retiresavvy - Old Age Pensioner or Over Active Pensioner?

When we were asked by mumsnet to take a look around the new retiresavvy portal from Skipton Building Society, I really felt I ought to because we've always believed in being savvy with finances and planning for the future should be part of that. 

But in all honesty the thought of reviewing what I thought would be a boring finance site didn't fill me with excitement. So I clicked through, had a browse of the site, read some of the articles and felt inspired, energised and wishing away the next 30 years so that I could join this new breed of retirees. 

This was very much a case of expectations being exceeded and being totally surprised by what I was reading. I thought it would be far more of a pushy sale site disguised as a retirement information portal but it's nothing like that. There is useful information on topics like Pensions and Funding retirement with articles like 'How much State Pension will I receive?' and 'How Can I find an old pension?' . But what really excited me was the community that is being built up on retiresavvy where real life stories are shared, where OAP's are no longer plagued by the 'pipe and slipper image' and where the 'current generation of older people are possibly the fittest, most ambitious and vocal in history.' (quote from The retiresavvy manifesto) 

The site is clearly laid out with key sections focussed around 'Approaching Retirement' and 'Already Retired' along with a forum where you can register and ask questions and leave comments. As the retiresavvy community grows I can see the forum becoming a major benefit of retiresavvy and a real 'go to' place to ask not only about the nitty gritty of finance questions but also get to know others in a similar situation.

Perhaps I should not have been as surprised as I was by the site as we have one of these new generation OAP's in our own family. At the time of writing this, Granny has been shortlisted in the final of the search for Britains most Over Active Pensioner.  

Granny was shortlised by the judges on her amazing merits of all the charity work she does along with her thrill seeking travels around the globe. Sadly the competition is a voting competition from here on (boo!) and we all know the problems with those as competition expert Di Coke so clearly explains here. 

So regardless of the outcome, Granny is always a winner in our eyes and she is a true inspiration to all retirees. Not everyone is going to be able to be a marathon runner or mountain climber in their retirement but everyone can make the decision not to be held back by their age and make the very most of life. And planning ahead financially can help make it all possible what adventures life has in store for you in retirement. 

I was asked to review retiresavvy.skipton.co.uk by Skipton and the Mumsnet Bloggers Network. All views are my own. I was entered into a prize draw to win vouchers as a token of thanks for blogging. View other blogs on this topic here: http://www.mumsnet.com/bloggers/retiresavvy-portal-what-our-bloggers-thought-