Continued from page 1
3. Consulting.
If you possess particular skills, expertise, and experience, you may be able to return to your prior employer as an independent contractor. Frequently companies undergo sudden spurts of productivity: a new sales campaign, implementation of a large new account, reorganization, a merger or acquisition. In such cases, your insider company knowledge, and your understanding of processes and procedures, is invaluable and a few months of such work may be exactly what you need financially while still promising periods of free time between assignments. While you typically receive no benefits, your income carries significant tax advantages as you qualify as self-employed.
4. Achieving a sense of wholeness.
For most of your work life, perhaps 40 or 50 years, you may have been primarily interested in maximizing your income to take care of your family, send your kids to college, and build at least a small nest egg for retirement. Now that you have some guaranteed income on a regular basis, you may choose to move into work which is not so financially rewarding but which fulfills an inner need and has some moral, ethical, or purely entertaining payoff. You may feel a need to give back to your community by working in social or non-profit agencies, in
library, in schools. Perhaps you have always secretly yearned to teach, or coach, or counsel. Perhaps you just want to have fun and sign up as a movie extra or apply to be in television commercials. Your interests and preferences determine your direction. Concentrate on what is personally meaningful for you: art, music, education, reading and literacy, athletics, food, crafts, building, gardening. Whatever your interest, there are probably entry-level positions locally available, although probably at a salary that is a fraction of that you have earned in
past. Despite
income,
spark it gives to your mood, your self-esteem, and your zest for life make it all worthwhile.
Unless you are in a desperate financial plight that requires you to devote yourself to unpleasant work that offers you
highest possible income, post-retirement work can be fun, fulfilling, and a productive addition to your mental outlook, health, and longevity.

Virginia Bola operated a rehabilitation company for 20 years, developing innovative job search techniques for disabled workers, while serving as a Vocational Expert in Administrative, Civil and Workers' Compensation Courts. Author of an interactive and supportive workbook, The Wolf at the Door: An Unemployment Survival Manual, and a monthly ezine, The Worker's Edge, she can be reached at http://www.unemploymentblues.com