For some time now I’ve been intending to write more about what many Americans call the “Problem” of being over 50 and jobless.

Are You Sure Being Over 50 and Jobless is Really A Problem?

The only real problem I see in this situation is if you became jobless due to your employer cheating you out of a pension you have already partially earned.

To me, this is a despicable tactic used all too often in the USA, often with the agencies in the government turning a blind eye to the limited protections they are supposed to provide.

But this is a separate issue, along with the very real age discrimination which is allegedly “illegal” but which goes on day after day with impunity … often joked about in executive backroom meetings.

It’s bad, but there’s very little an employee in this situation can do about it.

Does It Really Matter?

Here’s the thing, injustice or not, even if you get a job after 50, you have little or no chance of getting the retirement benefits back you would have enjoyed any way … so you might as well accept that problem (unless a lawyer actually advises you differently).

It’s kind of like being a baseball pitcher working 9 innings into a no-hitter when an opposing slugger hits an inside the park home run.  Disaster.  But then upon review, the umpires call back the run and place the batsman on second base with a ground rule double.

Are you going to go to pieces over the loss of the no-hitter, or are you going to knuckle down and get the rest of the side out so you can enjoy having a complete game shutout on your record?

There’s no way you’re getting the hit removed from your record, but you still have a LOT to be thankful for.

Here’s the Piece That Got Me Thinking On This Recently

Will jobless 50+ workers be able to get back in the workforce?

June 13, 2014 by Mark Miller

Nothing throws a financial plan off course like unplanned unemployment in the years leading up to retirement. Plenty of plans have been derailed in the aftermath of the Great Recession.

Nearly half of workers retire earlier than expected, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute’s annual Retirement Confidence Survey. The reasons include health problems or disability (61 percent); downsizing or closure (18 percent); and the need to care for a spouse or another family member (18 percent).

Near-retirement workers who are unemployed or underemployed have probably reduced, or eliminated, retirement plan contributions. Perhaps they’ve tapped savings accounts to meet living expenses.

What’s next? Is it reasonable to expect 50+ workers will be able to get back into the labor force? Or are they really retired for good, and just don’t know it yet? …

Are you Over 50 and Jobless?

The way I look at it, you have three real options.

OPTION ONE:  Demean yourself and wear out your shoes, schlepping from personnel office to personnel office, handing out resume’s, filling out applications and listening to the perpetual lies of “Don’t call us, we’ll call you.”

My view is, you should think more of yourself than that, because …

• You’re too old for a company to take on the responsibility of re-training you and molding you into “their” brand of employee.  (doesn’t matter what the law says, we’re talking reality here.)
• You’re over-qualified.  (or, over-aged) … How are you going to react to being ordered around by a supervisor 20 years your junior, who actually might not know as much about the job as you do?
• You know a LOT about the job, but your knowledge may be quite dated.  Think of the example of a telecom engineer who started work 30 years ago, when the telephone system was a monopoly and things like cell phones weren’t even know yet.  Sure, of course, you CAN learn but why should they hire you to learn what every new college grad already knows?
• You will likely have to take less money.  No matter how you think this doesn’t matter, it does.  You will grow dissatisfied, watching people less senior and less qualified draw higher wages.  It’s just a recipe for eventual anger and resentment.

So?  What To Do?

My advice is, forget about this option from the “git-go”, because, in the end, it’s a pretty useless exercise anyway.

Why waste the time, the job hunting expense and your personal dignity?

OPTION TWO:  You can do what a lot of Americans are doing.  Sit on your ass, collect unemployment until it runs out, and wait for some useless organization like the AARP, a veteran’s lobby, or whichever political party you think is NOT to blame for your job loss to do something before the dole runs out and you then have to do what I feel you _should_  be doing from the moment you find out your job is going away …  (here’s a news flash … Republican or Democrat, Conservative or Liberal, “the government” has plenty of problems all on its own.

They don’t give a shit about you … you’re old and used up.

The sooner you realize this and stop wasting your time bitching about the realities of life, over which you have no control, the happier and more prosperous you will be.

Is it wrong to discriminate and marginalize valuable workers just because they are older?

You damn well bet it is, and it’s illegal also, but it is reality, son … are you up to entering into years of lawsuits and protests just to try to right the wrong?   I’m too damn old for that.

