How to Travel Cheap in Retirement and Still Hit Bucket List Trips w/ Jillian Sidoti

0:05Jillian Sidoti:Welcome to the Wealthy After 40 podcast, the show for Gen X women and couples who are ready to ditch financial stress and feel confident about retirement. I'm your host, Dailene Higgins, money coach and retirement strategist to help you gain clarity and confidence with your money by creating a spending plan that aligns with your financial goals and dreams so you can spend intentionally, save consistently, and feel at peace about your future. Join me every week to understand your money, simplify your decisions, and take intentional steps toward the life you want.

0:48Jillian Sidoti:Jillian Zadotti is an entrepreneur, traveler, and co-founder of Last Life Ever, a platform built on the idea that you shouldn't wait for retirement to live well. A mom of three based in Rincon, Puerto Rico, she shares her adventures at Last Life Travel and helps people design lives full of meaning experiences. Thank you for joining us here today, Jillian. excited to talk to Jillian. She is quote, a travel expert. So we're talking about traveling today. And I know many of us, as we head into retirement, that is something we really think about our thinking. That's what we're going to do. So I thought, you know what, Jillian would come and share.

1:35Jillian Sidoti:She's set up some amazing travel trips. I'm sure she'll share those with you and then basically how to plan and prepare. So Jillian, before we jump into the questions I have to get us talking about those things specifically, share who you are and what you do and how you got into the really the travel side of it all. Yeah. So it's interesting. I was an attorney for 15 years and my life was like pretty, pretty miserable. It was interesting because I was having this really great career and yet I found myself just wishing I didn't have it anymore. I was making a ton of money and I just didn't want to have it anymore.

2:18I ended up going to a conference and I met this guy who's now my business partner. And he said to me, oh yeah, I used to be a lawyer. And I remember thinking, oh yeah, I want to be, I used to be a lawyer. And he told me a story about how he, and this is his story, but I'm going to tell it anyhow. He told me a story about how he was a bankruptcy attorney, a very successful bankruptcy attorney. And he got really sick when he was in Peru at Machu Picchu, got home and found out he had leukemia and thought he was going to die and went through all of that, the chemo treatment and whole nine things. And when he came out of the fog of leukemia, he realized, I'm just, I'm not going to do this attorney stuff anymore.

3:11Not only that, he had to file for bankruptcy. Right. So it was like this whole, what am I doing with my life? And he was already committed to traveling. And for me, I wanted my kids to have a life of travel that I did not get when I was a child. I grew up in a very middle class situation, but I was also the oldest of five kids. So our idea of travel was getting in the station wagon and driving, fighting the entire down the I-95 and fighting the entire way and then ending up somewhere or minivan, whatever it was that year. And I remember thinking when my kids were born, you're not waiting. I think I was 20 when I got my passport for the very first time.

3:53And I remember when my youngest was born, I have three kids, my youngest was born. He literally, he was fresh out of the womb. I still have his first passport and I got him a passport almost immediately. And that's really when I started going, I'm going to travel and I'm going to travel hardcore. I'm never going to say no to travel opportunities. And that became even more clear when my husband and I planned a trip that we had been planning for all intents and purposes, our entire lives together, right? We'd probably been together at that point in time. My oldest was seven. So we'd been together for about 15, 16 years at that point in time, we won an auction, a church auction for a trip to Italy.

4:46And this was a trip that we had planned to take before my oldest was even born, right? We bought the auction and then we still had to plan the trip. We still had to plan when we're going to go, when to take the kids out of school, that kind of thing. So we ended up planning 18 months out. And a month before, my husband, kill me if I told you this, my husband had a yoga accident and tore his labrum and his hip so badly that he couldn't even sit in a car, let alone be on a plane for eight hours. so that was a moment in time where I had to make a decision was I going to take three kids to Italy by myself or was I going to sit at home and feel sorry for myself and my husband's going on that trip and so that's what I did I took I think I said the wrong thing my son was seven he was not seven he was 10 so my oldest was 10 and then I had a seven-year-old and a three-year-old and we went to Italy and we spent two weeks in Italy by ourselves.

5:57My aunt came out and met with us for a little while and she hung out with us for a little bit, which was great because I had an extra room. I had an extra hotel room that I already paid for. So somebody might as well use it. And after that, I figured out every trip I've ever wanted to take, I've figured it out. How are we going to do this? Am I paying for it with points? Am I going to save for it? What are we going to do? And that's it. And then there's going to be those times where you're like, okay, maybe I can't afford the$15 ,000 Tahitian vacation. That's okay. You don't have to go to Tahiti.

6:28If you can find other things to do, there's a big wide world out there. You just have to figure out what you're going to do and how you're going to do it.

