I haven’t been around the Taking Early Retirement (TER) blog very much this year. I guess I could make up some story about where I have been or what I have been doing. But telling the truth is easier. If you have read My Life Story Page 2 I had a sort of bucket list of what I thought I wanted to do in retirement. And over the past couple of years I have been working at some of these things. But before I get into all of that, let me tell you about an interesting development that happened quite unexpectedly. My wife got a part time job.
It’s not a real job. Let me tell you what she doesn’t do. She doesn’t go someplace every day for a couple of hours, five days a week. She doesn’t get a regular pay check. She doesn’t get any health benefits or perks. She doesn’t sell something door to door. So what is it?
Until the middle of last year, our youngest, our daughter, was living at home. Like a lot of younger people who had graduated from college with a four year degree, she was not having any success finding a job. One day when the family was all together for a Sunday meal at our home, her job hunting topic came up. She asked our youngest son how he had found his job so quickly.
He told her that he thought it was the resume and cover letter he had. “Where did you get it done?” she asked. “Mom did it for me.” The look on my daughter’s face was so funny that we all broke out in laughter. She looked at our oldest son and asked, “You too?” He nodded his head up and down. “Yup.”
She looked at her mother and said, “Mom – why didn’t you say anything?” And my wife replied, “You didn’t ask.”
Since my daughter had moved back home, after her college graduation, there had been some tension between them. When she moved back in she told her mother that she was a woman now. She wasn’t a child any more. She could stand on her own two feet. She had her college degree. She only needed a place to stay until she could get a job and then she was moving out. I chalked the behavior up to being a “girl thing”. When I asked about the tension in the air she said our daughter was on her high horse. I left it at that.
Well we agreed not to talk any more about the job search at the dinner table and they would visit on Monday about it. Long story short, my wife rewrote the resume my daughter had and also did a stellar cover letter that my daughter could modify for what ever the position was.
Within four weeks she had a job. Then she got a better job. Four months later, we were empty nesters again. No more kids at home. Two of my daughter’s friends came to my wife for a resume. While she was working on the first one, I told her she needed to start charging for this little skill she had. So she did. Our daughter’s first friend paid $80 for a resume and $20 for a cover letter. Friend number two paid $175 for the combo package. It was done on better paper, which cost more, and this friend had a color portfolio which my wife helped her make into a PDF from Adobe; so it was more involved.
Time spent? About three hours – 30 minutes for the first friend and 2½ hours for the second friend. That was at the beginning of last year, 2012, around Valentine’s Day. She spends about 15 hours a week writing resumes for people all over town. And she’s been averaging about $150 an hour in income. We set up an LLC for her mostly because our accountant said an LLC would help us maximize our deductions at tax time.
Would you like a job that could pay over $50,000 a year part time? If you’re retired, this would be a perfect way to supplement your retirement income. Here’s a link to a course that costs less than $100 and will teach you how to get started. Please don’t let the price fool you. After my wife had been doing this for four months, she found this web site and bought the course. She raised her rates and took the advice given in the course. It’s produced by AWAI, a well known national company. The Pro Resume Program You should check it out as soon as you can. There are plenty of people looking for jobs and need a good resume. This course also comes with a strong guarantee. If within 30 days you’re not making the kind of part-time income you dreamed you would make — or if the resume business just isn’t your cup of tea — simply let them know, and AWAI will refund every penny of your purchase price.
For Taking Early Retirement (TER), I hope you are enjoying a great retirement or are close to that day!
Jeremiah John
P.S. I’ll be back next week to tell you what I have been doing this year and bring you up to date.
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