Re-read my baseball pitcher example.  The chance of the perfect game is gone.  Accept it.

You still have a major league shutout to finish up here.  Fantasy doesn’t count.  Only reality will go in the record books.

OPTION THREE: Consider this event one of the most fortunate things that ever happened to you and remake yourself into the twenty-first century.  Become an entrepreneur.  You have:

• A lifetime of experience.  There is almost nothing you are skilled at which there is not a market for teaching, writing about or out and outright selling for profit in today’s world.
• You already have your “Social Security “in the bag.  Just wait until the most profitable age to file, the amount you will draw is not based on how many years you have worked, but on how much you have earned … maximize it!
• But I’m Too Old.  BS.  Remember that Harlan Saunders was broke, 65 years old and on Social Security (his SS check was a whopping $100 a month!) when he started KFC … and all he really knew how to do well was cook fried chicken!
• You have the precious gift of time to learn new things … a gift you didn’t have when you were 30 or 40-something and raising kids, going to school, working overtime, etc.  You now have 168 hours available every week (less what you need for sleeping).  No commute to work, no hours spent in senseless executive meetings, and your kids are up and grown and out of the house.

DON”T WASTE THIS TIME!

Over 50 and Jobless?  You’re now empowered!

I’m going through old articles about how to Make Money In Retirement here at the Retired Pay World blog, deleting some trivia and updating some of the more worthy ones to meet changing times.  I was really struck by this article, written more than 7 years ago … how little seems to have changed … especially the attitude my fellow seniors have about empowering their retirement by learning new things and capitalizing on on-line opportunities.  Enjoy.

Ways to Make Money in Retirement

As I’ve mentioned before I make a lot of use of Google Alerts (you should set some for yourself and see how valuable this service is) to find information on things I want to learn about (like Make Money In Retirement) as well as general subjects for the blogs I operate.

This article is from a UK magazine a few summers back.  Still pretty much up to date …  and still pretty much behind the times regarding the Internet.  Do they think our brains dry up at age 65 or something?

After 20-odd years of internet use, you’d think they would start to “get it” by now, wouldn’t you?

There’s a lot more on how to Make Money in Retirement here, as well.

Read the Make Money In Retirement article

Read 10 ways to make money in retirementand then come back here and I’ll give you what I feel is the “rest of the story”.

These are the primary ways for seniors to earn in retirement taken from the article.

1. Bed & Breakfast

Can’t say I agree with the author much at all on this one.

Although a couple in retirement could turn their home into a B&B to Make Money In Retirement, given that everything else was favorable,

1. House in a suitable location

2. Local zoning laws and other regulations favorable

3. Enough rooms, off street parking, etc.

4.  Experience.  I don’t think you can just throw open the doors of what amounts to a hotel and expect not to make alot of business mistakes.

But even if you have the right answers to all these questions, this is not what all would call either “empowered retirement” nor would I think this suitable for the long term.

It’s Hard Work and Long Hours

A bed and breakfast is hard work, very expensive in terms of licensing, insurance and operating expenses and you become the slave of your business rather than the more ideal opposite.

But Perhaps Writing About B&B’s Would Work Better.

But I will say that capitalizing on the B&B popularity would be very easy with a blog about the B&B experience … you could consider slanting it toward a “how to” dialogue with your readers or an idea which appeals to me … travel often, visit many B&B’s and write reviews and interviews with successful (or failed) B&B operators.

Talk to your tax advisor, but I can assure you there are legal ways to make virtually all your travel, research and lodging tax deductible if you pick the proper way to Make Money In Retirement.

I see very good advertising and affiliate programs in the travel business niche.

And think of all the days you wouldn’t have to wash dishes or vacuum the house!

2. Home Handyman

Again, an excellent idea but I feel the recommend way to capitalize on the subject is horrible.

The last thing you want to do in retirement is to be running out at 2 AM to unclog a toilet.

But this niche itself is very popular … in fact there are several retired handymen I’ve found who make a nice blogging income writing about their past experiences and helping readers who want to learn more.

Also an excellent opportunity for a forum-based website … people love the idea of having a place to go to discuss problems and find recommendations.

