Has anyone taken a "hobby job"?

[Youngster]

I have a "hobby job" that pays nothing but saves me plenty of money. Been retired now for less than a year, and I do many home improvement projects that I enjoy for the most part. I gues I will run out of projects eventually. On the other hand, it is an older home.

 

[Koolau]

Only hobby "j*b" I had following ER was driving cars from the dealer to the auction and repositioning new cars. Kind of liked the repositioning as there was a relative level of freedom. DW and I might drive 150 miles one way together in a dealer car and then pick up a car and drive back separately. Got paid by the mile and it worked out to maybe $7/hour. The auction run was more BS than you can imagine. The guy in charge was a bully and folks were expected to stay in a line so that the "chase" vehicle (the van that took us home) could pick up those whose cars didn't make it. If you were at the back of the pack, you ended up trying to drive 80 to catch up then need to brake hard to keep from plowing into the car ahead. Total cluster flop! If there were 3 trips in one day, the bully insisted on stopping at his favorite squat and gobble for lunch. Lousy food, lousy company lousy j*b. Lasted just a few trips and quit. If I had a chance to do repositioning only, I might do it again. Got to drive some really nice new cars that way.

 

[6miths]

I am an MD and after deciding that I had had enough of clinical work my hobby jobs are teaching related. MD, PA, midwifery, and continuing med ed. I benefited from many outstanding teachers and if I had picked the one thing I loved as a vocation then teaching would have been it. So I feel very lucky to still be able to be involved.

 

[Hamlet]

Most of my hobbies have some financial component or the potential for one that I could see expanding in retirement.

I like to play poker, or rather, I used to like to play poker before our second DD came along. Now I like to browse a poker strategy website now and then.

I collect comics. I buy a fair number of them with the logic of, "I can buy this for a dollar and sell it for three". However, I almost never actually get around to the selling part. I would enjoy actually selling some in retirement.

My aquarium hobby involves breeding tropical fish and plants, which I've sold at our local aquarium society auction on occasion. I could see devoting a little more effort to that in retirement.

Even my gardening hobby involves saving seeds and starting seedlings that could potentially be sold via SeedSavers.org/E-bay/Craigslist.

I doubt that any of these would amount to significant actual income in retirement, but they could earn enough to offset their costs as hobbies.

 

[FIREmenow]

I have spent the past 25 years developing IP and generating patents for other people (companies, clients), giving away my most valuable possessions - my ideas. My name is attached to quite a number of filings at the USPTO.

I have a notebook 2 inches thick full of other ideas "for myself" that I've toyed with for the last 15-20 years. I have no time to consider any of them right now due to work. Even when I have some short periods of time available, I'm too worn out to think about them.

When I FIRE in ~2 years, following at least a year of doing NOTHING, it will be cathartic to find a way to choose a few of the ideas and try to push them forward. Whether or not there would be any financial benefit to me from any of them doesn't matter a tiny bit - it just the "for me" part.

 

[Pilot2013]

The "Hobby Job" is something I think about often, but have no idea what it would be. I have been in Operations/Manufacturing Management for 25-30 years now, but don't want to consult for that (even if I could).

I love spreadsheets, analyzing financials/retirement scenarios, that kind of thing, but would not want to be responsible for someone else's decisions on their personal situation.... maybe seasonal tax prep?

As for other hobbies: I'm a private pilot, but not commercial rated and really don't think I would want to do anything commercially anyway.

Golf, DEFINITELY not gonna make money there....

I just don't know what I will do to make fun money when I pull the plug. Still thinking.

 

[calico1597]

My husband is doing the same thing!!!! Only he ties up spring AND fall. I never dreamed retirement would be like this....waiting for him to finish his "hobby" so we can do things. Summers are too hot to fish and camp so that is over. I'm glad we winter in AZ, otherwise life would be dull.

 

[socca]

I have spent the past 25 years developing IP and generating patents for other people (companies, clients), giving away my most valuable possessions - my ideas. My name is attached to quite a number of filings at the USPTO.

I have a notebook 2 inches thick full of other ideas "for myself" that I've toyed with for the last 15-20 years. I have no time to consider any of them right now due to work. Even when I have some short periods of time available, I'm too worn out to think about them.

When I FIRE in ~2 years, following at least a year of doing NOTHING, it will be cathartic to find a way to choose a few of the ideas and try to push them forward. Whether or not there would be any financial benefit to me from any of them doesn't matter a tiny bit - it just the "for me" part.

