Switzerland Isn't a “Someday” Trip

Wealth isn't just about your money. It's living along the way.

Oeschinensee, in the Bernese Oberland, reachable, but only on your own two feet for the last stretch.

Every advisor in our office has a client who says some version of the same thing: “We'll do the big trip once we're fully retired.” It's a reasonable instinct. But for a destination like Switzerland, it's exactly backwards.

The Swiss Alps aren't a place you experience from a bus window or a hotel balcony. The views that make Switzerland worth the flight glacial lakes tucked between granite peaks, cable-car stations that still require an hour of uneven trail beyond them, alpine meadows you only reach on foot ask something of your knees, your lungs, and your balance. This is a trip that rewards mobility. Which means it belongs earlier on your list, not later.

The best time to go is while you can still hike

We're not talking about mountaineering. Most of the iconic Oeschinensee viewpoints, for example, are an hour or two of moderate walking from the cable car well within reach for most people in their fifties or sixties, and for many well into their seventies. But “within reach now” and “within reach in fifteen years” are two different things. Mobility doesn't wait for retirement day, and neither should this trip.

That's really the point of thinking about travel the way we think about the rest of a financial plan: sequence matters. The clients who build a bucket-list trip like this into the working years a two-week stretch alongside vacation days or into the first few years of retirement, while they're still moving easily, tend to look back on it as one of the best-timed decisions they made. Not the biggest. The best-timed.

The trail above Oeschinensee  alpine meadow, a few curious neighbours, and a lake that's earned by the walk in.

These particular photos come from Ben Cook, one of the newest additions to The Jackson Group. Ben just finished his degree at Wilfrid Laurier University, and before he joins us full-time, he's spending a few weeks travelling through Europe with friends Switzerland was one of the stops, and Oeschinensee was very much a hike, not a drive-up viewpoint.

It's a small thing, but it's a useful one to sit with if Switzerland, or any physically active bucket-list destination, is somewhere on your someday list. The someday version of that trip depends on more than your account balance holding up it depends on you being able to walk the trail. Worth building the timing into the plan on purpose, rather than leaving it to whenever things finally slow down.

We're looking forward to having Ben back in London soon and if his photos give even one client the nudge to move Switzerland further up the list, that's a pretty good souvenir.

Safe travels until then, Ben.

This blog is provided for general informational and lifestyle purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, tax, or legal advice. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of CIBC World Markets Inc. Insurance products are provided through CIBC Wood Gundy Financial Services Inc., a subsidiary of CIBC. Financial planning services are provided by CIBC Wood Gundy Investment Advisors, who are also licensed as financial security advisors in Quebec, and, where applicable, by their team members who are Qualified Associate Financial Planners. CIBC Wood Gundy is a division of CIBC World Markets Inc., a subsidiary of CIBC.