Decent ad potential here too and affiliate income potential from services that list local tradesmen for a fee.

This would potentially help both “soon to retirees” as well as retirees Make Money In Retirement.

3. Tuition Service

Retired teachers, lecturers, and business training professionals are much in demand nowadays for the provision of part time coaching services.  With the right skills there are opportunities with both the general public and business to supplement your retirement plan and make money in retirement.

Absolutely.

This is a key point I try to make often.

Chances are you trained people in your work, even if you weren’t a teaching professional. In addition, you have likely raised and helped educate your children.

For example, just one particular niche in this area here I see as hot.

Living overseas myself, I know of thousands of other expats, many with school-age children who need advice, encouragement or even “for pay” tutorial services.

You don’t have to have a teaching degree to tutor or assist with homework ad assignments.

“Canvassing” for business is what you are doing when you start a blog and build your audience.

And you do this sort of work up to any age you wish … suitable for shut-ins … and working with young people helps keep you young!

4. Floristry

Can’t agree with the idea of operating a florist business as suggested here at all.

Too much like work, and a business that requires substantial investment.

But … If you know flowers, either professionally or as a lifetime avocation, blog about it.

Good advertising and affiliate dollars in this niche too.

5. Retirement Coaching

This seems like a very broad area.

The very first of the “official” baby boomers just applied for her Social security retirement benefits a month or so back.  Talk about a growth potential!

I saw a recent statistic that showed applications for Social Security would run at about 100,000 new ‘golden-agers’ per month.

That is a big market, folks.

And you know what a recent survey of retiring workers had to say about their needs?

About 80% said they did not have adequate information about how to earn, save or invest their retirement money.  Also, they lost when it comes to knowing how to analyze their retirement plan or learn how to make money in retirement.

That’s a hungry crowd!

Essentially, this is one of the businesses I am in.  All you need here is to stay one step ahead of your audience.

You can focus your coaching on almost any aspect of retirement.

Social Security

Did you ever look at the US Social security website, as just one example?

Loaded with information yet confusing as all get out at first glance.

I could blog for a year just taking page after page of that site apart, explaining things, answering questions and making the links for SSA-supplied manuals and guides available to my readers.

(Remember, publications of the US government are not copyrighted, they belong to you and me as taxpayers.  You can use them (unchanged, of course) as you wish)

Income Tax

Do you know the Income Tax Code … even as a business professional?

You don’t need to be an accountant or lawyer to offer experienced layman’s personal experiences.

Wow, a lifetime of work there, trying to simplify the taxation mess.

And the IRS is distinctly way behind the power curve on items specific to online businesses and the way expats overseas earn money online as well … there is virtually NO ONE writing anywhere with any authority in this area.  There are dozens of writers and website out there, parroting the same old information about regular employees (who get their salary reported on a W2), but writers who even begin to delve into the special areas needed by online entrepreneurs?

Almost crickets (yes. there are a few).

How about making money in retirement by helping others learn to keep more of their retirement money?

Veterans Benefits

Veterans Administration Benefits?  A huge market and, sadly, a huge growth potential, since the Iraq and Afghanistan War casualties just keep rolling home.  How many people can you help steer toward their proper benefit entitlements?

Ads in this arena pay well, by the way.

Lawyers, medical insurance, retirement investment plans … they all want a piece of the action and they need someone with an ounce of two of authority to write the materials.

You can write into a very profitable niche market here, and go to bed each night knowing you have helped people as well.

6. Garden Maintenance

Once again, in retirement, I am not taking on anyone’s garden except my own, and actually (one of the reasons I live in the Philippines), I hire that out too.

But the author is right that there is a huge interest in this area and if you have a green thumb, or are learning to attain one, you could blog about many aspects of plants and gardens.

I’ll give you a free tip that I have no time to deal with.

I’m interested in a method called “square foot gardening.” (Google is your friend, look it up).

I see a website on the subject which sells a book and some ancillary items.

I’ve yet to see anyone independent of the book site itself who blogs about this with authority.

And this would be a very interesting technique to develop here in the Philippines where the population is huge and hungry and the arable land area is small and expensive.

I actually wrote the book publishing company and asked if they had any representatives here in the Philippines, or if they had tried to sell any of their classes and products here.

