Seniors: Instead of Money, Barter!

Not every senior citizen who retires has saved enough for a comfortable retirement, depending instead on Social Security payments. And why not? Social Security was supposed to be there for us - it was our retirement plan when we were raising our families.

Workers now know that it will take much more to retire with any comfort than Social Security can provide, if it even exists by the time they retire.

If you're on Social Security and it's a struggle to make ends meet, what do you do? There are limitations to how much you can earn and still draw your Social Security payment. Also, while many of the same jobs are open to you as are open to teenagers and young adults, you may not relish working at a fast food place, or health considerations may prohibit it. Anyway, you're retired, right? And you shouldn't have to work to survive during retirement!

Instead of looking for ways to make more money, how about making a game of seeing how much you can do and obtain without money? You don't need money to get what you need. Money is a convenience, not a necessity, for many things.

Here's one way to acquire things you need or want without working and without having to spend more of your Social Security check: The easiest way to get what you want or need without money is to barter or trade for it. Bartering or trading is an excellent way for seniors to obtain goods and services, because we have accumulated, in addition to, or instead of, goods, a lot of experience and expertise. Young people need that experience and if we offer it with a few stings attached, many of them are willing to trade what they know or can do. In other words, "know-how" is a salable (or tradable) commodity and you have it.

For instnce, you can offer to oversee a project or teach a skill and you're offering something valuable to someone who doesn't have the time, experience or confidence. What you know is worth a return of services or goods, no matter if you ever had a "career" or a profession of it. Men and women both have skills worth teaching to those who do not.