and more importantly, will, do it.
Ha!! trip to Ireland, that's nothing ...I could be there in an hour, and it would cost me 50 bucks ( and tbh I wouldn't waste 50 bucks) .... you Cody, .are already in Florida.. where so many of your old friends and classmates and half the western world have to pay a fortune to visit.... so think just for a second how many of those people would give their eye teeth to be living in or close to Florida or an hour from Ireland ..like us.... I think we're the winners...
But, remember Holly, in a year or so we are leaving here. Since Mathew last year and Irma this year, there are people here that don’t think so highly of Florida anymore. There are places in the U.S. that the cost-of-living is much higher than here. Actually, there are folks that live in the “snowbelts” of America that would never think of moving to Florida, even if they financially could. One thing for sure, we don’t feel fortunate to live here, even when it’s snowing where we plan to move to.
Same here, except that - so far - we are able to supplement our Social Security online and we have a couple of timeshares, so we can still do some traveling.
I'm one of those living on social security. I have friends who travel all , well I had friends who travels all over the world, I have out lived them but I was never jealous. As far as I was concerned they earned the right either through more education or more brains and had better jobs which earned them more money. Some had nice investments. I did the best I could, and anyone could/can look back on my life and say, financially, I am a classic failure in life. I have some regrets but bascally I wouldn't do much differently. Under the circumstances I got all the education I was cpable of at the time. I now have no desire to travel and since my retirement I have saved enough to live comfortably the rest of my days, and will leave a small nest to my kids.
That is a great way to look at things. We have friends who love country music and would love to visit Nashville during CMA events, and it's all around us. Same when we lived in the UK and California. Enjoy where you're at till things change. We might not go on another vacation, but for us, planning one is half or more of the fun.
Although we're not able to travel, I know of some seniors who travel as much as possible. Some couples have even made significant changes to their lifestyle in order to save for their trips, often to be with family and friends either overseas, at the other end of the country, or to the southern States. Another senior I know would love to continue her annual trek down south but is now unable due to the rising cost of health insurance coverage, etc.
We have some travelling friends who live (some of the time) in Jupiter FL who love cruising, and return to Blighty regularly. We have given up travelling elsewhere coz we have done all we want to. I have travelled to many European countries for business and some holidays.
Not to sound too negative about where we live currently, but basically, we just don’t like living here anymore. Anyone who lives in Colorado or Wyoming, and wants to move to Florida......we will gladly trade areas with you!
We love to travel and have driven across the US several times but not able to drive long distances anymore. We could probably make it to the left coast again but would have to spend several nights in motels.
That’s what we do when we travel by vehicle, spend every night in a nice/descent motel. We never/ever travel at nighttime.
One thing about owning a power boat, some folks (like us) have to put money into the boat (insurance and maintenance) instead of other enjoyable things, like travel. We’d love to go to Niagara Falls and/or Washington DC (Lincoln Monument, etc.), but saving money for moving and retirement is a much higher priority.
I don't know what happened but as much as I loved to travel for vacations when I was younger...I seem to want to travel more in my mind than body now days. Guess for some of us that's part of aging too.