Will or won’t you and your dh retire at the same time ? And how do you feel about that ?

[Lardlizard]

Just been chatting to a bloke who popped into town to visit his wife a t work
He’s retired and I thought hmmm that can’t be nice to be the own still at work when your other half is retired
But then you can’t help your age I guess

Interesting to read so many different plans though from everyone

My husband retires in 7 years time, but I will still have the mortgage to pay then so he will probably work part-time for a further 3 years as he will, in effect, only have the state pension. Once the mortgage is gone he can retire fully.

I have 19 years to go. My pension won't be great but we would probably move somewhere much cheaper and release some cash. By then he will be late 70s.

My concern with him being retired and me working is that although he is keen on diy that is quite solitary and most of his friends are younger so they will still be working. This means he will end up making more friends who are around during the day, but I can see it putting a strain on our marriage if I am still working long hours and he is home alone for long periods.

With the financial pressure of his reduced income and not having much by way of pension savings myself, I know I will need to keep working hard and putting in the hours for as long as possible.

That said I am more concerned about us both being retired on little income than him being retired long before me as we both have a high need to get out and about a lot. Although with a bus pass that can be done frugally, if free bus passes go, the cost of going out will limit us geographically and I think that risks us being quite bored.

It will be tougher still once ill health gets either or both of us.

I am even more concerned about the likely eventuality of me being the surviving spouse as life would be much less fun without him.

DH is a year older than me but I work in NHS as a nurse and after 35 years of it I will be retiring in 4 years on a reduced pension. Before it breaks me. By then mortgage and school fees will have ended. DH will probably work to age 60 in his current job. We both feel that working in some capacity into old age is good for people, having witnessed various relatives succumb to odd behaviours once they have too much time on their hands. We plan to get relatively physical but low stress jobs and work part time as long as we can. And possibly retire to a cheaper area releasing equity from London suburb house.

I’m trying to imagine the funds people must have amassed to retire at 55 with a view to being able to support themselves for another 20-30 years with no earned income. Or maybe people’s overheads are very low!.

My DH and I are similar age (within 2 years) and we both working full time with hopefully decent savings in due course. I anticipate that rather than retiring suddenly I might gradually scale back / do a lower stress job etc. to keep active and keep some income coming in to supplement the pension.

We will as we're the same age, but sadly we are the best part of 30 years off retirement!

The few people I know who retired at 55 were back at work doing something else after a few months, even if only part-time. But early retirement can be problematical here in the US because health insurance is tied to employment for the most part. You have to be 65 in order to qualify for Medicare, the federal health insurance program for older people, so it is quite common for people to continue working at least until they are 65.

Dh is 14 years older than me. Chances are by the time I retire he will be dead or too old to do stuff with. Maybe I will spend my retirement caring for him and then there's no one to care for me when I'm older. I'm a bit fucked off about it to be honest. Never considered it when I was 22yo.

DH is 10 years older than me. I'm hoping I can retire/reduce hours by the time I'm 55, and by that time DH will be 65. He's not planned for retirement at all, so his retirement plan is living off my salary, then my pension . He needs to make sure he doesn't annoy me too much between now and then, as I'm sorted for retirement with a decent pension.

I sort of hope he does retire earlier than me, I quite fancy having a house husband for a while.

I am 60, DH 63. I can't see us ever being able to properly retire.
Our private pension, started in our 30's isn't worth the paper it's written on, (one of the joys of being self employed in the building trade) my state pension age is 66 instead of 60. Like many women if my age, I have looked after my children, helped run the family business, looked after ageing relatives and now find I am entitled to very little.

Don't have much sympathy for bored 50 somethings who have retired on final salary pensions tbh.

Dh slightly older and enjoys his job less so as long as I am well I anticipate working longer. Quite happy with that as it means dh will have a few years to get into some hobbies and pastimes and maybe even do some stuff around the house. My job is very flexible though so will probably manage a few holidays etc.

@NicoAndTheNiners Don't worry there are no guarantees in life - even if you were the same age, you couldn't be certain he'd be around/alive/well enough to care for you in old age.

Custard - there are no guarantees, but it would be a lot more likely!