Episode 10 - Senior Friendly Jobs

In this episode of You Still Have Time, hosts Hope and Harold explore the world of “senior-friendly jobs” — flexible, part-time opportunities that can help retirees stay active, engaged, and earn extra income without the pressures of full-time work. Drawing from personal experiences, research, and plenty of humor, they discuss a wide variety of jobs suited for older adults, including rideshare driving, food delivery, medical courier work, school bus driving and monitoring, remote administrative work, stadium event jobs, focus groups, product testing, and even opportunities in acting, modeling, and creative side hustles.

The conversation highlights the importance of flexibility, social interaction, and finding work that aligns with personal interests and lifestyles. Hope shares her experiences working in commercials and theater, while Harold offers practical advice on avoiding online scams and using trusted resources like AARP for job ideas and guidance.

Throughout the episode, the hosts encourage listeners to think creatively about their skills and hobbies, reminding everyone that retirement doesn’t have to mean slowing down completely. Whether the goal is earning vacation money, supporting family, meeting new people, or simply staying busy, Hope and Harold emphasize that meaningful opportunities are still available — and, as always, “you still have time.”

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Transcript

 Hello, and welcome to You Still Have Time. We're your hosts. I'm Hope. And I'm Harold. And we welcome all of you. For those of you who are returning, as we always say, thank you so much for your support. For those of you who are listening to us for the first time, please listen and share your comments. Actually, everybody can share their comments on, on, uh, the podcast and the topics that we do, but welcome, welcome, welcome. We hope that you will find something to think about and take that away when we close this episode. Certainly, we hope that you enjoy what you hear today, and tell your friends. Uh, word of mouth is what really will help this podcast grow, so. Yeah. Thank you for joining us today. Thank you. We came up with this topic for the podcast, we call it senior friendly jobs. And, uh, Hope and I have been talking about it for a while, because a lot of us who are now retired, sometimes you just wanna find something to do, uh, something to occupy some hours of the day or the week. You don't want it to be too strenuous. You don't want a full-time job. You don't wanna... You might not even wanna work all day. But these jobs, we've pulled together a list of a number of jobs that will give you the types of flexibility, at least the type of flexibility that we want. And you're gonna make a little extra money. You're not gonna get rich on these jobs. Uh, they're not- You never know, maybe you will. Well, maybe you will. But, but they're just something to do to keep you busy, keep you occupied, keep you engaged with other people, so. And, and put a few extra dollars in your pocket. Right. Um, I know people who work, uh, and the extra money that they earn, they use as a vacation fund. You can use it as a college fund for a grandchild, or, you know. Or, um, you know, maybe you're, you're raising, you know, you wanna, you know, donate, make a big donation to something, or go to some special event, or- Or you go to a casino. You go to the casino and- That, that takes your money away. And, and it'll... Well, but that's, well, well, hey, that's why they're saying, "Hey, I wanna go to the casino every couple of..." I don't know, whenever you go to a casino, and this is a little extra money that you don't have to worry about. Doesn't, you don't have to take your Social Security check and put- And blow it And blow it in, uh, in slots. Oh, gosh. So, Harold, you wanna get started with these jobs? Sure. I mean, Harold really did the bulk of the work, um, 95, 96% of putting this stuff together. And, and the first few things h- he has under a heading driver's license required. Well, the reason I put them under the heading is 'cause my wife told me, "You should put them under the heading." I did not. So- I did not say that ... well, but it made sen- I, I didn't even notice it, but she saw that all these jobs required driver's licenses. And I know for some of you, depending upon where in the country you live, you would take that as a, a, f- a given. But if you live in certain urban areas, you don't need to be able to drive. So this first group though, I think what I have here, like six or j- jobs that all require driver's licenses. The first one, Uber or Lyft driver. Now, I think we all are familiar with Uber or Lyft, and, um, these jobs are, you have to have at least one year's driving experience. You have to have, uh, an eligible four-door vehicle, and they, on their