laughingboomeradmin's blog

Hi:

Further to yesterday's post, I/we have always traveled with a arts focus and it has been deeply satisfying.

We have toured major art galleries in New York, Washington, London, Paris, Jo-burg, Sydney, Melbourne, Ottawa, Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco, Lisbon, Madrid, and Florence, to name a few. Even Hawaii has a fabulous art gallery.

It's always an exciting and interesting experience. We usually go at the beginning of the day. There are usually peaceful little restaurants attached and gift shops that offer more than the trivia or tourist knick-knacks. The restaurant in Sydney, for example, was outside and offered great views.

Other people I know travel with a focus on visiting all the opera houses, the major bookstores, the train stations, the libraries and so on. Others concentrate on the architecture. Some like to buy a certain item from each country they buy.


I once met a middle-aged couple whose focus was the Rolling Stones. They literally followed the Stones' itinerary and went from city to city and saw each concert on the tour.


Whatever the interest, persuing knowledge of your chosen focus adds richness and mental stimulation. This enduring search for understanding or appreciation of beauty is one of the pleasures of life.

M.

Hi:

These trips can be very exciting!

The basic premise of an around-the-world ticket is that you buy a ticket from a large airline that is connected with other airlines. These airline alliances, as they are called, connect three or four large commercial airlines for major countries and several smaller country airlines. You may fly with the airline you purchased the ticket from, or with any of their airline alliance partners.

With this you can travel the world.

The tickets are not that much, and all have varied connections. The cost starts somewhere in the $3,500 to $5,000 range. This is for a several months to one-year ticket. You travel in one forward direction only. For example you must go around the world in an easterly or westerly direction. You cannot go back and forth.

Some groups allow you to also include ground transportion as part of your mode of travel. This means you do not have to leave from the same city you arrived in. If you arrived in London, for example, you might explore the rest of Europe and fly out of Rome.

More tomorrow

M.

retirement travel

Hi:

In his book Retire in Style, Dr. Warren R. Bland further delineates leisure into more specific categories. One of these is culture and education.

Cultural and educational opportunities are an extremely important consideration for many. The chance to visit fine musuems, art galleries and exhibitions add interest and learning. Attending plays, concerts, gallery openings, operas, and special events are fun and deeply satisfying.

Continuous learning is paramount for some, especially those with an intellectual bent.

When you consider moving to a new area, and culture has been a big part of your life, make sure there is a strong cultural base within that community. Also, you may have never had the time to develop knowledge of the arts or music in the past because of your busy lifestyle. As you retire, this may be an ideal time to do so.

M.

Hi:

Well, mining the primary asset, that is the family home, is what many people plan to do when they retire. With real estate prices rising world-wide, many are gleefully rubbing their hands and calculating how much they can get out of their family home.

I talked to one person last week who listed their home last year for $800,000. There were no takers, so they pulled it off the market. They sold it in a week this March for $1.1 million. This couple made $300,000 by sitting in their home for a year!

New-found wealth of comfortable proportions inspires many fantasies, and in truth, some of these dreams can now come true. There are many, many people in this same position. Especially in hot urban areas, prices move quickly. My realtor told me one west-side house had twenty offers, and eventually accepted the highest bid - a cool one-quarter million over their asking price.

I think this is quite a unique bubble, and if possible, we should take advantage of opportunities. Of course the doom-and-gloomers predict prices will drop stratispherically.

Real-estate does have it's bell-curve, and cycles exist. However, what long-term residents must consider is globalization. People live everywhere, and we must move beyond our local-yokel conceptions of high prices and what's fair. What's fair is what the market can bear.

We forget that poor people live in Paris, London and San Francisco. How and where they live might be challenging for them, just as it is now challenging for the average young person to buy in Vancouver.

Yet Vancouver is full of young people. People can and do adapt. Before we take a stance it's wise to look at the big picture and the winds of change: demographics, globalization, technology, environmental and industrial shifts. More tomorrow.

M.


retirement and money

Hi:

Further to my post yesterday, I select hotels when I'm travelling in the following fashion.

If I'm in travelling mode I look for a hotel that has a decent bed and is clean and safe. I do not need to spend a bunch of money on amenities I am not going to use.

We usually arrive later in the day, around four o'clock or so, check in, have a shower and maybe a nap, go out for dinner and go back to the room, relax, go to bed, get up and leave. Who needs the rest?

If we are planning to stay for a few days in the hotel, then I get a bit pickier. Then I want more atmosphere, a pool, perhaps a dining room and a larger room. If I need to relax, I want to do it in a nice place with good furniture and a view.

So, for example, when travelling in Portugal we stayed in various and sundry hotels along the way. When we went to the Algarve coast and stayed a few days we had a nicer place with a lovely breakfast and more room. Otherwise it was just basically in and out. Some places we stay less than twelve hours.

As my husband snores and I'm a chronically poor sleeper, I sometimes try to get a suite with a separate room so I can get a good nights' sleep. Otherwise the days go by and I function with less and less sleep.

Pretty simple plan but it works. Seasoned long-term travellers often travel three weeks of the month and plan for the fourth week in a much higher quality hotel with lots of amenities. They use these amenities to the fullest. Otherwise it's a waste of money to pay for what you are not using.

When we went on a safari in Africa, for example, we roughed it for quite a few days and then relaxed with the best of everything when we had the time to enjoy it.

Seems like a plan to me.

M.


retirement travel