How can I help my mother prepare for retirement

Primrose

I can echo foreign correspondent's recommendation of checking out whether there's a branch of U3A near your mother. This is such an excellent organisation for retired people. They cater for so many different interests with a wide cross section of people. Our has a general meeting with a speaker once a month and about twenty different sub groups ranging from Gardening groups, walkers, ornithologists, opera, music, book group, computer users, history, ancestry etc. I defy anybody not to be able to find something amongst their offerings of interest. Our subscription is about £15 a year and this covers all meetings apart from paying a few pence for a cup of tea and a biscuit so it must be one of the best value-for-money social groups around.