website, they tell you the kinds of cars that are eligible f- to be, uh, used. So you need a car. You need a car. Yeah, 'cause, you know, like if a horse or a burro is a problem 'cause you know what? If people wanna go to the airport, they probably don't wanna ride a horse. Do you guys see when I live with a horse or a burro? Well- Really? Um, and if you don't have a car, I didn't... Now, this is, I didn't know before I started doing the research. You can... There are rental arrangements that can be made. Uh, you have to have proof of insurance if it's your own car, obviously. And, uh, the value of these types of jobs, you could set up your own schedule, so you could work when you wanna work. I mean, and how good is that? So that was the first, build those two, Uber, Lyft. Food delivery and, and pick up, DoorDash, Grubhub, and I would imagine in some communities, at smaller, you know, other than DoorDash and Grubhub, there's probably other opportunities to deliver pizza delivery. Uh, I would think that- Even the, I don't, I don't really know. They, on their, uh, on the DoorDash and Grubhub website, they didn't give you a lot of information about the pa- the salaries, and I wasn't going to call anybody, and I wasn't gonna give anybody my email because I didn't want them to contact me because I'm really not interested in DoorDash or Grubhub, except- He's only interested when they ring our doorbell and deliver our food. Right, right. But this might work out for you. It m- you know, it might be something as an option. Yeah, something to think about, yes. Okay, and this is one that I actually did, uh, try, is the rental car transporter. If you're ever wondering h- wondered how the cars get to your local rental car pickup from the airport, there's a job. Uh, I actually did this. I only did it one time because... Well, that's another story. I could do that on another podcast. But, uh, you dr- you go to the airport, and y- you pick up a car. There's usually a team of you. You pick up a group of cars, and then you drive the car to a specific rental car location. There's a person in a van that follows the group. In our case, it was about seven of us. So the rental c- van follows the group to that pickup location. We all get there. We get out the c- cars, drop them off, get in the van, go back to the airport, and do it again. And then do that again for as many times as you can, depending upon how far the airport is from the c- rental car locations. It was pretty f- fun. Oh, and it was very flexible because you only had to work a certain number of days in a month. And I... This was with Hertz, but I w- would imagine every major car rental company has the same type of job, because they always have to get those cars from the airport out into the field. And this next job, I, I really thought that this was, like, a full-time... I didn't know that, that, you know, you could do this sort of, um, making your own schedule to do these things, but is as a medical courier. Those people who pick up and transport medical specimens and lab materials between labs and, and doctor's offices. So, you know, you go to the doctor, and they draw blood and urine and take all those samples, and then they put it in a little tin box. I've seen it, you know, by my doctor's office, and it's labeled, you know, for who- whatever the lab is, Quest or whatever other labs, Diagnostic, whatever. And the people who come and pick that up and deliver it back to the labs so that you can get your medical results. So that's another, um, another possible area Uh, and then drivers to transport senior residents to appointments. Now, in many towns, I know like in, in New York City, they have Access-A-Ride, and those are full-time jobs. But, um, in smaller areas, they do have... And, and certain, um, housing developments, you know, senior housing developments may have their own transport systems, and it's something to do. All of these jobs too, most of these jobs, except maybe for the medical courier, the, and the rental car transporter, these not only give you a little extra cash and give you something to do, but, you know, you interact with people. You, you know, you're in community with people doing these things. So, um, Harold did the research of this, and he said there's usually a, a minimum, um, amount of hours that are due per week. Right. Right. But, you know, again, as we said earlier in the podcast, you can stipulate most of the terms here because there's a high turnover in these jobs, and they're not really very strict for most of them. Now, this last one, school bus driver, I don't know if that is as flexible. I mean, obviously you work in the morning, and you work in the afternoon, but I don't know if they will allow you to just dictate what days you wanna work or... You know, I'm, I'm not certain about that. Uh, one of the other obviously requirements, you have to