Transcription
What I do for money is Uber driving. I'm curious to know whether there are any other 84-year-old drivers.
I'm 82 years old and I wish I could retire now. I do not have any retirement savings. I always felt that I was too young to think about retirement and I was a hippie and I was all about living in the here and now. The cost of living has gotten out of sight and there is no safety net for the elderly. Bills are harder to pay because everything costs more. I grew up very poor and part of what drives me right now is that I don't want to be poor again cuz I know what it feels like.
As soon as you start working, plan for retirement. I've worked since I was 15 and a half. I've been a cocktail waitress. I've driven a catering truck. I've worked in cable TV.
I started as a uh professional drummer. I did that for about 15 years. I used to have my drums right by my bed so that I could just get out of bed in the morning and start playing, which drove my parents crazy. Nursing I never really thought of as a career. It was like process of elimination. I don't want to be a secretary. I don't want to be a teacher. I do want to help people. So nursing was a job that I could do.
I got my degree in mathematics. Then I got recruited by General Electric to become a computer programmer. Computer science was a very new field, but it was exciting because we were in such demand that companies would essentially bid for you. After I left music, I went into healing work. I had a very active practice in Houston. At the peak of my career, I was probably earning maybe $50 or $60,000, which isn't a lot of money, but it was enough for me.
The peak of my career was my last job. I was vice president of a company that developed advanced communication systems. I earned $115,000 a year.
The peak would have been in 2010. I made $100,000 per year. Being a night owl, night shifts weren't that hard on me at the time. I raised my kids on my own with no help. After my separation, I was working four jobs at a time, 7 days a week.
There he goes.
I got laid off, I think, two times in my career, and it took me a while to find other employment. So, I withdraw from that 401k money to support ourselves. Thank you.
Turn on more light. Oh, he doesn't need it.
In the early 90s, there was a stock market crash. I didn't know what I was doing. I panicked, so I sold all of my stock. I might have a degree in mathematics, but it doesn't mean I'm financially literate.
I decided I was going to sell my house and move to Texas. So, I did sell the house. And it was right at 2008 or nine and the people that were buying the house lost their jobs. It fell out of escrow and I'm still here. I lost all the equity in my house and it took quite a while for it to come back up.
Get over here.
Getting in debt from traveling have set me back. Currently, I'm in debt for I think about $16,000, which for me is a lot in terms of financial setbacks. There is a man who still owes me $60,000. I had to learn the hard way.
Had I not been in a situation where I had to use my 401k money, I'd probably have maybe more than a million dollars whose interest I could then live on. And I try not to think about it because I'd wake up in the middle of the night screaming, "What did you do? You were a fool."
Everything is more expensive now. Food costs more. Car repairs cost more. Insurance costs more.
I do all my own cooking, so I know how to be able to live frugally but still nutritiously. I don't buy a lot of meat because I can't afford a lot of meat. I'll look for chickens on sale. I'll look for fish that's on sale. And if I find out, okay, well, we have fish tonight.
I don't think any job I ever had paid me anywhere near what I needed to live on. I might think things are expensive, which they are for me. They're not for other people. I just got a raise to $18 an hour. And at one point in time, I'd have thought, "Wow, that's a lot." And now I know compared to what so many people I know make, I ain't making diddly squat.
If I miss a paycheck, there going to be consequences, financial consequences. I'm going to do without something until I can catch up. And that's scary. It makes me feel as though in spite of all of my education and all of the money that I made when I was a younger person that in the end I'm a failure. That's what it makes me feel professionally.
I'm an adviser and I'm a a life coach. So, I just work with people from anything to couples counseling to addiction counseling.
Oh, okay. That was the last one.
In 2010, I retired from hospital nursing, but social security is not enough for my lifestyle. So, I started driving for Uber in 2016.
I'm working part-time as a substitute teacher. I work about three to three to four days a week. That's $154 a day. If I need something more, I'll just work another day. Had I not decided to go back to work, uh I we would have had to sell the house.
Uber driving is the quickest way of getting extra income to cover my bills. I have not had a speeding ticket for three years, which I'm very proud of. I have a Mazda 6 now, which is bigger than the biggest car I've ever had.
Backup cameras are such a blessing.
I try to make at least $250 a week. I just wish I had enough passive income that I could do whatever I wanted without trading hours for dollars.
I'm administrative assistant. It's phones. It's filing. It's data entry. It's a little bit of everything. My social security takes care of my house payment and my insurance and the basics. And if I want to eat or do anything else, then I work and bring in more money.
Older people are more invisible, are not taken seriously. As an older woman, I can tell that it's easier for people to try to ignore me. A lot of us do feel good enough to keep working, but there are no jobs for us. I think at 80 plus years old, it is impossible to find a job. I would interview, interview, interview, and never get hired. If you're not extremely careful, your age comes through in that application.
Working at 80 years old is a challenge on the one hand, but it also feels good because I can still do it. It keeps my mind busy, keeps my feet on the ground, and I look at my work as part of my social life as much as I do a job to help me survive. Actually, I enjoy working. So, it's a difference for me. It's part of what keeps me young. I don't know what I would do if I retired. How many times can you play golf? How many times can you play tennis?
You know what I like most about it is the freedom. It's like a little pipeline to money whenever I feel like going for it. What I like about substitute teaching is I still am in a position to develop albeit just a day at a time young people by giving examples of my own life.
Uber will give me feedback of what writers said. I got a lot of compliments about great conversations and stuff and um most people give me five stars and tell it.
I consider myself a lifelong learner. I am teaching myself Kiswahili now uh using something called Dolingo. I am still looking for ways to generate more revenue, which is why I'm looking at putting together the website, learning social media, those skills in order to market myself. I've become interested in AI. And I would like to use this venue or technology to be able to assist others in their healing. It's a new world. It's scary. And it's amazing and I'm and I wanted to be a part of it.
Most days I don't feel I'm 82 until I look in the mirror. I don't mind being in my 80s. I just don't want to look like I'm in my 80s.
Aging is not for the timid. It's like uh any machine as it gets older things break. Humans they call these health challenges. For a while getting old was kind of crummy and now I kind of appreciate it and feel good about where I've gotten because so many people can't get this far. I didn't think I was going to live this long.
One day you're going to be old and you should begin to plan for that. Now, looking back, one of the worst decisions I made was not going to college, not advancing my education. I kind of wish I would have known about the thing if you just save like $25 a month or with compound interest um like starting at age 25 that you'll be a millionaire by some 65 or 70 or something. I regret not having appreciated the value and then hired I guess is the word or engaged a financial planner.
Find a job where you are happy because you're going to work your whole life. Make the right decisions for yourself, whether it's in your personal relationship or whether it's in your professional relationship. Don't wait to do things because you may not have that future. You may not have it physically. You may not have it financially. Find a way to do your bucket list all through your life instead of at the end of your life.
How much of me is going to be visible? I was hoping would be like from here up.
Hello.
Hi. I'm here. Hello. I'm glad to be 81 now. I don't have to have another birthday till I'm either 85 or 90.