I am a pensioner

Nanaej you are only as old as you behave, so you can still be 30 if you want to

nanaej Welcome to the club and I certainly hope you are going out to treat yourself out of the "wonderful amount" of back pay you have accumilated, I had a lovely lollypop bought for me on my 60th birthday from a dear friend and it was iced with "now counting down from 60" so ever since as far as I'm concerned I am going backwards.

yes alison you are right.. sometimes even younger when no-one is looking & glammaI am sure I will find some little treat and will be back to 60 next birthday!

Congrats nanaej.
If nothing else, you can keep yourself in Gin and cigarettes.

I'm still confused when someone talks about pensioners and I realise they mean me!!

johanna I'd lose weight too..bonus

I know what you mean kitty in the news when they say 'a pensioner....' & I think oh poor old dear...& now it's me!!

It's not a very flattering description, is it? I'll be claiming my pension at the end of this month, but as I'm still working I'll have to pay tax on it!
I didn't want to defer taking it - who knows what lies around the corner?

I did not mean to defer but we were in the middle of building works and everywhere was chaos and I forgot! I have my work pension and I do a bit of sporadic consultancy & DH works almost f/t so we could manage without at the moment!

My mum is 78 and she forgets she is a pensioner. She talks about the old people she knows then suddenly remembers that some of them are younger than she is?

Personally I have no intention of being old. I'm going to be a purple haired lady who rattles my cane on the railings and complains I have no money for butter (very poor precise of very funny poem).

I'm not having purple hair! S*d that for a game of soldiers!

*ana8 depends on the shade...not a rinse but deep purple!

Noooo!

'When I Am Old, I Shall Wear Purple' by Jenny Joseph. I agree, vampirequeen - very funny poem and sums up a brilliant attitude to ageing.

I am wearing a purple top with socks to match right now.

Ana it might be worth defferring as it grows by about 10% pa and you can't get that amount anywhere else. I did so and when I started to claim it had grown a lot and now that is the amount I get an increase on each year. I think you have to plan to live for about 10 years to make it worthwhile. I plan to live a lot longer than that!

I'm with Jenny J although purple is not my colour. Sometimes DH asks me why I do something and I say 'because I can'. I now only mix with those I want to (easy round here as everyone is so nice) and do the things I want to do when I want to do them. If I plan housework or gardening and I get a better offer, off I go. The freedom to be 'old' is brilliant, wish I'd done it years ago.

I'm off to buy myself some unsuitable clothes later today!

Hmm..you may be right, Alison - will think about that! Thanks.

(I meant about the deferral, of course, not the unsuitable clothes! )

ana have a look at this: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/pensionsandretirementplanning/statepension/statepensiondeferral/dg_10027570

I am a Radio 4 addict and listen to all their money advice and they seem to think it is a 'no brainer'.

It really annoys DH that I get a bigger state pension than him even though I don't qualify for a full one!

Yes, it annoys my own DH that my state pension forecast is more than his, although I don't know why - I've worked for longer than he has! (He took early retirement.)

For some unaccountable reason, my pension is more than my husband's even though he has worked without a break since university and I have never worked, except for him on a part-time basis, since I had children. Though I have a huge amount of child responsibility years (don't think that is what it's called!)

I deferred mine and took the lump sum when my husband got to 65.

Oh its certainly all in the mind, can remember my darling Garndma breaking her hip at 76 (she recovered beautifully) but she was sat up in bed talking in hushed tones about going home soon and getting away from 'all these old fogies'. Bless her she lasted till well into her eighties and had the perfect death (she had worried about going ga-ga). One day she just settled down for a little post lunch snooze in her favourite chair, having heard that my second baby had been born safely that morning and never woke up. Perfect.

Well I am now 80 and don't feel a day over 79! My husband and I are enjoying life with not a great deal of money but good friends. We are all told that thinking young is good for us, and fortunately most of our 'new' friends are younger than we are, but it is 'old' friends whose company we most enjoy.