Travel When You Are Young: 5 Great Reasons Not to Wait for Retirement
When it comes to financial planning, the ability to delay gratification is an important life skill. Putting off some discretionary spending frees up money that can grow into something much bigger for one’s later years. However, if you have the means to travel when you are young, these are solid reasons to do so rather than wait until retirement to travel and see the world.
Why travel when you are young instead of after retirement
Is it important for young people to travel? I think so, especially when it is in done in the spirit of learning instead of checking off a list. Here are my reasons to not wait.
Life commitments will hold you back
As one grows older and takes on more responsibilities, these will limit your opportunities to travel far and wide. Your time is no longer just yours–it has to be planning around your partner, your children and taking care of aged parents. A sense of duty keeps you from being on the other side of the world longer than necessary in case you need to rush home. If you have school-going children, family travel has to wait until the school holidays, like other parents in your position. You can’t always go whenever you want, so travel when you are young to see those special festivals and occasions.
It will be cheaper
Travel when you’re young, and you’ll get access to concession prices for attractions when you show your ID. You may even get extra luggage allowance on airlines when you travel as a student. For students, get an International Student Identity Card; if you’re from an European Union country and aged 26 or younger, there’s the European Youth Card. See the next points for more reasons while it’ll be cheaper.
You have more energy
Flights and travel get less comfortable as you age, and jet lag gets harder to overcome. You never know when an injury will set in and prevent you from climbing the stairs in Santorini or the bunk bed in a hostel. Your young back can handle sleeping on a bed of leftover cabbage if that’s the cheapest option but when you hit 40, sleeping upright in economy class can be a nightmare.
Once upon a time, I thought it was bad that I was flying to far-flung countries first and leaving neighbouring ones for later. I couldn’t recommend exchange students in Singapore where to go in Thailand or Cambodia for a long weekend, but they were just doing the same thing I was doing–travelling far and wide before “life” keeps them closer to their home country longer.
Don’t miss age-limited opportunities
You don’t have forever to take a gap year and do working holidays overseas. New Zealand working holidays are limited to those aged 30 or younger when they apply. It’s the same for Australia’s working holiday visa (although the upper limit is 35 in some cases). Earning money to subsidise your travels–and gaining work experience and exposure to a different culture at the same time–is priceless. Which brings us to the next point.
Shape your world views
Some say that travel is the ultimate educator but I think that oversimplifies things. Travel is more fun when your opinions are not set in stone and you get to make friends with people in the country you’re visiting. You’re an ambassador for your own country to them and if you’re open-minded, you develop empathy and the ability to see different points of view, or that we have more in common with one another (no thanks to the globalised economy).
What if you can’t travel while you’re young right now?
If you can’t travel when you are young, it’s nothing to be ashamed of. Some of us do not have the means or have much more pressing commitments and responsibilities than getting on the next flight. You can still reap some of the benefits of travel by hosting, meeting and talking to the foreign people around you.
Granted, you will be meeting with only a small fraction of the people from their country, who have the means to travel. But go in with certain values: open-mindedness and respect. Don’t take misunderstandings personally, be forgiving of people who make gaffs, laugh it off at the end. It will go some way towards making our world a better place.