Online Travel Business Owner

by Doug Jones
(Orange County, CA)

Doug & Nancy Jones

I was a in the mortgage business for 23 years. I have both owned my own mortgage company and been an independent broker. It provided a very comfortable living, and some degree of freedom, but it is a very high stress business, and you can't be away from it very long without losing business.

For retirement I was looking for something with no boss, no stress, no emergencies, and a lot of flexibility so that Nancy and I can travel as much as we want.

A little over a year ago, we found the perfect retirements business... owning an online travel agency.

We earn income from the commissions on travel sold on our site; we have travel agent credentials which allow us to travel like travel industry insiders, with perks and benefits, rather than like a tourist at full price; and all of our travel is now a perfectly legitimate business expense so we save a lot on taxes.

It's kind of like a "virtual franchise"... the parent company does all the work to maintain the vendor relations and update the website. We just promote our site. And it's up and running whether we are home or traveling the world (at insider prices).

I can't think of a more perfect business for our "golden years"!