“I just wish I had ten days off.” I can’t tell you the number of times that thought entered my mind during the working years. I’d find myself saying it in the shower every morning or wishing it on my drive to work. Number 10 was always my lucky number, but 10 days off was the maximum amount I was lucky enough to get away from work at one time. It broke down to five weekdays, two weekends, and a holiday rolled into one. Except in times of unemployment, which weren’t many, I never once took a full two weeks to travel. Also, I would usually pay for it when I got back to the office, returning voice-mail, messages, cleaning up messes, and doing past-due reports. It got easier in the last decade with lap-tops, smart phones, and Skype where you could keep up on things or even attend meetings whenever you wanted, wherever you were. I can still remember those drives back from the airport after a long trip when my voicemail box would tell me that it was full and hundreds of messages awaited immediate responses. Yet, I still longed for my 10 days off!
“I just wish I had ten days off” became such a habitual mantra that even in retirement I find myself mumbling it out loud. I caught myself yesterday doing it, so I smiled and replied “But, I do!” In fact, I have a lot more time off than ten days, but my wife unfortunately is still stuck in that limited vacation time mode, so we continue to make travel plans for 10 days off. Our next 10-day journey will be to Thailand in the spring, once she gets done with budget planning. Ten days also usually translates for us to be $10,000 in travel expenses (See Post #320). With airfare at about 10-15% of that figure, longer trips will logically be less costly per day. Any way you look at it, retirees who want to travel frequently will have to have saved a lot of money. We’re away from home 70-90 nights a year at this stage of our lives, so that can quickly add up to over $75,000 a year, or $1.5 million over 20 years of retirement. Obviously, it’s much cheaper and often less of a hassle to simply stay home.
For me, “I just wish I had ten days off” is beginning to equate with staying home. Airports, shuttles, rental cars, tour schedules, dining decisions, packing & unpacking, unfamiliar beds, and time changes aren’t for old farts, so you better plan on staying young at heart. It’s a shame though that by the time you finish working and have collected the necessary resources, you’re often too tired to travel. At 67, I fortunately still enjoy the thrill and anticipation of going somewhere – anywhere. However, at some point in the journey, I always catch myself thinking, “I just wish I had ten days at home.”
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