Jump to content

Changing Mindsets: From Saving and Investing to Enjoying What You've Worked Hard to Save and Invest


MamaFej
 Share

Recommended Posts

MamaFej,

I hope your trips work out for you.  I intend to cruise again but things will have to stabilize a little before I make that leap.  I am not really afraid but I do not want to be on a ship that isn't allowed to dock or hasn't figured out how to deal with problems that may come with cruising in less than perfect times.  I will wait a little while to see what happens and when the threat level reaches a point I think I can tolerate, I am cruising again.

Again good luck with your future plans and I hope they all work out to make you happy.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fingers crossed  @MamaFej

It is disappointing to have to cancel trips that you have invested a lot of time and effort in.  And even knowing that it is a small concern in the scheme of things right now doesn’t make it any easier  to swallow.   We have had the misfortune to have to cancel trips due to serious illness,  family members death and while there is no choice it is till disappointing.

 

I have begin to think that trips have a life of their own and evolve,  so even if you can’t do what you have planned this time it will not be wasted as you can use what you’ve learned to plan another time.   We were supposed to be heading off to Greece in two weeks, but that’s not happening.   French Polynesia in October is probably unlikely though I won’t make a final decision for a couple of months.  I am just grateful for all the travel we have done over the years.  

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks, folks. I appreciate the kind words.

 

I imagine nearly everyone on these boards have had travel canceled. It's okay to be sad about that. That doesn't mean that we don't empathize with those who have lost so much more.

 

Princess just canceled the first few legs of a Grand Voyage we were to join for the last leg (Singapore to Sydney) after our land time in Singapore in November. I imagine it won't be very long before they cancel our leg. I just hope, if they do cancel, that Celebrity also cancels the cruises we were going to use to get to Singapore from Vancouver.

 

Back to the topic I originally started, I guess we aren't spending so much after all yet, so I have more time to adjust my mindset. 😜

 

We are fortunate not to have had our income affected by the current situation. We are trying to do our part to contribute to the economy, not only by donating our stimulus check and more to charities which are helping, but by getting takeout once a week, upgrading some electronics (if we are going to be home, we may as well have a better entertainment system), and I've been ordering crafting supplies online and creating things for my kid's graduating friends. 

 

I'm super glad we had moved the money for our two big trips out of investments and into cash before the market tanked. Between that, and being well-balanced for risk, we have not had too much damage to our total portfolio. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Since we cannot venture out very much we have been thinking about our next three land trips...fall, winter, and fall again.  Plus back up options for each of them.  

 

One thing we have been doing is looking at how covid is being handled in some of the countries that we travel to on a fairly regular basis.   Some, like Greece, Australia, Panama and Vietnam have been very successful.  The started early because  had to.  Thailand, one of our favourite destinations has been and continues to be a mess much to our chagrin.  Mexico, who knows other than one of our preferred states appears to be doing well but who really knows.  As a country it is a mess.   

 

This is bringing an entirely new dimension to our travel planning.   I suspect that we may well be vacationing at home this fall and next winter.  If this is the case, we will hopefully be able to spend spring in Greece.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Makes planning very difficult.   I am glad we have an Rv on a permanent site, at least we can head there.  But who knows?  We just cancelled Greece two weeks ago as would love to travel there in the spring,  but they had such a severe lockdown because they just don’t have the medical infrastructure.  And I don’t think they were doing much testing, so what are the real numbers?   So not sure what the future really holds.  

 

Have a friend who wants us to visit in the Canary Islands,  but they weren’t even allowed outside to exercise for seven weeks and only one person allowed in a vehicle.  

 

And all these refunds are pumping up my travel fund!  Good thing as my investments are not!    Let’s keep brainstorming, I don’t think I can spend winter at home! 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

When we first started saving and investing for retirement in our 20s, the plan was to get a nice RV and spend most of our time in it traveling around North America. We bought a very used rental RV 15 years ago, and took multiple cross-country trips in it, as well as many shorter trips. After Hubby and I took a Baltic cruise for our 25th anniversary in 2016, and we took a family Mediterranean cruise the following year to celebrate my 50th birthday and the older two kids' college and high school graduations, we decided that we would spend the first few years after retirement traveling internationally. We would put off a retirement RV purchase for a few years. that way, we would see much of the world before grandkids come along, and we would want to be home more. 

 

It seems those plans are making less and less sense. Our now 20 year-old RV is still doing the trick, thankfully. We used it in early April to meet our son in Utah, sleeping in a truck stop, in order to get him home from very rural central Montana without any social contact. He has been teaching online from his childhood bedroom. We will use the RV again to get him back to Utah for a night, then he can drive back to his MT home in time for the safe-distancing graduation of his seniors as well as to finish cleaning out his classroom and packing up the rest of his apartment, staging everything for moving out. We will meet him in central Utah again toward the end of May, so he can spend June at home with us, and head all the way to his current home at the end of June and help him move to northwest MT for his new job. It is in a virtual metropolis compared to where he is now. The town has over 2100 residents, which is about nearly 10 times the size of his current town. 

