Quiet days spent birdwatching and puttering around the house aren’t for every retired person. Some people want to find a profitable, low-stress, part-time job after they retire from their lifelong career. If you’re one of those people, we’ve got great news. There is a slew of fantastic jobs that are perfect for retirees.
- Be an independent chauffeur. Rideshare services are the new taxi cabs. If you like to drive and you have your own, reliable transportation and a smartphone, consider signing up with a rideshare service. You can set your own hours. You turn on the app when you want to start taking rides and turn it off when you’re done working or you need a break. In many metropolitan areas, you can make a decent hourly wage and great tips driving folks around town.
- Do some consulting work. Have you ever spent an hour or two on the phone, helping a friend iron out details about what kind of website she needs? Or have you been invited out to dinner so that an acquaintance can pick your brain about real estate, business accounting, human resources, or investments? If so, you might have a future gig in consulting. Lots of people need advice, guidance, and even some fundamental education about areas of their professional and personal lives. Consultants offer an invaluable service as they use their expertise to help others navigate technical issues that require special first-hand knowledge.
Consider consulting if you’ve got an education or experience in an area where people and businesses often need guidance. Some areas that are particularly in demand are social media, technology, taxes, marketing, insurance, and public relations. However, I’ve heard of child sleep consultants, art consultants, and gardening consultants as well.
- Take care of pets. Nobody really wants to entrust their house keys and furbabies to their co-worker’s teenage son. However, lots of folks do it because they don’t feel they have any options. If you like animals, the pet-sitting market is huge.
In most cities, pet owners are paying anywhere from $20 – $40 each day for a person to come by the house, feed and water the pets, and give them attention for an hour or so. It’s a sweet gig and when the owner is away on a two-week vacation, you could end up pocketing a nice wad of cash for playing fetch with some sweet puppies. Retirees are ideal pet-sitters because they are responsible and they often have daytime availability. And the likelihood that a retired adult is going to use your house for a party while you’re away is pretty slim.
Think about spreading the word to friends and family that you’re available for pet-sitting. If you’d rather go through an agency, search the web for “pet-sitting jobs” and sign up.
- Take family photos. If you’ve ever had an interest in photography and you’re pretty good at it, consider buying yourself a decent camera and offering to take holiday photos for a few of your friends this year at no charge. If you find that you like it and your friends are pleased with the photos, then you’ve probably got talent that can land you some professional photography gigs.
- Prepare taxes. Do you have a background in accounting or finance? Have you been preparing your own taxes since you were sixteen? If so, you might make a fantastic tax preparer. You’ll always have job security with this side gig. You’ll need to be certified to prepare taxes and obtain a preparer’s tax identification number (PTIN). It’s a relatively quick and simple process.
- Refurbish antiques. If you’ve always enjoyed refinishing old furniture and you have an eye for current trends in home decor, you may want to consider refurbishing antiques and selling them. I know a few people who do this and post finished pieces on their social media pages where they are nearly always purchased right away.
- Use your artistic talents. Retirement is a wonderful time to refine some of your artistic skills. If you’re a good artist, look into selling some of your work. Many people use online platforms to sell paintings, pottery, handicrafts, and the like.
Another way to make money with your artwork is to host painting parties. These are currently quite popular. You provide canvases, paints, and step by step instruction to a group of folks that want to learn to paint like a pro. Many times groups of adults or children are interested in hiring an artist to present instruction for special events. Groups are typically limited to around ten people at a time.
- Learn to create and maintain websites. It’s not as difficult as you might think to learn web design and maintenance skills. However, it does take a great deal of patience and dedication. If you’re already a techy type of person who isn’t intimidated by computers, take a couple of online courses in web design and see if you like it. These days all businesses, small and large, need websites. You won’t have to look too hard to find clients who need your services.
- Become a personal chef. If you love preparing mouth-watering meals in your own kitchen, consider making your culinary skills available to others by offering your services as a professional chef. Some people hire personal chefs a few times a week to purchase ingredients, come to their homes, cook for them, and leave. It’s a pretty fantastic job for someone who loves being in the kitchen and cooking up tasty meals.
- Teach. Did you know that colleges and universities love hiring highly educated older adults as professors in their schools? It’s the life experience, on top of the book knowledge that makes retirees perfect for professor jobs in postsecondary schools. If you’ve got at least a bachelor’s degree and the desire to share your wisdom with future generations, happen by one of the colleges, trade schools, or universities in your area and inquire about their application process.
- Consider politics. Did you know that politicians rarely write their own speeches? There are lots of behind-the-scenes jobs in politics that pay a decent wage. If you enjoy politics and are passionate about social issues, consider a job working for your preferred political party. You may find yourself taking a part-time job as a lobbyist, public relations consultant, or campaign manager. Heck, you might want to run for office yourself in retirement.
- Translate. If you speak an additional language or are proficient in sign language, you can almost always find jobs as a translator. Some of the fields where a translator is an absolute necessity are an education, medicine, government, and international business. You’ll likely want to focus on one industry so that you can familiarize yourself with the lingo and become proficient.
- Work as a tutor. I remember when I was a child, my best friend across the street needed help in school. Her mom hooked her up with a tutor. I walked with my friend to the tutor’s house to find that this woman was about my grandma’s age. She was an excellent tutor and made a name for herself among parents and school teachers in our community.
If you have an educational background, or you just like learning and teaching, you’d likely make a fantastic tutor. Stop by your local primary or secondary school and let them know you’re taking students. Also, post your information at the local library. Parents love hiring experienced older adults to tutor their kids. I know a former teacher who charges $60 an hour for private tutoring. Not a bad part-time job.
- Teach music. My daughter’s first piano teacher was in her mid-sixties. This retiree had been playing the piano since she was four. She was amazingly talented and very patient. Eventually, she helped me learn to play the piano too. We all loved Mrs. Turner and she had a great reputation and tons of adult and child students.
If you enjoy playing an instrument or singing, and you don’t mind teaching other people, you’d be a great fit as a private music instructor. You can do it in person at your home or the home of your students. Another way is to teach online. These days, a growing number of students want virtual instruction by way of Zoom meetings, YouTube, and other online platforms.
Spread the word to your friends that you’re interested in taking on a few students. If you are a member of a church or another organization, mention your skills of an offer to play at one of your gatherings. Mrs. Turner, who I mentioned above, got most of her students because she started playing the piano weekly at our church. When word got out that she also taught lessons, parents were lined up to enroll their students.
- Help people find jobs. My late father was a salesman for most of his life. However, post-retirement, in one of his last jobs, he was a headhunter (also called an employment recruiter). He helped people find accounting and information-technology jobs. He made a boatload of money doing it too. Here’s how the process works: a large company is looking for an accounting controller and willing to pay $80,000 per year. They don’t want to wade through resumes and interviews themselves, so they call a headhunting firm. My dad, who has a Rolodex full of controllers looking for jobs, sends the company a shortlist of people with the exact qualifications they need. When they pick a match, they pay the headhunting firm 30 percent of one year’s salary for the controller, which is $24,000. My dad’s cut is 30 percent of that fee, or $7,200, for one successful placement. He always told me he wished he’d known about the recruitment field all his life.
If you are good with people and enjoy the process of helping people find careers, you may want to consider becoming an employment recruiter or working for one. There’s plenty of money in the field and it can be a great job for a retired salesperson.
If you enjoy working, there are some great job opportunities for you in retirement. When you’ve gone the distance in your primary career and entered into retirement, you may still have the desire to work. Now is your chance to find something you truly enjoy doing while you rake in a little extra cash for better vacations. There are all sorts of profitable part-time jobs for retirees just waiting for you out there.
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