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My Current Portfolio Supports "If Not Now, Than When"

Joined
Jul 20, 2005
Messages
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Location
Long Island, NY
Resorts Owned
Grande Ocean Platinum, 3 x Grand Chateau 3 Bedroom (annual, EOY Odd, EOY Even).,
I think I am entering a new phase of my timeshare ownership and as luck would have it, I think I can delay my 4th re-swizzle of ownership by keeping my current portfolio of a platinum MGO, GC 3 bedroom annual (Enrolled but never exchanged until this year)), a GC 3 bedroom EOY Odd, and Even.

Traveling outside the US was put on hold since 2020 because of COVID (outside of St Thomas and Aruba) I turned 70 this year and while I still see myself as young, a funny incident last year reminds me the world doesn't. I was in Florida for my Moms 96 birthday. My DIL forgot swim diapers so I was given the task of gong to Publix to buy them. To cut down the time looking for them, I asked a worker for the diaper isle only to be send to the adult diaper isle. So given I am turning 70 in 2025, I am retiring in months, my DIL is pregnant again, my two boys are well established and finally a pattern typical of boys has developed that my wife and I lose every jump ball to my DIL's parents (sorry Knick fever), we started thinking "if not now, than when" for traveling abroad for the majority of our travel.

To put the plan in motion, in December 2024 planned HHI trip changed to the Cayman Islands. We put a plan is place for 2025 that included a 13 day trip to Italy for late March and a 16 day London (4 day), Iceland cruise (12 day) leaving from Dover ( travel begins this week). We have two weeks in HHI this summer and who knows what else in fall. For 2025 I rented my MGO week, exchanged my EOY for two weeks in HHI (MGO) and exchanged my annual MGC for points (4625). I used 350 of my rented points to add to the 4625 to reserve 2 weeks that I rented in 2025. This renting covered my MF's and costs while giving me 2 summer weeks in HHI for 2025. I plan on this continuing in 2026 and beyond. As MF continues to raise, at some point covering MF and getting 2 free weeks might not be possible or I might enter another phase of ownership but time will tell.
 
That’s a funny story and sounds like a great plan. Have a great time!
 
That’s good advice for any age… if not now when? Covid stopped us in our tracks, but we are back to travelling.

I must admit I’m not into the whole plane ride these days as seats shrink and then business class is not exactly inexpensive….

We’ve resorted to the airfare points game and there are some affordable options if you’re flexible.

Renting weeks is not something we have done, but we have shared points with family to make memories...
 
That’s good advice for any age… if not now when? Covid stopped us in our tracks, but we are back to travelling.

I must admit I’m not into the whole plane ride these days as seats shrink and then business class is not exactly inexpensive….
I hear this a lot, but really the economy seats seem bigger now to me than back in the aughts. IDK, I guess it depends on the plane.
 
I must admit I’m not into the whole plane ride these days as seats shrink and then business class is not exactly inexpensive….
Can only speak for myself, but my seat grew more than the planes seat shrunk.

Anything over 3 hours i try and get the extra legroom. often it is affordable,
 
My wife and I are almost the same age as you, so we are in similar life stages. The main difference is our two mid-twenties/early-thirties kids are still single and both are living the life in New York City, so no grand kids for us yet. We have found that a mix of timeshare-based resort travel and international trips/cruises is a perfect mix for our retirement "Go-Go" years.

Covid didn't really slow down our travel all that much, although an Alaska cruise scheduled for June 2020 was cancelled. Also, the international testing rules did keep us stateside for about 18 months. We lucked out and got our annual 2020 Hawaii trip done in February before things went crazy in March 2020. We got back to traveling by November 2020 with a trip to Marriott Crystal Shores in Marco Island, and in 1Q 2021 we skipped Hawaii (since they were still pretty locked down) and went back to Florida with a trip to Ocean Pointe in Palm Beach in March 2021. By Fall 2021, Hawaii had loosened up, so we went to Maui and Kauai in October.

By 2022, we were pretty much back on schedule with a February trip to Maui and the Big Island, a fall trip to Marriott Desert Springs, and a November trip to Paris, France for our 30th wedding anniversary. Since then, we've used our timeshares for three annual Hawaii trips, a week in Palm Desert, a week in Aruba, a week in Tuscany, Italy using our HGVC ownership (with a hotel extension in Florence, Italy; Munich, Germany; and Salzburg, Austria), and a week in Los Cabos also using HGVC. We've also done a hotel stay in the Cayman Islands, several trips to NYC to visit our kids, a Greek Isles cruise, and a World War II history tour in England. We leave in three weeks for five days in London plus a 16-night cruise from Southampton to France, Spain, and Portugal.

