What Monthly Spending Looks Like for Retirees Who Travel Several Times a Year
Retirement can look like the ultimate travel upgrade: no meetings, no limited vacation days and more freedom to finally see the world.
A seven-figure nest egg can make that future feel especially close. But even a comfortable retirement budget has to stretch across regular bills, healthcare, taxes and the occasional surprise.
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Here’s what monthly spending looks like for retirees who travel several times a year.
The Travel-Heavy Dream
A travel-heavy retirement isn’t one big vacation. It’s a year that might include a family trip, a summer getaway, a long weekend and, for many people, an international bucket-list adventure.
AARP’s latest travel research found that travelers age 50 and older expect to take 3.9 personal trips in 2026, spending an average of $7,292 across those trips.
That means the dream requires room in the retirement budget for travel every year, not just whatever is left after everything else is paid.
Life at Home Continues
A retirement budget still has a home address.
According to the latest data available from the Federal Reserve older adults spent an average of $61,432 for the year. Housing alone accounted for $22,193, while healthcare added another $7,799.
Those averages include households with different incomes, health needs and travel habits. But they make the point: a travel fund has to fit alongside the costs of keeping a home, buying groceries, getting around, paying for medical care and handling taxes.
A retirement balance that looks impressive on paper has several jobs before it can start paying for Paris or a family cruise.
Traveling Domestically
A domestic family trip isn’t a cheap add-on to a travel-heavy retirement.
A beach week with children and grandchildren, a cross-country reunion or an extended stay near family can be a major recurring expense in the annual plan.
Jacqueline Mondelli, chief marketing officer at SquareMouth, said the company’s marketplace sales data for insured trips traveling earlier this year, showed couples in their 60s spent an average of $7,085 on a 14-day domestic trip. The average rose to $8,315 for couples in their 70s and $8,685 for couples in their 80s.
One domestic trip can take a sizable share of the travel budget before the year’s other getaways even begin.
Traveling Abroad
Bucket-list travel needs its own place in a retirement plan.
AARP found that bucket-list trips are the leading reason travelers age 50 and older plan an international vacation, whether the destination is Italy, Japan, Australia or somewhere else that once felt too far away.
Today’s costs show what that future goal may require.
Mondelli said couples in their 60s spent an average of $11,670 on an insured 18-day international trip. Couples in their 70s averaged $11,050, while couples in their 80s averaged $12,625.
An overseas trip can be one of retirement’s great rewards, but it needs to be planned for like one.
A Dedicated Travel Fund
A travel-heavy retirement is possible when the trips are planned as a regular expense, not a reward for having money left at the end of the year.
Julia Bartak, certified financial planner (CFP) at Edward Jones, said many of her retired clients set aside $15,000 to $40,000 a year for travel or roughly $1,250 to $3,300 a month.
“For a retiree planning to spend $15,000 to $40,000 annually on travel, I’d generally want to see that expense accounted for within a broader retirement income plan,” Bartak said. “For some households, that may mean dedicating 5% to 15% of annual retirement spending to travel.”
Starting early makes the dream easier to fund.
Bartak recommended saving consistently, using tax-advantaged retirement accounts when possible, avoiding unnecessary debt and defining the kind of travel life retirement is meant to support.
“Once we know whether someone’s dream is taking their grandkids to Disney every year or spending winters somewhere warm, we can build a financial plan around those priorities,” Bartak said. “The numbers become much easier when there’s a clear vision behind them.”
This article was provided by MoneyLion.com for informational purposes only and should not be construed as financial, legal or tax advice.
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