I used to get up in the middle of the night to pursue my own technical investigation unfettered by corporate politics, stupidity, etc. It was a killer schedule (get home from w*rk around 6 PM, fix dinner, go to bed, get up at 11 PM, work on my own stuff until 3 AM, go to bed, get up at 5 AM, go to the gym, go to work, repeat...), however it was the only way that I could 'follow my passion'. After leaving the corporate world 9.5 years ago, I hit the ground running on my projects - no laying around doing nothing (sounds like torture).

Last year, I self-published my first book (contains the results from around 6 years worth of work). I'm doing the R&D for my second book now, and I have several other books I'd like to write. I don't care if anyone reads them, the satisfaction comes from producing something that meets my own standard for what constitutes excellence. All of my books involve material that requires a fair amount of software development R&D to develop fully, because that's really what I enjoy doing.

To save money, I handled all facets of book design & production myself. This was extremely labor-intensive, but interesting in its own right. I did hire a copyeditor, which was useful (I'm an engineer, not an English major). You can keep this development option in mind if one of your ideas matures into something that you think others might like to read. Good luck!

 

[Souschef]

I do not know if you would call it a j*b, but I have a number that I do. During tax season, I work with AARP to prepare low income and senior's taxes. I volunteer on a tourist railroad as a docent. I also fly for Angel Flight and Pilots & Paws.
I get a great deal of satisfaction out of all these.

 

[FIREmenow]

I used to get up in the middle of the night to pursue my own technical investigation unfettered by corporate politics, stupidity, etc. It was a killer schedule (get home from w*rk around 6 PM, fix dinner, go to bed, get up at 11 PM, work on my own stuff until 3 AM, go to bed, get up at 5 AM, go to the gym, go to work, repeat...), however it was the only way that I could 'follow my passion'. After leaving the corporate world 9.5 years ago, I hit the ground running on my projects - no laying around doing nothing (sounds like torture).

Last year, I self-published my first book (contains the results from around 6 years worth of work). I'm doing the R&D for my second book now, and I have several other books I'd like to write. I don't care if anyone reads them, the satisfaction comes from producing something that meets my own standard for what constitutes excellence. All of my books involve material that requires a fair amount of software development R&D to develop fully, because that's really what I enjoy doing.

To save money, I handled all facets of book design & production myself. This was extremely labor-intensive, but interesting in its own right. I did hire a copyeditor, which was useful (I'm an engineer, not an English major). You can keep this development option in mind if one of your ideas matures into something that you think others might like to read. Good luck!

Awesome!! Congratulations!!
Thank you for the thoughts and encouragement!

 

[trapperjohn]

I was a software developer for most of my full time career. Now, I teach 1 class a semester to computer science students in a local university.

Sent from my SM-G900T using Early Retirement Forum mobile app

 

[JonnyM]

I play guitar and sing in a hobby band. We play classic rock. Beatles, Stones, Neil Young, Tom Petty, etc. The pay is laughable. I would estimate in a typical year I " make" hundreds" and spend "thousands". So far so good.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

I play guitar and sing in a hobby band. We play classic rock. Beatles, Stones, Neil Young, Tom Petty, etc. The pay is laughable. I would estimate in a typical year I " make" hundreds" and spend "thousands". So far so good.

Definitely a hobby!

 

[Music Lover]

I play guitar and sing in a hobby band. We play classic rock. Beatles, Stones, Neil Young, Tom Petty, etc. The pay is laughable. I would estimate in a typical year I " make" hundreds" and spend "thousands". So far so good.

I also make "hundreds" a year from gigging. However, I don't spend much on gear so in most years my gigging income exceeds the expenses. And, of course, since I get paid to play, I can call myself a "professional musician", lol...

 

[copyright1997reloaded]

I was a software developer for most of my full time career. Now, I teach 1 class a semester to computer science students in a local university.

Sent from my SM-G900T using Early Retirement Forum mobile app

I also was a software developer for most of my full time career. After retiring in 2009 at 51, I started teaching part time at a local college (computer science). At first it was one class, then two, ...then after a few years full time. So, watch out!

Part of the reason I do it is the health care benefits from being full time. I won't lie, having the extra money is nice although I've been deferring most of it to a tax deferred plan (457B) and really don't need the pay. But in reality I like teaching (except for the grading), and even with full time the "at the job" hours are pretty good (especially since students these days have migrated towards on-line classes), and I get summers off. It keeps my mind busy, and I love learning new things (because of this I've always said yes when asked if I can teach something different).

I have a child that still has a number of years before finishing high school. Once that happens, I will likely hang it up and officially re-enter retirement.