Angellica Bell: This is Rewirement, the podcast where we discuss what we
Angellica Bell: should be thinking about now to live a colorful retirement.
Angellica Bell: I'm Angellica Bell, and thanks to Legal & General, we're meeting
Angellica Bell: inspirational, unusual and colorful retirees to hear about their stories
Angellica Bell: and advice. And whatever road you want to travel down
Angellica Bell: in your later years, we'll also be chatting to experts
Angellica Bell: to find out how you can take savvy financial and
Angellica Bell: practical steps to make sure your plans become a reality.
Angellica Bell: Top of the bucket list for many a retiree is
Angellica Bell: a little bit of travel, but lately, the pandemic has
Angellica Bell: seen those plans put on hold. Looking to the future
Angellica Bell: with optimism, how can you make sure you still make
Angellica Bell: that trip of a lifetime? Whether you've been putting off
Angellica Bell: that round the world trip in favor of work deadlines,
Angellica Bell: saving your pennies to help the children or never had
Angellica Bell: enough time to plan for that dream trip, retirement might
Angellica Bell: seem like the perfect time. But if you're nervous about
Angellica Bell: how best to fund a trip or wondering what's changed
Angellica Bell: since you last made a bit of globe trotting, plenty
Angellica Bell: of people can feel unsure about how to plan a
Angellica Bell: retirement adventure. Fortunately, the right way to do it is
Angellica Bell: the right way for you. Whether it's a luxury hotel
Angellica Bell: or youth hostel style trip, I'm going to be chatting
Angellica Bell: to the experts for ideas, suggestions, and smart tips to
Angellica Bell: make it the trip that you've always dreamed of. Later
Angellica Bell: on, we'll be chatting to travel journalist, Mark (Hodgson) ,
Angellica Bell: and Claire Singleton from Legal & General for tips that are
Angellica Bell: financial, practical, and guaranteed to give you itchy feet. First
Angellica Bell: up, let's hear how two different retirees have unleashed the
Angellica Bell: travel bug and had the time of their lives.
June: My name is June (inaudible) . I'm from Yorkshire, have
June: been living down south in Hampshire for about 35 years.
June: I'm now in Wiltshire, but only very shortly because I
June: actually like being on the move and traveling. That is my life.
Angellica Bell: June started her retirement with a plan to run an avocado farm
Angellica Bell: in Southern Spain. She and her husband had fallen in
Angellica Bell: love with the area and bought a piece of land,
Angellica Bell: but sadly, tragedy struck.
June: We bought it 20 years ago now. It was a farm for avocados, and it just had one
June: building there that had a kitchen and lounge and one
June: bedroom. We just, by chance, came across this place, and
June: I couldn't believe it. It was up a track, up in
June: the mountains. From where the land was and the house, all I could see was just
June: mountains and vegetation. I retired when I was 63. Unfortunately, a year later, my husband died. We got the place, a place in Spain, which we'd bought about seven years before that. So we spent the first part of my retirement together, we spent in Spain, preparing the land and getting all the avocados ready, and planting a lot more different fruit trees. And then, unfortunately,
June: my husband died in Spain.
Angellica Bell: June returned to her family with the future she had planned now
Angellica Bell: in question, but it was returning to her love of travel
Angellica Bell: that helped her through grief.
June: The first thing then, a year after he died, a
June: friend of mine, who'd also lost her husband, we both went
June: to India, travelled round there for four months, and that really did
June: me a lot of good. I so enjoyed getting back to
June: backpacking around. We stayed in hostels in the south of
June: India, in (Kerala) . It just got me going, got me going
June: again, and feeling inspirational, and knowing that I was happy
June: being on the move and traveling and meeting lots of
June: people and seeing how other people in other parts of the world actually
June: live their life, which of course is very different to what it is
June: in the UK. And that was the start of my retirement.
June: I went to Italy with a friend that I worked with.
June: Her father went there as well. And he had a Harley Davidson motorbike,
June: which I had a passion for. I got on the
June: back of that and we went off round Italy. It was
June: amazing. We've kept friends ever since and that's who I go off on the motorbike with.
Angellica Bell: A passion for bikes began many years before for June.