have a commercial driver's license and training, CDL, so that's sort of limiting, uh, but, but it's an option. Yes, again, it's something to think about. And, um, m- many of us older folks wake early in the morning, so it's not so hard for us to get, you know, to a school bus, um, garage to pick up the bus to pick up the kids, you know, at 7:00 in the morning because we've already been up an hour and a half already, so. Um, so those are all of the, the driver requiring jobs, you know, that you have to have a driver's license, in some cases specialty license, and in m- in some cases you need your own vehicle- Right ... in order to do these, um, to do these jobs. But the next set are just jobs that are out there, like being an administrative assistant, and both in person or, or virtually. I, I thought you were gonna say something else. No, no, no, no, no. That's why I stopped. No. I mean, when... With, with the advent of the, you know, computer and online, it has opened up a plethora of jobs thru- throughout, so you don't have to ever leave your home. But something that we, I think we said on an earlier podcast, you have to be ware- aware of the scams Yes. All these online jobs, I mean, I, I'm certain you've seen them. Um, you know, oh, you know, you can work online and earn all of this money, and then, you know, you go to the site, and then they start asking you for money, and no, no, no, no, no, no. Uh, you know, I- we want the money to, to flow in one direction only. And, uh, I had written this down because I remember, you know, trust but verify. R- Ronald Reagan said that, I believe, and I say, don't trust until you verify. So, um, these are things to think about, es- especially if you are comfortable with technology and all of that. Um, you know, look online. See if there are things that you can do, um, online. Um, I had a friend who, uh, worked for Harry and David, and especially during the holiday seasons and, you know, when people are ordering all kinds of food stuffs and things online, some of, a lot of these companies use people remotely, and they work, and that's, you know, from home. So it's something to think about if you never thought about it before. Now, this next one I added to the list, and I was kind of like, oh, maybe I shouldn't add it, but, uh, funeral homes. People are gonna always be dying. I, I- So they always need help. Well, if you wanna put it that way, all jobs are temporary- Correct 'cause you can't keep forever. But y- but you might... I mean, but they, a lot of these funeral homes, they, they're always looking for people, someone to s- come into the office or, or you don't necessarily even have to come into the office. Another job that can be done remotely. I didn't know about that until I started doing the research for this. So- ... if, uh, you're looking for something, maybe you check out your local funeral home. Oh my goodness. Maybe, maybe... Never mind. Okay. Let me not say what I was gonna say. Oh. The, the next job, if you don't wanna drive a school bus, maybe you wouldn't mind being a school bus monitor. And I know we've all seen, especially when they- they're picking up younger kids, the, uh, the older ones even worse, uh, they have school bu- s- monitors on the buses to keep control of the kids so that the driver's not distracted because the driver's job is to drive. Uh, the school bus monitor just makes sure everybody's on the bus, everybody's off the bus, keeps track of all of that stuff, and if s- things arise on the bus, disputes or kids are, you know, playing around too much, you know, bringing calm to the situation so that the driver doesn't have to do that Okay, another job, I'm sure you've seen them if you've gone to a game at a stadium or an arena i- in your area, they always looking for people around either checking tickets, checking bags, d- a lot of different things around the stadiums that they look for, for older people because again, that's not full-time work, it's part-time, part, part of the year, depending upon where in the country you live. I mean, and w- and dependent upon what s- what sport or stadium or arena. So it's something worth looking into. And this last category... Well, it's not a category, last job, product testers. And if I'm not mistaken, Hope, didn't we have a job, I remember filing, uh, where this was a job where y- you would... There's two flavors of it. One, you would come into, or you go into a spa- a place- Like a focus group. Right. A focus group. Yes, like a focus group, right. Uh, there's that type, b- and then there's also the ones where they want you to test- Test a product ... test a product, right. I mean, I wear hearing aids, and I get, I, I guess once a month, some, "Oh, why don't you come in and test this, you know, new type of hearing aid?" So that's another option. Yeah, I, and those, I mean, I've done the focus groups, and I think