Logistics for Longer Cruises

[DarrenM]

LOL. I think you re right. And thats the sort of decision I would make if I retired early. And take up sailing or something.

[Mary229]

One more comment on the card pre-pay issue.  I do use autopay, I am an early adopter of technology, I am not a neophyte.   I have had bank accounts frozen by no fault of my own      I am often in locales that do not have internet.     So all bills go to a credit card issued by one bank and are paid by another bank.   The likelihood of all accounts being frozen in two banks is remote, granted but I have chosen, by advanced experience,  to prepay my credit card.   I do not want my electricity turned off when I am away.    Do not be so hasty to diss another person’s knowledge based on your own experience 

[ducklite]

12 hours ago, SRF said:

 

There are a lot of people like that.

 

And there are a lot of people who will not accept any debt and only work, and plan on having fun when they retire.

 

My FIL was like that.  Ran a country store, worked 6.5 days a week.  NEVER took a vacation.  NEVER took time off.  

 

When he retired, his wife was not doing well, so he had to stay home and take care of her.  When she got bad enough she had to be in a nursing home, 2 weeks later, he fell and broke his hip.  Next morning, they got him up for PT, to had a clot break loose, and had a stroke.

 

He never got to do ANY of his plans.

 

You have got to have a balance in life.

However there is a difference between not carrying debt outside of mortgages and low/no interest car loans as well as having savings, and spending money you don't have on things like cruises.  If you have to put a cruise on a credit card without the available funds to immediately pay it off, you don't have the money for a cruise (or other "vacations.")  Likewise if you are carrying credit card debt.

 

Think about it this way. A $2000 cruise on a credit card at minimum payment is actually around a $4000 cruise, perhaps more depending on your interest rate.  It's no longer such a great deal.  It becomes even less of a deal when something else comes up and you are now piling even more debt on top of that because you spent money for a want instead of saving it for a need.

 

Life needs to be a balance of careful financial planning for the future and living in the present.  But carrying debt in order to spend spend spend now is shorting the future, and the reality is that you might have memories, but you won't be able to eat them when you are 80 and can't afford both food and the power bill because you didn't save enough.

 

About seven years ago we had taken a couple of expensive trips in the previous couple of years and our vacation budget was shot.*  So we did a driving trip in our own car to places that interested us.  We paid for the hotels with points earned from business travel and did a combination of total splurges and eating pizza for dinners.  We had a great time without spending a dime we didn't have in our travel budget.  

 

*We do a rollover scheme.  We budget a certain amount for vacations each year and rollover anything we don't use to the next year's travel budget.  It allows us to do splurge trips every 3-5 years and still travel each year.  What we don't allow ourselves to do is "borrow" from an upcoming year.  If the cost of the entire trip down to parking at the airport isn't in the bank, we don't even think about booking to begin with. 

[ducklite]

11 hours ago, clo said:

My husband got laid off and offered early retirement when he was 53.  We had no debt and we made it.

Same thing happened to my husband at 56.  He loves his job so he found another.  Now we get his pension on top of our paychecks.  Bank the pension check every month because we don't need it to pay our bills and live the way we've been living.  Best of both worlds.  🙂 

[DarrenM]

7 minutes ago, ducklite said:

However there is a difference between not carrying debt outside of mortgages and low/no interest car loans as well as having savings, and spending money you don't have on things like cruises.  If you have to put a cruise on a credit card without the available funds to immediately pay it off, you don't have the money for a cruise (or other "vacations.")  Likewise if you are carrying credit card debt.

 

Think about it this way. A $2000 cruise on a credit card at minimum payment is actually around a $4000 cruise, perhaps more depending on your interest rate.  It's no longer such a great deal.  It becomes even less of a deal when something else comes up and you are now piling even more debt on top of that because you spent money for a want instead of saving it for a need.

 

Life needs to be a balance of careful financial planning for the future and living in the present.  But carrying debt in order to spend spend spend now is shorting the future, and the reality is that you might have memories, but you won't be able to eat them when you are 80 and can't afford both food and the power bill because you didn't save enough.

