Hi Gransnetters, I hope you don't mind a post from a male but I don't know of a male-oriented site offering similar assistance.
We are a couple in our early 60's with no children. My issue is possibly the reverse of what I have commonly read about retirement relationships in that I am not a couch potato type of guy but believe in remaining active and exploring new leisure and other opportunities whereas my female partner of 17 years seems to want to spend most of her time indoors doing very little. Early in our relationship, she was pretty adventurous but seems to have lost a lot of this . Also, she quit a decently paid full time job about 12 years ago to pursue self employment with limited success where she seemed to enjoy working generally quite limited hours and thus earning fairly poor money. Not surprisingly, now in her early 60's, she has a limited workplace pension but limited savings. On the other hand, I have always had a strong work ethic which allowed me to get to a good enough financial position to be able to quit work at 59. I thus now find myself with the means to do lots of things, especially ( pre Covid ) travel which I am passionate about. In the last 4 years, my partner has been happy for me to take independent breaks and I appreciate this but also feel its such a shame that she is unwilling / unable to partake also.
I hate to admit it but can't help feeling that we have started to drift apart. I would really appreciate a female perspective from the point of view of ;
1. Is there a way I can better approach this with her as so far all discussions have led to disagreement and argument ?
2. Can a relationship work where there are such differing views on how to spend later life ?
Many Thanks
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