you have, too, Harold- Y- right ... haven't you? I think so, yeah. Yeah, um- I did the one on memory. Comedian. A comedian. Uh, he missed his calling. Right. Um, but yeah, I mean, I did a focus group last year, I think. Yeah, I think it was last year or late the year before. And they play... Th- they play. They pay q- you know, quite nicely. Right. So you spend the day, and you're with a group of people, and, you know, they're asking you questions or they ask you to look at things and, and then, you know, you answer the questions and, and they listen to your discussions. And, uh, and then, you know, like a week or two later, they send you a check for five or six, it's sometimes even more money than that, $100 five or six. Five or $600- ... sometimes even more. So those is things that you could also look into, and, and they really are j- it's just your time. That's it. Uh, and, uh, Harold has this under side hustles. I don't call them side hustles, but, uh, you know, there are things, if, if you have a particular skill or interest that you really love doing, you can sometimes monetize those things. Uh, we know someone who has been knitting and crocheting and quilting all of- You know, all of her life when she was working on a regular schedule, you know, she was still doing those things. And now that she has more time to do stuff that she really loves doing, she's monetizing that by selling her quilts, her knitted goods. Uh, so that's something if you, if you have some sort of hobby, maybe, maybe you're a woodworker. Uh, I, 'cause I've seen so many things online, you know, people who get into woodworking, and they make these beautiful, beautiful pieces. Those things are valuable. You can sell them. And, uh, you know, so think about that 'cause all, I believe all of us have some sort of skill. So but think about monetizing the kinds of things that, that you love doing anyway, so, 'cause they say if you love what the, what you do, you'll never work a day, right? Um, and the next, uh, item is one that I have been doing. When I was younger, I always wanted to act. I always wanted to be an actor. That was my thing. So, um, 20 years ago or so, I started at the behest of my son because my son said, "Oh, you always talked about you wanted to be an actress. Why don't you take some acting lessons?" And I did. I started doing that and got involved in theater and, um, and, you know, local theater groups and the like. But some kind of way, and I was really trying to remember how it started, I learned that, you know, these modeling agencies are looking for people to do both print ads and, you know, TV commercials. I know you see the vast number of TV commercials with older people, usually for medications. Always for medication. Every drug under the sun is for- Medica- or, or, you know, like I did one for clear captions, you know, so, you know, you c- you can't hear that well, so you have a phone that, that sort of shows you the dialogue that's happening. Or for insurance. Uh, all of those use older people, and all of those people are not professional, you know, um, actors that belong to unions. Uh, but, but it can... It's, it's fun. It's interesting. And it, it can, you know, bring some extra cash. I mean, I'm not, I'm not making millions of dollars. I'm not even making $100,000. That would be a nice number, wouldn't it be? A- and you know what? And it, it, and you don't have to have a special look. No. If, think, next time you look, uh, at television and you're looking at the commercials, look at the people in those commercials. They're just- They look just like you ... they look just like you. You don't have to be, you don't have to be model thin, 'cause God knows I'm not. You don't have to be You know, this great beauty, 'cause God knows I'm not. And, you know, I- they're just everyday people. You look like, people look like everything. So, and that's who they're looking for. And if you've always wanted to try it, I say go for it. And you don't- And it's pretty easy to get into ... it, it's very easy. Don't even need, you don't even need an agent. I mean, I have agents now, but I certainly didn't have when I first started. In fact, when I first started, I went, I had a job and, um, and someone asked me, "Oh, who's your agent?" And I'm like, "I didn't even know there were agents." And so that person gave me the names of some agents to reach out to, uh, some agencies to reach out to. And you can find the stuff online. There are websites. Actors Access, there's one. Um, there's another one called Casting Networks. Now, Casting Networks, you can see what's there. I think Casting Networks, you k- kind of have to become a member of Casting Networks in order to apply for the jobs through there. But Actors Access, they do it, at least they used to, piecemeal. So if you see something that you want to apply to, um, you know, you pay, like, $3 