If you are retired and have trouble making ends meet, you are not alone. For most of us, the job outlook is not too bright. The most you can hope for is a receiving job at Walmart with a minimum wage. What is the worst part of this job? Standing up for hours without stopping for the minimum wage.
There is a relatively new industry that you can do in your spare time. Work as many or as few hours as you want. Work when you want and don’t work when you don’t want to.
It’s called Ride Share.
You’ve probably heard of Uber. That is the best known of the carpooling companies. A major competitor is Lyft. I have worked for Lyft for the past 6 months and have had excellent results. Here is my story.
I was fired last year after being the sales manager of a medium-sized furniture store for 9 years. He was 60 years old at the time. My boss had promised me that he would never let me go, but as with most things, it was an empty promise. As the brick and mortar retail trade declined, so did their profits, and they could no longer afford to pay me.
I thought you would have no problem getting a job. He had a stellar resume. Unfortunately, the number of companies seeking to hire older employees is small. I personally don’t blame them. My first administrative job was when I was 30 years old. I was not interested in hiring people who were old enough to be my father. Employees I inherited who were already that age were a pain to work with.
How did I discover Lyft?
My transportation was a 20 year old van. When he was young, he wasted money on Corvettes, Porsches, and Mercedes. As I got older, I realized that luxury cars were expensive. A trustworthy paid vehicle makes much more sense.
One day it broke and he had to go to the store for the weekend. I rented a car and needed to be driven back home after I returned it. I decided to try Lyft. I asked the driver, like many people, how he liked working for Lyft. His response surprised me.
“I’m not even from California. I live in Florida and I take a train here to spend the winter with my sister. I call Lyft. They give me a job and they rent me a car. I can earn up to $ 1000 a week driving through Lyft.”
It was shortly after that conversation that I lost my job. I decided to try Lyft. I requested around 9pm on Saturday night. I knew my driving record was stellar and it wouldn’t be a problem. I have never had a traffic ticket in over 45 years of driving. The problem would be my 20 year old truck. Lyft requires a 4-door vehicle under 10 years old. Here is everything you need to get started.
First, you will need a smartphone like an iPhone. Apply for the job from your app that you can download from the app store. It is called “Lyft Driver”. After downloading the application, you will need to fill in certain basic information such as your name, address, etc. They ask for your job ID. You have the option of using your social security number or an Employer Identification Number (EIN). I have owned several small businesses and have a Limited Liability Corporation for another company that I operate. Since this will be a business, I used my EIN. Now all my income will go through the LLC, which offers me additional tax discounts and liability protection. More on this later.
Lyft will ask you to take a photo of your driver’s license with your camera. So I recommend using a smartphone. It makes it easier because you can take a picture of your driver’s license directly from the app. In a couple of seconds they will approve you as a driver. If you have a DUI or felony in the past 7 years, you will be rejected.
Once you are approved to drive, you will be asked if you want to use your own car or rent one. Since I only had a 20-year-old truck, I asked about the rent. They asked me for a $ 250 deposit on a credit card that would be returned when I returned the car. I hit the button and they told me to pick up their new car on Tuesday.
I live in San Diego. The rental car is through Hertz. They charge $ 208 per week, but that includes all the insurance you need. If you drive 75 jobs in a week, they give you a $ 50 discount. If you drive 100 jobs in a week, they give you a $ 150 discount. Their cost to rent a new car is only $ 58 / week. Since the car is insured, you can use it for your personal use when you are not driving for Lyft. Let me tell you that 100 units in one week can be challenging. I average 10-15 per day. At the same time, if you are managing 100 jobs in a week, you are probably making around $ 800- $ 1000 / week.
They offered me a Toyota Corolla, a Kia Forte or a Chevy Cruze. I chose a new Kia Forte. The other 2 cars had stains on the seat. I have always been curious about Kias. Nice car. It has about 23 miles per gallon. Gas is a big expense in this business. The day after I rented the car, someone stole my 20-year-old truck. The police told me not to buy anything new for 30-60 days, as that is the time it usually takes to recover a stolen vehicle. It looks like I’ll be driving around Lyft for a while!
The system is fairly easy to use. You will need a dash mount for your iPhone (or Anderoid phone). Turn on the app and wait for a trip alert. Once you accept the trip, the screen will switch to Google Maps pages and literally tell you the directions. You will be able to see your progress as you go down the street. The map shows you all the streets, making it easy to know where you are going.
After a few weeks, I decided that my truck would not return and bought a used 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid on Craigslist for around $ 5000. You get 38 mpg. This type of car is not preferred by millennials because it looks like an old man’s car. If you search for this model on Craigslist or Autotrader, you will probably find one that was owned by older people and in perfect condition. It is a very comfortable car to drive and customers comment on how smooth and comfortable it is for them too. Try to get one with a backup camera. After using a backup camera, I will never buy a car that does not have one.