 

About seven years ago we had taken a couple of expensive trips in the previous couple of years and our vacation budget was shot.*  So we did a driving trip in our own car to places that interested us.  We paid for the hotels with points earned from business travel and did a combination of total splurges and eating pizza for dinners.  We had a great time without spending a dime we didn't have in our travel budget.  

 

*We do a rollover scheme.  We budget a certain amount for vacations each year and rollover anything we don't use to the next year's travel budget.  It allows us to do splurge trips every 3-5 years and still travel each year.  What we don't allow ourselves to do is "borrow" from an upcoming year.  If the cost of the entire trip down to parking at the airport isn't in the bank, we don't even think about booking to begin with. 

I agree with all of this. See. I can be normal.

[ducklite]

5 hours ago, DarrenM said:

what sort of bubble did she exist in?

 

Meanwhile back in the real world.............................

One of the best pieces of advice I was ever given was to save at least 5% of your take home from every single paycheck and to stop making up "emergencies" that are actually wants.  Because eventually there will be an emergency that truly is an emergency.

 

Having savings is a need.  Taking holidays is a want. 

[ducklite]

3 hours ago, DarrenM said:

I dont disagree with the last bit there about extravagant discretionary expenditure. But its only people that exist in these "I'm alright Jack" bubbles that can believe most average folk have any savings, never mind 8 months worth.

 

And I know of very few average folk with no savings that decide to go into debt to go an expensive cruise.

 

But they will go into huge debt to get a car, or even a mortgage. Leaving them living month by month.

 

They have no choice.

Actually most do have a choice--they can buy a smaller home or a less extravagant car.  

[DarrenM]

1 minute ago, ducklite said:

One of the best pieces of advice I was ever given was to save at least 5% of your take home from every single paycheck and to stop making up "emergencies" that are actually wants.  Because eventually there will be an emergency that truly is an emergency.

 

Having savings is a need.  Taking holidays is a want. 

Completely agree. I think my point was about having that disposable income that can be saved. A lot of folk in the UK these days, due to Government policies, amongst other things, just dont have any savings. Its sad but oh so true.

 

I am no martyr to their cause, but my partner and I see a lot of this, in her job mainly.

[DarrenM]

Just now, ducklite said:

Actually most do have a choice--they can buy a smaller home or a less extravagant car.  

Again, I am not sure we are talking about the same sort of folk here. I am talking, probably the majority, that live on the breadline. They dont own huge homes are flash cars. They will have splashed out on their ex council house, and a second hand banger.

[DarrenM]

pretty basic stuff that better off folk take for granted.

[wowzz]

8 minutes ago, ducklite said:

Actually most do have a choice--they can buy a smaller home or a less extravagant car.  

Agreed, which is what we have done. Ford instead of a BMW = more money in the bank.

[ducklite]

3 minutes ago, DarrenM said:

Again, I am not sure we are talking about the same sort of folk here. I am talking, probably the majority, that live on the breadline. They dont own huge homes are flash cars. They will have splashed out on their ex council house, and a second hand banger.

If they are living on the breadline then they are living in council housing and have no need to buy--and in some cases don't even pay rent.

 

There is nothing wrong with pre-owned cars, I've driven probably more of those than new cars in my lifetime.

[DarrenM]

27 minutes ago, ducklite said:

If they are living on the breadline then they are living in council housing and have no need to buy--and in some cases don't even pay rent.

 

There is nothing wrong with pre-owned cars, I've driven probably more of those than new cars in my lifetime.

Yep, and the stuck in the rat race for ever. Which incidentally, is what our revered government want. As I am sure they do in most countries that claim to be believe in a go-getter economy.

 

Not for the likes of them, a bit of ambition, a wish to get on the property ladder, even on the first rung, no way jose. They need to know their place and stay in their council houses.

 

And I never said there was anything wrong with second hand cars. Not sure where that inference came from.

[DarrenM]

Look I accept that I am something of a hypocrite here, as I have a decent car, home and can afford a cruise a year.

