NOW CLOSED Talk to Aviva about what you're looking forward to most when you retire. You could win a Red Letter Day experience for 2 worth £100!

What crap! Blatant advertising.

So are all the Gransnet discounts, the free things and the give-away books. They pay for the site and the dozen or so people working backstage on Gransnet. At least it is an official paid-for advert, unlike the hopefuls who post maverick unpaid ones on the forum threads. Would you rather pay a sunscription?

Probably.

One hundred pounds to one Gransnetter. For all the information they are likely to glean from here.

Does someone think we're stupid?

What a £100 , bit of an insult, also has to be put towards the "Red Letter ",
so how much is that going to cost ??

Probably be won by someone I have never heard of , usually is !!

I wanna know who I was chatting to on the old email yesterday afternoon. The one who thinks she's the Scarlet Pimpernel.

I have an Aviva pension. Does that disqualify me in some way? I looked forward to trav.elling around the world and expected to explore England every weekday when at home. Still waiting

The best thing about retirement is having time to spare to help look after and get to know the DGC.

The second best is still - even after 8 years - waking up on a cold dark Monday morning, then turning over and going back to sleep. Or waking on a bright sunny morning and thinking what shall I do today? Freedom -no longer a wage slave at everyone's beck and call - Bliss.

Another fortyfive quid and you could do this

I had to look up red letter days, I had no idea what they were.

If money were no object, I would buy somewhere abroad to spend the cold winter months. As things are, I shall probably spend my retirement huddled under a fleecy blanket with a thermos and a hot water bottle, my wizened claws desperately reaching out for the computer.

I am already virtually retired really, but OH has many years to go. So I shall be working harder because then I shall have to cook his lunch and do extra shopping and have him around all day making more mess and making me watch cricket and other sports. I shall look forward to not having a set routine, being able to wake up when I want to and not feeling guilty if there is a film on that doesn't end until 1.30am.

Which reminds me.. best get off to bed, early start tomorrow.

I'm looking forward to helping my daughter with her third child, due at the end of November.

Being able to do things as a more leisurely pace rather than rushing to fit in everything on a Saturday and Sunday.

Do things I don't get time to do at the moment - such as tidying out cupboards and throwing away unwanted items. Reading more books. Visiting friends and going on outings. Sorting out the garden. More cooking for pleasure instead of cooking something quickly when I get in from work! Not getting up every morning at 5.45am to get ready for work!

I had 6 months at home when I retired. I was facing winter which I did not enjoy so I found myself 3 part time casual jobs the following spring, 2 of which were related to my old work so were well paid. That gave me sufficient money to redo kitchen, bathroom etc. paint house etc. and put some dosh away for a rainy day.

I had to stop 4 years ago as breaking my ankle was not conducive to hiking around and the IR appeared to take a personal interest in my earnings so for an easier life, I took full retirement and never looked back. I do not know how I found the time to work full time for 40 years.

It is great not using an alarm clock on a daily basis, I still get up early but from choice.

Time
to read a book all day
to go swimming in the middle of the day
to meet a friend for lunch midweek
to even watch day time TV if I want to
to vist friends in farflung places
to give my garden the attention it deserves
to become a grandma who has the time to give that my grandchildren would like me to have!
to put in more time for my favourite local charity
to sit and do abolsutely nothing..................

I'm looking forward to learning the gentle art of goofing off.

At the moment I'm in a pleasant limbo land of knowing that I can retire in a couple of months if I want to. I do love my job but feel that my work/life balance is out of kilter and I'm finding myself too tired to do anything other than house maintenance when I'm not working. The main thing I'm looking forward to is saving up and booking cheap holidays; impossible to do when you have to arrange holiday time months in advance [and, even then it often gets refused]. Spending time on the garden in a leisurely way, not desperately trying to get those plants potted up/planted before the end of the weekend. Hopefully going to a gym once a week and visiting friends for long weekends. Being able to spend more time studying my favourite long distance handicaps and going racing more often during the week. Not being too tired to read a book at night and even having time to sit in the garden and read. Jump in the car and go up to Northumberland when we have a spell of hot weather instead of hoping it won't rain for the two weeks in the year that I can go there. Seeing the grandchildren more often; I've hardly spent any time with the younger one since he was born. At the same time I'll so miss chatting with the people I work with and for .

