Don’t disregard AARP

#Middlebury #Seniors #AARP

Starting when we reach age 50, our mailbox becomes flooded with frequent invitations to join AARP. At that age, we don’t want to hear about anything for seniors because, in our eyes, we aren’t seniors yet. We don’t even qualify for a senior discount at local stores, so we may not even look at the piles of literature and ads AARP sends. Maybe we should.

There’s more to AARP than meets the eye. For a mere $16 per year, we get a whole list of benefits and information.

The discounts themselves, in over a dozen categories, are impressive. Want to send flowers or a gourmet fruit basket? Get a 20% discount. Traveling and need a rental car? Get a 30% discount. Save on RV insurance, prescriptions at Walmart, restaurants, hearing aids (20%), Ancestry.com (30%), Norton computer security (25%) and much more.

There is a jobs board (315 jobs in my ZIP code alone), an auto-buying program to help with dealer pricing, online games, local chapters and podcasts, a government watch … everything designed to help seniors.

And then there is the AARP Bulletin monthly magazine that is sent by mail to members. If there’s one thing you don’t want to leave lying around unread, it’s this. I just picked up a recent copy and discovered three must-read articles: Identifying phone scams when you get a call, cutting the cost of online groceries and, most important of all, an article on drug interactions. Imagine my surprise to see two of my drugs listed with information about contraindications no one ever told me about.

And what do they do with our membership fees? They advocate for us all over the country, especially with Social Security and Medicare.

If you’re not signed up for AARP, it’s something you should consider. If in doubt, go to www.aarp.org and scroll down the page to see what’s new. If you have questions, call AARP at 888-687-2277 Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. EST.

© 2022 King Features Synd., Inc.