Personal Finance

Not yet retired folks - what do you look forward to buying ONCE you are retired?

Christy Bieber

Published: January 21, 2025 9:06 am

Retirement is something many people dream of — and that’s not just because it means you’ll have the chance to stop going to work. Once you are retired, your time becomes your own and you can begin enjoying all the things you put off while you were busy earning a paycheck.

Many seniors can also start to make dream purchases they were putting off as they worked hard on retirement savings. 

What are some of those dream purchases exactly? It’s going to be different for every senior, but this Reddit thread shows some common trends. A poster started the thread by asking future retirees what they were looking forward to buying once their working days were done, and taking a look at the answers sheds a lot of light on what most people want their golden years to look like. 

Here’s what current workers want to do once they become retirees

Here are some of the things that Redditors said they were looking forward to purchasing after they stopped working:

• A sports car
• A vacation home or a lake home to live in during part of their retirement
• A Tempurpedic bed or another type of new bed
• A gym membership and one-on-one training
• A National Park lifetime pass for seniors
• A camper van or an RV

Each of these items was mentioned by several posters, and they aren’t surprising. Many people want more and better sleep once they aren’t being woken up by an alarm to go to work every day, and travel is of course an obvious plan for seniors — whether that means taking lavish vacations abroad as some mentioned, or heading around in a camper to see the sites across the USA. 

These planned purchases show a true desire to enjoy life, see more of the world, and live the way you may not have been able to when you were chained to your desk five days a week. 

You should take steps now to set yourself up for your dream retirement

While it’s perfectly natural to want to enjoy your senior years, most of these purchases can come at a big cost — especially if you want to buy a vacation home or spend your senior years on the plane or on the road.

If you want to be able to achieve your retirement dreams, this is something you should be working on throughout your working life. Specifically, you’ll want to make sure you are:

• Investing in a tax-advantaged account like a 401(k)
• Setting retirement goals so you have enough money to live on at a safe withdrawal rate
• Contributing to your retirement investment accounts regularly each month so you’ll meet your target investing goals
• Avoiding debt that will make it harder for you to save now or that you’ll still be stuck paying as a retiree

If you make investing for your future a top priority at a young age, you should easily be able to afford sports cars, vacation homes, or trips to your long-anticipated destinations. You owe it to yourself to be able to make these purchases and to have the retirement you deserve.