This ‘Granfluencer’ Made $24M on YouTube: Could Influencer Become Your New Retirement Gig?

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One 70-year-old YouTuber – or “granfluencer” – said he made more money on YouTube in one month than he had saved in 40 years.

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“Once I got going on YouTube in one month, I would make more money than we saved in 40 years,” YouTube star Scotty Kilmer told Fox News. “It makes a big difference. It makes it convenient and self-sufficient, so you don’t have to worry about anything.”

Kilmer, an auto mechanic from Houston, posts car-related videos from his auto shop on his @scottykilmer YouTube Channel. Kilmer learned about mechanics from his grandfather and later opened his own repair shop. He also hosted a television show about cars, “Crank It Up Scotty,” for a local Houston TV station. Kilmer posted his first video on the channel in 2007 and now has a staggering 6.17 million subscribers and billions of views. According to Kilmer, the channel has earned him nearly $24 million, Fox News reported.

More seniors are turning to social media platforms, named “granfluencers” by marketing agencies, to earn money off brand deals. Between 2010 and 2021, the number of seniors 65 and older using social media increased from 11% to 41%, according to the Pew Research Center and as reported by Fox News.

Kilmer isn’t the only senior making money on social media. For example, 79-year-old Lynn Yamada Davis earns six figures from her Cooking With Lynja channels, according to Komando.com. Her main YouTube channel has over 12 million subscribers.

Most fans of these granfluencers are younger adults and there are dozens of accounts where elders offer their knowledge to eager viewers. But you don’t always have to have years of experience and knowledge to earn a living on social media.

“Old Man Steve” on TikTok, 85-year-old Stephen Austin, has over 1.7 million followers and most short clips of drinking coffee, eating cookies and talking to his viewers from his assisted living kitchen in Dallas, Komando.com reported.

And you don’t need to be a lifelong entertainer to go viral.

“I control it all,” Kilmer told Fox News. “I do my own scripts in my head, film it, edit it. I do what I want when I want, and I don’t have to be at somebody’s beck and call.”

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