6:36Jillian Sidoti:I love that. And I love that you said Tahiti people talk about, and if you can't afford that, which I've been working with a client and she's got on her radar this big trip. So I Googled something similar and I'm like, oh, there's tons of places local that wouldn't cost her as much. So it's looking at the options and things like that. So I love that story. I love taking your three kids by yourself. I'm glad your aunt could go and support you. For someone who dreams of traveling more but doesn't know where to begin, they didn't get thrown into the auction, thrown into the fire. I've got to take my three little ones by myself.

7:10Jillian Sidoti:What are the first few steps you recommend? end? The first thing is you got to have a goal in mind. You absolutely have to. I want to go to blankety blank. And the word someday should never come out the end of that sentence. It always should be just a definitive. I want to go to X. And then you have to set yourself a deadline of when you're going to go by. It's not someday. Someday is never. You might as well just say, I want to go to, and I'll use right now, we have a big trip to Egypt plan. So I'll say, I want to go to Egypt never is the same as saying, I want to go to Egypt someday. Because you'll just, if you live in that kind of like unknown, it will be a never that I'll tell you what the known is.

7:51The known is that it's never going to happen. And I've met a lot of people in that particular situation. So the big thing is to set your mind on a goal and then set a date for that goal, just like any other goal that you would set, whether it's a career goal or a retirement goal or a housing goal, whatever your goal is, it's no different for travel.

8:11Jillian Sidoti:I like that. That's huge. That's insightful. So what are some ways people can travel without feeling like they have to spend a fortune? The first thing you want to check out is where is it cheap to travel? There's some really exotic places that are crazy cheap to travel. Vietnam, Bali, Egypt. Now, there's certain things you have to know before you go type of things. in going to all of those places, but all of those places are relatively expensive. You could go to Tanzania for relatively low money if you do it correctly. If you find the right plane ticket, the most expensive thing in Tanzania is the plane ticket.

8:56You can stay in some really nice places for low money in a place like Tanzania and go on safari. so those are the things you want to explore is where is your dollar your your good old u.s american dollar going to go the farthest and then where can you get a good a great deal on plane tickets and are you willing to go when everybody else isn't willing to go some of the best trips i've taken especially with my kids were the week before thanksgiving right and not thanksgiving excuse me christmas right i remember this one particular time we were like in cabo san Lucas, Mexico, and, or it was either Cabo or somewhere in Mexico, Cancun, some big tourist destination.

9:39And we were staying at one of those all-inclusive resorts. And we were there until the 18th of December. And the 18th of December was when we were leaving. And the 18th of December is when that resort got crazy busy. And it was like, oh, I'm so glad I'm leaving right now. And those people paid a premium for being there that week. And it was way more expensive. It was not just way more expensive. The staff is more taxed. Your service isn't going to be as good. The food's probably not going to be as good because everything's rushed and there's so many people. Those are the things you really want to consider.

10:14Am I willing to go when others aren't? Like, for example, going to Paris in November as opposed to in the springtime, right? If Paris is your dream to go there. And by the way, I'm actually going to Paris in a week. there's a lot of cheap things you can do in Paris if you do it right I've stayed at a ton of Airbnbs in Paris as opposed to hotels which is super helpful are you going to get a view of the the Eiffel Tower I have some news for you you can see the Eiffel Tower from all kinds of different places in Paris you don't need to be looking out your hotel window at it you can stay at a decent Airbnb and do okay, or even stay at an efficiency motel hotel that like is just great.

11:01One of my favorite hotels is a budget hotel in London and it's called Premier Inn and it's absolutely fabulous. And you can get family size rooms and things like that for the cost of a regular hotel room that has more frills. You really got to consider how much time am I spending in my hotel room? Do I need a decent night's sleep with clean sheets and a clean bathroom that's safe? That's really what you need.

11:25Jillian Sidoti:I agree. It's like making those adjustments and really fleshing that out. We ended up, because of different reasons, not because we chose to go there, we ended up in South Carolina in December. Beach was empty. It was like the week before Christmas, and it was 60 degrees. It was not 89, but from where we were from, which was 30 at the time, 60 was really quite pleasant and enjoyable. We didn't have to find a tourist. So I love that suggestion as well. I know you mentioned travel points. How does somebody go about that if they're unfamiliar or maybe some tips and tricks on that? This is where AI is like your super best friend at this.

12:05Asked me two, three years ago about this tip And of course it didn't even exist, but now you can gather points somewhere. And my point gathering of choice is American Express Platinum, which not everybody is going to be like, is going to want to do that because American Express Platinum also comes with a very hefty yearly fee. But American Express Platinum has paid itself in spades. It really has. but you can also do the chase sapphire preferred card or the capital one. Oh, I forget the name, but one of the capital one cards. So you just want to kind of research that, but then what you can do with AI is go just ask them, what can I do with all these platinum points that I have?