to, to submit. You never know what's gonna happen. I'm, I'm, and I'm suggesting this, it came to me t- this morning, uh, because this is something that I do, and I love doing it. It's really interesting. Uh, you get to meet a whole lot of different people and, you know, it's, it's something that I love doing anyway, so why not have somebody pay me for it? So just as a, a, as we close out this, uh, episode, uh, a lot of information I obtained throughout this podcast I got from, uh, either AARP, which we mention AARP I think almost in every episode. But they really provide a lot of valuable information for us, for us seniors, for us people looking for things to do, things to keep busy, keep active, keep engaged. So I really suggest that if you do get AARP magazines or articles or emails, don't just discard them out of hand. Take a look. Yeah, and, and read some of those articles. And I just want to add this in terms of if you're looking for something to do and maybe want to get paid, don't forget to share that with people. Talk to people. Word of mouth. You never know. You know, you could be in your doctor's office and, you know, talking to someone, and doctor says, "Well, you know, I need somebody to come in here, you know, on Wednesday afternoons because, you know, the person that I have regularly can't do it anymore. So come in from noon to 5:00," or whatever. Was it- Every Wednesday ... well, didn't, what about the physical therapist? When you were going to one of the physical therapy- Oh, yeah ... yeah. Yes. I, I was at there so much I said, "I might as well get a job here." And they said, "Well, you know, you could." Nah. But- You know, I backdoored from that. Right, right. But, but, you know, these are options. Th- they're always looking for people who are reliable, and the key is the flexibility. They don't have... They may not have a need for somebody for 35 or 40 hours a week, but maybe two days a week, maybe afternoons or mornings. You could just come in and answer the phone. Right, yeah. And that little bit of extra cash might m- might mean all the difference. Yeah. Maybe you wanna plan a big trip, but, you know, it's kinda hard to, to save now we're on really fixed incomes, you know? Uh, we, we rarely get a raise. Social Security may go up a couple of percentage points each year, but, you know, we're not getting any, you know, 10, 10%, 15% raises. I don't think I got that when I was working either. But, um, you know, there, there are no promotions that you can get to go to the next level to get more money. So these are ways that, you know, maybe you can earn a few extra dollars, make life even easier for yourself, and get to meet new people and have new experiences all at the same time. So I think that's about it. As always, if you have any questions, you can reach out to us at info@youstillhavetime at... What, what was it? Info I always forget this, 'cause I never send anything to us. Was it info@youstillhavetime? You don't hear me because I'm laughing silently. You are the one who set this up. I don't remember what it is. I... Wait a minute. I thought I had it written down somewhere. See, Harold, you ma- you messed it up. W- we're, you know we're going to pause this part out. I mean- Of course we are ... it's info- Wait a minute. I had- ... info@youstillhavetime, youstillhavetime@gmail. Let me pause it. Uh. Remember, you can always reach out to us at youstillhavetimepodcast@gmail.com. You can leave us a 90 s- up to 90-second voicemail message at SpeakPipe. That'll be in the show notes. You could listen to us and follow us wherever you listen to podcasts, whether it be on Facebook or YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music. There's a list that we also will include in our show notes. Yeah. And the show notes are found on the page that the, um, podcast from mem- wherever you are listening, uh, for Spotify, for example, you'll see, you'll see the podcast and then underneath you'll see show notes, and those have the links there for SpeakPipe and other information. So I hope you really enjoyed it, this podcast, and as Hope said earlier, tell your friends about us. We, w- it's, it's v- we, we like to think that other people would be interested in what we do, and- And if you have ideas for our podcast, please, please, please, the hardest thing we have to do is coming up twice a month with, with ideas that people might be interested in, uh, listening to. So if you have ideas, if you look down our list of episodes or you've been a faithful follower and you said, "You know, they've never done a podcast about this," please reach out to us and tell us what that is, because we will definitely research it and look into doing a podcast about, episode about it. Absolutely. So as always, remember you still have time. You still have time, and we hope to see you next time, so take care. Bye-bye. Bye.