I joined it for a year - figured the price was ok. Thought the insurance benefits might be useful since I was unemployed at the time. They are so paltry that I never bothered with it. Discounts on motels and stuff would be useful but I so rarely stay in motels that the perk was meaningless to me. The magazine is ok, but if you read newspapers or read news online, I did not think there was ever an article that had a genuinely new idea or approach to the topic. I never renewed.

On the other hand, my neighbor is very active in a local AARP chapter and does a lot of volunteering with them. It has given her a outlet that she could not get anywhere else (poor thing - doesn't ride a bike). I have accompanied her to some of these events, but I always felt like the youngest person there.

Perhaps in another 10 years or so I'll be ready for the AARP, but for now they have nothing to offer me.