If Wal-Mart Won't Take Boomers, Here Are Other Jobs for Senior Citizens

As the slumping dollar continues, there are very few places that seniors could move to that will allow them to live indoors and still eat protein-based food products. With the average social security check being around $1000 per month, it is inevitable that most people will be working long after retirement.

Wal-Mart and McDonald's are corporate has-beens who have once been famous for providing jobs to the people who are disabled and/or retired. There was a time when television commercials portrayed "special" people being the ones in the back of the restaurant flipping burgers on the grill. Walking into the restaurant or box retailer, one was greeted by seniors that were serving billions of smiley face stickers, French fries and burgers or cleaning out the urinals in the restrooms. Employment strategies have changed and with the boomers getting ready to retire, their supplemental side jobs have been taken over by single women with nine children, illegal aliens with falsified working papers, and desperate PhDs tanked in student loans.

The retailers and fast food companies can take their minimum wage jobs and shove it. The boomers are not your grandma's senior citizens that will be spending their retirement at home baking cookies and watching Oprah on television. As active people with imagination, these new creative seniors will most likely be involved in activities that provide meaning to their lives as well as stretch the mental muscles to earn a decent income. These seniors will be making money because they want to work rather than hang out at the adult day-care center playing bingo. Most of the boomers have lived in the lap of luxury and a measly social security check won't be getting in their way of obtaining creature comforts.

What types of jobs will be available in a competitive market? It's never too late or too early to think about retirement. Here are a few suggestions for jobs that boomers can do for income:

Website Design

Who says you can't teach old dog new tricks? There are many new software programs that can virtually design the site for you. All that you need is a good computer coupled with some creativity to place the colors, text and photos in a design pleasing to the eye. Anyone can design websites from home and earn a comfortable living if you're able to satisfy your customers.

Online Journalism/Writing

Fed up with lies after lies, more people are turning to online blogs and alternative news media. Writing for website news providers is a decent way to earn a little extra money from home while staying up to date on what's going around in the world. I would recommend investing into a good dictionary, thesaurus and writer's style guides. The drawback to being a writer is that nobody tells you how it's done and looking like an idiot by not doing a spell check will only show up as a low paycheck.

Telemarketing

Despite what people say about telemarketers being scam artists and low lives, there are many who earn more than doctors by sitting on their butts at home dialing legitimately. Companies from all around the world hire work-at-home sales consultants and offer a base salary and/or commission. It takes a lot of patience and perseverance but if you have some sales skills and a great attitude, this would be the ideal retirement gig.

Multi-Level Marketing

Okay, Amway came and went but there are still people earning tons of money doing multi-level marketing. Companies are always putting out new products and depend on regular people to do their marketing. The secret to making money in this field is to get in on a high-quality legitimate ground floor opportunity and ride the wave to the top.

Real Estate Investing

Don't downsize just yet by selling your home and living in a cheaper house. With the slumped real estate market, selling homes has been a disaster for some boomers looking to cash out and retire early off their house. If there is equity and good credit, you can always leverage your house to take advantage of developing markets. Buying low and selling high at the right place and right time is the only way to make money in real estate but it can be done.