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

[bennybear]

7 hours ago, nyllrap said:

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.

Curious  where in Canada?  
 

We were once offered a paid upgrade to a high end suite for $1000.  DH said no too many $.  I said are you kidding?  We would never do it normally.  We’ll best money we ever spent! Would do it again in a heartbeat!  So would he! 
 

Also when we were looking to purchase my first new SUV, we test drove a Toyota,  I had a friend with a Lexus so wanted to test drive one,  DH said no until he drove it, lol!  Soon to be on our third!  
 

You can’t take it with you. 

[MamaFej]

There’s no trophy for dying with a big bank balance. Even if there were, you couldn’t take that with you, either. 

[ducklite]

We've also been very disciplined at saving.  (We could retire now, but we'll work until we are 65 to max out the savings so we never need to worry about saying "we can't afford that" for something we'd like to do, that should be within our means. 

About 10 years ago when we were hitting 50, we took a look around at the people we knew, and realized that life comes at you fast.  Sometimes very fast.  Too many had died far too young, become disabled, or were facing life altering illnesses.  We had a couple of personal medical scares.  So we decided to begin traveling.  

We noted our bucket list places, and then looked at the places that will get more challenging as we age.  With the exception of the very top bucket list places, we have been knocking things off based on how challenging the travel might be as we age.  

I'm careful with our travel dollars.  We usually have one "splurge" on each trip--as long as it fits our budget.  We usually go with AirBnB's, having breakfast and about half the dinners in the rental.  That also allows us to pack lighter as we do laundry while there.  

[Clay Clayton]

5 hours ago, ducklite said:

We've also been very disciplined at saving.  (We could retire now, but we'll work until we are 65 to max out the savings so we never need to worry about saying "we can't afford that" for something we'd like to do, that should be within our means. 

About 10 years ago when we were hitting 50, we took a look around at the people we knew, and realized that life comes at you fast.  Sometimes very fast.  Too many had died far too young, become disabled, or were facing life altering illnesses.  We had a couple of personal medical scares.  So we decided to begin traveling.  

We noted our bucket list places, and then looked at the places that will get more challenging as we age.  With the exception of the very top bucket list places, we have been knocking things off based on how challenging the travel might be as we age.  

I'm careful with our travel dollars.  We usually have one "splurge" on each trip--as long as it fits our budget.  We usually go with AirBnB's, having breakfast and about half the dinners in the rental.  That also allows us to pack lighter as we do laundry while there.  

Agree with all you’ve said but your 2nd paragraph makes me wonder why you are waiting?  FWIW, we retired early for all the reasons you list in this paragraph. We decided it might be better to have to do some budgeting but be able to do things we wanted…but we’re more worried that some of those negative events might keep us from being able to travel. Thankfully in the last three years that hasn’t happened. We have also been able to do everything we have wanted to do and stayed under our budget. That combined with the stock market means we have much more money in our accounts now than we did on retirement day.  
 

Not trying to be negative towards your plans but also want to give you some positive thoughts towards pulling the plug early!

[ducklite]

17 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

Agree with all you’ve said but your 2nd paragraph makes me wonder why you are waiting?  FWIW, we retired early for all the reasons you list in this paragraph. We decided it might be better to have to do some budgeting but be able to do things we wanted…but we’re more worried that some of those negative events might keep us from being able to travel. Thankfully in the last three years that hasn’t happened. We have also been able to do everything we have wanted to do and stayed under our budget. That combined with the stock market means we have much more money in our accounts now than we did on retirement day.  
 

Not trying to be negative towards your plans but also want to give you some positive thoughts towards pulling the plug early!

We aren't!  We have taken some amazing trips in the past 10 years.  A three week trip including a two week cruise to Italy/Croatia, Montenegro, and Greece with time on the front and back in Rome and Athens; French Polynesia; and a dozen other European countries.  Of course we've also done several Caribbean cruises.  We've both been to every continental US state and a decent chunk of Canada--much of it for free due to our employers!

We just don't feel ready to retire.  We both love what we do for a living, and feel that it keeps us on our toes.  And yes, the stock market has helped bolster the value of our retirement accounts, but we have lived through enough downturns to know that is never guaranteed.  If we were to retire right now, we would not be able to take some of the trips we want to take. 

