Traveling wasn't unusual for Jim Laabs, a 72-year-old retiree from the Midwest. As a former regional sales director, Laabs spent 65% to 70% of his time on the road in the US and Canada.
Later in his career, his partner would join him. But as they approached retirement, they wanted to take it slower — and wondered if they could afford to be snowbirds for about five months a year in Southern California or Arizona, both states that are "almost guaranteed" to have warm weather during the winter, he told Business Insider.
When Laabs retired in 2022, they tested the concept for a month, spending roughly $5,000 on a 28-day stay at a two-bedroom home a short walk from Huntington Beach in Southern California.
But with costs rising each year, the couple has downgraded to cheaper accommodations and reduced their vacation days. He said it hasn't made much of a dent in their travel expenditures.
This year, they spent $3,100 for a one-bedroom suite in Phoenix, around 62% of what they spent on accommodation back in 2022, but this time for only a nine-day stay.
Laabs isn't alone in having to cut back on travel plans in retirement because of rising costs.
Business Insider spoke to several retirees and people planning for retirement who are reconsidering their dream to travel during retirement, whether that's cutting back or scrapping plans altogether.
In an AARP survey late last year of Americans who'd expressed an interested in traveling for pleasure in 2025, about 70% of respondents ages 50 and older said they were planning trips this year. But on average, those respondents weren't expecting to spend more on their trips than they did in 2024, and cost was the most commonly cited travel barrier among them.
Laabs and his partner have an annual travel budget of around $7,000.
He said it can already be "a little bit of a challenge to cover" their travel budget despite having what he describes as a "comfortable, but not exorbitant" retirement pot and receiving double what the average American gets for Social Security, since he began working young and retired at 69.
"We're going to live our life, and if we can make it work financially to do a week or two of cold weather to get out of the area, then we'll do that," he said. But travel "would be one of the first things to go" if they had to tighten up their budget.
Unanticipated volatility
Retirement was going to be Patty Sorell's chance to travel.
As a small-business owner in Boston, she would often work weekends and holidays running her balloon shop, so she didn't have time to go on vacation.
"I knew I wanted travel to be part of my life plan," the 62-year-old said. "Something that happens when you own your own business is you hustle all the time, and when a job comes along, you take it because you don't know when the next job is going to come along."
As she approached retirement in 2022, she invested in an RV to take more short-haul trips across the country. When she fully retired, though, she knew she wanted to travel internationally.
"Of course, I think everybody would love the fantasy of getting out and being a tourist more than they are," she said. "Not all of us can do it, people have financial obligations, familial obligations. I thought I was going to be great, but I'm only 'pretty good' in terms of financials."
More than a year into retirement, her fantasy is colliding with reality. Her travel funds for the next few years, which she describes as her "fun money," are in the stock market.
"That's the stuff I want to make sure doesn't dip or crash, and that's what makes me nervous right now," Sorell said, referring to the stock market's wild swings in response to changing US policy on tariffs and the war in Ukraine.
"I can't pull my money out either, because pulling it out when it's down is the worst thing you can do," Sorell said.
Financial planners agree that investors shouldn't panic during downturns and exit the market at a loss.
In an annual Gallup survey last year, 62% of US adults reported having money invested in the stock market through mutual funds, individual stocks, or retirement funds — and older people hold the vast majority of those equities. An analysis of Federal Reserve data by Rosenberg Research released last year found that Americans 55 and older own about 80% of the US stock market.
Amid the wild market fluctuations this year, many retirees like Sorell and people nearing retirement are left wondering where they'll be left financially.
"One of the few things I can cut down on is travel," Sorell said. "I'm not going to cut it out, but I can cut it down."
Jake Falcon, the founder of Falcon Wealth Advisors, said that people who need money for bills, living expenses, or travel in the next five to 10 years should avoid parking that money in the stock market because volatility could affect those short-term goals.
He added that people shouldn't get too frustrated by the current economic environment because it will inevitably change.
For retirees who are feeling stretched but still want to travel, he recommended getting creative and looking off the beaten path.
