It's official. I'm an old fart.

[betsygee]

I got my Medicare card in the mail. Rick thought it was hilarious. I was not amused.

Weird, isn't it. Duke turned 65 and started on Medicare this year, and I turned 60. How did that happen?!

I have had mine for awhile ( I just turned 66). I didn’t feel old until I went to a burger place and the girl automaticity gave me the senior discount without asking! Being a dummy I argued that she wasn’t charging me correctly until my daughter told me why!

Twice this year I've been offered a senior discount without me asking. But I'll take them! I found out my vet offers a 10% discount for people 60 and over.

 

[Texaskitty]

Some start as young as 55.

55 is the age the thrift stores in our town start giving discounts (some of our favorite places to shop). I'm 57 and my hubby Dave is 56.I'm looking forward to the day I can get Medicare.

 

[CatLover49]

They haven't found me. Yet.

 

[CatLover49]

They haven't found me. Yet.

They found me at 55..Which that is my age NOW

 

[VinceL]

I've been on Medicare for a year. My wife goes on it in January. She just gives me all the mail she is receiving about Medicare and asks me to take care of it.

 

[Willowy]

From little me in the UK, what does that mean now?

It means someone is 65 .
And gets the government insurance that they've paid into their entire working life.

You can join AARP at any age to get the discounts. It's called an "associate membership" before you're 50.

My mom is constantly looking for senior discounts. She just turned 64, and complains that all the stores have jacked their minimum age up to 65 even though it was 60 right up until she was about to turn 60, lol. So now she thinks they'll jack it up to 70 right before she turns 65, just because nothing ever works out for her. All those Boomers overloading the system I guess.

The Senior Citizen Center in the town my parents live in lets people join at age 40 :/.

 

[Foundkitty]

I got my Medicare card in the mail. Rick thought it was hilarious. I was not amused.

Congratulations!

 

[Kat0121]

It means someone is 65 .
And gets the government insurance that they've paid into their entire working life.

You can join AARP at any age to get the discounts. It's called an "associate membership" before you're 50.

My mom is constantly looking for senior discounts. She just turned 64, and complains that all the stores have jacked their minimum age up to 65 even though it was 60 right up until she was about to turn 60, lol. So now she thinks they'll jack it up to 70 right before she turns 65, just because nothing ever works out for her. All those Boomers overloading the system I guess.

The Senior Citizen Center in the town my parents live in lets people join at age 40 :/.

They will jack it up to 100 once I get close.

 

[mightyboosh]

And gets the government insurance that they've paid into their entire working life.

Do you get some sort of pension then or is it discounts on stuff?

 

[GemsGem]

I got my Medicare card in the mail. Rick thought it was hilarious. I was not amused.

From little me in the UK, what does that mean now?

erm... yeah... I’m from the UK too & I didnt understand what this meant either

 

[Winchester]

Do you get some sort of pension then or is it discounts on stuff?

I'll have my retirement from where I'm working at now, plus my retirement from where I worked at prior to this because I was grandfathered there, too.. I'll have Social Security payments (depending on how long they last, if the government has its way). And I have a 401K, plus some money from investments and such.. Rick has pretty much the same. We won't starve, but we won't be cruising around the world either. I want one year completely off work, where I don't have to do anything I don't want to do. After that, I'll consider if I want to get back into the working world. But I need one year.

We really haven't looked into discounts for seniors all that much yet. We do take advantage of our vet's senior discount for the girls. Some restaurants. We need to check into things like that.

FWIW, I despise AARP with a passion. They started hassling us when RIck turned 60 (I think it was) and he joined. To date, we have gotten nothing from them that's worth anything. Their so-called Medicare supplemental insurance is sky-high and we both found something far less cheaper. We use our AAA for discounts when we can. IMO, AARP simply isn't what it's cracked up to be. That's just my opinion; your mileage may vary.

 

[Willowy]

Do you get some sort of pension then or is it discounts on stuff?

It's health insurance for seniors. Part of it is free. But if you want any real coverage, you have to pay $135 every month. That's less than private insurance, but also we all have money taken out of our paychecks every month to pay for it. And you can pay to get private "supplemental" insurance to cover more. It's really complicated. The American health care system is a mess.

I never thought of the vet having a senior discount! I'll tell my mom to ask the next time she's in.

 

[denice]

Do you get some sort of pension then or is it discounts on stuff?

What we refer to as payroll taxes go into a fund for Social Security and Medicare, the lion's share goes into Social Security. Employers match what their employees pay into the system, Self employed people have to pay both the employee and employer tax. Once we have paid in for 10 years we are vested in both. Social Security is the pension and the amount depends on how much has been paid into the system and for how long. I have been paying in for a little over 40 years. I looked at mine online this morning and if I retire when I am fully vested at 66 years and 4 months I will get 1642.00 a month from Social Security. They will take 135.00 a month out for Medicare Part B premium which is outpatient care. Part A is inpatient with no premium, that is the part that we have paid into through payroll taxes.

 

[betsygee]

I never really looked for senior discounts but now I notice them. If we go to the movies, hubby gets the senior discount. We went to a city park to hike a few weekends ago, and got in free because we’re seniors.

 

[NY cat man]

~ Welcome to the club. Next we all dye our hair !

Hair?

 

[MoonstoneWolf]

~ Welcome to the club. Next we all dye our hair !

I happen to love my gray hair thank you very much. I worked hard almost 64 years for every strand of it

And I welcomed the stuff from AARP. There's a lot of great articles in the magazines and great discounts. Like it or not if we're lucky we'll get old so may as well be proud of it.

 

[NY cat man]

I started getting all that AARP junk when I turned 50 too, all of which went into the circular file. Finally, I started taking all of it and putting it into the prepaid envelope and mailing it back to them. They finally took the hint and left me alone.

 

[susanm9006]

One of the best senior freebie, well almost free, that I got was the $10 lifetime national park pass. They changed the program a couple of years ago and now it costs $80 for a lifetime pass.

 

[JamesCalifornia]

´ HAPPY QUOTES ​

“The idea is to die young as late as possible.”

~ Ashley Montagu​

" Grow old - or die young . "

~ ? ​

"Mother Nature gives you the face you have at twenty; Father Time gives you the face you have at fifty."

~ Coco Chanel​

"At age 20, we worry about what others think of us. At age 40, we don't care what they think of us. At age 60, we discover they haven't been thinking of us at all."

~ Ann Landers​

 

[NY cat man]

Since I passed 70, it seems that all I get are ads for hearing aids and walk-in tubs.