Maximizing your dollars in retirement... Flights

Two of the biggest cost drivers in a Nomadic Retirement Lifestyle will be the air tickets and the accommodations. Previously I've mentioned that it will cost a couple around S$4.7k/mth to stay in Japan, and accommodations would have taken up 30-50% of that budget. 

On top of that there's the little problem of finding your way to the destination. A plane ticket can easily cost between $600-2,000 depending on the destination and period of booking. If you average out over 3 months that's going to add another $200-600/pax/mth. That makes it around S$2.500 to S$3,000 per pax/month to retire in Japan.

Google Flights

Apart from the normal airline sales, normally I will use 2 methods to find the best prices for my flights. One of them is Skyscanner and the other is Google Flights. My personal favourite now is Google Flights though.

Google Flight UI is plain and simple, just like vanilla~

There are 3 features on Google Flights which I like when I plan my trips:

Historical prices

The historical price alert lets you know whether the price for your selected dates are the norm for your destination. Now if you are a retiree you definitely have no reason to fight with families with a reason to go during the school holiday period. 

Sometimes it also depends on the destination country's vacation period so its really handy tool to have.

Price Graph

The Price Graph is probably the opposite of the Historical Price graph. It gives you a projection of the prices in the region of your target dates. From the printscreen above you can see its probably better to delay my trip to Jeju by a week.

Date/Price Grid

Most people will probably be more familiar with the Date/Price Grid deployed by Singapore Airline's website. It's similar yet different from the Price Graph, because the Price Graph is populated based on the number of days selected for the flight selection whereas the Date/Price Grid allows you to choose to shorten/extend your trip based on the best prices. 

Either way the Price Graph and the Date/Price Grid are great tools that has benefited me many times in the past.

So the next time you plan for a long term trip, try to maximize the savings by pairing the Price Grid/Graph with the destination’s lowest price point for accommodations to stretch your dollars!