The 79-year-old retiree who works as a consultant to supplement his $50 per month pension: “I enjoy doing it”
With a minimum pension and more than half a century of work behind him, this Dutch technician remains active out of necessity and vocation.
At 79 years old—an age when most people have been retired for well over a decade—Dick den Boer still gets up every morning to answer calls, check orders, and visit customers. He lives in a senior housing complex in Schiedam, in the Netherlands, and receives a monthly pension of just 45 euros (about $50). That’s one reason he keeps working. The other? He genuinely loves what he does. “I enjoy it,” he told the Dutch outlet Rijnmond.
Dick reached the official retirement age back in 2011, but quitting was never a real option. At first, he kept working purely out of financial necessity—his pension simply wasn’t enough to live on comfortably. Today, he admits he could stop if he wanted to, but he doesn’t. His personal goal is to keep going at least until he turns 80 this coming May. Why? Because he adores his work.
His daily routine has barely changed over the years. He still starts his day at 8:00 a.m., taking phone calls from customers dealing with broken appliances or looking to buy new ones. “A lot of times I answer from bed—they can’t see that,” he jokes. Once he’s up, he sits at his computer and organizes his schedule. Starting around 10:00 a.m., the in‑person visits begin—and that’s when things really get busy. “I never know when I’ll finish. Sometimes it goes until 7:00 p.m.,” Dick says.
He doesn’t want to stop working until he hits 80
Despite how much he enjoys his job, Dick never dreamed of becoming a business owner. He started working as an electrician at just 16. After completing his military service, he joined a Schiedam company that sold small household appliances. When the company decided to leave that line of business in the 1960s, they offered him the chance to continue as an independent contractor. Dick didn’t hesitate. Since 1975, he’s handled both sales and repairs, working with every kind of customer imaginable.
But retirement brought a major challenge. “I only worked twelve years as an employee, so that left me with a pension of 45 euros a month,” he explains. During his 35 years of self‑employment, he couldn’t always save money, and during economic downturns he had to dip into his savings to support his family.
Even so, he insists that working is not a burden. “We have the state pension, so we’re not going to starve. I could stop today, but I do this with pleasure. It’s practically my hobby.”
After 50 years of self‑employment, even the mayor of Schiedam visited his home to congratulate him on his long career. Dick was grateful—but even then, his mind stayed on the job. “That afternoon I still had to go to a customer’s house to hook up a video player,” he recalls.
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