{"id":51079,"date":"2026-05-24T06:21:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T06:21:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/when-i-was-done-raising-my-kids-i-spent-my-late-40s-traveling-i-forgot-to-save-for-retirement-in-the-process\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T06:21:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T06:21:25","slug":"when-i-was-done-raising-my-kids-i-spent-my-late-40s-traveling-i-forgot-to-save-for-retirement-in-the-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/when-i-was-done-raising-my-kids-i-spent-my-late-40s-traveling-i-forgot-to-save-for-retirement-in-the-process\/","title":{"rendered":"When I was done raising my kids, I spent my late 40s traveling. I forgot to save for retirement in the process."},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/6a10622a51ede568c7e175f0?format=jpeg\" alt=\"The author poses on one of the trips she&#039;s taken as a travel writer.\"\/><figcaption>The author admits she wanted to travel the world. Now she&#039;s questioning if she should have been planning for her future.<\/p>\n<p>Courtesy of Jennifer McGuire.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li>I spent my 20s and 30s raising four kids and dreaming of traveling the world.<\/li>\n<li>When they left home, I prioritized travel over getting a job that might offer a retirement plan.<\/li>\n<li>Now I&#039;m 53 and wondering if I made a big mistake by not planning better for my future. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It occurred to me at 3:32 one morning, the witching-est of hours, the worst possible time to wake up. I was jet-lagged after flying home from Norway. My suitcase was on the floor, waiting to be unpacked and repacked for my next trip in just two weeks.<\/p>\n<p>I had $247 in my checking account. I didn&#039;t want to think about how much was in my savings account because it was probably less.<\/p>\n<p>I am 53 years old, a mother of four adult children, a new-ish travel writer, and I am just now realizing that I have made my life a little ridiculous.<\/p>\n<p>When I wake up the next morning, I&#039;m easier on myself. I&#039;m not ridiculous, even in the middle of the night, I know I&#039;m not. But I think I took a wrong turn a few years back that felt like a right turn at the time.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Travel has always been in my blood<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>I always wanted to travel. Always. When I was raising my four sons as a single mom, I planned out pretend itineraries for myself online on Friday nights instead of socializing. Friends gave me their itineraries for tours of Egypt, for hiking trails through Portugal, and for a weekend in Paris. I followed along with my morning coffee, thinking, &quot;one day.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>I couldn&#039;t travel then, of course. I was in my 30s, raising my kids by myself. I was working cobbled-together jobs as a local baker, waitress, receptionist, anything at all to pay our bills. We survived together, and my sons grew up. They became their own people in their own lives.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/6a10643ab1025a62a5c85fe0?format=jpeg\" alt=\"The author posing while snowshoeing.\"\/><figcaption>The author said that being a travel writer has been a dream job in many ways, but now she is worried that she hasn&#039;t planned enough for her future.<\/p>\n<p>Courtesy of Jennifer McGuire.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Then it was my time to make some decisions about my life. I was young, just 46 years old, when my youngest turned 18. I could have gotten the education I missed out on when I became a young mom at 21. An education that might have led me to a job with a retirement plan and some security.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, I wrote. I wrote for my local paper and online magazines. I wrote about motherhood. Then I finally traveled, small, cheap trips at first that I wrote about for my local paper, for online magazines. And eventually, travel, miraculously, impossibly, became one of my jobs.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>It has been a dream job in many ways<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Being a travel writer has been a dream in so many ways. Especially since it has given me the chance to travel with my adult kids in a way I might never have experienced otherwise. <\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/6a1063e47ff506e273e66812?format=jpeg\" alt=\"The author poses with one of her sons while on safari.\"\/><figcaption>The author said that she has enjoyed traveling with her adult children as part of her travel-writing career.<\/p>\n<p>Courtesy of Jennifer McGuire.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>My son and I went on a safari in South Africa after he got married. I took my daughter-in-law on our own little honeymoon to celebrate our new status together, a journey that sort of anchored us in a different way of bridging that in-law gap. I&#039;ve flown solo to Morocco and Copenhagen, gone on a wellness retreat in Mexico, and stayed in a chateau in the south of France. <br \/>&quot;Must be nice,&quot; is what I hear all the time. And it is.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>I&#039;m not sure what my future will bring<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Every part of this life is incredible. Until I look at my bank account, barely fueled with small payments trickling in for articles I&#039;ve written. Until I see my older face in the mirror and remember I will need to retire someday, and I&#039;ve done nothing to prepare. <br \/>I&#039;ve saved up air miles instead of money. I&#039;ve prioritized experiences over security. I can&#039;t even think about the legacy I&#039;m leaving for my sons. Boarding passes? Novelty tote bags? Branded water bottles from press trip swag bags?<\/p>\n<p>I don&#039;t blame the travel writing for my bank account balance; I blame my all-or-nothing attitude. I know it&#039;s possible to do a little travel and still put money away for retirement. I know this because my 26-year-old son just sat me down with a spreadsheet to help me start saving. <\/p>\n<p>According to his calculations, I might be able to retire by the time I&#039;m 75 and still travel a bit if I&#039;m smart about it. Finally, I might be ready to be smart about money. I&#039;m tired of feeling ridiculous.<\/p>\n<p>Read the original article on Business Insider<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The author admits she wanted to travel the world. Now she&#039;s questioning if she should have been planning for her future. Courtesy of Jennifer McGuire. I spent my 20s and 30s raising four kids and dreaming of traveling the world. When they left home, I prioritized travel over getting a job that might offer a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51080,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-51079","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}