On a recent morning, Jim Frisinger, 66, was making his way through the Fort Worth Nature Center and Refuge. He had already spotted a tundra swan and had his camera and tripod ready to capture images of other birds he encountered.
The excursion is only one of nearly a year’s worth of adventures the Arlington, Texas, resident has planned. If all goes well, over the course of the next 11 months, Frisinger will see everything from a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed gas station in Minnesota to the national parks of France. “I started joking with my wife that it’s time for my gap year,” Frisinger says of his year of intensive travel. While gap years are usually thought of as a time when high school graduates explore the world prior to starting college, seniors are now embracing the concept too.
[See: 10 Ways to Gradually Retire.]
Making up for lost time. For young adults, a gap year is often about figuring out what to do with your life. For seniors, it’s a chance to do everything they never had time to do during their working years. “Senior citizens are using their gap year to do something completely different,” says Dawn-Marie Joseph, president of Estate Planning and Preservation in Williamston, Michigan. They may be exploring volunteer opportunities, trying out new hobbies or testing new living arrangements.
Travel is a prime focus for many seniors engaged in a gap year. “I’ve had a passion for travel since forever,” Frisinger says. Now, after a career spent largely in journalism, he has time to devote to that passion. “I have a [large] storehouse of places I want to visit,” he explains, and the gap year is a way to tick as many off his list as possible. His wife plans to work for another 18 months, so Frisinger is focusing his travel on destinations that don’t pique her interest, such as Albania. He sees this gap year as his chance to follow personal pursuits that got left by the wayside during his decades in the workforce.
[Read: 6 Challenges of Phased Retirement.]
Test-driving retirement locales. Not every retiree uses a gap year to travel around or explore personal interests. Like their younger counterparts, some seniors are using the year to chart the course of their future. “Taking a gap year is a great way to try out places [where] you’re thinking about retiring abroad,” says Dan Prescher, a senior editor with International Living. He says there are numerous cities in Latin America, Southeast Asia and parts of Europe where there are sizeable expat communities and the cost of living is quite affordable. “Social Security can go much further [in these countries],” Prescher says.
Depending on the country, seniors may be able to stay up to six months on a tourist visa, giving them plenty of time to experience daily living in that location. At the end of their gap year, they can then decide if they want to purchase a property in any of these places.
[Read: 10 Resume Mistakes That Make You Look Old.]
Putting a gap year into action. When it comes to implementing a gap year, “the internet has changed everything,” Prescher says. Seniors can scout out communities, talk to locals online and make their own travel arrangements. Plus, online banking makes it easy to manage money and pay bills from afar while on the road.
Frisinger says one complication to his plans are his obligations at home. There is landscaping to maintain, home upkeep to complete and an attic full of boxes to sort. Still, he has found blocks of two to three weeks in which he can travel. Next up is a swing through Ohio to see some historic port towns and walk on the Grandma Gatewood Trail, named for the first woman to hike the Appalachian Trail. After that, he might try to explore the tallgrass prairie or plan his walking tour of the British Isles.
A dedicated gap year can provide the motivation to travel and pursue specific interests. Joseph says it makes sense to focus on these activities immediately after the start of retirement. Waiting until later could mean some dreams will never be fulfilled. “You start really worrying about your health,” Joseph says. “Let’s take advantage of this time.”
Although not everyone wants to globe-trot in retirement, a gap year makes sense for those who have felt stymied by their jobs. “This is the best time ever to have your adventure,” Prescher says.
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Retirees, It’s Time to Take Your Own Gap Year originally appeared on usnews.com
