You can’t put 10 pounds of potatoes in a 5 pound bag, but all my life  I gave it a good try, and had a lot of interesting life experiences. I thought of ideas for a small, part time business venture that might provide a new opportunity to explore my creativity, with a flexible work schedule.
I got my chance— a neighbor invited me to a home demonstration party she hosted for a Beauty Consultant who sold cosmetic products. 

Part 1
I sold my tax business 3 seasons ago, the year I turned 70, or as I often refer to it, the 30th anniversary of my 40th birthday. Besides the volunteer tax prep I do with AARP, I still prepare a dozen or so returns for friends and family. I don’t want to take money for my efforts, I will work for food. So far this season I have been compensated with burgers, steaks, chicken,

I’ve read with interest posts such as Jonathan’s Taking Center Stage and Those Who Follow, both which touched on the pluses and minuses of taking on a part-time job in retirement. The conversation in the comments for both of those posts was great, too. Below, I share my own recent experience of re-entering the job world at age 64.
In my past HD posts I have written how, in our mid-60s, my husband and I appeared to be gliding into retirement.

NINE MONTHS AGO, Jonathan Clements shared with readers that he’d been diagnosed with an incurable form of cancer. It was devastating news, especially for longtime readers, many of whom regard Jonathan not only as a journalist but also a friend. I count myself among them, so I was grateful that Jonathan agreed to sit for an interview to share more about his background, his early years and his current thinking. 
You’ve joked that,

Have you ever known someone who has succeeded in something quite remarkable? This could be starting a highly successful business, writing a blockbuster selling book or similar achievement.  Did you ever wonder how they pulled it off?  They may not appear to have as much talent as you, be as smart as you, or be as attractive as you.
If you have abilities that come at least as close to those of the average person, you are undoubtedly right about the accomplished person not having more talent,

Yesterday we drove by Mar-a-Lago.  The flag was flying, but nobody was home. I had been there before. Actually, several years ago I had dinner there. The owner wasn’t home then either. 
The houses in the neighborhood made me think. How poor am I? Wealth is quite relative for sure. I doubt I could afford the gardening bill let alone the property taxes on those homes.
Never fear, if you can’t afford one of the homes listed for $22,000,000,

I’m old and perhaps out of touch, I admit it, but it still upsets me when I hear talk of little opportunity, no money to be made, unfairness, inequality even. What’s new? I say there are always opportunities, just look for them even if it occasionally means lower self-esteem. Never give up. 
During the years working, like a lot of people, I was subjected to the affects of nepotism, playing favorites, back stabbing and all the baggage that goes with corporate life.

I’m no fan of large organizations. They’re too bureaucratic, too unresponsive and too resistant to change, plus they tend to attract employees who are comfortable in that environment, which makes things even worse.
I saw this at Citigroup. Every January or February, senior management would roll out a corporate initiative designed to bring a renewed sense of urgency to the organization. It would be kicked off at “town halls,” and was followed by department staff meetings.

I RECENTLY MENTIONED to my wife’s cousin that I’m taking required minimum distributions from my IRA. He won’t have to—because he doesn’t have an IRA. Instead, he keeps his car trunk full of cash.
He’s in the car business. He buys and fixes cars, all out of his mother’s two-car garage. He keeps cash to buy used cars at rock-bottom prices. People are willing to sell a car cheaper if they can get the cash immediately.

I talked about my first paying job, at the local public library, in Learned From Less. I discussed experiences from my second job in Not Long Remembered. My third job, as a temporary factory worker, also made a big impression on me.
During the second part of the summer after my college freshman year, I signed up with a temporary employment agency. They would call me most weekday mornings to offer work assignments at pay slightly above minimum wage.

On August 31, 2024 Jonathan wrote What We Believed which included the following. How right he is. I experienced it first hand over my near fifty years working for the same employer.
“Employers care. My parents worked for a paternalistic employer, and I certainly thought of my initial employers in those terms. But how many folks today believe that, if they work hard, their employer will return that loyalty and that their job is truly safe?

A former CEO of my old company passed away this week at age 89. Of the half-dozen or so company CEOs that passed through during my tenure, Joe had made the biggest impression on me. Of course, I was way down the food chain so my interactions with him were limited.
My first encounter with him was as a newly hired engineer for the Philadelphia Electric Company. The company had a program in which engineers were exposed to different divisions of the company during their first year.

Writing has always been my friend. Now uncertain about the direction to take it, I’ve been feeling a little lost. I became aware of this when Alberta discovered my high school yearbook while searching for papers she needed for a book chapter she was preparing.
It had been sixty years since I last opened the white book with “Hewlett High School Class of 1963” imprinted in dark blue across the cover. Slowly turning the pages, I became nostalgic reading the comments friends made alongside their postage stamp pictures.

IN THE BIBLE, YOU’LL find the parable of the talents. Talents were a form of money. The story goes that, before a master left on a trip, he entrusted money to three servants. Two of the three doubled his money, and are praised for the intelligent way they handled the master’s money. The third worker simply buried the money, so it wouldn’t lose value. The master criticizes the third worker for being lazy, and takes the money away from him.

 
I retired from a 38-year engineering career with a large electric power generation company on September 5, 2023. On September 11, 2023, I began an encore career—part time, on-call—with a small engineering firm. In the winter, I worked very few hours. Some weeks I only logged a single hour. I felt like a retiree and started to self-identify as one. As we moved into spring, more contracts came in and I started working more hours.