Every grandparent I've ever spoken with has some version of the same dream. Showing up when it matters most. Being there for the moments that only happen once.

Most retirement plans don't budget for that. My mother's did.

She landed at Logan Airport on a Friday night, took a cab to The Langham hotel in downtown Boston, and waited. No announcement. No itinerary. Just a woman who decided she was done waiting for the right time and bought a plane ticket.

The next morning, my daughter woke up and there she was. Grammy. Standing in the hotel room with that smile that changes the whole energy of a room. My daughter's face lit up like it was Christmas morning. And then my son, just four months old, saw her. The giggles coming out of that kid. I don't care what anyone says. There is no sound on earth like a baby laughing at his grandmother for the first time in weeks.

My wife Elise and I just stood there watching, and I thought: this is what a retirement plan is actually for.

The best retirement income plans build in a travel budget from day one. Not as a luxury. As a planning category. Research shows retirees who spend on experiences during their early active years, roughly ages 62 to 75, report higher life satisfaction and often stay within their income plan without drawing down principal. Grammy's trip to Boston didn't blow up her financial plan. Her financial plan made room for exactly this moment.

And that got me thinking about how many plans don't.

She Didn't Ask If She Could Afford It

Here's what really stayed with me. My mom didn't call to ask if this trip made financial sense. She didn't run the numbers on whether a weekend in Boston would set her back. She just called and said, "I'm coming. See you next week."

That's it. No guilt. No hesitation. No committee meeting with her financial statements.

And I couldn't help but think about how different that is from how her parents did things. My grandparents would sit at home and wait. They'd call and ask when we were coming to visit. And we'd try, because we loved them, but with busy schedules and young kids and work and all the things that fill up a life, the visits got pushed and postponed and sometimes just didn't happen. Not because anyone didn't care. Because life is relentless, and the people who wait for others to come to them often end up waiting a long time.

My mom broke that cycle. She got on a plane.

She could do that because somewhere along the way, someone helped her build a plan where a $2,000 trip to see her grandkids wasn't a crisis. It was a line item. And I keep asking myself: how many grandparents out there have the means to do the same thing but don't, because no one ever told them it was okay?

The Retirement Travel Budget Nobody Talks About

I work with retirees every single day at American Retirement Advisors in Scottsdale, Arizona. I'm not an advisor who sits across from clients. I'm the COO. I see the plans. I hear the conversations. And here's what I can tell you from thousands of them: almost everybody plans for housing costs, healthcare premiums, and maybe some food and utilities. The essentials.

Almost nobody plans for joy.

The average grandparent spends about $3,948 a year on their grandchildren, according to Kiplinger. Financial advisors typically recommend setting aside 5 to 10 percent of your annual retirement income for travel and experiences. For high-net-worth retirees, that number often runs 15 to 20 percent in those early active years. And it should.

Because that money in your account? It's not a scoreboard. It's a tool. My uncle used to say, "You can always make more money, but you can't make more time. Use it wisely." He was right then, and he's right now.

Grammy's round-trip flight, hotel at The Langham, a few meals out, maybe a rideshare or two. Call it $2,000. The memories she's making this weekend won't just last her lifetime. They'll last my kids' lifetimes. My daughter will tell people about the morning Grammy surprised her at a hotel in Boston for the rest of her life. My son won't remember it consciously, but the bond being built in those giggles? That's real. That's lasting.

The question isn't whether you can afford a trip like that. For most of the families we work with, you can. The question is whether your plan gave you permission to take it.

The 3 Stages of Retirement Spending (And Where Grammy Is)

Retirement spending doesn't follow a straight line. It follows a curve, and understanding that curve is the difference between spending with confidence and spending with guilt.

Stage 1: The Go-Go Years (roughly 62 to 75). This is when you're healthy, mobile, and finally have time. Travel peaks. Experiences peak. Grandkid visits peak. Grammy is right here, right now. This is her window, and she's using it.

Stage 2: The Slow-Go Years (roughly 75 to 85). Discretionary spending naturally dips. You still travel, but maybe closer to home. Maybe shorter trips. The pace changes, and that's okay.

