Episode 44: The Travel Episode
Segment One (Show Open):
Good afternoon, everyone! Welcome in. Welcome to Coasting in Retirement! That’s. Right. Thanks for joining us today, we’re excited to have you! Josh Null here, joined by the one and only Michelle Lee Melton, the …Michelle, how are you doing? We are back again in Coastal College’s recording studio, beautiful downtown Fairhope, ready to put together another great show for those of you tuning in!
Listeners: Michelle and I are here to discuss financial topics relevant to those of you in or near retirement, living your best life along our part of the gulf coast. If you’ve only got time to listen to one financial show this week, well, you picked the right one. Here’s what we’ve got in store for you today: First segment – deep dive on our topic of the day. 2nd segment - at about 25 minutes past the hour - “Michelle with the News of the Week”. Then at roughly 45 minutes past the hour, stick around for our 3rd segment, we call it” Josh’s Crystal Ball and Big Mouth”. That’s right, big mouth. So buckle up, we’ve got a lot to get to!
Quick background on me for those new to the show. Again, my name is Josh Null, I am a fee-based financial advisor, I hold my FINRA Series 65 securities license, and I am the owner of Gulf Coast Financial Advisors, we are an independent investment management and financial planning firm with offices in Fairhope, Orange Beach, and Mobile! You can find more information on me and Gulf Coast Financial Advisors by visiting our website gulfcoastfa.com, or feel free to give us a call at 251-327-2124. If you missed that contact info, grab a pen and pad, we will repeat our contact info several times throughout the show!
So, Michelle, what’s some of the topics we typically cover on this show? (Money, investments, insurance, annuities, stocks, bonds, retirement accounts, financial planning, etc). Now, not that those are interesting and fascinating topics (Michelle insert joke here if you feel like it), but we decided to make this episode’s topic about something I think most of you in or near retirement love to do, or at least something you plan to do more of in retirement: Travel!
Regular listeners probably picked up on last week’s episode that Michelle and I recently went on our delayed honeymoon, to a place that Michelle always wanted to visit: Costa Rica! So were going to start the show by talking about our trip, then, because this is a show about enjoying your best life in retirement, we will pivot to travel tips and tricks for those of you looking forward to enjoying seeing new places when you have more time in retirement, especially around those of you that travel on a budget like Michelle and I do. And if we have time, Michelle and I will also discuss a few of our favorite destinations!
Alright Michelle, since the destination was your choice, let’s start with you: why Costa Rica?
Great summary on Costa Rica. So let’s pivot to other destinations we’ve been to, or are planning to go to:
Finger Lakes trip – how much detail do we want to give with this?
I am going to talk about how I am the ultimate staycation person because I hate flying.
Alright folks, so maybe this wasn’t the traditional financial discussion today, but again I would argue that most people dream of travelling more in retirement, and that is something we absolutely agree with and help clients plan for with your comprehensive financial planning services! If you’re interested in starting your own conversation about your retirement goals and dreams, then why don’t you give us a call at 251-327-2124, or you can reach us through our website gulfcoastfa.com. One our site, you can choose to send us a direct message, or you can click on the blue button in the upper right-hand corner to set up a 15-minute introductory phone call on my calendar.
Alright folks, coming up next - There’s always a lot going on in the world! Particularly the world of finance, investments and money. Every week Michelle and I scour what she calls the interwebs for financial articles related to our topic of the day, especially articles that pertain to those in or near retirement. So join us after the break to hear Michelle and I discuss this week’s relevant headlines in our “Michelle with the News of the Week” segment. Stay tuned!
Segment 2 - News of the Week:
Josh: “Welcome back to Coasting in Retirement, your host Josh Null here! As we discussed before the break, every week Michelle and I scour the internet for financial articles related to our topic of the day, especially articles that pertain to those of you in or near retirement. Our job is to help you all understand how these headlines impact you, especially when it comes to your money! Note – if you want to read our referenced articles yourself, we also include the links in our show transcript, which you can find on our website gulfcoastfa.com under the podcast tab. We upload our episodes every Monday after the show airs on Sunday. Without further ado, here’s “Michelle with the News of the Week”!
