A new year has just started and I’m asking you: what will it be fulfilled with? If you are able to save up money to take a small trip (a week) to a dream destination like Paris, don’t wait! Do it when you are young, not when you are retired.
A FEW REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD TRAVEL
- Travel expands your horizons
- Travel teaches you new and different perspectives on what is life and living
- Travel matures you
- Travel teaches you how to get organized & in and out of situations
- Travel makes you learn how to navigate different cultures and languages
- Travel makes you appreciate what you know and have
You may have much more time and money in the future to travel, but practically speaking, you will be older, less adventurous and unable to really handle the pressure and headaches of planning, organizing and going on a trip.
That, is the biggest negative for me to wait until you’re retired to travel.
When you’re young, you are less picky, able to sleep almost anywhere, up for anything and really there for the experience.
As you get older, you will want to sleep in a less motel-y place, not be able to walk for long periods of time (unless you take it slow) and will be less apt to go off the beaten track, especially in a country where you don’t speak the language.
I am not saying all retirees or seniors are like this, but typically, that is what I find and observe when I speak to seniors who travel when they are retired. They always book with package travel sites and tour groups, which is fine, but not the best way to really experience the city in-depth like a native.
My parents are nearing retirement and when they go to New York City, they do 10-hour days, but at a much slower pace that is more like 5-hours a day for what BF and I would normally do on a vacation.
So if you have the youth and you have the money (forgo buying things or delay the purchases), I suggest you travel when you’re younger, especially since you won’t be hampered by responsibilities of a mortgage and/or kids and so on.