I currently drive about 8 hours a day and earn $ 100- $ 150 / day. That equates to $ 700- $ 1000 / week. I don’t have to drive that much but I like it. I am single and I have nothing more to do. Because I grew up with a good work ethic, I have a hard time sitting at home doing nothing when I could make money.
It works better than you could have imagined.
I’ve had several companies, so calculating expenses is pretty straightforward. The IRS allows you to spend your actual costs like gas, tires, etc. or it can take 54.5 cents per mile. A great write-off for business is the depreciation of the vehicle. The standard 54-cent-per-mile deduction is not only easier, it gives you better payback. Record your miles.
The mistake that most drivers make is that they only cancel the miles of a real trip. The IRS allows you to cancel all business miles. If you work for someone else in an office or store, you can’t cancel your commute, but if you’re in business, you can cancel driving to UPS or driving to meet customers. Real estate agents cancel all the miles they drive by showing people’s houses. They also cancel all the miles they drive looking for houses to show their clients. With Rideshare you should be able to cancel all the miles from the moment you start the application until the end of your last trip. I record my mileage when I get in the car at home and generally sit on my driveway until I receive a ride request. I record my final mileage when I get home at night. You don’t need anything fancy, a pocket notebook works well.
Some people park, others drive. If you’ve just finished a trip that took you to a remote area of the city, you may need to drive to an area where people request trips more frequently. Check with your tax advisor, but all driving to find trips must be tax deductible. Due to the fact that you are canceling many miles, it will appear that it is not very profitable. This is good because it means you won’t have to pay a lot, if there is anything in taxes. This is what I mean.
So, suppose you drive 200 miles in a day and earn $ 150 in fees and tips. If you cancel 200 miles x .545 cents / mile, your tax write-off is $ 109. That leaves $ 41 in earnings. At $ 41 / day, you are reporting earnings of only $ 205 / week if you work 5 days a week. That equates to around $ 900 / month in earnings or around $ 11,000 / year. That looks like a poverty income level. If this is your only source of income, you will not have to pay any income tax. I am not an accountant, so please do not accept this as tax advice. Check with your tax collector before declaring this deduction.
Now let’s look at it from a different angle, cash flow.
If you make $ 48,000 / year on a regular job, you get around $ 4,000 / month gross pay. Once taxes are deducted, you get around $ 3000 / month in net payment. This is estimating your taxes at 25% of your income.
If you earn $ 150 / night with Lyft, you will take home $ 3000 / month.
Overall, Ride Share gives me pretty good cash flow. I work when I want. If I don’t feel like starting work until 1 p.m. or quit smoking at 8 p.m., I can do it. No one tells me what to do or when. I recommend that you start with your family car or rent a car through Lyft to see how you like it. Once you decide to drive regularly, try to find a hybrid car, so that your actual expenses are lower. I also recommend that you do not drive in search of attractions. Once you find out where the best areas are, drive, park, and wait.
Some drivers give water, mints, gum, etc. to try to get tips. Personally, I am not going to those extremes. I make sure my car is very clean and smells fresh. I try to strike up conversation with passengers if they seem to be in the mood to talk. My car has Sirius XM satellite radio so you can easily find the music you prefer. Average approximately 10% of tips in general. Not all customer advice, but at the end of the week, if I made $ 750, I would probably make $ 75 in tips.
Drivers come and go, so Ride Share companies are constantly looking for drivers. They pay registration bonuses of up to $ 750 depending on how many drivers they need. There is a special code for seniors to obtain the highest registration bonus: RETIRE2020. This ensures you get the highest bonus available at the time of application. It works in all cities, but it only works for Lyft.
I highly recommend looking at Ride Share if you are looking to earn a little extra cash. It is easy and fun. It is very safe because it does not carry cash or ask customers for money. Everything is done on credit cards through the application. I think that customers behave better because the Ride Share company knows their identity and their credit card numbers.
The worst thing that has happened to me is that a drunk customer got sick in the car. If this happens to you, be sure to take pictures of the accident. Upload them to LYFT from your phone and LYFT charges the customer up to $ 200. You receive $ 150 to clean your car. I’m not sure if $ 150 is a fair amount to clear someone’s vomit, but it’s a lot of money. I spent about $ 20 to buy air fresheners and paper towels. In a couple of days, the smell was gone and people commented on how good my car smelled.
So that’s my Lyft review. My job at Lyft gives me a cash flow of $ 48,000 and I can set my own hours and I don’t have a boss to tell me what to do. If I want to take a couple of weeks to go on vacation, I can do it. I don’t even have to ask permission. What could be better than that?
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