Last Christmas I was having a hard time deciding what Christmas gift to buy my dad. He retired a couple of years ago and, with a very nice lifestyle, both him and my mother don’t need much. I finally decided to pay for an annual Netflix subscription for Christmas and, as it turned out, it’s the best gift I’ve ever bought my father. A Netflix subscription is also a perfect gift for birthdays, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day or any other special occasion for any retired parent and here’s why.
Cost of Buying a Netflix Subscription – Netflix is cheap, particularly when you consider how much enjoyment a retired parent can get from a subscription over a year’s time. Basic Netflix subscriptions start out at $8.99 a month. That allows your mom or dad to get one DVD movie at a time. As soon as they return that movie, the next one on their list is shipped to them.
I bought my dad the next highest subscription. At $13.99 a month, that allows him to order two DVD movies at a time. With that plan, he can be watching one movie while the second one is in the mail, so he’s rarely without one movie waiting for him to watch. You can also pay $16.99 and get three DVD movies at a time, but my dad and I decided the two DVD movies was enough. With that subscription, my mom and dad figured out they see about 25-30 DVD movies or TV shows every month.
At Netflix, you can pay for one month subscription, two months, three months, six months or a year. I pay for the one year subscription and plan on renewing it indefinitely. It’s honestly the best thing I’ve ever bought my dad so why would I ever stop it?
Watching Netflix Movies Online – The other wonderful thing about Netflix is you can watch movies and TV series online and can watch as many as you want for the same monthly fee. Just another reason why a Netflix subscription is a great gift for a retired person. During retirement, there’s sometimes so much time on your hands and little to do to fill it. Now, at any time of the day or night, if there’ s nothing on TV, my dad (or mom) can get online and watch something interesting.
The Convenience of Netflix For Retired Parents – The other good thing about Netflix is the convenience for retired parents. As parents get older, they don’t always have the energy to drive to the video store or to go to the post office to return a DVD. With Netflix, the DVDs are delivered to your mailbox and picked up from your mailbox when you’ve finished with them. All free of charge. No postage charges added.
For retired parents, particularly those who live in colder climates where it snows, this is an amazing convenience. With a two DVD subscription at Netflix, they can watch a DVD daily without even having to leave their house.
Netflix Selection Is Amazing – My parents love Netflix as their TV show and movie selection is huge. Both my mom and dad are big fans of British TV series (we’re British!), so being able to order whole lists of British shows they couldn’t otherwise get a hold of has been fun. They always have a long list of shows waiting to be mailed to them as soon as they return the last DVD they rented, with them adding more shows to their queue every day. (Netflix allows you to put the DVDs you want to see on a list in your account then, as soon as they receive the last DVD you returned in the mail, they mail you the next one on your list).
Netflix Saves Parents Money – Another big reason Netflix is such a wonderful gift for retired parents is it can save them a ton of money. Before I got my dad the Netflix subscription, he and my mom were paying over $100 a month for their cable bill. They paid for five movie channels so there was always something they could watch although, like my dad said, they’d seen most movies already.
Then, soon after I got my dad the Netflix subscription, he canceled all the extra cable movie channels they were paying for, saving them over $40 a month in cable fees. That’s $500 a year saved and now, with Netflix, they can actually watch movies and TV shows they haven’t seen before.
Netflix Subscriptions Can Be Put on Hold – My parents travel a lot so another reason I got the Netflix subscription is you can put it on hold. That means, when my parents are in Europe for a month, my dad puts a hold on the subscription so the next month’s fee isn’t taken out of my bank account until the month after. You’ll never waste money on Netflix if your parents aren’t using the service.
Netflix is just about the best gift you could ever buy a retired parent, particularly one who loves movies and television. At around $175 for a year ($13.99 per month, plus tax, and first month free), it’s the best $175 I’ve ever spent. I also put the subscription in my name, instead of using a ‘gift subscription’. That way the fee is withdrawn from my bank account monthly, instead of having to pay the $175 upfront. I don’t even notice it’s gone.