Angellica Bell: This Harley ride around Italy reminded her of her adventures
Angellica Bell: as a student, traveling through Nepal, India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and
Angellica Bell: Pakistan on two wheels. She completed that trip seven months
Angellica Bell: pregnant with her first child. So why is it still
Angellica Bell: her favorite way to see the world?
June: For me, it was the people that I met and the
June: history that I learned about the country. And when you're
June: traveling in that style, I find that the local people
June: accept you a lot more easily. If you wander with
June: your backpack into a little, old village and smile, people
June: take you into where they live and make you meet their
June: children, their family, and you just join in. And you
June: learn such a lot about their way of living and
June: how they're being treated by the governments etc. And the scenery is
June: so different.
Angellica Bell: She decided to keep the avocado farm and now spends
Angellica Bell: part of the year out there, splitting her time between
Angellica Bell: Spain, the UK and wherever else her biking adventures take
Angellica Bell: her, such as Romania and Holland. But Spain has a
Angellica Bell: special magic for June.
June: I just love it. We know some great people. The musicians; I love live music. It puts you on a high if
June: you get into, it could be a pub or outside,
June: and the music is so exhilarating, you can't stop yourself jumping and jigging about to it.
Angellica Bell: June and her biking friend also bought a narrow boat and spend some
Angellica Bell: months of the year exploring the UK by water. She
Angellica Bell: does the locks and he does the steering.
June: When we go out, we take different routes. We've been
June: up to the Thames, because it's not far to go
June: to Reading and then the Thames, to the Thames and
June: down into London and through London. Or we go the other way
June: to Oxford. We've gone up there, and to Wales and across the Pontcysyllte
June: Aqueduct, which is amazing. It's scary, but it's superb in Wales.
June: But you've still got to have the ambition and the
June: ideas in your head, and then go for it. All
June: miles in an hour, you travel. The scenery is just
June: amazing, and then where you can moor, you can moor in allocated
June: mooring on the side of the canal, or you can just
June: find somewhere where there's just you there. And then we've got bikes on
June: the boat, so we can cycle off and get shopping or
June: whatever. It's a lovely life. Freedom, again.
Angellica Bell: Having a friend who shares her passion for Harley's, the
Angellica Bell: land and travel has meant June has a companion for
Angellica Bell: her adventures, in addition to her own time spent on
Angellica Bell: the farm and with family. Since retiring, she's stayed in
Angellica Bell: a tree house in Cambodia, walked the Great Wall of
Angellica Bell: China and camped in the wilderness, to name a few
Angellica Bell: adventures. She also recently biked around Romania.
June: We helped build (inaudible) with a horse pulling a
June: cart, and we jumped on the back of it. And that,
June: to me, is what traveling is about. It's about actually sharing the lives
June: the local people lead, finding out what it's really like.
June: So he's my best friend that I can share going
June: to Spain with, because he loves working on the land,
June: and also, I love being on the boat. The best
June: advice; I mean, you can get different travel books. It
June: depends on how you want to travel. Whatever way you
June: want to travel, you can do it. It's just having
June: the state of mind where you think, " Okay, so I'm 70, but I'm
June: going to do it. I can do it." And if
June: you like to travel and see how the real community
June: lives, then the best way really, I think, that I've
June: found out, is to actually fly to the country and
June: then travel on public transport. And you can get Lonely
June: Planet and books where they'll give you advice about places
June: you can stay. I mean, if you think of somewhere like Cambodia, where we went,
June: we stayed in hostels there. You had separate rooms. It
June: was only about 12, 15 pounds at the most (inaudible)
June: , and you've got the facilities to use. And the people are so friendly. Obviously it's mostly
June: young people, but they don't treat you like old people. They just
June: talk to you in the same way. In India, you
June: can stay in homestays. It's people's houses. There's maybe an
June: outdoor stair at the side of the house and you've
June: got your own lovely bedroom. And you're meeting the people who live
June: there, and it's interesting to find out what their life is.
June: So you can do it. You just make up your mind and you
June: just go for it. Find out what you can, and that's it. It's easy.
June: It really is.