 

So, I guess we will be doing some traveling by RV, just not at all the way we would have imagined (except for the helping him move part). After he is settled in, we will probably take our time getting home by a different route. We will have seen far more of the I-15 between SoCal and the Salt Lake City area than we care to for a while. Good thing gas is cheap right now! 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The only trip that may be a very slim possibility for us is a few weeks in the Greek Islands in the Orthodox Easter, early May time frame.  A week at a time on two or three islands and two weeks in Crete.  This, because Greece is and has been doing a superb job of managing the crisis.  They had to...no choice because of limited resources. 

 

Not really planning or booking anything though.  Will not do that until mid April at the earliest.  No plans whatsoever for a cruise.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

I feel you - I have been working for 30 years and nearing retirement. Clearly, like me, you enjoy living frugally and have put material growth right up there because you have created a preference to do so. It may seem hard to let go - so perhaps the best way is to make plans to travel in a frugal manner. Everybody finds their own balance between what concessions they are willing to make (if any) to save cash, while still doing the things they enjoy. Dinner at the Capts table might be worth it to you, and not for another person. If you and hubs are on the same page that makes life much easier. In NZ they do something called "Freedom camping" (car camping) and so i have travelled many parts of America again and again, living in a decent sized SUV, showering and swimming at YMCA's all over Nevada, S Florida; spending my days in Key West but saving the $450 US that it would cost for a room there. Point is every one has to find their happy place, but as time goes by, it becomes easier to do the math, and feel good about spending. As many here have said, you cannot predict the future and quality of life can change in a moment. I would rather err on the side of enjoying life, rather then sitting in a Nursing Home with a bundle of cash.

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, kanadakid said:

 

 living in a decent sized SUV, showering and swimming at YMCA's all over Nevada, S Florida; spending my days in Key West but saving the $450 US that it would cost for a room there. Point is every one has to find their happy place, but as time goes by, it becomes easier to do the math, and feel good about spending. As many here have said, you cannot predict the future and quality of life can change in a moment. I would rather err on the side of enjoying life, rather then sitting in a Nursing Home with a bundle of cash.


KanadaKid - what SUV are you using for your travels? Have been thinking of doing this. 

 

Edited by ymncruise
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've just re-read this thread, and I continue to be grateful for the helpful responses. We've decided to cancel all international travel that hasn't already been cancelled for us until 2022. That included quite a few cruises, as well as considerable land time. We've gone back to Plan A, and purchased a lovely new motor home while on the way home from helping our son move (Post #34). 

 

Our younger two kids are a senior and a freshman in college. Fortunately, they get along extremely well, and are very responsible. They are taking classes online as well as taking care of the house and dogs for us. That means Hubby and I can run away from home and chase good weather in the RV, traveling just as we had originally planned, coming home occasionally for appointments (and because we miss our kids and dogs). We will get to see our oldest more often this way as well. 

 

We will all have Thanksgiving together in Spokane, WA, as there is a train from the oldest's town that can bring him there overnight. I hope we can do the same thing for Christmas. 

 

Covid has certainly thrown some lemons our (earthlings') way. I'm glad that we've made the good choices and that we had the good fortune to be able to make lemonade.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, MamaFej said:

I've just re-read this thread, and I continue to be grateful for the helpful responses. We've decided to cancel all international travel that hasn't already been cancelled for us until 2022. That included quite a few cruises, as well as considerable land time. We've gone back to Plan A, and purchased a lovely new motor home while on the way home from helping our son move (Post #34). 

 

Our younger two kids are a senior and a freshman in college. Fortunately, they get along extremely well, and are very responsible. They are taking classes online as well as taking care of the house and dogs for us. That means Hubby and I can run away from home and chase good weather in the RV, traveling just as we had originally planned, coming home occasionally for appointments (and because we miss our kids and dogs). We will get to see our oldest more often this way as well. 

 

We will all have Thanksgiving together in Spokane, WA, as there is a train from the oldest's town that can bring him there overnight. I hope we can do the same thing for Christmas. 

 

Covid has certainly thrown some lemons our (earthlings') way. I'm glad that we've made the good choices and that we had the good fortune to be able to make lemonade.

 

Enjoy! We too are spending time In our Rv.   Love Spokane!  

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

If anything, this covid business has convinced us to spend more while we are still able to enjoy it.   One will be two winter months in Africa-safari and beach time, when the coast is clear.

