Your Experience Of Retirement

[taichiperson]

As above - my OH is thinking of taking early retirement from a stressful job. I'd be interested to hear of anyone's personal experience of retiring - whether it's you that retired, or your spouse (I'm female). Was it all you thought it would be - a positive experience, or a negative one?

I am self employed and will continue to work - my hours are regular but not conventional, so we won't be together 24/7. He's not the sort to sit in front of the telly and vegetate, he is always busy with some job or other. If anything I'm bracing myself for him organising my day!

[shaneystar2]

Good Luck with the move Mazie .Hope it all goes well for you x

[mazie]

Thank you Shaney... I may be off line for a bit but I will report back when I can xxx

[Mairzydotes]

My husband retired three years before I did. We were both teachers, so used to being together a lot, I've heard some people say that their man under their feet after retiring, which is sad. Biggest bonus of those three years? Monday to Friday I came home to a cooked dinner which I had neither planned, nor prepared.
BLISS!!

[taichiperson]

I just wanted to post a little anecdote that shows age is all in the mind. My father died a few years ago. He had enjoyed his retirement of 15 years but ill health struck him down in the last three. He had gone to an exercise class for COPD sufferers, and my mother used to go with him (she was in her mid seventies). I suggested that she carry on going, to keep in touch socially. She did for a few months, then stopped going, so I asked her why. She made a face and said 'They're all so OLD' which made me laugh - but she was right - she said they all wore brown and talked about Bingo and other peoples' health.

I run gentle exercise classes myself, and regularly see that the ones that keep going are the ones who don't let their age limit them. I hope to keep on running them as long as my own health allows me - the thought of 'retiring' doesn't appeal.

[ladyalex]

Lordalex retired a couple of years before I did (made redundant then did a few temporary jobs then stopped ). It was good coming home to meals ready, I have to say.
Then I retired and we have both enjoyed it very much.
You do need to be apart for some of the time, though....or at least we do.
Fortunately we have two 'public rooms', as they say, in our house, so he sort of lives in one with his laptop and his books while I'm in the other with my PC and my knitting etc. (We have even been known to email each other.)
I would unhesitatingly say go for retirement. It is much much better than working. I have never been bored for an instant and have to say that money for some mysterious reason seems to go further.....cannot quite work that out but it does.
Suppose there's less to pay for petrol and certainly less on clothes...all the 'work ' clothes are being worn up round the house now so clothes bills are down. Food bills are less too as cooking can be planned and relished now rather than 'got through' .

Good luck.

[Peter Pedant]

totally disagree sqad

retire as soon as poss and do what you want ( or need to or have to )
tomorrow may be too late !

[taichiperson]

Thanks lady alex - already we are thinking more about not wasting food, planning what we eat, comparing supermarket prices, etc. I'm making an effort not to just pick things off the shelf, but stick to a shopping list. Last week I must have spent £80 on groceries, and this week it shouldn't go higher than £60. The sad thing is it's only been over the last year that we've found we have had a decent amount of disposable income, and treating ourselves probably more than we should - largely in an effort to keep Mr Tai's spirits up. He says he thinks I will 'suffer' more than him, which annoys me a little, as we've been through harder times together when our boys were small.

Over the years, we've always known the value of alone time and think we are prepared for what's to come. I just wanted to get a few personal stories to help forsee any hiccups.