Major Tom
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
I retired at age 36 (I'm nearly 50 now) and got divorced 8 years into early retirement. So I unexpectedly found myself in the dating pool again in my 40's.
I dated for a year before finding my new partner and we've been together 2 years now. The fact that I am retired has not been a major issue so far. We both agree that marriage is off the table. We live together yet we maintain separate homes. My partner lives in Switzerland and I live in France but our homes are only 3 miles apart, so it easy to switch homes whenever we feel like it. We actually enjoy this arrangement. And we keep our finances separate. My net worth is 2 orders of magnitude greater but our disposable incomes are about the same so on a day-to-day basis we are quite evenly matched financially.
Being in a relationship has not changed my overall spending, I just spent differently. I used to spend on personal pursuits, now I spend more on shared pursuits. We disclosed our income early on (in my case "income" is what I allow myself to spend) so we know and respect each other's spending limits.
I relate to one particular aspect of this. I am not in a romantic relationship. The relationship I have with my long-time best friend though, is a very close one. It just doesn't have the physical element (which is fine with both of us). I have been retired for nearly all of the time we have known each other. In contrast, she still works and will most likely always work, unless ill health or age prevent her from doing so. My net worth is far greater than hers, yet our incomes are similar. Actually, her income is a little greater than mine.
Because our incomes are roughly similar, we tend to like eating at the same types of places, and spending roughly the same amounts on entertainment/leisure pursuits. The only difference is that my income comes from investments, while hers comes from earned income. It took a while for her stop viewing me as "rich", but I think she gets it now. She used to tell me I was rich. I'd push back on that but in a way, she's not completely wrong. My income takes virtually no work to generate (on my part, at least), while hers takes a considerable amount of regular work and effort. In that sense, I suppose I am rich.
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