Single,aged 60 and due to retire in 6 months. How did you find retirement as a single/divorced.wido wed person?

I'm married and retired at age nearly 64 from a lifetime , full-time pressurised job. At first I felt as if I had been flung off a merry-go-round and was sitting dizzy and bewildered on the floor watching the happy horses still whizzing around. I had enjoyed my work and for the first three years I hated retirement and literally didn't know what to do with myself. My husband had already retired and we were'nt used to spending so much time together !! We managed but it took some adjustment. He started a small business from home and I walked the dog.
The reason I'm telling the Poster this some what negative stuff is just in case she feels the same way; she's not alone and not going mad.
I'd recommend getting a part-time job if she's bored or find a volunteering role or develop any hobbies.
You never know how these things will grab you until they happen. Hopefully Poster will be a retirement-lover. best of luck.

I'm am single retired and live alone. I don't have a huge income, but then I don't have huge outgoings either. I have no debts and my home is owned outright
So with my little private pension plus the state pension there is enough to live on and to put a little aside each month as a reserve.
My car is 12 years old now but reliable. If it starts to cause problems or too much expense I shall just let it go and put aside the money normally spent on car insurance road tax petrol repairs and maintenance, etc and use it for taxis or use public transport occasionally.
I can still afford lunches out occasionally and a holiday abroad once a year.
Keep your regular monthly payments to a sensible level stop worrying and enjoy your retirement. To be quite honest, after years of working full time and caring for others this is a wonderful freeing time in my life. I adore retirement.
Good luck.

Hated retirement at 69 had no choice been ‘working’ about 20 hours a week for the last 9 years in a charity shop
I love every minute of it it’s given me a whole new purpose in life, made friends, have fun and laughter and help people

I gave up paid work when I had children, as I wanted to be a full time mother. My “children” are now in their 50s. I was widowed when they were in primary school. I have a small occupational pension from my husband’s job, and considerable savings, so I am not rich but not broke.

I have never returned to “work”, and have very, very rarely been bored. I have enough friends, lots of interests and I can read! My father always said if you were bored it was your own fault, and I think I took that seriously. We have minds and imagination, books, computers, radio and television. Why should we be bored, with all that?

My mum on retiring at 62 got involved with a charity 3 times a week.

She made friends and it gave her structure for the week and she had to use her mind not just practical, it worked well.

I am 70, and have never retired, have worked in Care for the past 12 years do 24 hours a week now in a high dementia care home and I love it….

Newbeginnings, that 'list' is so similar to what I planned to do with all my extra free time. I didn't do those things, though, just enjoy gardening, walking, watching films and pottering instead. I thought I'd miss work - but, wrong again!

Apologies for not replying sooner, but many thanks for all the great suggestions. I am so looking forward to my retirement, as i will have the time to get fit,declutter the house and do lots of cheap city breaks around Europe. After a few months i will do some voluntary work. Love the idea of getting on some random bus to do a mystery tour! am really finding work a struggle at the moment and am counting down the days to retirement.

When I retired I went to volunteer in South Africa for a year. This meant that I could rent out my home (through Agents) and live without costs.. I had a fantastic experience and came home to a nice lump sum of savings.. there are many volunteering opportunities for older people abroad and others like working in Youth Hostels in this country if you need an experience and to make some money.

Newbeginnings. Look on it as an adventure, but as others have recommended do work out your finances first. Always have something to look forward to, however small. Hopefully, you have hobbies, so now there is an opportunity to indulge them. If not, there must be something you’ve wanted to do but not had the time? I also like the idea of catching a bus and going on a mystery tour. Have fun! 😊

LemonZest

Charleygirl5

I live in London, retired at 60 and this was at the end of the month of September. My tax free sum paid off my mortgage, and I had some work done in the house but then had little savings.

I was invited to do some work, similar to what I had left and I worked intermittently at that until I had an accident and could not continue. I had achieved my goal and had some money in the bank.

Friends had moved, I joined GN and have found some really good friends and we meet for coffee and/or a meal frequently.

I retired in 2002 and I have enjoyed my time at home. I could not help in a charity shop because I have AMD.

I have no family and I am happy living here.

If I may ask, how much money do you need on a monthly basis? I want to retire at 60 next year, but my government pension which isn't large, doesn't kick in for 7 years. I have £10k in savings, and the normal bills going out.
How much do you think I'll need to see me through each month if I don't work again??
Thank you in advance

Useful article here Lemonzest. You need to do your calculations based on your known and predicted outgoings, and make sure you have a contingency for the unexpected.
www.theguardian.com/money/2023/apr/15/uk-pensions-how-much-retire-cost-of-living-inflation-income

Or maybe if the OP has gone, maybe someone else could advise me

Charleygirl5

I live in London, retired at 60 and this was at the end of the month of September. My tax free sum paid off my mortgage, and I had some work done in the house but then had little savings.

