Marie-José is 64 years old and receives a retirement pension of 1,800 euros net per month. He could have opted for a quiet retirement, but he decided otherwise. She is retired from the south of Finisterre (France), who for almost 40 years worked in a well-known furniture chain, she chose to return to start a small professional project to continue working to complement her pension. “I didn’t want to sit around doing nothing. I’ve worked all my life and I felt the need to keep my mind and body moving,” he explains enthusiastically.
His professional career is extensive. According to the media The Figaro andShe started in Cherbourg and later moved to Quimper, where she became deputy department director. Specialized in high-end appliances, it has always stood out for exceeding its objectives. “It reached up to 12 percent of service sales when the average was 6 or 7%.”
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But a chronic joint disease forced her to end her working life at age 60, just two years before reaching retirement age. Thus, after spending a year as unemployed, she decided to register as a job seeker and look for work despite her physical limitations.
In this way, he was chaining some temporary jobs, until at the end of 2024 he found an offer online from Scol art’rex, a company from Occitania dedicated to the sale of ecological school supplies. The proposal was unique. There was no contract as an employee and to qualify for the position she had to create her own micro-business. “I didn’t know anything about self-employment. I found myself in a complicated world, procedures at the INPI and many online traps,” he admits. The situation changed when he went to BGE, a French network specialized in supporting entrepreneurs. “BGE opened everything up for me. Without them I wouldn’t have made it.”
Since March 2025, Marie-José has been touring the towns of southern Finisterre presenting paints, clays and glues made in France and designed for educational centers. Visit schools, residences and leisure centers. “They are healthy products, mold-free and made with cereals. I love what I sell,” he says. His “new work life” makes him totally independent. Organize your routes, manage appointments and register orders in the software that the company makes available to you.
He decided to combine the pension with a job
She dedicates about 100 hours a month to this small business that allows her to maintain an active pace of life. “I work part-time and I organize myself so as not to travel more than 30 kilometers between appointments. In the afternoons I enter my sales, which are paid on commission. It is a real organizational challenge.” He usually has about ten appointments a week, sometimes more. Its economic objective is firm and deliberate. “I don’t want to exceed 1,000 euros a month. That is my reference point. I don’t work for the Government,” he says, laughing. With that amount you complement your pension without increasing taxes or contributions.
This experience has restored his confidence and enthusiasm. “I’m proud. I’m showing that it’s possible even when I’m retired,” she explains. And he wants his story to reach other future pensioners and young people entering the labor market. “I don’t want to be a role model. But if I can accompany them and show them that it is possible, then I will have achieved it.”
For now, she will continue as long as the forces are with her. Maybe until he is 70, when he hopes to fulfill a long-delayed dream: traveling to Canada, a country he loves.