We had planned to pass our retirement to travel, now we cannot afford it

I had always dreamed of traveling to retirement, and my husband and I had made modest plans to do so.

As Canadians, we had planned most of the car trips here and in the neighboring United States, perhaps sometimes fly to places like Nashville and Las Vegas.

My husband retired in 2015 at 55 and I joined him in 2023 when I was 55 years old. This first summer after my retirement, we had an incredible time to go to outdoor concerts, car exhibitions and an impromptu day.

During the next year, I expected that we did more than the same thing. However, in recent months, we have realized that our retirement dreams could be out of reach.

Our income and savings are not going as far as we expected

My husband began to receive payments from his Canada pension plan, to which we both contributed during work, but mine has not yet started.

Like many others, we have also looked for other ways to earn money retired. As a former teacher, I take substitute jobs in local schools and write concerts. My husband also brings additional building hunting huts.

When planning our pre -retirement with financial advisers, we felt confident that we could live from our savings, our pensions and our money from our concerts and that we always travel – especially since our house is new and paid (partly thanks to an inheritance that I received).

We were going to budget a road trip each year or two until our full advantages are launching, but we have already spent half of what we had saved this last year.

Meanwhile, we had four breakdowns in four months in our new house. We took the family of our son until they rebuild after a devastating house fire, and the renovation of the bathrooms in the basement to welcome them also cost us 30% more than expected.

This series of unexpected and costly unlucky bad luck quickly made a huge breach in our savings that we had not explained.

In addition to that, living on what is equivalent to about half of my pre-retirement pay check was difficult. Between prices and inflation, the costs of many essential elements, such as food, are always higher than expected.

At this rate, we believe that our savings would be exhausted too quickly if we worked in our budget.

We have chosen to be grateful for what we have instead of counting on travel to find joy

Worried about the future, we have moved our dreams and put our travel retirement plans on hold.

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Although we still have investments and savings, we do not feel enough financially at ease or safe to dive to spend money for travel as we had originally planned.

This achievement was difficult to manage. Sometimes it wreaked havoc on our relationship: I really wanted to operate travel, while my husband wanted to assure us that we could allow ourselves to spend the next few years – especially in the event that we encounter more bad luck or expensive health problems as we get older.

After taking a step back and examining what is really important, we finally found the blurred line between desires and needs and made peace with it.

We focused on the contents of our house and to find happiness in small local outings: go out to dinner, head for the movies, drive to watch Christmas lights or even visit friends and family.

After all, we are more likely than many, and our situation could be much worse. We can afford essential elements such as food and accommodation. We are surrounded by friends and family. We are in good health, safe and happy.

Knowing what we know now, I think we would both have worked a few more years and that we may have diversified our investments to ensure our financial security more. Fortunately, we are at least without mortgage.

Once my advantages have also started or if I take another well -paid concert in the future, we can make a trip or two – but even if it is not the case, I accepted it.

I found comfort by feeling gratitude for everything we have rather than desire for the things we don’t have.