This is so very cool, discussing this stuff. My biggest fear is definitely the idle hours stretching out in front of me with nothing to fill them with. I love being by myself, and now I'm going to be with my beloved, all day, every day...
Then it sounds like your challenge is figuring out how to get plenty of "alone time" after retirement! I was a little concerned about that too, but luckily my beloved also needs and enjoys his own alone time. So, it was easy for us to work that out by establishing a routine that works for both of us and allows each of us plenty of alone time.
After almost 4 years of retirement, I am enjoying it so much. There really isn't time to complete everything I want to get done. I still have the same household chores as before, and the laundry and grocery shopping still need to be done regularly as always. To that, I have added a rigorous (to me) gym schedule because after an overly sedentary life, I think it is crucial for me to work on improving my physical capabilities as I age. In addition to chores and the gym I have enough time to engage in my favorite solitary activities daily, and also I spend time with my beloved each day.
I think that the reason I have adjusted so well to retirement, is that I am fundamentally extremely curious. I suppose many INTJ's share this curiousity with me. There are so many topics and ideas that I want to explore during my life, and dealing with the petty day-to-day requirements of a j*b would just get in the way of doing that. Also I am not the type of person to just sit and stare at a wall if not entertained, and really, I doubt that you are, either. At any rate, life is my bowl of cherries and I plan to get the most possible out of it and hope you do too.
As you probably gather, my preference and intent is to never work again. YMMV and that is just fine! Wouldn't life be boring if we were all identical clones of one another.
We are in our 4th year of retirement and are still working out our travel bug while we still have our health and our desire to do so. I expected to need more than this when I ER'ed and volunteered 2 days a week during tax season but I even found that too onerous so haven't repeated it after the first year. (not that I am ruling out doing volunteer work in the future).
Like you, I thought I would need more in retirement than I do. I halfway expected to volunteer, but so far I just don't have the time for it.
Retirement means different things to different people and it is not unusual to take time to find out what suits best, and the beauty of it is that what works today to bring fulfillment may not be the same thing you need tomorrow, but trying out different scenarios can be very enjoyable.
Well said!