What I’m Doing Now to Travel More Before Retirement

This summer, my family of five will be visiting England and Scotland.

International travel became my top priority after my high school Latin class went to Italy in 1993.

That trip inspired:

• A 60-day European backpacking trip in 1998, which led to
• Four months in China and South-East Asia in 2001,
• Five months in South America in 2002, and
• A final four-month solo traverse through Central America and Mexico to the San Diego border.

The 2001 Asia trip was supposed to be the only leg. But I was hooked on backpacking.

The job market deteriorated in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, so my prospects of returning home to find employment were dismal.

I was short on cash, but long on time.

In my back pocket was a modest stash of airline “frequent flyer” miles that I had earned from a US Airways credit card.

Airlines struggled to find passengers and were offering incredible deals on flights and reward redemption in December 2001.

So instead of staying home to find a lousy job in a tight job market, I booked a ticket to Quito, Ecuador, for free with my airline miles, unlocking an additional nine months of exploring.

This was my first taste of the incredible value of travel rewards.

Traveling solo, I could handle local transportation and hostel dormitories while living on $10-$20 per day.

But as a family of five, the costs multiply quickly, far beyond 5X.

Our kids are now at the ages when they are independent and tolerant enough of the temporary discomforts that lead to the unexpected joys of international travel.

This trip to Great Britain will be the first REAL test to see if they love the adventure as much as I do.

For years, I feared that family overseas travel would be prohibitively expensive for my backpacker budget (I’m cheap).

But I’ve been preparing — accumulating travel rewards points and pouncing on flight deals when I find them.

That’s how we booked our round-trip airfare to London.

We paid for the cost of our five airline tickets with points.

The rewards points covered about $3,500 in airline flight costs thanks to a transfer bonus and booking 10 months in advance.

We’ve also used points to travel from Washington D.C. to San Francisco twice (about $2,500 in value each time), AND we just booked our Spring Break 2026 trip to another incredible destination using the same strategy.

Mrs. RBD and I both have the same credit card. We both earned substantial sign-up bonuses, and we earn more points every day for every dollar (or pound) we spend.

Without the points we earned from this credit card, we could not afford the rest of this upcoming summer trip, because hotel rooms, Airbnbs, train tickets, and daily food for five add up quickly.

If travel is important to you, or even if you simply like to spoil yourself in luxury hotels every now and then, this credit card can help you get there.

I wrote a credit card review of my favorite credit card — the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card — to highlight the most current offers and spending perks. 

The sign-up bonus is valuable year-round, but watch for limited-time higher sign-up bonuses.

After traveling to about 45 countries, I set an early retirement goal (age 55) in 2003 to ensure I could prioritize travel again in retirement while still relatively young and healthy.

My initial idea to “retire at 55 and travel” left out an important detail that was hard to imagine when I was 27, broke, and single.

A family.

After years of staying in the U.S. for our vacations, it’s finally time to share my love of adventure with the people I love.

These two trips we have planned are just the beginning.

We also aspire to visit Australia (my son’s first choice) and China (my daughter loves pandas).

Reward points will make it possible.

And when we become empty-nesters in about 12 years, we’ll prioritize travel for several months of the year, just as I envisioned back in 2003.

We’ll expand our travel rewards earning and usage to include hotel chains and multiple airline programs.

Comfort will be more of a priority as well. No more dirty hostel dorms.