For example, our "retirement trip" is the Lindblad/NatGeo cruise that begins in Ushuaia, Argentina and ends in Dundedin, NZ.  35 days aboard the Endurance in Antarctica, over $50K each for the cruise fare alone.  The plan is to get off and spend the next several months in NZ, Australia, and various parts of Asia, some via land and some via cruise--too early to really put much together, although hoping for a couple of interesting longer itineraries from Windstar.  Ideally from there we'd take a cruise from Japan to Alaska.  That's why we'll continue to work for another five years. 

By the way, this year we are headed to the Ukraine and Egypt--hopefully we'll be able to enter Austria in between to spend some time with friends there.  🙂

[Clay Clayton]

5 minutes ago, ducklite said:

We aren't!  We have taken some amazing trips in the past 10 years.  A three week trip including a two week cruise to Italy/Croatia, Montenegro, and Greece with time on the front and back in Rome and Athens; French Polynesia; and a dozen other European countries.  Of course we've also done several Caribbean cruises.  We've both been to every continental US state and a decent chunk of Canada--much of it for free due to our employers!

We just don't feel ready to retire.  We both love what we do for a living, and feel that it keeps us on our toes.  And yes, the stock market has helped bolster the value of our retirement accounts, but we have lived through enough downturns to know that is never guaranteed.  If we were to retire right now, we would not be able to take some of the trips we want to take. 

For example, our "retirement trip" is the Lindblad/NatGeo cruise that begins in Ushuaia, Argentina and ends in Dundedin, NZ.  35 days aboard the Endurance in Antarctica, over $50K each for the cruise fare alone.  The plan is to get off and spend the next several months in NZ, Australia, and various parts of Asia, some via land and some via cruise--too early to really put much together, although hoping for a couple of interesting longer itineraries from Windstar.  Ideally from there we'd take a cruise from Japan to Alaska.  That's why we'll continue to work for another five years. 

By the way, this year we are headed to the Ukraine and Egypt--hopefully we'll be able to enter Austria in between to spend some time with friends there.  🙂

“Not ready to retire” is the most important phrase in your response. For me, it was either retire or be worried about being arrested on murder charges! LOL. The day I almost hit Mike when I threw my cellphone (after working until 6:30, talking on the phone to my *%#^ client the whole 30 minute commute home and then another 20 or so in the garage before going into the condo. Then the phone rang and it was the client again!🤯

 

We spent the first two years of our retirement living nomadically and are so glad we did.  A world cruise is in our future but not until we are off of the ACA and don’t have to play a balancing act with our “income” 

 

Anyway, when you’re ready you’ll know it!

Good Luck!

[bennybear]

You will know when you’re ready, it’s a process and transition.  I was very worried about losing our salaries, and our financial planner kept telling me we’d be fine, Thankfully  she was right.  
 

But I realize that not all actually get to make the decision as many are forced to retire due to job loss or Poor health.   Which can both make the Transition even more difficult. 
 

So always good to be prepared,  but one should enjoy life along the way.  We have always enjoyed travelling extensively,  in part due to losing a close family member very young.  We learned this is your life now, don’t wait until retirement to do the things you want.   It’s always a question of individual priorities. 

[Ferry_Watcher]

Love reading folks' stories and hearing their strategies for their post work/career life and spending their retirement savings.  Thanks! 

[MamaFej]

On 3/10/2020 at 2:56 PM, LoriPhil said:

So nice to know others have the same feelings.  Loved investing the max in 401k and individual Roth’s for years, with a cash yikes fund as a cushion for the unexpected.  

Due to the new comment, I ended up re-reading this entire thread. I've noticed that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

 

Anyway, the phrase "yikes fund" got my attention this time. We've always said that we save for the "Three Fs:" the Future, for Fun, and for "Oh, Ffffffudge!"

 

Thanks, again, to all of the participants in this thread! Y'all have really helped me to feel more confident about spending our hard-earned money on fantastic experiences. We've taken four post-shutdown cruises, including a small ship French Polynesia cruise last month. We are hoping, for Earth's sake, and our own, that the current surge ends soon, that more of the world will get vaccines, and that we all will be able to do our planned 2022 and 2023 international travel.