Angellica Bell: June's a born backpacker and a lifelong traveler who doesn't
Angellica Bell: mind working it out as she goes along. Meanwhile, Elizabeth
Angellica Bell: took her time and found a savvy way to see lots
Angellica Bell: of places in one trip through cruises. Elizabeth had a
Angellica Bell: career as a science teacher before she retired and started
Angellica Bell: working at a hospice. With three children, she and her
Angellica Bell: husband hadn't done much in the way of adventurous travel
Angellica Bell: for years. In fact, it was after she had recovered
Angellica Bell: from breast cancer that her retirement travel adventures began in earnest.
Angellica Bell: I asked her what her goals were when she retired.
Elizabeth: I wanted to help people who were in difficulty in
Elizabeth: some way. So I thought, well, probably the easiest place
Elizabeth: to go to is the place where I taught when
Elizabeth: it was a special school, called Dorothy House Hospice, which
Elizabeth: is about three miles from where I used to live
Elizabeth: in Bradford- on- Avon. So I became what they call a host.
Elizabeth: And basically, it was people who were in their last year of
Elizabeth: life and they would stay with a nurse there permanently, 24/7,
Elizabeth: you know, obviously changing shifts, and doctors there. They would
Elizabeth: come for a week to give their family respite. I
Elizabeth: would feed them or take them for walks in their wheelchair.
Elizabeth: There was one lady who was really into all this
Elizabeth: photography. Not that I could really help her with that, but she
Elizabeth: was showing me that. And it was just a very
Elizabeth: happy place to be actually.
Angellica Bell: When did you leave the hospice?
Elizabeth: I left there just when we moved, because it was about 30
Elizabeth: miles to our new house. And it was during that
Elizabeth: time that I was diagnosed with cancer. So I couldn't really
Elizabeth: do much because I was in hospital and having chemotherapy
Elizabeth: and really feeling a bit exhausted.
Angellica Bell: How did the cancer change your outlook on life?
Elizabeth: I think it made me probably want to do more.
Elizabeth: Some people think, " Oh, I've got cancer. I better not
Elizabeth: go here in case I'm ill. I better not go there in case
Elizabeth: I'm ill." One big problem is actually getting insurance. I
Elizabeth: flew to Las Vegas to attend a charity conference with
Elizabeth: my son and husband, and it was very difficult to
Elizabeth: get insurance because I'd just finished having my chemotherapy. I
Elizabeth: got it, but they ... And of course, being in America,
Elizabeth: you know, huge amount of money. And that could be
Elizabeth: a little bit of a brick wall for some people,
Elizabeth: to suddenly realize that they've got to pay this huge
Elizabeth: insurance. In the end, I didn't have to pay that
Elizabeth: much, but obviously, I wanted to be insured. My oncologist
Elizabeth: said to me, " Look, before you go, please make sure that
Elizabeth: you insure yourself well in America." So yes, it hasn't
Elizabeth: really stopped me. I mean, it was a big shock.
Angellica Bell: Tell me about your travels then, and this new part
Angellica Bell: of your life.
Elizabeth: We had half term, it was about two years before I
Elizabeth: retired, and we wanted to go away. We left it till
Elizabeth: September and I thought, " I'd like a week away." This
Elizabeth: is 10, 11 years ago, perhaps even 12 years ago. And
Elizabeth: the internet wasn't such a thing then. A lot of
Elizabeth: people went to travel agents. So we just went to
Elizabeth: the local town, went in to see the travel agent and
Elizabeth: said, "I don't suppose you've got anything available for October half
Elizabeth: term." Of course, they're always really busy. So she said, "
Elizabeth: The only thing we've got available is a cruise." So
Elizabeth: we looked at each other and said, " Oh, don't think
Elizabeth: so. Cruises are for old people. Oh, I don't think we
Elizabeth: can do that." " No," she said. " They're not." She said, "
Elizabeth: Honestly, we have quite a lot of younger people going on them. Why
Elizabeth: don't you try it?" So we said, " Okay." We went on this
Elizabeth: fairly short cruise, but we went to about seven different countries.
