Where do you draw the line between living now and saving for a future that may never happen?

[Flight]

I've had too many relatives including my own parents who have saved for travel in retirement but are unable to travel due to health reasons.

This.

 

[Sweetpancake]

I would say if the trip isn't going to affect putting food on the table or paying your electricity bill, go for it! It's only money. A lot of people can't travel as they get older, you might as well enjoy it while you can.

 

[gotomu212]

My dad also died early, right after a retirement that he had planned decades for, so I am mindful of balancing work and life.

Traveling is very important to me and my family so we prioritize it- I also wanted to travel while younger (30s and 40s) while we are healthy and mobile and can do some adventuring. We also want to be responsible and plan for rainy days/retirement.

That's meant making trade offs- we didn't do anything extravagant until we had a very healthy rainy day fund, then we figured out an appropriate retirement contribution and we always make that, then we made cuts other places in order to travel. We haven't had cable for 10 years, we drive one car, we don't buy a lot of new fashions or other "junk".

So that's where I draw the line for our family.

 

[dclpluto]

I try to enjoy the present but also put enough in my 401k to be able to enjoy the future. If the future never comes at least I tried. I put 16 percent in my 401k. I could put more if I didn't go on so many vacations now. I don't really have a pension my pension is frozen at a little over 400 dollars a month. So almost nothing. Going to have to count on my 401k and social security to enjoy my retirement years.

 

[hopemax]

I lost my Mom when she was age 61 in 2015. So I have considered my own mortality (I'm 41). Along with my Mom, I lost an aunt when she was 48. But my Mom's mom is 92 and still kicking, and my other grandma lived to her late 80s. So who knows where I will end up. Losing her was the push we needed to focus on our International travel goals. In fact, we leave Wednesday for London. And I am trying to be able to go to Tokyo Disneyland with my Dad during the holidays (he'll be 70 and my parents always wanted to go, so I want him to go). If we can't swing Japan, Disneyland Paris is my backup plan.

However, I won't stretch ourselves too thin to do this. My Mom had a fast-acting cancer. It was spread over 2 calendar years and I saw how much they needed to spend on out of pocket costs. Honestly, we don't have as much as they needed yet, but we're working to increase our savings. Is our retirement maxed out, no, but we do have close to 15% taken out, we've always done at least 10, and lately, when my husband's salary increases we've been trying to bump up the percentage 1-2 pts. I figure even it's not the best we can do, it's so far beyond which most people do that we will be okay.

I ask questions like: "If the car needs a $3000 repair, do we have the cash?" "If one of our pets needed surgery, do we have the cash?" "If an appliance dies, can we replace it?" If multiple things happen at the same time, do we have the cash? As long as the answer is yes, then I put more money to travel. Answering "no" just adds way too much stress in everyday life. And of course, no credit card debit.

Only you know how neatly the rest of your financial ducks are arranged, and how well you normally manage the unexpected expenses to know if this kind of trip would take you too close to the edge or not.

 

[adisneyaunt]

I believe in Balance and saving for the future is paramount as money doesn't just come along... but illness, misfortune and (def increased daily life expenses ) may.
I too can't see that type of money on the particular trip but it's also not a trip I'd go on.

If you can comfortably spend that money without using ur "pension" type savings money.. perhaps research a similar trip... compare the price/trip and then decide if it's really worth the cost.
If ur pulling this money that was earmarked specifically for ur future .. I'd re consider spending that much. Tweek the trip to work for you!

Sadly My mom passed at 66.. tho she was fortunate to have traveled the world ... it was always my parents dream to travel and they saved up and cut back and just Did it and also raised their large family.
My dad, now 83 continues to reap the benefits of saving and investing and still travels .. his dream continues thankfully.

I'm often told I'm a conservative saver.. but it's worked out for me/us.
Early retirement ... and LTD ( living the dream) ..

my dream was not to travel the world, as my parents but instead ...Enjoy every day feeling Secure, safe Healthy and doing what we'd like, within reason..

Very Best of luck to you OP! Life is about Choices!!!

 

[FINFAN]

each year I get older my line gets shorter. I plan to start living more for today than tomorrow very soon

 

[The Mystery Machine]

If you want to travel ala a travel company, it is going to be expensive. If you do not have the time to plan and have the money, go for it.

I don't have that kind of change laying about so when we vacation we budget travel. It is still expensive though. Disney is out of our reach at the moment.

It is just really relative to how much money you have. You have to take that into consideration.

Some people spend that money on eating out, clothes, shoes, cars, etc.

 

[aejammers]

I think this dilemma shows the importance of having a good financial advisor. They can help you plan for retirement while at the same time talk about the things your want to buy/do now. Our financial advisor helps with this balance. And don't think you need to have alot of money to have one. Many banks have financial services, so you could just meet with the person at your own bank to talk about this.

 

[Pacolovestacos]

I spend nearly every penny I get immediately. I travel a ton and also enjoy my free time at home.

As others have said, you never know when the end will come. Or you could simply be restricted by health reasons when you're older.

If I don't have enough to retire here in the states, I will move to Central America or South America.

 

[Pacolovestacos]

I think this dilemma shows the importance of having a good financial advisor. They can help you plan for retirement while at the same time talk about the things your want to buy/do now. Our financial advisor helps with this balance. And don't think you need to have alot of money to have one. Many banks have financial services, so you could just meet with the person at your own bank to talk about this.

I think financial advisors are a rip.