1. Michelle: Alright Josh, our first article is from a source that I am very confident we have never mentioned on the show before: Conde Nast Traveler. Conde Nast has an entire section titled “The Complete Guide to Travel and Retirement” that contains all kinds of helpful articles, including the one I picked for our show, “The Golden Rules of Affordable Travel”. Of course this article mentions common sense tips such as packing in carry-on luggage vs checked bags, but I found the section about when to book the cheapest airline ticket more interesting, apparently it's usually Sundays that have the lowest prices. This article also goes into detail on 2 travel tips I always try to follow – traveling during off-peak periods, like we just did with shoulder season in Costa Rica, and staying in unique, off the beaten path lodging. There’s a version of our Costa Rica trip that cost 2 to 3 times what we spent, and I think retirees on a fixed income are probably interested in getting maximum bang for their buck. Did you have any takeaways?
https://www.cntraveler.com/story/the-golden-rules-of-affordable-travel
https://www.cntraveler.com/the-complete-guide-to-travel-and-retirement
2. Michelle: Our next article is from a site we reference often, Investopedia. It’s titled “4 Things You Need to Know for Traveling in Retirement”. I thought you might this article Josh because it mentions RV and travel trailer vacations as a great way to keep travel expenses down. It also talks about building a travel budget, which we did and we nailed for our Costa Rica trip! But the main reason I picked this article is because it goes into detail on the limitations of Medicare for health expenses when traveling abroad. We’re not old enough for Medicare but to be honest, I didn’t even think about our health insurance coverage for any accidents or illnesses in Costa Rica. Is this something you thought about on our trip?
Josh: Oh that definitely on my mind as I was swerving to miss semi-trucks in our lane and trying to wreck in the chaos that was Costa Rica driving, particularly around San Jose. Unbeknownst to you I always made sure I knew where the closest hospital was located.
https://www.investopedia.com/traveling-in-retirement-8726257
3. Michelle: So everyone knows about AirBNB and VRBO now, it’s fair to say these 2 companies have done a great job of branding and scale. But I’m here to tell you all, they ain’t the only game in town! In fact, I used a site called Booking.com to rent some of the places we stayed at in Costa Rica, did you know that Josh? And lookee here, the folks at Nerd Wallet agree with me, calling booking.com the “best for stays abroad”. This article lists a couple of other options, and if remember correctly, you wanted me to point out the part of the article that discusses using local options for vacation travel, so that you could highlight one of your clients on the Gulf Coast, correct?
Josh: Yes, I am going to discuss David Stidham’s company https://www.cryeleikegulfcoast.com/
https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/travel/alternatives-to-airbnb
4. Michelle: Last article of the day. Regular listeners will know that Josh is a scared-d-cat when it comes to flying, or heights, or trusting man-made zip lines and cable bridges. And I can’t say that I disagree with you on foreign zip lines, however, as someone that deals with hard math everyday, it’s been proven over and over again that flying is one of the safest forms of transportation, statistically. Forbes discusses this in a recent article titled “How Safe Is It To Travel On A Plane? New MIT Research Provides Answer”. This article points out that the chances of dying from a plane crash are now 1 in 13.7 million (Josh – better odds than the lottery but people still play that). This article also details which countries are safer for flying than others, but declined to list the safest airlines. Do you think the Boeing 737-Max statistics are included in this list, Josh?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/brittanyanas/2024/08/12/how-safe-is-it-to-travel-on-a-plane-mit-scientists-have-an-answer/
Josh: Michelle, great job as always with the headlines, these are all important pieces of information that impacts those folks in or near retirement! Listeners – if you would like to continue the conversation with us, then why don’t you give us a call at 251-327-2124 to talk to me or to set up an appointment, or you can always reach out to us via our contact page on our website, gulfcoastfa.com. Don’t forget to click the blue button in the upper right corner to put a 15-minute introductory phone call on my calendar!
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