 

We do lots of day trips into the mountains.  We live close to Banff.  We have spent time understanding where we will go next.  It will probably be Sept/Oct in either Greece/Cyprus or Morocco.  Both countries are doing a good job on covid plus we can get there and back from Canada via a direct flight.  We prefer not to  change planes in  either the  US or in London   

 

I suspect that it will be a long winter at home for us...first time since retiring nine years ago.  IF, and it is a big if, the coast is clear we will go to Thailand and Vietnam.  These countries are both doing, and have done a first rate job of fighting covid.  We can get there direct to either Japan or Korea, then a change of plans. 

 

I cannot see us buying a cruise for quite some time...to the point where we are not even thinking about it.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would take a close look at worldometers re Morocco.   Testing Rates are low and numbers are increasing.   We visited years ago and found it very third world re sanitation... 

 

The problem is both where and when it will be safe, and the bigger question  when we will feel safe.  I much prefer Japan and New Zealand.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In addition to other short trips, we’ve canceled a ten week trip to Asia starting in September, and a 12 week trip to Oceania/ South Pacific in early 2021. 
 

We are back on the road in the aforementioned motorhome. Yesterday, my orthodontist said he wanted me back in eight weeks. That date coincided with our scheduled overnight on a junk boat in Halong Bay. Being a native of Vietnam, my orthodontist was rather sympathetic. 
 

Someday...

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/21/2020 at 2:35 PM, iancal said:

We do lots of day trips into the mountains.  We live close to Banff. 

...

I suspect that it will be a long winter at home for us...first time since retiring nine years ago. 

...

I cannot see us buying a cruise for quite some time...to the point where we are not even thinking about it.

Ian,

I must have merged you with Jacqui or other CC'er, as I had a mental image of you living near Toronto or in the Maritimes. 

 

dr'spin retired on the last day of 2019; we had at that time 6 cruises booked in the next two years, and a rental camper trip in New England planned. With all but the last cruise cancelled (and that one unlikely as our travelling companions are high-risk), we are buying a new home and moving 750 miles to be near my family! That should keep us busy!

Edited by crystalspin
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Resurrecting this thread - glad to hear others in same "boat" (I wish) as we are! We saved for many years, would cruise once a year Interior Cabin as I always said I would rather sail once a year Interior than once every three in a Balcony. Now retired and about two years ago got into the cruise mode and cruised more often. But still booked Interiors for the most part. And now 2020 became the year of the cruise industry shut-down and it is cancellation after cancellation. All this to say, am doing my best to branch out and book something other than an Interior Cabin. I do have a couple Balconies booked on MSC in 2021 (well got a really really good deal) and have booked a Cove Balcony on Carnival. So hoping 2021 will be a better year for all of us Cruisers and hoping I enjoy the Balconies!

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
  • 7 months later...

We are exactly the same...my husband more than I. We both love to cruise, but he still doesn't want to spend a single penny more than what is "necessary," in his opinion. My thought is that our daughter (who doesn't need our money) and the government will certainly be happy to spend it. But I have started booking balconies instead of inside rooms as I pay for vacations. Drives me crazy that hubby won't loosen up more. He is 72 and I am almost 67. 

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, nyllrap said:

We are exactly the same...my husband more than I. We both love to cruise, but he still doesn't want to spend a single penny more than what is "necessary," in his opinion. My thought is that our daughter (who doesn't need our money) and the government will certainly be happy to spend it. But I have started booking balconies instead of inside rooms as I pay for vacations. Drives me crazy that hubby won't loosen up more. He is 72 and I am almost 67. 

Maybe surprise him once with what you want to spend it on and maybe he will change his mind after seeing what the money gets him. A suite or a cruise on Viking or another small ship line?

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

To add to my previous post, the biggest reason I started us cruising was so we could have nice vacations. Our first vacation (except a pretty modest honeymoon) was in a place in Canada I called "the scuz." Horrible place. We did a back to back cruise, and had to stay overnight inbetweehen cruises. My husband booked a place and in the middle of the night there was a shooting above our room. In Rome for a week before our transatlantic cruise he booked a place where we were the only people over 25. I try not to let him pick the places we stay in anymore. But at least I can get him on cruise ships.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Clay Clayton said:

Maybe surprise him once with what you want to spend it on and maybe he will change his mind after seeing what the money gets him. A suite or a cruise on Viking or another small ship line?

Probably wouldn't be a great idea, although I would love it. I did bid on an upgrade to our August cruise so we will see. We mostly cruise Royal Caribbean, which works well for us. The good thing is that I have my own bank account, and won't give him my password, because he gets on me about my credit card bills (which I pay off every month). FYI, we could easily live off our investments OR off our social security/pensions without touching any savings, so we will never miss the money spent.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...