Elizabeth: I know one of them was Sardinia, and then we
Elizabeth: went to Sicily, Palma, to Italy, into Rome for the
Elizabeth: day, Minorca, Monaco. We just loved it, you know? But
Elizabeth: then we went on an American ship around all the
Elizabeth: islands in the Caribbean. We've been to the Canary Isles, Mexico, Norway. We
Elizabeth: went on the fjords, and that sort of gave us
Elizabeth: the inclination to perhaps go somewhere colder, because it was
Elizabeth: quite cold in Norway. We decided, we got off the
Elizabeth: plane and we thought, " We're not going to take a
Elizabeth: taxi. We'll just walk to the hotel." It didn't look
Elizabeth: very far. So there we were with our cases, wheeling them
Elizabeth: along through the snow. Can you imagine?
Angellica Bell: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Elizabeth: And we'd been to America as well, like Florida and
Elizabeth: New York, San Francisco. We were going on all these
Elizabeth: rollercoaster and everything. We were like the oldest people on
Elizabeth: them. And we managed to get the front seat, which was ... And our kids were
Elizabeth: sort of a bit embarrassed. When we went to Norway, we
Elizabeth: loved it. We thought, "Oh, this is really nice. We sort of quite like it cold." So
Elizabeth: then we went to Svalbard in the Arctic, thought, " Oh, we'll
Elizabeth: just do a bit of snowmobiling." And again, we were the
Elizabeth: oldest people there. (inaudible) youngsters, you know? But they
Elizabeth: made us very welcome. We did sort of fall off
Elizabeth: the snowmobiles. It just crashed to the ground and turned over.
Angellica Bell: Elizabeth, you are such an adventurer.
Elizabeth: I haven't seen the Northern lights. I really want to
Elizabeth: see the Northern lights.
Angellica Bell: Go. Make sure you do it. After this is over,
Angellica Bell: go and see it, because it's so magical. I think
Angellica Bell: you would be speechless, so do it. Elizabeth, for anybody
Angellica Bell: who is thinking of retiring and wants to travel, what
Angellica Bell: advice would you give them?
Elizabeth: When you retire, most people are not that restricted. So
Elizabeth: take the opportunity if it's available. Obviously look into it.
Elizabeth: I mean, I guess you have to be careful that
Elizabeth: it's not some sort of scam. You need to watch
Elizabeth: that. See if you can get a deal. If you can,
Elizabeth: probably try to get an all- in break. We had
Elizabeth: the flights plus the hotel for a certain amount of
Elizabeth: money. When we went to Las Vegas, we just booked
Elizabeth: separate flights. We booked a hotel and then we booked
Elizabeth: things all separately. But I think if you have a
Elizabeth: small amount of savings and you put towards, say, a
Elizabeth: holiday fund, use it when you have the opportunity to
Elizabeth: go somewhere that you really want to go.
Angellica Bell: Elizabeth's curiosity about the world really shines through when she
Angellica Bell: talks about her adventures. You can tell she was a
Angellica Bell: teacher and has that hunger to learn more. Another thing
Angellica Bell: I love is that she and her husband are often
Angellica Bell: the oldest people in their travel groups, and cruises have
Angellica Bell: allowed them to see so much of the world in
Angellica Bell: a way they enjoy. Traveling in retirement is so individual.
Angellica Bell: Whether you've been a backpacker, a luxury lounger or a
Angellica Bell: bit of both in your earlier adventures, working out a
Angellica Bell: way to do it that gives you confidence later in
Angellica Bell: life is key. I'm joined now by two experts, travel
Angellica Bell: journalist, Mark Hodgson, and Legal & General's Claire Singleton. Thank you
Angellica Bell: so much both for joining me. So Mark, why is
Angellica Bell: traveling a completely different consideration in later life?
Mark Hodgson: Well, I think what you have a lot of when
Mark Hodgson: you retire, well, apart from money, we hope, is time,
Mark Hodgson: but things are a little bit different to where you were
Mark Hodgson: traveling when you were younger and a little bit different to
Mark Hodgson: when you were just going on holidays when you were
Mark Hodgson: working. So you have different demands, but maybe you have
Mark Hodgson: different opportunities as well. You can certainly do longer trips.
