Good for you Neil.....at 68 (and having worked for so long) I think retirement should be 'staring you in the face' not just 'in sight'.
Mark B makes a valid point about savings and spending.....having saved money on a regular basis all my life I still haven't got my head around the idea that I can now spend it without feeling guilty and still worry about spending capital that I know will take a lot longer to replace than when I was working. But as SWMBO says 'What on earth did you save it for, if not to spend it at some stage?'. A valid point perhaps but old dogs find new tricks a bit of a challenge....
The good news is that you already know how you can occupy more free time....enjoy!
You are far from being the only one with that spending issue. Its very difficult to change habits late in life, both my saving habit and my wife's habit of finding good reasons for spending it.
True. In particular, as we've lived through high inflation, it's hard to get your head around the idea that with low inflation and low interest rates on the horizon for the forseeable future, it's okay to chip away at your capital.
I had this very conversation with my recently widowed mother in law (who was worrying that with the poor returns from her savings, she was going to struggle to get by on her pension & her investment income). I pointed out to her, that as she's 75, if she spends 4% of her capital annually over the next 25 years she's got plenty to live on. If there's none left, well big deal. It's her money.