 

[goofyernmost]

Not going to attempt to tell you what to do with your money, but, I am already retired and I cannot tell you how fast your savings start to be used up if you live even a simple, no big frills life. Once you start supplementing your lifestyle from your savings it gets scary. But, as others have said, do things, but, you don't have to do them the most expensive way. Last year I went on a month long trip to Europe with two of us. We mostly rented apartments along the way. Some as few as three days. But, it was a lot cheaper then hotels and they were good places. We flew to Paris (toured around there with museum passes and a train to Disneyland Paris and then flew to Venice, took a train (which was great fun) to Rome, made some outside excursions to places like Naples and Pompeii (again via train). We then made a final short train trip to the Port of Rome and boarded a re-positioning ship to Florida. That was a two week cruise (all inclusive) With 5 ports of call in France, Italy and Spain before crossing the Atlantic to Fort Lauderdale.

We used maps, and local transportation while in the cities and saw all the major tourist places. For the two of us it cost just a little over 8K. My point is that you don't need to pay the high end of anything to see and experience many great things. That way you get to do both, not throw your money away, save up for later at the same time. It is hard to visualize living long enough to have that matter, but, it is more then possible so both living for now and setting yourself up for the future are vitally important.

 

[cvjw]

I think financial advisors are a rip.

I used to also until we got one to manage our money. It is so freeing knowing someone else is handling the day to day ups and down of the market. And he is making us money to boot

OP, to answer your question, I am not sure I would pay $12,000 for a ABD Wyoming trip. If you want to do an ABD trip (and I do), I would splurge for one to Europe or a ABD river cruise. I am not adverse to paying ABD prices, but I want my trip to be somewhere I can't easily go myself

I just went to a ABD presentation given by an ABD guide who has been leading the tours since they started. They sounded amazing - Disney really can get you into places that other tour guides just can't - that is why they can charge the higher prices!

 

[ZephyrHawk]

When my DH and I were somewhat younger, and substantially poorer, we faced an unexpected financial setback which made our vacation plans for that year seem impossible. I told DH I didn't think we could do it. We needed to save money as best we could. But of course, we always would spend a little to go see a Disney movie when it came out in the theatre.

The movie we saw was Up.

After we walked out of the theatre with tears in our eyes, DH looked to me and said, "We have to go on this vacation!" He was right. We had to, and we did, and it was lovely (and almost killed us, but that's another story).

 

[Poohforyou]

I can't imagine spending that kind of money on any trip within the US. I also can't imagine skipping vacations to save for retirement. It comes down to a happy balance.

 

[bellebud]

So where do you draw the line? We save the max we can for retirement first, then plan trips with the leftover.

Do you do it all and assume the money for later will come later? Definitely not. We want to be able to support ourselves and not impose on our kids or anyone else. We also want to be able to enjoy life later when income is not coming in.

Do you do as much as you can while you know you have the mobility and health while still saving some? Again, we max out our retirements, then travel and have fun. When we were younger and not making much money, we vacationed at my in-laws condo in Maryland. Just cost us groceries (we cooked in for most meals, maybe 1 or 2 dinners out, because that's what we could afford). As we've made more over the years, we spent more on vacations.

Or do you no do as much while young and save for an uncertain future?

We have always traveled often, just not expensively when we didn't have the money.

Since you're questioning it, I think you should do the Wyoming trip, but not with Disney. If you really had the $12,000 to spare, you wouldn't be questioning it.

 

[DaisyJ]

I think financial advisors are a rip.

Not when they're making money on top of your money.

 

[mrsheppo]

My parents always wanted to travel when they retired. Unfortunately, my dad had a car accident at age 57 which left him disabled and unable to work again. The next year, my mom died at the age of 54. They never were able to fulfill their dreams and never even went to Disney in their lives. I am 58 now and my DH is 68. We have a financial advisor who has done a good job investing our money. DH is still working and contributing. We have decided that we want to travel at least once a year while we are still healthy enough and able to enjoy it. I quit working 2 years ago so my job is now of managing the household and our day to day finances. We have been able to put away money every paycheck in savings and his 401k. This year's vacation is a cruise to Alaska, which is on our bucket list.

I would take the vacation but plan it other than ABD. I love Disney but that is a lot of money to spend for Wyoming. $12K could get me about 3 very nice vacations.

 

[Tozzie]

In an earlier reply I said go for it. Here is my reasoning, None of us are promised tomorrow, my mother had a master plan my father retired at 60 she was going to wait until he was elegible for social security, back then the age was 62 and then she was going to retire and they were going to travel. You can probably guess where I am going with this, 8 months after my father retired my mother literally dropped dead on my front lawn from a massive heart attack. More recently my 29 year old cousin died from leukemia a few years ago and then my 37 year old cousin had a heart attack and died. SO I live for today and am happy if tomorrow comes but it doesn't always come.

 

[mnrose]

12K for Wyoming?!?! Is it for two months? That's a ridiculous amount. Just for comparison, my family spent a month in Bali and Singapore. Without including airfare, it was less than $8000 for EVERYTHING. A month. In Asia. I'm not averse to spending money on vacations IF I can do so without (a) jeopardizing retirement savings and (b) still have short term savings to pay for the little emergencies that come up (car breaks down, someone gets sick, etc). If I had to struggle to pay these sorts of bills, I'd not go, or figure out a way to do it cheaper (which would be very, very easy given that budget). Probably less than 1/2.