Mark Hodgson: I think one of the interesting things about this generation
Mark Hodgson: that's now retiring, this is the first generation that went
Mark Hodgson: backpacking around the world. So many of them will have
Mark Hodgson: wonderful memories of when they were younger, when they were
Mark Hodgson: in their twenties and so forth, of traveling, backpacking, being
Mark Hodgson: kind of free, having lots of time, wandering around from
Mark Hodgson: one place to another. And a lot of people want
Mark Hodgson: to recreate a feeling of that, perhaps go to back
Mark Hodgson: to some of the same places, but perhaps to travel
Mark Hodgson: in much the same kind of way. In some ways,
Mark Hodgson: that's become a lot easier now, because you can plan
Mark Hodgson: everything online. There are so many more low cost airline
Mark Hodgson: networks around the world that allow you to get from
Mark Hodgson: one place to another without overnight bus journeys and so
Mark Hodgson: forth. But one of the key things to think about
Mark Hodgson: when you're retiring is that you're not the same person
Mark Hodgson: that you were in your twenties, much as you might
Mark Hodgson: like to think you are. We've all got a 25
Mark Hodgson: year old inside, haven't we? But actually, your physical resilience,
Mark Hodgson: your ability to cope with jet lag, a bad night's
Mark Hodgson: sleep, rough journeys, and so forth, may have changed. So
Mark Hodgson: you have to adapt as well. And maybe that means
Mark Hodgson: slowing down, maybe spending a bit more time in places
Mark Hodgson: rather than rushing around like you did when you were
Mark Hodgson: 25. So it's a good idea to think realistically about
Mark Hodgson: what you really want to do with the rest of
Mark Hodgson: your life, what kind of places you want to visit
Mark Hodgson: and what kind of things you want to do and how
Mark Hodgson: you want to do them. And it's a really good time to start now thinking about that.
Angellica Bell: So Claire, what if budget is a problem? Say you're
Angellica Bell: retired and have no additional income to bump up savings,
Angellica Bell: but you still want to do that bucket list thing,
Angellica Bell: like travel the Pacific Coast Highway in a Mustang. What
Angellica Bell: can you do?
Claire Singleton: So there's various things people can consider, depending on their
Claire Singleton: situation. Some people, we see them downsizing from their properties.
Claire Singleton: So they decide that they don't need the size of
Claire Singleton: home they have anymore, and actually, they'd like to have
Claire Singleton: some extra money to go and do that travel plan.
Claire Singleton: The other thing people can think about is releasing equity
Claire Singleton: for their home, and there's various different options and considerations
Claire Singleton: around that. So people can choose to release money, but
Claire Singleton: also then consider whether they would like to leave an
Claire Singleton: inheritance or not. So that's one factor people need to
Claire Singleton: think about. So would they like to leave an inheritance
Claire Singleton: to their kids? And if so, they can protect a
Claire Singleton: part of that inheritance within the house and release cash to
Claire Singleton: go and do some of their travel plans. People could
Claire Singleton: take (inaudible) of money and pay the interest on
Claire Singleton: that too, to stop increasing their debt quite so much.
Claire Singleton: So it's one thing for people to think about, alongside the potential option
Claire Singleton: of, say, downsizing from their home.
Angellica Bell: I mean, for some people, that sort of information can
Angellica Bell: be quite overwhelming, especially if you've been in your home
Angellica Bell: your whole life and all these sorts of things. So
Angellica Bell: it might be a necessity that they need to do
Angellica Bell: in order to fulfill those dreams, but do you give
Angellica Bell: proper advice and are there places that people can go
Angellica Bell: so they can feel secure, especially when talking about money?
Claire Singleton: Look, if you're ever releasing money from your house, it's
Claire Singleton: an advised process and they can come to Legal & General
Claire Singleton: for that advice. There's also lots of information available on
Claire Singleton: our website in terms of the pros and cons of
Claire Singleton: releasing money from your home. So where we talk about
Claire Singleton: the costs of borrowing and also the fact that there's
Claire Singleton: a no negative equity guarantee where you'll never have to
Claire Singleton: pay back more than what your property is sold for.
