I’ve retired twice, both times where the physical demands of the jobs made me worry that I could not keep my customers happy. First, it was Race Timing Unlimited in 2020 and then Domino’s in August 2022.
Since then, I have run every morning, worked on my blog, played in my online lunch poker league, and putzed around with sports betting, yard work, and volunteer work. By July 2024, I’ll have closed the racetimingunlimited.org website. I’ve already moved the course maps to my slowoldrunner.com site, and I’m moving race results to that site. In the afternoons, I have time to do something productive and make a few extra dollars rather than playing computer games.
I’m looking for gig work from home with a flexible schedule of 10 to 15 hours per week.
I still perform the occasional course measurement for USATF certification and work as a USATF and a USAT official. These are paid jobs that I can schedule based on my health and availability. It’s about eight jobs per year.
I can use the earned income by loading more money into my Roth IRA for tax-free growth.
I wrote the racetimingunlimited.org site using ASP.NET 2.0 and the slowoldrunner.com site using WordPress. I did both without training or certifications.
I always wanted to write a smartphone app. For the first eight months of 2023, I dug through books and online pages and learned how to write an Android App. I got good with XML and Java and wrote a complex app to see if I could do it.
Being in the software business for 30 years, I didn’t want to market or support an app. Or get back into coding for someone else. To do the latter would require certifications that cost more than I would ever profit. It was a fun exercise.
So, last November, I looked into opportunities as a work-from-home bookkeeper. I have a UVA Accounting degree from 1978 and a University of Richmond MBA from 1988. The good thing about accounting is that it is slow to change. For the past 50 years, a debit has remained a debit, and assets equal liabilities plus equity. Maybe I can get some gig work with this background.
I didn’t want to give advice, do people’s taxes, or be the responsible person for a company. I looked to find out if companies were hiring part-time bookkeepers in a supporting role. I found that these companies do exist, and some use Intuit’s QuickBooks Online software.
QuickBooks Online version holds encrypted data in the cloud with web browser-based software for access.
I have a wealth of business and accounting experience without application experience. To be hired, I would need at least a certification. Besides time, QuickBooks Online certification is free. This past week, I passed the certification test.
I’ve searched Indeed.com for opportunities and found scam warnings via Google searches. Nefarious characters are using Indeed and LinkedIn to perpetuate scams.
One scam involves selling computer hardware and software to job applicants as part of the hiring process, collecting the money but never shipping or having a job.
A second scam asks for personal information before a job interview for identity theft.
Al Gore created the internet with good intentions only to open a new vehicle for criminals.
Does anyone local need help or have a connection? At my age, I don’t want to be the responsible person; I want to help the responsible person.