After saving your entire adult life for retirement, you're left to figure out what you do with the remaining years of your life. Do you stay put and stick to what you know? Maybe you move to a retirement village somewhere sunny.
Or, if you're like Australian couple Jess and Marty Ansen, you could just become nautical nomads and book back-to-back cruises for a life at sea.
The Ansens, who booked 51 back-to-back cruises, have now spent 450 days sailing the seas on Princess Cruises' Coral Princess cruise ship. The couple told ABC News that they start their days with early morning ping-pong workouts and fill the rest of their time with reading, relaxing, dining and dancing, and meeting new friends.
We have to admit, although it sounds pretty crazy to live at sea this way, we do see the obvious perks. You don't have to get groceries or clean your house. You don't have to pay for gas or worry about car maintenance costs. You just pay for the cruise and enjoy all of the included amenities.
The Ansens explained that for them, booking two years' worth of cruises was cheaper than what it would cost to move to a retirement village. In 2021, the median entry price for a two-bedroom unit in a retirement village in Australia was $484,000, although prices can vary quite a bit. Not cheap. We get it. But let's be real, the cost of 51 different cruises had to be inching close to that $400,000 mark, too. Still, if traveling is something you plan to do a lot of in your golden years, it might not be the worst plan of action.
