Even a few years ago jobs for those with a bit more than a few gray hairs were scarce. Now, everyone is hurting for a job - and semi-retirees are far from an exception. Adding insult to injury, did you know most states have outlawed folks over a certain age from driving (and hence getting a low impact job) altogether?

With gas prices rising and social support wages declining, what is a certain silvery someone to do?

Some of the best options when you're over 50 are delivering papers or pizzas. Of course, delivering papers means you need to be a prompt morning type, but if you can stay up relatively late, then pizza is definitely your gig - and you make pretty good money too.

However, that requires a car, license, and insurance. Not to mention your insurance will go up (if they find out). Don't despair though - there are options for you.

Fortunately, the holiday season means retail stores need more hands. Sure it may be temporary, but maybe you can get something permanent if you perform well. Temp agencies aren't the place to find these jobs though. Just walk into the store and put in an application - and don't be afraid to say "yes" to temp work.

If that doesn't work so well for you, have a look at CraigsList.org. Sometimes you'll land a gig going door to door with fliers, waving at traffic with a silly costume, or something similar - you just have to be quick to respond to these posts.

Of course, when all else fails, see about getting a few Pell Grants and financial aid to snag up a new marketable skill. It's never too late to go back to school. There are even some people who make money going to school thanks to all the help they get.

Good luck!

You can find out more about Patricia Mayo and her other projects at Mayobrains.com or ComHacker.org.

So you're sitting in the same gray cubicle, thinking the same thought - “some day, I'll start my own business, and break away from this hell.” But then you start to realize how much it costs, and if you're really serious, eventually you come up with a figure - “if only I had $200,000, I could start a business.”

The truth is – you don't need any money to start a business. I dropped out of the rat race completely 4 years ago with hardly a dime to my name, but I have managed to survive and even live my ideal lifestyle the entire time.

The biggest key to successfully running a boot strapped business is having a very low overhead – and dropping expenses is a big stumbling block for most would-be business owners. The best advice I can give you is cut all your expenses, and cut them now, according to your chosen lifestyle.

I enjoy travel, so obviously everything I do to cut expenses has to be in the interest of being portable. Obviously not everyone can go without a car or sharing an apartment – but this is why it is best to start a business before you have a family.

I don't have a car, which forces me to live in places with public transit, but it's cheaper in the end. I also live with room mates whenever possible, cutting the cost of an apartment in half or thirds. I also own very little, so if and when I move, it doesn't cost much.

My phone is through Skype, which gives me unlimited calling all across the U.S. for $60 a year (not per month – per year), so I don't have to bother with a cell phone. All told I only have to make about $500 a month in order to survive.

Even though I make a lot more than that now, I keep my expenses low just in case. Until I can throw a hundred grand at a problem without flinching, my expenses will stay this way too.

You can find out more about Patricia Mayo and her other projects at Mayobrains.com or ComHacker.org.

In this “slowing economy,” you're probably worried about your job – and quite rightly, too. Most larger companies will definitely lay off a few thousand workers, and if one of them is you, what are you going to do? Well, how about start a business?

I'm sure you know by now most of those “business opportunities” that charge money to join are scams (most people I know ended up in debt because of them too). You can do exactly what they're doing, and not pay them a dime – or you can start a myriad of other businesses absolutely free as well.

For many of us, dealing with financial matters is emotionally stressful. Bills in our mail, notices in our email inboxes, voicemail messages - all of these have the potential to add up to one major headache. Equally difficult is the research we need to perform to get ahead with our finances - 401k options, mutual funds, stocks. Often, conventional wisdom suggests that we should try to keep our emotions out of money affairs, since they're often negative and only lead to
more stress, or worse, less action.

Don't get mad or frustrated. Consider the very obvious, but rarely taken alternative path: get *excited* about your money.

Do you have 3 to 6 months of living expenses tucked away in a safe place? Some people are fanatical about it - “I don't care if you're Donald Trump, you need an emergency fund” - but I subscribe to a more situationally based philosophy.

Take for instance, I don't owe anyone any money – no student loans, no car loans, no mortgages, no balance on a credit line – and I am in control of my paycheck. However, I also travel a great deal. Before you read on, ask yourself if you think I need an emergency fund.

The biggest challenge that we face when getting our finances in order isn't the stock market, global economics, current interest rates, or even our present rate of pay. It's our own egos.

Does this sound familiar? "I've had a rough day. I deserve a treat." Add a little bit of self-congratulatory confidence, and the treat varies in proportion. Stressful meeting? Buy yourself a special latte or top-shelf cocktail. Rough week? Take yourself out to a fancy dinner and order something special. Tough summer with the kids? Spend a little extra and take a better vacation than last year. Rough year? Buy a new car, because you've earned it, after all.

Here's the bad news: you don't deserve that treat.

Image via Wikipedia

There are three big factors in the corporate equation – expenses, sales, and profits. The single most important part of that equation is profit, period, in any economic climate. Sales don't matter in a recession. When the economy turns sour, corporations get a clean excuse to cut expenses, be sloppy, and perform terribly – all the while making profits rise at an astronomical rate.