Stage 3: The No-Go Years (85 and beyond). Healthcare costs rise. Mobility limits what's possible. The money you didn't spend in Stage 1 doesn't magically become more useful here. It just sits there, outliving the moments it was meant to fund.

The clients I talk to who built their income plan with Stage 1 in mind? They're the ones getting on planes. They're the ones showing up at hotel rooms at 7 AM to surprise their grandkids. The ones who didn't plan for it? They're home, calling and asking when the kids are coming to visit.

I don't say that to be harsh. I say it because I watched both versions play out in my own family. And the difference wasn't money. It was planning.

When to Start Spending Your Retirement Savings

This is the question I hear more than almost any other. And the answer is simpler than most people think.

Start now. Start in Stage 1. Start while your knees work and your grandkids still think you're the coolest person alive.

That window is real, and it doesn't stay open forever.

The data backs this up. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey, households headed by someone 65 to 74 spend significantly less than working-age households. Retirees consistently underspend relative to what their plan can actually support. They have permission to spend, but they don't feel it. Something in the back of their mind says "what if I need that later?" and the trip doesn't get booked.

A recent Kiplinger report found that 49 percent of baby boomers say they'd rather fund a family trip of a lifetime than leave a larger inheritance. That's nearly half. The trend even has a name now: SKI, which stands for Spending Kids' Inheritance. And 80 percent of boomers say they're happy to pay for kids and grandkids to travel together.

The desire is there. What's often missing is the structural confidence. That quiet voice that says, "Yes, I can book this flight, and no, it won't derail my future."

That confidence comes from one place: an income plan that accounted for it. One of our advisors put it perfectly in a client meeting: "The biggest thing is you're going to have increasing income, you're going to be able to take your trips. We've got the long-term care benefit covered. Your account values are still growing." When a client hears that, something shifts. The guilt lifts. The permission becomes real. And the next thing you know, they're booking a flight.

What Traveling Grandparents Actually Need to Think About

Grammy's trip was a long weekend. But plenty of the families we work with split their time between states for weeks or months at a stretch. They're snowbirds. They're grandparents spending the summer near the grandkids in Pennsylvania or Indiana or Colorado. And that changes the healthcare conversation in ways most people don't expect.

Here's what catches people off guard: Medicare Advantage plans do cover emergency care nationwide. If something urgent happens while you're visiting family across the country, you're covered. That's not the gap.

The gap is routine care. If you're spending two or three months a year near your grandkids in another state, you probably want to see a primary care doctor there. Get your labs done. Stay on top of the things that keep you healthy enough to keep making these trips. And that's where plan selection matters, because not every Medicare Advantage plan lets you establish care with a provider outside your home service area.

I've seen this play out in real conversations. One client had been traveling back to Pennsylvania for two or three months every year to be near family after retiring. He told us, "I've been spending more and more time traveling since I retired." The issue wasn't emergencies. It was that he wanted a doctor he could see regularly on both coasts, so he wasn't scrambling if something came up. His plan didn't support that, and it took a consultation to find one that did.

Another couple splitting time between Arizona and Indiana every summer. Same thing. They didn't need emergency coverage. They needed a plan that let them live in two places without worrying about whether a routine visit would be out of network.

When the plan supports your life, your life doesn't have to work around the plan. That's a small distinction that makes a massive difference for anyone who travels regularly to see the people they love.

What The Langham Has to Do With Income Planning

My daughter has a list. She's got a full itinerary planned for Grammy this weekend. Top of the list? The Morning Buzz, a little breakfast spot near our house in Amesbury, Massachusetts, where she loves the Mickey Mouse pancakes. That's where she's taking Grammy first thing. Not some fancy Boston restaurant. A pancake place in a small town where the waitress knows her name.

I watched her explain the plan to Grammy with the kind of seriousness only an four-year-old can pull off, and it hit me: this is what retirement income planning actually protects. Not the big stuff. The small stuff that turns out to be the biggest stuff of all.

