Officially, I am retired. Unofficially, I spend no less than 10 hours per day as a blogger and a freelance writer.

I need to. Besides loving writing, I need to find something to keep away boredom and loneliness.

My switch from engineering to writing was, at first, due to my distaste for going back to the stifling life of the corporate world.  After a while, I got the hang of it. Then I decided to make it my second career. Now I am earning a little from freelance writing. Not much, but it helps keep my nose above water.

A few retirees, those who set aside hefty funds early on, find retirement the highest point of their lives. They have achieved self-actualization. They spend their time in golf courses, traveling, socializing, or anything that gives them fun and joy.

Not may seniors have the privilege, though. Retirement is a big letdown for a huge number of retirees. It is still a daily grind of stretching their retirement funds to the max. A few even end up in soup lines or sleep in shelters for the homeless.

Between the two extremes are those who continue working to augment their retirement income.

In 2002, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 5% of people between ages 65 and 74 were actively working, and this figure is expected to increase to 11% by 2022.

If you are having budget problems and want to earn extra income that will allow you to enjoy retirement, here are ten jobs you can try. They offer flexible work schedules to fit your convenience.

1.  Freelance Consulting:

Freelance consulting has become a hot job these days because companies are more inclined to hire consultants for cost reasons.

So if you need to make use of all the knowledge and skills you have accumulated over the years, be a freelance consultant. The market is in need of consultants of just about everything.

Of course, it doesn’t come easy. You have to search these companies out and pitch them the idea of hiring you.

2.  Driver:

If you can still drive and know your way around town, being a driver is a fun job you can get into. It can be a personal driver, limo, delivery, school bus, etc.

Or you can have your car rented out to service providers like Uber, Lyft, or Amazon, etc.

3.  Events Staff:

If you know of an event organizer, i.e. weddings, parties, concerts, conferences, etc., pitch in the idea of taking you as one of the hired hands on such occasions.

The pay may not be much but you get some perks like free food or and learn a few tricks of the trade. Once skillful enough, you can go solo.

4.  Hotel Staff:

If there are hotels near you, try applying as a part-time valet or concierge.

Because of competition, hotels have high turnovers, and you may just be the perfect guy at the right time. And the pay is not bad, either.

5.  House caretaker/sitter:

Couples or families who travel a lot hire house caretakers/sitters to take care of their home while they are away.

If you are the type of person who loves to do this, search for such opportunities.

They offer different conditions like a stay-in arrangement or just periodic visits. But you have to exercise diligence in doing the task because an expensive property is entrusted to your care. You must make sure that nothing is amiss when the owners get home.

6.  Pet sitter:

If you love pets, this is a perfect way of making an extra income and, at the same time, enjoy it. Pets are known to be great in getting rid of stress.

There are friends, families, neighbors who may want help in taking care or managing their pets while they are away on vacation.

Or you can work for a pet care company or start your own. This is the kind of business with minimal capital outlay. And you get to earn from something you love doing for free.

Like house-sitting, pet-sitting requires due diligence. Pet care is almost like caring for humans these days, and very expensive, too.

7.  Retail Stores:

Retail stores always look for extra hands during holidays or peak seasons.

Check out retails stores in your town, i.e., 7-Eleven, Walmart, Costco, The Home Depot for seasonal vacancies that you can do part-time. Even FedEx or UPS hire part-timers for deliveries during holiday seasons.

Fast-food chains, like McDonald’s, is into hiring retirees. They find elderly people more consistent and reliable in serving customers.

8.  Substitute Teacher or Aide:

Check your school district to see if they are in need of substitute teachers or aids. These positions don’t need lofty degrees or education to get hired.

Other than teaching, school boards often have positions in the food and cafeteria services, grounds keeping, bus driving, and other administrative positions that fit your skills and qualifications.

9.  Tax Preparer:

If you have a strong accounting background, this may fit.

Some people are too busy or they don’t want to wade through the figures in preparing their income tax returns so they outsource these jobs to people like you.

Though this is often done by experienced bookkeepers, some people want to have cheaper options. And this is where you can satisfy that need – if you are good at numbers.

Even accounting firms hire tax preparers during peak months.

10.  Resort Staff:

Had I not been a writer, I would have loved to work in a resort.

Resorts, i.e., beach, mountain, ski, etc., because of their seasonal in nature, hire plenty of part-timers.