[Ferry_Watcher]

My husband will be retiring this May and the next chapter of our lives begin.  Fortunately we have been planning for this day and according to our financial advisor we should be fine.  That said, the realization of balancing the travel we want to do (and at the comfort level we/I desire) with a decent nest egg of  savings/investments is still scary.  Yesterday I booked our first suite ever - a Sky Suite on a 12 day Thailand - Viet Nam cruise (2024).  It was both fun to plan and book it, and yet still a little sobering knowing that we could do the same cruise cheaper.

Without a crystal ball to let me know what the future holds for us, I guess we need to plan to do what makes us happy, but yet financially prudent.

[Clay Clayton]

5 hours ago, Ferry_Watcher said:

My husband will be retiring this May and the next chapter of our lives begin.  Fortunately we have been planning for this day and according to our financial advisor we should be fine.  That said, the realization of balancing the travel we want to do (and at the comfort level we/I desire) with a decent nest egg of  savings/investments is still scary.  Yesterday I booked our first suite ever - a Sky Suite on a 12 day Thailand - Viet Nam cruise (2024).  It was both fun to plan and book it, and yet still a little sobering knowing that we could do the same cruise cheaper.

Without a crystal ball to let me know what the future holds for us, I guess we need to plan to do what makes us happy, but yet financially prudent.

Congratulations!  You sound like us in 2017 as we planned our first retirement cruise for March of 2018. 
 

We are trying (so far so good) to be very frugal and live well within our budget for the first 5 years of retirement.  This was advice I read several times from different advisors.  The gist is that if you can live the first five years without blowing your nest egg that you should be good for the duration.  Thanks to COVID isolation and the stock market, we have about $500,000 more in investments now than the day we stopped working. While we recognize that could change significantly anytime, it gives us hope that we won’t run out of living before we run out of life!

[Ferry_Watcher]

@Clay Clayton, Congrats on your increased portfolio.  Kinda' wild that investments have done as well as they had during a pandemic.  In addition to enjoying the fruits of our savings, we are also hoping to leave some $ for the kids.  :  )

 

On a more serious note, it is interesting realizing that there is an unknown amount of time, and potentially good health that remains for retirees.  I am also realizing that the amount we had budgeted for travel, especially for the initial post retirement decade, is probably too low (especially if I am considering booking a lower end suite (like a Sky Suite LOL).  Although I think there is some truth to doing a lot of traveling in your mid 60's to mid 70's makes sense.  It could/will be harder or more problematic as one ages (but not always!).

 

The other interesting reaction is wanting to do a lot of travel all at once.  It's been interesting seeing travel deals, and since H is still working not being able to take advantage of them.  I will be curious to see if we actually jump on them when we see them as now we just daydream about them.

 

Its going to be an interesting journey (retirement) - I look forward to it.

[bennybear]

We’ve been retired a few years now and when we had to do net worth it’s not decreasing!  So more to spend,  we figure the  house will be more than plenty for the kids!  I think you spend most in the beginning, the go go years, then slow go, then no go.   We had a fantastic 2019 with two long exotic cruises and several other trips,  but I’ve found I like balance between being  home and being gone. But of course there’s huge pent up demand, and we hope to try  some higher end travel.   
The thing to remember is we all only have so many good years, so use them wisely to do what you really would like, rather than just deciding based on cost.   

[iancal]

We started retirement with a seven month trip. Followed it up over the past eight years with two 6-9 week trips  per year.  With some cruises interspersed.

 

Thing is our bucket list is bigger now than it was eight or nine years ago.  And our equity has grown over that period.

 

 Only points to one avenue post covid (if there is such a thing).  Travel even more, and spend more money on each trip while we have the good health and the desire to do so.

 

You cannot take it with you.

 

 

Edited January 26, 2022 by iancal

[bennybear]

3 hours ago, iancal said:

You cannot take it with you.

Absolutely!  Sadly, I still see some unable  to loosen the purse strings, and only doing what is a good deal rather than what they’d really like and could easily afford.  
 

This pandemic may change things, we’ve seen massive increases in costs of condo rentals doubling in Hawaii.   People have a lot of money built up and demand is high. So as always things will change.  

[Ferry_Watcher]

8 hours ago, iancal said:

Travel even more, and spend more money on each trip while we have the good health and the desire to do so.

 

You cannot take it with you.