Know what their response was?

“No. you could be the first”.

I think advertising potential in this niche is only moderate, but there should be lots of suppliers with affiliate deals … Amazon for sure, they will even provide a free online store to attach to your blog.

Gardening is a broad market that meets a lot of positive business criteria.  Why?

• It’s universal.  There are about 200 countries in the world and people grow and eat food in every one of them.
• It’s “evergreen”.  If you, say, help a person to cure their acne, when the acne is gone, it’s gone and they are no longer interested.  But gardening?  It’s popular all year, every year, as sure as the change of the seasons.
• It’s a passion-driven activity.  People who are not interested in anything but the cheapest basics of gardening don’t even bother with it … but people who once get ‘bitten by the bug’ are back, year after year, buying the latest and the greatest books, tools, seeds and so on.  Just like golfers who regularly lose their balls, new plants, materials, ideas and accessories are needed every year.
• And it’s timeless.  there are 8 and 10-year-old gardeners out there.  School project gardens from elementary school through university.  Community sponsored gardens, and for retirees … a hobby/income supplement that can last as long as a person lives.  Gardening doesn’t get ‘outgrown’.

7. Desktop Publishing

According to research findings, this market had expanded globally from £1.8 million in annual sales in 1985 to almost £5.1 billion in 2005 – and there would appear to no end in sight to this growth. Home based desktop publishers are engaged in producing a welter of graphic materials; brochures, flyers, advertisements, newsletters, books, business proposals and forms.

I think this might have changed quite a bit since 2007, but there is still a great upside here.

I would focus again more on teaching, reviewing and helping others rather than trying to set up a desktop publishing service for myself.

You know I’ve advised you in the past to learn by reading blogs?

How many blogs (including this one which badly needs a make-over) could use assistance in their layout, typography and even editing.

You know how many errors I find to my embarrassment every time I review one of my articles?  I don’t want to talk about it.

This blog has been online since the mid-2000’s.  Want to know how many people have ever offered a service to help me clean it up, professionally edit, make it truly look like something?

You could approach other blog owners directly or sell your services on one of the many online job marketplaces.

I consistently hear complaints from other bloggers that when they take the step to seek professional design/publishing help, they can’t find folks who are any good.

8. Start Your Own Online Business

If you choose it to be a blog itself can be a viable online business.  Or you can start looking into using a blog for various opportunities:

• Direct product sales … something you make or write, or paint, or craft …
• Commissioned sales … often called “Affiliate Marketing”.

Companies all over the world will pay you a commission just to do reviews and advertise their products and facilitate buyers.

You invest nothing,

buy nothing,

sell nothing,

stock nothing,

ship nothing,

do no customer service

or make no sales calls.

You just forward the buyer to the merchant and get paid (often handsomely) for the service.

Is There Money in Affiliate Marketing?

Believe me, there’s money in product reviews and steering people to affiliate offers out there.  You will recall I’ve written more than once about Darren Rowse.  14 years or so ago he was an assistant minister in a church with a passion for cameras.

Darren has been known for years for his www.problogger.net “how to” blog, but he makes a six-figure income from several camera blogs, where he writes about, test, comments and critiques on aspects of his hobby.

This is no flash in a pan, he’s been at this and earning consistently for years now.  Not a bad way to make a buck.

His income is easily well into the six figures (US dollars) per year.

More Affiliate Marketing Proofs?

How about my blogging colleague Michelle Schroeder-Gardner?  Michelle started a blog called makingsenseofcents.com just seven years ago.  She now routinely makes (clear, after taxes and exspsnse0 more than $1,000,000 USD per year.

No that is not a typo.  I carefully checked my source data as well as how many zeros I typed.

You can read more about Michelle’s story here.  She went to college for a degree in finance and got a job right out of college as a financial analyst for an investment firm.

She decided she didn’t like the 9 to 5 commuting to a cubicle life.  Also, something she doesn’t mention directly, but that I would sure hate, she was using all the knowledge and skill set she had invested years of study in to make money for other people. 

Her salary was basically fixed, while if she did her job well, rich people got richer off the sweat of her brow.  Jobs are sucker bets, folks.  Basically, government approved licensed slavery (or maybe “indentured servitude”).