They are exciting places to do part-time. The pay is not so bad and the variety of people you see on a given day can be educational and entertaining. Besides, you get the full benefit of enjoying the ambiance of the place.

Please share with other seniors so they will know that retirement is not of a productive life.

Image: //cnn.it/2Dt3oeq

~oOo~

The post 10 Great Jobs You can Do in Retirement first appeared on Age With Charm.

Retirement these days is drastically different from a few years ago when it simply means to stop working, laze around the house entire day while living off a retirement pension.

Now, everybody wants to retire in style. They want to get the most out of it, i.e., spend their days the way they want to, engage in sports, travel, fine-dine at least once a week and, for singles, give love another go, and many others.

And they should. They owe it to themselves to loosen up and have fun after all those years of making a living. Now they should have a life.

Unfortunately, age-related issues like failing health, money, relationship problems, lack of a social network, etc., make all these unreachable for most.

Money is usually at the core of a retiree’s problems. It is estimated that 65 % of Americans retirees are having money difficulties. For them, getting the most of retirement is not the primary concern. Survival is.

For others who are getting by, though not lavishly, having fun at retirement is achievable and are having the best time of their lives.

How they do it may be a poser for those who have just joined the league of “old and happy men and women.” To set them off on the right track, here are some tips I learned through the years as a retiree:

1.  Manage your money:
Some people still cling to the saying that “money is the root of all evil.” If that is a beacon of their moral scrupples then let it be. But experience tells that nothing is worse than being old and poor.

So whatever financial resources you have, no matter how small, manage it well.

Limit your budget to cover the essentials, not the extras. Keep within your budget even if you have to go minimalist. Besides, abundance is not an ingredient for happiness. Contentment is.

Be content with what you have and be grateful for it. Remember that so many seniors are in worse situation than you.

Familiarize yourself with the provisions of Social Security and Medicare just in case you need financial relief from these institutions.

2.  Manage your health:
After money, the greatest spoiler of an enjoyable retirement is health issues. Statistics show that about 80% of seniors have at least one chronic disease (heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes), and 77% have two.

If you are still healthy at your age, you have much to be thankful for. Most seniors that stand behind a drugstore’s counter carry a wad of prescription.

Even if you have one or two medical issues, don’t lose heart. Medicine and science have gotten to the level of allowing you to live a normal life despite these. But you have to be careful with your diet, get enough sleep and exercise regularly.

3.  Manage your relationships:
“Relationships,” covers not only your spouse, your children and immediate members of your family but also those within your social circle, like friends, work associates, former classmates, neighbors and everybody you have more-than-casual interaction.

Don’t by the grouchy old man. When you are old, you need all the friends you can count on. So make peace with those you had a falling out with, create new ones.

Don’t shut people out from your life. Going solo in old age is like committing suicide. We need people to talk to when we are lonely; people to help us with our personal needs when we are unable to do them; pick us up when we fall, or send us off when we die.

4.  Have lots of fun:
Are you having fun I am. Lots of it.

No, I don’t have a fortune in my bank account and, except for two or three people I can share my problems with without fear of having them go viral, I don’t have a large social circle either.

But I do have two wonderful kids who are supportive of my “oldishness”  and I am in excellent health.

Having fun, however, is not a matter of externals. It comes from a deep desire of giving life one last hurrah. Old age is the time to do what we never had the chance to do in our younger years, it is the time to be what we are meant to be.

So throw all inhibitions to the wind and have lots of fun. Don’t leave this world regretful of not having done the things you always wanted to do.

Please share with other seniors so they will also have the greatest time of their lives.

~oOo~

The post How to Get the Most Out of Retirement first appeared on Age With Charm.

Yes, for them, the day has finally come to change clothes – from office to retirement.

On their last day of office, they all ask themselves the familiar question, “Now what#8221;

The answer to this question surprised marketwatch.com which did an informal survey of 700 retired Americans: 37% continued working, 14% went into business, 11% have traveled, and 9% continued studying. Only a measly 8% indulged in leisure.

If anything, this tells you that retirement is not what people think it is – of taking life easily and leisurely

This tells that retirement does not change anything. If there is, it is simply a change in the type of activities you get to do each day.

But most of all, this survey supports the fact that only very few retirees can engage in leisurely activities. The rest, like you and I, face issues we have to grapple with each day, like:

1.  Money:

Spending does not stop at retirement. You will still spend a little amount of money. And if you have not saved enough, money becomes a very serious issue.