 

And I DO agree with most of whats been written here, but I have friends and acquantances that are not so lucky, or worked that hard, or genuinely just fell on hard times.

 

I have always believed in a fairier society for all, as I am sure most do, but despite obvious hypocricy, I really feel for folk like the above.

 

 

 

 

Edited October 15, 2019 by DarrenM

[DarrenM]

and I had to check how to spell acquantances.

 

I am out of my depth here.😁

[wowzz]

4 hours ago, GUT2407 said:

A lot of people plan not to retire, not because they can’t afford to, but because they are doing a job they enjoy and have the capacity to do well past what many consider retirement age, it is very common among lawyers I know a few Judges who retired on great pension plans, but keep working after they are forced to retire from the Bench in their 70s.

I enjoyed my job, but realised in my 50s that the near constant travelling, monthly jet lag,  plus driving 40,000 miles a year was likely to mean that the chances of being able to enjoy my retirement were becoming remote.  Hence my decision to totally change my way of life.

[DarrenM]

Just now, wowzz said:

I enjoyed my job, but realised in my 50s that the near constant travelling, monthly jet lag,  plus driving 40,000 miles a year was likely to mean that the chances of being able to enjoy my retirement were becoming remote.  Hence my decision to totally change my way of life.

and good for you. I hope I can do something similar.

[clo]

6 hours ago, wowzz said:

Going into debt to buy a holiday is madness.

Totally agree.  When we were working we always lived below our means.  That didn't mean we didn't take vacations, eat meals out, etc.  So when he got laid off and offered early retirement (and it was a round of layoffs) since we didn't have a mortgage or car payment(s) we could make it.  He had six years before he could touch his 401(k) without penalty.

[clo]

6 hours ago, GUT2407 said:

A lot of people plan not to retire, not because they can’t afford to, but because they are doing a job they enjoy and have the capacity to do well past what many consider retirement age, it is very common among lawyers I know a few Judges who retired on great pension plans, but keep working after they are forced to retire from the Bench in their 70s.

Oh, I totally understand that.  But plans and reality sometimes don't jibe.  Let's say he has a debilitating stroke as just one example.

[clo]

3 hours ago, ducklite said:

he found another. 

Having been with one company for almost 25 years he had become so specialized that finding something else would have been almost impossible.  We came along too late for Roth IRAs but the regular one is a tidy sum.

[ducklite]

33 minutes ago, clo said:

Having been with one company for almost 25 years he had become so specialized that finding something else would have been almost impossible.  We came along too late for Roth IRAs but the regular one is a tidy sum.

My husband was with his previous employer for 21 years and yes, had a pretty specialized skill set.  But we worked on transferable skills and he took any interview that came along, even if he wasn't interested in the job just to get back into the swing of interviewing.  He started his new job 2.5 months after being laid off.  He didn't take the first offer, either.

[SRF]

Retirement is how YOU approach it.

 

About 3 years after my Dad retired (36 years military service), he told me, "I don't know how I ever had time to go to work, I am so busy."

 

That was about 33 years ago, and he is still going strong.

 

 

[ldubs]

2 hours ago, SRF said:

Retirement is how YOU approach it.

 

About 3 years after my Dad retired (36 years military service), he told me, "I don't know how I ever had time to go to work, I am so busy."

 

That was about 33 years ago, and he is still going strong.

 

 

 

Outstanding.  I've been retired for about 10 years.  My advice to folks thinking about retirement is to make sure you have something that you love to do.  In other words, something that you can't wait to start each morning.   And then, there will be much happiness!   

[SRF]

19 minutes ago, ldubs said:

 

Outstanding.  I've been retired for about 10 years.  My advice to folks thinking about retirement is to make sure you have something that you love to do.  In other words, something that you can't wait to start each morning.   And then, there will be much happiness!   

 

Hmm, the thing I can't wait to start each morning, is to not wake up in the morning. 😄

 

 

[2wheelin]

3 minutes ago, SRF said:

 

Hmm, the thing I can't wait to start each morning, is to not wake up in the morning. 😄

 

 

Well, at least not until later in the morning. Lol