Yes this view is what other treads have said...I am S/E because I have to be...companies do not employ people in the cards these days especially at advanced age.....I assume it's the same all over..would love to get into some branch of the trade that paid a reasonable rate but never quite figured it out.....any suggestions welcome
You're obviously very happy to be direct about your earning and position, so I won't fanny around either, I will just give you my view.
You're quite right, you are less employable as at your age you're not a future investment for a firm - so of course you realise that and go S/E. I think the mistake has been to set your rates at what I can only assume is based on the rates in the early 90's.
Let's do the maths:
Say you work 48 weeks a year, 5 days a week. That is £312 a week. Or £62 per day. I can't imagine what electrical job you could do that would take an entire day and only be worth £60 to your customer!
I think there is a positive here. You can pretty much double your prices starting from tomorrow. No one will care because so long as you do a good job and solve the customers problem, they will be happy regardless of cost - whether they pay you £60 or £120 for your days effort. In either case, it's probably less than they would have expected.