Sold Down the River
Side-Hustles Are Us
I’m hustling! I have to. I used to have ‘proper’ jobs once, but since leaving a contract post in the third sector in 2015 (that had no pension and which I had to source my own funding for) I’ve been self-employed. Initially I ran a successful food business, supplying home cooked meals locally, mostly to folk who were no longer able to cook for themselves. It proved popular. Too popular, in fact. I couldn’t keep up with the demand and what started out as a part-time job turned into a ‘full
-time plus’ one. Welcome to the world of the self-employed sole trader!  I couldn’t afford to employ anyone at that stage of my business journey and then - wham! My health took a nose dive and I had to totally re-think my plans. Luckily for me, the local baker at the community markets was retiring, so I switched from meals to bread. Still hard graft of course, but less work overall, although with no guaranteed customers or income.
I’ve supplied community markets with bread all this time, but am now forced to step back yet again, due to health issues. 4am starts and 25kg sacks of flour require stamina and energy which I simply don’t have anymore, as a (nearly) 61 year old with chronic health conditions. The thing is, my state pension won’t kick in for another 5 years, so I have to do something to earn money until then. I have a small occupational pension, which helps pay some bills. Thankfully, my husband earns a decent enough wage to pay our large mortgage. Were it not for that, we’d be in soapy. I fear for all the women walking towards retirement now who have no safety net, who walk a close line to poverty, or if not, then certainly hardship. I have friends who have had to give up cars and who struggle to heat their homes in winter. Women, mostly, who have worked all their lives and now must work in what should be their retirement years.
During the Covid lockdowns I took up painting, a hobby I’ve had since childhood. I had no pretensions of being n artists or selling any work, but the fates and friends proved otherwise. After a rash of interest, from friends, in my initial paintings, my husband set up a website (without telling me) and the sales began! I’m unlikely to sell enough to be a jobbing artist, but it gives me an additional income stream, along with my writing and the baking, which I do privately now, in small quantities.
With talk of the retirement age being moved to 71, the likelihood is that a lot of people in the future will be working until they drop. My ex-mother-in-law worked into her 80’s and I have friends who work in retail who are in their 70’s. It’s largely women. Ladies who didn’t have high powered careers, who stayed home to raise families, who didn’t get occupational pensions; women who have no partners. Pretty much everyone I know is doing something, be it making jam, crafting, consulting, working in shops or in hospitality.  A couple of friends who expected to retire, lost out on an endowment mortgage and need to carry on to pay it off, other friends are paying for children at university, helping children unable to afford to live independently, the list goes on.
My generation get accused of all sorts of things, but the majority of people I know are hard working, socially and ecologically conscious and not wealthy. If you’re a top loader, with an off-shore bank account and a share income, then you probably have no clue what I’m talking about (and are unlikely to be reading this!) We made a bargain with the state to be able to retire at 60, to pay our NI and our taxes and get the benefit of that later on. The Government welched on the agreement and now we’re genuinely faced with the spectre of many people dying before they even retire, especially those with manual jobs; we’re looking at rolling the clock back decades, to when people had to work until they couldn’t; when housing tenures were insecure; when elderly people struggled to heat there homes and eat healthy food. It’s happening now and can only get worse. Today’s young people have no hope of saving enough to have a decent standard of living in retirement, and by the time they reach that age, who knows what state pension provision there will be. In a wealthy country like the UK, the prospect is an appalling one.
So, you’ll no doubt know someone who has a side hustle too: who does a bit of baking, runs a workshop, writes, sews, makes jam or has to work in retail, care or hospitality. If you visit community markets and crafts fares and like what you see, do try and support independent makers. They probably absolutely love what they’re doing, but equally, they may be struggling to support themselves.They/we don’t need your pity or sympathy, but we do need your support. We work hard, and it can be demoralising when you barely sell enough to cover your table fees - it does happen sometimes. Be kind to older shop workers, serving staff and cleaners, they may love their job, or they may hate it,because they are forced to do it when they should be enjoying their retirement. We weren’t expecting luxury cruises and cocktails at 5, but we sure as heck hoped for something better than this.