I wanted to mention that there are other alternatives to making sure that you have funds in retirement for travel. People have mentioned investments, but I also wanted to bring up the idea of debt reduction. The most stable retirees I know are those without debt. They have more freedom with how they use their money.

One other idea is to start a special savings or investment account for travel. Put a budgeted monthly amount into this account. You could have quite the travel nest egg after 14 years.

My final point is to make sure that you strike a balance between always putting things off because you are planning for a future trip, a future (fill in the blank) and taking the time to enjoy the moments now. No one knows what the future holds. You don't want to enter retirement without any preparations, but you don't want to put your life on hold for 14 years either.

Spending miles in a reasonable amount of time after you accumulate them makes sense on several levels.