Grammy didn't fly to Boston for a luxury vacation. She flew here because my son is four months old and growing every single day, and my daughter has a pancake place she wants to share, and none of that waits. Money waits. Kids don't.

When we build income plans at American Retirement Advisors, the goal isn't just to make sure you don't run out of money. The goal is to make sure you actually use it. That you have a Grammy Fund built into your distribution strategy. That the $2,000 for a flight, a hotel, and Mickey Mouse pancakes is already accounted for. Not something you have to justify after the fact. Not something you feel guilty about. Something you planned for, because you knew this moment was coming.

How to Budget for Retirement Travel Without Guilt

If Grammy's story sounds like the trip you've been putting off, here's where to start:

Name the expense. "Travel to see family" is a real budget category. Put it in your income plan alongside healthcare and housing. Give it a number. When it has a name, it has permission.
Front-load the fun. Your Go-Go years are a finite window. According to Social Security Administration actuarial tables, a 65-year-old woman today has a life expectancy of approximately 87 years. That's roughly 10 to 15 strong travel years. The grandkids won't be little forever. Use them.
Check your coverage before you book. Original Medicare (Parts A and B) covers emergency care anywhere in the United States, according to CMS.gov. But if you're spending extended time in another state, make sure your plan supports routine care there too. The last thing you want is to avoid the doctor because you're not sure if you're covered 1,500 miles from home.
Do the real math. Grammy's trip cost about $2,000. Over a year of quarterly visits, that's $8,000. That's well within the 5 to 10 percent travel budget most advisors recommend, and nowhere close to the amount most retirees leave unspent out of fear.
Remember what the money is for. It's not for your account statement. It's for the look on your granddaughter's face when she wakes up and Grammy is standing there. It's for the giggles your grandson makes when he sees you for the first time in a month. It's for Mickey Mouse pancakes on a Tuesday morning in a town you'd never visit if it weren't for love.

My uncle was right. You can always make more money. You cannot make more time. And the best retirement plans don't just protect your future. They give you permission to live it.

What Retirees Actually Ask Us About Travel and Spending

When should you start spending your retirement savings?

Most financial planners recommend beginning intentional retirement spending in the early active phase, typically ages 62 to 75, when health and mobility are strongest. Waiting too long often means leaving money unspent while health declines. A well-structured income plan accounts for this by building a dedicated experiences budget from the start.

What are the stages of retirement spending?

Retirement spending typically follows three stages: the active phase (early retirement, higher travel and experience spending), the passive phase (mid-retirement, lower discretionary spending, higher healthcare costs), and the care phase (late retirement, medical costs dominant). Most income plans underestimate the active phase and overestimate the passive phase.

How much should I budget for travel in retirement?

A common guideline is 5 to 10 percent of annual retirement income allocated to travel and experiences, though high-net-worth retirees often budget 15 to 20 percent in the active phase. The key is treating travel as a planned expense category in your income strategy, not an afterthought funded by whatever is left over.

What is multigenerational travel?

Multigenerational travel refers to trips that include grandparents, adult children, and grandchildren traveling together. It has become one of the fastest-growing retirement spending categories. According to AARP, more than 40 percent of family vacations now include at least one grandparent, with grandparents often covering a significant portion of trip costs.

Does Medicare cover me when I travel to visit family in another state?

Yes. Original Medicare (Parts A and B) covers emergency and medically necessary care anywhere in the United States. Medicare Advantage plans also cover emergencies nationwide. The difference shows up with routine care: if you're spending weeks or months near family in another state, not every plan lets you establish care with a local provider there. If you travel regularly, confirm your plan supports routine care in both locations.

This article reflects the personal views of the author based on years of experience in the retirement planning industry. It is intended for educational purposes and should not be considered personalized financial, tax, or legal advice. Please consult a qualified financial advisor, tax professional, or attorney before making decisions about your retirement income, travel budget, or Medicare coverage.

About the author: Ian Schaeffer is Chief Operating Officer at American Retirement Advisors in Scottsdale, Arizona, where he and his team help retirees build income plans designed for living, not just surviving. He lives in Amesbury, Massachusetts with his wife Elise and their two children.