So Michelle started her blog, writing about diverse subjects such as how she paid off her student loans quickly, how by selling her house (which she had bought while still a college student) she and her new husband were able to buy a motor home and travel the USA, footloose and fancy-free.

Nothing esoteric of financial-guru nerdy, just first-person experiences sharing useful information that any reader could use for their own financial success.

There are many more examples of current high-earning bloggers I could share with you, let me know if you want more articles like this.

Bottom Line on Affiliate Marketing? 

You absolutely can earn money, in fact, big money is within reach.

And by the way, in case you haven’t noticed, I’m not promoting anything here.  No scammy MLM (Multi-Level-Marketing) schemes, no selling soap to your friends and family, no sending off money and receiving instruction books telling you how to rope in other people in order to make back your investment.

Only honest reviews and recommendations for products you actually need, products that can solve problems for people

9. Make Money on eBay

https://fleamarketflipper.com/flipper-university-make-money-ebay/

Again I notice the author is afraid of the “steep learning curve“.

More about the Steep Learning Curve fallacy below, read on

I consider eBay to be a very seriously overlooked area for senior income potential.

Apparently, this fellow stopped learning some years ago.

Learning new skills is an excellent way to decrease your years of useful living.

The great thing about most of the legitimate online ways to earn that I am familiar with is are not that hard at all

Although at your first introduction there may seem to be a lot to learn, you can usually be up and running as a beginner in minutes.

You can spend a lifetime learning details and fine points, but the initial effort in both time and money is tiny … low risk, high reward.

With eBay, you literally can make money from the git-go (as we say in Colorado).

It’s easy, it’s fun and the risk is indeed very small.

I haven’t yet had time to start writing on eBay but that is not because I don’t believe in it … opportunities there are large.

One fascinating story of a couple making very nice money from flipping products, mainly eBay (right now, in 2018), not years ago is here.

10. Write a Book on Your Know-How

As you know this is one I’d agree with, wholeheartedly.  You can write an eBook and market it yourself or via several commission selling services, or you can write a traditional paper book.

Here’s a fellow I’ve mentioned before, John T. Reed.  He’s well into retirement age, he went to West Point the year I first went to SEA.

Among a number of other profit-making endeavors, he publishes his own “how to” books .. real, traditional paper books, sells them himself and pays income tax on the profits, rather than moaning about how small the SS COLA is going to be next year.

You could do worse than read a lot of the materials at Jack’s site.

OK, That’s 10, let’s wrap this up!

One thing I want to address before signing off.

Throughout the article, I based this listing on the original author makes frequent reference to “steep earning curves”, especially when discussing any sort of online venture

H makes this note frequently, in the sense of cautioning people not to pursue certain opportunities.

Downside

• Steep learning curve

I saw this alleged “downside” a number of times in the article.

I would submit that the author does not understand the meaning of the term “learning curve”.

He also doesn’t understand the value of time … especially to us who are already old 😉

A “learning curve” is knowledge gained on the vertical axis graphed over time spent learning on the horizontal axis.

You Should Be Watching For “Steep Learning Curves”.

You want a retirement opportunity with a steep learning curve.

You want to be able to learn quickly and get up to speed in minimal time … after all, we’re none of us getting any younger.

Becoming a concert pianist, as an example, has a very shallow learning curve.

It takes years and years to master the instrument.  Myself?  I’ll take the steep curve any day.

Learning, like working with children, keeps you young.

So What’s Your Own Next Step in Make Money In Retirement?

What will you do next year?

Spend a lot of time reconsidering your tax strategies to keep all that’s legal of the profits you are making?

Or whine about whichever political party is responsible for your paltry retirement handout?

Pretty counter-productive and negative thinking in my view.

Doesn’t much matter who is in Congress or the White House, they all try to balance the budget on the backs of the retiree.

After all, we won’t be around all that much longer, so they don’t need to think about us much.

And they’re mostly so arrogant they think they’ll be powerful people forever.  You can’t change that.

Stop living in anger and rejection.

Do something proactive with your retirement years.

Myself, I’m doing business, paying taxes and grateful for the opportunity/necessity.

Oh, and I am very much alive and learning too … life is never boring, and that’s something a lot of retirees can’t truthfully say.