For example, according to the Employee and Benefits Research Institute and Greenwald and Associates, 28% of Americans say they have less than $1,000.00 in savings and investments for retirement, 1 in 3 Americans say they have no retirement savings and 56% say they have less than $10,000.00 saved for retirement.

For them, money is a very real issue. Some of them will be driven out of their homes into shelters for the homeless, live off meager social security benefits, and line up in soup kitchens in order to survive.

I have money issues, too, but I would rather keep them under the rug because I have learned to get by with my needs, not my wants.

2.  Health:

Money issues are exacerbated if you have health issues, as well.  You feel sicker if you have no money. LOL!

And health issues are very common among elderly people like you. In fact, according to the NCOA (National Council on Aging), approximately 92% of seniors have at least 1 chronic disease, and 77% have at least two.

The most common are heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes, which require very expensive medications and account for two-thirds of all deaths among seniors each year.

Can you see the point now?

3.  Loneliness:

In 2010, 28% of Americans aged 65 and above, lived alone. Though nothing is said if they were lonely or not, they are predisposed to suffer loneliness and its unhealthy consequences.

It can lead to serious physical and mental conditions such as heart disease, depression, and dementia. It can lead to malnourishment or obesity. In severe cases, it can lead to death.

The irony is that of all issues the elderly face at retirement, loneliness is highly controllable.

4.  Loss of Purpose:

At retirement, you are suddenly left with nothing to do, and nobody to interact with on a daily basis like you did while working.

Life suddenly becomes a vacuum, without meaning and purpose.

This is especially true if your children have grown up and moved away to start their own lives.

Like loneliness, loss of purpose is very dangerous to the body and mind. Both can do you severe damage.

According to psychologists, feeling useless is a mindset probably fed by negative beliefs dating back to one’s childhood.

Feelings of aimlessness visit me every now and then. But I have learned to read its symptoms and immediately do something to get out of its embrace.

4.  Neglect and Abuse:

About 1 in 10 Americans aged 60 and above, experienced abuse and neglect in one form or another. Some estimates run as 5 million seniors are abused each year.

It can either be physical, emotional, financial, sexual and many other forms that put an elderly at some disadvantage relative to the abuser.

What is worrisome is that in 60% of the cases the perpetrators are family members like spouses or children.

While some states have laws against elderly abuse, law enforcers face difficulties in implementing them because the victims themselves are often uncooperative. They would rather suffer in silence than put a family member on the spot.

I sometimes have an exchange of sharp words with my firebrand of a daughter, but so far I haven’t experienced any form of abuse.

6.  Moving from one’s home:

Roughly 12.5 million elderly Americans live alone. For them, there is no place like home. And they don’t want to move; they prefer to live the rest of their lives at home.

Unfortunately, circumstances may dictate that they move to assisted living facilities or nursing homes. It a choice usually made by family and which they dislike. For them, it is an end-of-life situation.

It means leaving behind familiar surroundings, places, and people and be with strangers. Some easily adapt to their present reality, but others can’t.

I am very familiar with these issues, particularly money. But I have also learned to accept them in a pragmatic way.

I have learned that some issues are manageable, even correctable, while others are way beyond my control if I walk the road alone.

Fortunately, my kids are with me on my journey. But other issues require facing squarely by myself.

That’s the essence of life, I guess. Nothing is given to you on a silver platter. You have to crawl your way out and up every inch of the way.

When I retired several years ago, I saw nothing but red roses before my eyes. Sadly they wilted before I can enjoy their aroma.

But I survived, though my wife did not. She died more than eight years ago.

My life has been a series of ups and downs. But so is everybody else’s. In hindsight, I am still very happy and glad of having retired when I did.

There is a certain magic in retiring – a magic that you make, not by somebody else.

Please share with other seniors to help them out these issues which, I am sure, hound them every day.

Image: https://yourstory.com/2015/12/senior-citizens-startups/

~oOo~

The post Major Issues Seniors Face Each Day first appeared on Age With Charm.

Do you want to start the day right By “right” I mean waking up in the morning fully refreshed and energized after a good night’s sleep. Then after a short prayer of thanks for being alive, dig right in to do the things scheduled for the day.

It is to wake up with much enthusiasm and motivation to start doing the items on one’s To-Do list.

