I’m 82 and Earn $16 an Hour. I Can’t Retire but Know It’ll Work Out.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Patricia Wheatley, 82, who earns $16 an hour working at her friend’s boat store in western Pennsylvania. She doesn’t have much in savings, and she works to supplement her Social Security and have enough to send gifts to her many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

I’m just a plain Jane. I don’t have an amazing story. I wonder about my future, but I don’t spend a whole lot of time on that, because there are too many things to be busy with.

My first job was teaching elementary school music. I also did volunteer work at a local youth development center, and ended up teaching at a junior high school where I stayed until 1973. I got married the year after, and my work became homeschooling my kids and doing some side help with my husband in his dental practice.

I didn’t go back into the workforce until the late 1990s, when I started doing some substitute teaching.

My husband passed away in 2000. By that point, my mother, who was 92, was living with us, and my oldest biological son was married. Son two and three were in college, and I had a daughter who was in seventh grade. I needed to do something and be close to home, but trying to get a local job in music was not easy.

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I decided that if I went into guidance counseling, I could probably stay closer to the area and have more options. At 57, I went back to school and got a master’s degree.

I taught for as long as I could

The Lord worked it out such that the man who was the guidance counselor left for a different job, and they moved me right into the position at a little local school district. I was there until 2014.

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I also subbed for four years, but decided I didn’t really need all the pressure of substitute teaching. I jokingly told my friend I was going to go to Walmart and be a greeter, but she said something like, “Why don’t you come work for me? I need somebody to answer phones and do some general filing.”

For the last 7 years, I’ve been working at a friend’s boat shop for $16 an hour

I took the job at my friend’s boat shop. Once I got into the swing of things, my basic job was to answer phones. Since I’ve always had a job where I have to deal with people, I had no problem with that. They didn’t have any kind of major filing system, so I was able to straighten out some things there. I got my notary license so I could help out.

When my friend took on a woman to help set up a new system, my filing job went out the window. It was a difficult adjustment for me at first, but it turns out she’s done very well and has a good system going. She’s very organized, and I’ve learned a lot watching her.

Aside from that, I look and see what needs to be done. If the carpets need vacuuming, I do that. If the phone’s ringing off the hook, I just answer phones all day long. I put up holiday decorations for the Fourth of July, and I make $16 an hour in this job.

I like the fact that the job has kept me thinking, making decisions, and learning new things.

Looking back, I never really learned a lot about managing money

I wasn’t a spendthrift by any stretch of the imagination, but there were a lot of things I probably could have done with money, as far as investments, even small things that I was not that interested in.

Somebody in my position should never have been able to buy the house I got. But I have it, and I paid it off. When the man who was helping me get the mortgage finished the deal, he said, “I have no idea what kind of relationship you have with God, but He has bought you a deal that nobody should have at this point.”

I have a car payment, and I changed the insurance because my old insurance went way up. Even though I paid off the house, I got caught a little off guard with my first payment on property insurance and taxes.

I’ve only had 19 years in the education field, so I don’t get an amazing amount of Social Security every month. But I do get enough to pay all my bills. You have to squeeze a little tighter in some places until everything starts to balance out.

I’m trying to be proactive

I had a little hiccup in my health a number of years ago, but I found a naturalist who helped me develop a pattern of eating and a general lifestyle that keeps me proactive about my health. At this age, patterns become important habits, so you’re not always looking for your car keys or losing your phone.

When you spend any time on the computer, you find yourself hooked on the fact that you buy a lot of things cheaper, and then you find that you’re buying things you don’t need. You have to evaluate every once in a while.

I’m solvent and can stay solvent

The problem I have is that I’ve got 26 grandkids and 11 great-grandkids. I like to give gifts on birthdays and at Christmas. They’re not big gifts, but when you have that many grandkids and great-grandkids, it’s a lot of gifts. I like having the supplemental money for that.

I have family who come to visit. We used to go on family vacations, but that changed as their families got older. I have a garden, and my kids help me with tilling and planting. I’m also involved in church activities like Bible study. I don’t have a whole lot of downtime.

I’m asking the Lord to make sure that I can sell my house at some point, if it comes to a point where I can no longer stay. Right now, I feel stable, and part of that stability is this extra job that supplements the Social Security and retirement that I get.