17 Ways to Keep Earning Money After Retirement

Posted on: May 10, 2019 | Investing, Retirement

After decades in the workforce, you’ve built extensive knowledge, skills, and experience. But after retirement, you want more time to yourself and with your family. Are there still ways to use your skills, knowledge, and passion to keep earning money after retirement? Now more than ever before, you can earn money while being your own boss and setting your own hours. You can decide how much time or money to invest in your venture, how much risk you want to take and, best of all, you can decide exactly what you want to do.

17 Ways to Keep Earning Money After Retirement

If you have special skills, a passion, or a hobby, now is the best time to use them to earn money after retirement. Some of these you can start right in your own neighborhood, others you can start online, and others you can do from anywhere in the world. Since some of these options require little day-to-day upkeep, you can earn money in multiple ways at the same time.

1. Own an Ice Machine

Convenience is now a bigger priority for consumers than it has been in any other era. This makes thoughtfully-placed ice vending machines an easy investment and a low-maintenance way to keep earning money after retirement.

With few expenses after the initial investment and the ability to manage and monitor the machine from a smartphone or laptop, an ice machine is a low-risk investment for those that want full control over their business. For retirees that know other business owners in the area, or those who are looking for a business opportunity with less stress, an ice machine is an easy choice.

2. Lease To a Vendor

If you’re not sure about owning or investing in an ice machine, but you own space near a high-trafficked area, leasing a bit of space to a vendor is another easy, simple way to keep earning money after retirement. If you own a business or you’re located near a beach or park, you can try out a part of the vending businesses without the upfront investment.   

3. Start a Food Truck or Cart

For those with a talent or passion for food, a food truck or food cart is a business opportunity and a chance to use your cooking skills. In a heavily trafficked, casual dining area like a park, boardwalk, or beach, a food truck or cart can be a welcome pick-me-up and hangout for locals. If you have a spot in mind, you might combine this one of the previous two points to earn even more.  

Before starting this venture, you’ll need to know your municipality’s rules on food trucks or food carts. To lower the risk of this investment, start small, with one or two simple, but popular dishes or drinks.

4. Give Tours

If you know the history, hotspots, well-kept secrets, and the best ways to get around your town, you have everything you need to be a high-quality tour guide. You can apply to be a tour guide on ToursByLocals.com and the website will handle payment processing and administrative tasks for you. You could also work with your local visitors bureau, hotels, convention centers, and other tourist locations to advertise your tours yourself.

5. Refurbish and Repurpose

Many consumers enjoy adding unique pieces of history to their home, and they aren’t interested in mass-produced kitsch. If you enjoy working with fabric, wood and paint, you may be able to give a new life to old items. Consider creative ways to repurpose, refurbish and redesign furniture and other pieces with character and charm.

6. Buy and Sell Antiques

Maybe you have an eye for bargains, or you can spot valuable antiques that others overlook. If antique stores, estate sales, flea markets and other secondhand shops catch your eye, you can turn this skill into a fun way to keep earning money after retirement. Look for antiques, collectibles, and other niche-interest items to sell on marketplaces like Ebay or Amazon. Buy low, sell high and you can turn your antiquing hobby into a viable business.

7. Rent a Room

If you have extra space in your home or a vacation home you don’t often use, you can rent these spaces to vacationers on a budget. Airbnb.com is the most popular marketplace for vacation rental spaces, and it’s easy to list your vacation home or even a single room.

8. Rent Out Storage Space

Maybe cleaning out your basement, attic or garage was on your to-do list post-retirement. If you have extra storage space, you can turn this into easy passive income in retirement. Neighbor.com makes it easy and safe to rent out your extra storage space to others nearby.  

9. Rent Out Special Items

There are hundreds of seasonal and situational items that many people wish to use from time to time, but not own. Special online marketplaces have sprung up to meet these need, allowing owners to rent out these items easily. If you have musical instruments, camping gear, sports equipment, lawn care equipment, power tools or other items that are in good shape, but you don’t often use, try renting them out to keep earning money after retirement.

10. Work With Animals

Pet owners are everywhere, but they can’t be with their pets all the time. Pet sitters and dog walkers are in huge demand and, as you might expect, there are now online marketplaces to help you manage payment processing for these activities. If you love animals, sites like Wagwalking.com, Rover.com and Care.com are a natural fit.  

11. Teach

You have skills, knowledge, and experience that others want to learn from. There are now more ways to share your knowledge than ever before, and you don’t need a teaching degree to do it. You can teach English online to kids or adults around the world with VerbalPlanet.com, Chegg.com or with a private company. To teach other subjects, become a private tutor on Tutor.com or take a tutoring job on Care.com. If you have more specialized knowledge, you can create and sell your own course on sites like Teachable.com or Udemy.com.  

12. Read Audiobooks

If you enjoy reading out loud and you have a pleasant voice, you may already have everything you need to be a paid audiobook reader. Amazon’s ACX.com connects authors with audiobook readers and voice actors, and you can find other similar jobs on sites like Upwork.com.

13. Edit and Proofread

Grammar enthusiasts and perfectionists can shine online as proofreaders and book editors for hire. Dozens of freelance job sites, like the previously mentioned Upwork, post help-wanted ads for editors and proofreaders, while other sites, like iWriter, specialize exclusively in writing work.

14. Sell Your Photos

The need for online content parallels a need for great accompanying photos. If you have photography skill and you’d like to keep earning money after retirement, post your photos on Shutterstock, iStockphoto, or similar sites. You can photograph what you want and you can still make passive income from the photos you post.  

15. Sell Your Crafts

If you’ve honed a hobby over several years, you may be able to turn it into an alternative income source. From woodworking to knitting to t-shirt making to sculpture and everything in between, artists of all types sell their work on Etsy.com.

16. License Your Music

As you might expect, there’s also a comfortable niche for freelance music artists who’d like to keep earning money after retirement. If you’ve always loved music and you’d like to license or sell your songs, try SoundBetter.com or Musicbed.com.

17. Freelance

If you haven’t seen your skill or hobby on this list yet, that doesn’t mean there isn’t demand for it. Look for smaller online marketplaces designed for your skillset, or try larger job boards like Flexjobs.com, Fiverr.com, or Guru.com to start small. You’ll need to start small, build rapport and demonstrate your skills at first, but you can do this at your own pace and take only the jobs that you want.

With these alternative income sources you can earn money after retirement and work for yourself. You can decide how much time and effort to put in and you can choose low-maintenance, passive income avenues if you’d like more time and less stress. Once you show the skills and experience you’ve gained over the years, you may be surprised at how quickly you can turn a passion, hobby, or modest enterprise into a viable and enjoyable business.