3 retirement travel mistakes that can drain your savings — and what to know before you plan your next trip

If you imagination of spending your aureate years exploring the federation — oregon the satellite — you're acold from alone. Whether it's hitting the unfastened roadworthy successful an RV, taking the bid crossed Europe oregon hopping connected an expedition cruise to Antarctica, escapade awaits.

Often, those bucket-list trips get pushed to retirement; erstwhile you're younger, you mightiness beryllium excessively engaged raising kids, gathering careers, paying disconnected the location and redeeming for retirement. But leisure question successful status requires fiscal planning, particularly for those connected a fixed income.

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When it comes to discretionary income, a bulk (86%) of Americans aged 50+ place question arsenic 1 of their apical priorities, according to the AARP 2026 Travel Trends survey. And astir two-thirds (64%) expect to question this twelvemonth (1).

"The tendency to question is incredibly resilient," Lona Choi-Allum, AARP's elder user insights manager, told AARP. "Despite challenges oregon barriers, older adults are adapting however they travel, not whether they question (2)."

However, outgo continues to beryllium a large roadblock to travel, arsenic ostentation takes its toll. "We noticed a important summation successful the [anticipated] yearly dollar spend, from implicit $6,800 past twelvemonth to a small implicit $7,200 this year," Choi-Allum said.

For example, adjacent arsenic the terms of pitchy substance comes down, airfares are expected to stay elevated.

That doesn't mean retirees (or soon-to-be retirees) should enactment their question plans connected clasp — but mentation is key. Here are 3 status question mistakes that could softly drain your savings and what you tin bash instead.

1. Overspending successful your go-go years

The 'go-go years' are the earliest signifier of retirement, erstwhile retirees are mostly astatine their healthiest — and they're acceptable to walk immoderate of that wealth they've been redeeming up for decades. Discretionary spending tends to diminution successful the slow-go years (between ages 75 to 85) and the no-go years (85+) (3).

But without a fiscal program and withdrawal strategy that includes leisure travel, it's casual to extremity up overspending connected question successful your go-go years. Not lone tin that devour into your nest egg, but it besides makes you susceptible to sequence-of-returns hazard during marketplace downturns.