Starting Medium and YouTube at 68 years old

Reason: 80% get back a passion 20% possibly adding to Social Security income

Starting new

A few years back, I was laid off from my software developer job that I thought would not happen. I was close to being eligible for Social Security, but I knew that money may not last the rest of our lifetime. I looked for part-time work and found I was just not going to get hired.

I tried online job submissions and never heard back. I then went to a headhunter agency, and they never came through. In fact, they contacted me a few months later to see if I found a job yet. Huh, I thought that was their job. Finally, a long-time friend and colleague offered me some part-time work that helps but will not last.

The early years

As a kid, from about 11 years old to 16, I was more into the arts — not a good artist but you know okay for a child. I also liked writing in the form of storytelling. Frequently I wrote letters to people which was not all that common for a young person. I really enjoyed the writing, but then life got in the way, and I stopped the art and the writing as time went on.

Discovering new avenues

I recently decided that maybe it was time to get back into what I liked to do back then, even though I’m a lot older now. I found out about Medium on a YouTube video by Zulie Rane (@zulierane) and thought this could be a possible way to get back to writing. Wow, I could actually write stories or information articles or whatever I felt like that might interest people.

I found out that I don’t even have to pay a fee to join Medium to earn money. But, I immediately joined Medium and paid the yearly fee. I was hoping I could make a little money, and it is only fair that I contribute my share to the other writers.

For the artistic young me, I wanted to make movies but alas, we could not afford a camera. There was also no way to edit the movies, so that dream quickly died. But now I found YouTube and I thought, “Hey I don’t need much of an investment to do a YouTube Channel.” I am now in the first steps of creating a channel.

Optimism

They say, (I still have not figured out who “they” are) as you get older you need to do new things and experiment with new challenges. So, this is what I’m doing right now to see if I can get my creativity back. I can use YouTube to make my little movies. We shall see.

Another reason to do this is to possibly get a second income or a part-time income that will help with Social Security. It is getting harder and harder to live on just Social Security now, even though I live pretty much frugally. I am not looking to get rich and not make it a full-time business. It would just be nice to be able to either afford food or possibly take a vacation here and there.

What there is to like about Medium and YouTube

What is great about Medium, is that I can write from anywhere. If I take a vacation, I could keep writing articles or stories wherever I am. I really like the idea that you do not have to be a professional writer to join Medium and just create articles and stories just for fun or to give information.

During my career as a software developer, many times I would have to create documentation for the program. I really didn’t mind that writing even though it was a boring topic. I like that I was able to take technical instructions and turn them into words that a non-technical person could understand. It was not my ideal type of writing, but it kept me writing over the years.

For YouTube, I think what I am going to do is instructional videos on having a computer that is really usable. I am not going to be like so many others where they tell you, here are 50 commands in the software that you can use, or, here are five types of software. I just would like to advise people on what you should have for just everyday use.

I would just advise the minimum that you would need to get by to be productive at a lower cost. For example, I would show free software that would help you to create articles on Medium. For videos, I would suggest a low-cost camera and free editing software that is easy to use.

The journey begins

No matter how much time I have or whatever reads or likes I get on Medium I am still going to create stories and articles. YouTube will be a little more effort, but I am going to work on that too. I plan to have some fun at this and possibly help some people and/or entertain some people.

I have to end this here as I have many articles to write and lots of videos to shoot.