stevesainty

We have a little over a year to go before we finally clock off for good.
We will immediately set of for Spain to start a new phase in our lives.
We have been planning to live in Spain for two years now and finally all our ducks are being lined up.

Do you think that we should have also been planning to be retired?

Until recently when we have both gone part time we have both been in full time employment since we left school at age sixteen.

For thirty years whilst in the Fire Service, I also was, and still am, a freelance bookkeeper working in total up to more than 60 hours per week. Sometimes when the opportunities came my way I also did a bit of lorry driving both UK and Europe, and a bit of furniture removing. I did all this work because I wanted a decent standard of living and also to put my two girls through further education. I used to have a wife who did not care to go out to work.

I have always done my own decorating and DIY, kept on top of the garden etc.

Am I fit to retire? or will I find it difficult?

In the beginning we will be busying ourselves with settling in to our new country but that will not take forever.
I have recently started to learn to cook and enjoy it immensely so I envisage spending a lot more time sourcing our food from markets etc.
I am going to teach myself to play the treble recorder, I only ever learnt the fingering for the descant.
I intend to do a lot more walking both for exercise and to explore.
I am continuing to learn Spanish and hope that carries on with intercambios and the like.

Up until 6 years ago I used to watch up to 60 hours of TV a week, mostly rubbish and slept for only 5-6 hours per night never retiring before 1:30.
Now I watch zero TV, and don't miss it and get to bed at a more reasonable hour and sleep a little longer each night.

For those of you who are retired, what are your experiences of retirement?
Do you have full days? Do you have new daily routines when you are no longer slaves to the alarm clock? Did you find retirement easy?

Regards

Steve

pwwm

people asked us "wont you get bored" the answer unequivacably is no,

the days fly by, different interests, different lifestyle, still dive of course.

But the 8 years we have been here have flown by

megmet

People told us we would be bored.....we don't have the time to be bored.
I used to love my job in local government and thought I would miss it especially as I retired a few years early, but the truth is I don't at all as I now spend my days doing what I want to do and not what I have to do!

We have been here four years now, it's gone so quick and we have enjoyed every minute.
It's just a different pace of life here and you have to learn to adapt to it, leave your English ways behind and don't expect to deal with all the bureaucracy in a hurry....we now plan on only getting one thing sorted in the day...if you get two things done it's a bonus!

I can only speak for ourselves, we love our life here and have no intention of going back, we made the transition very easily as we had been planning our move for many years.

Yes of course there are people back there in England that we miss, but friendships that go back many years now continue via Skype video calls, not quite the same but it does mean we keep in touch.
We have also made some very good new friends here, it's a little harder here in the campo than it is down on the coast... but I've found by making the first move and talking to strangers we are slowly building a circle of good and supportive friends.

Good luck with your retirement and move, I can highly recommend it!

scampicat

Well, tbh, I DID get bored.

I think it was to do partly with the location. Living in a village in the mountains is fine, but unless you love walking in the mountains there is little else to do, other than go in the bar, look at the scenery (can't spend all day doing that), read (I like reading but can't get enough English books here), or visit people.

I missed not having facilities within easy reach (although the village does have a little general store). I didn't like having to get the car out to do the siimplest task. I wasn't keen on the 'small society' feel of the village.I missed the fellowship of the church I had been in for 25 years. I missed doing the voluntary work I had done before. I even missed my job in Local Government!

OTOH, we had five years full-time and three years part-time living htere and have met some wonderful peopel, have been totally accepted into the village and have had an experience we will always remember. Also I will always remember THAT VIEW out of my window.

But, mostly my feelings came from living in a rural location, not from living in Spain per se. I'm sure I would have felt the same living in the middle of nowhere in the Lake District. I'm a townee at heart.

It's now time to return and we have (hopefully) sold our house. We can go now while I can still remember the place with fondness.

So what I would say is most important is Location, Location, Location!

angiescarr

I think... and I can't speak from experience as I'm not retired. That if you have a full life outside of work already, as you seem to, it's just impossible to be bored. You will fill every waking minute and wish you also had the lives that bored people are wasting. If you're the sort of person who 'is' what they do at work, then life would be pretty dull without it. That's not going to happen to you

scampicat

I am a person who had a full life outside of work. The problem is, that in my rural Spanish retreat, there is no opportunity to do any of the things I like doing/am interested in. That does not make me a boring person per se. It does mean that in spite of having varied interests that it is possible for me to be bored. It also means that I am the sort of person who should not have hidden myself away in a small remote village, beautiful as it is. I'd have been more at home in a small town, or a city centre. That's why I say choosing the right location is so important.

I feel it is so very important, that is why I am mentioning it again .

bil

Retirement is great, early retirement is even better. PROVIDED you have the funds to back it up.

Boredom affects us all to a greater or lesser extent. If you have a garden and interests that you can follow, then fine. The real problem comes when you don't have a physical outlet for your energies, and you lack the intellectual muscle to engage your brain.

