The short answer
Neither, as a rule. Decide each job on its own: how often it comes, how hard and risky it is, what it costs to hire, and whether you want to learn it.
Some jobs you will stop doing altogether, and that is allowed.
What to do
- Take out the job list you made in What did he actually do around here?.
- Ask the five questions of each job, one job at a time.
- Mark each job learn it, hire it, or leave it, in pencil.
- Start learning one job, and add the next once the first feels ordinary.
- Get written prices for the jobs you will hire, using How do I hire someone without being taken advantage of?.
- Stop the jobs you marked leave it, and give no one a reason you don't want to give.
- Put a date on the calendar to look at the list again.
What can wait
- Learning everything at once. One job at a time is plenty.
- Selling the boat, the mower or anything large. It can sit until you are ready.
- The yearly jobs that are months away. You can decide them when the season comes closer.
Who can help
Your public library, a senior center or a hardware store can tell you what classes run near you. A neighbor or friend who knows a job can show you once.
If paying for help is the problem and you are 60 or older, the Eldercare Locator at 1-800-677-1116 can put you in touch with your Area Agency on Aging.
The rules, phone numbers and web addresses in this book were checked against the agencies’ own pages in October 2026. They change, so check anything you rely on with the office itself.
From Book 4: Everything They Handled
This page has the short answer and the closing lists from chapter 7. The full chapter explains, in plain words, what exists, what to ask, and who can answer. The book covers months 1 to 9.
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Five or six short emails a year at most, and a note when a new book is out. Each one is about something that tends to come up in the first two years. You can unsubscribe whenever you like.