12:51Cause rarely is the good deal that you can just buy travel on American express travel site, except, and this is one of the reasons I love American express travel points. So much the platinum card so much. They have a thing where every half year, they give you a$300 credit on their, on their fine hotels or hotel collection hotels, which you can find on their website and you book it through their website. I got a hotel in Dubai for pretty much free. that was a Hilton Canopy, beautiful hotel, right on the water with$100 hotel credit as well. If I wish I could show you pictures, I know we're on, like we don't have a, but this hotel was gorgeous.

13:43It was an incredibly great location with amazing food. I went there during Ramadan. They had, when you go to the Middle East and there's happening, the food after sundown is like nothing you've ever had in your life. It's amazing. It's amazing. And it's everywhere. I couldn't even believe it. My son and I could not spend the money fast enough because also the dollar goes, even though Dubai, UAE is a very wealthy country, the dollar does still go pretty far. So my hotel room, I think for one night was like a hundred dollars. We stayed there for two nights. It was like$100 or$150. I actually booked it last minute.

14:23So it was a little more expensive than it usually was. And then I got the$300 American Express hotel credit. And then on top of it, I got$100 because I booked through American Express. I got a $100 credit with the hotel and an upgraded room. Things like that, where you say, okay, I'm going out. I'm going on vacation for two weeks and you can stay two nights on a bookend of your vacation at a really nice place, it makes it worth it. That's usually something I do. For example, last time I went to Tanzania on safari, safari can be like, I don't want to say it's rough on your body, but you're in a safari truck for eight to 10 hours a day.

15:06So it's a lot of driving and it's a lot of being out in the Serengeti or some of the other parks. And so it's just, it's tiring. It's exhausting. It's a little dirty. And even though Tanzania is an incredibly clean country, believe it or not. What did we do? We stayed at a five-star resort at the beginning and the end of our trip. So it felt like a little luxury in the trip. And it was just the perfect end to the trip. And still the hotel, because it's Tanzania, the hotel, even though it was a five-star resort, was really inexpensive. One of my friends who was with us literally every night was there got a massage because it was so cheap.

15:46So, but listen, I have a lot of friends who are, we're talking pretty, we're talking some pretty exotic places. And I have a lot of friends who go, I can't travel that far. I just can't do it. I can't do it. Or I don't want to be on a, my husband's a perfect example. Ever since that trip to Italy, now he will not get on a transatlantic flight. He's like, I don't have to do it. It's not something I have to do. You don't me to go. And he's right. I don't. I have plenty of travel partners and companions and I like to stay married and it's not for him. But I have other friends who it's not that they don't like to get on planes.

16:21They're downright afraid of planes or they're afraid. I've had a couple of family members who tell me straight out they're afraid to leave the country, which listen, I can't help you overcome that. I can just tell you what my own personal experience is, especially that last trip to Tanzania, I took my 11 year old with me and we were fine. And we went all over the Middle East and Africa by ourselves and we were fine. But that's not the point of this. The point of this is to tell you, you don't have to, you don't have to go to super exotic places to have a super exotic time. And, and one thing I would say to people is that if you are worried about retirement and saving for retirement and still experiencing life to the fullest is to really look in your own backyard because that 11 year old who can't take it when I leave without him, he can't, he thinks I have audacity when I travel without him now.

17:13Yeah. As a matter of fact, he doesn't understand why I didn't plan a trip to Australia this summer. He swears I promised him a trip to Australia this summer that did not happen, but he swears it did. But that same 11 year old was, swear words are appropriate here, but I will not use them. That same 11 year old was the worst toddler on the planet. He was a nightmare. He was a nightmare to bring anywhere long road. I could not possibly bring him on a plane. He would terrorize everyone he would come in contact with. So when he was that age and so impossible, I just knew I couldn't bring him on a plane.

17:55So I didn't. And what we did instead for my kids who were older and they wanted to adventure, we just went to the biggest city for me at the time was San Diego. And just once a week, we'd go down to San Diego and find a new international restaurant and eat at that international restaurant and then go and do something in San Diego. And usually what we did, because I had a nightmare child, usually what we did is we would go to the, it was during the summertime, we'd go to the outdoor symphony. and so we would have a dinner at a international restaurant my kid was acting out I would just take him out of the restaurant and then we go to the outdoor symphony and that was somewhere where he could run we could sit in the back he could run around make all the noise he wanted and bother nobody and I know we're talking to people who are not raising hellions they've raised their right we're talking to people who are looking to retire but my point is like you don't have to get on a long plane ride, travel to exotic destinations, move points all over the place, or save for years and years to really experience international cuisine or really experience adventure in your life.

