10 Ways You Can Make Money Helping the Elderly

It’s often a sad realization that as you get older there are certain things you can no longer do on your own. The elderly have no desire to lose their independence, but some of them are forced to give up certain things that they’ve done their entire lives due to illness or just age. Sometimes the body doesn’t hold up as well as one hopes that it will, and a person is forced to admit that everyday things are no longer possible for him or her. It’s not ideal, but it happens. Growing older can be a wonderful gift, but for some people the act of giving up their freedoms and their independence is a hardship. Fortunately, there are ways that younger people can help the elderly.

While you might not be able to keep them as independent as they once were, there are services you can provide that will not only help you make a living but also help the elderly in your community continue to live in their homes, get where they need to do and maintain some semblance of their own independence. Of course, there are also elderly people that are in perfect health but enjoying their lives traveling and being social, and they are too busy to want to bother with the mundane and the everyday. This might mean they are willing to pay you to do all the things that they don’t want to do anymore, and that’s awesome. It’s a win-win situation for all involved, and it’s a great business opportunity for you in which you can pursue a fairly flexible schedule. Here are a few great business ventures from which you can earn a bit of money helping the elderly.

Provide a Driving Service

One of the biggest losses of independence with advanced age is often the inability to drive. When a senior is no longer able to drive him or herself around, life can become a challenge. It then becomes almost inevitable than a man or woman will require some sort of assisted living facility, and that is often not something the fiercely independent want. Offering a driving service allows seniors to get where they need to go – doctors, game nights, errand running – without driving themselves, and it allows them to hang on to a bit of their independence.

Provide a Shopping Service

This is something that might help you make a bit of money and save the elderly time of their own. Providing a shopping service often allows the elderly to forgo doing things that they do not care for, such as heading to the grocery store or fighting holiday traffic to buy gifts. It’s a great way to save someone time and effort, and the convenience is often worth the fee.

Provide an Errand Service

Not everyone is interested in doing their own post office runs, their own banking services or other services of that nature, and they are willing to pay someone else to do that kind of stuff for them. You can run errands such as taking dogs to the vet, picking up family members from the airport and anything in between for a few dollars for the elderly.

Provide Lawn Services

It doesn’t matter where you live; lawns require maintenance on a regular basis at least part of the year. There comes a point in the lives of some elderly people in which they are no longer capable of caring for their own lawns. Some are not even able to spend time in the heat for health reasons. Offering to mow their lawns, water their flowers and maintain their landscaping is a great way to earn some extra income.

Provide a Cleaning Service

No one likes to clean their own house – therapeutic as it might be on a frustrating day – and the elderly are often either too tired, too sick or too busy to do their own house cleaning. You might be able to find someone who is willing to pay you to clean their home for a fee, which is a great way to help out the elderly and your own financial situation.

Provide Companionship

There are two kinds of elderly people; there are those that are healthy and vibrant and spend all their free time with friends, hobbies and traveling. Then there are those who live far from their families, aren’t able to get around much anymore and are very lonely. These are people who are willing to pay for some companionship in the form of someone to have dinner with them, play games, attend events and anything in between just like what they do in assisted living homes In los Angeles CA.

Provide Beauty Services

Are you a beautician? If you are, you could offer your services to the elderly who are at home and not particularly interested in heading to the salon. You could offer manicures at home, hair services at home and so many other beauty services that people are willing to pay you to come to their home and perform.

Provide a Meal Service

Meal services are a great option for someone who is either a professional cook or a great amateur cook. What you would do for the elderly depends. You might provide a few meals a week that they can heat up. You might cater their nightly dinners with friends or family. You might even provide them with meals on holidays so that they don’t have to cook on their own. The options vary and can be quite lucrative.

Provide a Social Service

Social services are not the sad occurrence that they might sound like. A social service for an elderly person or couple might include driving them to and from their social engagements, accompanying someone to an event or planning events and social gathering so that they don’t waste their time or energy doing this themselves, but they get to enjoy the events of their own accord.

Become an All-Around Handyman

There is nothing quite as handy as a handyman. Someone who is capable of doing a number of things from repairing a creaky door to a leaky faucet to changing the oil in a car to assembling a new piece of furniture; this person is invaluable to the elderly. If you are a Jack of all trades, this might be the perfect opportunity for you to make a little income helping your elderly friends on a regular basis.

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