Off the beaten path
Jeff Mayernik and his wife, Sandra, who both worked in real estate until 2023 and 2024, respectively, did just that when health issues prompted them to examine the age at which they could retire.
When doing the math and looking at savings, home equity, and future Social Security income, they discovered that at 59, they could retire within a year. Still, it came with a catch — they wouldn't be retiring in a fixed place.
"There are 100 countries where we can stay 90 days at a time, so let's go see them," Jeff, 61, said. "We put together a plan, sold everything we owned, and hit the road with a couple of backpacks and a little suitcase."
The couple sold all their belongings and a 5-acre property in Oregon that included three outbuildings. They set a spending target of around $40,000 a year, which includes all travel expenses as well as general expenditures such as insurance and cellphone costs.
"Year one, we went over budget," Sandra, 61, said. "Year two, we'll be closer. We've learned some things, obviously, but it was less expensive than just living in a place somewhere in Oregon and not traveling."
They decide which country to visit next based on affordability.
"We looked at Italy and went, 'Hmm, yeah, not this year for sure,'" Jeff said. "And so we put two months in Albania because the weather is similar, and it's a lot less expensive to rent a place for two months than it would be literally anywhere in Italy."
Jeff said they plan to travel for at least two years before committing to a place to retire permanently — somewhere with a reasonable cost of living.
Kari Lemay, a 58-year-old corporate marketing executive, quit her job to travel the world with her retired partner, Bill, who is 70. They rely on their savings, investments, and income from a travel blog to fund trips, but increasing costs are eating away at their travel budget.
They're now downsizing to continue funding their trips by selling their five-bedroom house in Minnesota to buy a one-bedroom condo instead.
"My insurance is going up, my taxes are going up, therefore my mortgage payment — because it includes those things — is going up, and we're not even here that much," Lemay said.
Both Lemay and the Mayerniks run monetized travel blogs, AchieveYourBucketList and TheMobileRetiree, respectively. Lemay hopes her earnings from the blog will provide her with additional funds to travel for longer, especially since her retirement fund isn't as large as her partner's.
Having an income during retirement is one of the best things retirees who want to travel extensively can do, said William Gogolak, an assistant professor of finance at Carnegie Mellon University who teaches courses on financial investing and analysis.
Those in their 40s or 50s who are planning to travel in retirement should start thinking about a part of their career they might be able to parlay into consulting work later in life, he said.
Now or never?
Some people nearing retirement age have begun to shift or delay their travel plans as they examine their finances more closely.
Suki Eleuterio and her partner, who initially bonded over their love of travel, have viewed their 401(k)s as their ticket to traveling the world once their two children, both under the age of 10, have flown the nest.
Will we just be forced to keep working and working to pay off all the bills?"Traveling with kids is very different than traveling as a couple," Eleuterio said. "We tried to do the Disney thing a few years ago … that was very stressful. I did not feel that that was an adequate vacation for us as a couple, but I think the kids had a wonderful time. "
"I'm looking forward to when we can also just travel just the two of us again," she said.
Eleuterio and her partner are both in their 40s and envisioned island-hopping in the Caribbean and eating like locals in Europe in their 60s, following in the footsteps of her partner's grandparents, who were "big travelers" and did much of the same as they got older.
Yet getting to check places off their travel wish list, hanging on a wall in their home, feels further and further away.
The couple has just a "little nest egg" after they used a large portion of their savings to buy a house in 2022, after nearly two decades of renting. That, combined with her partner losing their job late last year, means they're spending more cautiously and saving less.
As their debt creeps up and with the future of Social Security in doubt, Eleuterio said they wonder what their retirement will actually look like — "Will we just be forced to keep working and working to pay off all the bills?"
As a result, the age at which they plan to retire keeps getting pushed back, Eleuterio said. Retiring in their late 50s or early 60s doesn't feel as attainable as it might have 10 years ago.
"It makes me think about, maybe, we should travel now a little bit, and get some of those things checked off our bucket list now, even if we do it with kids," Eleuterio said.
"What if it's actually about living your life now versus living your life later?" she added.