Claire Singleton: And we also talk about some of those protections I
Claire Singleton: mentioned around protecting part of the equity so that you
Claire Singleton: can leave an inheritance. So really important to take good advice,
Claire Singleton: really important to consider the costs of borrowing, and really
Claire Singleton: important to read up and understand that.
Angellica Bell: So again, think ahead. But Mark, Elizabeth mentioned in her
Angellica Bell: case study that our changing bodies can also mean that
Angellica Bell: insurance can be quite a different experience. How can we
Angellica Bell: deal with that?
Mark Hodgson: Travel insurance is one of the non- negotiables about getting
Mark Hodgson: around the world when you're a little bit older. You, perhaps when you were
Mark Hodgson: younger, might have thought that, " Well, we don't really need it
Mark Hodgson: for this little city break," or, " I'll be fine. Everything
Mark Hodgson: was fine last time." But you really need to have
Mark Hodgson: travel insurance. It's going to give you a lot of
Mark Hodgson: protection against if something goes wrong medically, but also just
Mark Hodgson: all the little bumps that happen along the road; if
Mark Hodgson: flights get canceled. Particularly when you do more adventurous travel,
Mark Hodgson: things turn up. I did a trip to Indonesia a
Mark Hodgson: couple of years ago and were planning to go to
Mark Hodgson: Lombok, and then a huge volcano erupted a couple of
Mark Hodgson: weeks before. Fortunately, I was with a tour operator and
Mark Hodgson: they managed to replan the whole trip and we went
Mark Hodgson: to another island instead, but that's the point where insurance
Mark Hodgson: might really kick in. Now, as you get older, insurance
Mark Hodgson: does become more expensive. So you need to make sure
Mark Hodgson: you've got the best insurance you can get and that
Mark Hodgson: it is appropriate for your age, and that you look
Mark Hodgson: at pre- existing medical conditions, which can put up the
Mark Hodgson: price of premiums. But that really becomes something you have
Mark Hodgson: to budget for. Perhaps you didn't think about it before, because it was
Mark Hodgson: relatively cheap. Now it's going to be a relatively expensive part
Mark Hodgson: of your travel budget.
Angellica Bell: Yeah, so there are events that you cannot control, which
Angellica Bell: will affect what happens with your holiday, and that means
Angellica Bell: you have to protect your money. So going back to
Angellica Bell: you, Claire, everyone has a different plan for retirement. So
Angellica Bell: what sort of things do people spend their money on?
Angellica Bell: Presumably travel is high up on the list.
Claire Singleton: Yeah, that's right, Angellica. So we did a survey recently
Claire Singleton: and talk about people's life goals in retirement, and travel
Claire Singleton: comes up as number one. And alongside that, people often
Claire Singleton: have some lifelong dreams for travel, so things like they'd
Claire Singleton: like to visit Australia, or they'd like to drive Route
Claire Singleton: 66 in America. So we see those in the top
Claire Singleton: five things that people say they want to do in
Claire Singleton: retirement. The other thing that we're seeing more of is
Claire Singleton: people using things like their tax free lump sum from
Claire Singleton: their pension pot to invest in things that afford them
Claire Singleton: to travel. So investing in things like motor homes, or
Claire Singleton: I think in one of the case studies, someone had
Claire Singleton: bought a narrow boat. So we really see people being
Claire Singleton: able to use that lump of cash in a way
Claire Singleton: that gives them freedom to travel in a way that
Claire Singleton: suits them.
Angellica Bell: So Mark, from your perspective, how would you advise people
Angellica Bell: to approach their planning to go for this big dream,
Angellica Bell: something they've been building up for, for most of their
Angellica Bell: lives sometimes?
