Just curious....What do you all do for a living?

There are those of us who like to dream. I'm lucky if I can go once every year or so given I have a mortgage and a job.

I'd love to travel more as well:)

Lol. Fair question. Retired, solo, and finally moving into my travel dreams. Spending very little on life in the U.S. (no debt), leaving my disposable income available for travel. A few years ago it was a trip once every year or two.

I retired 8 years ago (didn’t realize it had been so long until I counted backwards to answer). We are comfortable because we are frugal; not rich by any stretch of the imagination. We are debt free.

After retirement I worked 2 days a week at a hobby job until Covid hit. All the “extra” money and time went to care for my lovely but sickly, high maintenance horse. Now that he’s gone to horsey heaven, I can afford one trip a year. Care and vet bills for Logan (he lived in my backyard) equaled a trip to Europe each year.

The post-retirement trips have changed over time; from occasional road trips with hubby to this year’s solo trip to France. 2019, 2022 and 2023 Europe trips are over 21+ days each. I hope my aches and pains stay manageable for a few more years because there are lots of places I want to visit. (My hubby won’t travel.)

Retired six years, but we still have a finite amount of money for travel. We take one international trip per year, but for 4-5 weeks instead of 7-10 days when we were working.

I have a FT job still, but most FT jobs give at least 3 weeks of vacation a year (I get 6 weeks/yr now), so that should be enough for a trip to Europe a year. But many on this forum are retired, so they have even more time.
As far as resources are concerned, if you plan well (and use the advise of the fine people here) a vacation in Europe will cost you less than a vacation in the US in most cases, with the exception of the airplane cost, which will be in most cases higher than flying domestically. The ground costs in Europe are generally cheaper than any major US cities, where the cost of accommodations and food is nearly always much more expensive than in Europe. If the prices of air tickets is what discourages you, try to travel to Europe outside of summer. From November through March prices to Europe are especially cheap and from where you are you should be able to fly for less than $600 r/t to anywhere in Europe during that time. Of course Europe is not too warm in winter, but Southern Europe (on the Mediterranean) has southern California weather, therefore even in winter you should be warmer than where you live.

Many of us are retired, can afford to travel and do so.

I'm retired. For about 20 years before I retired, I had the sort of job that was difficult to get away from for more than 2 weeks at a time, and I don't like going to Europe for so little time--partly because I hate that overnight flight. Then the first few years after retirement I had elderly cats that couldn't be left, then an elderly mother. So I saved my money (I have no children and have never owned a car), and I also horded part of my vacation time so I could cash it out upon retirement. Now I'm able to take long trips. I do it on the cheap but do generally visit places at the best time of year, weather-wise, because that is important to me. For other folks, avoiding the worst crowds is more important, or saving money.

Having been around here for a while, I assume that a significant number are retired. A majority ??? maybe put I would guess not. We were both in education so always had summers more or less free to travel. We tried hard with two son to be very careful in how we travel. Did many ocean cruises around Europe ( I think 12) because it was a cheap way to go and solved a lot of logistical problems when traveling with two sons. Now the sons are in their forties with family so we are by ourselves most of the time - not always. We retired with a good six figure income so we can afford to travel more frequently and at a higher level. It didn't just happen because we did plan fairly carefully in earlier years with stock investments, life style, etc.

In hindsight I think one of our big advantages was having the summers off when we could explore different modes of travel until we found what worked best for us. Second for us was that we were both from families who postponed doing everything till retirement and then deaths around retirement age meant that they didn't do anything. We started traveling in our 50s and boys were hitting their teens. For us, it worked well. For you it has to be your plan so that you are in that position in the future.

I'm a retired teacher. My job provided money for our trips, which were usually every few years but increased to yearly or more(3 from June-Oct 2019, which was too many) in recent years. My husband is a business exec who expects to travel to Europe 4 times in the first half of next year (I'm not going on any of these-I have already been to the places he's going and juggling life in two places has been more challenging than I expected-I know boo hoo) and he has 30 days of paid leave(which includes holidays) a year. When we went to London last year, his airfare and some hotel nights were paid by his company-but then there was a huge bill for my extra unplanned stay(didn't have enough hotel points to cover that!). I will avoid commenting on the politics of this but am still angry at those responsible for such a huge and unnecessary waste of money. (And FYI, we took Covid seriously at our house).

Horsewoofie, I'm sorry about the loss of your horse.

With regards to how we pay for trips, we have hotel points that we can use for stays in big cities. Also, as much as I love to fly from ATL, fares from NYC are often cheaper, and Boston has a day flight to London which we loved last year. And until recently, our expenditures on housing and cars were modest. When at home, I usually cook instead of eating out(although we can't help ourselves when in Charleston!) We have one child(not by choice) and my inlaws paid for her college.

