First post!

I am an unemployed (technically) middle aged female who is actually working a variety of different jobs in this new economy. It all started when I decided last year that I no longer wanted to work as a corporate animal. So, to keep up my shopping and traveling habits, I must needs do some sort of compensated work.

1)  I hold a life and health insurance license. I have, at times, worked for an insurance company (twice), an insurance agency, a third party administrator (twice) and have even formed, built up a clientele and then sold my own small agency. I do love insurance, especially employee benefits. However, after ObamaCare, there's not much to do out there for a health insurance agent, not much commission to be had, and I refuse to go to work for an insurance carrier ever again. THAT is another blog post. So, I hire myself out as an "enroller" helping carriers, TPA's and agencies enroll employees in their employee benefits annual enrollment.  I love this part of the business, the one on one contact with a real person with real needs. I can help this person while they are trying to make the decision of what plans to buy, what coverages they need. And when the enrollments end or the contract is done, I go home and forget about it.

2)  I write "content" for a textbook publisher, usually one contract a month, about 20,000 words. They give me an outline with a title for each bullet.  Each of these bullets need anywhere from about 200 to 800 words. Mostly they assign me stuff to write about insurance but not always. Most of the "articles" do require some research, to be correct, and plagiarism is NOT allowed. I have found that writing on my newish laptop is rather easy, and I can just let the words flow. The computer counts my words, it corrects my spelling and even alerts me when my grammar is wacky.

3)  I worked for a national tax preparation company this spring and I loved it. I took the 10 week tax preparation course last fall and since I passed the test with a 95, they chose to hire me as a "first year" tax pro. The tax code really makes no sense to a rational person, but there are rule books and limits and maximums and percentages and stuff that is how it is.  I like that. I plan to take every course available during this off season and will join up with them again next January.

4) When I sold my agency book of business in 09, I had already agreed to a 2 year non-compete limitation, that would kick in whenever I left the agency. That means that I may not try to go back to any of my old clients who had business with the agency when I left for 2 years. That 2 years will be up in October 11. Not sure what I will do at that time, I may be happy doing jobs 1) 2) & 3). But it will open up a new option. I have already had the opportunity to sell a bit of insurance to people and businesses who were not clients of that agency, so we'll see.

5) Since I love to travel, I am researching a way to travel and do something that will pay for the travel. Import small foreign objects to sell, write a travel article or two, maybe even arrange other peoples' travel. Not sure yet what I might be best at here, but it is right up there at the top of my list, because I live to travel. Itchy feet. Maybe I was a Bedouin in a former life or maybe my ancestors were nomads.

I am working, total hours, probably more hours per week than i ever worked in a "real" job, but I am the master of my fate, the captain of my ship, and I am grateful that I have the skills to be able to do what I prefer at this stage in my life.