Professionals in their 30s and 40s are changing their life goals.
According to a new study published by Flash Pack, a group travel company for solo travelers in their 30s and 40s, a majority of respondents said that they crave life experiences over marriage, a house, and children.
Of those surveyed, more than 70 percent said that seeing the world is their top priority.
Flash Pack’s recent poll of 3,000 Brits reveals that there is a growing movement of careerists who are using their hard-earned cash to put travel and adventure front and center, analysts wrote.
At one point in time, marriage and having children was a rite of passage for adulthood, but only 18 percent of those surveyed list children among their life goals.
As far as marriage, 20 percent said it was a priority and 17 percent listed buying a house as an aspiration.
The survey mirrored a study done in the United States where more than 50 percent of Americans said they would rather invest in experiences than save for a house.
In the poll that asked 1,000 Americans ages 30 through 49, adventure ranked as the number one bucket list goal. Experiences such as watching the Northern Lights, cooking with a Michelin-starred chef, and staying on a private island were among the top picks.
Even though adventure travel is an important life goal for people in their 30s and 40s, Flash Pack leaders said parenthood is not completely out the picture.
“Over the last three years, we’ve seen an 87 percent increase in customers coming to us having postponed goals previously held-up as important for the age bracket,” says Flash Pack co-founder Lee Thompson. “This isn’t to say that having children or ‘settling down’ isn’t on the cards. Nowadays, it’s our thirties and even forties where we can take stock, investing hard-earned salaries into amazing experiences that really will set us up for the next phase.”
