I was talking to my mom the other day — actually, I was showing her a SUPER CUTE puppy that was available for adoption nearby — and she said that she was pretty tempted to adopt him but that she’s planning on traveling in retirement so it wouldn’t work out.
I was thinking about retirement and the things that we choose we want to do with our time when we’re free from other constraints, and it seemed like travel seems to be the most popular activity I hear about from older retirees and FIRErs alike.
I went looking for some stats, and apparently it’s not just my imagination:
Nearly two thirds (63 percent) of Americans aged 50 and older say travel is an important retirement goal, according to a recent poll by RBC Wealth Management-U.S.
However, given that airplanes kind of suck when it comes to carbon emissions, what can we envision in terms of other things to do in retirement?
(And since I know folks tend to balk at “extremes”: I guess if it really truly has to be travel, how about some overland journeying to cut emissions or even getting to know your own town really really well? Of course, it’s easier to spend more time doing some local exploring in some places than others, but I’ve lived in both remote spots and urban ones and have often found that there’s more to see that we originally think.
BUT I do acknowledge that in some cases, that might not necessarily be feasible or safe. Again, if it absolutely must be travel, another way to cut down could be through some long-term stays instead of those “See 83942 cities in 5 days” type-tours that guzzle gas and prob sleep too.)
Ok, travel aside, here’s a list of other ideas (I’m setting myself a timer for five minutes and seeing how many I can think of):
- Create a documentary about local history, family history, etc. Especially with the world changing so fast and how cheap tech is now, it’s likely that there’s quite a bit of fodder for this.
- Write that book that you’ve been meaning to write forever. Even writing about your own life could be super fascinating, but then again, I don’t know you?
- Get into some art using local / upcycled materials.
- Volunteer with a local non-profit. Like, the best volunteers are the ones who stick around forever so that you don’t need to keep teaching them shit and can instead focus on the other world-saving work that you get paid to do.
- Mentor a young person. Again, stability is a plus here. And you get to have your legacy live on in yet another way.
- Fix something creatively. This could be something in your house, your community, your family. I’m sure there’s something in the world around you that you think could be better, and now’s your chance to do something about it.
Alright, my explanations got long so I might revisit this, but point is, I think we start thinking about alternative visions for retirement that aren’t quite so destructive to our planet.
Enough with “save to travel” being the default goal; what else can we imagine as something to look forward to?