So, timeshares and other forms of travel can work great together in retirement - timeshares for relaxing resort vacations with beaches and pools, and other types of travel for seeing the world.

The funny thing is, our Millennial kids seem to travel more than we do! In the last year, our son has spent two weeks in Japan, a week in Bonaire scuba diving, a week hiking in the Grand Canyon and Zion National Parks, a week on a sailboat in La Paz, Mexico, and a week in the Canary Islands and Milan, Italy. He leaves Monday with his girlfriend to go to a friend's wedding in Quito, Ecuador, and then they fly straight from Quito to Provence, France for another friend's wedding. Over the last year, our daughter has been to Puerto Rico, Mexico City, Cancun, Portugal, London, Barcelona, Czech Republic, and Croatia. The amazing thing is all these trips by our kids were leisure trips, not work related. It's pretty embarrassing for a retiree when your kids out-travel you!
 
Age, one of us in their 80s and the other in their late 70s, has partly caught up with us. My wife cannot walk as long as she used to so no more trips to London where we did lots of walking. Same is true for Las Vegas, but we still have lots of travel coming up using what we own, II, and Abound points. We’re off to San Francisco next month for week; Park City in July although no more walking far up Main St.; in November we will have nine nights in Aruba; in December we’re cruising on the Sun Princess; and in February 2026 we will be in Palm Desert.
 
My wife and I are almost the same age as you, so we are in similar life stages. The main difference is our two mid-twenties/early-thirties kids are still single and both are living the life in New York City, so no grand kids for us yet. We have found that a mix of timeshare-based resort travel and international trips/cruises is a perfect mix for our retirement "Go-Go" years.

Covid didn't really slow down our travel all that much, although an Alaska cruise scheduled for June 2020 was cancelled. Also, the international testing rules did keep us stateside for about 18 months. We lucked out and got our annual 2020 Hawaii trip done in February before things went crazy in March 2020. We got back to traveling by November 2020 with a trip to Marriott Crystal Shores in Marco Island, and in 1Q 2021 we skipped Hawaii (since they were still pretty locked down) and went back to Florida with a trip to Ocean Pointe in Palm Beach in March 2021. By Fall 2021, Hawaii had loosened up, so we went to Maui and Kauai in October.

By 2022, we were pretty much back on schedule with a February trip to Maui and the Big Island, a fall trip to Marriott Desert Springs, and a November trip to Paris, France for our 30th wedding anniversary. Since then, we've used our timeshares for three annual Hawaii trips, a week in Palm Desert, a week in Aruba, a week in Tuscany, Italy using our HGVC ownership (with a hotel extension in Florence, Italy; Munich, Germany; and Salzburg, Austria), and a week in Los Cabos also using HGVC. We've also done a hotel stay in the Cayman Islands, several trips to NYC to visit our kids, a Greek Isles cruise, and a World War II history tour in England. We leave in three weeks for five days in London plus a 16-night cruise from Southampton to France, Spain, and Portugal.

So, timeshares and other forms of travel can work great together in retirement - timeshares for relaxing resort vacations with beaches and pools, and other types of travel for seeing the world.

The funny thing is, our Millennial kids seem to travel more than we do! In the last year, our son has spent two weeks in Japan, a week in Bonaire scuba diving, a week hiking in the Grand Canyon and Zion National Parks, a week on a sailboat in La Paz, Mexico, and a week in the Canary Islands and Milan, Italy. He leaves Monday with his girlfriend to go to a friend's wedding in Quito, Ecuador, and then they fly straight from Quito to Provence, France for another friend's wedding. Over the last year, our daughter has been to Puerto Rico, Mexico City, Cancun, Portugal, London, Barcelona, Czech Republic, and Croatia. The amazing thing is all these trips by our kids were leisure trips, not work related. It's pretty embarrassing for a retiree when your kids out-travel you!

God Bless you & your kiddos for the nice travel & work/life balance!
#Goals, for some of us...
 
2 weeks around Italy completed. Iceland, Scotland, Ireland cruise sandwiched between 2 days on both ends in London complete. The joy of traveling again and the exhaustion when completed helped drive the decision. Retiring July 4th, Independence day. Experimenting the last couple of years on a part time business timeshare related that I will decide before year end if it is worth continuing.
 
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