Learning the language is a good mental exercise, and allows you better opportunities to integrate.

Lynn R

I think that is very true, I would have gone mad after a few weeks had I moved to a small village, but as I can't drive that was never on the cards. I have met quite a few couples who did go to live in the campo, though, where one of them (usually the wife who is younger) doesn't drive and I wonder why they did it and what would happen if the driver was seriously ill or died.

I never felt I had the opportunity to live a full life when I was working, it felt like all work, eat and sleep. I left the house before 7 every morning, didn't get home before 7 in the evening at the earliest, often much later. In the winter it felt as though I scarcely saw daylight except through an office window. I came to hate that way of life and although I had a well paid job, the money didn't make me happy as I was too tired to go out and spend it!

I gave up work and moved to Spain aged 50 and have never missed work for a moment. I'm still euphoric that my time is my own, I don't need an alarm clock, can get up when I feel like it and go to bed when I like and don't have anybody telling me that I must spend 6 hours or more travelling to London and back for a meeting that lasts an hour, and other similar lunacies.

I spent the first two years I was here learning Spanish (never had time to do it before) which gave me a sense of achievement and helps to oil the wheels of everyday life, I now get neighbours asking me to help them learn English which I enjoy doing. I cook a lot more than I ever did (anyone who knew me in a previous life would be astonished at the idea of me making soup!) and I can spend as much time as I like reading and keeping fit. We also enjoy travelling around Spain and take 4 or 5 short trips a year.

I am sure you will love it, what's not to like?

angiescarr

In my adult life I have never been bored (except when forced to wait for someone somewhere where I don't have my own 'stuff to do' or at least a book or like bil says some language learning to do). I simply don't understand it. But I take Scampicat's point that if you are the kind of person who can get bored.. You shouldn't choose a place that's a long way away from the action.
The OPs don't seem the type to get bored easily.

bil

Everyone can get bored given the right circumstances, and it can be a good thing if it gets you to try something new.

The problem is when you don't have the internal resources to cope with an unstructured day.

jackytoo

Agree

HBG

We wouldn't be on this forum if we didn't agree that Spain is a great place to live, and for us, it's much better than the UK.

But it's a vast country, eight times bigger than the UK and with half its population, and your location is the most important thing to consider, and the choice is mind -blowing.

I've met a lot of expats who have made the wrong choice at first and had the extreme hassle of moving afterwards, I've done it myself, more than once.

If you're used to a busy life in the UK, you'll go nuts in a remote location in Spain; and vice versa. I was a townie in the UK and I'm now a townie in Spain; I gave the inland Spanish remoteness a fair chance and it drove me nuts - as that old cliché says, you can take an Essex girl out of Essex, but no faacking way can you make her forget how to speak Essex. And I'm a boy, but I'm married to one.

Dick Dasterdly

From the above posts it seems most folk are happier choosing a Spanish location which is close to the equivalent of their previous UK home.
That's certainly been the case for me.
I live out in the sticks but do have two or three excellent neighbours, a major plus factor, plus all services I need are in a small town/village within a few kms reach.
Bored, never.
I often wonder how I ever found the time to work for a living.

scampicat

I think it is called 'stir crazy.

As to the people saying that only a certain 'type' of person gets bored, I think that is rubbish. As I have said more than once, I have varied interests, but can do none of them in rural Spain. I don't want to go to a village 'keep-fit' class with people who make personal remarks about your weight/shape (I realise that this is rural Spanish culture and that no-one means to be unkind, but I'm still uncomfortable with it). I'm not interested in what people have in their shopping bag. I'm not interested in watching football. I can't go and potter round the shops. I really can't do any of the things that I AM interested in, like the voluntary work I did in the UK, such as debt counselling or registrar for the church. There are no openings for things like that in a small village (in Spain or the UK).

I will also say that there are some good things on offer too, in remote locations, like talking to REAL shepherds, looking at that view, not having to do anything you don't want to, village fiestas, friendly and openhearted people. And that for five years we lived there full-time and on the whole enjoyed it.

So again, make sure you pick the right location, but don't assume that if someone can't get stimulated by the things on offer where they live, that they are an airhead.

jackytoo

I think we have to remember that we bring most of life's baggage with us, that isolated finca may look perfect on viewing but for some could be a nightmare. We moved inland and as soon as we had the place exactly as we wanted found out we hated the place I like to live rural but within easy reach of the action, difficult to do in Spain. I would get invites and I used to think do I really want to drive 40 mins (some of it down a kamikaze track) We did find what we wanted eventually, edge ot town, overlooking campo and mountains and civilisation 8 mins drive away.

I do know one couple who moved from Wimbledon, lived on a busy road. They bought an isolated place near ronda. They are loving it, although it's early days, they have only been there a few years.

I live rural in the UK. Only 600 people, fields front and back. There are lots of things happening a few minutes walk. Zumba, art classes, photo-shop etc. or I can catch a train to London or drive to Winchester, a place I love, in 30 mins. Best of both for me.