Great philosophy! We just booked two weeks in Japan (land trip) for this Fall.  Now we are hoping that Japan opens up to travelers (i.e., Covid subsides) and we can all travel more freely and with confidence.

 

[bennybear]

19 minutes ago, Ferry_Watcher said:

Great philosophy! We just booked two weeks in Japan (land trip) for this Fall.  Now we are hoping that Japan opens up to travelers (i.e., Covid subsides) and we can all travel more freely and with confidence.

 

We absolutely love Japan, and they have done a good job managing Covid.   We too are booked this fall but will have to wait and see.  

[Ferry_Watcher]

20 minutes ago, bennybear said:

We too are booked this fall but will have to wait and see.  

Land or sea?

[bennybear]

4 minutes ago, Ferry_Watcher said:

Land or sea?

Both😄 we hope!

[Ferry_Watcher]

4 minutes ago, bennybear said:

Both😄 we hope!

Ours is a guided land tour with an emphasis on food (and Whiskey and Sake, etc)..  Visiting Tokoyo, Osaka and Kyoto.  It will be my first visit, H has been there on business.  I've been to China a couple of times, as well as Australia.  But really looking forward to Japan!

[bennybear]

The food is so incredible!  Kyoto was our favourite, enjoy!

[Clay Clayton]

13 hours ago, Ferry_Watcher said:

Ours is a guided land tour with an emphasis on food (and Whiskey and Sake, etc)..  Visiting Tokoyo, Osaka and Kyoto.  It will be my first visit, H has been there on business.  I've been to China a couple of times, as well as Australia.  But really looking forward to Japan!

We loved our days in Japan despite our misgivings before arriving…language, our size, etc. if you get a chance go to Hiroshima, we did a day trip by train from Kyoto and really enjoyed our day. So moving to visit the Peace Park. Even though it sounds like you are on a tour, I  like to recommend “Goodwill” Guides in Japan. These are folks who (precovid anyway) volunteered to guide tourist simply to improve their language skills. No charge except for picking up any transportation costs and meals if you have them together.  Ours for Hiroshima cost us $22 which was a real deal. We got to hear about his life and share some of ours.  A real cultural exchange. 

[iancal]

Over the past 10 years we have travelled to countless places that we might not have been as fortunate to visit had language been been a concern to us. 

 

In 40 plus years of travel language has never been an issue...we have always got by.  People are people.  Did not matter if it was a hill town in Vietnam,  a small B&B in rural Chile, or a small family restaurant well off the main drag in Italy or Greece.

 

Never let language challenges deter you from a trip that you want or leave you with the thought that the only way is to go with an organized tour group.  You will always be able to figure it our.  Even it is, as was once the case for us, making gestures to a pharmacist in Brazil or Thailand in order get some meds.

Edited January 27, 2022 by iancal

[bennybear]

2 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

We loved our days in Japan despite our misgivings before arriving…language, our size, etc. if you get a chance go to Hiroshima, we did a day trip by train from Kyoto and really enjoyed our day. So moving to visit the Peace Park. Even though it sounds like you are on a tour, I  like to recommend “Goodwill” Guides in Japan. These are folks who (precovid anyway) volunteered to guide tourist simply to improve their language skills. No charge except for picking up any transportation costs and meals if you have them together.  Ours for Hiroshima cost us $22 which was a real deal. We got to hear about his life and share some of ours.  A real cultural exchange. 

We too were initially intimidated by Japan, but we spent two weeks travelling on our own without issue and totally fell in love.   We too loved Hiroshima and we stayed there two nights  so we had time to also visit the beautiful island of Miyajima,  we also enjoyed a visit to a small onsen town.   We followed this up with a two week circumnavigation of Japan.   We can’t wait to return.   

[ducklite]

18 hours ago, Ferry_Watcher said:

Great philosophy! We just booked two weeks in Japan (land trip) for this Fall.  Now we are hoping that Japan opens up to travelers (i.e., Covid subsides) and we can all travel more freely and with confidence.

 

We were planning on a cruise in Japan with our adult son next year, but I'm just not willing to commit that much in deposit funds and airfare at this point with a country that isn't even open.  So we'll go to see a bunch of WWII sites France and Belgium instead.  I can wait to book the airfare and Air BnB's for a few more months.