Announcing a new working class – “The Actively Retired”

Come and swell the ranks of the unemployed, er…, the actively retired

For the actively retired, like me, The Personal Money Store is a real godsend. It provides a whole extra range of activities to help me through the days, and some nights too. Shopping for a Personal Loan involves a great deal of computer activity and this is what the active retired community thrives on. Before I upgraded to my new employment status I considered web-surfing to be State-of-the-Art time wasting.

Web-surfing

Today it is a much respected occupation. There are not many of us who can spend an 8 hour day in cyberspace, surfing for important information, gliding from one link to the next, marveling at the endlessness of the information highway. This is an acquired art and is the result of hours spent in front of the computer.

Health hazards

My ophthalmologist, who I visit at 3 month intervals because she insists I can get glaucoma at any moment, warned me about excessive computer use and says that she sees a definite change on the retina thing at the back of my eye, the screen, as it were. “It has developed the format of a computer screen,” she noted two visits ago.

“At last!” I breathed thankfully.

My days

So my days are well taken care of. The mornings are crammed full of retirement activity. I browse the newspapers briefly; the news is always depressing: unemployment, swine flu, bad economy, swine flu, yucky job market, swine flu. Actually once you’ve read one paper, you’ve read them all. I do the NY Times crossword, check my miserable little portfolio for signs of renewed life, read the health tips, log into my bank account and take a fleeting glance at my overdraft, and by then it’s almost time for lunch.

After lunch things slow down considerably but an active retiree never forgets that he may be called upon at any time to take a grandchild or fetch a grandchild to some unheard of place miles from the nearest internet café or coffee shop.

My nights

Generally sleepless and I can vouch for the fact that there’s nothing to watch on the TV after midnight.

The internet as a workplace

I have been doing intensive research on the internet, following the ads that claim you can make $10,000 a month by sitting in front of your computer and not moving. This is simply not true. There are many sites where you can earn. As far as I can see on just about all of them you will sweat blood to pull in a few dollars. I spent the entire afternoon setting up a Google AdSense Account which I am sure will never bring in a cent. The instructions were impossible to understand and the information they required to get the account going was not available. Only after I managed to get myself to think like an eight-year-old did I understand what they wanted and completed the forms.

Having my own account is a highlight of active retirement. Most of my other accounts are being closed down. I may have to rely on this one.