Everyone Says to Go Into the Trades to Make Good Money. This 48-Year-Old Auto Mechanic With Worn-Out Knees Is Looking for a Way Out

Adrian Volenik

Sun, September 6, 2026 at 10:00 AM EDT 6 min read

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Young people worried about college debt, a difficult job market and AI replacing white-collar jobs are increasingly being told to skip the four-year degree and learn a trade . But what happens after you've spent nearly 30 years doing that trade and your body doesn't want to cooperate anymore?

That's the problem facing a 48-year-old Massachusetts man who spent most of his working life as an auto mechanic. In a recent post on Reddit , he said the job gave him valuable skills, but also "did no favors" for his knees. He's now looking for a realistic path to $80,000 to $120,000 a year without going back to school for four years or destroying what's left of his knees.

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Thirty Years of Experience, but Where Does It Go?

After leaving automotive work, the poster spent about six years driving for Uber (NYSE: UBER ) and Lyft (NASDAQ: LYFT ), with employment gaps partly caused by family responsibilities. He later explained that he had moved back to Cambridge from Las Vegas because his mother and sister needed his help.

"I just was stuck in a loop for a few years," he wrote.

Today, he buys undervalued items at estate sales and auctions and resells them online. He has also built a 30-plus-page WordPress website focused on New England events. Neither provides reliable full-time income, although reselling is something he clearly enjoys.

"The reselling from estate sales I thoroughly enjoy," he wrote, adding that he'd eventually love to own enough land to store inventory and hold barn sales.

His bigger goal is to buy a modest home with several acres in New Hampshire, Vermont or Maine while also catching up on retirement savings. He doesn't want commission sales, delivery driving or another physically demanding trade, and he isn't interested in borrowing heavily for a degree.

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That combination of needing more income, wanting to build retirement savings and hoping to eventually own property can make real estate seem especially out of reach. But owning an entire rental isn't the only way to invest in it.

Arrived lets you buy fractional shares of professionally selected rental properties starting with as little as $100. The company handles tenants, maintenance and the other work that comes with being a landlord, while you can receive monthly dividends from rental income and potentially benefit if properties grow in value over time. For someone who has already spent decades earning money with his hands, it offers a way to add real estate to a portfolio without taking on another hands-on job.

Value in the Skills He Already Has

The most popular suggestion was field service work repairing and maintaining specialized equipment. Commenters pointed to medical devices, industrial machinery and biomedical equipment–fields where mechanical troubleshooting skills can transfer without spending every day underneath cars.

The idea immediately caught the poster's attention. "Great suggestion so far, just looking through the job on Indeed," he replied.

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One person said a former mechanic could be particularly valuable servicing laboratory equipment around Cambridge, while another described a friend who retrained as a hospital equipment technician and now earns a little more than $90,000 a year.

Others suggested facilities management, industrial maintenance, government fleet work, insurance adjusting and technical support for automakers. One former pipe fitter said he now earns $110,000 working maintenance at a factory and is home every night.

There was also some tougher advice. One person suggested finding a decent-paying stable job first, keeping the side businesses going and gradually moving into higher-paying positions. Another warned that starting from scratch in web development at 48 could be a bigger gamble.

The discussion ultimately suggested that the mechanic may not need to throw away his old career to build a new one. His most valuable asset could be the knowledge he accumulated during those 30 years, if he can find a job that pays him for what he knows instead of how much punishment his knees can take.

Image: Shutterstock

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Building Wealth Across More Than Just the Market

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Qnetic

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EquityMultiple

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Fundrise

Private real estate and private credit can add income and stability to a stock-heavy portfolio. Fundrise offers access to diversified private real estate and credit strategies through an easy-to-use platform, with professionally managed portfolios designed to generate passive income and long-term growth.

This article Everyone Says to Go Into the Trades to Make Good Money. This 48-Year-Old Auto Mechanic With Worn-Out Knees Is Looking for a Way Out originally appeared on Benzinga.com