Ditto to TexasTravelMom. We traveled a lot last year (6 trips) to make up for the two+ years we were stuck at home due to covid.

I've been retired for nearly 20 years. DH for almost 15. We are debt free and prioritize travel over other kinds of discretionary spending. Before retirement, due to DHs job, we lived in other countries several times, and made the most of our vacation time by travelling whenever possible. Since retirement we take 2 international vacations per year- usually a shorter (1-2 weeks) warm weather getaway in mid winter; then a month or so in one of fhe shoulder seasons. I don't like to travel in summer- most of Europe is too hot, crowded, and expensive then. Besides, that is my time for my garden, and when family usually wants to visit.

I’m a retired teacher, who still substitute teaches a day or two a week when I want to. I have set aside an amount of money for travel every month for as long as I can remember and use my additional substitute income for special projects, often travel. I found that I really enjoy substituting. All of the fun of being with and interacting with students and none of the rest of the hassles. My community has a shortage of substitute teachers, so it also provides some service to the community.

Teaching allowed me time off at Christmas, Easter, and in the summer during which I could travel. Although it is important to remember those are unpaid vacation days.

Even so, one of the thrills of retirement has been achieving what was for many years only a dream, taking a vacation in September!

Retired for 2 1/2 years now from Legal Assistant position of 42 years and try to take an international 3-4 week trip about every other year. Like others have said, my priorities are travel so I rarely shop, don’t have a latte’ every day, drive a 12 year old car, and live in a modest tiny home. I started saving for retirement (sometimes literally $25/mo.) about 1980. Also, I didn’t wait until retirement to travel because there are so many stories out there about waiting and then not being able to go because of health issues. I embraced the idea of making the most of each day.

Hi Shekar.

Getting to the position of making travel a top priority in a household budget is a process. Probably most of us simply fell into it one way or another, but once we realized the benefits, that's when it floated to the top.

I too am still working fulltime. Wife is part time. We have both just passed 60, and are continuing to work as it funds our once yearly trips overseas for 3 or 4 weeks plus one or two domestic trips. Due to good fortune and good diligence we are mortgage free and have no consumer debt.

I have generous northern allowance package from my employer, and currently get 6 weeks annual leave plus 12 stat holidays so finding the time to travel is not a problem. I have a great employer so that makes it easy to continue working, plus the pension benefits continue to accrue (although sadly I can't say we will be quite as fortunate as Frank in retirement :) ) Having said that, I'm looking at retiring in a couple years, as at some point, enough is enough.

We have a couple Summer businesses which spin off a small amount of income, plus some residential rentals which aren't currently spinning off much excess cash flow, but might increase once the economy improves in the area where we live.

It's taken us 25 years to have this overnight success :)

Edited to Add: Yes, about vehicles, this is another thing that helps our ability to travel. Ours are 18 and 20 years old but we realize this can’t last and are looking at one newer vehicle purchase this year.

I retired from SSA at age 55, in 2008. That now freed up my time in the summer to now taker a long trip, not needing to coordinate more leave time, and thus we realized lifelong dreams and started to take annual trips. She was a teacher, and when she retired in 2015, we now had the ability to take 2 trips per year., doing the mid-summer season Two public pensions + SSA, long time savers, so this was easy for us.

I retired as a hospital social worker in 2011 and spent the first 2+ years of retirement doing live-in parent care, then finalizing their estate. I prioritize travel so like others don't have a new car or any expensive "toys". I rarely eat out (vegan so my cooking is generally better than restaurant vegan offerings), don't go to movies (just not interested), don't enjoy shopping (except for travel stuff, hahaha!).

I figure I have a good 5-6 years of solo and group tour travel time left and want to maximize that with international travel.

I have been doing 2 month-long Europe trips, one spring, one fall plus a 2-week trip to Yellowstone every June.

To me, making travel a priority is important to me. IF it's a priority, it will happen. I hear others (NOT on the forum, haha) say they want to go places but they never plan for it so it doesn't happen. If you want to travel, start making a list! When I was caring for my parents and just kind of overwhelmed with the whole process, I'd sit on the back deck and thumb thru a RS tour brochure. The one that always caught my eye was the 21 day best of Europe. Expensive? Yes. 3 weeks! wow. I decided when the parent care duties were complete that would be one of the first ones I did and yes...it was! Your idea of fun might be completely different but I'd encourage you to plan your trip meticulously and when the time and money is there you'll be ready to go!