How to make money in retirement
Retired? Need a bit of extra cash? Or maybe you’re just bored and need an extra interest in their life. Whatever the reason, making money in retirement is certainly possible with a bit of ingenuity, determination and a touch of entrepreneurship.
Having escaped the 9 to 5 rat race, few retirees want to return to the traditional employee – employer realtionship. Regular hours, targets, daily commute – that is not retirement by any reasonable description.
But in an internet connected world there are many routes to a bit of extra cash – plus opportunities to provide a local service that people in your community want, need and will pay for.
- Little stress is involved
- Doesn’t affect your tax position
- Limited liability
- Can be suspended or ceased easily
- Doesn’t involve regular travel
- Doesn’t involve lengthy contracted committments
- Doesn’t involve heavy lifting, lengthy standing or working at height
- Is not managerial
- Doesn’t involve ongoing qualifaction status
- Doesn’t need expensive equipment or premises
- Is enjoyable or tolerably undemanding
Turn your hobby into cash
One of the best ways to make money in retirement is to turn your hobby into a cash generating venture. My friend has a workshop in his garden, and makes wooden objects. He can churn out a few each week, takes a lot of pride in finishing each one, and then sells them on Ebay or Etsy.
It fits most of the above criteria, including (critically) the last one – it is for him an enjoyable way to spend his waking hours.
Provide a local service
Another popular route is providing a local service – dog walking, gardening, decorating. These don’t fit the bill quite as well, as they involve physical effort and ongoing committment. The grass is going to grow whatever, and sometimes the aged and creaking bones don’t want to get going in the morning. An ideal money-making venture has the capacity to be turned off when you feel like it. Or don’t.
Exam invigilators
One possible source that involves no long term committment is an exam invigilator. It fairly tedious work and requires diligance and adherence to the set rules. Plus you do have a committment for set dates and times – but you can take work as and when you need it and no particular qualifications are required.
Sell an online course
This has become less lucrative of late as the big players in the market (Udemy , Coursera, Thinkific) take a little more as a percentage, or demand a higher standard of output. There’s always You Tube of course – a highly competitive environment and quite difficult to stand out.
If you have a talent for explaining subjects it is possible to make a little money out of on-line tutoring. But your audience can be demanding with questions, you need to keep the content up to date and you’ll need some decent equipment. Still, a rewarding activity if you enjoy content creation.
Write a blog
I have no monetary aspirations for this blog, which is just as well as I’m not sure anyone is actually reading it. Still, with determination and the right niche it’s possible to monetize online content – Google Ads, Amazon Affiliation or E Book sales. Of course, you’ll need to pay attention to the legal side, and keep your viewing figures up – but a nice way to earn passive income if you can get the content right.
Conclusion
There are ways to make money in retirement. It is a great way to spend your leisure hours, especially if you can find something you enjoy doing. Unfortunately, it’s not going to make you rich unless you devote many hours to your task, and that’s not really retirement!
If you have enjoyed my blog post, or you have a comment to make, here is my Contact page.