Image via Wikipedia

Unfortunately for him, I meticulously check every charge on my account every few days. It has been a big pain in the rear, and I nearly lost my checking account, but all is well now – and hopefully I can help you avoid the mistakes I made.

Image via Wikipedia

If you haven't already started to feel the pinch, you will soon – and you might have to pay much closer attention to when you let the bank subtract from your account. You could buy overdraft protection, but that just means you are subject to even more fine print than before.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

I'm not going to terrorize you with senseless statistics – truth be told the whole “buyer confidence” thing is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Let's get real here and take our heads out of the sand, shall we?

As a businessperson and single parent, I've noticed that it's harder than it seems to simplify and cut out all the unneeded, unwanted expenses so that you get to a point where you understand where the money goes and why.

What I've been working on in the last few months is understanding all of my recurring monthly bills and evaluating whether they're really worth the money or not.

1. The less credit I have, the better my score will be.

Um - no. Actually, if you don't have anything to record, then your credit score can only be worse, not better. The age of your accounts is an important factor, and keeping as little credit as possible is a recipe for a lot of small, spoiled potatoes.

2. I can raise my credit score by asking my credit card company to lower my limit.

As a matter of fact, that's a quick way to send your credit score south. Your credit score is affected by your balance-to-limit ratio on each of your cards individually, and it's best if this ratio (also known as the "utilization rate") is always below 30%.

It's a little embarrassing to admit - but I have average credit. My score just hovers around 635, and so far, I haven't been able to do much about it. Now most people would say "wow, you've got a 635 score?! That's great!" - except, in a creditor's eyes, 635 is a hair above sub-prime.

I'm not really planning on making any credit purchases anytime soon, but I still want to improve my credit, so I've been reading up on it. Some of the statistics and facts are pretty shocking.

Here's something funny I recently stumbled upon - did you know Walt Disney and Abraham Lincoln both declared bankruptcy? Well, "Honest Abe" went bankrupt in more ways than financially (and I'm not talking about the whole assassination thing either), but I'll save that for a political blog.

There's also 13 factors that, despite what some may think, absolutely do not affect your credit score. I was pretty surprised about a couple of them too.

First and foremost, I just wanted to clear the air on something. Lately I've been getting a few emails from people assuming I own this blog, Real Life Debt. Sorry. I'm just a writer, and right now I don't have a regular Internet access so I apologize for not getting back to you any sooner, but a gal can only do so much ;)

Anywho, a friend has taken to calling me "Mother Hen." The ironic part - Tom (as I'll call him here) is nearly twice my age.

The battle between the electric car and the gas powered car, in my humble opinion, is just another case of passing the buck. The current arguments for electric cars over gas cars is they pollute less and you'll save on gas prices.

What they don't tell you is electric cars, in the end, probably pollute far more and end up costing a lot more in gas. You just don't see it first hand because you're not the one polluting, and you're not the one shelling out cash for the gas.

For some reason people seem to think the great newspaper downsize is because of the advent of Internet news and other forms of news on demand. I wholeheartedly disagree.

It just doesn't make sense for a newspaper desperate for subscribers to thin out their paper, lay off reporters and distributors, and on top of all that increase their subscription fees if they are trying to better compete with online news. Sure some are switching to online models, but with so few having any amount of success, I very much doubt the strategy being undertaken by newspapers has much of anything to do with thicker competition.

Lately I've had a pretty tough decision to make. Does that $10 in nickels and dimes go toward gas, or cigarettes?

Yes, I'll admit, I'm addicted to nicotine and would like to go from place to place in a somewhat expedient form. You see, I live in the boonies of the Bible Belt, and they don't believe in buses here. The only way to get around is to buy into that overpriced commodity they call “gas” these days, and it's amazing what those prices do to our mood.

If you're only just now tuning into this series on simple methods to teach kids about money, you've missed a lot. Check out part 1 to understand the methodology, then parts 2 and 3 to teach your kids to make a budget.

But if your kids won't sit still for that, have a look at part 4 to get in on the sneaky ways to teach them about money. However, there are a few things you probably shouldn't do in the interest of teaching your kids to be responsible with money.

With the high price of gas and cancellation of mass transportation, many people are electing to relax at home in what has become affectionately dubbed the "staycation."

Yes, taking a week long vacation at home has suddenly become very popular. Many are using their time around the house to catch up on projects, organize files, discard old junk, and consolidate their finances. But just as many use their staycation to actually relax.

So what do you do when your kids seem bound and determined to be fiscally irresponsible? Some kids are real pros at finding ways to avoid learning about money. Fortunately for you, I have found a few sneaky work-arounds to their little tricks.

For the kids that just won't sit down long enough to get what is good for them, here's a few ways I have found to sneak some peas and carrots into their financial dinner.

Welcome to part 3 in a series on simple methods to teach kids about money. In case you missed it, part 1 gave a bit of an introduction and overview to the methodology behind this series, and in part 2 I started to detail how to guide your children through making a budget. Sorry to leave you hanging, but here's the rest ;)