What does a colourful retirement look like to you? Share your plans or experiences of retirement with Legal and General - £300 voucher to be won AND chance to win a £200 voucher!

To me retirement means much the same as pre-retirement. Weve always traveled, gardened, and enjoyed ourselves. Now, as we slow down, VRCruises are our favourite thing, lovely.

Petra thanks, that’s interesting. Not having the flybridge would have made a difference. We had to be careful on the Trent-Severn Waterway, particularly.

Candelle thank you for your kind words! I’m glad you enjoyed the blog.
America fascinates me & the contrast between its international image and the reality of the places you go to & the people you meet when you travel round is very stark I think.

My goodness, yes - the raw poverty in rural USA is mind-boggling and diametrically opposed to the glitzy USA portrayed on television.

We were frequently served in restaurants by staff with tremors (a la Mrs Overall) and probably age-related, as the 'servers' must have been in their late-seventies/early eighties yet they needed to work.

Jam jars (clean-ish) for drinking glasses, meals in Airstream caravans (the only restaurant available in a tiny town) and in the southern states, ladies out to lunch wearing (indoor) gloves were a few of our memories. You must have thousands!

I have passed your blog on to our boating friends. You never know...

I must re-read your blog more slowly - it was really interesting, thanks again!

My grandchildren keep me young at heart so I plan to keep being the big kid that I am, have fun laugh a lot & exciting adventures!

(The advertiser (L&G) acknowledges that the way retirement is shown in advertising needs to change, therefore they have launched a campaign so they do not need the obvious pointed out again and again )

Since my "retirement" from FT work, now at the ripe young age of 70, I have:

Learnt how to do paint techniques;
Joined a Craftivism group (gentle activism through craft);
Jumped on a RIB and gone out to sea (twice) (although terrified the first time);
Started doing ParkRun;
Do a weekly outdoor, all year round, "Boot Camp" style exercise class;
Sing in the Rock Choir - and this year will be at the Edinburgh Fringe as a performer!

Besides the above, I keep getting called back to work!

Now I am not doing the day job I am pursuing what I always wanted to do - be an artist! Using my phone as a mobile sketch book, I paint, take a pic, upload it to facebook or instagram and take payments by paypal - all digital except for the painting bit! And in between I can see the family, make food from scratch, enjoy good walks and rides on my ebike, plus meet up with friends. I am not complaining!

Anna that sounds wonderful!

I forgot to say that my "back to work" has meant that I learnt at 69 to do website content management - and I get paid for it.

To me, retirement gives me the time to get out and about and see a bit more of the world. I am planning to visit Scotland next as I have never been there.

Retirement is fine as long as you keep an open mind, enjoy what is on offer, give back in the way of volunteering for something.

I took early retirement due to not being able to cope with working full time because of knee and back pain and my doctor said I was too young to be considered for a knee replacement at 60! I intended to sell my house and downsize to self fund the years until I received my state pension at 63.
I never did sell in the end because I couldn't find a place I liked enough to move to at the same time I had offers on my house. When I could find somewhere suitable, I didn't have the right offer!

Anyway, I managed to return to work after a while of living off savings and am now still working on a casual basis at age 67. It is hard as I am still in pain but I need the top up income. I filled in my extra free time by getting involved in local politics, standing (unsuccessfully) for local office and have now adapted my home for old age living. I used to love travelling but am not fit enough for trips at the moment,unfortunately.

Good health and enough money to pay the bills, anything else is a bonus.

I would like to travel more and grow my own fruit and vegetables.

I've always been very independent, and tried to do as much as it was available to me. Never had a great amount of money but I got by, I think a colourful retirement would mean to have enough money to buy and open worldwide plane ticket and stay in places for as long as I felt: from North to South from East to West; including the poles...

a colourful retirement is where u can wake up with no worries especially money worries and have ur morning coffee go for a stroll in the fresh air take luxury holidays on a cruise ship and enjoy meals at your favourite restauntrant aswell as spending time with loved ones and enjoying lovely roast dinners

Looking forward to being able to travel more, experience new things. We enjoy physical activities to keep healthy like walking the dogs... We also help out with childcare which keeps us on our toes! ;)

A holiday to Antarctica is top of my list - beyond that I have no plans - but I suspect by the end of the first few months I'll be bored and looking for a job

Retirement will see me wanting to move to the Coast and planning plenty of trips abroad.

Retirement for my generation looks like a scary prospect. We will have to work till we are god only knows how old! I know I am a pessimist but I would say it's looking bleak. So I have already started saving in a private bank account, as I would love to be able to think I could afford to help my children and grandchildren out.

I want to have some time for myself and try some new experiences that I would not normally do. It's my time to live by my own rules.

Travelling free on the bus with plenty of time I leave the car at home and visit many towns and cities where I would not have driven to

I'm not sure we will ever retire properly! We are both self-employed with our own businesses but if we ever get the chance ... we would love to go on a few weekends away. The airport is local to us and it would be great to catch a flight to Venice or Madrid for the weekend!

Retirement- no plans, I hate plans as such but I view retirement as an endless list of opportunity which will only be blighted by lack of health or lack of wealth.
Socialising is important to me, I’m nosy and I like to join in, not miss out, but time alone to indulge interests and hobbies is also on my list.
Getting up when I want, going to bed when I want.
Travelling as much as possible.
Enjoying the Arts, trying new experiences.
It’s all out there, we just have to dip our toes in while we can and go for it.

I enjoy retirement being able to plan getaways even at very short notice is wonderful and escaping the winter weather is awesome

We know an older couple and are friends on facebook and we often see lovely photos of their travels, cruises and time together. I want to be just like them, having lovely holidays and meals with DH.

Either that or open a cattery, we like both ideas!

The joy of not having to go to work soon palls. I hate gardening, which I view as a necessary evil. So I took up writing, and so far have had ten books published, at no cost to myself. Well, it beats watching daytime television.