Enjoying Retirement

Sad day I'm sure, but onwards and upwards...see if you can find that perfect Cosworth.

There are things I could and should be getting on with today, but a cold dragging on and horrible damp weather outside, so I'll just bimble around the house today I think. I received a used guitar pedal yesterday that simulates different acoustic guitars, so I knocked up this slightly nasally cover last night, which seems quite appropriate given the recent subject matter on here.

https://on.soundcloud.com/eoBv6

My wife retired before me and she worked from home before that, as I did for two days a week in the last years, which I think helped us get used to the idea of being around each other more. We worked together for nearly 10 years from when we first met, so it's not entirely unfamiliar territory though. We also do our own things; she does her art and spa days/swimming and I do my car and music stuff, which I think is healthy and gives us new conversations to share as we've seen other people.

This is something that my wife and I have discussed numerous times. She's 7 years younger than me and has always worked in a responsible job so has a good income and enjoys the challenge.

I'm retiring at the end of December so will have to get used to finding things to do on my own. I have a load of DIY projects I want to get on with, sort out all the boxes in the loft and sell/dispose/give away the contents, garden improvements, enjoying my cars and reading all the books I've been amassing and enjoying watching an afternoon film in the cold, dark winter months without being interrupted.

I want her to work for 1 more year and then retire at the end of 2024 as I'm very conscious that we have limited time to enjoy retirement together. She's worried that she doesn't really have any hobbies to fill her time and that without work she won't have anything meaningful to do.

I'm good at amusing myself but she's not so good without structure, so needs to find some new interests. We plan to travel more when we have the time and probably to spend several of the winter months down in southern Spain to escape the cold and damp. I imagine it will be easy to become quite isolated and also to drink too much wine in the lovely Spanish sun so we need to meet new people and find activities to do both together and with other people. We do worry that we could be too dependant on each other and that if something happens to one of us ar some point, the other one could be very lonely.

It's not a bad problem to have, but we do need to work out what's important to each of us and not just slip into a rut.

Mrs H retired about 18 months ago while I am still working full time (from home).

It works ok most of the time, she sometimes struggles a bit with having so much free time that I can’t spend with her but is very grateful for no longer having any work demands on her time.

I half-jokingly say I should have packed in first as there’s a never ending list of DIY tasks waiting for to be done that aren’t getting a lookin while I am still working but other than that it doesn’t bother me that she escaped first.

In the end, stuff, cars and all the rest will last longer that I will. This is OK.

The most important thing for me is experience, the adventures I have had, the people I met and valued, the great friends and family. I continue to seek new experiences as long as I can as every repeat day of the same old, same old has not been for me.

The experience of something new still delights me. So. for example I could go to Paris again, but it would never be the dazzling experience for a penniless 21 year old when I first saw it. This is why new experiences matter. I recall when I first saw an E Type Jag in about 1963. I was a teenager and was just transfixed by its beauty. Those moments of wonder far outstrip the more jaded experiences.

This is why I want every car I own to have an experience, to see an historic track and to be driven there. Even though I am old I want that thrill. My last RS was signed by Dr Porsche at his home. The 992RS is off to Europe for its own adventures. I want that visceral sense of adrenalin, a bit of danger, a memory. All of my GT cars have been on the Nürburgring and at Spa. I am keenly aware that I am approaching closing time with this car life but that is just fine. The cars are just bits of metal, but I want to look at them and remember what they did, what I did and to recall that moment of excitement.

Old is fine, but there is always a future, however short.