19:07And you can do it right in your own backyard. You just got to find it. During COVID, my oldest son was crazy sick with, he got crazy sick with COVID and was pretty convalescent for many months, just wouldn't move off the couch because he hadn't moved in months. So he got COVID in March of 2020 and July of 2020 rolled around and he was still like sleeping 10 hours a day. It was awful. He was a 12 year old boy. So it was pretty scary. And then if he wasn't sleeping, he was just laying and staring, not doing anything. And so I just threw him in the car. Again, we lived in Southern California. I threw him all in the car.

19:47I said, get in the car. We're going on a trip. I just drove to Yellowstone. We're just going to drive to Wyoming. That's a long drive. You're going to get some fresh air. And honestly, and so we stopped at a couple of places on the way. We stopped Zion National Park. We stopped at a couple other places and then we made it to Yellowstone. We went to Teton and we went to Yellowstone. And then we came back. And on our way back, we stopped in Vegas. And I have the greatest video of my son jumping on the bed. And again, American Express points paid for that hotel. I got the credit and it was COVID.

20:28So everything was cheap. I have the greatest video of my 12 year old jumping on the bed at the Wynn Hotel in Vegas during COVID because just getting them out of the house and getting them moving. And that's how travel and seeing something new can really revitalize you for the next part of your journey.

20:48Jillian Sidoti:I love that. I know. And I want to talk about that, that you've done some adventurous trips, but I love that you can share how to find adventure without like my husband, my daughter, they do not want to fly over water. They don't want to be on the plane for that long. Two hours is just so much for them, but yet you can find it a lot closer through different means. So I love that. But what I would love for you to share with listeners now are the adventures that you're planning. And I know the one trip is booked, but some other ways and maybe they can connect with you in the future. Oh, absolutely.

21:25The first one that I want to encourage people to come and join us is an incredible Dominican Republic trip that we're doing in the Northern. It's not in a tour. one of the things we don't do is anything. My business partner, the one who had leukemia that I talked about, one thing that we don't do is anything that you'll typically find anywhere else. That's the whole point of what we do. It's supposed to be an adventure that is bespoke and you can't get anywhere else. And he and I have done the adventure at some point in time. So we know all the ins and outs. And so one we're doing in October, if you guys want to join us, is at the Dominican Republic, but not in any of the very well-known tourist destinations, but in the northern part of the Dominican Republic in a place called Las Terenas.

22:12And we're going to stay at a really small resort that I actually happen to be an investor in. And we're going to go adventuring around and see waterfalls and beautiful white sand beaches and go on a catamaran and go to the national park and things like that. Things that you typically wouldn't do, you know, going to a all-inclusive resort in Punta Cana, right? So that's one, the one you're referring to. And by the way, if you're really interested in this particular trip to anybody who's listening, I want to encourage you to reach out to me because we're actually going to Egypt next week to see if we can get more spaces available.

22:53So if you're interested, please reach out to me and we'll see if we can squeeze you on, but we are going to Egypt to see a once in a civilization event. And that event is the solar eclipse over Luxor. This has actually never happened in recorded history and won't happen for thousands more years. And so this is a luxury trip that we are going to be taking, we start in Cairo and then we're going to do some Cairo things. And then we are going, we're going to go see the pyramids in Giza and we're going to take a boat ride down the Nile river and we're going to, yeah, we're going to fly back from Luxor to, but when we get down to Luxor, we're going to see the eclipse and you just, there's no other time you're ever going to be able to see this again in your life.

23:47So if you want to join us for that, you can. And yeah, that's in 2027. So that's an August, that's a year away. And we already sold out of that trip because that's just such a, I can't, I can't reproduce it.

23:58Jillian Sidoti:Yeah. That's amazing. I love that about how you guys are setting up trips and creating different adventures, but also how you shared with us that you can find adventure in your own local, not too far, maybe even I'm guessing 18 hour drive that you take from Southern California to Yellowstone, right? Making it happen. So yeah, how can listeners connect with you, learn more about you? Yeah, I would love that. Just check us out at lastlifeever.com and you can sign up for our mailing list and you can reach out to me directly. And I love connecting with people, particularly on Facebook. So if you'd like to come and friend me on Facebook, it's Jillian Sidoti on Facebook.

24:38Awesome.

24:39Jillian Sidoti:We'll make sure those links are down in the show notes. And so if you're thinking about traveling before or after retirement, I hope this was helpful. I hope you reach out with Jillian. And I want to thank you for being here. Is there any one last word, piece of advice that you want to share with our listeners, Jillian? Just get out there and start small. If travel seems scary and expensive, then just start small. Do something small, but make it extraordinary. And I swear you'll never stop after that. I love that. Thank you. And thank you for taking the time with us today. I appreciate it. Absolutely.

25:14Thank you.

25:42Jillian Sidoti:and building a clear path toward retirement. And remember, retirement isn't just a dream, it's a plan and you get to make it possible.