Mark Hodgson: I would suggest that people take a long- term view
Mark Hodgson: of travel in retirement, because you are retired hopefully for
Mark Hodgson: quite a long time, and you might have a list
Mark Hodgson: of things you'd like to do, a bucket list. I
Mark Hodgson: think you should think about the order in which you
Mark Hodgson: do those things. If you think you've got a budget,
Mark Hodgson: you've got a financial budget and you've got a time budget,
Mark Hodgson: but also you've got a budget in terms of your
Mark Hodgson: ability to cope with things from a physical point of
Mark Hodgson: view. Your comfort zone, if you like. So for example,
Mark Hodgson: you'd love to go on a cruise around the Mediterranean,
Mark Hodgson: see a bit of Italy and Greece and relax, and
Mark Hodgson: so forth. You hit 65 and you think, " Let's go
Mark Hodgson: and do that." Actually, it might be a smart idea
Mark Hodgson: to hold off on that, because that's a relatively easy
Mark Hodgson: thing you could do in your eighties, say, but if
Mark Hodgson: you also want to go trekking in Peru, or you
Mark Hodgson: want to go around New Zealand in a motor home,
Mark Hodgson: that might be a good thing to do at 65.
Mark Hodgson: So planning, doing it by stage. And then we were
Mark Hodgson: talking about travel insurance, but, say, if you want to
Mark Hodgson: go to North America, for example, travel insurance becomes a
Mark Hodgson: lot more expensive there as you get older, a lot
Mark Hodgson: more, because of the medical costs in America. So if
Mark Hodgson: you do want to do a big road trip in America,
Mark Hodgson: I would suggest you do that early on in your
Mark Hodgson: retirement when insurance is going to be relatively cheap. Also
Mark Hodgson: long haul. So long hauls can be quite grueling on
Mark Hodgson: the body. So that might be something you do early
Mark Hodgson: on in your retirement. And then as you get older, you come
Mark Hodgson: back towards the short haul trips; the cruises in the
Mark Hodgson: Baltic and the classic river cruises in Europe, for example.
Mark Hodgson: And another point I would just make about bucket lists.
Mark Hodgson: A lot of people have bucket lists. Now, I would
Mark Hodgson: suggest that you really think about what you want to put
Mark Hodgson: on your list, what's right for you, rather than go
Mark Hodgson: and see what other people have put on their lists.
Mark Hodgson: Do you really want to do that? Is that really what you want to do? I'm
Mark Hodgson: not saying don't do it, but maybe there's some other
Mark Hodgson: things that are right for you, that fit in with your
Mark Hodgson: passion. So have a real think about that and spend
Mark Hodgson: some time. You've got a lot of time to think about it.
Mark Hodgson: So really come up with your own list rather than
Mark Hodgson: someone else's.
Angellica Bell: Yeah, because it's your time to do what you want. Day
Angellica Bell: to day, you sometimes go along with things. Even though
Angellica Bell: there's lots of planning and lots of considerations, it is
Angellica Bell: still a very exciting time, isn't it, for people?
Mark Hodgson: It's incredibly exciting, isn't it? I think that we've all
Mark Hodgson: sort of experienced over the last year the frustration of
Mark Hodgson: not being able to travel and how much we're looking
Mark Hodgson: forward to getting out there and exploring the world again.
Mark Hodgson: I know, myself, I just can't wait to get out
Mark Hodgson: there. But how much more that will be at the
Mark Hodgson: end of a working life, when now you look at
Mark Hodgson: all of these years, when you've got the whole world
Mark Hodgson: to explore and to experience. It's an incredibly exciting time.
Angellica Bell: Hopefully those fantastic stories and tips have inspired you to
Angellica Bell: plan that bucket list adventure and start researching the kind
Angellica Bell: of travel that's going to suit you in retirement. You
Angellica Bell: can find more great resources and more about retirement planning
Angellica Bell: on the website, which is legalandgeneral. com/ retirement. And remember,
Angellica Bell: there's no better time to start the transition to a
Angellica Bell: healthy mental balance, and bank balance, to fulfill your dream
Angellica Bell: retirement lifestyle. So go on. Start planning your best life
Angellica Bell: now. Next time, I'm going to explore how a healthy
Angellica Bell: body and mind can go hand in hand for a
Angellica Bell: happy retirement.
Speaker 6: So I had a structure where I had fixed points
Speaker 6: on certain days that I always did certain things, but
Speaker 6: then I maybe had another day when I was completely
Speaker 6: free to do anything or another afternoon when I was
Speaker 6: free to do anything. So it's the combination of the two.
Angellica Bell: I'm Angellica Bell. Follow Rewirement on your favorite platform, and
Angellica Bell: I'll catch you next time.