I love not having to set alarm clocks, get up on dark winter mornings and face at least an hours drive through heavy traffic before I could even start work.

I love the freedom of being able to spend lots of time with my grandson and help my daughter.

I love being able to do what I like, when I like.

The only thing I miss about work is the regular salary but you can't have everything

I retired over 10 years ago and love the freedom to do just what me & my DH feel like doing. We both do voluntary jobs, which we enjoy, it helps us to keep in touch with others & make new friends. I did work part time for a while after retiring, but, did not enjoy it much, so gave up. Volunteering is a good way to fill your time and help your local community. It's nice to be appreciated and we have met some lovely people who live in our local community. I do miss a monthly salary coming in, but we did save for our retirement in a modest way and can afford the odd day out and a holiday now & again. We have grandchildren that we can spend time with and spoil now and again too. I do not particularly miss the early morning rush, the awful traffic, and the office politics! My hubby is not so stressed, does not have to get up at 05:30am every morning to beat the traffic. Yes, we would like more money and win the Lottery, who wouldn't. We both worked full time until retirement age, have never claimed benefits, and intend to enjoy our retirement as much, and for as long as possible. Long live Pensioners ��

Looking forward to going where I want, when I want.

Whenever I am wandering about I always seem to see lots of things advertised I would like to do such as attend talks and exhibitions and join classes purely for interest and to develop new skills. Unfortunately most are during the day and work intervenes! I would like to wake up on sunny days and go out for the day or have a leisurely lunch outside the pub! I want to be able to book cheap out of season holidays and visit the places on my list and I want to be able to help more with childcare for DGC. I might also do more volunteering and have a very tidy house for the first time in my life! how could anybody be bored?

We retired 10 years ago and celebrated by buying round the world plane tickets and taking ourselves off to see the world for 3 months. By planning it ourselves it cost the equivalent of a couple of 2 week cruises.
Now we fill our time with travelling, sailing, gardening, painting, walking, birdwatching, etc, etc. Like most other retired people we also do regular volunteering and community work, help look after our grandchildren and until recently aged parents. This way we still contribute to the economy despite what some politicians believe.
Life is full and good.

When I 'retired' it was to have children, so that was a long time ago. When the late Mr.G retired we had the freedom to do what we wanted, when we wanted: visit the family as it gradually increased in size, travel at leisure or just 'be' at home. In retrospect, I wish we had done more and appreciated the few short years we had left together and been more adventurous. I am hoping that soon I will acquire the get-up-and-go to do more things on my own. On my list are improve my French, do an art course, return to choral singing, volunteer locally, learn how to sail properly (it was Mr.G's fav pastime), possibly buy a campervan , do more with the gcs as they get older and ultimately, move house.

My thoughts on retirement:

I'm so looking forward to not being responsible for motivating and incentivising a staff of twenty.
Monthly reviews and annual appraisals will no longer have me preparing till all hours.
I no longer want to hear the terms KPIs, Bottom Line or Operating Profit.
I have just one more Health & Safety inspection to get through.
These are but a few of the things I will wave goodbye to without a backward glance.

The future (barring disasters) means:

I can look forward to my time being my own.
Being available to help out with my grandchildren.
Putting my house on the market and moving to the city.
Being able to enjoy a spur of the moment picnic.
Having the time to stand and stare.

The date of my retirement is 39 weeks away - the length of a pregnancy - which is apt as it will hopefully herald another new and exciting stage in my life.

I love being able to bring my breakfast up to bed and sit and listen to the radio for a while. I love being able to say yes to a cuppa with a friend. I didn't realise when I was younger that time would be soaked up by my parents who are both now confused (dad with dementia and mum with confusion issues brought on by two minor strokes). Our lives are now more about thinking about how we can best care for them at home. I'm in the middle of the worst time of my life and I 'retired' to look after them albeit I live quarter of an hour away and am not actually living with them - yet. Retirement hopefully will be about walking, reading, gardening, holidays and spending time with my daughter, son-in-law and family and son and his partner who all live in different parts of the country. Grandchildren are a delight at the moment as they're 3 and 7 months and I could eat them both! Retirement will throw curved balls at us all, health scares, loss of people we love etc. but if you don't find time to enjoy these years - well, as we all know the saying 'you're a long time dead'!