I was invited to do some work, similar to what I had left and I worked intermittently at that until I had an accident and could not continue. I had achieved my goal and had some money in the bank.

Friends had moved, I joined GN and have found some really good friends and we meet for coffee and/or a meal frequently.

I retired in 2002 and I have enjoyed my time at home. I could not help in a charity shop because I have AMD.

I have no family and I am happy living here.

If I may ask, how much money do you need on a monthly basis? I want to retire at 60 next year, but my government pension which isn't large, doesn't kick in for 7 years. I have £10k in savings, and the normal bills going out.
How much do you think I'll need to see me through each month if I don't work again??
Thank you in advance

I am retired but still have DH so that's slightly different. But my neighbour who is a widow has made a fantastic group of friends from joining the gym . They all go on holidays together . It's really been wonderful for her .

At 60 get a job maybe 3 days a week it gets you up in the morning and out of the house, there are plenty of supermarket jobs. You meet people and make friends and socialize, the pay is rubbish but the perks are good. It’s probably even more important if you have a partner when a change of scenery is often welcome.

I love the silence but we’re all different. I would suggest not to do things just because “it seems like a good idea” but to wait until something you can be passionate about presents itself. Since I retired 14 years ago, I created a history website (sadly offline currently due to hosting site closing down) and have come to grips with art history. It is important to incorporate some exercise into your day, if I don’t get a daily walk or work in the garden for a while I feel very out of sorts and grumpy.

Kim19

Immerse yourself in some part time voluntary work that holds intrigue, interest or gratitude. Worked well for me until I phased out completely into full time leisure.

Thats what my mum did - part time rewarding voluntary work and it worked great for her. Choose between the sociable sort people orientated or those maybe more backroom but needing computer skills. She needed to feel she was contributing so would not have been happy with just craft or walking groups tho I was.

I retired from employed work at 60 but continued to do research and consultancy for colleagues at the uni for about 10 years. At the same time I started a shop on Ebay and began to sell off all the antiques I collected and inherited. Then I opened another two shops and a full ecommerce website. I now run an international antiques business specialising in vintage jewellery and women's accessories. I dont have time to be bored.

The good thing is that I can work and sleep when I like so I dont have to bother with a 9-5 routine as most of my customers are in the USA. I also take 3 complete months in the year off in order to do what I want to do. Just coming up to opening up my shops again as I have taken late April/early May off.

So glad to have left the corporate/academic world with all the woke/gender/political correctness rubbish that workers have to put up with nowadays.

Georgesgran

The OP didn’t return, but if she or he is still around - why not read the Good Morning thread and see what some of us get up to? Might give you some ideas.

Might it perhaps have been a “fishing” enquiry by a journalist or would-be journalist to provide material for an article or programme?

Georgesgran, I love your friend's use of his bus pass!

The OP didn’t return, but if she or he is still around - why not read the Good Morning thread and see what some of us get up to? Might give you some ideas.

DH died 2 and a half years ago and despite the constraints of covid I have been filling my time. Overfilling it even.
I am never bored.

I joined U3A and particularly enjoy the twice monthly walks, exploring new areas.
A mix of things is my advice. A good balance in retirement is just as important as when you are employed.
I hope you find this.

I’m widowed living alone my home is my comfy place but I find the silence hard. I was medically retired at 58 my husband 2 yrs later but sadly he became sick almost immediately and passed away within 3 yrs so our plans went out the window. Also I lost 3 good friends so family help me fill my time I have coffee with some GN friends, I garden, read or take a drive out. I’m not bored but a little lonely on the whole happy with life I just my joints would behave. 😁

I spent six years being busy, preparing a house to sell and move, de-cluttering, allotment work and then moving and making a garden and a home. Mostly all done in silence and it is very important to be able to come to terms with being able to spend 24/7 in silence, living in the moment/mindfulness helps a lot

Slowly joining groups while being careful, not wanting to be sucked into commitment when it becomes hard to leave and not ever wanting to be part of any clique. Slow is key here

I have very good hobbies, which engross me and I like to come home and shut the door as my home feels like a safe comfy nest and I made it so, my bubble

I totally agree that loneliness and silence being a single retired person is horrid. I am rarely bored, but I am lonely. I occupy myself with things to do.