I take a Uber and Ola very regularly – remember I do not own a car. My travel includes UTS, Uber, Ola, auto, and legs! Not exactly in the order of usage, but largely it is UTS – train – that I use for the real long distance.

However, this post is about a Uber driver I met recently. His name and religion do not matter, but his age was interesting. He was 56 years of age and had lost his job as a warehouse keeper in a big retail company. HE DID NOT WANT to join another company which was chasing him. So he used his money for his retirement, and realized that the money was not enough. He also said “it is boring to sit with a TV watching wife”  so his car became a “Uber taxi”. He has been driving Uber  (no Ola for him) for about 3 years now and is happy working for 10-12 hours a day. He starts his day at 4am drives till 11am and then comes home for lunch..and starts again at 2pm till 7pm…or thereabouts. His son is doing his MBA and daughter is doing her Engineering. He actually NEED NOT WORK for the money, but it surely helps.

I do think that part time work will be available for most of us from our age of 55 till say 70 years of age. This will help most of us keep busy and the extra money will of course help. This will also improve your social interaction and give you a chance to work for much lesser than the hero of this post. I do not see why a 58 year old should work or 12 hours a day. He can choose to work for say 60 hours a week – including the weekends instead of 12 hours for 5 days a week.

Flexibility also helps in taking breaks, vacations, deciding not to work on a day when his friends are visiting….- the flexibility of driving Uber is awesome of course. Even if you can’t get so much flexibility as a Uber work, flexibility (and the extra cash) is always useful.

So what are you going to do in your retirement?

Maybe some top end people can consider driving an Uber black? Like a Maharaja letting out a part of his house for Air-bnb. Not bad considering that he is charging Rs. 7L a night. I guess the cash helps!!!