I know it’s a tough call for seniors who have sleep problems, digestion problems, incontinence problems, and those who endure an evening of asthma or crippling arthritic pains.

But it is tougher to go through another day, grumpy, irritable and idle. It is so demoralizing not to have accomplished anything meaningful by sunset. Nothing brings you closer to the grave than the lack of thirst for life and the opportunities and excitement it brings.

To help you get away from a humdrum existence and spark you up for the rest of the day, here are tried-and-true ways you can try:

1.  Wake up early:

By early, I mean as early as you can. My early is 4:50 am.

Most successful people wake up before sunrise because they get more things done.

Other than that, studies show that people’s stress levels are low and optimism high early in the morning. 

2.  Give thanks:

Even if you are not religious, it is a good practice to give thanks, each time you wake up in the morning – a privilege denied of so many.

Give thanks for the blessing of a new day, for your health, your home, your family, and friends. Give thanks for being physically and mentally capable to live a productive, healthy, and happy life.

Besides. being grateful improves psychological health. It reduces a multitude of toxic emotions like envy, resentment, frustration, despair, etc. Research shows that giving thanks increases happiness and reduces stress.

3.  Exercise:

I wake up early so that I can fit my morning exercise into my daily writing schedule.

Exercise makes you feel “high” because it makes the brain release a lot of the pleasant endorphin hormones.

It helps control your weight, promotes a positive attitude, and arrests cognitive decline.

And it need not be expensive. Early-morning exercises can be done in your bedroom with your pajamas on, or a simple pair of city-shorts and t-shirt for a walk around the block.

4.  Eat a healthy breakfast:

A “healthy breakfast is relative. Mine is a slice of bread, fried eggs, which I alternate with a slice of ham, sausage or hot dog, together with a mug of chocolate drink, capped with one banana.

It is light breakfast by any standard but it provides the energy for tennis or brisk walking until mid-day when I have a snack.

At any rate, a healthy breakfast would be:

o   Eggs:
They are cheap and easy to prepare and it can b done in several ways, i.e., hard-boiled, fried, omelet, scrambled, etc.

Eggs are also high in protein, a macronutrient that helps your body repair damaged tissues, build bones, muscles, cartilage, skin, and blood.

o   Oatmeal:
Like eggs, oatmeal is cheap and easy to prepare.

It is full of dietary fibers which are good for constipation and helps lower cholesterol levels.

People who are above 50 yrs old, should consume at least 21 grams of oatmeal a day, says The Institute of Medicine.

o   Fruits and smoothies:
Fruits like blueberries, banana, plums, peaches, kiwi fruits, etc., are full of dietary fibers, vitamins, and minerals. They are easy to chew, swallow, and digest for seniors with dentures or stomach problems.

With a little creativity, you can make smoothies from bananas, kiwi fruits, peaches, blueberries, and many others, or mix them with your oatmeal for better taste.

5.  Read or watch the morning news:

To prime you up for the rest of the day, read the morning newspaper or watch the news on TV.

Early in the morning is the perfect time to engage in these activities because the mind is stress-free, clear, and information absorption is better.

Reading is good mental exercise and help s slow down cognitive decline.

6.  Do a little housekeeping:

Clean up. Unless you were born filthy, living in a disorganized and cluttered home can affect your body and mind in a negative way. Nothing beats having an orderly, tidy, and clean home.

So tidy up your home. Put things in their proper places, vacuum the rug and floor. Put the dishes in their racks, do a little fixing or changing of lighting fixtures.

These are good exercise, saves you money and make your home more accident-proof.

7.   Do your To-Do list:

I have a To-do list, and so should you. It is your roadmap of activities for the day, a good benchmark to gauge your accomplishments for the day and gives you a sense of fulfillment at the end of the day.

It eliminates the possibility of having forgotten something, and a good resources for the procurement of things you need around the house.

A To-do list helps account for your hours and helps you see the productive use of your time.

Being a senior, or an elderly is not as simple as others think. We just spend the entire day doing nothing other than sleeping, eating, cooking, and repeat.

We have a life to live, too. A life that can be as exciting as anybody else’s or just as dull – depending on how we set the day right.

Please help other seniors by sharing this. Better still, subscribe to my newsletter to get a weekly update on the exciting and bittersweet life of a senior.

Image: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20151028-the-benefits-of-getting-older

~oOo~

The post Do You Want to Set Your Day Right Do These first appeared on Age With Charm.