5 Reasons Why Becoming A Freelancer At 60+ Is the Best Option
When you are 60+, one of the biggest questions you ask yourself is whether you are too old to start freelancing. The point is, that it’s never too late to learn something new. You should consider your life experience as a competitive advantage, which will help you to succeed in any remote job you will get.
In fact, if you decided to continue working and want to avoid age discrimination, then the world wide web is the best place to look for new opportunities. If you still have some doubts, check the following reasons, which will inspire you to start freelancing.
#1 – You Have Enough Experience to Get a Freelance Job
You already have a great work experience, which you can apply to various freelancing jobs. Companies are looking for the experts in their niches and you seem to be a great candidate. You have been watching your industry changing for the last 40 years, so you have lots of interesting thoughts to share with the younger generation.
To start freelancing, you should sum up all your achievements and clearly explain how your professional experience will help modern companies to grow. If you feel that you need to update your knowledge, don’t hesitate to utilize free online sources. You can read the useful articles, watch the explainer videos and listen to the inspiring podcasts.
#2 – You Have Great Communication Skills
If you are 60 years old, you have vast experience in communication with the different categories of people. You know how to talk to your boss and to your colleague, how to behave with the seniors and with the youth. You can easily adjust your communication style to any situation in order to make a dialogue more productive.
There is no doubt that this very skill will help you negotiate with your potential clients. Being a freelancer, you need to feel comfortable communicating with the numerous individuals every day. And it seems that you will not face any difficulties at all.
#3 – Your Life Experience Will Protect You from Swindlers
The problem is that the digital workplace is not totally secure. And every user of the world wide web should be wary of the ever-growing swarm of scammers. The great news is that you have enough life experience to act with discretion and discover a fraud.
You have met so many people in your life and it’s more likely that you, not a 20-year-old, will be able to detect a swindler and avoid the problems. You can use your personal experience as a superpower, which will help you to prevent any tricky situations. You have overcome so many issues in your life, so you will handle this one easily, don’t you think?
#4 – You Can Enjoy the Flexibility
When you are a freelancer, you don’t need to live in accordance with the office hours any longer. You can choose your own schedule, whichever is the most suitable for your lifestyle. If you want to spend more time with your children and grandchildren, you can manage your timetable to make it possible.
Whether you have strong health, or you need to visit a hospital from time to time. Being a freelancer, you don’t need to ask your boss to let you go for an hour or two because you need to go to the doctor. When you schedule your day on your own, you can leave your workplace at any time you need without getting permission.
#5 – You Can Choose the Most Interesting Projects
The point is that when you work in an office, you have to complete every task assigned to you. You have no right to say that you don’t want to work on this very project because it seems to be tedious. In fact, this is a reason why most of the people hate their jobs.
However, starting freelancing, you get an opportunity to choose the projects, which attract you the most. You can also decline an offer from a potential client without fear of losing your job. You can find thousands of new employers online, which will be happy to provide you with the exciting, challenging and extremely interesting tasks.
Final Thoughts
You should understand that even if you are 60+, it doesn’t mean that you become a useless employee. Vice versa, now you have enough experience and skills, which will help you to get a freelance job of your dreams. You just need to believe in yourself and don’t be afraid to try.
The digital world is full of fabulous job opportunities for people of any age. Don’t label yourself as “too old to be a freelancer!” If you are passionate about your job and want to work as you did before, then nothing will stop you from achieving your goal.
This was written by Erica Sunarjo. Erica graduated from South Texas College majoring in Marketing and Creative Writing. She used her knowledge to make a difference in the realm of business copywriting and invested heavily in traveling and language learning. At present, Erica is fluent in French and Spanish, studying Chinese and working her way to being a multilingual copywriter. She keeps track of the latest trends in IT and technologies, blogs about efficient strategies in education and business coaching holds educational webinars. Right now Erica is a writer for The Word Point.
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Thank you for this piece. I’m curious why a 60+ freelancer is compared with a “twenty-year-old girl” in item three instead of just a twenty year old. As it happens I am 60+ and in the early stages of my career as a freelancer. Thank you again.
Pat that is because this was written by a young lady. I have some very good pieces written by young new writers. I try to coach them but that got by me.
Besides a typical 20 year old guy is pretty clueless. The male brain does not finish developing until the age of 25 and most women will tell you it is much older. 8^))
Freelancing, gigging contract probably the best money advice for those with minimal to no pension. Supplement your income or juggle 2-3 contracts build work experience expand your network. Organizations are more likely to hire people who do not want pension or health benefits means you stay on top of technology keeps you mentally active.
Interesting high-level overview article – yes, experience, communication skills, intuition, and the ability to discern among their options are vital to being a freelancer and making it a success.
Equally important is understanding the knowledge, experience, managerial skills, and intuition a person has amassed through their years and how those can be transferred into a new adventure. Many times, this insight is all it takes for a person to ‘fully step into their freelance/retirement’ life.